Ottawa’s behind-the-scenes look at the NHL Draft offered an intriguing look at a potential Pittsburgh Penguins trade that never materialized.
The Senators’ video shows general manager Steve Staios fielding several phone calls. He didn’t like any of the draft-pick offers, but noted that Pittsburgh was “interesting with the roster player.”
The Penguins were likely interested in acquiring Liam Ruck’s twin brother, Markus. Coincidentally, they wound up acquiring him anyway with their next pick in the second round. The curious element of this is who Pittsburgh could have been dangling. The second element of this is, excluding the Markus Ruck interest, why they were dangling that particular player.
Pittsburgh Penguins Trade with Ottawa Doesn’t Happen
The trade didn’t occur, obviously. There are two basic schools of thought on what the Penguins might have been offering to Ottawa. Jim Rixner of Pensburgh lays out some of his educated guesses here. Given that Pittsburgh’s long-term goal is to get younger, it’s unlikely to be a player like Ben Kindel or Ville Koivunen. The Erik Karlsson connection to Ottawa is certainly intriguing, though it still seems unlikely given the circumstances. Karlsson may not finish this season in Pittsburgh, but it seems likely he’ll start the season there.
The Penguins do have a glut of young players who may not be in the organization’s long-term plans. Joel Blomqvist, seemingly behind Sergei Murashov on the organization’s goalie depth chart, could have been an intriguing add for an Ottawa team that had disastrous goaltending in the regular season. A Pittsburgh Penguins trade to Ottawa could also have included a player like Avery Hayes. The 25th pick might have been rich for Hayes, but we don’t know if anything else was potentially involved in this deal.
The Veteran Questions
The Penguins were a revelation last season, though the wheels of their unexpected playoff run came off in the postseason. Bryan Rust is one of the most valuable veteran wingers available. He’s not a pure rental, has a very manageable $5.125 million cap hit for two more seasons and has no trade protection. One would think the 25th overall pick isn’t enough for Rust.
The world likely will never know, short of some hard work by an intrepid reporter. That said, the willingness to engage in a trade like this for draft capital shows quite a bit about Kyle Dubas’s mindset. It also shows what a strange spot the Penguins are in as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang enter the twilight of their holy trinity.
Failed Pittsburgh Penguins Trade a Sign of Something Later?
It’s certainly possible the two sides could revisit this. Ottawa has much more desperation to be good. Plus, there have been light rumblings of a potential Ottawa-Karlsson reunion for a long time.
Pittsburgh, still trying to get younger, has every reason to explore trades like this. The question is how long the Pittsburgh Penguins can live in this perpetual state of stasis. It’s an organization with a very healthy cap sheet. The Penguins project to have nearly $11 million in cap space to open this season. Their long-term commitments are limited. The team currently projects that it will exceed $60 million in space next summer and nearly $100 million by the summer of 2028.
They’re in a position to make a move if they feel there’s one more run left in the Crosby-Malkin-Letang era. What’s not clear, at this point, is whether they’d even be willing to do it.
Penguins fans spent a few weeks of this summer on the lookout for Jason Robertson. The Pittsburgh Penguins trade for Robertson never materialized. That seemingly indicates the Penguins are open to, well, anything. There’s flexibility. At a certain point, it’s worth asking if the Penguins are too fluid in their roster transition to have a real identity this season.
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