Pens’ Brian Burke reveals what was the issue with Rakell in Anaheim!

At the trade deadline on Monday, the Pittsburgh Penguins brought in forward Rickard Rakell from the Anaheim Ducks in return for Zach Aston-Reese, Dominik Simon, prospect goaltender Calle Clang and a 2022 second-round pick.

Days prior to the move, it had been reported that Rakell was unable to reach an agreement on a contract extension with the Ducks, which prompte the team to begin exploring options for a potential trade. Rakell is on the last season of a six-year deal with a $3,789,444 cap hit and will now play for the Penguins.

Fans were quick to criticize the move by Pittsburgh seeing that Rakell is a middle-six scorer who has struggled the past couple seasons. However, Penguins’ Brian Burke explained on Tuesday what was the issue with Rakell and why the pulled the trigger knowing all of it. This is what Burke revealed on the Jeff Marek Show on Sportsnet:

“We found out that he had some medical and dietary issues that affected his play the last couple of years. And those have been sorted out. So we figured out, this is a guy who fell off the map a little bit for two years, and all of a sudden he’s got 14 goals or whatever he’s got this year. We did some really good reconnaissance on him and figured out this is a guy who is bouncing back, not continuing to spiral.”

And let’s not forget, Rakell is join guys like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin that are more well-suited to produce and allow him to get back on track.

On Tuesday night’s game with the Penguins, he started off at left wing with Jeff Carter at centre and Kasperi Kapanen at right wing during warmups.

It’s great to see that Burke dug and found out what the issue was and felt that Rakell was going to bounce back and get a chance to do it in Pittsburgh.