The Confluence
Penguins’ Trade Deadline Day review
by Tony on 03/04/09 at 09:14 PM ET
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You may not be enamored with all of GMRS’ deadline moves today, but I believe we can all agree on one thing;
The Pittsburgh Penguins are a much more difficult team to play today than they were one week ago today.
Pens’ GM Ray Shero filled the vast majority of his needs both last week and today, obtaining both scoring wingers and gritty forwards. The only position Shero really didn’t address, on his Pittsburgh roster anyway, was that of a physical defenseman.
And the best part: He barely had to give anything up for all of it.
Let’s rewind back to last Thursday. Shero traded talented offensive defenseman Ryan Whitney to the Anaheim Ducks for winger Chris Kunitz and highly regarded power forwarded prospect Eric Tangradi. Shero took advantage of the position in which he had a surplus, that of offensive defenseman, and got back a gritty scoring winger in Kunitz and a future Ryan Malone-ish power forward in Tangradi. All that Kunitz has done in his three games as a Penguin is score three goals and five points. Tangradi is already regarded as the best power forward in the Penguins’ organ-I-zation.
Tuesday, GMRS placed forward Bill Thomas on waivers, and did the same to veteran forward Miro Satan yesterday. Both cleared, and now both are on their way to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. In Satan’s case, it will most likely be a temporary move. In the next few days, GMRS will see what can be done for Satan. In addition, forward Tim Wallace was reassigned back to Wilkes-Barre Scranton as well.
The first move GMRS made today was a swap of minor league defensemen, sending Danny Richmond to St. Louis for Andy Wozniewski. It is almost sure to be a depth move for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton as they head towards their playoffs.
At noon, when the waiver wire period expired, GMRS claimed gritty forward Craig Adams off waivers from the Chicago Blackhawks. Adams is a tough, right-handed ham-n-egger that has playoff experience when the Carolina Hurricanes won the Cup in ‘06. He isn’t afraid to drop the gloves, either. Adams is expected to be on the fourth line along with Max Talbot and Eric Godard.
The last, but most significant move of the day for GMRS was the trading of veteran winger Bill Guerin for a conditional draft pick. As it is right now, the pick is a fifth rounder. If the Penguins make the playoffs, that pick turns into a fourth rounder. If the Penguins win a round, it turns into a third rounder. Of note though, the Pens already have Tampa Bay’s third round pick, which should be much higher than the Pens’, from the Malone/Roberts rights deal last summer.
Guerin isn’t Ilya Kovalchuk. He isn’t Marian Gaborik. But he’s a tough, hard-nose winger with good hands and still has a good scoring touch. I’m very interested to see what kind of offense can be generated with both Kunitz and Guerin on Sidney Crosby’s wings.
However, these moves, because the Pens now have quite a few good wingers, also make it easier for IHCDB to make some line changes if he feels it will create better chemistry. For example, he may very well have Kunitz back with Staal as his center, since he’s had very good chemistry with him in his three games so far.
So overall, GMRS permanently lost only one player off his roster, and gained three, plus adding another strong prospect who’s still in Junior (where he’s #2 in scoring behind some kid named Tavares, by the way).
As expected, GMRS didn’t hit the home run like he did last year with Hossa. I don’t think many of us expected him to, although there were some whispers about Gaborik in the afternoon. But there’s no doubt, the Penguins are a much better team now, and as such, I don’t think many current playoff teams want to see them as their opponent come playoff time.
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