Penguins
Penguins Trade Talk: 3 Landing Spots for Rickard Rakell
The top free-agent wingers are off the board. Teams that need scoring help or would like to add cost certainty to lineup upgrades are now left without UFA options and must instead turn to the NHL trade market.
Enter the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas used the first week of free agency to heavily increase the depth of his roster and add potential top-six winger Anthony Mantha on a one-year contract.
With the current influx of top-six wingers, Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen, and the admittedly “sky-high” price on Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell has not yet taken center stage as the premier available scorer, but he is a solid secondary option to high-profile names such as Jason Robertson and Jordan Kyrou.
Moving Rakell would also seem to be necessary for future renewal, though Dubas has thus far held a firm line against selling for less than deemed value.
The market appeared to open last week as general managers have begun to assess and admit their team’s needs. However, some potential trade partners appear to be out of contention as they addressed top-six winger needs, including the Utah Mammoth (JJ Peterka), Minnesota Wild (Vladimir Tarasenko), Carolina Hurricanes (Nikolaj Ehlers), and the New York Islanders (Jonathan Drouin).
The market may be open, but it has also shrunk.
3 Landing Spots for Rickard Rakell
Detroit Red Wings
It seems too perfect. A team with a heritage of successful European players is acquiring one of the most talented Swedish wingers. Beyond the ties of culture, Detroit is a few moments away from angst and anger. Captain Dylan Larkin was a little bit terse in his public exit interviews, and it’s been six years under the Yzer-plan without a playoff appearance.
Detroit general manager Steve Yzerman was frank regarding his team’s needs: An impact top-six forward and a top-four defenseman.
“We’ll continue to see if we can do something through trade … and once the initial July one free agency subsides with the rush there, and we’ll see what teams are looking to do after that,” Yzerman said just before the draft.
Detroit’s competition for one of the eight Eastern Conference playoff spots has not gotten worse, so the responsibility is on GM Steve Yzerman to improve his Detroit roster. As the roster currently stands, 37-year-old James van Riemsdyk or 24-year-old Elmer Soderblom will be a top-six left wing. Neither would fill such a role on most teams, which only weakens the rest of the lineup.
Rakell would make a perfect complement to either Dylan Larkin or sophomore center Marco Kasper.
Perhaps no other team has more urgency or even necessity to get a deal done.
LA Kings
The arena with statues of Luc Robitaille, Wayne Gretzky, and even Dustin Brown has not won a playoff series since 2014. They’ve lost to the Edmonton Oilers in Round One in four straight seasons.
If they’d like to get over the hump, they need some offense. Once Edmonton has cracked their tight team defense in each of the last few years, the series has been over. LA needs some offensive horsepower.
Andrew Kuzmenko and Alex Lafferiere are in the LA top six. Rakell could improve both spots (Kuzmenko a left winger and Lafferiere a right wing).
What LA is willing to offer might be another matter. Center Francesco Pinelli took a step forward in his second professional season, but still notched only 46 points in 71 games with the Ontario Reign. Defenseman Brandt Clark, LA’s first-round pick (8th overall) in 2021, is likely off limits.
If Dubas can connect the dots here, he might get his best return. Then again, perhaps LA is quite content making the playoffs and taking their chances.
Seattle Kraken
Seattle has depth of talent, but a lack of high-end talent. Jaden Schwartz is the top-line winger, and he hasn’t cracked the 50-point barrier since 2019-20.
Jared McCann, Kaapo Kakko, and Jordan Eberle are the other top-six wingers; that’s plenty of 45 to 50-point players, but only McCann is a 70-point player.
The Penguins would need to accept a package including longer-range prospects, such as Jagger Firkus (2022 second-round pick) or Eduard Sale (2023 first-round pick, 20th overall).
Wild Card: San Jose Sharks
Suddenly, the bereft San Jose Sharks have a bright future. Macklin Celebrini and Michael Misa could very well be their top two centers, with Will Smith and William Eklund as the other green, but very talented centerpieces of a team on the rise.
San Jose would be a shocker because they’re not yet viewed as a competitive team, but perhaps they should be. The core pieces are in place; now it is a matter of maturation.
Now, how about a skilled winger who knows how to play with talent, knows how to win, and comes quite affordably?
