Pittsburgh Penguins: Brassard Trade Changes Everything

The Pittsburgh Penguins have been busy this week with the trade deadline right around the corner.

On Friday, the Pittsburgh Penguins started their trade deadline by filling in the ever so important third line centre position that has been vacant all season.

The Pittsburgh Penguins made a three-way trade in which they acquired Derick Brassard, Vincent Dunn, Tobias Lindberg and a 2018 third-round pick from the Ottawa Senators and the Vegas Golden Knights. The Senators acquired Ian Cole, goalie Filip Gustavsson and Pittsburgh’s 2018 first-round pick and 2019 third-round pick. The Vegas Golden Knights acquired Ryan Reaves and our 2018 fourth-round pick (PIT from VAN).

Pittsburgh Penguins

Obviously this is a pretty big trade that could be analyzed to much greater detail, but the main thing that sticks out is Derick Brassard coming here. This changes everything for the Penguins, in a good way.

We Are Favourites Now

After a shaky start to the season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have recently went on a hot streak and shot up to the top of the Metropolitan Division. Despite this, the one major hole we had since the offseason was third-line centre position, which has been vacant since Nick Bonino signed with Nashville.

Adding this one piece would put us over the top, and now that we have added Brassard to fill that hole, our hot streak is about to get hotter. Just like that, we have fixed all our major flaws and are clear favourites to make a Stanley Cup run once again.

Brassard is an amazing player and this deal was definitely an all-in, win-now move. We need to get it done this year now and go for that three-peat, no excuses.