Paul Steigerwald

So as far as I'm concerned, he's just gotten stronger and stronger as the season's gone on.

And I felt even before the break that the Penguins were quite obviously putting him in positions to succeed.

I think they really wanted to push him to see what he could bring in hopes that he would fulfill their trust in him and their faith in him.

And I think he's done that.

And so last night, to start him in the first game coming out of the break,

they automatically were committing themselves to him playing two of the next three because he's not going to play Saturday and Sunday, and he probably will play on Sunday, and Stuart Skinner will play Saturday.

So that'll mean that Shelaws would have played two of the first three games, which tells me that they're really leaning towards him right now.

Well, it's really hard not to like him, Joe.

He's an awesome guy.

He has an immediate presence in the locker room when he came.

He's a solid, calm goaltender.

He's been experienced, too, with going to the finals a couple times with the Oilers.

I know he had his ups and downs, but in a lot of ways, that's a positive.

His ability to bounce back from bad performances.

He's not as athletic as Shilov's side to side, but he's got some real qualities to him that are nice.

But on the other hand, because he does have those qualities, I wouldn't be surprised if Kyle Dubas gets some phone calls on him before the trade deadline.

And then depending on what Kyle has offered, he might have to make a decision there because

He's got depth in goal, and I know everybody wants to see Mershaw, but Blomquist has played well down there, too, and they could conceivably bring him up as the backup and let Mershaw continue to play and then maybe spot him every now and then or the rest of the way.

Also, when you make a deal like that where you trade a goalie, sometimes you go looking for another veteran goalie just for depth purposes, which they might try to do if they were to move Skinner.

I'm not saying they're going to do it, but I do think the possibility exists, but only if