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Marcus Pettersson

Sharks Acquire Vincent Desharnais

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The Sharks have added some depth on the back end, acquiring defenseman Vincent Desharnais from Pittsburgh in exchange for a 2028 fifth-round pick.  Both teams have announced the trade.

The 28-year-old’s stay with the Penguins was short-lived as he only spent 10 games with them after being acquired from Vancouver last month as part of the Marcus Pettersson trade.  It has been a tough season for Desharnais who has struggled in his first season away from Edmonton.  He has played in 44 games between the two teams but has just three assists along with 68 blocks and 73 hits while averaging 15:37 per game.

Desharnais is in the first year of a two-year, $4MM contract signed back in July following a stint in Edmonton where he worked his way up from a minor league deal to eventually landing a regular spot on their third pairing.  Now, he’ll try to reclaim a full-time spot in San Jose’s lineup.

While it might seem odd for San Jose to be adding to their roster, Desharnais is a low-cost pickup from an acquisition standpoint while the extra year on his contract isn’t an issue for a team projected to have plenty of cap space for next season.  If he can get back to being a full-timer, it’s possible they’ll be better poised to flip him for a stronger return at this time next year.  Meanwhile, Pittsburgh sheds a contract they had to take on to facilitate last month’s swap with the Canucks, opening up some extra cap space which it appears they’ll put to use quite quickly.

Canucks Sign Marcus Pettersson To Six-Year Extension

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The Canucks wasted little time getting pen to paper on a deal with one of their new acquisitions.  The team announced that they’ve signed defenseman Marcus Pettersson to a six-year extension that will carry a cap charge of $5.5MM.  GM Patrik Allvin released the following statement:

In just a couple of games, Marcus has already shown us the type of leadership, poise and character that we want in a top four defenceman,” said Allvin. “He has a calming influence on the ice, uses his long reach and hockey smarts to break up plays and has a good first pass to help us create more offensively. We are extremely happy to get this deal done and look forward to working with him in both the short term and long term.

Of course, Allvin’s familiarity with the 28-year-old is much more than just a couple of games.  He was with Pittsburgh at the time that then-GM Jim Rutherford (who now is in Vancouver’s front office) acquired him so they are quite familiar with what Pettersson brings to the table.  That familiarity undoubtedly played a role in the Canucks flipping the first-round pick they acquired in the J.T. Miller trade last week (along with Danton Heinen, Vincent Desharnais, and Melvin Fernstrom) to Pittsburgh for Pettersson and Drew O’Connor.

Pettersson has played in 49 games this season between Pittsburgh and Vancouver, potting three goals and 15 assists along with 86 blocks and 60 hits while logging more than 22 minutes a night of ice time.  That has him at a 30-point pace which would match his career-high offensively from last season; that uptick in production certainly didn’t hurt his value as he was heading toward his first run at unrestricted free agency this summer which is now on hold for a long time.

For his career, Pettersson has played in 493 NHL games over parts of eight seasons between Anaheim, Pittsburgh, and now Vancouver.  After struggling early in his tenure with the Penguins, he has since established himself as a legitimate top-four blueliner for the last three years.  That track record was good enough for Vancouver to target him and waste little time locking him up through the 2030-31 season.

The deal represents a nice raise for Pettersson.  He’s in the final year of a five-year contract signed back in 2020, one that carries a cap hit of just over $4MM.  He’ll add nearly $1.5MM per season to that number now while also landing some extra security.  David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports (Twitter link) that Pettersson will have a full no-move clause in the first three seasons of the contract.  In the final three years, his trade protection will come in the form of a 15-team no-trade clause.

With this signing, Vancouver now has a little under $76MM in commitments for next season, per PuckPedia.  Included in that is nearly $27MM in spending on their top five blueliners with Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, Tyler Myers, and Carson Soucy all signed through at least 2025-26 as well with the latter now in trade speculation.  That should only intensify with Pettersson now guaranteed to be sticking around for the long haul.

