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Win Now Mode May Force A Tough Trade Decision |
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The Pittsburgh Penguins have some real problems that have festered so far this year. The first is that their defense corp. lacks puck skills which hampers the team’s ability to transition up the ice. Those lack of puck skills are also detrimental to the forwards when they are trying to work it from down low to up high in the offensive zone. Not many quality shots are generated by the defense and most time the puck is just thrown back down low via the dasher to no avail.
The other big issue is that the Penguins forward depth, which was thought to be very good, has been compromised. Injuries (Bennett, Fehr, Dupuis) have certainly played a role, but the team has gotten nothing from three of their top six wingers. Chris Kunitz, David Perron, and Patric Hornqvist have combined for one point this year. That is horrendous considering who they play with.
What do Phil Kessel, Eric Fehr, Pascal Dupuis, Beau Bennett, and Daniel Sprong have in common?
They are all more than capable of playing the right wing position at the NHL level. Right wing is an organizational strength right now.
Chris Kunitz, David Perron, Sergei Plotnikov, Bobby Farnham, and Kevin Porter is a whole lot of 'blah'.
My suggestion would to be start thinking about Patric Hornqvist as a potential trade chip to shore up other parts of the roster.
A few things I need to get out of the way. Hornqvist is a good player. He has terrific work ethic, but most of all he has trade value and plays a position where the Penguins are deep.
He makes a very reasonable 4.25M and that will continue for two more years after the current season. He is a productive player with a good contract that has some term. That can land you something nice in return.
Chris Kunitz and David Perron don't have any value right now. For Pittsburgh to shore up the top six left wing position or one of the top four defense holes they have to give to get. Given the sheer volume of good right wing options the Penguins have in their system it makes sense to move from a strength. Previously they could have tried to move Perron or Kunitz, but they waited too long.
Pittsburgh only needs three of Kessel, Fehr, Dupuis, Bennett, and Sprong to pan out in 2015-16 for a Hornqvist trade to work. The team can always find a cheap fourth line right wing (Rust). With Phil Kessel being a superstar the Penguins would need one of those other four remaining players to give him some top six action.
Phil Kessel and Daniel Sprong are the future for the Penguins at the right wing position. Hornqvist will eventually be blocking Sprong and that will be sooner rather than later.
Patric Hornqvist is the type of player that all 30 NHL general managers would talk about wanting on their team. Unfortunately, when other moves backfire (Scuderi extension, Kunitz extension, Despres trade, Perron trade) you are forced into doing things that you otherwise wouldn't have to do or want to do. The top six on the left side isn't going to fix itself and the defense corp. sure as hell isn't going to fix itself.
When you put yourself in a win now mode you force yourself into these kinds of options. The status quo isn’t going to cut it and the Penguins are living in the now.
One example of a trade option could be flipping Hornqvist to Boston for Brad Marchand. I think Marchand is the better player but he costs 250k more and his contract is up after next season which is one year less than Hornqvist's. Those are the give and take decisions that would have to be made.
On the surface trading away Patric Hornqvist seems like an absurd Idea but when you really break it down it might be one of the few prudent moves the Penguins have left.
tl;dr
Penguins should really think about moving Patric Hornqvist because the team is very deep at right wing and they don't have many other quality assets that will get them what they need.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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