TRADE & ANALYSIS: Penguins Deal Pettersson, O’Connor to VAN, Get 1st & More
And just like that, the Pittsburgh Penguins capitalized on the Vancouver Canucks trade with the New York Rangers. General manager Kyle Dubas traded defenseman Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor to Vancouver late Friday night, just before midnight.
Earlier Friday evening, Vancouver rocked the trade market by dealing J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers. As part of Vancouver’s return, they received the Rangers’ 2025 top-13 protected first-round pick. Vancouver promptly sent that first-rounder to the Penguins for Pettersson and O’Connor.
Read More: Final Days as Penguins? How Pettersson, O’Connor Are Handling It (+)
If the Rangers happen to slip to a top-13 pick in 2025, the pick defaults to an unprotected pick in 2026. The Penguins also received winger and former Penguin Danton Heinen, defenseman Vincent Desharnais, and Vancouver’s 2024 third-round pick Melvin Fernstrom.
Pettersson and O’Connor are pending free agents. Both are also quite familiar to the Vancouver management, who led the Penguins when they acquired both Pettersson (via trade with Anaheim) and O’Connor, an undrafted college free agent who worked his way up from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
“Moving two long-time Penguins is never an easy decision,” said Dubas. “Marcus and Drew have competed day-in and day-out for the organization since the day they arrived. Both players are high-quality people, highly competitive players and zero maintenance for their fellow teammates and the staff of the Penguins.”
No salary was retained.
The Penguins have 29 selections over the next three NHL drafts, which includes four first-round selections and 15 picks in the first three rounds. No team has more.
“Tonight’s trade continues to move us in the direction set one year ago, which is to continue to add young prospects, young players, and draft capital to the Penguins as we chart our course to return the club back into contention as urgently as possible,” said Dubas. “We are pleased to add Danton Heinen back to the Penguins and Vincent Desharnais to the club and look forward to seeing both in uniform in the coming days. The addition of Melvin Fernstrom also gives us a prospect that was highly regarded at the 2024 NHL Draft, and the Rangers’ first-round draft pick provides us with another strong asset that we can use to acquire an elite young player in the draft or via trade.”
Full Penguins Trade Analysis
Rutherford always did like the late-night trades.
From Vancouver’s perspective, they traded J.T. Miller to New York for Filip Chytil, Vincent Mancini, Pettersson, and O’Connor.
From Dubas’s side, he filled one BIG need, literally and figuratively, with a right-side defender.
The Penguins get a middle-six winger (Heinen), a hulking physical defenseman (Desharnais), and a first-round pick that could be mid-first round. As if Penguins fans needed a reason to root against the Rangers, they want to see them just miss the playoffs or absolutely tank in 2026.
Heinen, 29, played with the Penguins from 2021-2023. This season, he has 18 points (6-12-18) in 51 games.
In addition to the first-rounder, Desharnais might be the most interesting piece of the trade. He’s a large 6-foot-7, 226-pound, right-handed defender. He likes to hit. He’s primarily known as a net-front clearing d-man, but don’t expect much offense. He has three assists in 51 games this season, and Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet has (rightly) used him as a third-pairing D-man in limited minutes.
He’s not a great defenseman, but the Penguins are desperate for a right-side defender, especially one who can be physical.
Melvin Fernstrom, 18, is not as highly regarded as Dubas suggested. Most scouting reports indicate he lacks compete level, and his skating is subpar. He has eight points (3-5-8) in 35 games with Orebro of the Swedish Elite League.
But that first-rounder.
From a salary cap perspective, the Penguins get a little bit of relief. Heinen counts $2.25 million against the cap this season and next. Desharnais counts $2 million against the cap this year and next. O’Connor and Pettersson cost nearly $5 million combined.
O’Connor has struggled this season, and Dubas acquired a first-rounder for his pair of UFAs. He maximized his return.
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First round pick is nice but the D just got worse! And the were crap to begin with.
True, they were crap with Marcus and they will be crap without him. Not much has changed there. We lost two solid guys that I hate to see go but they weren’t going to be signed next year anyway. We got at least an even replacement for DOC and some muscle on D. When was the last time we had a crease clearing defenseman? And the draft this year just got real interesting.
Hainsey? Gudbranson? Looooong time.
that’s the idea, strategic regression!
It’s nice to get some bigger guys and now we have 2 that can throw their weight around. We are not going to make the playoffs this year so we got sid some body guards!
I am sad to see both petterson and DOC go but we got more than i thought.
Good return for two pending UFAs. And weakening the d-corps is an added bonus. It will increase the odds of getting a lottery pick.
Who’s Fernstrom?
From Elite Prospects:18 year old RW 6’2, 190lbs.2024 3rd round pick (Van)
Fernström reads the play away from the puck, anticipates where the next pass will come, and he gets there just as his puck-carrying teammates turn to execute the play. His shot may not be the most powerful, but he gets it off from the right positions and angles to score
Other scouts cited his shot as his best attribute. I don’t think he’s one to wait for.
Thank you! I was wondering what position he played. We need a right winger
Proman rated him as the Canucks 6th best prospect. But that’s just 1 fella’s opinion. A mid prospect at best.
That’s not a bad deal for Pens. Sad to see DOC go but he is a pending UFA. Selling before they get nothing is solid asset management.
