Jason Spezza shed some light on the decision making around yesterday’s trade that sent forward Filip Hallander to Edmonton in exchange for defenseman Spencer Stastney.
“We had to make a move due to our depth at forward and by looking at past performances and future potential. Filip was the player we determined as expendable,” Penguins assistant general manager Jason Spezza wrote in an e-mail to local outlets. “In our trade discussions, the Oilers had interest in Filip, while we had interest in Stastney.”
Spezza’s use of the word ‘expendable’ surely isn’t intended to be as harsh as it comes off in reading, but it’s pretty much on the money. Hallander is 26-years old, he’s only played 17 career NHL games for one reason or another due to injuries, leaving for Sweden and a blood clot issue. He’s got one 5v5 goal in those 17 games (scored last week against the Flyers in a blowout win against a team playing awfully poorly). He’s done well to show gradual improvements yet at the same time has a very low ceiling of a fourth line, PK winger who never has been a high-end skater or shown a lot of dynamic skill. By rule those players are as expendable as it gets.
It’s clear to see that this trade was a problem solver for both Pittsburgh and Edmonton. The Penguins had (and, let’s face it still have) too many forwards. Hallander earned a spot with a strong training camp, yet if it weren’t for injuries/absences to Bryan Rust, Ben Kindel and Andrei Kuzmenko, this type of decision would have had to be made earlier. It wouldn’t have been a great idea or beneficial to risk Hallander on waivers and see him depart for nothing.
The Oilers faced a similar quandary in reverse, having too many defensemen and needing to add a forward. Stastney, a player they acquired for a third round pick less than a year ago, ended up on the outside looking in this year as the team’s eighth defenseman following some off-season adds on the blueline — not dissimilar to how acquiring forwards like Kuzmenko, Nick Robertson and Hendrix Lapierre pushed Hallander further towards the margins in Pittsburgh.
So instead of playing waiver roulette and giving the other 30 teams a chance to pluck the players away for nothing, the Pens and Oil struck a deal that works for both. The dots were there to be connected, as we wrote about over the summer that the situation and a possibility made sense for these teams to work together in this fashion.
Spezza also talked about what Pittsburgh liked about their new player.
“Stastney is a great skating defenseman (who) is at his best when he is asserting himself defensively and offensively, using his legs, retrieving pucks and moving pucks into the forwards’ hands,” Spezza wrote. “Stastney adds to our depth as a left-shot defenseman (who) has experience playing on the left or right side, and he will be competing with our existing defensemen for ice time.”
Stastney checks a lot of the boxes that Dubas likes in players. That profile of defender: plus skater, puck mover, not a huge emphasis on size is a hallmark of what he often goes after.
Beyond that, Stastney is 26-years old, has no contractual commitment after this year and has lacked opportunity in other spots. That’s a lot of boxes to check off for similar players like Parker Wotherspoon, Ryan Shea and Declan Carlile that the Pens have employed recently.
Defensive depth is a necessary thing. Pittsburgh has three defenders in their lineup over the age of 35. They have another, Sam Girard, who has averaged missing 19 games over the prior three seasons. Adding another layer before having to go into the AHL and call-up players who might not be ready (especially on the left side) is always a welcome addition.
The other interesting item is that this trade hasn’t truly solved Pittsburgh’s issue in totality, since they are navigating staying under 23 players now that many of the camp injuries are returning to play. Does adding Stastney mean eventually pushing Ilya Solovyov off the roster, perhaps as soon as when Andrei Kuzmenko’s non-roster status expires on Sunday? What will become of Elmer Soderblom, now scratched in three-straight games? Just how safe is Ville Koivunen’s spot on the team? There are still more questions than answers for what direction they will take in the days to come but this first trade of the year starts to right-size the balance of the forward/defenseman split for the roster a little bit. If the team gets back to health this won’t be the only transaction to ease to logjam of forwards.
