Pittsburgh Penguins fans have not only been blessed with some of the most entertaining hockey ever played in the NHL. Off the ice, they have had things be just as entertaining. The Penguins have had a long history of big and bold trades, free agency signings, and player movement.
With the NHL’s trade Deadline set for April 12, at 3 p.m. the Penguins will once again look to improve their roster via trade. The problem is that the Penguins, who will likely be buyers once more, do not have much to give up in terms of trade bait. The Penguins only have five picks in the 2021 draft with three of them being seventh-rounders. Samuel Poulin and Nathan Legare are the teams’ only valuable prospects.
So this begs the question; can the Penguins even afford to buy at this year’s deadline?
Remember, this is Hextall’s team now
From 2014 to early 2021, Jim Rutherford was the Penguins general manager and was infamously one of the most trade-happy GMs in all of hockey. This man would trade a pair of socks if he could. But Rutherford is no longer the Penguins general manager. He stepped down and the Penguins hired Ron Hextall as the 12th general manager in team history.
Hextall is simply a different general manager with a different style of how he manages teams. He cares more about stockpiling young players rather than trading them for rentals like Rutherford. In his six weeks as the Penguins general manager, Hextall has only made one move. He claimed Mark Friedman off waivers, watched him score a goal, and then watched him get hurt. That’s it.
Comparing Rutherford and Hextalls trade deadline tendencies. Article coming soon for @PGHSportsCastle #LetsGoPens #HockeyTwitter pic.twitter.com/VLl1kT8xtk
— Owen Krepps (@OKrepps85) March 24, 2021
The NHL trade deadline is less than 20 days away. Not only has Hextall not made a trade yet, but the entirety of the NHL has not made any major trades since the Patrick Laine/Pierre-Luc Dubois trade in January. The coronavirus has slowed down player movement. Players being traded would have to quarantine, and in the case of trades between a Canadian and US team, this would be two weeks.
But.. this team needs help
It is easy to look at the Penguins’ current roster and point out that they need help. Half of the roster is practically an AHL team let’s be honest. Evgeni Malkin looks to be out for longer than expected and Jason Zucker is out long-term. This certainly stings, especially because of the chemistry that Malkin and Kasperi Kapanen were having as they were starting to heat up.
Pens switched up their forward lines a bit…
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Aston-Reese—McCann-Kapanen
Rodrigues-Jankowski-Lafferty
Sceviour-Gaudreau-Angello
Zohorna mixed in on the fourth line.Dumoulin-Letang
Matheson-Ceci
Pettersson-Marino
Riikola-Ruhwedel— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) March 23, 2021
Thankfully the Penguins have already played the hardest parts of their schedule. They now coast into the second half of the season playing Buffalo and New Jersey sixteen times. But Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel cannot do it alone, and this team cannot expect to be a contender with Evan Rodrigues as their second-line center. The Penguins are simply not deep enough. The upcoming trade deadline is a perfect opportunity for them to find depth.
Who could the Penguins add?
As much as the Penguins need to add forward depth, they have little to nothing to give up in a trade. I see people have started to throw around names like Sam Reinhart, Viktor Arvidsson or even Taylor Hall. The Penguins do not have the pieces to get any of these players. Even if they did, it would not be in their best interest as they need to start building for the future.
From now until the NHL trade deadline on April 12, @Real_RobRossi @seangentille and I will be updating this file with any information we have on the Penguins. So probably good to check in on this one frequently: https://t.co/XThUwHSq82
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) March 22, 2021
Ron Hextall is not Jim Rutherford. He is not going to chase after star players only to have them for one playoff run and then lose them in free agency. But I do think the Penguins are going to add some depth at the deadline. Cheap rental players like Bobby Ryan, Erik Haula and Eric Staal make the most sense to me.
We will just have to wait and see what Hextall does in his first trade deadline as the Penguins general manager. For more of my thoughts on the Penguins and my reaction to last night’s game against Buffalo, check out my YouTube channel here.
The post Krepps: Can the Penguins even afford to buy at the deadline? appeared first on Pittsburgh Sports Castle.
