FINAL LIST: Penguins Protect Carter, Leave Tanev, ZAR Unprotected for Seattle

The Pittsburgh Penguins and GM Ron Hextall decided that center Jeff Carter was worth keeping around, and the risk of losing him to the Seattle Kraken was worth trading Jared McCann and exposing crash-and-bang winger Brandon Tanev.

Carter scored 13 goals in 20 games, including four markers in the Penguins’ six-game Round One loss to the New York Islanders.

Sunday morning, the NHL released the Seattle Kraken expansion draft list. Teams could protect seven forwards, three defenders and one goalie, or eight skaters and one netminder.

The Penguins opted for the usual 7-3-1 format. Stick tap to Mike Defabo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who first confirmed the list. Credit where it’s due.

Pittsburgh Penguins Protected List

Forwards:

1. Sidney Crosby
2. Evgeni Malkin
3. Jake Guentzel
4. Bryan Rust
5. Kaserpi Kapanen
6. Jeff Carter
7. Teddy Blueger

Defensemen

1. Kris Letang
2. Brian Dumoulin
3. Mike Matheson

Goalie

Tristan Jarry

Pittsburgh Penguins Analysis

Notable Unprotected

F-Jason Zucker

D- Marcus Pettersson

D-Mark Friedman

D-Juuso Riikola

G-Casey DeSmith

The Full Unprotected List:

• Pontus Aberg (F)
• Anthony Angello (F)
• Zach Aston-Reese (F)
• Josh Currie (F)
• Frederick Gaudreau (F)
• Mark Jankowski (F)
• Sam Lafferty (F)
• Sam Miletic (F)
• Evan Rodrigues (F)
• Colton Sceviour (F)
• Brandon Tanev (F)
• Jason Zucker (F)
• Cody Ceci (D)
• Kevin Czuczman (D)
• Mark Friedman (D)
• Jesper Lindgren (D)
• Andrey Pedan (D)
• Marcus Pettersson (D)
• Juuso Riikola (D)
• Chad Ruhwedel (D)
• Yannick Weber (D)
• Casey DeSmith (G)
• Maxime Lagace (G)

Confirming the PHN report of Saturday, the Penguins did protect Carter after Hextall dealt forward Jared McCann to Toronto for prospect Filip Hallander and a seventh-round pick. Hollander has played the last few seasons in the Swedish Elite League and was the Penguins 2018 second-round pick. He was part of the package the Penguins sent to Toronto last August for Kasperi Kapanen.

The organization clearly emphasized remaining strong in the middle. Keeping Carter will give the Penguins a capable second-line center while Evgeni Malkin recuperates from offseason knee surgery. Malkin will miss the start of training camp, but no other timeline is available. If Malkin suffered a tear or underwent tendon surgery as he did in 2011, a 4-6 month absence is typical.

Blueger will slot as the third line center until Malkin’s return.

However, Blueger’s line could be disrupted as both Zach Aston-Reese and Tanev are exposed. The Aston-Reese–Blueger–Tanev line has been a shutdown line for Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan. In the 17 games they played together last season, often matched against the opponent’s top line, they scored six goals but allowed none.

Both Tanev and Aston-Reese received Selke Award votes in 2020. Aston-Reese, 26, scored 15 points, including a career-best nine goals in 45 games this season. Tanev also set a personal best with .5 points per game. He scored 16 points (7-9-16) in 32 games.

Aston-Reese is an RFA with arbitration rights. PHN recently estimated his salary expectation in the $2.25 million range.

The Pittsburgh Penguins also exposed expensive LW Jason Zucker, whose $5.5 million cap hit makes his selection less likely. The Penguins acquired Zucker from the Minnesota Wild for a first-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, top defenseman prospect Calen Addison, and struggling winger Alex Galchenyuk.

Backup goalie Casey DeSmith was also left unprotected as the team predictably protected starter Tristan Jarry. DeSmith suffered a late-season lower-body injury and was not available in the playoffs. Despite contrary reports, Jarry was protected after an increasingly good regular season in which he posted a .909 save percentage and a 25-9-3 record. He also had four assists.

Reader Poll:

Who will the Seattle Kraken select? (Editor’s Note, we’ve added Jason Zucker to the poll and reset the votes).

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