Penguins Turned Down Chance to Trade Zucker … Here’s Why

It’s no secret that the Pittsburgh Penguins have expected more offensive production than they’ve gotten from Jason Zucker since acquiring him from Minnesota.

It’s also generally accepted that they’d be open to clearing his contract, which carries a $5.5 million salary-cap hit, off their books.

Well, it turns out that, according to a league source, the Penguins had a chance to do just that this summer … and decided against it.

For what turned out to be a pretty good reason.

The trade proposal Ron Hextall received from an unspecified team, believed to be another Metropolitan Division club, called for Zucker to be packaged with a first-round draft choice in exchange for … well, basically nothing.

Oh, the Penguins’ return probably would have been characterized as “future considerations,” but in today’s NHL, when one team is trying to shed significant salary, it can’t expect to get anything more than the hockey equivalent of a bag of mist in the deal.

Hextall did not respond to a request, submitted via a team official, to confirm or dispute that information.

A first-rounder appears to be the going rate for a player with a salary similar to Zucker’s. Calgary, which was looking to clear cap space needed to sign free agent Nazim Kadri last month, had to attach a No. 1 to Sean Monahan to get Montreal to take him, and the source said a prospective trading partner informed Philadelphia it would have to do likewise if it wanted to part with James van Riemsdyk.

(Monahan has one year left on a contract with a $6.375 million cap hit, while van Riemsdyk has one at $7 million.)

Although the Pittsburgh Penguins are believed to be willing to include an asset, likely a draft choice, in a salary-shedding deal, there were a couple of reasons for them to walk away from the proposed Zucker trade.

Hextall has made it clear that he wants to restock the Penguins’ pool of prospects, and first-round draft choices obviously are an important part of that plan. While they might not be untouchable in trades, Hextall isn’t going to part with them easily.

Perhaps more importantly, the Penguins are not prepared to write Zucker off as a significant contributor.

Although his offensive output has not been commensurate with his pay — Zucker has 23 goals and 24 assists in 94 games since coming over from the Wild — he skates well, works hard and is an effective forechecker who is liked and respected by his teammates.

Zucker enters training camp in two weeks as the incumbent left winger on the No. 2 line and, at 30, still seems capable of scoring 20 or more for the sixth time in his NHL career.

Whether that would be enough to justify the amount the Penguins will be paying him is conjecture, but it surely would validate the decision to not relinquish a No. 1 choice simply to get him off the payroll.

The old school try(out)

Although the 57-man training camp roster the Pittsburgh Penguins released Tuesday did not include anyone on a professional tryout, Brian Boyle was at least a longshot candidate to receive one until the past few days.

He got one a year ago, and earned a one-year contract, and rewarded the Penguins with solid work on the fourth line and penalty-killing unit.

Boyle’s representatives approached the Penguins about having him return for this year’s camp and the idea appears to have gotten serious consideration before the front office decided against it, probably because the depth chart at center is crowded and the Penguins have 14 forwards on one-way contracts.