Anaheim Ducks trade Marcus Pettersson to Penguins for Daniel Sprong

The Pittsburgh Penguins have traded young forward Daniel Sprong to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for young defenseman Marcus Pettersson. 

Both the Anaheim Ducks and the Pittsburgh Penguins are underachieving a bit. For the former, at least they have the rest of the Pacific Division (shy of the Calgary Flames) being quite inconsistent. But for the latter, they currently find themselves very close to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. The two sides have swapped young players who could use a change, with the Pens getting Marcus Pettersson and the Ducks getting Daniel Sprong.

Sprong has been in trade rumors for a while now. The Pens, for better or for worse, decided moving on from him was better than giving him some more time to figure things out. With four points in 16 games, the team simply wasn’t getting enough from Sprong, who they had high hopes for.

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Pettersson is a year older than Sprong, but both are second-round picks. The former was in 2014 with the latter being in 2015. Pettersson is the most proven player, as he has played in 49 games compared to Sprong’s 42.

Neither player was fitting in overly well with their current team. However, the Ducks are getting the more interesting player of the two. At least Sprong is a year removed from being a darn good AHL player. And he’s still got enough potential to be a scoring wing.

Pettersson hasn’t shown much on offense yet, as he has just 10 points in 49 games. Though it’s worth noting the Ducks have been primarily using him in a third-pairing role. Pettersson, when given the right defensive partner this season, has put up admirable possession numbers.

Since he’s left-handed and the Penguins already had five left-handed defensemen to begin with,  it should be interesting to see what they do with six left-handed blue liners. My best guess is either Pettersson or Juuso Riikola get sent to the minors, since both are waiver exempt and both would be better off getting more playing time.