Rickard Rakell scored shorthanded Thursday night, and the Pittsburgh Penguins are reportedly ready to move him anyway.
Frank Seravalli said on Oilers Now that the Swedish forward is up for grabs. Bryan Rust will be too.
Then came the bigger line. According to Seravalli, the whole core outside of the big guns is going to be in play.
If that holds, the Penguins are done waiting for this group to fix itself. The standings explain why.
The Penguins sit sixth in the Metropolitan Division with a 5-6-2 record. Thirteen games in, that's not a slow start anymore.
The road has been ugly. They're 1-5-1 away from home, and the next stop is Montreal on Saturday night.
Bryan Rust injury turns Penguins sell-off into a puzzle
Here's the problem with the Rust half of this. He's on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and isn't expected back until at least Dec. 5.
Shopping him now is like listing your house while the roof is being replaced. Buyers will show up. They just won't pay full price.
Rust carries a $5,125,000 cap hit. He has five points in seven games this season, with a minus-7 rating.
Moving him before he's healthy would be a bad trade waiting to happen. The Penguins get far more by letting him play his way back into a buyer's lineup first.
Rakell is the cleaner sell. He's scored three goals in his last five games, with four points over that stretch.
His shorthanded goal Thursday came in a 4-3 overtime loss to Utah. He logged 18:31 of ice time and fired three shots on goal.
At a $5,000,000 cap hit, he's a plug-and-play forward for a contender. He's scored on both the power play and the penalty kill this season.
The full season line is less flattering. Six points in 13 games and a minus-4 rating won't headline anyone's sales pitch.
And clearing veterans opens real minutes for Benjamin Kindel, a 19-year-old with three goals through 10 games.
The rot isn't limited to the trade bait. Sidney Crosby is a minus-8, and Erik Karlsson has gone minus-6 over his last 10 games.
Montreal won't offer much relief. The Canadiens have won four straight, and the Penguins needed overtime to edge them 6-5 back on Oct. 3.
Another loss Saturday won't decide anything on its own. But sooner or later, someone in Pittsburgh has to define exactly who counts as a big gun.
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More details to come.
Should the Penguins trade Rickard Rakell now while he's scoring?
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