Confirmed Trade: [CAR/PIT] Jake Guentzel (25% retained), Ty Smith for Michael Bunting, Ville Koivunen, Vasili Ponomarev, Cruz Lucius, 2024 cond. 1st, 2024 cond. 5th

[GirardSpinorama]

Dubas is god awful unless at least 2 of those prospects hit.

 

[thaman8765678]

It's a buyer market this year.

 

[Mike C]

+ Bunting who is a good player for a UFA. This board just wants to hate, no one actually wants to have a real conversation anymore. I mean it is lots of bitter leaf fans so I guess it polutes this thread.

Solid point on Bunting

 

[Divine]

So sad, you pump Buntings tires for years then this trash. Defend Dubas to no end then rip on him.

The return is pretty good for a UFA way more than Ottawa got for Stone, Duchene etc.

Bunting was not overpaid last year. How is me calling him overpaid sad?

Bunting never made more than 950K/year in his career up to the age of 27 (last year). He now makes 4.5M for multiple seasons and had the worst +/- on the Hurricanes.

If the Hurricanes were happy with him, he wouldn’t have been in this deal.

I’d gladly take Bunting back on the Leafs for under a million, but at 4.5M he’s a cap dump.

 

[stats1]

Considering this apparent bidding war I’m shocked Dubas settled for that.

 

[Woodrow]

None of the prospects are even former firsts either.
Some bidding war.

That's incorrect Ty Smith was a former first rounder...oh wait.

 

[SopelFanThe3rd]

Cruz Lucius is a sweet name.

 

[Sergei Shirokov]

Fact they don't get a 1st unless Carolina makes the final is the worst part.

I know you rarely get the very top prospects for rentals, but usually a 1st is standard for the top 2-3 targets.

 

[thrillhous]

This thread demonstrates that the average HF poster’s knowledge of prospects is actually quite thin.

 

[Glorydays22]

wow, Pittsburgh overplayed their hand.....lol, none of the top prospects everyone was talking about. and No 1st rounder.

 

[WarriorofTime]

This has the classic Dubas "wanted to do right by the player" (aka 'fold like a wet napkin') like when he had an Auston Matthews with zero leverage secure just 5 years and max money coming off his ELC. Another one here as Guentzel's NTC was limited to only blocking about 1/3 of the League.

 

[BoHorvat 53]

Don Waddell wasn't lying when he said "we don't give up premium assets for rentals" clearly, man oh man. I'm surprised no one could beat this, it's a buyers market

 

[wingsfan17]

Quantity over quality, but looking at the penguins roster, age, and pipeline, that's probably exactly what they needed.

Karlsson trade looks so bad.

 

[Chainshot]

2nd, cap dump and a middling prospect.

Reminds me a bit of the Evander Kane deal to San Jose.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

Yeah, I’m calling it now: At least one of those prospects will come back to bite Carolina in the ass a few years down the line. My money is on Pono, but any of the 3 have a good shot.

Highly unlikely, Pens will be a dumpster fire for a while after Crosby and Malkin are gone.

 

[Breakers]

This thread is WILD

so we started out
blake and morrow......... what a return, Way to go Calculator Boy
Ohh just Blake............... thats pretty cool too
Ohh not blake, and just morrow.............. still love that
ohh neither.

 

[TGWL]

There's no extention here. Maybe they already tried and couldn't work one out? Could complain why the deal seems a little weird with a conditional pick.

 

[Brookbank]

Decent return for a pending UFA. Good add for Carolina tho, it’s nice to see them go for it.

Canucks got more for Horvat

 

[LevelingSolo]

Dubas bent over as usual

 

[He]

There were so many flaky “absolutes” being thrown around in the discussion leading up to the trade by people who even then appeared to be talking out of their asses.

 

[DimitriL07]

So Dubas thinks one of those prospects is worth a 1st so he took one of them instead?

 

[Phrasing]

That doesn’t seem like much…

 

[Rafafouille]

Bunting was not overpaid last year. How is me calling him overpaid sad?

Bunting never made more than 950K/year in his career up to the age of 27 (last year). He now makes 4.5M for multiple seasons and had the worst +/- on the Hurricanes.

If the Hurricanes were happy with him, he wouldn’t have been in this deal.

I’d gladly take Bunting back on the Leafs for under a million, but at 4.5M he’s a cap dump.

Find me a single UFA 50 points guy making under a million. Even at 4.5m he's cheap and should bring a sizeable return at 50% retained. As for +/-, that things never been relevant. He led the leafs in +/- in his rookie season. He was 2nd behind Matthews on the leafs for forwards last year. Suddenly it's relevant now that he's a minus?

 

[BoHorvat 53]

Quantity over quality, but looking at the penguins roster, age, and pipeline, that's probably exactly what they needed.

Karlsson trade looks so bad.

Quality is always better than quantity when it comes to prospects, especially when dealing what people were saying was the top rental of this year's deadline. To walk away with a bunch of 'meh'...always had a feeling that when Dubas' deadline wasn't met of when he wanted this deal to be done that something was off and the return wasn't going to be as good as some Pens fans were saying it would take.

 

[ATypicalCanadian]

On a less hateful note, I guess:

• Bunting could be flippable
• Koivunen is only 20 and is 5th in Liiga scoring
• Lucius is at 31 points in 34 games as a 19 y/o
• Ponomaryov is having another solid season in the AHL on a team that isn't affiliated to his (now former) NHL team and had no obligation to play him.