Say this about Penguins GM Jim Rutherford. He sure ain’t bashful when it comes to makin’ big trades.
In what figures to be the marquee deal of the 2018 trade deadline, JR acquired center Derick Brassard, forward prospect Vincent Dunn and a third-round pick in the 2018 Entry Draft from Ottawa for defenseman Ian Cole, goaltending prospect Filip Gustavsson, a first-round pick in the 2018 Entry Draft and a third-round pick in the 2019 Entry Draft.
In a related trade, the Pens sent right wing Ryan Reaves to Vegas along with a fourth-round pick in the 2018 Entry Draft for forward prospect Tobias Lindberg and an agreement to retain 40 percent of Brassard’s remaining salary for the season.
“This is the most complex trade I’ve made,” said Rutherford said. “Three-way deals are hard to make. We thought we had the deal made earlier in the day; it wasn’t made. We had to make a couple changes. It took quite a bit longer than most. There was [salary] cap issues.”
Brassard, a noted Penguin-killer during his days as a Ranger and Blue Jacket, notched 18 goals and 38 points in 54 games with the Senators this season. Not only does the 11-year-vet represent a significant upgrade at third-line center, he possesses the skill to slot up to first- or second-line center in the event of an injury to Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin.
Brassard’s presence bumps Riley Sheahan–hot of late–to the fourth line, giving the Pens enviable depth down the middle.
However, in strengthening themselves at center, the Pens potentially weakened themselves on defense. Since emerging from coach Mike Sullivan’s dog house a month ago, Cole tallied a goal and five assists in 11 games (and registered a gaudy plus-12) while combining with Jamie Oleksiak to form an efficient, physical third pairing. Not coincidentally, the Pens were on fire during that stretch, going 9-1-1.
It remains to be seen if summertime pick up Matt Hunwick can do just that…pick up his game and fill the void created by Cole’s departure. If not, Chad Ruhwedel…or perhaps Oleksiak clone Andrey Pedan (currently with the Baby Pens)…could step in.
Brassard, 30, is signed through next season at $5 million/year. Cole, popular with fans and teammates alike, is a UFA to be.
The Pens also parted with a considerable chunk of muscle in Reaves, generally regarded as the NHL heavyweight champ. Following a sluggish start, the burly forward seemed to be coming on of late.
“Again, that was a player that one of these teams insisted on having, so we had to do it,” Rutherford said.
Lindberg, a 6’3″ 215-pound right wing, was a fourth-round pick of Ottawa’s in 2013. The 22-year-old has eight goals in 48 games for the Chicago Wolves. Dunn, who play an aggressive style, is a low-level prospect who’s split time between the AHL and ECHL.
Hello Everyone. It’s another great day for hockey! The times they are a changin’.
Most of what I might have said, if I’d gotten here sooner, has already been said. I’m in agreement. There still is one item, though, I will never understand, and that I am going to rant about, because it angers me. It is the one thing I have against Sullivan and his apparent dislike of Ian Cole: How does a coach allow his personal axe lead to the dismissal of an integral piece of his team? While in the hunt for a third consecutive cup? I will never understand that when laid next to all the flowery intonations re: putting the best team on the ice, etc., ad infinitum. Coaches should leave their axes at home. Period.
I want to believe they see something in Hunwick, and even Sheary, that I don’t. I want to believe they’re beating the bushes, as I type this rant, looking for another defenseman (in hope of relieving Hunwick, too).
I’m not a hockey guy but I am an interested long-time fan of the sport, and this team. I may not always grasp the finer details of the game, or the business of it, but I’ve watched enough hockey in 50-some years to know the difference between Matt Hunwick and Ian Cole. And, I would still have an excuse if I’d missed that. Sullivan, and JR, have no such excuse.
I get the free agency thing. I get that Cole wasn’t going to be reupped come July. I don’t get why now, when it has been clear, since his return from press box exile, that Ian Cole is three times the defenseman than Matt Hunwick.
I’m okay with Brassard. He’s a hockey player. Ordinarily I’d fall for that deal hook, line and sinker. But, in this case, there was a fleecing, and they fleeced themselves because coach didn’t like the guy. And that I will never get, and will never agree with. It has no place in the game. It’s one of the reasons why Dan Bylsma isn’t the Pens current coach.
