Dan’s Daily: Chychrun Traded, Penguins Deal, Hextall Roasted

The Pittsburgh Penguins finally joined the NHL trade deadline season, but Penguins fans were none too happy when it was over. Disappointed to the point of enraged might not be far off. The Penguins made three moves Wednesday, and PHN has a complete analysis of the team moving forward. Ottawa snagged Jakob Chychrun for less than expected, Carolina grabbed Shayne Gostisbehere for a third, and the GMs built on 10 trades Tuesday with a wild Wednesday.

Penguins fans en masse were ready to fill PPG to voice roiling angst, if not boiling anger, at GM Ron Hextall. Twitter is Twitter and will be an extreme town square where moderation and calm are smothered by sharp, shrill, and loud tones, but comments elsewhere, public and private, were not kind. The Penguins might be fortunate to be playing a road game tonight.

Also, wow, Tampa. This is much better than I remember. There are restaurants and pizza places and a food truck court downtown. The Penguins kept me busy Wednesday night (thank you!), but I had a pair of food truck meals, which is heaven for me. I’d visit here again.

Pittsburgh Penguins:

OK, here we go:

First, the day started with my opinion piece. Brock Boeser is the wrong fit. If the Penguins want a winger, go for Tyler Bertuzzi. Penguins trade talk.

Then 2 p.m. and the waiver wire. Mark Friedman and Brock McGinn cleared.

We all waited. The Penguins had $4 million of salary-cap space.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The first shoe to drop. Hextall traded Teddy Blueger to Vegas for a minor leaguer and a third-rounder. Penguins trade news.

After the trade, the Penguins had $6.2 million. Who would they spend it on? Boeser? Bertuzzi? Miller? The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired Mikael Granlund.

There was plenty of “Fire Hextall” talk.

I did the full analysis of the trade, what the Penguins are hoping for, and what they have going forward. It’s not what they needed. A complete breakdown of the big and small pictures in print, and we did a Penguins live chat video at the end. Penguins analysis.

And Just in case you’re turning your attention to college basketball for March Madness: DraftKings is giving a 30-1 odds promotion.

NHL Trade Deadline, News & National Hockey Now:

Sportsnet: “Pierre Dorion is the best GM in the league.” Praise after Dorion snagged Jakob Chychrun for less than Arizona was demanding.

Detroit Hockey Now: A big splash and keeping a center off the market. Dylan Larkin has $69 million reasons to stay with the Detroit Red Wings.

Also, a hotly debated trade, at least in Vancouver. Fans weren’t happy up there, either. The Canucks acquired 25-year-old defenseman Filip Hronek and parted with a first-rounder. The Red Wings trade.

Washington Hockey Now: I think Colorado did a great job. The underrated move of the day was acquiring center Lars Eller and getting some salary holdback. Here’s the Capitals trade.

Colorado Hockey Now: From the flip side, here’s everything the Eller trade means for the Colorado Avalanche.

Here’s the Sportsnet Trade tracker for all of the trades.

NYI Hockey Now: Stefen Rosner reports the Islanders are looking for a defenseman. Here’s the report and five potential targets on the NHL trade market for the New York Islanders.

Boston Hockey Now: Jimmy Murphy reports that the Boston Bruins are still trying to move defenseman Mike Reilly.

LA Hockey Now: The LA Kings and Columbus Blue Jackets hooked up on a goalie trade late Tuesday night. Unfortunately, that meant Jonathan Quick was traded. He was not very happy, but as Austin Stanovich writes, he leaves as an LA Kings legend.