The Pittsburgh Penguins hit a seasonal low point last Saturday after falling to their cross-state rival Philadelphia Flyers in the 2019 Stadium Series. Not to mention the fact that it happened on national television, and they had a 3-1 lead with less than 5 minutes left in the game. To make matters worse the loss kicked the Penguins out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, and also saw them lose their top defensive pairing in Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin both to injury in the first period. All of this put heavy focus on General Manager Jim Rutherford to make something happen just 40 hours prior to the trade deadline.
Jim Rutherford, as per usual, responded with quick action to stock up a couple more NHL defenseman before the trade deadline hit yesterday afternoon. Rutherford made a couple trades to improve the Penguins defensive depth. First GMJR traded forward Tanner Pearson to Vancouver for 6’5” defenseman Erik Gudbranson. He followed that up by swapping center JS Dea for Florida Panthers defenseman Chris Weidman.
Gudbranson doesn’t bring much offensive upside to the Penguins blue line, only collecting 8 point in 57 games with the Canucks this season. The main reason for bringing him in was, “He can protect our players… he puts us in a stronger position to push back when we get into more physical games,” according to Rutherford. Meanwhile, Weidman hasn’t had quite the best offensive season either, racking up just 7 points (2G 5A) between three different NHL teams. In his presser yesterday Rutherford confirmed that Weidman was acquired for depth, and he will report to Wilkes-Barre. GMJR also recalled Zach Trotman from the AHL to play in tonight’s game against Columbus, because Gudbranson will not make it in time.
The biggest win of this year’s trade deadline is that the Penguins held onto their first-round pick in what is promised to be a very deep draft year. It will mark the first time since 2014 and Kasperi Kapanen that the Penguins make a first round selection. The biggest loss of the day was the Gudbranson trade. It was clear that they needed to make some sort of move after the injuries to Letang and Dumoulin on Saturday, but why give up someone like Tanner Pearson for a slow, offensively challenged defenseman like Gudbranson? Pearson had recently found a role as a steady fourth line winger with some grit and ability to create scoring chances. The asking price for Gudbranson, or a defenseman similar to him, could not have been that high. GMJR could’ve possibly found a deal for Simon and a mid-round pick.
With that being said Gudbranson does bring some needed physicality to a team that has seen players like Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel, and Kris Letang getting in line brawls during recent games. If he can play a sound positional game on the back end, this move could be helpful to the Penguins during this final stretch and into the playoffs.
That final stretch begins right now for the NHL. The Penguins have just 20 games remaining and currently see themselves on the outside looking into the playoff picture. Currently the Penguins sit at the 9-spot in the east, but are tied with the Carolina Hurricanes with 72 points for that final spot. They are also only a point behind both Montreal and tonight’s opponent Columbus. However, the Penguins playoff hopes rest squarely on their own shoulders.
15 of their remaining 20 games are against teams that either currently hold a playoff spot or are still in the hunt for one. Of those, five games are against the teams mentioned above that are within a point of the Pens. The road back into a playoff spot is not too long for the Pens, but they will need to play much better than they did on Saturday to pull it off. That road begins tonight when the Penguins play the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are all in for a playoff run. Looking for their first playoff series victory in their franchise’s history, they made the biggest splash on deadline week acquiring both Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel from the Senators. If the Penguins want to qualify for their 13thstraight postseason they will have to play their best hockey from here on in.
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