At the NHL trade deadline, the Pittsburgh Penguins made the difficult decision to trade forward, Jake Guentzel. The homegrown talent has played his entire career in Pittsburgh and developed strong bonds with everyone on the team, including Sidney Crosby. However, the decision was based on things larger than the business and with the future in mind Kyle Dubas sent the forward packing.
The deal netted the Penguins multiple draft picks and prospects. This hopefully could kick off the teams retool as they attempt to find a way to be competitive through the final years of Crosby, Malkin and Letang 's careers. Reports remain that Pittsburgh did everything in their power to sign Guentzel before eventually trading it.
Fans have wondered what cost could have possibly prevented Pittsburgh from coming to terms with one of their most important players. Today it was revealed that Guentzel was searching for nearly $10,000,000 per season on his next contract.
According to Josh Yohe of The Athletic and several other sources there remains a path for Jake Guentzel to return to the Pittsburgh Penguins as an unrestricted free agent, but only if he drops his reported price.
While it currently sounds like Guentzel is very happy in Carolina, it does sound as if he is unwilling to give away the opportunity to test unrestricted free agency. If he does make it to free agency he will definitely be the most coveted player on the market.
POLL | ||
Where is Jake Guentzel most likely to sign? | ||
Pittsburgh | 79 | 28.7 % |
Carolina | 73 | 26.5 % |
Vancouver | 30 | 10.9 % |
Somewhere else | 93 | 33.8 % |
List of polls |