Penguins Notebook: Lose-Lose Choice for Rangers?; Worlds Await

The Pittsburgh Penguins might own the New York Rangers’ first-round pick in the June draft; it’s one of the assets they acquired from Vancouver in the trade that sent Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor to the Canucks.

However, New York, which is in imminent danger of sitting out the playoffs – the Rangers have just five games remaining and are eight points behind Montreal, which holds the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and has four games left – has the option of deferring the transfer of that draft pick to 2026.

And the decision for GM Chris Drury might be more complicated than it appears at first blush.

The logical thing might look to be for New York to hold onto the pick this year, assuming it doesn’t qualify for postseason play. That would assure the Rangers of having no worse than the 16^th overall pick, even if they don’t win the draft lottery and move up 10 spots in the order of selection.

The catch is, the 2026 draft class is purported to be deeper – and, in general, stronger – than this year’s, so a case could be made that relinquishing that No. 1 choice in 2025 would be the prudent move.

There is an additional wrinkle to taking that approach, however. By retaining its first-rounder next summer, Rangers management could be sending a not-so-subtle, albeit unintended, message to New York players that it anticipates picking up an even better prospect than it would get this year.

Regardless of the relative merits of the two draft classes, the front office would seem to be tacitly accepting the idea of missing the playoffs again in 2026. That’s not exactly what any locker room — especially one that will have gone from winning the Presidents’ Trophy in 2024 to sitting out the postseason a year later — wants to hear.

Waiting for the call

With the Penguins formally eliminated from contention for a berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs, national-team officials will be approaching players to gauge their interest in participating in the IIHF world championship tournament, set for May 9-26 in Sweden and Denmark.

Some guys will decline, generally because they either are recovering from injuries or simply need rest. Others will pounce on the opportunity, whether it’s to try to get themselves on the radar for the next Olympics or simply because they appreciate the chance to represent their country.

Penguins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk seems like someone Team USA might reach out to and, if he’s offered a spot on the roster, there’s little doubt about how he will respond.

“I’ve had the opportunity to play for the USA before, but never at a level like that, so that would actually be a huge honor,” he said. “One that I’d be super-thankful for. … You saw with the Four Nations (tournament) how much that means to guys. That would be amazing. A once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Grzelcyk played for the U.S. at the 2014 world junior championships, where he led all defensemen in scoring with two goals and four assists in five games. Washington, Pa. native Riley Barber was one of his teammates on that squad.

Indebted to Jets

Winnipeg did the Penguins a favor last year, when the Jets sent them forward Rutger McGroarty, who looks to be a significant piece of the franchise’s future.

And the Jets did them another one Monday night, when they preserved a piece of the Penguins’ past.

Winnipeg’s 3-1 victory over St. Louis then snapped the Blues’ 12-game winning streak, snuffing the possibility of St. Louis continuing its run at the NHL-record of 17 consecutive victories the Penguins set in the closing weeks of the 1992-93 season.

The Blues had been steamrolling opponents – their 5-4 overtime victory against the Penguins last Thursday was one of just three times St. Louis had to go longer than three periods to earn a win during its streak – and, if not for Winnipeg, the only thing that might have prevented the Blues from catching the Penguins this season was that they have just three games remaining, thus giving them a maximum of 16 possible wins before the end of the regular season.

The best part for the Penguins, who had to part with promising prospect Brayden Yager to acquire McGroarty, is that they didn’t even have to give up anything when the Jets preserved that piece of their franchise legacy Monday.

Of course, Winnipeg’s desire to defeat St. Louis wasn’t rooted in an altruistic gesture to help the Penguins. The Jets’ motivation was fending off Dallas for first place in the Central Division and Washington for the top spot in the overall standings.