The Penguins have made a trade, but not *the* trade, well at least it shouldn’t be *the* trade. They acquired a depth defenseman who happens to be on LTIR at the moment. They acquired Nathan Beaulieu from the Winnipeg Jets for a conditional 7th round pick
Nate Beaulieu traded from Winnipeg to Pittsburgh for a conditional 7th.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) March 21, 2022
A conditional 7th round pick is almost a fake asset so the cost to acquire isn’t an issue. We’ve seen a bunch of teams spend way more assets than they should on mediocre or bad defenseman. The Penguins did not do that here. They did get a bad defenseman, though.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have acquired Nathan Beaulieu from the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for conditional 7th round draft pick. According to our model, Beaulieu has been the worst defenseman in the NHL this year. pic.twitter.com/JR8iCnuKza
— Andy & Rono (@ARHockeyStats) March 21, 2022
So why acquire such a player? I suppose he’s another body who has played NHL hockey. Perhaps they need more bodies to be available because they plan on trading one of their rostered defenseman. Perhaps Pierre-Olivier Joseph will be on the move so they want to replace him with an “NHL… player.
Tough to make much of this trade. The player isn’t very good and currently eligible for LTIR. The compensation is basically the lowest you can give another team. This is a shoulder shrug situation unless he somehow finds himself playing big minutes for the team in the playoffs. For the Penguins sake this shouldn’t be the end of things today.
Thanks for reading!