The Vancouver Canucks have redoubled their efforts to pull off a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins for pending UFA winger Jake Guentzel, The Athletic Penguins beat writer Josh Yohe reported Wednesday morning.
“Multiple teams are in on Guentzel, obviously,” Yohe tweeted on Wednesday. “But I’ve been told by numerous sources that Vancouver is very aggressively trying to make a deal happen.”
The Canucks have been linked to Guentzel ever since he was first rumoured to be hitting the trade market. Vancouver’s management group is littered with former Penguins executives, including Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin; Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet won the Stanley Cup with Guentzel in 2017.
Guentzel, 29, has 22 goals and 52 points in 50 games with the Penguins this season, but he’s been out since the middle of February while recovering from an upper-body injury. With the Penguins seemingly destined to miss the playoffs for the second consecutive season, it’s likely Guentzel has already played his final game with the team.
The Penguins originally selected Guentzel in the third round (No. 77 overall) of the 2013 NHL Draft. The 5’11” left wing made his debut with the team midway through their championship 2016-17 season, forcing his way into the lineup and earning significant playing time with Sidney Crosby down the stretch and into the playoffs.
Through 503 career games over parts of eight seasons with the Penguins, Guentzel has amassed 219 goals and 466 points. He’s added 34 goals and 58 points in 58 playoff games with the Penguins since 2017.
The Canucks have already been one of the NHL’s most active teams this season, acquiring Elias Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov, Sam Lafferty, and Casey DeSmith (and also trading away Anthony Beauvillier).
But the Canucks might need to get creative to add Guentzel into the equation. As TSN’s Chris Johnston indicated on Tuesday (and reiterated on Wednesday’s edition of Donnie & Dhali), the Canucks could explore a three-way deal with the Penguins and Boston Bruins that would see Guentzel go to Vancouver and Lindholm head to Boston.
Wednesday has already been an extremely busy day on the trade front, with Vladimir Tarasenko dealt to Florida and multiple other deals reportedly in the works. Stay tuned.
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