The Pittsburgh Penguins aren’t expected to have a fire sale prior to the NHL Trade Deadline but they could be one of the busier teams this week according to Josh Yohe of The Athletic. Yohe projects that the Penguins will try and get their bigger moves done mid-week because they will be in Las Vegas on Friday and will have a difficult time getting players to the West Coast if they make moves right at the Deadline.
Yohe believes that Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas and his management team may have altered their plans due to the market shifting and becoming much more of a seller’s market. There are only six teams that are truly in sell mode, and this has led to first round picks being moved routinely in recent weeks. The Penguins have already acquired one in the swap with Vancouver for Marcus Pettersson and could be looking to land another for Rickard Rakell.
Dubas has been stockpiling young assets since last year’s Trade Deadline and is expected to move out more veterans in favor of futures. Most of the roster appears to be in play except for Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, and likely Kris Letang.
Defenseman Matt Grzelcyk, and forwards Anthony Beauvillier and Noel Acciari are available and Yohe speculates that at least one of them will be moved. Grzelcyk and Beauvillier are UFAs this summer and are unlikely to remain in Pittsburgh long term, so moving them makes sense even though the return will be minimal. Acciari seems the least likely to go as he has another year on his deal at $2MM and Dubas has always had an affinity for the 33-year-old.
Then there is the Erik Karlsson $10MM question. Yohe guesses that a summer deal is more likely for the three-time Norris Trophy winner as no trade talks have happened yet and he hasn’t been asked to waive his no-trade clause. Penguins’ management reportedly believes that Karlsson would be willing to go to other teams, but the list of potential destinations isn’t long.
Several Western Conference teams have expressed interest in forward Rakell, but the Penguins don’t feel any pressure to move him. That being said, given that few teams are selling the Penguins might get an offer in the final few days that is too hard to refuse.
Regardless of what the Penguins do, it’s hard to imagine that they make any moves in net, the team reportedly would like to keep Alex Nedeljkovic around to mentor their younger goaltenders, and Tristan Jarry is unmovable at this point, other than perhaps swapping him for another overpriced player who is underperforming.
Of course Letang’s going nowhere. He’s in obvious decline now in all aspects of the game, he’s got a full NMC, and his contract has a painful three years left to run at $6MM. He’s got nothing left to prove and no reason to uproot himself, but who’d want him? Any team would want Pittsburgh to retain salary on him, but if Dubas is smart, he’s going to weaponize that $10MM of deadline cap space and get in on third-party retention.
Rakell, now, he’s having a fine year with a bad team. In the likely market out there, someone will give the Pens at LEAST a first rounder. His value will never be as high again.
If Dubas was smart he wouldn’t have ever joined the Penguins, he wouldn’t have left the Leafs, and he wouldn’t be yet again putting off the long-term rebuild.
I don’t think 6milly hurts as much with the cap going up the way it is.
But on point as always.
He didn’t have a choice. Shanahan forced him to leave the organization. But he better have the balls to make some tough but necessary decisions. Penguins are a dumpster fire and the longer they put off a much needed total rebuild the longer it will take for this club to get back on track.
he didn’t want to wait to get hired again and took the first position available. He could have waited and gotten a better job, like with Ottawa, Colombus, or Edmonton. High potential teams.
Kyle Dubas has a really bad hockey resume.
He does in the NHL , but nothing but success at the junior level and AHL level. Perhaps he should return to those levels?
A combination of 3 things have made this a great time for a quick dip in the tank…
1) Seller’s market.
2) 4 great prospects in the draft and only a few teams between them and a lotto pick.
3) The part where NO team can win giving up a goal on the first shot basically every game.
Sell anyone outside the core 4 and listen on 2 of them, just in case someone goes nuts.
Anyone else can be traded and replaced with a UFA on a one year deal this summer.
Sell, play Jarry* and Graves and try to snag a Schaefer/Hagens/Misa/Marone.
*I wouldn’t give him away but I’d move Ned for any decent offer. His play is replaceable in the summer for a lower cap hit.