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Division rivals improving as Penguins continue to sit idle

January 31, 2023, 4:36 PM ET [77 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Anybody else having fun waiting on Ron Hextall to address the NHL roster he is in charge of? Ron Hextall has been as active as the Penguins will be for the next week, which is not at all. As the Penguins sit still there are teams in their division, who probably shouldn’t be buyers, out there buying. Lou Lamoriello went out and got Bo Horvat



The Penguins are obviously at the end of their run. They aren’t real contenders for anything, but they are finishing out quite an era of hockey with the superstars who made it happen. The Islanders? They are just delaying the inevitable. There is nothing romantic or special about any era of Islanders hockey post 1980’s run. You just have an older general manager plodding along with no real interest in doing a proper rebuild. This trade makes little sense if it is a rental. It makes less sense if there is an extension, which won’t be discounted for the soon to be 28-year-old. The first-round pick is top 12 protected this year, but unprotected in 2024. Seems like a weird time to be buying for New York.

As for the Canucks.




There are few things Jim Rutherford likes more than the Cheesecake Factory, one of them is former first round picks. It doesn’t really matter if they are good, bad, or in-between. He collects them on the regular.

His unofficial list in Pittsburgh included: Steve Downie, Ian Cole, David Perron, Eric Fehr, Phil Kessel, Ron Hainsey, Derrick Brassard, Jamie Oleksiak, Riley Sheahan, Nick Bjugstad, Erik Gudbranson, Jared McCann, Tanner Pearson, Jack Johnson, Alex Galchenyuk, Patrick Marleau, Cody Ceci, Mark Jankowski, Kasperi Kapanen, and Mike Matheson.

The reason the Canucks can’t keep their captain is because of all the other bigger contracts they’ve given out. Brock Boeser, JT Miller, and Connor Garland are all in the 5-6M range. Defensively, they have some tough ones in Oliver Ekman Larsson and Tyler Myers in the 6-7M range. Throw in Pettersson, Hughes, and Demko off of their rookie deals and the money has run out fast. Vancouver is also in no man’s land.

Even if the trade was pretty underwhelming regarding the big picture for both teams, their GM’s are showing a pulse. Ron Hextall committed to the now (via contract extensions to Malkin, Letang, Rust, Rakell) without any intention of actually following through further to give the Penguins the best shot to make a go of things. A division rival, regardless of how much sense it makes, made their team better and is currently only two points behind the Penguins in the standings.

Thanks for reading!
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