The Pittsburgh Penguins suffered a 4-3 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars on Friday night where the Penguins surrendered a 2-0 lead but a Justin Schultz goal with 1:13 remaining in the third forced overtime for the Penguins to get a valuable point.
Riley Sheahan and Carl Hagelin also scored in the win.
Matt Murray made 33 saves on 36 shots in what was a fast paced game between the two teams that resembled a playoff type feel.
The highlight of the game was an electric goal by Carl Hagelin, a type of shorthanded goal that only a couple players in the league could score.
Another player who could score a goal like that is on the trade market:
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New York Rangers winger Michael Grabner and Grabner has emerged as a player the Penguins are at least discussing internally if they want to put a first pick in play for.
As a player like Dominik Simon has started to fall off and Patric Hornqvist who plays a rugged style is banged up again, Grabner is a player the Penguins have had significant discussions about among the Penguins management group and pro scouts.
But whether the Penguins view him as being worthy of a first round pick remains to be seen, a price tag New York is steadfast on receiving and one they will get as Grabner carries just a 1.65 million cap hit.
After 27 goals and 40 points last season, Grabner is scoring at an even higher rate this season with 22 goals in 54 games.
He has game changing speed and would give the Penguins great insurance on the wings.
TSN’s Bob McKenzie on his podcast mentioned Grabner as a player he see’s potentially on the Penguins radar.
Here are some other takeaways from McKenzie on the Penguins heading into the deadline:
“I don’t think there’s any team in the NHL that is all in as the Pittsburgh Penguins,” McKenzie said. “The only goal for their General Manager is winning a third Stanley Cup. There’s no saving for a rainy day.”
The Penguins have around $800,000 in cap space which has complicated things in talks for bigger named players.
“Jimmy Rutherford is really limited in what he can give up,” McKenzie says. “This is a dollar in, dollar out situation.”
As reported here, though the Penguins were involved in trade talks for the likes of Evander Kane in December/early January, McKenzie believes the Penguins focus for now is more on depth type moves.
“The deals he’s looking at are not seismic deals, just can’t do it,” said McKenzie. “He wants to improve the depth and at center. When you have Crosby and Malkin as your No. 1 and No. 2, there’s a pretty big gap between second line center and everyone else.”
McKenzie indicated Jean Gabriel-Pageau is off the table, which sounds about right as the two sides never got close to a deal several weeks ago and doesn’t sound like talks were ever re-ignited. [/hide]
In the past 72 hours, the talk around the league is Ottawa has changed course now and have become more aggressive in shopping Derrick Brassard to get a satisfying return.
“He was after Pageau but doesn’t sound like Pageau is a go. M[hide]ark Letestu’s in Edmonton been a consideration,” McKenzie said.
McKenzie has wondered about Antoine Vermette but doesn’t believe he is a consideration.
“I’ve kind of wondered if Anaheim starts to sell if Antonie Vermette would be a consideration [for Pittsburgh], but I’m not sure he is,” said McKenzie.
Vermette, 35, has 8 goals and 16 points on the season. He carries a $1.75 million cap hit. The Penguins did try to acquire Vermette at the 2015 trade deadline, so there was interest in him in the past.
McKenzie during the podcast brought up the obvious in Matt Cullen, calling it a fallback option.
“One of his fall back positions I believe is getting Matt Cullen back from the Minnesota Wild,” McKenzie says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Jim Rutherford and the Pittsburgh Penguins are able to work a deal to bring ‘Dad’ back.
Outside of the center market, McKenzie states the Penguins are “trying to get a little depth on the wing.”
“I could see Jim Rutherford looking at rentals who can work,” said McKenzie. “Using draft picks as currency. “Could he get a Michael Grabner out of New York?”[/hide]
Coincidence black history month and npl is not here .
Oh look, something not hockey related and with racist undertones was said… by sam… not a coincidence, par for the course lol
HockeyBuzz pens comment boards are the worst. There are some true yinzers posting on there.