It sounded like Washington and Buffalo are still looking. Washington wants to take one last run with Ovechkin. As for Buffalo, they trade one of their best young forwards for peanuts. I cannot image Dahlin or Thompson being too happy. I think any deal with Seattle would include a conditional first and Shane Wright.
Think Detroit and Seattle would be good trade partners for EK also.
I think Buffalo is too dumb to make a trade like this.
I don’t forsee it being Detroit, simply because Steve Y seems to think that every single prospect he’s ever drafted is going to hit, and thus he refuses to ever part with them.
He seems to be running the team like it was an EA Sports simulation.
Agree, he doesn’t get it
Reallly? Do you remember his track record in Tampa? How many cups? Maybe you are the one who doesn’t get it?
How about NJD? Read they were open to move Mercer. Rakell for Mercer would be ideal.
Throw him Nemec and maybe a first. Facts are this Rakell is a top line forward on a dirt cheap contract. Mercer is young and is slightly underperforming his contract
Agree straight up player for player is not enough
We’ve already got Tommy Novak, if we get “Dawg-Son” Mercer we can build the Dimitri Filipovic PDOCast All-Stars
And the bid starts at a 1st +
I hope that Dubas lays back and wait for the offers to rise as GM seat became warmer as September approaching
It has to be a 1st and something.
Not necessarily. If Dubas is indeed looking to start the next phase of the rebuild, he needs to bring in some young prospects close to NHL ready. The first round pick will most likely be a late first round pick if they trade their guys to contenders. Still valuable, but not a McKenna ticket, so that would not be a requirement imo. The Guentzel
trade has helped the team immensely and some people were up in arms that a first round pick wasn’t included in that one. These coming trades should be similar to that one
NO…….i want Rakell to stay with the Penguins….
For what purpose? This is called a quick rebuild and hes at peak value. This team needs many center prospects
I like Raks a lot, but if he is with us at the start of the season or send if the year than we are doing something really wrong. This team is not remotely close to making the playoffs and should be a bottom 5 team. The goal has to be getting better with trades at their peak value
Ok…but I really like his hockey and what he brings to the team
Internet is buzzing (I know… cant trust the Internet nor Toronto media) that Leafs are interested in Rust.
I would hope GM KD and his team would be very familiar with Toronto prospects.
Maybe Rust and (Acciari, Heinen or Hayes with some percentage of retention on last year) for Cowen, Robertson and Kampf with 2 years left?
Has there been any news if Pens are pursuing Issac Howard from the Bolts? Hearing Edmonton is working on a deal to trade for Howard.
David Kampf ?!?! He was benched in the playoffs.
So was Sid 😂🤣😂🤣
The leafs lost Minten in the Carlo deal with Boston, not a chance they part with Cowan
Swell. Great. Now what’s the return?
As Dubas adds to the Pens roster, will teams begin to wait the Pens out? While he waits to get the most, teams may wait to give up the least. In the case of Rust, you do wait for the premium package. Rakell will probably go for a B level prospect and a pick. With Karlson, he has to take deal offered from probably one or two teams. The longer he is on the roster, the harder it will be to trade him. A resolution on Karlson needs to happen this week.
Any trade of 67, must also include 65, if the offer in return doesn’t just blow KD away, pass on it. We can roll keeping things as they are!!
Den svenska Kombo with fries 🍟!!
I was thinking the same thing. The thought came after I found myself feeling anxious that there haven’t been any significant trades yet. I thought, “Well, it is not like the Penguins HAVE to trade anyone.” I think that everyone should be patient.
I’m skeptical on the Sharks. They still have some hillside to climb before they’re ready to start adding veteran talent, I would think.
Trade Rakell for a 1st plus. Trade Karlsson for whatever it takes but keep Rusty please lol.
I would hope EK65 (53 points in 82 games) has some value – especially if there is retention.
Need more than whatever.
I fear they are going to get a pick and probably not an “A” prospect for him. One or the other
But GM KD needs to create magic – Pens paid his bonus – he has a big cap hit but is cheaper in real salary owed (I think) –
Maybe some cheaper owner (Buffalo??) could becomes an option – they have a ton of young assets I would think the Pens would be interested