Is Pittsburgh going to get their "defensive" help from Calgary?

The Bobfather spoke on NBCSN's intermission last night

McKenzie sees #Flames' Russell as "being the type of defenseman" that would interest #Pens. But lots of competition for him.

— Chris Nichols (@NicholsOnHockey) February 25, 2016

This won't do anything for Pittsburgh. They don't need one of the worst defenders in hockey. Out of 176 defenseman who have played at least 500 minutes this year at 5v5 he ranked 173 at 62.84. His ability to generate offense is not going to offset this either



Sometimes on the HERO charts you have to pay close attention to the TOI% bar because if it is really low that means there isn't a huge sample to draw from. That isn't the case for Kris Russell. This sample is plenty large enough to draw solid conclusions.

Still need convincing that this player is not one to be targeted?

everything you need to know about kris russell is right here in this chart comparing him to andrew macdonald pic.twitter.com/AEXWCRumNk

— yung intelligence (@twolinepass) February 12, 2016

Yikes.

Russell currently makes 2.6M and is an unrestricted free agent after the season. The Penguins could find a way to make it work from a financial standpoint if they really wanted to, but they shouldn't really want to. Let somebody else to Doug Murray themselves.

Pens gameplan:

1. Trade the worst anchor of all time Rob Scuderi.
2. Forget that you did that
3. Trade for another anchor in Kris Russell

— Jesse Marshall (@jmarshfof) February 25, 2016

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Jonathan Drouin could be traded by the deadline. At least that is what Tampa Bay General Manager Steve Yzerman would like to do.

Steve Yzerman says he'd "definitely prefer" to trade Jonathan Drouin “sooner than later” https://t.co/Psfg8n0vQ4 pic.twitter.com/4O3NvqdMRr

— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) February 25, 2016

With Yzerman content to hold onto Steven Stamkos he should be free to invest his efforts in a Drouin trade.

To this point I haven't heard anything at all that links the Penguins with Jonathan Drouin. It would be incredibly shocking at this point if Pittsburgh made a run at him.

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Ottawa has some players who are potentially on the market according to the Ottawa Sun .

All of the above makes wingers Shane Prince and Alex Chiasson — both pending restricted free agents — possibilities to be traded.

On defence, Patrick Wiercioch, also a pending RFA, could be in for a few sleepless nights, wondering if his time in Ottawa is up. Chris Wideman was locked up to a two-year, $1.6 million extension on Wednesday.

Shane Prince is probably underutilized in Ottawa but the Penguins certainly have their fair share of NHL/AHL tweeners at the forward position.

If the Penguins did want to look at defensive help somebody like Wiercioch makes a hell of a lot more sense than Kris Russell.



Again, the TOI% is something to look at. It is lower here than the chart above so there isn't as large of a sample to draw from. Kris Russell is given huge minutes for some reason while a team like Ottawa who struggles for possession without Karlsson on the ice gives Wiercioch small minutes.

The key to improving at the trade deadline is to find the guys that can help you that nobody is talking about. Stay clear of bidding wars for bad players.

Thanks for reading!

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