Jake Guentzel

Canucks, Golden Knights Among “Legit Suitors” For Jake Guentzel

March 4, 2024 at 2:06 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 16 Comments

The Canucks and Golden Knights are among the teams making serious offers for star Penguins winger Jake Guentzel ahead of the trade deadline, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports Monday. The two Pacific Division squads are among at least six “legit suitors” for his services.

Pittsburgh was viewed as a team with uncertain status heading into deadline season a few weeks ago, but three straight losses now have them 10 points out of a playoff spot and hurtling toward seller status. As such, the likelihood of them parting ways with Guentzel this week has skyrocketed, with the team reportedly preferring high-end prospects in return rather than first-round draft picks.

If that’s the case, Vancouver has the much stronger arsenal to deal from. The team recalled 2019 top-10 pick Vasily Podkolzin from AHL Abbotsford over the weekend, and he made his season debut yesterday against the Ducks, speculatively as a showcase for a trade. Offers centered around him, such as 2022 first-round pick Jonathan Lekkerimäki or 2023 first-round pick Tom Willander, are likely to draw the attention of Penguins GM Kyle Dubas.

In comparison, Vegas’ potential offer could center around 2020 late first-round pick Brendan Brisson or 2023 selection David Edstrom, the last pick of the first round, who grades out as a potential high-end third-line center.

Importantly, neither team has the long-term flexibility to ink the pending UFA to an extension. The Golden Knights are averaging less than a $1MM cap hit in space for every open roster spot next season, while the Canucks need to allocate a significant chunk of next season’s spending to their defense – only Quinn Hughes and Noah Juulsen are signed through next season or longer. Guentzel’s $6MM cap hit would also pose an insurmountable salary cap hurdle for Vancouver and Vegas, so the team must retain half of his salary in any potential deal.

Both teams could use the top-line help, however. Canucks star center Elias Pettersson is currently flanked by Nils Höglander and Pius Suter, both of whom are better suited for middle-six roles. Vegas, meanwhile, is still looking to shoulder the loss of captain Mark Stone for the rest of the regular season, and potentially the playoffs, due to a lacerated spleen.

While also injured, Guentzel is nearing a return from an upper-body injury that’s kept him out since mid-February and should be ready to return shortly after the deadline. He has 22 goals and 52 points in 50 games this season, set to eclipse the point-per-game mark for the fourth time in the last five years.

Trade Deadline Notes: Hanifin, Markstrom, Guentzel

March 3, 2024 at 10:00 am CDT | by Brennan McClain 9 Comments

On yesterday evening’s rendition of ’Saturday Headlines’ on Sportsnet, Elliotte Friedman spoke at length about several rumblings across the league leading up to the trade deadline. One of the major discoveries presented by Friedman is that the Tampa Bay Lightning are the preferred landing spot for Calgary Flames’ defenseman Noah Hanifin and that he would be willing to discuss an extension.

The news comes shortly after a report suggested that the Florida Panthers were making a concerted push for Hanifin, which could simply be some rivalry gamesmanship on their part. At any rate, this report confirms that the Lightning are making a strong effort to fill in the void left by the injury to Mikhail Sergachev, and are not ready to cede the Atlantic Division to other up-and-coming teams in the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs.

An extension in Tampa Bay would be the most difficult part of any hypothetical transaction to acquire Hanifin, due to the Lightning only having around $10.85MM available to them in cap space this offseason, even with the salary cap set to rise to $87.7MM. If Tampa Bay is amicable to signing Hanifin at a deal they believe gives them solid value, General Manager Julien BriseBois may have to make a difficult choice between Hanifin, and pending unrestricted free agent forward Steven Stamkos this summer.

