The Penguins acquired forward Cody Glass from the Nashville Predators for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton player Jordan Frasca, the team announced Tuesday. The Penguins will also receive Nashville’s 2025 third-round draft pick and 2026 sixth-rounder to take on Glass’ $2.5 million salary cap hit.
This trade marks the second time this offseason that president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas has used a similar strategy: agreeing to take on a team’s unwanted salary to add bottom-six forward depth and stockpile future draft picks.
Dubas agreed in June to take on Kevin Hayes’ $3.6 million cap hit from St. Louis in exchange for the Blues’ 2025 second-round selection — a pick that Dubas curiously sent back on Tuesday.
Glass, a 6-foot-3, 206-pound, 25-year-old forward from Winnipeg, Manitoba, has skated in parts of five NHL seasons. Glass has the pedigree as a former first-round pick, taken sixth overall in 2017 by Vegas, marking the Golden Knights’ first-ever draft selection. In 187 NHL games, Glass has scored 29 goals and 42 assists. Glass shoots with his right hand and has mostly played center throughout his career.
After flaming out after two seasons with Vegas, Glass was traded to Nashville during the 2021 offseason. Glass had the best season of his career with the Predators in 2022-23, scoring 14 goals and adding 21 assists and a plus-9 rating in 72 games.
After that, though, Glass hit a rough patch in 2023-24. In a campaign hampered by multiple injuries and mental blocks, he only registered six goals and seven assists in 41 games. He did, however, bag a hat trick on March 2 in a 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche.
Glass will vie for a spot in the Penguins’ bottom six along with the rest of the hodgepodge of forwards Dubas has brought in over the offseason, including Hayes, Blake Lizotte and Glass’ former Predators teammate Anthony Beauvillier. Lars Eller and Noel Acciari are still around, too, and prospects like Sam Poulin and Vasily Ponomarev are knocking on the door.
Dubas and coach Mike Sullivan will need to sort through that group and come up with some combination that will bolster Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the rest of the top two lines, something the team has sorely missed over its past two postseason-less campaigns.
Cameron Hoover: choover@post-gazette.com and @CameronHoover98 on X
First Published: August 13, 2024, 9:47 p.m.