Tonight is the NHL Draft, and we have already seen a bunch of different trades across the league in the past few days. Unfortunately (or fortunately), none of them has involved the Penguins. However, there is a lot of reason to believe that can change at any moment.
Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff listed Jeff Petry as number 12 on his latest “trade targets” board. Originally, he wasn’t even on the list, but things in this league change ever so quickly. Per Seravalli, the Penguins have been looking to move defenseman Jeff Petry. The Sharks are believed to be a potential landing spot, with the Penguins having an interest in Sharks goalie Kaapo Kahkonen.
Moving Petry makes a lot of sense. Dubas is likely going to attempt to sign (or acquire) some younger players. Petry wasn’t horrible this past season, but with him getting older, he could be starting to fade. He still, however, is a solid second-paring defenseman who’s decent and can still play around 20 minutes a night and in all types of situations.
Moving Petry won’t be easy. He has a $6.25 million cap hit and is already 35 years old. He also has a 15-team partial no-trade clause. All this will make moving him pretty difficult.
As for Kahkonen, several NHL teams believe he can bounce back after a bad year. He has one year left on his contract at a $2.75 million cap hit. He was once considered a future solid starter but now has struggled at 26 with San Jose. He posted a .883 save percentage in 37 games with the Sharks last year. However, the Sharks were bad last year, and he still has the potential to be a solid 1B option for the Pens, if not, a solid backup. This would make sense especially if Jarry and/or DeSmith leave this off-season.
What tonight and the days to come will bring us is yet to be known, but it seems like Dubas is starting to work the phones to start the much-needed re-tool this Pens team needs.
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