The Penguins have added some low-cost defensive depth as TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that they’ve acquired Nathan Beaulieu from the Jets. In return, Winnipeg receives a conditional seventh-round draft pick. CapFriendly provides the specifics of the condition – for the Jets to get the pick, Pittsburgh has to make it to the Stanley Cup Final with Beaulieu playing in at least half of their games.
It has been a tough year for the 29-year-old as Beaulieu has played in just 24 games this season while being scratched 21 times. His role has been diminished when he has been in there as he’s averaging just under 11 minutes per game in those contests, nearly five minutes below his career average while picking up just four assists in that stretch.
On top of that, Beaulieu is currently on LTIR with an undisclosed injury with his placement coming back on March 9th. That means that he’s out for the rest of the month at a minimum and potentially longer. His $1.25MM AAV will slide into Pittsburgh’s current LTIR space with Jason Zucker still on there for the time being although he is expected to be activated in the coming weeks. If Beaulieu does return between now and the end of the season, the Penguins would have to make some roster moves to get cap-compliant but if he’s only able to return for the playoffs, they won’t have to worry about the cap then and they’ll have themselves a veteran of over 400 career NHL games for next to no cost.
This is a good, low cost insurance move, but…we need more, Hextall.
Don’t need stars or game changers, just a decent forward and a decent D man to fortify the group.
using the Tampa cheat code I see
Yes, by all means, let us win the Cup and forever have people be bitter that we stashed (checks notes) Nathan Beaulieu.
well there’s a difference between a slight exploit of minimal value, when Pens were looking for defensive depth anyways…
compared to a blatant and disgusting abuse of a rule like the 2021 Lightning are guilty of.