There’s a new way to look at the standings for the rest of this season of interest to the Penguins…
One of the aspects to the trade that sent Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor to Vancouver came with a condition. It was fairly straight-forward but some on social media have continued to ask about it, so let’s take a deeper dive for those not as finely tuned to such clauses.
The Penguins are to get the 2025 first round draft pick of the New York Rangers, which Vancouver had previously acquired. It does come with a slight catch. The pick is top-13 protected — meaning if the pick ends up being between first and 13th, the Rangers keep that pick for themselves. In which case, NYR has to transfer their 2026 first round pick to the Penguins — no matter what selection it would be.
As such, the website Tankathon that tracks the NHL standings implications for the lottery draft has never been more valuable to Penguin fans than it is these days.
Here’s how it looks this morning:
As of today, NYR would keep their pick in 2025, but they are within a whisker of slipping into the range where the Penguins would take it. These odds and trajectories can change on a daily basis, but as of today it seems like a pretty decent bet that the Pens will be getting two top-20 draft picks this summer, between their own and the Rangers’ selection if it drops out of the top 13. Maybe even in the top 15-ish range, as an ideal.
In the longer-range plans, a New York finish inside the top-13 wouldn’t be a bad development for the Penguins. The 2026 draft is believed to be a bit deeper throughout the first round. More importantly, presumptive 2026 first overall pick Gavin McKenna is being put up as the potential next-next-next-next one in line as far as franchise players go. If NYR finishes poorly this year, whose to say they wouldn’t be back in the lottery in 2026. That could give the Pens up to two chances at winning the McKenna lottery, in the best case, pie in the sky scenario.
Those scenarios, of course, while idealistic can also be unrealistic. The Rangers are 9-4-3 since the start of 2025, and just made their team better in the short-term by adding J.T Miller from Vancouver. The odds of them picking in the top-12 this year exist, but are subject to be fairly long — let alone the picture perfect result of them being a poor team two years in a row.
But that’s what tracking the standings will mean over the next two months for the Penguins. This weekend’s trade, if nothing else, provided a new reason and avenue to keep in mind down the stretch of this NHL season. A big part of the future of the Pens (or, maybe a little part) will be determined based on how the Rangers end up this season.