NHL Rumors: Pittsburgh Penguins and the Columbus Blue Jackets

On the Pittsburgh Penguins …

Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Penguins forwards Conor Sheary and Carl Hagelin have been in the rumor mill, but it seems unlikely that they are traded. The Penguins don’t really have any players that are are expendable, so those two names get chosen.

The 29-year old Hagelin has a year left on his contract at $4 million. He averaged just under 3 minutes a game on the penalty kill. The Penguins should actually consider re-signing him instead of trading.

Sheary didn’t have a good season, is 26-years old and has two years left at a $3 million hit. His advanced stats were good and seemed to have some chemistry with Derick Brassard at the end of the season. If moved, they would need to get equal or greater value. He could be moved in a ‘bigger’ trade to help balance out pieces and salary.

GM Jim Rutherford said he’s not “actively” trying to trade Phil Kessel and Kris Letang.

On the Columbus Blue Jackets …

Brian Hedger of Bluejackets.com: Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen held a Q & A with radio broadcaster Bob McElligott discussing their season and the upcoming draft. Kekalainen on the draft.

“Now, we can just concentrate on the draft. There’s a lot of talk, obviously, going in there. I’ve been with Ottawa. When I worked for Ottawa, we had the 21^st pick in the draft. The morning of the draft, we had second overall and 21^st pick overall. So, things can change quickly too.

Our scouts are going to be ready, and those tough decisions, whether we’re at third overall, like we were with Pierre-Luc Dubois, and our head scout, Ville Siren and Chris Morehouse, did most of the work with him, where they were certain with all the pressure that was on them, too, ‘How is our list?’ those guys stuck to their guns and said, ‘This is the guy we need to take, no matter what the experts are saying.’ And we got a great player there.

So, they’re ready, wherever we’re picking, whether we pick 18^th or 10^th or third, or 10^th and 18^th, they’re going to be ready with their list and that’s what we’re going to follow.”