Watching Jake Guentzel perform in this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs has to be heartbreaking for Penguins fans. But the fact that some fans seem to think because Kyle Dubas did not get a first-round pick or an A+ prospect for a rental, means they lost the trade and it is still worth complaining about.
That is not the case as the Penguins got several prospects and a second-round pick from the Carolina Hurricanes at the time, as he did not stay in Carolina and had his rights traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning. This trade is STILL a win for the Penguins and will continue to be every single day.
What did the Penguins get for Guentzel?
In the original Guentzel trade to the Hurricanes, the Penguins acquired forwards Michael Bunting, Ville Koivunen, Vasily Ponomarev, the rights to forward Cruz Lucius, a conditional first-round pick and a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2024 draft.
The condition on the first-round pick was it became a first rounder if the Hurricanes advanced to the Stanley Cup Final which they did not so it became a second-round pick. The Penguins used that second-round pick to select Harrison Brunicke who scored his first AHL goal in the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins Game 2 loss and elimination to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in this year's AHL Playoffs.
The Penguins flipped Bunting to the Nashville Predators for Tommy Novak and Luke Schenn at this year's NHL Trade Deadline. But Koivunen and Ponomarev got NHL playing time at the end of this year's Penguins season. Koivunen registered 7 points in those 8 games him and Ponomarev played in.
Ville Koivunen had seven points through his first eight career @NHL games, which included a five-game point streak.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 18, 2025
Koivunen's seven points are the most by a Penguin in his first eight games since Jake Guentzel's seven in 2016-17. pic.twitter.com/htbBoBgAOy
Guentzel will always be a Pittsburgh legend, but it is time to move on
It was the right move to trade Guentzel as Dubas noticed that the Penguins were not built for the playoffs and needed more prospects in their system to develop and be successful later down the line.
Yes the Penguins lost Crosby's best friend and traded him away, but in the long run, it was the move that needed to be made as he did not stay with the Hurricanes and signed a massive deal with the Lightning once his rights were traded.
Every playoff goal Guentzel scores is hard to watch as Penguins fans miss him and his goal-scoring prowess, but it is time to move on and accept the fact that the Penguins won this trade and nothing else can be done about it.