Glad you finally notice most pens fans are bunch of bandwagon’s. Pens having a soso season and you have already stain left this site
Coming from the Montreal fan that only roots for the penguins that come from Canada. Nice!
And the Vegas Knights
Here as well. That website is awful. I dare you to try to get through one of Eklund’s podcasts. Brutal.
Effing Wings. Blew a 2 goal lead in Washington.
Nice to see Rust get on the score sheet. He played a really solid game.
LETANG is a dumpster fire…as talented as he is he is sure stupid with his decisions…
Letang is a dumpster fire. Trade him and get someone that won’t make the same mental mistakes game after game.
Trade Letang FFS
Great return and opens up a ton of cap space if you focus on getting young guys back. Or you can fill 2 gaps with the movement of 1. Or the returns being offered for him are a joke because the other GM’s see he sucks now and is a huge liability with a high cap hit.
Agreed on all fronts. That cap space would be great right now, but imagine what it can do down the road. His value is only going to drop.I feel like Montreal would be a great landing spot for him.
There’s a belief that he is still elite or can still regain that form. Once you hit 30, it’s not coming back outside of a few spurts of games. Kind of like how Sam still thinks Fleury is elite. Fleury is not elite and beginning the downside of his career. Unlike goalie, you can’t split games with a young guy you are grooming to take your spot. Letang’s trade value will be falling off the cliff this offseason if he doesn’t make a drastic improvement. Trade him now while you can.
Fleury is literally having the best season of his career… you’re thinking of a Rick Nash!
Do you think it will continue beyond this year? I’m probably the biggest MAF fan in town, but I know he’s on the downside of his career.
Lmmfao, he’s literally having his best season… by a lot! Barring injury goalies tend to stay at the top of their game a little longer than skaters! He’s in the middle of his best season but you know… lol Jesus this is why they call you simply.
MAF May have another couple/few years of playing strong hockey. While he’s closer to the down slide that the start of his prime it’s hard to fathom anyone making this statement so matter of factly while he’s having a tremendous year.
Looked at the careers of over a dozen goalies…. names like Roy, Beezer, Vernon, Belfour, even Osgood. Every single one of them had seasons with numbers above the career averages all after the age of 33. So MAF could still have a few really good seasons in him
If I said Jesus was a good guy, you would go on a 3 paragraph rant about how evil he was.
Awe, someone doesn’t like his claims tore to shreds…. and no… it would probably be on the lack of empiracle of his existence 😉
“Fleuys on his way down”
“He’s literally havin his best season to date”
“Waaaaah don’t prove my bs incorrect”
You’re not tearing anything to shreds. You’re giving your opinion just like I gave mine. You use selective stats to show your opinion is more correct than mine. Do you really think that I can’t find goalies who’s numbers went downhill after the age of 30? Would I be tearing your claim to shreds? Your act is old, get over yourself. You think i’m the only one on here that notices all you do is come here non-stop looking to say the opposite of sam, myself or maloni? Haha
How is miller doing ?
Does he open cap space? If we are not plugging a 20+ minute a night hole on the blue line with a trade such as this we would be doing it wrong!
He will open cap space. Schultz imo does what he should do for much cheaper. We don’t need a 25 min a night guy back.
Ya… we really do! Part of the teams inconsistency is the fact that the current 25 min a night guy is making such bad decisions… despite that his advanced numbers are very strong. Point is he quietly drives play quite often but has become the give away machine he’s always been accused of being. I wouldn’t wanna see the team flirt with what they did last year to win. I’d prefer the way they got it done the year before!
Hell yeah.
Grabner would be a great pick up
Great idea. Wish I would have thought of it.
If you’re implying that you did think of it, you’re full of shitt hahaha
I said to do about 4 days ago. You must not have had internet access back then. It doesn’t take much to look at the available list and plug players into where they slot. As I said in my original post, he’s the cheap version of Hagelin.
Lol you’re such an idiot. Other people have mentioned Grabner before you. You comment on every single article so not sure how you missed this.
Peeps were taking about that when the first nash article was posted