Penguins
Penguins Lose Jiricek Trade Sweepstakes; Wild Pay Heavy Price
The Pittsburgh Penguins and general manager Kyle Dubas were unsuccessful in their pursuit of large defenseman David Jiricek, losing the trade sweepstakes to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon.
The Minnesota Wild acquired Jiricek, the sixth overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft, for a package the Penguins were very unlikely to match. Minnesota GM Bill Guerin surrendered a first, a 2027 second, a 2026 third-round pick, a 2026 fourth-round pick, and plus depth defenseman Daemon Hunt, to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Jiricek and a fifth-round pick.
Update: The 2025 first-round pick is top-five protected. If Minnesota’s first-rounder is a top-five selection, it will default to a 2026 first-rounder. Also, initial reports did not include the 2026 third-round pick.
Trade rumors had swirled around the Penguins and Jiricek for a week, beginning when Dubas made a trip to Cleveland, presumably to see Jiricek with Columbus’s AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters.
This season, the Penguins have already acquired former first-round pick Philip Tomasino, who was selected 24th overall in 2019, from the Nashville Predators in exchange for a 2027 fourth-round pick that originally belonged to the New York Rangers. And before training camp, Dubas swapped his 2023 first-round pick Brayden Yager (14th overall) for the Winnipeg Jets 2022 first-rounder Rutger McGroarty (14th overall).
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Not sure how I feel about Dubas passing him up. Reading what scouts said about Jiricek prior to the draft, his size, and potential upside seems like a player we should get. Unfortunately,Jiricek is back in the minors when CBJ isn’t exactly a powerhouse makes me wonder if the jump to the NHL is something he’s not ready for. Add in his attitude about not playing in the NHL and I’m concerned he might not reach his potential.
Wish we landed him, definitely not at that price. Makes me happy to hear we are being aggressive and going after younger talent.
I’m not surprised by this. I did see the Minnesota wild were the front runners a couple of days ago. Seeing that they had to trade a 2025 first round pick that automatically eliminated the penguins. Kyle Dubas is not trading the penguins 2025 first round pick, as he shouldn’t.
Over paid.
Wow Minnesota overpaid for him big time. If I’m a Wild fan I’m thinking he better be the second coming of Bobby Orr for all the picks they gave up.
Wow! Does Bill Guerin want to trade for anyone on the Penguins?!?!
Guerin comes from the Rutherford school of trading every available draft pick away for short term success. Sometimes it works and other times it leads to years of mediocrity.
Well, he’s handled having $14M+ in dead money for two seasons pretty well.
Wild forfeit an entire franchise draft class equivalent for potential and a maybe bad attitude. So glad we didn’t match that offer.
Agree, they overpaid; but I am glad to see Dubas doing the work to get help.
He easily could have offered two or more of our Blueline starters, if Guerin wanted them.