Winners, Losers and Trade Grades: Jake Guentzel Dealt by Penguins to Hurricanes

The Carolina Hurricanes have been in on some big-name rentals the past few trade deadlines, but they never liked the fit enough to justify the cost. Besides, the biggest internet trolls in the NHL and the team’s tracksuit-wearing owner certainly weren’t going to let the growing criticism about its aversion to rentals disrupt its process.

Then Jake Guentzel suddenly hit the market, and the team’s need for an elite scoring winger was too obvious a fit to ignore. So, the Hurricanes finally did the thing: They went all-in for the biggest-name rental on the market: Jake Guentzel.

The 29-year-old Guentzel, on the last year of his contract carrying a $6 million average annual value (now 25 percent off), is exactly what this roster has needed given the scoring woes that have been the primary issue during their Stanley Cup window.

The two-time 40-goal scorer, two-time All-Star and 2017 Cup winner has 34 goals in 58 career playoff games—good for eighth-highest goals per playoff game in NHL history. He’s got a clean 58 points in those 58 games and a plus-four career playoff rating.

He is quite literally a perfect fit on the team’s weaker left wing depth chart, and the Hurricanes finally found a convincing solution to the clutch factor they’ve clearly lacked.

The Penguins, on the other hand, have some questions to answer after this. What does it mean for the direction of the franchise? What does it mean for Sidney Crosby’s future? Could you really not finesse a first-round pick out of anyone?

The Hurricanes have qualified for the postseason in five straight years after a decades-long drought, and it’s been absolutely crucial from a small-market team security standpoint.

Attendance numbers are off the charts and haven’t waned. Relocation rumors have completely died down, and there’s plenty of buzz about the team around a town—Raleigh, North Carolina—that has been dominated by college sports in the past.

The tricky thing about buzz, though, is the pressure and expectations that come with it. The team has exercised discipline in rarely going after rentals at the deadline, and the front office is famously calculated to a fault with its dealings.

This isn’t inherently bad, and it’s clearly how you reach perennial playoff status in a small market. The team has hired some of the league’s brightest minds like assistant general manager Eric Tulsky to optimize every decision.

The Hurricanes have made it to the Eastern Conference Final only to get swept twice in five years. With key players like Teuvo Teravainen, Brett Pesce, Brady Skjei, Martin Nečas and Seth Jarvis in the final years of their contracts, there’s been growing pressure to play it less safe and make a significant move at the deadline.

When the Canes were rumored to be in on the Guentzel sweepstakes, the fanbase had little faith that Carolina would get it done considering how many players it has talked to, and ultimately decided not to budge in the past.

Head coach Rod Brind’Amour even uttered the phrase so commonplace in Canesland that it has become a meme: “We like our group.”

It’s become so meme’d that we tend to forget GM Don Waddell has acquired several big stars via trade: Dougie Hamilton, Brent Burns and Vincent Trocheck, to name a few. It’s just that the name of the game has always been term.

Well, term or not, Jake freakin’ Guentzel is officially part of the well-liked group. You don’t want to exaggerate and pat the front office on the back too much for simply doing its job, but this was a move that deviated from the typical Hurricanes game plan, and you’ve got to give them credit for acquiring the most coveted player of the deadline and being patient enough to pass on others recently who didn’t fit their needs as precisely as Guentzel did. And since they passed on plenty of others, they had the space and capacity to fit him on the roster and beat out other buyers.

It’s encouraging to finally know for sure that the Canes will budge on a rental they truly love, and it’s a vote of confidence to the players that Waddell and Brind’Amour do like their group enough to give them every chance at the Cup.

As much as Guentzel is a huge addition to any team, I always thought he’d be a better fit on the Canes than the Rangers. The Canes have had a noticeable hole on the left wing and have desperately needed elite, proven scoring that doesn’t shrivel up deep into the playoffs. He also slots nicely into their first power-play unit.

The Rangers have more of a need for a natural right-winger and/or a player who doesn’t play top-line minutes, and I have trouble seeing where Guentzel would fit on their power play.

Regardless, the Hurricanes making a significant upgrade inherently makes a sizzling Metropolitan playoff race even more difficult as the Rangers, Canes, Flyers and friends fight for seeding.

It puts a bit more pressure on the Rangers to make a move more than anyone else in the division, considering they were in on Guentzel and are clearly looking to make a move, and that inherently gives sellers more leverage ahead of Friday’s 3.p.m. ET trade deadline. I could still see a Frank Vatrano-type move if the Rangers are OK with a slight drop in production that’ll come with his drop in minutes.