Canucks Activate Kiefer Sherwood

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The Vancouver Canucks have activated forward Kiefer Sherwood off of injured reserve. Sherwood has missed Vancouver’s last four games with an undisclosed injury. His return brings some sense to Vancouver assigning Aatu Raty and, after he cleared waivers, Phillip Di Giuseppe to the minor leagues.

Sherwood is expected to return to the lineup in Sunday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings. He’ll join a lineup full of new faces, including recent trade acquisitions Marcus Pettersson, Victor Mancini, and Filip Chytil. Sherwood should maintain his role on the team’s third line despite the lineup shuffle. He’s been one of the brightest performers in Vancouver’s bottom-six, boasting 13 goals and 21 points in 47 games this season. Sherwood has also recorded a staggering 273 hits – while no other Canuck has managed even 100 (Noah Juulsen has 99). In fact, Sherwood’s lofty hit totals lead the entire NHL by nearly 80 hits – with Philadelphia’s Garnet Hathaway ranked second with 197 hits. So long as he maintains his current hit pace, Sherwood is on track to finish the season with 453 hits – which would stand as an NHL record.

Sherwood has doubled down on the role of goal-scoring wrecking-ball after recording 10 goals, 27 points, and 234 hits in 68 games with the Nashville Predators last season. He seems to be finding plenty of comfort in his first year with the Canucks, sat just seven points shy of surpassing his career-high in scoring from last year. This news sets him up to continue pursuing new scoring heights, and the hit record, in a Canucks roster with plenty of minutes opened up by the trading of top forward scorer J.T. Miller.

Vancouver Canucks Acquire Marcus Pettersson, Drew O’Connor

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The Vancouver Canucks’ trading appetite hadn’t been satiated after sending J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers. In the early hours of the morning, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced they’ve traded defenseman Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor to the Canucks for forwards Danton Heinen and Melvin Fernström, defenseman Vincent Desharnais, and the conditional 2025 first-round pick previously acquired from the Rangers in the Miller swap.

Pettersson’s seven-year tenure with the Penguins ended with him scoring 16 goals and 141 points in 442 regular-season games and four assists in 21 playoff contests. He blossomed into a top-four defenseman in Pittsburgh, regularly logging more than 19 minutes of ice time per game.

The Skelleftea, Sweden should fit in quite well on the Canucks’ blue line. He’s totaled more than 130 blocked shots and 120 hits in each season since 2022-23 and averaged a 91.7% on-ice save percentage at even strength throughout his career. Furthermore, his possession metrics are well above average for a defenseman with a career 51.3% CorsiFor% at even strength.

Vancouver is in the middle of the pack regarding CorsiFor% and goals-against-per-game average. Pettersson should help fill both of these needs with the Canucks and the glaring hole in the top four of the team’s defensive core behind Quinn Hughes.

The Canucks will also acquire a flexible middle-six option in O’Connor. The pending unrestricted free agent had spent his entire career with the Penguins up to this point scoring 30 goals and 66 points in 210 games.

O’Connor may have found his offensive ceiling last year with 16 goals and 33 points in 79 games but he still gives the Canucks a winger that can play in all situations. It’s unlikely he’ll find himself on either powerplay unit in Vancouver but O’Connor could find some staying power on the team’s penalty kill.

Outside of the conditional first-round pick, the Canucks primarily sent a collection of spare parts to the Penguins. Heinen and Desharnais are signed through next season but aren’t considered long-term pieces for the Penguins. Heinen had scored six goals and 18 points in 51 games for the Canucks while Desharnais had tallied three assists in 34 contests.

Fernström is in his first full season in the Swedish Hockey League with Örebro HK after being selected 93rd overall by the Canucks in last year’s draft. He possesses a strong hockey IQ and has already shown the ability to score against at a relatively young age with three goals and eight points in 35 contests.

