The dust is still settling on the Penguins’ season. Kyle Dubas gave his end of season press conference last week and the team will be mostly inactive until the end of June. They might have the occasional re-signing, like recent moves to bring back Connor Dewar and Ilya Solovyov in the short-term but the rhythm of the season will be mostly quiet for a while longer.
Nothing, however, stops the rumors and whispers about. The recently eliminated Anaheim Ducks were a natural talking point for national
reporters like Elliotte Friedman to discuss.
The Penguins and Ducks have been frequent trading partners in the recent past and are natural enough fits since they reside in different conferences. It also seems like that for whatever reason Anaheim often has at least rumors of player availability, like with defenseman Pavel Mintyukov last season. That talk died down permanently after Mintyukov eventually found his way into Anaheim’s top-four and became a focal point of their team.
The talk these days has shifted to situate around McTavish and Zellweger.
Neither are Egor Chinakhov cases where the team that drafted that player is going to cut bait for a relatively low price of a couple of non-first round draft picks. As Friedman notes, there will be significant interest around the league should either one of them move into the realm of serious trade consideration.
That status alone might be enough to chase a team like Pittsburgh away either voluntarily if they don’t want to meet the price set, or perhaps involuntarily if Anaheim is simply receiving better offers from other teams than what the Pens have to give themselves.
However, at this point, both McTavish and Zellweger would be matches and fits for the Penguins. Their reasonable young center depth chart is basically Ben Kindel and nothing else at this point, though Bill Zonnon has been doing well in the AHL playoffs in his very first pro action. (Zonnon is also playing on the fourth line there, any hopes for an accelerated turn into a full-time NHL player in the very immediate future might be a little too hopeful in timing).
While McTavish fits a need, his status as a former No. 3 overall pick in 2021 and a player who has produced four straight 40+ point seasons in the NHL while barely scratching the surface of meeting his potential might be a stretch for the Pens to reasonably acquire.
That could make Zellweger, or 22-year old Tristan Luneau who played almost all of 2025-26 in the AHL, more precise, realistic options for Pittsburgh. Both are left handed defensemen, where the pipeline of talent within the organization at that position is even more lacking than center. A smooth-skating player like Zellweger who can operate in the offensive zone (scoring seven goals and getting 22 points last season) fits the mold of the style that Kyle Dubas has sought in the past.
The other big question would be if the Pens have what Anaheim might be interested in at this point of their evolution into a playoff team. The Ducks did trade their first round pick away, even though they probably wouldn’t be looking to move a lot of ready or near-ready talent to reload with a prospect, it might make some sense that they would be interested in getting a spot in the 2026 first round considering that they currently don’t have a pick there. On the flip side, whether or not the Pens would move a first round pick for NHL ready talent remains a question to be answered.
This time of year there’s not much more besides wondering at this point. Given Dubas’s nature and history it’s a good bet he’ll be active to at least get the information needed to see if there’s a deal to be struck that both sides would act on. Anaheim and Pittsburgh have long been linked to various degrees in rumors and trades, we’ll have to see this summer if another chapter gets added to that history.
