The Pittsburgh Penguins will be the next team that tries to get an NHL player out of Alex Nylander. They’ve acquired him from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Sam Lafferty.
The one-for-one deal will see Nylander leave the Blackhawks organization after just 65 regular season games. Selected eighth overall in 2016, he arrived in Chicago after a trade from the Buffalo Sabres in 2019, played the entire 2019-20 season before suffering a major knee injury that kept him out all of last year. Through 23 games in the minor leagues this season, he has eight goals and 12 points.
A dynamic forward in Sweden and the OHL, Nylander managed just 19 games with the Sabres before being shipped out of town for Henri Jokiharju. His work ethic has been questioned at times (rightly or wrongly), while his consistency has always been an issue. Even in the minor leagues there have been times where he disappears, and so much time off due to the knee recovery has not helped. There is still upside in the 23-year-old, something that the Penguins will obviously try to coax out, but it’s beginning to seem like Nylander has missed his opportunity to be an impact player at the NHL level.
That seems to be Chicago’s take, as Lafferty represents a depth option without much upside. The 26-year-old forward has 94 games under his belt at the NHL level, with six goals and 21 points to show for it. None of those six goals have come since the start of the 2020-21 campaign, with him seeing far less ice time in Pittsburgh over the last two seasons. In fact, he’s played just ten games this year despite Pittsburgh dealing with many injuries and averages fewer than nine minutes even when he gets into the lineup.
Nylander will be a restricted free agent at the end of the season and remain in Pittsburgh’s control as long as the team issues him a qualifying offer. That’s no guarantee, though the threat of arbitration is still a year away due to his lost season.
What’s wrong with him?
He’s not good.
@Eovaldis. A. Nylander as a superabundance of entitlement and a sorrowfully lack of motivation to prove it through hard work.
He has mesmerizing speed (he certainly has upside). Pittsburgh has a reputation for reclamation project success; he’ll need it since this is probably his last chance at NHL success.
I really like this move for the Pens another good addition with the right support cast around Alex he can be a damn good player
Nah. Damn good players dont need the right supporting cast to try and boost stats. Also, damn good players dont put up .5 ppg in the AHL. Maybe they should try getting some actual talent next to Malkin, Crosby and Letang steada tryna boost sub-par players stats
The BHawks acquiring Nylander was another in a string a bad deals by now-departed Stan Biwman
Swapping two guys with no upside. Super.
Thats a W for the pens. Extremely low risk high reward trade
Hawks thought the same thing and here we are.
True but lafferty has way less value than jokiharju tho. This Time its not costly to find out if he can be an nhler
Stan Bowman giving up Joker for this guy still perplexes me. Joker had more upside than Nylander and they clearly could not coax anything out of him with Toews and Kane. I do not see Nylander receiving a qualifying offer at the end of the season.
Was just pondering this guys future in my keeper league, gotta hold now incase the Crosby affect takes hold…..
Let us know how it goes.
Yes, please keep us updated.
Guentzel – Crosby – Rust
Zucker – Malkin – Kapanen
Heinen – Carter – Rodrigues
ZAR – Blueger – McGinn
Where does he play? I guess Zucker’s spot for now, but…
The only thing is it cost nothing to roll these dice…Lafferty is not a useful NHL player. So…good move for that reason alone.
He’s gonna be a below average player in Wilkes-Barre
Random Pens thought…
They should play Rodrigues at 3C with Carter on RW when the latter gets back in the lineup since Carter will be a UFA who might retire after the season.
If Rodrigues can do well at 3C, that makes it possible to keep both him and Rust going forward. If he can’t do well at 3C that spot will need filled and suck up the money needed to keep both #9 and #17.
I went to the bathroom this morning.
Hope everything came out okay. :0
A hockey trade? A rarity in the NHL covid era.
Watching Alex play will tell you he doesn’t wanna play hockey. He has the talent he just doesn’t wanna play.