Another rabid fan told me, “Hey. That’s the game. Coaches do it all the time (not liking certain players).” To which I say, be careful what you wish for.
They may indeed three-peat. This is a good team. They’ve got as good a shot as in the previous two campaigns. But to think this defense can’t go in the tank as a result of one injury, or just because they might anyway due to questionable play from several actors, is to be naive, or, apparently, just having an axe to grind.
Boy, do I feel better!
— 55
Hey 55,
Well said! We all seem to be on the same page about this. It will be an interesting few days leading up to 3pm on the 26th.
Yes, it will, Phil. Looking forward to seeing what everyone is up to coming into the stretch. It’s one of the two days I miss NHL Home Ice on satellite.
But, while I’m here 😜, it was a kind of irony that having sent two physical players out of town coincided with a game in which they doled out a paltry seven hits, one more than Florida’s goal total. Seven hits in 60 minutes against a team that may be faster than you is how you lose to a team that may be faster than you. It’s not like Florida pounded them, with 19, and they still scored 5 (six actually). But, that 12 hit margin was a contributing factor, along with gaps that rivaled the Grand Canyon, and getting caught deep a few times.
And, as foolish as it is to complain about officiating, the crew that called this game gave new meaning to “home ice advantage.” ‘Nuff said.
— 55
Hey guys,
Hunwick was minus-3 last night and looked lost on a couple of the goals against.
It’s affected Oleksiak, too. I did a little digging. Jamie was even during the eight games Cole was benched in January. When Ian returned, Oleksiak was a plus-10 in 11 games. He’s a minus-2 in the past two with Hunwick. At least for now, they seem to blend about as well as oil and water.
55, I agree 100 percent regarding Sullivan-Cole. How can you let personal stuff blind you to the fact that Ian was a guy you win Cups with? Hunwick most assuredly is not.
Unless JR’s able to come up with fix via trade or within the organization (Pedan?) we’ve got troubles on ‘d.’
Rick
Hi Rick,
I hope it isn’t a trend, but there it was, on the ice last night, no one playing D. I dare ask, missing Cole?
One more point re: Sullivan. He may also be the reason Sprong isn’t here. There were indications that was the case, or part of it. Sid is struggling, again. Three goals in last 17 games. Did anyone think after 63 games Sid would have just 20 goals? He hasn’t had a solid line this year, except it felt that way when Sprong was there. It’s time to put Sprong and Guentzel, or ZAR, back on Sid’s wings.
Sorry everyone, I had a lot to get off of my chest after last night, so I wrote a full post, but if you read it, you will see I agree 100%
Hey all,
Once again, sorry to be behind the curve on my write-up. I was unavoidably detained.
Having finally had a chance to digest everything, I too, have massively mixed feelings about the deal. There’s no question Brassard was a terrific pickup from an offensive standpoint. Thanks to his ability to handle a larger role, we no longer have to live in mortal terror of Sid and/or Geno going down. Plus, with Brassard in tow, it’ll create huge matchup issues for opponents.
In my mind, however, we now have a seriously exposed Achilles heel on defense. We all seem to be in agreement that Hunwick is a (significant) downgrade from Cole.
Heaven forbid, we run into injury issues…an almost certainty come playoff time. I don’t mind Ruhwedel as a seventh d, but I wouldn’t be comfortable riding him for an extended period of time. Especially if the guy he was replacing was, say, Schultz.
Phil, I agree, we need a Hainsey. A guy who intrigues me is the Rangers’ Brendan Smith, who for some reason was recently banished to the minors. He’s basically a pricier version of Cole…which, of course, begs the question as to why we traded Ian in the first place.
Despite his comments to the contrary, perhaps JR still has a trick up his sleeve. Maybe he can deal some combination of Sheary, Sprong and Hunwick for a decent d-man.
Rick
PS–Mike, I agree with you about Reaves. I confess to being in-and-out about him this year, but he played a lot better after being benched in January and was starting to look like the guy I thought we acquired last summer. While I’m not sure how much help he would’ve been come playoff time, I was infinitely more comfortable playing teams like the Caps with “Reavo” around.