Other notes:

Friedman also noted some specifics regarding the trade speculation surrounding Flames’ goaltender Jacob Markstrom, and the details behind his public frustration with the organization. Markstrom was originally displeased with the front office due to them indicating they had a deal in place to send him to the New Jersey Devils but then reversed course due to the solid play of the team in recent weeks. Friedman reports that even if the Devils are unable to acquire Markstrom before March 8th, New Jersey would be more than happy to reignite trade talks with Calgary at the 2025 NHL Draft.
Lastly, Friedman confirmed that the Pittsburgh Penguins had set the asking price for forward Jake Guentzel at two prospects; not one prospect and a first-round pick. Friedman’s report comes a few days after President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Kyle Dubas said to reporters that the Penguins’ primary focus at this year’s trade deadline would be to get younger overall. With several buyers not interested in parting with a first-round pick at this year’s trade deadline, the asking price for Guentzel may lead to a larger market for Pittsburgh to choose from.

Metropolitan Notes: Hurricanes, Guentzel, Dowd, Newkirk

March 2, 2024 at 4:00 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

It wasn’t that long ago that the Hurricanes were looking to add to their goaltending. Now, GM Don Waddell might be taking a different approach as he told Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer that there’s a possibility that they wind up moving one of their four netminders. Frederik Andersen (blood clots) could be back sometime this coming week while Pyotr Kochetkov, Antti Raanta (currently on IR), and Spencer Martin are also in the mix, potentially creating a four-goalie rotation at some point. While extra depth is nice to have, that might be a bit much for the stretch run, even without their own AHL affiliate to draw from.

Penguins Receiving Strong Interest In Reilly Smith

March 1, 2024 at 9:00 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 16 Comments

At the trade deadline, the focus is often on the rental market. Contending teams are looking for that final piece but want a short-term acquisition as they can’t afford to keep the player beyond the current season. However, some non-rentals also attract some interest at this time of year. It appears one of them is in Pittsburgh as Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that the Penguins are receiving a lot of calls on winger Reilly Smith, even more than Jake Guentzel, one of the top rentals potentially available between now and March 8th.

The 32-year-old was acquired by Pittsburgh last summer in a move that basically amounted to a salary cap dump from Vegas with Smith, an important part of their Stanley Cup run, yielding just a third-round pick in return. For a player who reached the 50-point mark in four of his six seasons with the Golden Knights, the return was on the light side but in a flat-cap environment, several teams had to make tough decisions like that.

While Penguins GM Kyle Dubas was hoping that Smith would be a key two-way contributor, that hasn’t exactly been the case. Instead, his offensive numbers are down as he has just 10 goals and 15 assists in 51 games so far, not a great return on a $5MM price tag. He’s still averaging over 16 minutes a night, however, and is seeing some action on the penalty kill. In terms of a player profile, Smith is the type of player a lot of teams can use.

Fitting that contract onto the books is difficult enough for this season with half the league currently using LTIR to stay salary cap-compliant. The fact that Smith has another year left on his deal after this one adds to the allure but also adds to the complications of making such a deal work.

Seravalli suggests that Smith could be a candidate for salary retention to help open up his market. Pittsburgh has two of their three slots left while the one they’ve used (Jeff Petry) is on the books through next season. If Dubas isn’t concerned about using a second slot through 2024-25, paying down Smith’s contract to just a $2.5MM AAV would certainly bolster his market and should allow them to get a considerably better return than what they gave up to get him. While it’s not the direction they were hoping for, it looks like Smith could help yield a quality piece for a potential rebuild or retool this offseason.

Poll: Which Team Will Trade For Jake Guentzel?

February 24, 2024 at 8:32 pm CDT | by Brennan McClain 22 Comments

Over the last several weeks, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel has been gaining steam as one of the biggest fishes available at this year’s deadline. Even after suffering an injury that will keep him out until the deadline, plenty of competitive teams remain interested in his services for their playoff push.

In tonight’s edition of ’Saturday Headlines’, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the Carolina Hurricanes, Edmonton Oilers, Florida Panthers, Vegas Golden Knights, and Vancouver Canucks as specific teams that have checked in with Pittsburgh regarding Guentzel. Of the five teams listed, factoring in available assets and deadline salary cap space, the Hurricanes, Panthers, and Golden Knights strike as the likeliest landing spots if Guentzel does indeed get moved.

