The Pittsburgh Penguins trade of Jake Guentzel is officially complete

The Pittsburgh Penguins are sellers at the trade deadline. They aren’t used to being in this position but that happens sometimes at the end of long successful runs.

Jake Guentzel was a Stanley Cup champion with them and now his time in Pittsburgh is done. They traded him to the Carolina Hurricanes. The word of this in-division trade started early on Thursday night but it is now complete.

The Hurricanes have never really traded for a rental before. They broke that mold this year though as Guentzel is an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. He will be getting a major raise with his next contract.

This is one of the more important Penguins of the last decade. He was an incredible scorer who complimented the Hall of Famers on their team so well. He will be missed by that fanbase.

The Pittsburgh Penguins made a huge move trading Jake Guentzel away

Ty Smith is also headed to the Hurricanes in this deal. He is a defenseman who has been up and down from the NHL and AHL in recent years.

Going back to Pittsburgh is a lot of pieces. They got quantity more than they did quality. Pittsburgh is getting LW Michael Bunting, RW Ville Koivunen, C Vasili Ponomarev, RW Cruz Lucius, a conditional 2nd-round pick, and a conditional 5th-round pick.

Pittsburgh only gets that fifth if Carolina wins the Stanley Cup. The first becomes a second if the Canes make it to the Stanley Cup Final.

It took a long time for the trade to be finished but there are a lot of moving parts. This is a trade that changes things for both teams.

Carolina didn't have to give up a ton of their high-end prospects and they are getting an elite goal scorer. He has 219 goals and 247 assists for 466 points in 503 games played. This season, he has 22 goals and 30 assists for 52 points in 50 games.

Now, he is going to get a chance on a Cup contender again. Seeing him play with a guy like Sebastian Aho is going to be incredible. This is as big of a move as we've ever seen the Canes make.

Now, there are less than 24 hours left before Friday's deadline and the biggest name on the market is off the board. We shall see if any surprises outweigh this name.