If you’ve listened closely enough and read between the lines the past few seasons, you’ll have heard Brind’Amour’s subliminal pleas.

The Jack Adams winner is such a great coach that he’s managed to squeeze absolutely everything—career year after career year—out of so many players up and down the lineup.

This creates frustrating optics when the team isn’t winning in the postseason. You get so used to players outperforming under him that you forget other teams don’t have to constantly work as hard as they possibly can and exhaust themselves when they have a few higher-end assets.

Brind’Amour is also acutely aware of the market and what it takes to keep hockey in Raleigh. Often, this looks like gratitude for an owner like Tom Dundon, and sometimes that goes as far as Brind’Amour becoming the public figurehead who willingly takes the heat off ownership and management for various decisions he might not even agree with behind closed doors.

I’ve been around the team after a few playoff runs that didn’t end up with the Canes raising a Cup, and these are the times Brind’Amour tends to hint that he’d love the team to acquire a truly elite scorer.

He’s wanted his team full of hard workers to get rewarded the same way the 2006 team he captained did with Mark Recchi and Doug Weight. And whoever is tasked with playing alongside Guentzel is about to get a big reward.

I could see the Canes trying several blend-o-ramas when it comes to Guentzel’s spot in the lineup, and they’ve been shaking things up all season as it is. Of course, he’d be great in Andrei Svechnikov’s spot next to Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teräväinen, but who wouldn’t be?

I’d be interested to see him next to fellow former Penguin Jordan Staal and vibe provider Seth Jarvis on the “third” line (Brind’Amour typically gives Staal more minutes than a typical third line). Jarvis has deserved linemates with higher offensive power, and I could see him playing so well alongside Guentzel.

He’s an obvious shoo-in for the occasionally struggling first power-play unit, and he’s got a real chance to change the man-advantage complexion big time.

For as much as the haters try to discredit Guentzel for benefiting from playing next to Sidney Crosby for the large majority of his career, Crosby has benefited just the same from the younger winger keeping him sharp and Guentzel’s ability to keep up with the most cerebral player in the game.

It’s truly the end of an era, and with the 36-year-old Crosby in the twilight of his career, it makes you wonder what’s next for him. He fought hard to keep the 17-year strong band of himself, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin together for one more run this year, but it hasn’t worked out how they hoped and something had to give.

Now what? Do you ride it out in the town you spent your whole career in and spearheaded one of the best modern runs an NHL team has had? Do you go wherever it takes to win one more Cup on your way out?

If I’m Crosby, I’m taking the next plane to Colorado and joining my bestie’s Hart Trophy campaign. But I’m certainly not Crosby, and there’s a reason he’s lauded as one of the classiest humans to ever touch the game of hockey. I have a hard time seeing him leaving the franchise for now.

Hurricanes: A

You’re telling me the Canes got exactly what they needed, beat out multiple other serious suitors in the process and didn’t even necessarily surrender a first-round pick to acquire a household name still in his 20s? And you’re telling me they got him at 25 percent off?

A lot of the time, the conditions of a conditional pick feel arbitrary. This one is clear as day: If the Hurricanes make the Stanley Cup Final, the pick is a first-rounder. If the Hurricanes don’t make it to the Stanley Cup Final, they get to keep their first and give the Penguins a second.

Bunting was putting together a solid season in Carolina and is a serviceable player anywhere in the lineup, but sending him to Pittsburgh clears the exact position Guentzel plays without much of a headache.

The haul of prospects is plentiful, and that was a non-negotiable on Pittsburgh’s part as it looks to begin a rebuild. But the Canes have long had almost too many solid prospects brewing in the cupboard with nowhere to put them—especially with no AHL affiliate. They’ve got assets to play with there by design. They’ll be fine in the future, and now they’ll be fine in the present.

Penguins: C-

Look, I get that Penguins GM Kyle Dubas didn’t have all the leverage in the world knowing Guentzel’s status as a pending unrestricted free agent, but there was a competitive list of suitors. Getting an unconditional first-round pick here was absolutely necessary, and anything less than that is an objective miss. It’s Jake Guentzel.

That said, Dubas did have to make a tough, unpopular decision here with the future of the franchise unclear and right on the line of will-they-won’t-they. I respect sucking it up and making the decision, and he squeezed out at worst a second-round pick, a solid player on a rebuilding roster in Bunting, and several high-ish-end prospects, at least one of whom is destined to pan out well.

But it’s Guentzel. You need a first-round pick.