Sheary ‘Pumped’ To Be Back in Pittsburgh

Sheary w Sabres
Photo credit Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

CRANBERRY TWP, PA (93.7 the Fan) – In a rare twist at the trade deadline the Pens traded for a player under a contract they signed him too.

27-year-old forward Conor Sheary returns to the Pens from Buffalo along with forward Evan Rodriguez for forward Dominik Kahun right before the NHL Trade Deadline on Monday afternoon.

Pens general manager Jim Rutherford originally signed Sheary after a couple of Stanley Cups to a three-year, nine million dollar deal, but ended up having to trade him to Buffalo for salary cap reasons.

“He didn’t leave here because we didn’t like him,” Rutherford said.  “He left here because of a cap situation, which is the same thing for a lot of players that leave.  We gotta move guys around to make the cap work.”

Jim Rutherford: "The Penguins, in a short period of time, have [acquired> Zucker, Marleau, Rodrigues, and Sheary… Hopefully, we get healthy here in the next week or two, and we have a whole team and we see what we’ve really got."Full video: https://t.co/8HzI4x0VEr pic.twitter.com/eJP61x9awf

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 24, 2020

Often on Sidney Crosby’s line, the lefty shot forward flourished.  Sheary scored a career-high 23 goals as part of 53 points in 2016-17 in just 61 games.

After scoring a pair against the Pens in the season opener in October, Sheary only scored seven more this entire season with only a pair of goals coming since January 4th.

“I gather all my information from people in hockey operations, coaching staff, hockey ops and everything,” Rutherford said.  “The coaches felt very strong when his name came up that it would be seemless for him coming back.”

Rutherford described Sheary’s reaction to the trade as “pumped” as he leaves a team eight points out of the post-season and four games under .500 for the second place Pens.