The trade deadline is a mere two days away and much of the talk surrounding Pittsburgh is about Marc-Andre Fleury. It remains to be seen if he will be traded, but there was a goalie trade yesterday that potentially helped the Penguins.
For some reason the Los Angeles Kings traded for Ben Bishop. This should help the Penguins in the sense that LA was not a likely candidate for Fleury’s services. If Bishop was traded to St. Louis, Calgary or Dallas that would have put a big damper on the prospects of a Fleury trade. It appears that all the potential Fleury suitors are still out there.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t still other obstacles for a Fleury trade. There is a pending UFA like Ryan Miller. There is also Jaro Halak who has another year left on his contract, but only for 4.5M. For teams looking for a goalie those options may be more palatable than committing to Fleury’s 5.75M contract for the next two years.
The good news is if St. Louis is still looking for a goalie both Ryan Miller and Jaro Halak have already played for the Blues and Doug Armstrong might not be interested in revisiting those options.
Look for Fleury rumors to pick up steam the next couple of days.
Update 11:33 AM
Yzerman said his options were to make the deal with L.A. last night or hold onto Bishop for rest of the season. No other offers out there.
— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) February 27, 2017
The goalie market usually isn't a bustling place of business and this is another example of that.
Is moving Fleury impossible? No. Is it going to be easy? No. Pittsburgh will likely have to eat some non-delectable assets in return to get a trade completed.
Moving on from goaltending we will focus on a forward on Arizona
Could this be the motivation the Penguins need to move on from Derrick Pouliot? It could be. Both Anthony Duclair and Derrick Pouliot are stuck in the AHL and have fallen out of favor with their teams. Arizona could use a little help on defense and the Penguins are always looking for skilled wingers.
Here is a look at Duclair’s last three seasons
It’s always difficult to evaluate players who are on remarkably terrible teams. Raw possession numbers for players in those situations are always going to be skewed in a negative way. When compared to his other teammates Duclair is OK.
Duclair has shown the ability to generate offense at even-strength. In 2015-16 he had the second highest 5v5 points per 60 on the Coyotes at 1.97. So why is Duclair in the AHL? This year has been very bad. He has dropped all the way down to 0.98 with his 5v5 points per 60 rate. From my understanding the Coyotes view him as a defensive liability and without the offense to prop that up they felt the need to demote him.
Since his demotion he only has one goal in 15 games. He has a total of eight points. He isn’t exactly tearing the AHL up. Much like Pouliot the Coyotes would be trading Duclair at his lowest value point.
Speaking of Pouliot here is how he looks:
Pouliot fares well in the shot attempt department. He is comfortably in the “good… area of the chart. As far as goals being scored there aren’t many for either team when he is on the ice, thus being in the Dull area.
There isn’t much evidence that says Pouliot’s mistakes were costing the Penguins. Goals weren’t being scored and he wasn’t buried in his zone. There is clearly a disconnect between objective information and the eye test with Pouliot.
Given Rutherford’s willingness to swing a deal and the Penguins disinterest in giving Pouliot NHL time I could very easily see Pittsburgh contacting the Coyotes about Anthony Duclair. There would likely be other parts involved for a trade but Pouliot and Duclair would be the meat of the deal.
Not saying it is going to happen but I imagine this is the kind of deal the Penguins would attempt in a Pouliot based trade.
Thanks for reading!