The NHL Draft is five days away. As we all know, this is when business really starts to pick up with player movement around the league. The Pittsburgh Penguins are well-positioned for who they are in 2025. They aren’t going to be making a big push with the mindset of making the 2026 playoffs. For now, they are content to build their futures .They must limit their use free agency for minor roster additions. They need longer-term solutions to their problems
The Penguins have an opportunity to be active in the trade market. The salary cap increased. They have a few assets of interest to contenders. Additionally, Pittsburgh has cap space. They can either eat some money or take on a bloated contract from another team.
12. Pittsburgh is the NHL’s salmon, swimming against the stream. The Penguins entered the big rebuild; everyone else is trying to get better. You’re going to see some situations where teams who may not need to do anything see offers for their players get better and better due to limited supply and so much demand.
Erik Karlsson, Rickard Rakell, and Bryan Rust would all be attractive trade targets for contending teams with Karlsson being the likeliest to move in my estimation. Then there are players like Noel Acciari, Tristan Jarry, and Ryan Graves who the Penguins would be wise to move. However, for obvious reason, there’s a much cooler market for them.
Kyle Dubas has made it no secret that he would act on acquiring RFA aged players with a lot of promise. Compared to a few years ago the Penguins have built up the number of draft picks and prospects they have at their disposal. Trading some of those veteran players should net them more futures to use as trading capital. Once you have the capital you just have to find the right targets.
One avenue to explore is players/teams who are unhappy with their current situation. Prime example: Marco Rossi in Minnesota
Given Bill Guerin’s background with the Penguins I could see him being quite interested in a player like Bryan Rust. His no movement clause expires on June 30th and Minnesota is no longer carrying the huge buyout penalties of both Ryan Suter and Zach Parise. Rossi will be 24 years old in September and is the kind of trade target the Penguins should be quite interested in with Evgeni Malkin nearing the end of his career.
Another strategy is to pay attention to capped out teams and the Dallas Stars certainly fit the bill. If Dallas somehow paints themselves into a corner with their cap situation there is a small chance someone like Jason Robertson could be available.
He won’t come cheap and he shouldn’t. I would certainly put the 11th overall pick in play as a starting point in a Robertson trade. Eat some money on Erik Karlsson and see what else Dallas is looking for and go from there. I think Robertson stays in Dallas. However, if there were discussions to be had, I think Dubas should get involved.
It will be an eventful week coming, that much we know.
Thanks for reading!
Think Acciari on a one year deal would appeal to a lot of the GMs in this league.
I think we find out what the Rags are going to do by Wednesday night with their pick.