Penguins
Penguins Trade: Pens Acquire Injured D-man Nate Beaulieu from WPG
The Pittsburgh Penguins made the first deal of the NHL trade deadline Monday. Before sunrise, the Penguins and GM Ron Hextall acquired depth defenseman Nathan Beaulieu from the Winnipeg Jets for a conditional seventh-round pick.
The trade was posted on the TSN trade tracker around 5:30 a.m. It was also the first Penguins trade of the deadline season.
Beaulieu, 29, is on LTIR after suffering a lower-body injury against the Dallas Stars on March 4. He was placed on LTIR on March 9 and must remain out for 24 days and 10 games from that point.
This season, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound defenseman has played in 24 games with four assists. He also has three fighting majors this season, including a Jan. 23 scrap with Penguins forward Brian Boyle.
Beaulieu is a former Montreal Canadiens defenseman. He also played parts of two seasons with the Buffalo Sabres and the last three-plus seasons with Winnipeg. He has been a depth defender in Winnipeg, not playing more than 48 games in any of the last four seasons.
Nathan Beaulieu is represented by Phil Lecavalier, Kris Letang’s new agent, and was the Montreal Canadiens first-round pick (11th overall) in 2011. Beaulieu has played in 419 NHL games with 94 points (12-82-94) and 301 penalty minutes.
The left-handed defenseman will be a UFA after the season. He carries a $1.25 million cap hit.
As of 7 a.m. the Pittsburgh Penguins have not yet made the trade official. PHN will have a running live blog throughout the NHL trade deadline day on Monday, as well as cover the Penguins’ practice on Monday morning.
Darren Dreger of TSN was the first to break the news.
Analysis:
On the surface, the trade is a curious move by Hextall. The Penguins already have five defensemen capable of playing NHL minutes on the left side, including Mark Friedman and top prospect P.O. Joseph. However, they have none whose game includes an occasional fight, or more specifically, none they want to see drop the gloves. But adding a sixth LHD, and one who is on LTIR does open the door to a larger move.
According to Puckpedia.com, the Pittsburgh Penguins trade gives them over $5.3 million in LTIR pool money and $4.750 million of salary-cap space.
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This trade was definitely made in order to facilitate a bigger deal later today. It certainly appears as though they are going to add a player with a decent sized cap hit. It definitely gives us something to look forward to today. I knew that they were going to be active during the deadline today, but not significant cap money active. Hextall has been pretty solid with the couple of moves that he’s made so far during his tenure. I hope that it continues today. I think this team can make a run this season. Having the 4th best record… Read more »
🥱🥱🙄🙄😔😔
This trade was obviously done to make a bigger trade later today, so there’s nothing to yawn over. Expect a defenseman to get traded today, probably for a forward.
Probably not a one off move. Keep zucker stashed and move a D out and you have “options”
Lower cap hit than Petersson. Hmmm….
The got him for free. Conditional 7Th Rnd pick!
You know what the conditions are? Pittsburgh needs to go 3 Rnds and Bealieu need to play in 50% of the games. LOL
That’s is as Free as Free gets.
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Free? Free free free free? 😉
Actually…since he’s on LTIR, they actually gain cap space to use…in the bizarro world of cap sports
Fleury headed to Minnesota
Good for him. Hope he plays well