The Canucks, Golden Knights, Hurricanes, Panthers, and Rangers are the five teams remaining in the Jake Guentzel sweepstakes as a trade is “getting close,” reports David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. Penguins GM Kyle Dubas didn’t have a deal in place for his star winger by Wednesday night as he’d hoped, but all signs point to Guentzel still changing hands before tomorrow’s trade deadline.
None of these teams come as a surprise, and various sources have bandied them about as fits for Guentzel throughout the past few weeks. The Golden Knights, Panthers and Rangers have been incredibly aggressive in advance of the deadline, collectively acquiring some of the top trade targets in Noah Hanifin (VGK), Anthony Mantha (VGK), Vladimir Tarasenko (FLA), and Alexander Wennberg (NYR) in the past 72 hours.
The veteran winger is amidst another All-Star-caliber season. While he’s been out since Valentine’s Day with an upper-body injury but is inching toward a return, practicing without a non-contact jersey today for the first time since the injury (video via team reporter Dan Potash). He scored 22 goals, 30 assists and 52 points in 50 games before getting hurt, his fourth time averaging over a point per game since 2019. He’s also logging over 20 minutes per game for the fifth straight year.
Despite the high level of production and his clutch postseason performances (58 points in 58 career playoff games), it makes little sense for the retooling Penguins to sign the 29-year-old pending UFA to a long-term extension. Multiple reports over the past week indicate that Guentzel will likely be dealt as a rental and be the top free agent on the market when the 2024-25 league year begins on July 1. His suitors probably note that Guentzel backs up his consistent production with consistent possession quality control numbers – he has a 57.1 xGF% this season and a 54.5 career xGF% throughout his 503 games as a Penguin, per Hockey Reference.
The Golden Knights, Hurricanes and Panthers could all take Guentzel’s $6MM cap hit at 50% retention without involving a third-party broker. The Rangers are a few grand short of having the necessary cap space to do so and could still make a trade work with a third party, while the Canucks have just $125K in cap space and would need to move a significant chunk of salary out to accommodate Guentzel, even at a 75% reduced $1.5MM cap hit. There have been some spotty but credible rumors of Vancouver potentially flipping Elias Lindholm, whom they just spent a first-round pick to land from the Flames in January, to create cap space for Guentzel.
Improbably, Vegas is still well-positioned to land Guentzel even after landing the top defenseman on the market in Hanifin. The team still has $3.8MM in deadline cap space with Robin Lehner and captain Mark Stone on long-term injured reserve despite having 27 players on the roster counting against the cap – their full 23-man roster plus $9.375MM taken up by Alec Martinez, Brett Howden, William Carrier, and Pavel Dorofeyev on standard injured reserve. They also still have their first-round draft picks in 2024 and 2026 and have not parted ways with top prospects Brendan Brisson, David Edstrom, and Carl Lindbom.
Local PGH radio had a NHL Network guy (heard them talking about it later, not sure which one) on who said NYR offering Kakko and a 1st.
Is he a bust or a late bloomer?
He’s a great puck handler but just never seems to know what to do with it. Reminds me of the great Dennis Savard without the scoring touch or hockey IQ
Why trade Guentzel when he’s a guy they already have in the locker room you can build around? The Pens must be kicking themselves in a$$ for re-signing Malkin and Letang.
Not Letang. Malkin, sure.