Penguins Qualify Seven, Deal St. Ivany to Jets

In a one-for-one swap of 26-year-old depth players, the Penguins have traded defenseman Jack St. Ivany to the Jets for center David Gustafsson.

At first blush and in a vacuum, I don’t care for the deal. While admittedly no all-star, St. Ivany had established himself as a more-than-serviceable fill-in on the starboard side of our defense.

Standing 6’4” and weighing 197 pounds, the former fourth-round pick of the Flyers also provided size and a willingness to use it, as his 116 hits in 53 games will attest. His boxcars (no goals, nine assists) were modest, as were his underlying stats, reinforcing his no-frills style.

Availability was an issue, as the rangy blueliner was often injured.

Still, I liked him as a depth guy.

As for Gustafsson?

I profess to know little about the newcomer, other than what I was able to glean from a quick glance at his boxcars on HockeyDB and metrics on Natural Stat Trick. It was immediately evident that goals are a rare occurrence for the Tingsryd, Sweden, native at the NHL level. Only six in 149 games with the Jets spread over six seasons. Ditto offense in general (20 career big-league points).

His metrics were meh until 2024-25, when they were actually quite impressive. Which also happens to be the last time he appeared in a game with the Jets. Last season he skated exclusively for the AHL Manitoba Moose, tallying an okay 10 goals and 32 points in 48 games.

As for other details, Gustafsson’s 6’2” and 196 pounds, shoots left and is a former second-round pick of the Jets (2018). Decent on draws, with a career win rate of 51.2 percent.

It was suggested on another Pens site that he’s probably being viewed as a replacement for Joona Koppanen, who’s returning to Europe. That makes sense.

A slightly separate issue, but one that’s beginning to concern me. With the trade of St. Ivany, and the likely departures of fellow blueliner Connor Clifton, behemoth Anthony Mantha and scrappy Noel Acciari, the Pens are divesting themselves of some physicality. To my eye, we had just the right blend of elements last season, including guys who would stick their noses in and even initiate the rough stuff.

IMHO, we’re going to be down a quart in the toughness department.

I’m not anxious for a return of the limp bizkit Pens of the late Mike Sullivan era.

Pens Qualify Seven

Two days before the start of free agency, POHO/GM Kyle Dubas took care of some business by extending qualifying offers to seven in-house RFAs, including recent acquisitions Gustafsson and Hendrix Lapierre.

The five others included forwards Egor Chinakhov and Ville Koivunen, defenseman Alex Alexeyev and goalies Arturs Šilovs and Joel Blomqvist.