In any trade for Guentzel, a first-round pick will undoubtedly need to go back to Pittsburgh, as well as a young prospect. Just yesterday, the General Manager of the Penguins, Kyle Dubas, told the media that Pittsburgh would place a priority on getting younger in any deal that they make. With the Golden Knights and Panthers having Brendan Brisson and Mackie Samoskevich at their disposal, respectively, they are in advantageous positions to give the Penguins what they are looking for.

All-in-all, there is no guarantee that Pittsburgh will move Guentzel at all, as he has created quite a bond with franchise icon Sidney Crosby over the last several years. Owning a projected $17.54MM available to them on July 1st this summer, the Penguins could opt to sign Guentzel to a long-term contract to take over as the face of the franchise once Crosby’s playing days are over.

Now it’s your turn to vote — will any one of these teams deal for Guentzel by March 8th, or will the Penguins decide to keep him around for the long haul?

If you can’t access the poll above, click here to vote.

Penguins Acquire Emil Bemstrom From Blue Jackets

February 22, 2024 at 6:54 pm CDT | by Josh Cybulski 14 Comments

A day after speaking to the media, Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations and general manager Kyle Dubas has swung a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Penguins have acquired forward Emil Bemstrom from Columbus in exchange for forward Alex Nylander and a conditional sixth-round pick in 2026.

From the Penguins perspective, it didn’t look as though Nylander was a fit with head coach Mike Sullivan’s style of play as he spent most of his time with the Penguins organization in the AHL. In the past two seasons, Nylander dressed in 14 NHL games and had a goal and an assist while getting several looks in the Penguins top six, something he was never able to turn into offensive production. The eighth overall pick in the 2016 NHL entry draft has never lived up to his pre-draft expectations and now finds himself with his fourth NHL franchise in eight years.

The Blue Jackets likely view the draft pick as the central piece of the deal. Although a sixth-round pick in two drafts isn’t exactly a haul, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic is reporting that the pick becomes a third-round pick if Bemstrom scores six goals the rest of this season with Pittsburgh.

In Bemstrom, the Penguins are acquiring a 24-year-old with some speed who was available on waivers just a few months ago. The former fourth-round pick his five goals and six assists in 32 games this season after posting a career-high 22 points in 55 games last year. He spent eight games in the AHL this season where he was dominant with 10 goals and four assists.

The move could be the first of many for the Penguins as Dubas mentioned yesterday that getting younger would be a priority and the Penguins could also make a bigger move if they elect to move on from pending free agent Jake Guentzel.

Latest On Penguins’ Deadline Plans, Jake Guentzel

February 22, 2024 at 9:52 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 15 Comments

The Penguins are trending toward being a toss-up at the trade deadline at best after a 3-5-2 skid in their last 10 games. Despite boasting a +11 goal differential, the third-best in the Metropolitan Division, they have four teams to leapfrog to work their way into a Wild Card berth in the Eastern Conference without a significant number of games in hand.

General manager Kyle Dubas said Wednesday that this year’s deadline won’t be so much about buying or selling as it is about getting younger. How that approach influences their decision on trading pending UFA winger Jake Guentzel, who will be out for at least a week past the deadline with an upper-body injury, remains to be seen, Dubas said:

We have to take stock of where we are and be realistic about the fact that one of the issues we have is that we need to get younger. We have a lot of guys in their 30s signed – some of them are the best players in the history of the franchise… It’s tough with Jake [Guentzel] because he is an excellent player playing at an elite level… We need to find a way to have some of those veteran guys while continuing to get younger at the same time.

The iron is still hot surrounding Guentzel’s trade talk, and it doesn’t appear that his injury will impact Pittsburgh’s ability to field offers for him. Dubas confirmed that he has not asked any Penguin to waive his no-move or no-trade clause – Guentzel has a modified NTC that allows him to submit a 12-team no-trade list.

