Pittsburgh Penguins, Trevor Daley, and the Scuderi Deal

Earlier this season, the Pittsburgh Penguins traded Rob Scuderi to the Blackhawks for Trevor Daley. A few months down the road, it’s pretty clear the Penguins won the trade by a landslide.

One of the greatest coups Jim Rutherford has pulled off as the general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins was trading defenseman Rob Scuderi (and part of his bear of a contract) to the Chicago Blackhawks for Trevor Daley.

Today, the Blackhawks put Scuderi on waivers.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one scratching my head when Scuderi was signed to a four year contract prior to the 2013-2014 season. The total value of his contract is a monstrous $13,500,000, according to generalfanager.com, with an annual cap hit of $3,375,000.

The problem is that (as we are all painfully aware of) Scuderi is not a good defenseman.

Although the Penguins still retain about a third of Scuderi’s cap hit – $1,125,000 – it’s still a bargain in dumping a player who never should have gotten that contract anyway. For those of us who had just resigned ourselves to ride out the Scuderi years, it was one of the best-case scenarios that could have happened.

Nov 6, 2015; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Pittsburgh Penguins defensemen Rob Scuderi (4) skates against the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports /

I’m still partially in shock that Rutherford even did manage to trade him – to Chicago, no less – and got such a good return. Daley has been a solid defenseman for the Pens, usually partnered with Brian Dumoulin on the second pairing.

The Penguins’ defense is actually in a pretty good place right now – the best it has probably been in quite some time.

When Kris Letang and Olli Maatta both manage to be healthy, they’re a solid first defensive pair, eating major minutes and providing both physical and offensive skills.

Daley and Dumoulin, on the second, have admittedly made their fair share of mistakes, but both are clear upgrades over Scuderi.

The third pair, Derrick Pouliot and Ben Lovejoy, have even been doing fairly well as of late. Lovejoy’s situation was almost similar to Scuderi’s, in that the Penguins reacquired an older former defenseman whose performance underwhelmed. However, both Lovejoy and the young Pouliot have gotten into a groove recently and shaped up.

The two defensive scratches, Ian Cole and David Warsofsky, are the only questions. Warsofsky is recovering from a concussion and will likely return soon, but Cole has been a healthy scratch since this defensive lineup finally got it together.

Cole was acquired at last year’s trade deadline from the St Louis Blues, in exchange for Robert Bortuzzo.