Penguins acquire Stanley Cup champion forward and original misfit from Vegas in pre-draft trade!

The Pittsburgh Penguins decided they needed to add up front and went to the Stanley Cup champions, the Vegas Golden Knights, acquiring forward Reilly Smith in exchange for a third round pick in 2024.

The report was first made by insider Kevin Weekes. The third-round pick the Penguins are sending back to Vegas is the one they had received in the Teddy Blueger trade this past season. 

Smith had been a member of the Golden Knights since their founding in 2017. One of the original six misfits of Vegas, Smith recorded a goal and assist in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final and collected 14 points throughout the postseason. Moments after the reports surfaced that Reilly was on the move to Pittsburgh, the Golden Knights wished him good luck with this post on social media. 

With this transaction, president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas manages to add a top-6 winger to play with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin orJake Guentzel and will boost the Penguins' offense which led to a lackluster 2022-23 season. 

Smith has been able to reach the 50-point threshold in four of his last six seasons and should be capable of reaching that mark in 2023-24 as well, much to the benefit of the Penguins. He recorded 26 goals and 56 points in 78 games this season.

As for his contract, Smith has two more seasons remaining on a $5.0 million cap hit. This is an important factor in the trade for Vegas seeing that the team now has the space to keep both goalie Adin Hill and forward Ivan Barbashev if that's what the Golden Knights wish to do. 

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