The NHL trade deadline is just 10 days away. Will the Penguins be players?
“We're probably not going to be able to do much,” Pittsburgh president of hockey operations Brian Burke told the Post-Gazette on Sunday. “We're capped out. I can't imagine we're going to do something big or noisy at the deadline.”
All right, then what can we reasonably expect the front office to pull off?
This week, I asked folks on Twitter to send over trade offers that they thought the Penguins should consider. Most of the proposals were pretty modest. So it seems like most fans have realistic expectations for the March 21 deadline.
I will now pull on my general manager hat, which is quite luxurious with a bunch of feathers and bling, and evaluate those offers. By doing so, I hope to give insight into what the Penguins may be thinking and looking for in the coming days.
Feel free to send trade ideas and feedback to mvensel@post-gazette.com.
PROPOSAL #1: Welcome back, Phil?
Kasperi Kapanen and a third-round pick to the Coyotes for Phil Kessel
Kessel is a good bet to get traded before the deadline. Any chance he could come back to Pittsburgh, where he won a couple of Stanley Cups? This seems like a fair price, though Arizona would have to retain some salary to make it work.
But even if you set aside the fact that Kessel has just four even-strength goals this season, do you really think coach Mike Sullivan is going to go for this considering how Kessel’s tenure ended here a few years ago? It’s not happening.
PROPOSAL #2: Calling the Canadiens
Kapanen and a second-round pick to the Canadiens for Artturi Lehkonen
That’s more like it. While Lehkonen has never filled the Stanley Cup with hot dogs or trolled his own national team on Twitter, he’s a useful middle-six winger.
Lehkonen had 13 goals entering Thursday but is more of a defensive forward. Plus, he is a lefty. So he’s redundant with others on the roster, sort of a Zach Aston-Reese with better finishing ability. I don’t think that moves the needle enough.
PROPOSAL #3: Loosening the logjam
Marcus Pettersson goes to the Jets straight up for forward Andrew Copp
Acquiring Copp would require roster reshuffling. Jeff Carter might have to move to the wing to accommodate Copp, who could be their third-line center. And the path is cleared for young Pierre-Olivier Joseph to be a regular. Plus, moving Pettersson would give the Penguins more financial wiggle room this summer.
But does this trade make them a better team this spring? I’m not so sure.
And are the Jets doing this anyway? Unless they’re in love with Pettersson, who moves to the rough-and-tumble Pacific, they aren’t taking on his contract. He has had a nice bounce-back season, but I still don’t think that’s a coveted asset.
PROPOSAL #4: Take our spare parts
Dom Simon, Juuso Riikola and a fifth-rounder for Anaheim’s Max Comtois
Pittsburgh’s spare parts will be of no use to the still-building Ducks. But I get why Jesse B., who sent me this one via DM, is intrigued by Comtois. He’s big, young, willing to drop the gloves. And he’s under team control beyond this season, which is something that will appeal to Hextall and the Penguins.
But if I’m dialing the Ducks, I’m inquiring about Rickard Rakell, the former 30-goal scorer. He will make the Penguins better but won’t come cheap, possibly costing them their top pick in addition to Kapanen. I’m not sure I would do that.
Another Ducks player worth monitoring: right-shot defenseman Josh Manson. In addition to a middle-six scorer, the Penguins could use a bigger blue-liner.
PROPOSAL #5: The Marino whispers
Trader Jim sends Brock Boeser to the ‘Burgh for Kapanen and John Marino
Vancouver fans filled my mentions with comments about Marino after I noted on Twitter that former Penguins exec Derek Clancey, who is now with the Canucks, was scouting Tuesday’s game at PPG Paints Arena. Apparently, someone out there suggested the Penguins could trade the blue-liner for Brock Boeser.
Sure, they could use a right-handed sniper like Boeser. And we know that Jim Rutherford, who runs the Canucks now, is the one who signed Marino to that long-term contract here. But trading Marino leaves the Penguins dangerously thin on the right side, especially with Kris Letang nearing free agency.
Doing a deal with Rutherford would make a lot of sense. But this ain’t it.
PROPOSAL #6: Pushing their chips in
Penguins trade a player and a first-round or prospect for a Canucks castoff
The second that the rebuilding Canucks hired Rutherford, I pictured him calling up Penguins general manager Ron Hextall to see what it would take to get his guys. GMJR signed Pettersson and Marino. Traded for Kapanen and Jason Zucker. Added Joseph, Sam Poulin and Nathan Legare to Pittsburgh’s prospect pool.