Youth being Dubas’ primary objective is no surprise. After taking over the reins of Pittsburgh’s front office last summer, he inherited an already-aging roster. The team’s most prominent offseason additions – reigning Norris winner Erik Karlsson and 2023 Stanley Cup champion Reilly Smith, pushed the average age further. More than half of their 18 skaters projected to dress in tonight’s game against the Canadiens are over 30.

Guentzel isn’t far behind at 29 – he’ll turn 30 right as the 2024-25 campaign begins. It’s understandable that while the Pens’ core (namely Sidney Crosby) would love to keep him around, there will be some internal hesitancy about signing him to a long-term extension with Karlsson, Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell, Kris Letang, Ryan Graves, and Tristan Jarry already locked up for three years or more.

Herein lies the Penguins’ true problem. If Pittsburgh doesn’t plan to leverage high-end draft picks to acquire younger win-now talent, as Dubas claims, none of their veterans besides Guentzel can fetch the type of youngster they’re looking for. Rust’s, Rakell’s, and Smith’s contracts are all either too pricey or too long to carry much trade value. The same goes for other aging depth players like 2023 free agent signing Noel Acciari, who’s disappointed in the first year of a three-year, $6MM deal.

Very little of their roster can be turned over in free agency this summer, either. Guentzel, Jeff Carter and Jansen Harkins are the only pending UFA forwards on the active roster, and depth defender Chad Ruhwedel is the only pending UFA on the blue line. Backup netminder Alex Nedeljkovic is destined for free agency, too, but it’s feasible they’ll attempt to re-sign him given his bounce-back campaign (.915 SV%, 2.67 GAA, 9-4-4). Getting out of Carter’s $3.125MM cap hit should offer some flexibility, but not enough for the more aggressive level of a retool that Pittsburgh is looking for.

As an aside on the Guentzel front, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet pointed out Wednesday night that if Pittsburgh makes Guentzel available to discuss extensions with trade suitors in the coming weeks, that takes the Oilers out of the running for his services. Edmonton doesn’t have the long-term cap space to offer Guentzel a long-term deal upwards of the $8MM per season he’ll receive, leaving them to pursue cheaper targets to find an upgrade on the wing for their Leon Draisaitl-anchored second line.

With only one season after this remaining on his $5MM AAV deal, Smith is the second-most likely candidate to be moved out behind Guentzel. He’s underwhelmed with 10 goals and 23 points in 47 games this year despite primarily playing alongside Evgeni Malkin. However, the Penguins would likely need to retain some salary to ship him to any contender looking to bolster their third line, where he probably fits in on a championship-bound team. They’re already using one of their three retention spots on Jeff Petry, which helped facilitate last summer’s Karlsson mega-deal.

Penguins Place Jake Guentzel On Injured Reserve, Recall Three

February 15, 2024 at 4:53 pm CDT | by Brennan McClain 22 Comments

In an announcement coming from the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team has placed forward Jake Guentzel on injured reserve while recalling Jonathan Gruden, Vinnie Hinostroza, and Valtteri Puustinen from their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. In a subsequent announcement, Chris Johnston of TSN reports that Guentzel is expected to be out for around a month, putting his trade deadline candidacy into question.

Ultimately, Guentzel’s injury status will likely not steer any teams away from acquiring his services by March 8th, given that his playoff track record has been so strong since he first entered the league. As a team already on the bubble of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoff race, the absence of Guentzel will almost certainly hurt Pittsburgh’s playoff hopes.

If the Penguins wait until March 8th to trade Guentzel, the acquiring team will only be missing Guentzel for about a week, unless there is an unexpected setback with his current injury. Because he may only miss a few games on a new team, Guentzel’s price tag likely won’t drop by the time the trade deadline rolls around.