The trade as a whole should answer several questions for both teams. The Penguins traded their highest-value rental well before the trade deadline, so we’ll see how active they are in the next few weeks before and after the 4 Nations Face-Off. In Vancouver, the team has acquired several pieces in the last 24 hours so we’ll see how the locker room responds to all the changes.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports images.

Penguins Expected To Be Sellers At Trade Deadline

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Josh Yohe of The Athletic believes that the Pittsburgh Penguins will be sellers regardless of their position in the standings. Yohe wrote about the unusual position the Penguins find themselves in heading into the second half of the NHL season. Pittsburgh has fought its way back into the Wild Card conversation in the Eastern Conference, and despite being largely made up of veteran players, general manager Kyle Dubas has his eye on the future and intends to sell.

Yohe says that his league sources predict the Penguins will make multiple moves to jettison veterans and that “no one is safe” on Pittsburgh, except for the players holding full no-trade protection (Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to name a few). Marcus Pettersson is certainly a name Pittsburgh will move on from given his contractual status, but one name that could also go is forward Rickard Rakell. The 31-year-old is having a nice bounce-back season with 22 goals in 45 games. However, Yohe pours cold water on that notion, saying that Pittsburgh is likely to hold onto him for this year unless they receive a big offer.

While all signs point to Pittsburgh packing it in for the season and missing the playoffs for a third straight year, Yohe believes that the Penguins may see the trading of veteran players as an opportunity to call up some of their prospects who are NHL-ready, most notably goaltender Joel Blomqvist who is arguably the best netminder in the Penguins entire organization and their best chance at steady goaltending. Tristan Jarry has struggled for well over a calendar year and doesn’t look like an NHL goaltender at the moment, and Alex Nedeljkovic has been wildly inconsistent this season after putting together a nice campaign a year ago.

While the Penguins would love to move on from some of their pricier veterans, they will be in tough to do so as Jarry has three years left on his contract after this season with an AAV of $5.375MM, and defenseman Ryan Graves has four years on his deal at $4.5MM. Those deals were two of the first contracts Dubas handed out in Pittsburgh, and they’ve aged like milk. In previous years, those types of contracts would have been untradeable, but with the cap rising next season, it’s not out of the question that the Penguins could move on from those players in the next six months.

Oilers, Canucks Among Teams With Interest In Penguins’ Marcus Pettersson

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The Oilers and Canucks have demonstrated interest in acquiring defenseman Marcus Pettersson from the Penguins ahead of the March 7 trade deadline, Josh Yohe of The Athletic reports Tuesday.

At least on paper, Edmonton and Vancouver have much more precise needs for a right-shot defender than a lefty like Pettersson. He hasn’t logged significant time playing on his off side since his first NHL stint with the Ducks in the 2017-18 season, either.

That being said, both clubs need to add at least one defenseman – preferably one with historically strong possession impacts like Pettersson – to be in great shape heading into the postseason in Edmonton’s case and a passable shape in Vancouver’s case. There’s a far more apparent need for Pettersson in British Columbia than in Alberta, where he’d be competing for top-four minutes with Darnell Nurse and likely pushing Brett Kulak to the latter’s offside.

The Canucks would immediately have Pettersson slot in as their No. 2 left defender behind Quinn Hughes, giving them a much more competent and well-rounded top-four group once Filip Hronek returns to the lineup from his lower-body injury. Acquiring arguably the best pure defensive blue-liner that’s set to be available on deadline day, especially one who’s controlled over 50% of shot attempts when on the ice at even strength in all of his seven seasons with the Penguins, would be a significant boon to a Vancouver squad that’s only controlling 49.4% of shot attempts and 48.7% of scoring chances at 5-on-5.

Over in Edmonton, Nurse has proved that reports of his demise are only slightly exaggerated this season. He’s got 17 points through 36 games, up from last season’s pace, and has been one-half of Edmonton’s best shutdown pairing this season when deployed with Kulak on his right. That duo only allows 1.83 expected goals against per 60 minutes, seventh-best in the league among pairings with over 200 minutes together, per MoneyPuck.

