With the National Hockey League’s trade deadline coming up on March 21st, there has been a plethora of speculation surrounding the Pittsburgh Penguins and whether the club will make any moves in order to put themselves in a better position to win the Stanley Cup. The Penguins find themselves in a battle near the top of the Metropolitan Division and could probably use some reinforcements heading into the postseason. Don’t expect to be too much noise at the trade deadline though, as the club really doesn’t have many options.
“We’re probably not going to be able to do much,” Penguins’ president of hockey operations Brian Burke said on Sunday, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We’re capped out. I can’t imagine we’re going to do something big or noisy at the deadline.”
The team doesn’t have much flexibility to make moves under the salary cap, so management will have to learn to be creative if they want to shake things up to the current roster.
“The issue is we’re capped out,” Burke said. “You say to yourself, ‘Well, cash out; cash in. We could move a player and create cap space.’ But we like our team. We like our players. We’re not in a hurry to move anyone. So we may well have a very quiet deadline. I wouldn’t be surprised.”
The Penguins have qualified for the postseason for 15 consecutive seasons, last missing out during the 2005-06 campaign. They also won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017, which may by why Burke is reluctant to many any unnecessary moves.
“Some would say, well, we could move Mike Matheson,” Burke said. “We have no intention of moving Mike Matheson. We like him as a player. We like him as a person. We haven’t even talked about Mike Matheson because we love the guy.”
Burke is closing in on his first full year with the Penguins’ organization and made it clear that he likes the players at his disposal, specifically mentioning 30-year-old Jason Zucker who is being paid $5.5 million per season.
“Jason Zucker has been a really important player on our team,” Burke continued. “His production [six goals in 31 games] is not as high as his money. People might point at that and say, ‘Well, given his production, he’s expensive.’ But he’s a quality person. He’s an important teammate on our team. He works his ass off.”
While Burke has shut down the possibility of making any moves, he has certainly tried to lower any expectations that Penguins’ fans may have had heading into the trade deadline. Don’t be shocked if Pittsburgh ends up making some smaller moves like Burke has done in the past with other clubs he has worked at, just don’t anticipate any superstars entering or leaving PPG Paints Arena.
“We’re going to listen,” Burke continued, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “The fact of the matter is, your job as a GM or president of hockey operations is to listen and see what’s there, but we like our group.”
