Pittsburgh Penguins Talk: Going Back to the Deadline for the Playoffs

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With the Pittsburgh Penguins in the playoffs right now, I wanted to start a new segment here at Pens Labyrinth. We will call this segment, Penguins Talk.

Basically, what Penguins Talk is, is a discussion by the Pens Labyrinth team over a specific topic concerning our Pittsburgh Penguins. Writer’s each get to share their individual opinions, which will all be put together in one new article.

Given the fact that it’s playoff time, we thought it would be great to start off with a playoff related topic. This week’s question is quite simple:

Knowing what you know now, if you could go back to the trade deadline and make one trade to help the Penguins playoff run, what would it be and why?

Let’s take a look at what a few of our authors had to say.

Shane Lunnen

This would have been a move strictly for nostalgia reasons, but I would have chosen to trade for Jaromir Jagr of the Florida Panthers at the trade deadline. Most people might think that’s crazy, considering Matt Duchene and Kevin Shattenkirk were available near the deadline. However Jagr is only a season removed from leading the Panthers in points. He finished this season with 16 goals and 30 assists. It would have been great to see him playing with Crosby, Malkin, and Kessel and trying to win a Stanley Cup in his waning years as a player.

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The cost of obtaining Jagr would not have been nearly as high as obtaining Duchene. Eric Fehr got placed on waivers and was eventually traded to Toronto so he could have been part of a package including a second round draft pick. If Fehr wouldn’t have been enough, throw in Derrick Pouliot to sweeten the deal.

In the end, I think the deals GM Jim Rutherford made at the deadline were fine and it was a brilliant move to Keep Marc-Andre Fleury. But it would have been really cool to see Jagr in a Penguins uniform one last time.

Samual Campbell

It’s hard crafting a trade for a team that’s performing well, but there is always room for improvement. Looking at stats from the regular season, the Pens ended their regular season ranked 28th in face-off percentage with 47.6 win percentage. While they are faring alright so far in the playoffs, winning draws is not a problem you want to encounter in the next rounds.

I think going back to the deadline and adding a center that could win draws would have been a decent move. Not to mention, when looking at the depth chart, your top 4 centers in Crosby, Malkin, Bonino and Cullen, are all left handed. This gives us more incentive to try and land a right handed player as well.

Since we know the Carolina Hurricanes did not end up cinching a playoff spot, let’s pretend they were sellers at the deadline. The guy I’m targeting is Derek Ryan. The right handed forward had a 55.3% in the face-off, and even added 29 points to his season stats. His contract is also very friendly, coming in at $600,000 annual salary.

Ryan fills a need, is cheap, might chip in a goal or two, and shouldn’t cost too much from the Penguins roster to bring him in.

He is 30 years old, and Carolina has quite a few budding NHLer on their roster. So we’ll send a Wilkes-Barre guy who may or may not pan out into a bottom six type, and throw in a pick for good measure.

Derek Ryan in exchange for Jean-Sebastian Dea and 2018 4th round pick.

Matthew Rodrigopulle

OK. I might be thinking a little to big here. But a trade for a big-shot winger from Toronto worked before, maybe it could work again.

Looking at the Penguins roster right now, I have to say it looks really good. Honestly, before injuries, I could say that the Penguins had a near perfect roster. However, with injuries to players like Kris Letang and especially Carl Hagelin, I felt our offence could have been better.

The main hole that I feel the Penguins have is that first or second line left winger spot. Now I like our first line. Jake Guentzel is great with Crosby and Sheary, so I’m talking more about the second line winger spot. Don’t get me wrong here, Bryan Rust is great, but I feel like he fits in better as a third line winger. He may just be filling in for Hagelin, but hey that’s a hole we could potentially want to fill. There’s always ways to make your team better, even if it is not necessary.

James Van Riemsdyk could be perfect for this first or second line winger spot. He’s a very good, underrated winger, considering he put up 29 goals and 33 assists over a full 82 games this season. He also has another year left on his contract that pays him only 4.25 million per year. That’s a steal, and Pittsburgh could be looking to take advantage of that.

Toronto is a good team. They’re a playoff team. Keeping JVR really helped them make the playoffs. But they’re still a rebuilding team nevertheless, and if we’re talking about a deal that would have been made at the deadline, the Leafs mentality may also have been different.

The rumour was that Toronto was up to trade JVR if the price was right. I think a rebuilding team would have been willing to make a rebuilding move for JVR.

Next: Penguins Have Toughest Road to the Cup

Toronto’s a rebuilding team that lacks defence. They’d be looking for picks and a defenceman. If I were the Penguins, I’d offer our first rounder from this year, considering we’d go pretty far in the playoffs with James Van Riemsdyk. On top of this, I’d possibly give up a defensive prospect or a third rounder as an insurance marker. Derrick Pouliot may be off limits, so maybe somebody like Lukas Bengtsson.

For the record, we don’t NEED JVR. But if we’re going back to the deadline and trying to make this team even better than they already are (if that’s possible), JVR could definitely be worth a look.

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