Huge hint uncovered of another major trade in Pittsburgh!

One of the biggest trades of this year’s deadline took place on Thursday when forward Jake Guentzel was traded by the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for forward Michael Bunting , prospects Ville Koivunen , Vasili Ponomarev and Cruz Lucius and conditional first- and fifth-round picks in this summer’s draft.

The first-rounder becomes Philadelphia’s second-rounder if the Hurricanes don’t reach the final, and Pittsburgh only gets the fifth if Carolina wins it all for the second time in franchise history.

With Guentzel off the Penguins long-term injured reserve, Puck Pedia points out that they lost his $6M in LTIR, making the team $2.275M short of cap compliance.

“As trade happened after 5pm, considered tomorrow for cap purposes. They have until 5pm tomorrow to be cap compliant by:
-Sending any 3 down
-Trade
-Add to LTIR”

Guentzel’s departure from Pittsburgh is therefore expected to be one of the major moves pulled by general manager Kyle Dubas by today’s afternoon’s deadline, especially with his team forced to become cap compliant by 3ET pm.

The Penguins also suffered a humiliating 6-0 loss at the hands of the Washington Capitals last night and now sit near the bottom of the Metropolitan Division, eight points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning, who is currently holding on to the last Wild Card playoff spot in the Eastern conference.

While there’s a sense that captain Sidney Crosby was hoping to focus on the window of the next few seasons in order to get a quality roster to push for another championship over the start of a rebuild, his general manager clearly proved on Thursday night that there is a significant youth movement coming into the Pittsburgh roster.

Recommended articles:

• Penguins trade Guentzel in blockbuster six player deal
• More details on Guentzel trade from NHL insider Frank Seravalli
• Monumental stipulation in Vegas’ latest trade indicates it’s going all-in for Guentzel
• Top contender steps out of Jake Guentzel’s sweepstakes on Wednesday night!
• Rumblings of 3-team trade between Penguins, Bruins and Canucks for 3 star forwards!