Thank goodness we have Oleksiak.
Hey Rick,
If it were up to me; Sheary and Hunwick would be the players I would push out the door; both represent addition by subtraction and both would be all I would be willing to give up for a depth D man.
I am a firm believer in everyone could be had for the right price and although I think Sprong is, right now the 3rd best RW in the organization, I would still trade him; especially since Sullivan appears to blind to Sprong (Maybe it really is a numbers game, I do understand that). But if I trade Sprong, I want a lot more than a depth D man, particularly since the Pens could very easily lose Hornqvist this off-season, they could ill-afford to lose a low cost forward that can produce in a big way, not only with his shot but his CORSI genius.
Once the play-offs start and Cap concerns go away, Sprong should be the one manning Crosby’s RW. His speed and drive for the net gives 87 a player reminiscent of a young Dupuis.
Sheary and Hunwick, if they are still here, get plenty of press box time, if the Pens are really “all in” for a 3-peat.
Okay, this was a really complicated trade.
On the plus side
1. Brassard is good.
2. Chances are the 1st round pick the Pens gave up is more like a 2nd round pick.
3. A bit of the log jam at RW was opened up and the team should be faster.
On the minus side
1. An exponential defensive loss, not only do the Penguins lose a Quality D man, his loss will be amplified by what looks like more TOI for Hunwick, so the Penguins are suffering a double minus.
2. Gustavsson may have been able to net the Pens a top 10 pick in the off-season.
3. Vegas is retaining part of Brassard’s salary this year, but what about next year? does this trade mean the team will not be able to compete to keep Hornqvist.
4. The Pens send Reaves to Vegas. Reaves has been starting to show some positive offensive signs. Now the trade that kept the Pens from the opportunity to draft Hague. A wasted trade.
Questions;
1. Will he be available for tomorrow night?
2. Will the team make a pitch for Kane to get a little bigger again? If Kane is still hanging out there by Monday, they may be able to get him for Sheary, better something rather than nothing. Of Course that could complicate the off-season even more.
The Pens gave up way too much.
I have no idea why the team is so down on Cole. In my opinion this is the first integral part the Pens have lost from their two Cup winning teams.
In those two Cup runs Ian Cole led the team in Penalty Kill minutes and was forth overall in minutes. Second overall in defensive minutes behind only Dumoulin.
We lost a great defenseman, a solid winger, a bunch of draft picks not to mention the #1 goalie prospect and got a solid above average center a lifelong ECHLer and a winger who has seen NHL time (6 games).
It looks like the Penguins right now don’t have any cap space left and if there is an injury on defense, holy crap are they in trouble. They need to find a “Hainsey” out there somewhere.
On the positive side, they unloaded two guys who would probably be impossible to retain next year.
Hey Phil,
I agree; both that the Pens over-paid and with your loss of understanding over the Sullivan et al’s dislike of Cole.
I do think that Brassard upgrades our Center position, but the D was seriously degraded. I am hoping that there is something still coming now to address the D. As I said above, this is an exponential D loss, losing Cole and giving Hunwick more TOI.
Hopefully there is another deal in the works to replace Cole.
Part of me is remembering when I spoke out against the trade for both Sheahan and Reaves. This trade now puts those trades in the questionable category.
When Sheahan was traded for, I said he really wasn’t the 3rd line Center the team needed. Having said that, I am not so sure that I would mess with the chemistry of that 3rd line right now. I would ride Sheahan – Guentzel – Kessel until they cool off. Sorry, Brassard neds to work in on 4th line until then.
However, the Reaves trade is the more problematic one. As I said when it happened I would have rather drafted Hague, now we have neither the “best fighter in the league” that JR was looking for, nor the highly rated D prospect.
I just hope the fore-checkers can make up for the loss in defense the team is now facing.
Hey all,
Just heard on the evening news that the deal’s been held up by the NHL due to salary-cap issues.
Stay tuned.
Rick
I hate to say this but part of me hopes it falls thru.
Yes, I do like the idea of Brassard centering Kessel to make that third line electric, but I think the deal, as it stands, really doesn’t improve the team. It robs from Peter to pay Paul.