It’s a good deal but if you think Pens already had enough of defensemen who can’t play defense, just wait for Desharnais!!! 🤦🤦 This guy is pure defensive zone liability and takes Letang like dumb penalties… Oilers defense started to look better when they finally decided to scratch him in the playoffs last season after they lost games 2 and 3 against Dallas.
All the better for a shot at a lottery pick.
Agree on Desharnais. He is ok with sheltered minutes only. Vancouver had to give him more minutes when Hronek and Hughes were both hurt, and results were not good. I’m sure he’s just a cap dump here.
Tremendous return for what Dubas gave up! This is a blueprint for trying to rebuild on the fly. Maybe he can swing another trade or two. This has been overdue for 2 years. Stock up on younger talent…and draft picks. Then pray you don’t draft like the Pirates!
That’s an interesting haul, and I’m optimistic. Imagine st Ivany, Pickering, desarnais and Brunicki playing together in nhl next season, preferably with griz and letang…I’m still hope they can ship ek though
Fine by me; keep going GM Dudas, there still are trade options on this team that might pull picks in this year’s and the 2026 draft (which is likely superior to 2025’s version).
The trade gives us yet another reason to hope the Rangers suck. Winning!
I’m happy for the pick, the rest looks like payment for said pick. Rutherford overpaid, as always. I do like both giys, but they’re really not worth hanging on to. I was disappointed when difference makers were traded, but these two are really not on that level. I mean, you cry for Fleury or Guentzel, not for Pettersson or O’Connor, to whom I wish the best of luck in their future endeavors. This is the first time I will say well done, Dubas. OK, second time. There was Karlsson. I just hope it won’t be the last.
Yes, that’s how you rebuild. And most important still has the retention spot available to weaponize it at the TDL.
P. O. also on a career path that began in Laval. What will the French speaking landlord do now ?
DH back into Mike’s dog house for next year also!
Kyley’s got to move him before he gets scratched for Jonathan Gruden again.
Heinen is a floater. Never liked him and hope they flip him somewhere else. He’s Mr. Softee on the ice.
He was just a throw in for cap reasons. He’ll continue to float until we trade him again.
he is soft like hot butter
I never really bought into the Petterson hype. Must be a good guy, but I just didn’t see it, at all. DOC was a fast player but his offense bottomed out. The #1 pick is a nice return for two guys that were gone anyhow. This needs to happen again and again. They never won with Petterson. They can continue to lose without him
me either, positionally sound but his agility/strength/1st stride were below average. Speed to the outside got him allot. Look at it this way, if he was a cornerstone defenseman, he would have been signed already.
That’s a lot of picks in the next 3 years and probably going to have more coming..As for who we took on.Fernstrom is a prospect.Who knows how that’s going to turn out.We know what Heinen brings and Sully won’t play Desharnais because he’s big,slow and physical.Sully doesn’t want those types for his system.As evidence by Boko fighting 2 mins into the game the other night and he could only scrape 3 mins of ice time up the rest of the way.Can’t be having anyone being too overly physical on this team
what a stupid comment. you now have your RIGHT handed 3rd pair defenseman.
the big question is who moves into Pettersson spot next to Karlsson?
Grzelcyk plays next to Karlsson as of right now. PO plays with Letang until someone else is moved and Pickering gets called back up.
This is basically for a 1st rounder, 2 players they can try to flip again and an AHL player if we ever sign him. I hope the 1st rounder is a good pick.
This trade is only a win if Dubas can flip these two. Very underwhelming trade for the Pens and goes against what Dubas has been saying he wants to do. Dubas didn’t get a high-level prospect or a good young NHL player. All three of the guys Dubas traded for will have zero impact on the Pens and they didn’t really shed any salary for future trades either.
Hope this Vincent Desharnais can become a physical D man here and can earn a cult following like Ulf Samuelson did. I give the trade an A. Say O’Connor scored 20 or 22 goals, I wonder how much more of a return they would have received. My guess the PENS will continue to trade 2 or 3 players for future draft picks. PENS 🐧🏒 future looking better as the team flush with draft picks next few years and a few young prospects should be ready. Should energize Sid seeing the youthful talent and energy. You wonder if Jarry and or… Read more »
The key to this was the 1st rounder. I never thought they’d get that for Pettersson, even though we threw in O’Connor to sweeten the deal. As with any trade, time will tell but I like this on the surface. We have to temper our expectations. They aren’t going to get any established stars in return and manage to get younger in the process.
Sometimes it’s difficult to define what/ how players contribute to team culture and performance aside from scoring and stats, these 2 fall into that category for me. High hockey IQ and TEAM players, (like E-Rod)…
Great deal for both clubs. Gonna be an interesting trade deadline and summer. Dubas can take on cap space for more picks and prospects.
If they put Desharnais with Graves, will that be the tallest 3rd pair in the NHL?
Like the trade a lot. Petey was a good guy, great teammate, and gave his all. But he was ineffective in the Teflon Mike system. He’s a stay at home guy a la Dave Burrows. Miscast. DOC is a plugger with a mediocre shot. Nothing lost here. Desharnais is a late bloomer with a very physical edge that this roster was lacking. I’m willing to give him some time to see what coaching can get out of him. Everyone on the roster just grew an inch and added 10 lbs. Sid doesn’t have to do his own fighting now and… Read more »
Solid return for Dubas and the Penguins.
It’s nice to be on the receiving side of a JR overpay, for once
If Heinen is a middle six forward, then I’m Mrs. Kingerski.