Penguins trading Hornqvist? Oops not so fast!

The more things change the more they stay the same.

It was only last off season that the rumor mill had the Pittsburgh Penguins trading full No Trade Clause (NTC) Evgeni Malkin to the Florida Panthers. This off season, we are once again treated to the circus of trade – no trade. Once again, the apparent trade is involving a Penguin with a full NTC, Patric Hornqvist being traded to the Panthers.

What the Led Zeppelin tune, ‘The Song Remains the Same”? Only the names seem to have changed a little.

Oh, one other change, this rumor, well it is pretty much confirmed, the two teams in question are apparently trying to make a deal. The only thing keeping it from being a done deal is a snag over insurance concerns and approval from one of the players involved.

Insurance concerns?

Florida, apparently, is concerned over Hornqvist’s contract not being insured in case of injury.

Player approval?

Hornqvist has to approve any trade and the team apparently hasn’t been able to reach him.

Now, I don’t have any problems trading anyone, if the trade improves the team. In fact, when Hornqvist signed his current contract, I wondered why GM Jim Rutherford gave him a full NTC (that is right it was Rutherford who gave Hornqvist the NTC, he didn’t inherit a player with it) making it tough time trading him. I, honestly, would not at all be upset to move Hornqvist, depending on conditions (including Hornqvist being amenable to the deal), because I would love to see what a Samuel Poulin, Anthony Angello, or even dark horse Nathan Legare, could do playing Hornqvist’s role of the net front presence on the Power Play (PP).

However, the Hornqvist trade, from the details leaked so far, would indicate the Penguins will lose on the deal. In a perfect situation both teams win on a trade, getting an asset they need in exchange for assets they have in abundance. Unfortunately for the Penguins, the Penguins are trading away from an area of weakness to add to an area overflowing with similar players. The Penguins already have a plethora of puck moving Defensemen that are soft on the puck and give it away with extreme regularity, they don’t need another one.

Yes, that is what Rutherford is looking to pick up, puck moving Defenseman, Mike Matheson. The same Mike Matheson who gave the puck away 135 times in 2018-2019, 135 times!

Should the trade go through, not only would the Penguins increase their number of puck moving, defensive liability Defensemen, they would also enjoy picking up another long term bad contract.

Penguins fans are you still upset about the Jack Johnson contract?

That contract only has 3 years left and although Johnson’s Cap hit will remain $3.25 million, the team will only have to pay him $3 million, $3 million, and $2.25 million. Matheson will cost the team a Cap hit of $4.875 million for 6 years. More importantly, the Penguins will have to pay the puck moving Defenseman $3.5 million this coming season, then $5 million the following season, then $4 million, then $6.5 million for 3 more seasons, and get this, this underachieving give away artist’s contract has a modified NTC clause that kicks in this coming season making a little tougher to shed him. (Yikes!)

Matheson’s contract makes Johnson’s contract look almost palatable.

Furthermore, not only is the team trading for a player that they have in abundance, they are trading from an area of weakness. Our Penguins are not blessed with much in the way of grit and willingness to go to the net, yet Rutherford appears to be willing to sacrifice what little the team has in an effort to increase the number of perimeter players.

A Josh Yohe tweet from about 6pm yesterday has given me some hope though;

“And by the way, while the Penguins and Panthers were obviously close to pulling this off, the trade might not happen at all. Clearly information got out before the teams would have liked. Sounds like things are totally stuck now. Like I said, the Penguins…never boring.”

I would really love to see what Poulin or Angello could do on the PP but not at the expense of Matheson’s contract or at the expense of Matheson’s lack of defensive acumen. I hope you are right Yohe I hope this deal doesn’t go through. I’ll take boring on this one.