Imminent old hockey trade coming to Pittsburgh to replace Guentzel?

When the Pittsburgh Penguins lost forward Jake Guentzel for the rest of the season, it felt like the team was never going to catch a break. 

Fortunately, the Penguins might be getting captain Sidney Crosby back in the fold, however, it seems clearer and clearer that a player will need to be acquired to play with Sid and Evgeni Malkin. That’s why insider Bob McKenzie believes GM Jim Rutherford will pull the trigger on a trade soon, however, there could be more than just a rental player involved as he explained on Insider Trading on TSN. 

“The No. 1 priority for the Pittsburgh Penguins and general manager Jim Rutherford right now is to replace Jake Guentzel in the lineup. Guentzel of course underwent shoulder surgery, he’s done for the year. They need to find somebody who can play withSidney Crosby or Geno Malkin. Now they have the available cap space, $6 million a year with Guentzel gone but obviously they need to make a commitment to spend those $6 million on a real player. Everybody assumes that the Penguins are going to dip into the winger rental market with names likeChris Kreider and Tyler Toffoli being premiere amongst those possibilities but I think general manager Jim Rutherford is also looking at the possibility of making “the old hockey trade”, that is trading for players with term, trading players off his roster, doing whatever is necessary to get that top six forward and I think he’d like to do it sooner rather than later. He likes to shop early before the deadline and I think that’s the priority right now.”

We can all appreciate a good old hockey trade and we know Rutherford is the one to make them. 

We will keep an eye on this, especially once the Penguins place Guentzel on the long-term injury list.