In regards to the trio of players recalled in this transaction, Gruden and Hinostroza have both been in the AHL for a month or more. Of the three, Puustinen has been the most successful playing in Pittsburgh this season, scoring one goal and eight points in 21 games serving in a depth role.

Trade Deadline Primer: Edmonton Oilers

February 10, 2024 at 8:56 am CDT | by Josh Cybulski 6 Comments

With the All-Star break in the rear-view, the trade deadline looms large and is now less than a month away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the Edmonton Oilers.

For the second consecutive season, the Oilers started slowly. The team started so poorly this season that it resulted in the firing of head coach Jay Woodcroft after just 13 games. Since their 3-9-1 start to the season, Edmonton has rebounded under Kris Knoblauch with a 27-7 record that includes a near-record 16-game winning streak. The Oilers now once again look like a legitimate Stanley Cup contender and will no doubt be looking to add to their lineup at the trade deadline. The club has already been linked to Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel and will surely be in on some of the other big names in the upcoming weeks. The Oilers don’t have much in the way of cap space and will need to get creative to fill in some of the remaining holes on their roster. But with the uncertainty around the futures of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, they are likely to do everything they can to add to an already formidable lineup.

Record

30-16-1, 3rd in the Pacific

Deadline Status

Buyer

Deadline Cap Space

$2.374MM on deadline day, 0/3 retention slots used, 46/50 contracts used, per CapFriendly.

Upcoming Draft Picks

2024: EDM 1st, EDM 2nd, EDM 5th, EDM 6th, NASH 6th
2025: EDM 1st, EDM 3rd, EDM 4th, EDM 5th, EDM 6th, EDM 7th

Trade Chips

Edmonton probably isn’t looking to move much off of their NHL roster to facilitate a trade, however, they will likely need to shed some salary to acquire any high-priced talent. There have been rumors in recent weeks that they would like to shed Cody Ceci and his $3.25MM cap hit, and they also have Jack Campbell toiling in the AHL with his $5MM cap hit, but if Edmonton wanted to move on from either player it would require a sizeable asset to move the money out.

The Oilers do have some assets if they want to make a big move, as they still possess their first-round pick in the next few drafts and have most of their other draft capital as well. There will also be interest in defenseman Philip Broberg despite his lack of NHL success. The 22-year-old hasn’t exactly had a seamless transition to professional hockey, but he is having a strong season in the AHL.

Edmonton has one of the worst farm systems in the NHL, but it isn’t without a couple of intriguing players. Xavier Bourgault is not having the type of season he or the Oilers were hoping for with just six goals and 10 assists in 39 AHL games. The 2021 first-round pick is ranked by many as the Oilers’ top prospect and has shown that he is a great special teams player, but his scoring just isn’t there at even strength. He along with Broberg could be pieces of a bigger package to acquire a big-name player. But if they are the central pieces, it might require the Oilers to give up multiple first-round picks.

Another Oilers prospect is Raphael Lavoie whose size will certainly be alluring to teams who are looking for a big center with untapped potential. Lavoie is having a decent season in the AHL with 15 goals and 11 assists in 33 games, but at 23 years of age, it is hard to consider him a prospect at this point, especially one that can fetch to top-6 forward such as Guentzel.

If Edmonton does want to make a splash, it may require moving out young forward Dylan Holloway, who hasn’t found his offensive game in the NHL but does have good underlying numbers and will almost certainly be an NHL player. Holloway has posted good offensive numbers in the AHL but hasn’t spent of ton of time playing in Edmonton’s top-9 and could find that side of his game if given a chance.

One other intriguing prospect who could draw some interest is Matvei Petrov. The 20-year-old has had a slow start to his professional career with Bakersfield this season, and had a terrific, albeit brief OHL career with the North Bay Battalion. The former sixth-round pick has just five goals and three assists in 30 AHL games with the Condors but had 67 goals and 116 assists in 128 career OHL games. Petrov has good vision and hockey sense but is on the lighter side at the moment and could become much stronger on the puck if he could fill out his 6’2” frame.

