Penguins See Marginal Improvements After Trade Deadline

The first shoe to drop was sending Teddy Blueger to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a minor league defender in Peter DiLiberatore and a 2024 third-round pick.

Blueger used to be one of the best defensive forwards in the entire NHL, but a lot of that skill diminished this season.

While the defensive metrics dropped, so did Blueger’s offensive numbers; in 45 games this season he was only able to muster a pair of goals and eight assists.

Blueger was a declining asset with the Penguins and he became expendable with the emergence of Ryan Poehling.

DiLiberatore spent this season bouncing between the AHL and ECHL and is being sent to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Mikael Granlund to Pittsburgh

Not long after Blueger to Vegas was confirmed, it was announced that the Penguins acquired Mikael Granlund from the Nashville Predators.

Hextall had $6 million in cap space to work with after the subtraction of Blueger, and the space was quickly set on fire by acquiring Granlund.

The Penguins bottom six has needed scoring help for the better part of the season and Grandlund brings a new playmaking ability.

Granlund is a player full of maybes, and might be able to help, but that contract is frightening and likely set the stage for Hextall at deadline day.

Nick Bonino Back to Pittsburgh

While there are so many good vibes that come with re-acquiring Nick Bonino, the Penguins certainly aren’t getting the same player from the back-to-back Stanley Cup runs.

Bonino is older and slower, but certainly fills in the hole left by Blueger, with the added bonus of slightly more offense.

In 59 games this season, Bonino has tallied 10 goals and nine assists for 19 points.

Hextall fulfilled a solid piece of business with this deal; Bonino comes to Pittsburgh with the Montreal Canadiens stepping in an retaining half of the salary.

Bonino isn’t the perfect solution for the bottom six, and ‘getting the band back together’ usually doesn’t work out, but he certainly brings an improvement to the Penguins.

Dmitry Kulikov for Brock McGinn

In the final move of the deadline for Hextall, he went out and acquired yet another defenseman.

Dmitry Kulikov was added for McGinn and a 2024 third-round pick; added bonus the Anaheim Ducks are retaining 50% of Kulikov’s salary.

Heading into the season, the Penguins had nine defensemen they considered to be NHL caliber, this gives them a 10^th clearly adding to the surplus.

Kulikov is a 14-year veteran of the NHL and has played 866 games in his career.

Getting out from McGinn’s contract was certainly the best part of the deal for the Penguins, but adding another defenseman certainly seems confusing.

Hextall cited injuries to depth defenders as what spurred the Kulikov deal, but now everyone has to wait and see where he slots into the lineup.

Those were the moves made by Hextall after reportedly being in on standouts like Jakob Chychrun, Brock Boeser, and J.T. Miller.

Are the Penguins a team? Maybe marginally, but certainly not leaps and bounds over where they were.

The bottom six is still spotty, but Granlund and Bonino should be of some assistance and the defensive log jam gained a new trunk with Kulikov.

Hextall certainly didn’t make the team worse by losing Blueger and McGinn, but he didn’t add that much, either.