5 moves the Pittsburgh Penguins must make this offseason

PHILADELPHIA, PA - FEBRUARY 11: Nick Bjugstad #27 of the Pittsburgh Penguins, playing in his 400th NHL game, celebrates his second period goal against the Philadelphia Flyers with Evgeni Malkin #71 and Phil Kessel #81 on February 11, 2019 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images) /

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Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images /

4. Explore A Bryan Rust Trade

Sometimes you have to give up a good player to get a good player. If the Pittsburgh Penguins need to move someone out this summer, the forward they should move is probably Bryan Rust. He’s a quality player, but he’s a replaceable one.

Rust was quite inconsistent last season. He either couldn’t buy a goal or everything he shot went in. There wasn’t much middle ground. Let’s take a look at his shooting percentages by month.

October – 5.9%
November – 0%
December – 24.2%
January – 9.7%
February – 21.7%
March – 6.3%

All of this led to one of the most interesting seasons someone with 18 goals and 35 points has ever had. While Rust brings more to the table than just his scoring, it was an up and down season for him.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are going to need to move fairly substantial salary this summer. Getting Rust’s $3.5 million cap hit over the next three seasons off the books would help. However, he’s more than a cap dump. Rust could be traded for a player who helps the team immediately.

If you’re going to make a hockey trade, you’d better know what you want. And if you don’t get it, you shouldn’t hesitate to keep the player until something you like comes up. The Pittsburgh Penguins should target a controllable, quality defenseman for him. Why? They need to fix their blueline desperately. Speaking of which…

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