Kyle Dubas made a move, just not the one plenty of Penguins fans were waiting for.
Instead of chasing one of the bigger names that surfaced in recent weeks, the Pittsburgh general manager dealt from a roster jam that has been hanging over the team all season. Filip Hallander was sent to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for defenseman Spencer Stastney, a swap that looks more like a depth shuffle than a headline-grabber.
That fits the way this Penguins roster has been built. The forward group is crowded, while the defense pairs have been uneven. Even with Pittsburgh off to a solid start, the numbers game has kept pushing Dubas toward a decision, and Hallander ended up being the piece moved out.
Hallander’s departure stings a bit because of the path he took to get here. He had battled through adversity for years, then worked his way back from a blood clot issue last year and fought for a spot on the NHL roster this past summer.
He was also off to a terrific start this season. But in a forward group that has too many bodies for too few jobs, Dubas apparently viewed him as the most movable option.
The trade did not involve the names that had been floating around lately. Simon Edvinsson and Alexander Nikishin had both made it publicly known that they want traded, but Dubas did not go after either of those bigger targets. Instead, he landed a player most fans probably don’t know much about in Stastney.
Stastney is a left-shot defenseman, which matters for a Penguins team that needs more of them. He has shown he can contribute in a sheltered NHL role, but he is not expected to play a major part unless injuries force the issue. At best, he could end up handling the kind of seventh-defenseman job Chad Ruhwedel filled for a long time.
For Pittsburgh, this feels like a deal of depth pieces rather than a move with much immediate impact. Hallander could still be useful to Edmonton as a respectable bottom-six option on a team with Stanley Cup ambitions, and it will be interesting to see whether he keeps producing alongside that talent. But on the Penguins’ side, this trade seems unlikely to change much unless Stastney turns into more than expected.
That is possible. It just should not be the expectation.
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