Jake Guentzel trade tree has another branch

It is not a huge surprise that the Pittsburgh Penguins traded forward Michael Bunting.

That always seemed like a possible outcome from the moment he was acquired as part of the Jake Guentzel trade at the deadline a year ago. The surprise is that they traded him to a Nashville Predators team that is also out of the playoff race, and that they received two veteran players that also have term remaining on their contract in forward Thomas Novak and defenseman Luke Schenn.

It is a surprising trade in the sense that it is two non-playoff teams dealing veteran players that all have term remaining on their contracts.

The other thing it did was add another branch onto the Jake Guentzel trade tree, with the potential to keep growing potentially before Friday’s NHL Trade Deadline if they flip Schenn.

Here is what the trade tree looks like as of Thursday.

The players in yellow are players the Penguins have team control over. That is already six assets into the organization.

Quantity over quality trades don’t really tend to move the needle much, but there is an argument to be made that the Penguins may have gotten a little bit of both out of this deal.

Ponomarev and Koivunen are both having excellent seasons in the American Hockey League, while Brunicke is already one of the top prospects in the organization and looks to have the potential for a real NHL future.

The intrigue comes from the Novak and Schenn additions and what the Penguins do with them.

There is already speculation that Schenn could be flipped before Friday’s deadline, which could potentially add yet another pick into the cupboard.

Novak is also an intriguing add because he is two years younger than Bunting, has a slightly smaller salary cap number ($3.5 million vs. $4.5 million) and has even better underlying numbers even if his boxscore numbers this season have not matched up. It is potentially a nice buy-low addition, whether Novak either bounces back and becomes a quality player for a Penguins team that might bounce back sooner than expected, or becomes another movable trade asset.

It remains to be seen how much the Guentzel trade will move the needle long-term for the Penguins, but he was the biggest asset Dubas had to move a year ago when he kickstarted the Penguins’ rebuild (or re-tooling. Whatever you want to call it). He has certainly given himself a lot of flexibility with it and put a lot of assets into an organization that was lacking them.