Still, Pettersson’s raw shot attempts numbers this season (52.5 CF%) are better than Nurse’s (50.8 CF%) at even strength, as are his relative impacts on a much weaker possession team in Pittsburgh. Acquiring him would allow the Oilers to roll out the effective Nurse-Kulak duo against lesser competition in a third-pairing role while pairing Pettersson with one of Ty Emberson or Troy Stecher.

Yohe reports that more teams will undoubtedly call the Pens about Pettersson’s services, and a trade is a matter of when, not if. Even with Pittsburgh hanging around a playoff spot, the club “only has so many players without no-trade clauses” and is “almost certainly as good as gone” as a pending unrestricted free agent.

That leaves the question of which club is in a better position to take on his $4.025MM cap hit, although the Penguins still have a pair of retention slots open and would likely be willing to slash that cap hit to $2.01MM for additional assets since it’s an expiring deal. The Oilers can only swing if Evander Kane remains on long-term injured reserve for the remainder of the season; otherwise, they only have $1.02MM in projected deadline space, per PuckPedia. The Canucks are in a similar boat with Hronek on LTIR and only project to have $1.33MM in deadline space, although both clubs will up those numbers with some minor moves in the days leading up to March 7.

No Contract Talks Between Penguins And Marcus Pettersson

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Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now writes that the Pittsburgh Penguins have yet to engage in contract talks with pending unrestricted free-agent defenseman Marcus Pettersson. Kingerski adds that he doesn’t believe there are any talks scheduled, which would signal that the Penguins intend to trade the 28-year-old prior to the NHL Trade Deadline on March 7th.

The situation is a complicated one for Pittsburgh, particularly after they climbed back into the playoff picture with a solid stretch of play in December. However, getting just two of a possible six points against the Islanders and Red Wings might make general manager Kyle Dubas’ decision to trade Pettersson a little bit easier. The Penguins sit a point back of Ottawa for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, but the Senators hold two games in hand.

Pettersson missed 17 days after falling to injury in a mid-December game against the Senators and returned on New Year’s Eve but struggled to get to his game as he was on the ice for three goals against. Overall, Pettersson’s play has been a tad below his usual production, though his offensive numbers have been okay, posting two goals and 11 assists in 33 games. Even with his uneven play, Pettersson remains perhaps the only steadying defensive presence on the team’s blue line. His looming free agency could be playing a role in his play dropping off, but it could also be attributed to the Penguins’ poor team defense.

Pittsburgh has been stockpiling future assets for the past year and given the direction Dubas has gone in, and the lack of contract talks, it seems like a foregone conclusion that Pettersson will be in a different uniform by the first week of March.

Penguins Activate Marcus Pettersson, Place Kris Letang On IR

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have swapped defenders on injured reserve, activating Marcus Pettersson (lower-body) and shelving Kris Letang (lower-body). Pettersson suffered his injury from an awkward hit into the boards during Pittsburgh’s December 14th loss to the Ottawa Senators. He’s since missed the Penguins’ last six games. Where Letang was injured is less clear. He was a late scratch for Sunday’s game against the New York Islanders, and has been designated as day-to-day per Hailey Hunter of SportsNet Pittsburgh. The Penguins will have the ability to make Letang’s IR placement retroactive to December 29th, making him eligible to return as soon as January 5th against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Pittsburgh swaps two of their most utilized defenders with this move. Letang leads the team’s skaters in ice time, averaging 23:24 through 34 games this season. Despite that, he’s been unusually unproductive, with 16 points marking his lowest scoring pace since 2009-10. Pettersson is working to catch Letang in scoring, with 13 points in 32 games while averaging 21:47 in ice time. His scoring pace puts him on track just narrowly beat out his career-high of 30 points set last season. Pettersson also brings a healthy wave of defense back to the Penguins lineup, leading the Penguins defense in Corsi For (52.93 percent) and ranked second in plus-minus (-4). That’ll be a welcome addition to a Penguins roster that’s averaged both 3.29 goals-for and goals-against in seven games without Pettersson, including the game he was injured in.

