Latest on Ian Cole

The Pittsburgh Penguins are an organization that is seeking a third straight Stanley Cup.

A win-now organization, they could care less that they could lose Ian Cole for nothing at the end of the season.

Where the reporting on Cole in the past day has gotten mixed up was reports that the Penguins are driving the bus and have scratched him to protect the asset.

That is not the reality of the situation.

For starters, PIT will be looking for a healthy return on Cole, likely a quality centre. Not easy to come by. I don’t believe Cole is being scratched “to protect the asset for trade” as much as the coach doesn’t want to play him at a this time.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) November 28, 2017

What has played out is that after being a healthy scratch on Friday and Saturday vs Boston and Tampa Bay, Cole’s representatives on Sunday sought permission [hide] from the Penguins to seek a trade.

That permission for Cole’s representatives to seek a trade has been granted but the Penguins have given Cole no guarantee’s they will move him. If Cole’s representatives can find a suitable trade, then Pittsburgh will consider.

Teams in the Penguins position just don’t call up an agent out of the blue and say ‘hey we give you permission to seek a trade’ unless it is requested from the players end.

To call a spade a spade, Cole has demanded a trade, though, neither party is going to publicly admit that in case a trade doesn’t happen.

As the imminent talk of a trade has quieted down in the past couple hours, the next few days will be telling on whether Cole’s camp starts to back pedal. Cole for his part said all the right things today after practice and some back-pedaling may already be happening behind the scenes. ‘

Some domino’s also have to fall into place here for a deal to happen in the immediate.

If Pittsburgh eventually feels the relationship has soured too much and they deem he must be moved, the Penguins want a deal with a depth forward coming back but would also need to add a defenseman either in the Cole deal or in a separate deal. Even if Cole is kept, the team has kicked tires on veteran defenseman on the market, including Ben Lovejoy.

Mike Sullivan today frustrated with the rumors, called Cole a “valuable piece”.

MORE BUZZ

— Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan has officially labeled Matt Murray as week-to-week.

— Evgeni Malkin will travel with the team on the upcoming trip. [/hide]

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