The next domino in Kyle Dubas’ rebuilding plan toppled late Friday when Pittsburgh traded pending free agents Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor to Vancouver.
The deal netted the Penguins a first-round pick, hardly a given in a Pettersson trade. And it will even better position the last-place team for 2025 NHL draft lottery odds.
Of course, the players and coaches may have something to say about that. Look no further than last spring. But with seven teams between them and the last wild card spot, the Penguins are highly likely to miss the playoffs for a third straight season.
Given their poor performance in 2025, it was only a matter of time until Dubas dealt Pettersson. And in the end, the steady Swede went to the most obvious destination.
Canucks higher-ups Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin have coveted Pettersson since the day they arrived in Vancouver. They almost got him two years ago in a trade that would have welcomed J.T. Miller back home to Pittsburgh, but that deal fell apart.
Coincidentally, the Canucks moving Miller to the New York Rangers earlier Friday night is what gave them the financial flexibility and the first-round pick needed to acquire Pettersson and O’Connor, who were both brought to Pittsburgh by GMJR.
The Penguins will receive the conditional pick the Rangers sent to the Canucks. It is top-13 protected. That means if the Rangers miss the playoffs and their first-round pick ends up being one of the top 13 selections in the 2025 draft, the Rangers will keep that pick and instead send their unprotected 2026 first-rounder to Pittsburgh.
The Penguins also got forward prospect Melvin Fernstrom, who was a third-round pick in 2024, along with veteran winger Danton Heinen and big blue-liner Vincent Desharnais. Both Heinen and Desharnais are under contract for next season, too.
Dubas did well here, scoring a better pick than the one he got for Jake Guentzel one year ago. Pittsburgh hasn’t had two first-round picks in the same draft since 2012.
And Fernstrom, who is thriving in Sweden, has a chance to become an NHL player.
Heinen and Desharnais are probably just placeholders until prospects are ready.
Clearly, the big piece here is the draft pick. If it conveys this year, the Penguins will have 11 picks in the 2025 draft. If not, you can spend next year rooting against an older, possibly fragile Rangers team. The 2026 draft is said to be deeper than 2025.
Dubas is likely not done making deals, by the way. We’ll get to that in a minute.
First, let’s talk a little more about Pettersson and O’Connor, two tenured Penguins.
Pettersson was a nice success story after Rutherford and the Penguins acquired him for Daniel Sprong in 2018. Over time he developed into their steadiest defenseman and endeared himself to teammates and coaches with his toughness. No, he is not the most physical guy. But literally nobody in the NHL took more hits to make plays.
In recent weeks, you could tell Pettersson was resigned to the fact that Dubas was not going to sign him to an extension. Pettersson wanted to stay, but Pittsburgh’s team president handled his situation similarly to Guentzel last year. Dubas acknowledged Saturday that he had no substantial contract talks with Pettersson’s agent.
Pettersson was widely viewed as one of the better defensemen available ahead of the March 7 trade deadline. Still, I was surprised he fetched a first given that he is not a top-notch play-driver offensively and is solid but not great in a shutdown role.
The inclusion of O’Connor might be what got the Penguins that premium pick. He really struggled to produce this year. For a while, it felt like he couldn’t even put the puck in the ocean. But the winger has a lot of fans around the league. Plus — just a guess here — I bet the uncertainty about his future really weighed on him.
Given that they were pending free agents, Pettersson and O’Connor were two clear trade candidates for the Penguins. Who else could be dealt these next few weeks?
Rickard Rakell is in the midst of his best season with the Penguins, and suddenly his contract looks pretty appealing over the longer term. I don’t know that Dubas feels urgency to trade Rakell while his value is high, and Sidney Crosby probably won’t be thrilled if another of his wingers is dealt. But Dubas should listen if other teams call.
Ditto for Michael Bunting if Dubas doesn’t see him being part of his long-term plan.
Now that Pettersson is gone, the Penguins could look to keep Matt Grzelcyk around beyond this season. But he is in the final year of his deal and should be mentioned.
