Penguins Lose Jiricek Trade Sweepstakes; Wild Pay Heavy Price

The Pittsburgh Penguins and general manager Kyle Dubas were unsuccessful in their pursuit of large defenseman David Jiricek, losing the trade sweepstakes to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon.

The Minnesota Wild acquired Jiricek, the sixth overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft, for a package the Penguins were very unlikely to match. Minnesota GM Bill Guerin surrendered a first, second, and fourth-round pick, plus depth defenseman Daemon Hunt, to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Jiricek.

Trade rumors had swirled around the Penguins and Jiricek for a week, beginning when Dubas made a trip to Cleveland, presumably to see Jiricek with Columbus’s AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters.

This season, the Penguins have already acquired former first-round pick Philip Tomasino, who was selected 24th overall in 2019, from the Nashville Predators in exchange for a 2027 fourth-round pick that originally belonged to the New York Rangers. And before training camp, Dubas swapped his 2023 first-round pick Brayden Yager (14th overall) for the Winnipeg Jets 2022 first-rounder Rutger McGroarty (14th overall).