The Penguins and their fans can get an up close look at one of the players in the NHL that is most likely to be shipped off. Jiri Tlusty is a prime candidate to be traded considering that Carolina will be sellers this year in the trade market. Also making things more intriguing is the fact that Penguins General Manager Jim Rutherford is more than familiar with the Carolina organization.

So who is Jiri Tlusty and what does he bring to the table?



At a quick glance he is neither a great possession player nor a bad one. He is average in this department. Considering he would be playing with Crosby and/or Malkin (most likely Malkin) my guess would be he would do just fine in the possession department. He doesn't strike me as an anchor in that regard. Also doesn't strike me as a guy who is going to drive it either.

Here are his offensive stats. They aren't terrific, but it is clear he chips in offensively for the team.





It actually reminds me a lot of a former Penguins Stanley Cup winning winger






That player's name is Ruslan Fedotenko. A guy that played the role of a complimentary piece.

And that is what a potential Tlusty acquisition would be, a guy who improves your forward depth and can be placed in a top six role without being dreadful. I wouldn't consider him an impact player along the lines of a David Perron for example.

PIttsburgh's potential of swinging a trade for Tlusty comes back to the same thing any trade does, what kind of value do you have to give up to acquire him. In this case I wouldn't go much past Brian Dumoulin, if that. I think the Penguins should look elsewhere first. In my opinion Tlusty would be an underwhelming lone top six winger pickup. The only way I see that working is if the Penguins swing two top six winger trades and Tlusty is the secondary one.

As I showed above, I think picking up Jiri Tlusty would be along the same lines as picking up the 2008-09 version of Ruslan Fedotenko. Not bad, but also probably not the guy who is on the top of your list either.

Carolina and Pittsburgh play tonight and tomorrow so there will be no shortage of opportunities to further analyze him as a player these next two days.

Thanks for reading!


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