And there are a few guys in the bottom six that could be moved out to make room in the lineup for a couple of the exciting prospects down in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
I do not know exactly what Dubas will do between now and March 7. But you can bet that there will be at least another domino or two that falls between then and now as Dubas looks to continue adding to his considerable stockpile of picks and prospects.
Point shots
• It’s time for the Penguins to call up some of their kids from the minor leagues.
I understand why Dubas and the Penguins have slow-played this. The development of individual prospects is the most important thing, and it’s better to let a youngster stay in the American Hockey League a little too long than rush them to the NHL. But I think a few prospects are ready for a taste of the NHL, and we will see who sticks.
Ville Koivunen is the first one who comes to mind. He’s torn up the AHL in his first year in North America and earlier this week scored four goals in a game. We have already seen Vasily Ponomarev in Pittsburgh. How about giving him a longer look? And the Penguins need to determine if Sam Poulin is going to be part of the future.
To be clear, they should not remain in Pittsburgh if it doesn’t go smoothly. And in the spring, they should be returned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton so that they can get the valuable experience of an AHL playoff run. But it would be beneficial for both the players and the Penguins to see how they fare in some NHL games this season.
• Rutger McGroarty is another call-up candidate. His production has ticked up. That said, he’s just 20. So I understand if the Penguins want to be more patient with him.
• I’d hang on to Alex Nedeljkovic. With his work ethic, competitiveness and friendly disposition, he is the right type of goalie to pair with a young guy like Joel Blomqvist or maybe even Sergei Murashov, who just got his first AHL shutout the other night.
• As for the foolish notion that Pittsburgh should pay another team to take on the contract of Tristan Jarry or Ryan Graves, how would that make any sense? With the Penguins early in a rebuild, hang on to those future assets and just eat the money.
Stick taps
Sidney Crosby. Crosby was one of few bright spots out West. He had four goals in his previous five games entering Saturday, keeping him at a point-per-game pace.
Boko Imama. The 28-year-old is a great story. He’s also brought something to the table with his energy and his physicality. Others in the bottom six cannot say that.
Alex Nedeljkovic. The scrappy goalie has seized the net after Tristan Jarry got sent down. He went 3-2-0 with a .930 save percentage during that marathon road trip.
You asked ...
Do you see vets like Acciari, Nieto, Hayes being moved at the deadline to give the WBS prospects a look this year? If they embrace the prospects do you think we could see them make a run at Rantanen (if he leaves Carolina) or someone impactful this off-season?
— Michael (@MichaelCole034) January 31, 2025
I touched on the first half of Michael’s question earlier in this column. The second is an excellent and relevant question, though it’s one I do not know the answer to.
The NHL announced this week that the salary cap ceiling is expected to spike $7.5 million next season and another $8.5 million the year after that, and Fenway Sports Group will likely continue to give Dubas the green light to spend to the cap ceiling.
But this coming offseason, will Dubas look to add free agents, or will he use that cap space to acquire more future assets, like he did with the Kevin Hayes trade?
My guess is that it will be the latter, and that we won’t see Dubas hit the gas pedal on contention until the summer of 2026, when Evgeni Malkin’s contract comes off the books and with another pricey veteran or two possibly being prepared to move on.
Stat n’at
43 — NHL arenas in which Crosby has scored after he lit the lamp at Utah, most among active players. The record is 55 different venues by that Jaromir Jagr fella.
Final buzzer
Dubas indicated Saturday that there has been no change in his thinking of how the Penguins will handle Malkin, Kris Letang and other vets with full no-trade clauses. In other words, he says he will not approach any of them about waiving those clauses.
That may frustrate some fans — and at least one Post-Gazette columnist — who want to see the Penguins tear the current team down to the studs. But I think that is the right approach, at least when it comes to Malkin, Kris Letang and Bryan Rust.
The Penguins should do right by those Stanley Cup-winning players for everything they have done for the organization over the years. Plus, by treating those players with class, it will show future free agents that Pittsburgh is still a good spot to be.
First Published: February 1, 2025, 5:46 p.m.
Updated: February 3, 2025, 7:40 p.m.
