Pittsburgh Penguins: Another trade is likely coming in the near future

If you read between the lines, a trade in the near future seems all but inevitable for the Pittsburgh Penguins

While I do not have any direct or inside sources, I anticipate the Pittsburgh Penguins will be making another trade before free agency begins on July 1st.

According to Cap Friendly, Pittsburgh currently has $3,192,500 in salary cap space with Zach-Aston Reese, Teddy Blueger, and Marcus Pettersson currently unsigned as restricted free agents. All three of these players will be on the NHL roster and are worthy of salary raises.

Evolving Hockey posted their annual contract projections spreadsheet. They do wonderful work. The entire spreadsheet can be found here.

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Here is what they have forecasted for the three Penguins skaters.

• Marcus Pettersson: 2 years, $1,600,911 AAV
• Zach-Aston Reese: 2 years, $1,268,315 AAV
• Teddy Blueger: 2 years, $876,263 AAV

The sum of those numbers is $3,745,489. That would put the Penguins over the salary cap. While a team can go over the salary cap by 10% in the offseason, I suspect they would like to sign a lower-end free agent skater or two.

As of today, the Penguins do not have the salary cap space to do so. General Manager Jim Rutherford has made a roster move on the first day of free agency in three of the last four seasons and remains anxious to retool the Penguins roster. I doubt he will be content and just sit on his hands.

These projections are likely in the ballpark range of what these contracts will end up being. I would not be surprised if both Pettersson and Blueger end up with a slightly higher cap hit than what this model projects. Aston-Reese would likely max out at $1,500,000.

Matt Murray, Justin Schultz, and Jared McCann are all eligible for contract extensions on July 1st as well. Even after the Olli Maatta trade, the Penguins still desperately need to create more cap space.

In terms of which free agents could be of interest to the Penguins, a few names stand out

Jordie Benn

Signing Benn would have to be the direct result of a trade to clear salary cap space. With Evolving Wild projecting a 4 year, $3,489,000 contract for Benn, human Jack Johnson would have to be shipped out of town and off of the Penguins roster.

While Benn has struggled with injuries throughout his career, he has been a positive possession player in six of his eight NHL seasons. He would be a significant upgrade over Johnson and it is noteworthy that assistant coach Sergei Gonchar was a teammate of Benn’s during the 2013-14 season with Dallas. RDS reported that the Penguins had interest in acquiring Benn at the 2018 trade deadline, so there could be some traction to this.

Jason Pominville

While the Penguins have an abundance of talent and depth at right wing, Pominville is likely capable of replacing Patric Hornqvist or Bryan Rust in the event of a trade involving a right-winger. Pominville has occasionally played alongside Jack Eichel the last couple of seasons and has been a nice complementary piece.

Per Natural Stat Trick, Pominville’s points per 60 with Buffalo was 1.47 in 2017-18 and 2.01 in 2018-19. He has been an above average possession player throughout his career. The 36-year-old can still play at a high level. The model projects a 1 year, $1,086,403 contract for Pominville. At that rate, he would be a fantastic addition to a contender that needs depth scoring.

Marko Dano

I would deem Dano as the most realistic option of these three UFAs. The winger was not qualified by the Avalanche. Dano has some untapped potential, as he was once considered to be a highly thought of prospect, and was a key piece of a Brandon Saad deal a few years ago.

Dano’s AHL point production is average, but he has struggled to stay in the NHL. Whichever team signs Dano this summer, they will be the fourth franchise that has employed him. He has bounced around a lot. In 138 career NHL games, Dano has tallied 45 points and 0.32 points per game.

It is interesting to note that Dano is 24, and falls into a similar age bracket as recent acquisitions Jared McCann and Dominik Kahun. Dano was also a 2013 first round pick and it is no secret that the Penguins have consistently gone out and acquired players that are former first-rounders during the Jim Rutherford era. The model projects a 1 year, $886,593 contract for Dano. Inking Dano to a deal would be a low risk, high reward signing for Pittsburgh.

I do not feel that the Penguins need to make any moves at forward. Beyond the top defense pair of Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin, the Penguins blueline has red flags scattered everywhere. Having $7.25 million tied up in Jack Johnson and Erik Gudbranson is abysmal value and prevents this team from really improving.

The Penguins dug their own grave here and have nobody to blame but themselves for their lack of salary cap space. This next week will likely present some opportunities for Pittsburgh to improve their defense core. Whether or not they actually do so is a different story. Thanks for reading!