Is there any chance the Pittsburgh Penguins are buyers and sellers?
Anthony Di Marco of the Daily Faceoff was on TSN Radio on Monday and was asked what the plan is for the Pittsburgh Penguins at the trade deadline. Di Marco felt that the Penguins could use their UFAs as their own rentals given their position in the standings.
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Host: “Let’s take a quick look at the Eastern Conference here. I know we’re getting closer to the first phase of the trade deadline. Then comes the trade deadline when everyone gets back from the Olympics. But we’re already in trade bait mode, looking at boards and who can move and who can’t move.”
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One such interesting team right now is the Pittsburgh Penguins, who everyone thought would be selling assets at this point, with 9 UFAs on their roster. But is it possible for the Penguins to somehow become buyers even if they may have to shed some of their UFAs?
Anthony Di Marco: “I mean, it’s such a weird season, Sean, that you could potentially be buyers and sellers. Look, if I was a betting man, I’d say they would just go with what they have, the Penguins, that is. Just because of the nature of where they are organizationally.”
And maybe you hang on to your own players, and refer to them as their own mercenaries. Hold on to Kevin Hayes, hold on to Anthony Mantha, hold on to Evgeni Malkin, Connor Clifton and whatever.
But I don’t know if I could actually see Kyle Dubas going into the market and issuing assets. For the first time in what seems like forever, the Penguins are in a good position in the draft.
They will have their first-round picks in each of the next two or three years, instead of two second- and two third-round picks in each of the next three years. So I just think they’ve done enough, the roster that is, to say to Kyle Dubas, okay, don’t mess with what works, or at least tread water a bit.
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But I just don’t see him going out there and trying to empty the cupboard of a team that, look, it’s the Metropolitan Division, so you could see a plausible scenario where they go to the second or third round, but realistically this is nothing more than just a playoff team at best.
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