How has it gone for those traded away from Pittsburgh this season?
It’s been a busy season for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who continue to churn through players. Pittsburgh has traded eight different NHL roster players since the start of the 2024-25 campaign — including flipping Vincent Desharnais and Luke Schenn — who they also acquired during the season.
Now that the dust has settled on the trade deadline and there’s no game today let’s check on how are the players doing in their new spots.
Lars Eller
Traded November 12th to Washington for a 2025 third round pick and 2027 fifth round pick
Washington stats: 50 games, 6 goals, 8 assists, 50.9% faceoff, 12:32 average ice time
Eller’s nominally listed as the Capitals’ third line center but he has a smaller role on the team than that (he’s only ninth in ES TOI for among regular forwards, and fifth in PK time). He’s doing OK as ever, but not that great. Interestingly he’s only winning 50.9% of his faceoffs this year with Washington, he was at 56.0% for the Penguins in 2024-25 and 52.3% last season and his hits and blocked shots are down. We’ll see if he’s conserving energy to be effective in the playoffs or if the 35-year old is fading away.
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Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor
Traded January 31st to Vancouver for a protected 2025 first round pick (NYR), Danton Heinen, Vincent Desharnais and prospect Melvin Fernstrom
Pettersson: 18 games, 0 goals, 5 assists, 21:16 average ice time
O’Connor: 18 games, 3 goals, 2 assists, 13:55 average ice time
Pettersson has been playing mostly with Tyler Myers on the Canucks’ second pair. As you would expect, he’s been completely as advertised as a good defensive player with a team-high 39 blocked shots since he’s been there and chipping in with the occasional assist with his quietly effective passing game.
A change of scenery hasn’t immediately unlocked much for O’Connor, he’s still lightly scoring with no rhyme or reason every few games. Upon acquisition he was playing in more of a featured role with Filip Chytil and Brock Boeser but now finds his ice time reduced a bit in March in more of a checking line with players like Teddy Blueger and Kiefer Sherwood.
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Michael Bunting
Traded March 5th to Nashville along with a 2026 fourth round pick for Tommy Novak and Luke Schenn
Nashville stats: 4 games, 0 goals, 0 assists, 15:41 average ice time
Even if they soured on Novak, the Predators paid a pretty big trade price to bring Bunting onto their team. He’s still looking for his first point in Nashville after coming back from the appendix surgery a few weeks ago. Bunting is under contract next season so he’ll have more to show as time goes by, he’s currently on the second line with Colton Sissons and Jonathan Marchessault.
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Vincent Desharnais
Traded March 7th to San Jose for a 2028 fifth round pick
SJ stats: 5 games, 0 goals, 0 assists, even plus/minus, 15:58 average ice time
Desharnais is back in the Western Conference and somehow still not under water in terms of goals at the start of his stint with the Sharks. He played almost 19 minutes per game in his brief time with the Penguins and so far San Jose has been sheltering and limiting him more than that, probably for the best given his limited skillset.
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Cody Glass
Traded March 7th to New Jersey with Jonathan Gruden for a 2027 third round pick, Chase Stillman and Max Graham
New Jersey stats: 6 games, 2 goals, 3 assists, 39.3% faceoff, 14:51 average ice time
A little bit of life! Glass only scored four goals in 51 games with Pittsburgh and has already generated half of that in a few weeks worth of work with the Devils. He’s playing third line minutes and has been a nice depth add for NJ as they deal with the injury loss of Jack Hughes for the rest of the season. Of all the players out the door so far, Glass is probably the best pickup by another team.
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Luke Schenn
Traded March 7th to Winnipeg for a 2026 second round pick and 2027 fourth round pick
Winnipeg stats: 5 games, 0 goals, 1 assist, 17:48 average ice time
It’s still very early but Schenn is playing more minutes with Winnipeg than he has since 2016-17 in a low-end second pair role with Dylan Samberg to give the Jets a defensive-minded duo. Getting to a first place team and having a chance to compete is what Schenn wanted and he’s one of the few players that were happy to end up in Winnipeg.
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Anthony Beauvillier
Traded March 7th to Washington for a 2025 second round pick
Washington stats: 6 games, 1 goal, 2 assists, 12:20 average ice time
Beauvillier has been on the fourth line for the Caps and gotten off to a decent start. He was all over the lineup in Pittsburgh with a variety of roles and seems to have settled into a place with a contender where he will use his energy in small bursts to add to that team’s depth for the playoff run.