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Their newest first-round pick apparently has a lot of value around the NHL.
Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas made his first significant move of the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline this past week when he sent defenseman Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor to the Vancouver Canucks. While that trade brought back three players (an interesting prospect in Melvin Fermstrom, as well as veterans Danton Heinen and Vincent Desharnais) the most intriguing asset was the 2025 first-round pick (top-13 protected) that originally belonged to the New York Rangers.
It should give the Penguins two first-round picks in the 2025 draft, unless the Rangers somehow truly bottom out over the next couple of months and finish with a shockingly bad record. As much as I do not trust this Rangers team, I do not see that being the case. That pick probably ends up somewhere in the 15-25 range.
The most obvious use of that pick would be to hang on to it and, along with the Penguins’ own first-round pick, have a chance to add two potential long-term pieces to the farm system.
But that is not the only potential option with that pick.
Going back to last year’s deadline when he traded away Jake Guentzel, Dubas has been very consistent in his message that he is looking to add young players to the organization that are either already in the NHL, or are very close to NHL-ready. While that can be achieved through trading veteran players off of the NHL roster, it could also be achieved by flipping some of the draft picks (or prospects) he has acquired in some of his recent trades over the past year.
I still wonder if, or perhaps when, he is going to flip some of them for one of those younger NHL players.
He has already collected several future draft picks and given the Penguins (as of now) 29 picks over the next three years, including four first-round picks, four second-round picks and six third-round picks.
That first-round pick from the Rangers could be an intriguing trade chip, and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman even wondered in his recent 32 Thoughts column if the Penguins will hold onto it. According to Friedman, that pick has value around the league and several teams around the league were hoping to snag it.
Dubas and the Penguins still do not seem determined to go through a full-scale rebuild and hope to become a competitive team again sooner rather than later. I still go back to what the Washington Capitals did a couple of years ago at the deadline when they sold off veterans, accumulated additional picks (including a first-rounder) and then turned around that same deadline and swapped their new first-round pick (to Kyle Dubas and Toronto) for a young player in Rasmus Sandin.
There might be some opportunities for the Penguins to do that this season, or even going into the offseason.
Two names that immediately come to mind — New Jersey Devils defense prospect Simon Nemec and Buffalo Sabres defenseman (and pending restricted free agent) Bowen Byram.
Both players would fit the mold of what Dubas is supposedly looking for. Both could also be high-upside players that could become a significant part of the defense for the long-term.
The Devils have made it clear they are not really interested in moving Nemec despite burying him in the minors for most of the season, but the 20-year-old does not seem overly thrilled with his standing within the organization. He has not officially requested a trade, but seems to at least be considering it.
It was only a few months ago that the Columbus Blue Jackets found themselves in a similar with David Jiricek — The No. 6 pick in Nemec’s class — and ended up trading him to the Minnesota Wild for a package of draft picks that included a 2025 first-round pick.
Given that the Devils are a contender, they might be more inclined to move Nemec (if they move him) for somebody that can help their quest for a championship than future assets. But those future assets can still be used to acquire that sort of help, just in a more roundabout way.
That would be a lot of future assets for the Penguins to give up, but there are a few things to keep in mind:
- They also have a lot of future assets. They can spare some for the right trade.
- They also have the means to acquire more future assets and continue to accumulate them. Heinen and Desharnais can be flipped. Anthony Beauvillier and Matt Grzelcyk can be flipped. Alex Nedeljkovic might be playing his way into a trade asset. That does not even get into players like Rickard Rakell or Michael Bunting that will have value either at this deadline, the offseason, or in the future.
- That Rangers pick is not likely to produce a prospect with the upset that a player like Nemec has. If that Rangers pick ends up in the range it should be expected to be in — a mid-to-late first-rounder — you’re still only talking about a 50-50 bet of being an NHL regular, and maybe a 20 percent chance of being a star-level player. It’s possible. There’s value to it. But it’s not a slam-dunk. It’s certainly not as valuable as the Penguins’ own pick in terms of long-term value.
Byram is a little different of a player as he is already an established NHL player, and one that still seemingly has some untapped potential.
With the Sabres still stuck in their perpetual rebuild, and with Byram set to be a restricted free agent this season, he has surfaced in trade speculation ahead of the deadline. While he has not been what the Sabres hoped he would be — or could be — when they acquired him at last year’s deadline, I don’t think he’s necessarily been bad, either. In fact, he’s arguably been one of the bigger bright spots — statistically speaking, anyway — on an otherwise dreadful team. The Sabres are outscoring their opponents when he is on the ice by a pretty healthy margin. He is on pace for over 40 points individually, and among the 180 defensemen that have logged at least 500 minutes of 5-on-5 ice-time this season, Byram’s 1.46 points per 60 minutes are eighth best in the NHL.
(Also worth mentioning that Brandt Clarke, another intriguing young player that could be on the trade block, is sixth on that list.)
Re-signing him would require some sort of a financial investment, but the Penguins have salary cap flexibility even before you take into account the rising cap over the next few seasons. He is also still only 23 years old and would theoretically still be in the prime of his career if the Penguins can get back to competitive hockey in the next few years.
Given that the Penguins are likely to have a very high first-round pick this season, I would not lose any sleep over trading a second first-round pick, especially if it could land a player that could be a meaningful part of the re-tooling.