Potential Penguins Trade Targets; Pens Linked to Sabres Prospects

It’s not a secret what the Pittsburgh Penguins want on the NHL trade market. General manager Kyle Dubas and staff are scouring the NHL for young players, NHL-ready prospects, and draft picks, in that order.

They also seem to like former first-round picks, and the Buffalo Sabres have a few who haven’t worked out.

Earlier this season, Dubas acquired Philip Tomasino from the Nashville Predators for mere future considerations. The plan was to give Tomasino a lengthy NHL matriculation, during which he would have the opportunity and instruction to grow into the player forecasted when Nashville selected him with the 24th overall pick in 2019.

The deal serves as a blueprint for additional deals to make the Penguins younger and to bridge the gap between the arrival of the team’s next era and the end of the current one.

In his latest 32 Thoughts column, Sportsnet reporter Elliotte Friedman succinctly tied the Penguins and Buffalo Sabres together on the NHL trade front.

“With all of the noise around the Penguins, I believe they have interest in some of Buffalo’s younger, NHL-ready prospects. It fits what they want,” Friedman wrote.

With plenty of future considerations left to give, the Penguins can be on the lookout for players they believe have the talent but are blocked from getting enough NHL ice time or are misjudged by their current team. Buffalo may have a few of those prospects.

First, we’ll take prospects Konsta Helenius and Anton Wahlberg off the table, not because we’ve been told the Penguins are uninterested, but because Buffalo GM Kevyn Adams would be engaging in managerial malfeasance to deal them away. The pair are among Buffalo’s top prospects, and there is no reason to believe Buffalo would sell low and the Penguins would buy high. Dubas is looking for the reverse: buy low and sell high.

Helenius was the 14th overall pick in 2024. Wahlberg was Buffalo’s second-round pick in 2023, 39th overall. He’s in his first professional season with the Rochester Americans. The 6-foot-3 center is a two-way player and, like Helenius, is still dripping with high hopes and potential.

However, there are a few falling Sabres prospects who haven’t been able to clear the gravitational pull of the minors and establish themselves at the highest level, including a small forward with big offensive skills.

To get a better read on the available Sabres whom Dubas might be eyeing, Pittsburgh Hockey Now contacted several industry sources with direct knowledge of the prospect pool.

Carson Gates of Trainwreck Sports in Buffalo offered a thorough and detailed analysis of several prospects to watch, including Isak Rosen.

3 Potential Penguins Trade Targets

1. Isak Rosen, LW

He weighed less than 160 pounds when Buffalo drafted him 14th overall in 2021. However, he has added muscle and packed on a few pounds this season to his benefit. As other Sabres prospects like Zach Benson and Tyson Kozak zipped past him on the depth chart, Rosen has been honing his craft at Rochester of the AHL.

The book on Rosen was that he had skill but was easily knocked off the puck and lacked the strength to compete in the battle areas at the professional level. In his third professional season, that is changing, and his numbers are climbing. He scored 20 goals with 50 points in 67 games last season but already has 16 goals in 35 games this season.

Gates tells PHN, “Rosen is a phenomenal playmaker, but his goalscoring has been his biggest improvement this year in Rochester. He looks stronger this year compared to previous seasons, and his game is becoming more multi-dimensional.”

The sheets now list Rosen at 6-feet, 174 pounds, and his scouting report is exactly the type of project Dubas seems to like. He played in one NHL game in November and has one more season remaining on his entry-level contract (ELC).

2. Ryan Johnson, LD

Johnson, 23, is an all-around defenseman. Buffalo selected him 31st overall in 2019, and the 6-foot, 194-pound defenseman can skate, move the puck, and eat up a lot of minutes.

He played 41 NHL games last season but just three this season because of the fully loaded Sabres’ blue line. He’s not a point producer, registering just 14 assists and no goals in 60 AHL games over two seasons. He also has seven career NHL assists.

“(He) shows good flashes in the NHL but just can’t put it all together and can’t really get the ice time needed with Dahlin, Power, and Byram here,” Gates explained.

Johnson is a left-handed defenseman, and the Penguins currently have plenty of those, but perhaps they will not have the same surplus after the March 7 NHL trade deadline.

Johnson is a pending RFA with arbitration rights.

3. Noah Ostlund, C

Another mid-first-round pick who has been passed on the depth chart but could offer some tangible benefits. Ostlund is a defensively responsible center, and Buffalo selected him 16th overall in the 2022 NHL Draft. He’s not a big guy, at just 5-foot-11, 171 pounds, and has not lit up the statistics during his first full season in North America but has been a stalwart defensively.

Ostlund missed 15 games with a hand injury but had just one point in his first 12 games of the season.

It might be a tad soon for Buffalo to trade Ostlund, who is in the first year of his ELC, but there are already some concerns about his suitability for the North American game. Rochester assistant coach Vinny Prospal didn’t sugarcoat his lack of offense.

“You’re looking at his stats, they suck,” Prospal told the Times Herald-Record in Rochester on Jan. 4. “Like, let’s be honest, they suck. For a guy who has been highly, highly drafted, you want more production.”

Ouch.

However, Ostlund torched opponents at the 2024 World Juniors for Team Sweden. The center scored 10 points (3-7-10) in that tournament, and Team Sweden won the Gold Medal.

Since Prospal publicly chided his prospect in early January, Ostlund has picked up the pace a little bit, notching points in four of his last five games (1-3-4). Ostlund’s upside is limited; even on draft day, the scouting rags pegged him as no better than a middle-six center type with defensive skills and a touch of offense with a subpar shot.

Perhaps Dubas and company see room for growth and a buy-low opportunity in Ostlund, too.