PITTSBURGH - The NHL trade deadline has officially been placed in the rearview mirror, and the Pittsburgh Penguins have said made their moves.
The final move made by Penguins general manager Ron Hextall prior to the deadline was to deal Brock McGinn and draft pick to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Dmitry Kulikov.
Hextall and the Penguins were previously linked to Kulikov, but he became just one of two moves made on deadline day.
The move for Kulikov gives the Penguins 10 defenders that could be utilized at the NHL level; rather than subtracting from an already thick log jam, Hextall added to it.
According to Hextall, he never planned on moving out a defender, despite acquiring a new face for the blue line.
“No we did not want to,” Hexatll said before referring to injuries to minor league defenders. “We lost [Xavier] Ouellet pretty much for the year in the minors. He was a good depth play for us. Ty Smith is hurt right now with a facial fracture.”
Thanks to those injuries, Hextall and the Penguins felt like they needed to make an addition to the blue line.
“We felt like out depth on D was something we had to enhance,” Hextall said. “That’s why we made the move with Dmitry.”
For those counting at home, the Penguins organization now have Smith, Kulikov, Kris Letang, Brian Dumoulin, Marcus Pettersson, Jeff Petry, P.O. Joseph, Jan Rutta, Chad Ruhwedel, and Mark Friedman as defensemen who can contribute at an NHL level right now.
Hextall also mentioned the abilities of Ouellet before he suffered a season ending injury, so maybe it’s 11?
Regardless, it’s too many when you only play with six per game; where do the other five go?
Acquiring Kulikov not only added to the log jam, but made it harder to decipher who is going to be in the lineup every night.
Doest he addition of Kulkov push Joseph to healthy scratches? Maybe Dumoulin sees that kind of fate?
There was a lot of cooks in the kitchen before the deadline, but Hextall believed the Penguins needed sous chef for the final push to the playoffs.
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