Instead of trading Derrick Pouliot in a large package for an established winger that also has a large cap hit perhaps Pittsburgh should look to trade him for the forward version of himself (young, ELC, promising).
I have an audio transcript from Rob Rossi on Trib Live Radio. This excerpt from the 21:50 mark was worth noting.
"Yakupov is still with Edmonton...That was a name I heard a couple of times on Saturday by the way. Here is what I heard, Edmonton was looking at PIttsburgh as maybe a place they could move Yakupov and Edmonton would like a young defenseman like Pouliot, so that was interesting"
To my knowledge Rob Rossi is the only guy who has even mentioned this. The phrasing of what he said was what made it interesting. "Edmonton may be looking at Pittsburgh".
Here's the thing with Yakupov. I think he can be a good player and that he has suffered from the toilet that Edmonton has been the past few years. However, he is a former #1 overall pick and Edmonton will still place value on him like he is a former #1 overall pick whether he has played like it or not. This is a situation where Edmonton will just hang on to Yakupov unless they are bowled over and that is fine. I wouldn't advise utilizing Pouliot in a Yakupov deal.
This did give me another idea though. There is another forward with pedigree that I would target with Derrick Pouliot and that player is Jonathan Drouin. Drouin is the former #3 overall pick from 2013 and fell out of favor with Head Coach Jon Cooper in the playoffs. If you take a gander at Tampa's depth chart they are littered with very good forwards.
I would be OK with moving Derrick Pouliot for the forward version of himself. Understand that it would not be a one for one kind of deal the Penguins as I believe the Penguins would have to add to it. Perhaps this is the kind of trade that would make sense to include Beau Bennett in? Tampa gets a high end defense prospect and also buys low on a skilled player that could rebound in the near future.
In 70 games played this season Jonathan Drouin had a even-strength points per 60 of 1.95. That is the upper end of the second line level and just a shade below the 2.0 level for first line players. Drouin also carried a Score-Adjusted Fenwick of 53.9% which is very impressive. Drouin was sheltered from tough competition but he wasn't spoon fed a high quality of teammate:
The great Bob McKenzie had this to say on TSN 1050 during the Tampa Bay Montreal series this spring
It’s going to be interesting to see the fallout from all this, because he’s a really, really proud kid.--
There’s a phrase I use sometimes, and it’s used for players like Guy Lafleur and others; he’s got this ‘Gallic greatness’ about him. That is, players that are born and raised in the province of Quebec […], some of them have almost an indefinable quality that they believe they’re special, and given the opportunity they do special things. And this kid, by virtue of what he did with MacKinnon in Halifax and all of that, I think he perceives himself in that manner.
--
He was the only one of his draft class at the top end that got sent back to Junior for his 18-year-old season. He was the only one, and I’m sure he wasn’t happy about that. But he also understood the circumstances. Tampa is a pretty deep team. So then he finally gets up there and doesn’t play a lot, and when he does a lot of times it was fourth line minutes. And now he’s not playing at all. I’ve got to figure that he’s going out of his mind.
--
And this notion that he’s not physical mature enough or he’s not defensive-minded enough, he’s a kid who’s going to say: “Yeah, that’s all well and good, but I’ve got special qualities and you’re not letting me do that.… I have to believe that there’s a huge amount of frustration on his part.
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And, quite frankly, if you look back at that draft from a positional point of view, how much better would the Tampa Bay Lightning be right now had they taken Seth Jones instead of Jonathan Drouin? Maybe they don’t have to trade for Braydon Coburn at the deadline.
--
It’s a fascinating dichotomy because these kids do special things, they’re special players. I’ve got to believe that Jonathan Drouin is a special player, and if given the opportunity will do some special things. But he obviously, at this stage of his career, doesn’t have the confidence of his coach, or the coach believes there are better options.
--
TSN Drive asks: Can you see a trade coming involving Drouin?
It’s going to be interesting to see the fallout from all this, because he’s a really, really proud kid.
--
There’s a phrase I use sometimes, and it’s used for players like Guy Lafleur and others; he’s got this ‘Gallic greatness’ about him. That is, players that are born and raised in the province of Quebec […], some of them have almost an indefinable quality that they believe they’re special, and given the opportunity they do special things. And this kid, by virtue of what he did with MacKinnon in Halifax and all of that, I think he perceives himself in that manner.
--
He was the only one of his draft class at the top end that got sent back to Junior for his 18-year-old season. He was the only one, and I’m sure he wasn’t happy about that. But he also understood the circumstances. Tampa is a pretty deep team. So then he finally gets up there and doesn’t play a lot, and when he does a lot of times it was fourth line minutes. And now he’s not playing at all. I’ve got to figure that he’s going out of his mind.
--
And this notion that he’s not physical mature enough or he’s not defensive-minded enough, he’s a kid who’s going to say: “Yeah, that’s all well and good, but I’ve got special qualities and you’re not letting me do that.… I have to believe that there’s a huge amount of frustration on his part.
--
And, quite frankly, if you look back at that draft from a positional point of view, how much better would the Tampa Bay Lightning be right now had they taken Seth Jones instead of Jonathan Drouin? Maybe they don’t have to trade for Braydon Coburn at the deadline.
--
It’s a fascinating dichotomy because these kids do special things, they’re special players. I’ve got to believe that Jonathan Drouin is a special player, and if given the opportunity will do some special things. But he obviously, at this stage of his career, doesn’t have the confidence of his coach, or the coach believes there are better options.
--
TSN Drive asks: Can you see a trade coming involving Drouin?
I don’t know. The Tampa Bay Lightning are liable to say: “You know what? Suck it up kid. You’re our property, and you’re going to be a great player for us. But you’ve got to be patient.…
And I could see the kid saying: “Hey, if you don’t have confidence in me I’m sure there are 29 other teams out there that would take me in a heartbeat. So let’s get this done.…
Instead of losing a high end ELC contract like Pouliot and taking on tons of salary IE: Kessel why not take on the slightly better ELC version of Pouliot? Something to think about
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