Other Potential Trade Chips: D Beau Akey, F Maxim Berezkin

Team Needs

1) Top-6 Forward: The Oilers shuffled their lines yesterday and moved Corey Perry onto their second line. While Perry still has a role in the NHL, his days of being a top-6 forward are well behind him. The Oilers have a considerable gap between their top five forwards and all the remaining ones. Therein lies the need for another top-six winger. The Oilers would probably love to get a right shot forward, however, the market may force them to look at the left side which is why Guentzel’s name is being thrown around. If Edmonton can’t land a top-six forward, they could opt for a top-9 forward as a fallback option. Something they thought they were getting last summer when they signed Connor Brown.

2) A Reliable Second Goaltender: An argument could be made for an additional defender, but goaltending has been problematic for the Oilers for quite some time, which is why they signed Campbell two summers ago. Stuart Skinner has performed admirably for the Oilers and has earned the starter net. However, Edmonton would do well to find a solid backup who could take the net if Skinner were to falter or be dealt an injury. Alex Nedeljkovic out of Pittsburgh could be a good option should the Penguins falter and opt to sell at the deadline. The Vegas Golden Knights showed last year that a team can never have too much reliable goaltending, and while the Oilers have three goaltenders who can play in the NHL, two of the three have a history of seeing their play fall off considerably. Something the Oilers can’t have as their contention window gets smaller and smaller.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Penguins “Not Afraid” To Trade Jake Guentzel If Extension Talks Don’t Progress

February 1, 2024 at 8:51 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 23 Comments

Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas won’t shy away from moving winger Jake Guentzel before the March 8 trade deadline if the two sides aren’t close to an extension, The Athletic’s Josh Yohe writes Thursday.

Keeping the pending UFA around long-term is still Dubas’ preference, as Yohe relays, but the team is unlikely to let him walk for nothing this summer. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported last month that Dubas planned to hold talks with Guentzel’s camp over this weekend’s All-Star break.

Previous reports indicated Guentzel’s agent, Ben Hankinson, could wait until the end of the season to discuss an extension. If Hankinson holds firm in that approach, the apparent likelihood of a Guentzel trade in the next five weeks increases dramatically.

Guentzel, 29, is on pace for his third straight 30-goal season. He’s been stapled to future Hall-of-Famer Sidney Crosby’s wing since breaking into the league in 2016-17, recording 219 goals and 463 points in 499 career games.

That chemistry is something Dubas recognizes, per Yohe, and plays into his desire to keep the winger with the Penguins long-term. Yohe cites a rising salary cap and “keeping [Crosby] with his preferred left wing for the rest of his career” as primary reasons why Dubas is amicable to an extension that will likely take Guentzel into his mid-30s.

Crosby’s desire to remain on a line with Guentzel won’t be enough for Dubas to lose out on recouping value in a deadline deal, however. Sources have told Yohe that Dubas “isn’t afraid to trade Guentzel, even if Crosby and [head coach Mike] Sullivan would prefer to keep him employed in Pittsburgh.”

The Canucks’ acquisition of pending UFA center Elias Lindholm from the Flames on Wednesday likely sets the baseline for any Guentzel trade talks if he’s being dealt without an extension in place. Given Guentzel is far out-producing Lindholm this season, there’s a fair argument to be made that he could fetch slightly more. However, there may be some league-wide concern that Guentzel’s production could dip without Crosby on his line.

It’s a reasonable fear, but few players have put up points with consistency like Guentzel has. He’s averaged over a point per game over the past six years and has never been on pace for less than 34 goals in a full season since 2018. Combine that with the fact he’s averaged over 20 minutes per game in every season since 2018 and has solid power-play impacts, and it’s fair to assume he could command more value than Lindholm’s up-and-down track record over the past half-decade.

The Penguins could drive up the asking price further by offering to retain some of his $6MM cap hit, which wouldn’t affect the squad past this season. Guentzel has a 12-team no-trade list, per CapFriendly.

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