Penguins land Jason Zucker

The Pittsburgh Penguins have acquired winger Jason Zucker from the Minnesota Wild. Zucker, 28, has three years remaining on his contract with a $5.5 million cap hit. Rutherford had honed in on Zucker for weeks and the inclusion of top prospect Calen Addison sealed the deal as Rutherford makes his big move two weeks prior to the Feb 24th trade deadline.

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In the trade Minnesota receives Alex Galchenyuk (a thrown-in), a 2020 1st round pick and defenseman Calen Addison.

Pittsburgh including Addison will catch much of the league by surprise as the Penguins brass had been telling rival GM’s for weeks that moving Addison or 2019 1st round pick Samuel Poulin was something they were not willing to do. That was even the case in trade talks with Wild until things got to the point in the last 24 hours where the Penguins knew it was going to be Addison or no deal.

For Wild GM Bill Guerin, he had to get a strong return for Zucker if he was going to do business with the Penguins. It was just going to be a bad look to deal with the team you just came from if the Wild came out of this with lets say a 2nd rounder and mid-tier prospect.

Guerin does very well in landing a 1st rounder and a higher end prospect in Calen Addison that could be in the NHL next season.
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