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Penguins right winger Patric Hornqvist traded to Florida Panthers

After a full day of anticipation, the Patric Hornqvist and Mike Matheson trade has finally been announced by the Pittsburgh Penguins and general manager Jim Rutherford. The Penguins have traded Hornqvist to the Florida Panthers in exchange for defenseman Mike Matheson, as well as forward Colton Sceviour.

Meanwhile, the Penguins added $775,000 of cap space in this trade leaving the Penguins with just over $6 million in cap space to work with for the rest of the offseason.

This deal was announced to be in the works by NHL Network reporter Kevin Weekes on Wednesday morning but took until Thursday night to get done. Sportsnet reporter Elliotte Friedman tweeted out that there was a “glitch” in the trade between Pittsburgh and Florida.

We don’t know exactly what prompted this trade to take so long but it could have had something to do with Hornqvist’s no-trade-clause. Now that this deal is finally official, let’s look at how the Penguins did.

Analysis

It is no secret that Hornqvist was not the player that he once was in Pittsburgh. This guy was traded for 40 goal scorer James Neal eons ago. Hornqvist was also making a tad too much money ($5.3M) for a guy that was truly only useful on the power-play. In his last two years with the Penguins, Hornqvist had 69 points in 121 games played.

It was clear that the Penguins would likely have to move on from Hornqvist to free up some cap space. However, the problem with this trade is that they didn’t. The Penguins added just under a million dollars in cap space to the roster, and while that is not a lot to add, it could have been $5.3 million dollars less.

Mike Matheson is a good defenseman with the potential to shine within the Penguins organization. According to @ThePointHockey on Twitter, Matheson is third amongst NHL defenders in puck-battle wins. The 26-year-old Matheson has an enormous contract as it runs all the way until 2025-26 at $4.8M per season. This means that this deal will last longer than the deals of Brandon Tanev and Sidney Crosby.

Rutherford states that Matheson can play the right side. So there is a possibility that he can replace Justin Schultz, who will not resign in Pittsburgh. There have also been rumors that the Penguins have an interest in adding Brandon Tanev’s brother Chris to the roster. Chris Tanev is a UFA coming off a $4.5 million deal in Vancouver and would make a great addition to the Penguins roster. However, cap space and the plethora of defenseman the Penguins already have is a concern which could make a Jack Johnson exile trade more likely.

Colton Sceviour is a 31-year-old veteran forward that has played for both the Dallas Stars and Florida Panthers. Sceviour can put up 20-25 points in a good year and has remained mostly healthy throughout his career. With Nick Bjugstad gone, Sceviour, Jared McCann, Zach Aston-Reese, Brandon Tanev, Teddy Blueger and others will all be battling to get into the Pens bottom-six.

Farewell Hornqvist

The one area where the Penguins truly lost in this trade is that they traded away Hornqvist’s character. Hornqvist was a true locker room personality and motivator of the team in the same way that Phil Kessel and Matt Cullen were. In his six years in Pittsburgh, Hornqvist was a clutch goal scorer, agitator of the other team, and aggravating net-front presence. Nobody on the team will be able to be as good as Hornqvist was at sticking himself in front of the other teams net and getting rebound goals.

Six years is a lot of time to spend with a franchise and Hornqvist did just that with the Penguins. The holder of the fastest hat-trick in Pittsburgh Penguins history, a goal scorer in both the Cup-clinching victories in the 2016 and 2017 and an overall feisty and passionate hockey player Patric Hornqvist will be more than missed in Pittsburgh.

Roster Outlook

The trade that we are still waiting to happen is the inevitable goaltending trade for the Penguins. Matt Murray is the one likely to go and Tristan Jarry will be re-signed. The Penguins also have too many left-defensemen now with Matheson. Hopefully, this means that Jack Johnson could be moved here soon. But you never know with GMJR as he might go crazy and trade Marcus Pettersson or even Kris Letang.

The Penguins will likely need another top-six forward if they do not want to put Kasperi Kapanen on a line with Crosby or Malkin. Free Agency and the return that the Penguins get on the goaltending trade could provide another forward to the roster. Prospects Samuel Poulin and Nathan Legare have been hypothesized by fans at being ready to join the NHL roster.

Jim Rutherford likes to make trades. He has made three since the Penguins lost to The Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup qualifiers. The NHL’s free-agent frenzy will be on Oct. 9, and the NHL Draft will be Oct. 6 and 7. I can guarantee you Rutherford will make more trades there.

The post Penguins right winger Patric Hornqvist traded to Florida Panthers appeared first on Pittsburgh Sports Castle.



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