Penguins hope to avoid post-trade blues

That the Pittsburgh Penguins are here again, having shipped away players ahead of the NHL trade deadline, is indicative of their overall situation.

After all, clubs in the thick of postseason contention don’t jettison top-scoring wingers like Jake Guentzel, which the Penguins did last March, or shutdown defensemen such as Marcus Pettersson, who was traded to the Vancouver Canucks late Friday night.

Along with Pettersson, winger Drew O’Connor was traded to the Canucks in a deal that gained the Penguins forward Danton Heinen, defenseman Vincent Desharnais, forward prospect Melvin Fernstrom and a conditional first-round draft pick (in either 2025 or 2026).

All the Penguins (22-248, 52 points) can do now is trek onward and try to manage the emotions of parting with valued teammates more effectively than last season, when the club went 2-6-2 in the two-plus weeks after losing Guentzel.

“I like to think we have that experience to draw on, and that should help us, that in and of itself,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “I also think it’s our responsibility as players and coaches to control what we can, and that’s what we’ll do. We’ve got a good group in here — they’re good pros. Having said that, there’s a human element to this stuff that’s hard for guys. You build relationships.

“Marcus was here for seven- plus years, and (O’Connor) has been here for five years or so. These guys — they’re a close-knit group. They build friendships both on the ice and off the ice. So there’s a human element that we’re all challenged to deal with, but that’s the reality and that’s to a certain extent what we sign up for.”

The first opportunity for the Penguins to turn the page came quickly, when the Nashville Predators visited PPG Paints Arena on Saturday night.

The result? A 3-0 shutout for the Penguins, their first of the season.

“I thought we did a great job of just focusing on our job tonight and just getting two points,” said goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, who made 25 saves and earned his first shutout since March 22, 2024.

“Every game now is important. Not that they weren’t before, but we dug ourselves a hole again. We know what it’s going to take to get out of it.”

Pettersson, after being traded to Pittsburgh from the Anaheim Ducks in late 2018, evolved into a steady presence on the blue line.

The 28-year-old appeared in 442 games for the Penguins, recording 141 of his career 151 NHL points in a Pittsburgh sweater.

For the Penguins’ fellow defensemen, particularly the younger players, Pettersson was a friend and mentor.

“He’s probably the perfect guy to look at for a role model if you’re a D-man in this organization,” defenseman Ryan Shea said. “He does everything so well. That’s the D-man I aspire to be — just good at pretty much everything in every aspect, and that’s what he was. He did so much for this organization. I was close with him off the ice, too, so it’s definitely sad to see him go.”

Shea also regretted having to part ways with O’Connor, as the two lived in the same apartment complex just a few doors down from one another.

O’Connor, 26, played his entire NHL career of 210 games with the Penguins after signing as an undrafted free agent out of Dartmouth in 2020.

Through parts of five campaigns with the team, he showed signs of developing into a reliable secondary scoring threat.

Ahead of the Penguins’ morning skate Saturday, Pettersson and O’Connor made a final appearance at the club’s Cranberry complex, saying their farewells before boarding flights for Vancouver.

“We texted a little bit (Friday) night,” defenseman P.O Joseph said. “They came in (Saturday) morning, and it changed their mood a little bit from a normal game day, but it was good to see them at least before they left.”

Following the Guentzel trade last year, the Penguins did eventually snap back into it and put together a good stretch of hockey at the end of the season, going 8-2-3 over their last 13 contests.

While the timing of this trade offers the Penguins a longer runway than in 2024, the club sits in 15th place in the Eastern Conference and is six points out of wild-card position.

“We don’t have the time if we want to make a run for it like we did last year,” Penguins director of hockey operations and general manager Kyle Dubas said. “We don’t have the time to see these points slip away. So I think we have to learn from (last year). I think with young guys coming up from Wilkes- Barre, the hope is that will provide us with some energy and we can learn from last year and propel ourselves to have a meaningful run through February, March and April.”