EDIT 9:55 AM
Can't say I am a big fan of this idea. The Penguins have literally no need for an unskilled bottom pairing defenseman. They already pay one 3.3M and the kids/Bortuzzo more than capable of filling that role.
Although it appears logic will win out on the Russell front as Jason Mackey recently tweeted out the following
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What should we expect from the Pittsburgh Penguins today?
Barring some big surprises I don’t think there will be a whole lot of activity from them.
They have 100k in cap space per Mike Colligan and his
Penguins Cap Tracking Tool he released today.
If you are rooting for the Penguins to make a move of significance today Brandon Sutter is the trade chip that will need to be involved. He has a 3.3M cap hit and a much higher perceived value than actual value.
Chris Kunitz and his 3.75M cap hit could be a candidate for being moved in a significant deal, albeit unlikely.
Nick Spaling and his 2.2M contract would be another candidate, again unlikely.
On the lower end of the money spectrum the Penguins could also feasibly deal Steve Downie and his 1.1M cap hit.
Christian Ehrhoff was sat yesterday for "health reasons" but it seems odd considering they said he had no symptoms from a concussion, the team hadn't played since Wednesday, and he was a full participant in practice the day before (even played sled hockey afterwards).
Anytime players are held out of their last game before the deadline it always makes for some interesting speculation.
Given the prices out there for defenseman it would have been a really fascinating situation for Pittsburgh if Olli Maatta was healthy. Would they have moved Paul Martin?
Some Metropolitan trades of note:
The Lighting paid a premium to acquire Brayden Coburn but there is no debating that he makes their defense corp. better for the stretch run this year. Tampa Bay was already one of the favorites in the East. That hasn't changed.
The Rangers also paid a premium to acquire their defenseman of choice, Keith Yandle. Yandle will definitely help that team out and if Lunqvist is healthy and able come playoff time they will be a difficult team to bounce once again.
Washington added Tim Gleason and Curtis Glencross but those are low impact moves and one might argue unnecessary ones. Brooks Orpik and Tim Gleason have very similar underlying numbers and Glencross will need to get hot offensively for the deal to make sense for the Capitals.
While the chances are likely that there will be no more significant additions to the roster we have all seen how crazy the final moments leading into the 3PM deadline can be.
I’ll have updates today when appropriate.
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I broke down the Yandle trade for Hockey Prospectus. You can find that
here
Thanks for reading!
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