Do The Penguins Already Regret The Mikael Granlund Trade?
Did Ron Hextall get a single trade right during his time with the Penguins? I went over his list of errors recently in a different post. Long story short; a five year old child who was blind could have done a better job than Hextall did with Pittsburgh. Like many deals from that Hextall era, it seems like the Penguins are already regretting the Mikael Granlund trade.
Pittsburgh acquired Granlund at this past trade deadline from the Predators. The Penguins gave up a second round pick to bring Granlund in. In order to get rid of him, it sounds like Pittsburgh will consider just flat-out waiving Grandlund via buyout.
Check out what Frank Seravalli posted in his latest column.
*(All contract and buyout data courtesy of CapFriendly.com)*
“Contract: 2 more seasons, $5 million AAV”
“Buyout Structure: Next season at $833,333 and then 3 seasons at $1,833,333
Scoop: This is a difficult one to project, as we don’t even yet know who will be the Penguins’ next GM. But Ron Hextall left whomever that is a mess on the salary cap table, including Granlund, Hextall’s big trade deadline addition gone wrong. Granlund was awful in his 21-game stint as a Penguin, scoring one goal. Granlund is a grinder and the thought is his game will bounce back, but $5 million each of the next two seasons is a bet that the new manager might not be comfortable making. A buyout would represent almost $4.2 million in immediate cap savings in an all-important year, one of the last chances for the Pens’ core to compete. Of course, it might be easier to retain a bit of salary and limit the pain to two years instead of four, which is why a trade might make more sense.”
Granlund is a disaster defensively and was absolutely brutal during his 21 game stretch with the Penguins last year. Granlund, 31, posted five points and just one goal with the Penguins. Had he been even average, Pittsburgh probably makes the playoffs.
This one will probably depend on who becomes the general manager. It’s hard to say what the franchise will do with no one currently in charge. Regardless of who it becomes, I’m quite sure they will look to move off Granlund’s deal somehow, someway.
