5 Worst Penguins Trades of the Sidney Crosby Era

The Pittsburgh Penguins have endured some truly bad trades in their history. The once forlorn franchise is even accused of mistakenly trading a first-round pick for prospect Rod Schutt, instead of All-Star Steve Shutt in 1978. Technically, the Penguins also traded future Hall of Fame goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to the Vegas Golden Knights and paid them for the privilege to do so.

Oh, make no mistake, there have been some bad trades in the team’s history.

So, with the specter of the 2017 expansion draft looming and needing to make available a goalie, former general manager Jim Rutherford gets a pass on giving up the second-rounder in the Fleury trade, though it was quite unnecessary.

Honorable Mentions

And there are a few terrible Penguins trades of the Sidney Crosby era that don’t make the top five, including former GM Ray Shero acquiring physical defenseman Douglas Murray, aka Crankshaft, for a pair of second-round picks at the 2013 NHL trade deadline.

Murray played only 14 games for the Penguins after they acquired him, and only 53 more games in his nine-year NHL career.

Former GM Ron Hextall zipped rediscovered defenseman Mike Matheson away to Montreal for Jeff Petry in 2022, which was a ghastly mistake that only looks worse and worse with time. Petry was already in his mid-30s, and it was yet another Ron Hextall trade that landed worse than Disney’s live-action Snow White remake.

And, who could forget the 2023 consolation prize, Mikael Granlund? In yet another Hextall whiff, he balked at the price to acquire J.T. Miller from the Vancouver Canucks and opted for Granlund at the last moment.

Granlund was mired in a slump with the Nashville Predators and going through a tough personal time. He had just one goal and five points in 21 games with the Penguins. The slow playmaker was obviously a terrible fit for the Penguins, and new GM Kyle Dubas lumped him into the castoffs as part of the Erik Karlsson trade.

Ultimately, Granlund didn’t make the top five because Hextall gave up a mere second-round pick. But no, we’re not putting the Karlsson trade on the list. Current frustrations aside, it was not a bad trade. You can pout all you want, I’m not putting it on the list!

Now that we’ve brought up bad memories…

5 Worst Penguins Trades5. Kasperi Kapanen

A first-round pick, with extra parts going each way (including fading prospect Filip Hallander), for Kasperi Kapanen from the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2020 was a trade that upset several GMs across the league because Rutherford executed it while the Stanley Cup bubble tournament was still going on. Other GMs expressed disappointment that the Penguins would trade the pick without them getting a chance to bid on it.

Kapanen had been the apple of Rutherford’s trade eye for some time, and he went for it.

In hindsight, especially as the pick was 15th overall after the Penguins’ disinterested performance in the Stanley Cup bubble, the trade really stinks. Kapanen never performed to his potential with the Penguins, and the organization waived him in the 2022-2023 season.

4. Tanner Pearson

After a pair of Stanley Cup championships and a dead-legged loss to the Washington Capitals in the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs, stale winds blew through the Penguins’ locker room. In the midst of a dreadful November in which the team looked lifeless and disjointed, Rutherford felt the team needed a jolt.

To send a message, he traded the very popular and fast Carl Hagelin for winger Tanner Pearson, who was struggling in Los Angeles. Hagelin was never much of a regular-season scorer but seemed to rise to the occasion in the playoffs.

Pearson never rose to the occasion in Pittsburgh, and the trade did not have the desired effect on the locker room. Rather than motivation, the team was disappointed, and Pearson was a terrible fit, scoring nine goals with 15 points in 44 games.

Without Hagelin’s speed and defensive contributions, the bottom of the Penguins’ lineup was greatly weakened, which only accelerated the downfall of the dynasty.

To his credit, Rutherford realized his folly and quickly flipped Pearson to Vancouver just 44 games later in exchange for Erik Gudbranson.

3. David Perron

A first-round pick for a scoring winger in the midst of a terrible slump. After popping 28 markers the season before for the Edmonton Oilers, Perron had just five goals in 38 games during the 2014-15 season.

Rutherford traded his first-round pick and Rob Klinhammer to Edmonton for Perron in hopes of landing a much-needed top-six winger for the increasingly petulant Penguins under the direction of coach Mike Johnston. However, Perron was a scoring winger who indeed didn’t score.

Perron had just 12 goals and 22 points in 43 games with the Penguins for the remainder of the 2014-15 season, and was worse off the following season as turmoil brought about a new coach, Mike Sullivan, with a speed approach. Perron had only 12 points, with just four goals in 43 games, before Rutherford flipped him to Anaheim for Hagelin.

The first-round pick became a 16th overall pick and wound up in the hands of the New York Islanders in another ill-fated trade. However, the Islanders snagged Matthew Barzal with the selection.

2. Jared McCann

Lost among the shuffle of seemingly terrible move after terrible move by Hextall was the panic trade ahead of the 2021 expansion draft in which Hextall feared losing Jared McCann for nothing, so he traded him away … for nothing.

McCann had begun to blossom as a scorer with the Penguins. Finally getting out from under the previously downtrodden Florida Panthers, who deployed him as a fourth-line center, McCann’s wicked wrister and his confidence to let it fly were growing. In 43 games during the 2020-21 season, McCann had 14 goals and 32 points.

Hextall traded McCann to Toronto (and GM Kyle Dubas) so Dubas could protect his core players in the expansion draft. In return, the Penguins re-acquired faded prospect Filip Hallander and a seventh-round pick. Eek.

Seattle swiped McCann in the expansion draft, while the Penguins protected 36-year-old Jeff Carter, who played three more seasons for the Penguins, arguably the last two as a quickly declining player.

Over the last four years in Seattle, McCann has 118 goals in 315 games, including A 40-goal season in 2022-23.

1. Derick Brassard

Is much explanation needed? The Penguins were back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, and Rutherford went all-in on a third Cup. On paper, it was a brilliant trade. In fact, almost no fault whatsoever could be applied to Rutherford for the complete and utter flop that the trade became.

In fact, Brassard was such a highly sought trade piece that the Vegas Golden Knights helped make the deal between the Ottawa Senators and the Penguins just so Brassard didn’t land in Winnipeg, Vegas’s rival.

Ultimately, Brassard despised his third-line center role with the Penguins and was as happy as a toddler being fed raw broccoli. The situation became a distraction, and Brassard did not play well, either.

He pouted. The team sank. The Washington Capitals finally won their first Stanley Cup.

The important parts of the giveaway for Brassard were a first-round pick, which became K’Andre Miller to the New York Rangers, and goalie prospect Filip Gustavsson, now a starter in Minnesota.

Brassard never relented, and nor did coach Mike Sullivan, who could have put Brassard on Evgeni Malkin’s wing. Brassard loved the idea, but Sullivan used the combination only briefly, and the team traded “Big Game Brass” less than a year later for McCann and Nick Bjugstad from the Florida Panthers.

Regardless of the assets given for Brassard, the biggest downside of the trade may very well be the aching, heartbreaking disappointment. Rutherford built the very best team in the league, and it flamed out. The Penguins haven’t won a playoff series since the 2018 Round One win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

The post 5 Worst Penguins Trades of the Sidney Crosby Era appeared first on Pittsburgh Hockey Now.

Related Headlines

5 Worst Penguins Trades of the Sidney Crosby Era

Tags: