PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - The Penguins once again will be without a first round pick, trading the 15th overall selection to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for former Penguins first round selection Kasperi Kapanen.
Kapanen was traded to Toronto as part of the big deal that brought Phil Kessel to Pittsburgh.
The Penguins also get defense prospect Jesper Lindgren, who’s been playing in Sweden and journeyman forward Pontus Aberg.
Toronto gets center prospect Filip Hallander, forward Evan Rodrigues, who the pens acquired late in the season and minor league defenseman David Warsofsky.
Ken Campbell, Senior Writer with The Hockey News joined Cook and Joe on Tuesday to discuss the trade.
Campbell believes Kapanen will give the team more depth, but the move comes with a price.
After the Pens were eliminated from the qualifying round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, General Manager Jim Rutherford called out his players and said he didn’t see enough urgency from them.
With the exception of Samuel Poulin, the team has traded their first round draft pick going back to 2015, leaving little depth in the team’s system.
“They do not have a pipeline coming up and to trade a pick this year, they already don’t have their 1st round pick next year it’s pretty clear that they’re trying to go for it again and take advantage of the last couple of years of production from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin,” said Campbell.
Campbell says that Kapanen has speed and is a good player but isn’t known for his goal scoring.
While the Penguins could be mortgaging their future with trading so many first round picks, Campbell says they have to try to win as many cups as they can in the next few years.
“They have to go for it while they have Malkin and Crosby and this core, they have too and you know what’s going to happen these guys are going to age out, they won’t have any prospects and the team is going to crater at some point,” said Campbell.