Pettersson’s return will bump Nathan Clurman out of the lineup. Clurman made his NHL debut on Monday, recording one penalty and no scoring in 11 minutes of ice time. Letang’s move to IR allows Pittsburgh to keep Clurman as their seventh defenseman, while Pettersson lines up to Pierre-Olivier Joseph on the second pair.

Penguins Recall Nathan Clurman

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The Penguins announced they’ve recalled right-shot defenseman Nathan Clurman from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The club opened an active roster spot by transferring left-shot defender Marcus Pettersson to injured reserve after listing him as week-to-week with a lower-body injury.

Clurman, 26, signed a two-way deal with the Penguins in July and has played 16 games for WBS. He’s posted a goal and four assists for five points, a slightly higher point-per-game rate than the defensive blue-liner posted in the past, while adding eight penalty minutes and a +3 rating.

It’s the first NHL recall for Clurman, who now has the opportunity to make his NHL debut tonight against the Kings. The 6’2″, 205-lb defender was a sixth-round pick of the Avalanche back in 2016 and, after a collegiate career at Notre Dame, remained in the Colorado organization on AHL and ECHL assignments until reaching Group VI unrestricted free agency last summer. Before joining Pittsburgh, Clurman had 21 points and a +20 rating in 110 games for the AHL’s Colorado Eagles from 2021 to 2024 and 27 points with a +15 rating in 62 games for the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies.

The 2023-24 season was tough for Clurman, who stayed on the AHL roster for the entire season but didn’t receive regular playing time. He only appeared in 37 of the Eagles’ 72 games, so it wasn’t surprising to see the Avalanche let him hit the open market.

Clurman cleared waivers during the preseason, the first time he’s had to do so before an AHL assignment. He can remain on the active roster for up to 30 days or play 10 games before he needs them again to return to WBS.

As for Pettersson, his move is a mere formality. His week-to-week designation indicates he’ll miss far more time than the seven days required for a standard IR placement. So, don’t expect him to be immediately activated upon becoming eligible this weekend. He’ll miss Pittsburgh’s next three games at a minimum after sustaining the injury on Saturday against the Senators.

Penguins’ Marcus Pettersson Out Week-To-Week

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Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan shared that defenseman Marcus Pettersson will be out week-to-week with an undisclosed injury, per Seth Rorabaugh of Tribune-Review Sports. Pettersson left the team’s Saturday loss to Ottawa late in the first period after a collision with Senators forward Drake Batherson sent him awkwardly into the boards. He only played in six minutes of ice time.

Pettersson has continued to serve as a core piece of the Penguins lineup this season. He’s recorded 11 assists and 13 points in 32 games this season while averaging 22 minutes of ice time – making him the third-most utilized player on the Penguins roster. Pettersson also leads Pittsburgh in blocked shots (56) and ranks third among defenders in hits (36). He’s a top-unit, shutdown defender – a role he stamped when he played in all 82 of Pittsburgh’s games last season. A full year helped Pettersson solidify his spot on the top pair – averaging nearly 23 minutes of ice time – and led him to career-highs in assists (26) and points (30). With his momentum carrying into this season, Pettersson has become an unquestioned piece of the daily lineup – and one that will be tough to replace for an extended time.

Pittsburgh is currently carrying top prospect Owen Pickering and depth option Ryan Shea as their extra defenders. The former seems best set for a boost in ice time with Pettersson out. Pickering received the first 11 games of his NHL career earlier this season. He scored two points, split evenly, and added five shots on goal and 10 blocked shots – leading Pittsburgh in blocks-per-game. He’s so far defaulted to Pittsburgh’s third pair, but could be a reasonable upside bet with Pettersson standing as a potential IR candidate. If not Pickering, Pittsburgh could turn towards Shea, or call-up Sebastian Aho from the minor leagues.

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