Brett Kulak's short tenure as a Pittsburgh Penguin has come to and end as he has been traded to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for defenseman Samuel Girard and a 2028 second round pick.
There were questions as to the possibility of could Kulak be flipped at the trade deadline after he was acquired in the Tristan Jarry trade. Those questions were answered in a strong way as Dubas utilized Kulak's pending UFA status and was able to maximize a return to a Colorado team who needed to clear cap to go all in, Girard was a casualty of that.
Kyle Dubas has essentially turned Tristan Jarry's seemingly untradeable contract into Stuart Skinner, Samuel Girard and two future second-round draft picks.
Girard, 27, acquired by Pittsburgh is an agile puck-moving offensive defenceman who's creative with the puck in the transition game and the offensive zone. Girard brings a Stanley Cup in 2022 with Colorado under his belt and is a proven steady and reliable playoff defender.
Girard has the remainder of this season and next season on his contract at a $5,000,000 AAV cap hit and brings stability to the Penguins blue-line.
Value wise, Pittsburgh comes out on top in this trade, Dubas was able to flip an expiring depth defenseman piece into a controllable top-four defenseman and another asset to use or draft with and has more ammo to use then before the trade was made. Colorado has been strapped against the cap and if they truly want to go all in, they had to clear cap in order to acquire a bigger player to there already monster team. They came out of it with giving up two big assets in order for it to happen.
With this trade, signals despite Kulak playing good hockey since arriving from Edmonton is that anyone on expiring contracts may not be safe and that Dubas will be looking to upgrade at any angle if it makes sense for the now and the future.
I wonder if that raises any questions on Anthony Mantha and his short term future with the hockey team
Girard will probably be either a GTD or 50/50 for Thursday's return game against the New Jersey Devils in what would be his Penguins debut.