One of the hot topics of discussion leading up to the NHL Trade Deadline has been whether or not the Pittsburgh Penguins will move forward Jake Guentzel.
While general manager Kyle Dubas has not publicly stated that the 29-year-old is on the market, there is a good chance people will be calling about Guentzel, given the fact that he is on the last year of a five-year contract, and the Penguins are sitting outside of a playoff spot.
However, those discussions took a hit when Guentzel left Wednesday night’s game against the Florida Panthers with an upper-body injury. He was placed on injured reserved the following day, and is expected to miss up to four weeks. Guentzel has moved to LTIR, which means he has to miss a minimum of 10 games, or 24 days, which would take him beyond the deadline.
Yet, Guentzel is still going to be in the middle of trade talks during that time, as the ability of the Nebraska native are not in question, especially since he will return at some point next month.
On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk break down why Guentzel will still be sought after by other GMs.
Tyler Yaremchuk: It’s weird because now the Pittsburgh Penguins have to stay competitive without one of their best players. It’s going to create this thing I feel like, if they get back in the hunt, and they’re right there…maybe there’s a case to move him. Maybe this four-week stretch could hurt his value.
Frank Seravalli: The fact that he was put [on LTIR] retroactive to the injury, it does give us a little bit clearer of a picture. Does this hurt his trade value? My answer to that is no. We have a large enough sample size with Jake Guentzel to know how important of a piece he is, and if that is an authentic timeline, which any team trading for him would have access to medical records, I can’t foresee this thing becoming a huge bump in the road.
You can watch the entire segment, and full episode here…
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