Pittsburgh’s trade deadline day seemed pretty eventless until after 3PM, because general manager Jim Rutherford loves drama.
After it was announced the Penguins had two pending trade calls, the first was announced with only one portion to it:
Sounds like Eric Fehr to TOR.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) March 1, 2017
That was all we had until about 9 minutes later when we got this:
Frankie Corrado to PIT for Oleksy, Fehr and a fourth-round pick in 2017.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) March 1, 2017
Eric Fehr was a good signing in theory, as he was doing well with Washington in an overexposed role. Why wouldn’t he do better in a smaller role with Pittsburgh? It made sense. However it really quickly became a burden to the Pens, as Fehr couldn’t keep up with Mike Sullivan’s system which was and is primarily based on speed. Sadly, that’s not something Fehr has in relation to the rest of the club. The same can be said for Steve Oleksy; a great guy and a huge leader in WBS, but just doesn’t fit Mike Sullivan’s system in Pittsburgh. The fourth round pick makes sense as it fits Brendan Shanahan’s rebuild plan, and their cap space makes it feasible for them to eat up Fehr’s 2M contract–something the Pens would need for their next deal. More on that later.
The return for Fehr, Oleksy and the 2017 4th round pick from the Toronto Maple Leafs was Frankie Corrado, who fellow Pensblog writer Jesse Marshall sees potential in, and believes Corrado is extremely comparable to Washington Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen.
Yeah, but the potential is there for him to rebound here a la Niskanen, Cole, Schultz, etc. He’s got that level of skating ability. https://t.co/QTMnRXxLW9
— Jesse Marshall (@jmarshfof) March 1, 2017
Sportsnet writer Stephen Burtch had this to say: “We didn’t see much of him this year. Last season he was solid in a 3rd pairing role, largely paired with Marincin or Gardiner. He has limited offensive upside, but his defensive game was decent. He was playing well in the AHL on the Marlies’ top pair. His clearing waivers was a significant part of the Marlies improvement recently, actually. For Pittsburgh, I presume he just provides some depth and has potential going forward to make the top 6.”
The Leafs Nation writer Jeff Veillette also commented on why he likes Corrado: “He’s a decent enough NHL player who can play on most third pairs that had his career basically halted for two years. He’s easy to cheer for.”
He is currently on a one-year, $600K contract per CapFriendly and will be an RFA once the season ends.
AFTER THAT, however…well, let’s have some context to this one, first.
The Philadelphia Flyers traded Mark Streit to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Valtteri Filppula, a 2017 4th rounder and a 2017 7th rounder. Philadelphia would retain 4.7% of Mark Streit’s salary. The purpose of, for the Lightning, seemed to be clearing Filppula’s contract from their books and not having to protect him in the expansion draft.
The next part is the best part.
Sometime after it (and the Corrado deal), this was announced:
Also told the Penguins have acquired Mark Streit from Tampa Bay
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) March 1, 2017
This was the second deal the Penguins had apparently made. Rutherford and company sent a 2018 4th rounder to the Tampa Bay Lightning for defenseman Mark Streit, with Tampa retaining 50% salary.
Streit is 39 years old, but as we all know, age only matters if it hinders play. And if the numbers don’t lie (safe to say they usually don’t), it hasn’t hindered him as much as one would assume.
Streit’s offense is pretty one-sided for the goals/assists department, but having better teammates can perhaps change that. The same can be said for his shot suppression, which in the 31st percentile but can perhaps be changed with better defense partners and better forwards helping him out. It’s safe to say that he’s better than some of the roster defenseman the Pens currently have.
Streit has 5 goals and 16 assists in 49 games, this season. The overwhelming majority of his season has been played with Ivan Provorov.
The Philadelphia Flyers will continue to pay 4.7% of Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Mark Streit’s salary, while the Tampa Bay Lightning are paying 50%.
He is currently being paid $1.76M by the Penguins and is a UFA once the season ends, per CapFriendly.
Aside from trade deadline news, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins got some heart-wrenching news regarding AHL rookie defenseman and highly touted prospect Lukas Bengtsson.
Word on Lukas Bengtsson is that he’s likely done for the year. “There’s some hope, but he’s likely done,” Donatelli said. “Month-to-month.”
— Seth Lakso (@CVSethLakso) March 1, 2017
Looking forward to eventually seeing what a healthy Lukas Bengtsson can do. He impressed a lot of ppl this year while clearly not 100%.
— Seth Lakso (@CVSethLakso) March 1, 2017
Bildbyrån/Nils Jakobsson
Bengtsson had been dealing with Lyme disease throughout the season, and it limited him to only 16 games for the WBS Pens. He notched a goal and 5 assists in that timeframe.
If you’d like to wish him well, his twitter handle is @lukas_bengtsson.
That’s it for now…probably. Thanks for reading!
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
