The Pittsburgh Penguins potentially have multiple names on their trade block this summer, but should Marcus Pettersson be on the move?
It's that time of the year for the Pittsburgh Penguins where everyone tries to figure out ways to maneuver the salary cap in an attempt to create the next championship team of the Sidney Crosby era. This summer in particular features a challenging logjam on the left side of the defense that eats up over $12 million in cap space alone. One of the names that is always floated out to be on the trade block is Marcus Pettersson.
Pettersson has played in parts of four season for the Penguins since coming to Pittsburgh in a trade from the Anaheim Ducks. A defensive defenseman, Pettersson has played in 245 games with the Penguins and collected only 69 points.
He has become the punching bag for a lot of Penguins fans, as his ack of physicality can sometimes lead to poor defensive optics as more talented players cut passed him with relative ease. His inability to clear out the front of the net was also highlighted at points this season, an area in which the Penguins defense struggles in general.
One other detriment to Pettersson's game is that he doesn't play special teams. Pettersson finished the season with just under 22 minutes of ice time on the man disadvantage. Despite a few obvious flaws Pettersson had a good season for Pittsburgh.
Pettersson played the majority of the season on the Penguins second defense pairing alongside long time partner John Marino. The emergence of Mike Matheson forced Pettersson into less playing time, finishing with his lowest average time on ice since joining the Penguins (15:39).
According to Natural Stat Trick, Pettersson ranked second among the Penguins top six defenseman in several key areas at even strength such as; corsi for percentage (53.57%), expected goals for percentage (54.47%), and high danger chances for percentage (56.21%). Pettersson also allowed the fewest total goals (38) among Penguins top six defenseman.
It was Pettersson's shutdown ability that netted him a five year contract from former Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford after the in the midst of the 2019-20 season.
Rutherford's penchant for big deals on the left defense is the primary reason for this log jam. A few months after signing Pettersson, he traded for Mike Matheson who, at the time, had six years remaining on his contract that costs $4.875 million against the salary cap.
While Pettersson has been rumored to be on the trade block for multiple seasons, Matheson and John Marino have also been floated out as potential financial flexibility moves for Hextall this summer. The Penguins will need all three of those defenseman as insurance in case veteran defense leader Kris Letang chooses not to return.
The best case scenario for the Penguins is that someone is willing to trade for Brian Dumoulin. Dumoulin has one year remaining on his current deal that counts $4.1 million against the salary cap.
It may be difficult to move Dumoulin due to his modified no-trade clause that would limit the amount of potential trade partners to ten teams of Dumoulin's choosing. It also doesn't help that Dumoulin is coming off of surgery to fix a torn MCL that he suffered in the playoffs.
Without a realistic trade partner the only option may be to buyout Dumoulin before next season. Buying out the remaining year of Dumoulin's contract would cost the Penguins $1.366 million against the salary cap for the next two seasons. As a result the Penguins would save $2.7 million on next year's salary cap.
It would be only the second time in the Mario Lemieux ownership era that the Penguins bought out a player (Jack Johnson in 2020) due to Lemieux's player first business philosophy. With Fenway Sports Group at the helm, one would figure that philosophy may be out the window.
The list of potential trade pieces for the Pittsburgh Penguins is long, but Marcus Pettersson's name should be scratched out.
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