To Trade or Not To Trade, That Is The Question On Penguins’ Fans Minds

Tomorrow, Monday, April 12, at 3pm is the trade deadline for the 2021 season. Armchair GMing has swirled around the idea of the Pittsburgh Penguins going after a big strong Forward, possibly using one of their Left-Handed Defensemen (LHD), trading from a point of strength to shore up a weakness to help them get back into the Playoffs this season.

First
No, they were not in the “Playoffs” last season. Due to the on-going non-hockey unpleasantness and the NHLs response to have a Playoff last season, our Penguins were not in the “Playoffs”. Since the league did not actually finish the regular season decided to have a tournament among the bubble teams, in lieu of those final games, to decide which teams actually qualify for playing in the Playoffs. It was nothing more than those meaningless divisional tournaments held to decide who gets to be one of 64 teams during March Madness. Nobody remembers of cares about the teams that did not qualify. Despite being the top seed in the field, they lost to the worst team in the field, the Montreal Canadiens, almost getting swept.

Second
The MassMutual division, in which the Penguins play is not populated by a whole lot of top ed teams. The truth is, the Division is very weak, and Pittsburgh’s own Black-and-Gold only has to play two more games against a team above them in the Standings, with 8 of the last 15 games against the bottom two teams. And those two bottom feeding teams are selling off assets – the New Jersey Devils traded Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac and the Buffalo Sabres traded Brandon Montour.

The Penguins closest challenger, the Boston Bruins, cannot score goals. To illustrate this, look at yesterday afternoon’s game the afore mention Bruins could only manage two goals against the Philadelphia Flyers Goalie Brian Elliot. Even after yesterday’s game, Elliot’s save percentage (Sv%) is below 0.900 (0.894).

Below the Bruins are the Flyers and unless they are playing the Bruins, they cannot stop goals. The Flyers the second worst Goals Against per 60 minutes (GA/60) in the league and the worst Sv%.

The only other team of relevance is the New York Rangers. They have the talent but are very young and are 11 points behind our boys of winter.

It will take a monumental collapse for our Penguins to lose enough games against the dregs of the Division to miss the Playoffs. Stop panicking.

Third
Getting to the Final Four, let alone to the Finals may not be so easy. Since there is no inter-divisional play, no one can know how teams will match-up once past the first two rounds. However, Forward is not where the team is weak. Even with all the injuries the Penguins have sustained over the course of the season, they are filling the net. To be sure, this season the Penguins Defense (as a unit and not just Kris Letang) is contributing offensively) Penguins Forwards are having a strong Season. Normalizing the roster to 82 Games Played (GP) among players who have played half the games there are four players that would have scored over 30 Goals (G); Jake Guentzel – 34, Sidney Crosby – 33, Bryan Rust – 32, and Jared McCann – 32, with three more 20 G; Evgeni Malkin – 23, Zach Aston-Reese – 22, and Jason Zucker 21. Kasperi Kapanen (19) and Brandon Tanev (18) would have just missed the 20 G mark.

Although I agree with you Rick B and Mike, I would love to see a big, tough, Forward but I am not sure the cost to benefit ratio is there for a trade. Radim Zohorna, Anthony Angello, and Sam Lafferty have all showed the ability to provide some size while still some skill. Furthermore, once the playoffs start, there will be a chance for players like Nathan Légaré (6’-0”, 205lbs, 33GP, 16G, 38Pnts, +18) and Samuel Poulin (6’-2”, 214lbs, 24GP, 11G, 31Pnts, +14) from the Juniors and Kasper Björkqvist (6’-1”, 214lbs, 44GP, 11G, 26Pnts, +14) from the Finish leagues. I would rather not throw away anymore future assets only to see failure. I cannot see the team getting any forward that much better than what they have in exchange for what Ron Hextall can offer.

(Rick B., from what I have seen, your favorite, Sam Bennett, is off the table.)

Fourth
No, no, no, no, no, the team is not deep on Defense, particularly at LHD. The only LHD I am comfortable with is Brian Dumoulin.

Mike Matheson is a supposed to be a Defensemen. His flashy skating, even his coast-to-coast goal of a couple of games ago does not cast a strong enough glamour over my eyes to veil his considerable defensive lapses. He showed his limitations many times this season as well, including last game against the Devils. All anyone has to do is lean on him with a heavy and close forecheck and he coughs the puck up or throws it away. For all his alleged offensive prowess, he only has 11 Pnts in 33 GP. Yes, his Give Aways (Gv) are down, at least on the official score sheet (but I am not so sure what constitutes a Gv. I have seen him and Letang cough up the puck many times and come away from the game with no Gv) but at the expense of any real offensive production. Worse, soon, the team will have to pay him $6.5 million for a point every 3rd game and no defense.

Marcus Pettersson is young, and I would tend to want to try and keep him around because of this but he too is a serious drain on Cap space.

The biggest weakness though is none of these Defensemen are willing or strong enough to put body on body and knock down opposing forwards in front of the net. The toughness the team needs is on Defense. There is no help anywhere in the organization or maybe no help close enough to NHL readiness. If the team were to trade, the only puzzle piece that may help is here on Defense.

You cannot win a Stanley Cup with six Forwards masquerading as Defensemen. This team needs to Balance its Defense.

I would be Comfortable with the Forward lines looking like this

I would also be okay with (as some people have suggested)

However, on Defense I am only comfortable with Dumoulin, Cody Ceci, and John Marino.

With so little out there (affordable) as an armchair GM, I would recommend only trading for a LHD (Jamie Oleksiak appears to be on the trading block). Other than that, I would try and trade Pettersson, Juuso Riikola, Zucker (Sorry Mike, I have to be truthful, for the right deal I trade him too), and even Evan Rodrigues and Frederick Gaudreau while their stock is high for the LHD I covet and future assets (Draft Picks or Prospects)