Just went official very expensive!!
Pens
F Derick Brassard
F Vincent Dunn
F Tobias Lindberg
2018 3rd-Round Pick
Sens
D Ian Cole
G Filip Gustavsson
2018 1st-Round Pick
2019 3rd-Round Pick
Vegas
F Ryan Reaves
2018 4th-Round Pick (VAN)
40% salary retention on Brassard
I dont like losing Reaves to VG – It concerns me that at some point we will be facing the Jets, Bruins or etc…..we dont match up physically. I know we got away with it in the past but the pounding eventually takes its toll.
We also lost our most physical defenseman.
Hi . I have been waiting to see if Sheary and Hunwick will be included in a trade today or by Monday. Even squeeze Letang in there to somewhere that’s not the Penguins.It didn’t happen at all. To me this is a big mistake and weakest Penguins D to certain extent unless that flip Sheary and Hunwick for a cheap new solid Defenseman. Also reduced Letang minutes to 17 or something until Rutherford figure out that Penguins are better with Letang.
I hate to see Cole go and I believe if Hunwick wasn’t sign in the off season Cole could have possibly sign a cheap fairly 2-3 to stay because he wanted to stay. It is what it is . It’s business at the end of day and I hope Cole find success on another team that appreciates him what he brings to the table as solid defenseman who is warrior among so many things.
I like that Penguins finally got depth behind Crosby and Malkin to play stree free 18-19 minutes games instead of 20-22 minutes. I hope Sheary will never go to Crosby’s line and Guentzel go back there. I don’t know what else to say but I hope to see Rud or Pedan on D instead of Hunwick.
Hey Rick,
This one is one of those trades that has me divided. I do think that the deal can workout in the short term for the Penguins. It really should put their offense in a very strong position.
However, like you I have concern over-all. First of all, as you noted, Cole is light-years better than Hunwick. I was resigned to Cole being traded but it doesn’t really help, now that the trade has gone down. Again, like you, I could swallow the trade if Pedan gets the opportunity to play but I highly doubt it will happen. Like Sheary, Hunwick seems to get one opportunity to screw up after another. Furthermore, I am not sure if Pedan is hurt or not, but he missed WBS’ last 2 or 3 games. Not surprisingly, WBS got tattooed over that span.
I also, don’t like giving up Gustavsson for so little. He could have been used to get a 1st round pick back, particularly since we gave up a 1st pick to Ottawa. Also, I was kind of holding out hope that the Pens could have dealt Gustavsson to a team with a top 10 pick.
The thing I worry about is will the Penguins get maximal bang for their buck on this one. Distilling this down to just looking at centers, Brassard is a big bonus, but my thought is, “does the weakening in team “D” with the moving of Cole counter balance the benefit of upgrading the C”?
Honestly, as much as I do acknowledge a weak C position this year, the team D is far weaker. Hunwick has been and is still a major liability, Letang has played better recently but his Jekyll/Hyde play doesn’t fill me with confidence, nor does his fragility, it is hard to really fault Dumoulin and Maata for their play this year as they try to buoy up their veteran partners, and Schultz has been a bit fragile this year too. The only D-man that has shown any consistent positives is new guy Oleksiak.
There still is time for another trade to shore up the porous D. Maybe the Pens could get out from under Hunwick and maybe even Sheary in exchange for a quality D man.
Either that or Sullivan has to get over his own blinders and bring up CORSI beast Sprong for the play-offs. Between him, Rust, and Simon, maybe the Puck will be tied up in the O-zone so the pathetic play of Hunwick doesn’t hur tthe team that bad.
My next question comes in the off-season, what do they do if Bellerive is ready to burst on the scene? Does the team continue their pattern of disrupting their young guns confidence by burying them behind veterans? But for now, I am interested in seeing the Pens possibly sink the teeth of their Hydra into a 3-peat (sorry I am just channeling my inner T-Rex).
Hey all,
I apologize for my (our) extended absence on PenguinPoop. As fate would have it, both Other Rick and I have been working to fulfill deadlines on work-related projects. It’s prevented us from covering the Pens the way we’d like.
Rick