It’s another busy night in the NHL as the Nashville Predators sent forward Mikael Granlund to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for a 2023 second-round draft pick. This trade got announced a couple of hours after it was announced that Teddy Blueger was heading to Vegas.
Granlund is the type of guy that you can use on the power-play as he has 176:59 of power-play time this season. With 729 NHL games under his belt, the 5-foot-10 forward has tallied 144 goals and 335 assists which is good for 479 points. His best NHL season came in 2016-2017 when he was with the Minnesota Wild as he tallied 26 goals and 43 assists which were good for 69 points.
The native of Oulu, Finland, has seen a lot of time on the international stage most recently in the 2022 world championship where he racked up 11 points (5G, 6A) in nine games, helping lead Finland to the Gold Medal. In addition to the 2022 gold medal, Granlund won another gold in 2011 at those world championships, a 2016 world championship silver, and a 2014 Olympic bronze medal.
Ron Hextall, who is the GM of the Penguins, released a statement shortly after the trade was reported:
“Mikael is a versatile forward, able to play either wing or center and contribute offensively; he has experience on both the power play and penalty kill and can add options to our lineup.”
It will be interesting to see if Hextall makes any more trades before the deadline on Friday, as the Penguins are in the midst of a tight Eastern Conference playoff race.
