Trade-deadline primer: Pittsburgh Penguins

When you have neither a surplus of picks or prospects to deal from nor the cap space to take on a pricey contract, it’s tricky to find possible fits to intrigue other teams. One possible option is defenseman Juuso Riikola. He has been limited to just two games this season but has been a sixth or seventh option for a couple of years now. The Penguins' long list of injuries on defense (which included Riikola for roughly six weeks) forced them to bring some other players in, and as a result, the 27-year-old hasn’t played since being activated off LTIR nearly a month ago. With another year left on Riikola's deal at $1.15 million, his salary is one that could be thrown into a move to try to match money for cap purposes.

Prospect winger Radim Zohorna has impressed in the minors and even chipped in with a goal in two games with Pittsburgh. At 6-6, Zohorna's size will be intriguing to quite a few teams, and if the Pens don’t want to part with a draft pick and want to move a prospect under contract instead, the 24-year-old pending restricted free agent will be asked about fairly quickly.

If Hextall wants to shake things up more drastically, Jason Zucker stands out as a longshot candidate to move. The Penguins paid a fairly high price to get him, and with how he has performed, they’d be hard-pressed to recoup that now. However, with Zucker's $5.5 million price tag for two more years after this, moving him would allow the Penguins to potentially free up some wiggle room to make an impact addition now, and depending on the term of the contract, possibly give them some extra space over the next two years when they’ll still be tight to the cap. Zucker might make more sense as an offseason trade candidate if they could find the right fit (there is a 10-team no-trade clause with which they have to contend) but without many viable options to move now, he’s worth a mention here.

Others to Watch For: F Sam Miletic ($700,000 RFA), F Valtteri Puustinen (prospect whose rights expire June 1st), Colton Sceviour ($1.2 million, UFA)

Team needs

1) Center Depth – The long-term injuries to Malkin and Jared McCann (even Teddy Blueger has missed time) has emphasized how thin the Penguins are up the middle. Sam Lafferty and now Frederick Gaudreau have held their own, but someone who is an upgrade on those two who can serve a purpose on the fourth line but move up to anchor the third line if injuries strike would be nice. The Penguins were able to add some defensive depth when the injuries hit, but that didn’t happen with their middlemen.

2) Goaltending Insurance – Casey DeSmith is having a fine season but has only 65 career games under his belt. Tristan Jarry has been up and down but has been okay overall. He too hasn’t played in 100 career NHL contests, sitting at 87. Their taxi squad option is Maxime Lagace, who has a GAA near 4.00 in his limited NHL action. A more proven third option in case the injury bug bites yet again or one of the two netminders struggles would be a low-cost acquisition that could wind up being useful later down the road.