Latest Pens Buzz

HEADLINES
[Rust not offered for Domi]
[Penguins in the Faulk market?]
[ One Eastern Team see’s #1 ability in Jarry]
[More Kessel/Nashville Trade Talk]

The Penguins interest in Max Domi prior to the Montreal Canadiens securing a trade for him last week is well documented.

Penguin scouts/coaches saw Domi being an excellent fit in the years ahead with one of the top-2 centers on the left side because of his vision/playmaking ability combined with his competitiveness.

The strength areas of Domi’s game projected to be a much better fit in Pittsburgh then it will be in Montreal where there’s going to be no goal scorers around him, especially once the Habs move Max Pacioretty.

Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, Arizona went with quality over quantity.

Much talk of what the Penguins offered has centered around Bryan Rust ‘reportedly’ being offered for Domi.

However, word from high ranking sources is that Rust was not put on the table for Domi and the Rust talk has come more from Arizona being interested in the player than the Penguins actually offering Rust for Domi.

That’s not something they wanted to do as Mike Sullivan wants management to add more forwards like Rust, not subtract them.

Coaches love Rust around the league, Rich Tocchet is certainly one of them, so it’s not surprising Arizona was asking about him during the Domi talks.

— League chatter is the Penguins have looked into Hurricanes To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

— Would Phil Kessel welcome a trade out of Pittsburgh?

Maybe because of his soured relationship with Mike Sullivan that some close to the situation believe won’t get any better, but until something comes out of the mouth of Kessel or his representation who knows whether that’s actually the case or not.

Until we hear from one of them there’s no reason to really speculate.

One thing to remember with Kessel — he was crushed day in and day out by the Toronto media and he never went public about wanting out or hoping for a trade.

He actually wanted to stay in Toronto.

On a side note, as reported here in late May, Nashville had spoken with Pittsburgh early in the process about potentially pursuing Phil Kessel. There’s been back and forth discussions over the last 2-3 weeks so that’s a team to still watch along with 2-3 others that Pittsburgh believes they line up well with.

One thing the Penguins have done on the market is try to sell Kessel as one of the NHL’s premier scoring wingers.

That’s had them asking about some big name players in talks, forwards-defenseman.

Ryan Ellis for Phil Kessel isn’t happening but Nashville has certainly discussed something along the lines of NTo read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

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