And he has something the Penguins need: wingers who know what a goal is.
Boeser, J.T. Miller and Conor Garland each would bring something different to the table. Boeser is a pure goal-scorer. Miller, the local product, is feisty and versatile and leads the Canucks in points. Garland is an undersized grinder.
The cost would presumably vary by player, but the general thought is that it would take Kapanen’s contract, a first-round pick and maybe a Joseph or Poulin to get it done. Another player or a third team would likely need to be involved to make the money work from the Penguins’ standpoint. But this is the framework.
If you think your team has a real shot to win it, this is one all-in move to make.
POINT SHOTS
• Sitting down Kapanen, as Sullivan is expected to do Friday night against Vegas, is the right call. Not being able to score is an issue for a few Penguins right now, Kapanen being at the top of that list. But the other guys still find other ways to impact the game positively. That just hasn’t been the case for Kapanen.
The winger simply does not use his wheels often enough to forecheck or threaten opponents inside the offensive zone. Maybe watching Bryan Rust, Jake Guentzel and even Teddy Blueger from up above makes the light bulb flicker on.
• Now is as good of a time as any for Valtteri Puustinen to make his NHL debut and get a look in their middle-six. The fast-rising prospect is on the smaller side but he’s lit it up in the American Hockey League in his first season in North America. If any prospect can provide a Guentzel-esque spark this spring, it’s him.
• I’d see what Puustinen has skating next to Evgeni Malkin or Jeff Carter before I break up the Crosby line, something Sullivan admits he has considered. Keep reading to see just how important that line has been the last two months.
• Mike Matheson returns soon. When he does, who is the odd man out?
Mark Friedman has certainly made a case to keep his sweater. While he is prone to defensive lapses, he brought a needed edge to this blue line. Matheson, meanwhile, was playing some pretty good hockey next to Chad Ruhwedel prior to his injury and would give a boost to the team’s transition game.
One thing I know is that you cannot play Matheson and Friedman together. It would be entertaining, for sure. But it might make Sullivan jump off the Jumbotron.
• It sounds like promising goalie prospect Filip Lindberg, out since November with an ankle injury, won’t play again this season. Hopefully there are no lingering issues with that going forward because he has an impressive mental makeup.
THREE STARS
3. Casey DeSmith. He stole a point for the Penguins with his stellar performance in Carolina. He made 39 saves in the OT loss. More important, he has quelled concerns about the backup goalie situation with his play these last few weeks.
2. Jake Guentzel. Three straight games with a goal to snap out of a mini-slump by his standards. Last Friday, Guentzel also reminded us how good he is as a passer by sliding an assist through a defender’s legs to this week’s No. 1 star.
1. Sidney Crosby. His two-point night in Tuesday’s loss to the Panthers made it three games in a row with multiple points for the captain. Despite missing a dozen games in the fall, he now trails Guentzel, the team leader in points, by two.
YOU ASKED…
Adam (@nevadaadam775 on Twitter) asks: What is wrong with Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin? It’s actually starting to hurt to watch him struggle.
No doubt there have been moments in recent weeks when Dumoulin looked off, whether he got beaten up the ice in transition or lost track of attackers inside the zone. But despite a few blatant miscues, his body of work remains solid.
According to our friends at Sportlogiq, many of his individual statistics are similar to that of each of the previous two seasons – things like stick checks, denials at the blue line, puck battles won and passes broken up in the defensive zone. He actually ranks among the NHL’s top 40 blue-liners in those last two areas.
Zooming out to a team level, no, the Penguins aren’t as defensively dominant with him on at 5-on-5 as they were in 2019-20. But they are still fairly stingy.
STAT N’AT
33 – goals scored by Crosby, Guentzel and Rust in the last 21 games. The rest of the Penguins have 35. All but five players have tallied three or fewer goals. Woof.
FINAL BUZZER
Pittsburgh’s challenging three-game stretch against top-five teams in Tampa Bay, Carolina and Florida only crystalized how I’ve felt about them all season.
The Penguins are a second-tier Stanley Cup contender, capable of hanging with any team and maybe taking a playoff series or two if the matchups break right. But as well as the Crosby line is playing and even with Malkin starting to make more of an impact at 5-on-5, I seriously doubt that this team will go all the way.
The next 10 days will tell us what Hextall believes. Will he give up a first-round pick or a top prospect to give the core players a little more help? Or does he keep his powder dry for what will be one of the biggest offseasons in Penguins history?
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: March 11, 2022, 1:26 p.m.
Updated: March 11, 2022, 3:40 p.m.
