It was no surprise that the Penguins traded Marcus Pettersson or Drew O’Connor. But how did Friday’s late-night trade with the Vancouver Canucks come together?
Penguins president Kyle Dubas said Saturday that he started to lay the groundwork for the deal with Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin earlier in the week. That is why everything came together so quickly after Vancouver made its first move Friday.
“The conversations with Patrik had been ongoing,” Dubas said. “They’ve had a long interest in Marcus, obviously. ... Patrik came to me earlier in the week. We had been going back and forth on this for a while. It looked like he was going to get another asset that he previously wasn’t able to offer. That was the way that materialized.”
That additional asset was a conditional first-round pick via the New York Rangers, who sent that to Vancouver in a big J.T. Miller trade earlier Friday night. From the Penguins’ perspective, that draft pick was the centerpiece of their trade with the Canucks, though Dubas is also excited about the prospect they acquired in the deal.
Pittsburgh’s scouts had “highly rated” Sweden forward Melvin Fernstrom heading into last year’s draft. Dubas said the Penguins had considered drafting him with one of their two second-round picks but took Harrison Brunicke and Tanner Howe instead.
Fernstrom, whom the Canucks would pick in the third round, plays in Sweden’s top pro league. He has four goals and 10 points in 36 games. That production is actually promising given that Fernstrom is an 18-year-old playing against men and that the 6-foot-1, 185-pound forward is slotted into a bottom-six role for Orebro HK.
The Penguins like how competitive Fernstrom has been for Orebro, and Dubas said they were also impressed with the maturity and self-awareness he showed in their interview with him at last year’s draft. Dubas said Fernstrom realized he would have to adapt to a different role after he was deployed as a first-liner in his youth.
“He showed an understanding of what the development path was going to be like and what he was going to have to put into it,” Dubas said. “[And] he is executing upon everything that he said, which is for us an important developmental attribute.”
The Penguins also got 6-foot-7 defenseman Vincent Desharnais in Friday’s deal and reacquired winger Danton Heinen from the Canucks. Both are under contract next season, as well. Dubas thinks they can make positive contributions to the NHL club.
In particular, Desharnais fills a need on the blue line. He’s a right shot and a penalty killer who could potentially stop the revolving door they have had on the third pair.
That said, Dubas said it was “very difficult” on a human level to part with Pettersson and O’Connor, who were tenured Penguins and liked by teammates and coaches.
“But [both are] pending free agents and where we’re at, we just had to continue to just move down the path of the mission that we’ve set out for the last year or so, which is to continue to stockpile younger players, prospects and draft picks,” he said.
Dubas acknowledged that both players wanted to remain in Pittsburgh, but despite their interest in re-signing, he never seriously explored an extension with either.
“We felt that the best thing to do for us was to protect all of our options and not go down that path to lock anybody in without seeing how things progressed in the season,” he said. “It wasn’t from their lack of desire to be here. It was from us wanting to protect our options. ... It was our decision not to deeply engage with that.”
So where do Dubas and the Penguins go from here after trading two NHL players?
Dubas suggested fans shouldn’t get their hopes up for a wave of call-ups. He thinks prospects are benefitting from a winning environment in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
“They’ve really built a strong thing down there in terms of their performance night in and out,” he said. “What we want to do with those players is when they earn the opportunity to come up, [it will be] to not just play for a weekend but play for a prolonged stretch. Once they earn it, we’re not going to deny them that opportunity.”
As for the March 7 trade deadline, Dubas and the Penguins probably aren’t done.
“Going into the deadline, we’re going to continue to have discussions that fit where we are at in our strategy overall. But we’ll also try to be in the mix for any younger players that become available and can come in and help our team,” he said. “We’ll try to use the collection of assets we have ... if the right younger player becomes available.”
First Published: February 1, 2025, 6:56 p.m.
Updated: February 3, 2025, 1:11 p.m.
