The Pittsburgh Penguins are looking to make a splash trade by the deadline, moving Jake Guentzel to another team for what should be a massive return.
The expectation is that a trade should happen rather soon, and with the deadline quickly approaching, general manager Kyle Dubas is likely working the phones trying to collect the best deal for their superstar forward.
But what will the Penguins get in return for Guentzel? Our own Nick Horwat spoke with The Hockey News Pre-Game Show and said the return could include both a first-round pick and some top-tier prospects as Pittsburgh looks to start building for their next run at a Stanley Cup.
"I know Dubas want prospects to come in. They want guys who can help, not a rebuild necessarily, but start that transition to building a winning team here," Horwat said. "I'm assuming a first-round pick would be part of it just because they should be building for the future, but when it comes to the prospects, they're going to want one or two names who can help the lineup for the rest of the year and mostly into next year."
Guentzel has been linked to teams like the Las Vegas Golden Knights and Vancouver Canucks, with a move coming as early as today.
As for the rest of the team, Horwat believes making multiple moves could be tough now that the team is back to playing hockey. And after not making any trades following a disastrous road trip this past week, expectations may be limited for any other acquires.
"It'll be hard to make a ton of changes in the next few days unless Kyle Dubas has a bunch of phone calls ready to be made," Horwat said. "They had a complete day off yesterday, and I was pretty much expecting that to happen yesterday with how bad that road trip was. But no movements other than Matthew Phillips getting placed on waivers, and maybe that is a precursor to the amount of moves that are coming.
"Other than the core of [Sidney] Crosby, [Geno] Malkin, [Kris] Letang, [Erik] Karlsson - you can add [Bryan] Rust in there for a full no-move. ... [Marcus] Petterson might be in that conversation as well with the Penguins wanting him to stay. And for the goaltending, Jarry might be in conversations, but Dubas would have to be blow away for Jarry to be moved. Other than that, everyone it seems is up for moves."
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