Penguins/NHL
Latest Trade Winds
Sabres GM Jason Botterill has signaled to General Managers he is open for business and willing to move pending rentals well before the February 26th deadline.
Trade action on winger Evander Kane has heated up significantly in the past week and talks with a couple teams are reaching the serious enough stages where it won’t surprise some NHL execs if Kane is moved by early January.
TSN’s Bob Mckenzie reported Tuesday evening the Sharks, Ducks, Blues and “perhaps” the Calgary Flames are amongst the most serious suitors for Kane at this point.
Speculation around the league has also linked the NHL-lead Tampa Bay Lightning to Kane, one of the NHL’s best even strength goal scorers among wingers.
While Penguins GM Jim Rutherford is notorious for looking into almost every big name on the market and Pittsburgh had some internal discussions on Kane last June, there’s no indication at this conjecture the Penguins are pursuing Kane.
However, there’s been some trade speculation surrounding the Sabres and Penguins, just not regarding Kane, at least not yet.
League sources say winger [hide] Benoit Pouliot is certainly a player the Penguins are tracking to address their lack of depth scoring.
This wouldn’t be the first time the Penguins’ current regime has had interest in Pouliot.
In Jim Rutherford’s first summer as Penguins GM, Pittsburgh targeted Pouliot as a free agent but Penguins’ ownership that summer wanted to scale back on long-term contracts to free agents. Pittsburgh, though, still ended up a finalist for Pouliot who got a big contract from Edmonton.
While Pouliot was bought-out in Edmonton, his play this season has resembled the player from the 2013-2014 season with the Rangers.
With 8 goals on the season, Pouliot carries just a $1.15 million cap that has the Penguins and quite a few other clubs near the cap with close eyes on how Pouliot continues to track over the next little while.
The hope in Buffalo is that Pouliot plays his way into netting a second round pick + a C-level prospect. He’s not there yet as inconsistent play still follows him and the 8 goals on 46 shots has him well above his career shooting percentage, but he’s a nice piece with a low cap hit for a team looking to add a 3rd or 4th line winger.
It won’t be a surprise if the Sabres and Penguins become a trade match and preliminary talks eventually head into the advanced stages.
Priorities for Jason Botterill’s Sabres’ is getting faster, adding defensive depth and Buffalo wants to bring in players who have won and come from a winning culture.
The team plays with no identity that the Sabres brass feels has to do with the make-up of the room.
That has had Ian Cole linked to Buffalo a little bit on the back-end but making a move for him now only makes sense if an extension is in place.
The player that is kind of interesting here is 
Carl Hagelin.
While the Penguins have not put a ‘For Sale’ sign up on Hagelin as they feel he impacts games beyond goals/assists and he’s well liked in the room, Buffalo is one spot a league source mentioned to me that Pittsburgh likely could move Hagelin if they wanted.
Botterill is said to be high on Hagelin, per sources with knowledge of the situation, and Hagelin checks a couple boxes of adding more speed and bringing in a player who has a wealth of playoff experience/two Stanley Cups.
Botterill knows the Penguins system better than anyone. Pouliot for Hagelin straight up wouldn’t interest Buffalo because there’s more long-term value for the Sabres to just move Pouliot for a draft pick and or prospect, but Pouliot for Hagelin with Pittsburgh throwing in additional assets (3rd round pick?/and NHL-ready prospect) ends up being value for both sides.
Not only from Pittsburgh’s end would they replace Hagelin with an ideal replacement in Pouliot for the short-term, they would get the Hagelin deal off the books for next year where even with the cap going up, Pittsburgh wants to clear space for the likes of Patric Hornqvist, Bryan Rust and be a little active in what’s going to be a good free agent crop.[/hide]
