(Photo : (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)) NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 16: Jake Guentzel #59 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates his third interval objective towards the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on March 16, 2023 in New York City.
If the Pittsburgh Penguins make the choice to promote on the upcoming NHL commerce deadline, there is not any query that winger Jake Guentzel would grow to be the highest participant obtainable.
When Guentzel burst onto the scene, he did in order a rookie in 2017, the second 12 months of Pittsburgh’s back-to-back Stanley Cup championships.
He scored 13 targets in 25 playoff video games that 12 months to cement himself instantly as a Penguins hero, and he is backed that up his complete profession with 465 factors in 504 profession video games.
Still simply 29, Guentzel has numerous good hockey left forward of him, however his worth is at an all-time excessive, and the Penguins are at an inflection level the place it’d make sense to maneuver on from a franchise cornerstone to set the stage for the subsequent technology.
Doing so would very a lot not go over effectively with the fan base, which expects to be in win-now mode so long as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang are in black and gold.
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NHL Trade Deadline: Jake Guentzel
Contract Status: Expiring, $6 million cap hit.
Potential Destinations: Dallas, Boston, Vegas, Edmonton, Florida, New York Rangers
Guentzel has excelled this season, placing up 22 targets and 29 assists for 51 factors in 49 video games. If he stays wholesome and stays above a point-per-game tempo, it will be the fourth such season in his profession, although simply the second the place he did not miss important time on account of damage.
It’s extremely uncommon for offensive skills of Guentzel’s stage to grow to be obtainable on the commerce deadline, and even rarer for one together with his sterling observe file of playoff success.
In 58 profession postseason video games, Guentzel has 58 factors, placing him ninth in postseason manufacturing amongst energetic gamers aged 30 or youthful.
If Guentzel is made obtainable, the Penguins will be capable of command a king’s ransom for him. It would begin at a primary spherical choose, seemingly embrace a second or third rounder on high, and will lengthen to a high quality prospect already-drafted. The Penguins may additionally look to swap him for a youthful participant with extra workforce management to attempt to hold the present window open, however it will must be a participant not too useful to the buying workforce for it to make sense.
General supervisor Kyle Dubas, in his first 12 months in control of the workforce, has the unenviable process of being the one to resolve whether or not to drag the plug on this unbelievable period of hockey.
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