Came across this little note, and since it is August, why not sink into it a little bit? We all know the Penguins are really weak on the left side of their defense, enter a division rival over on Long Island who happen to be stacked at the position to at least make a fun thought for a summer day.
Winning the lottery and getting the first overall pick in 2025 Matthew Schaefer has upended the Islanders’ blueline. Schaefer joins Adam Pelech and Alex Romanov on the left side of their depth chart, NYI has Ryan Pulock, Tony DeAngelo and Scott Mayfield on the right.
That leaves no space for Isaiah George, 22, who is on the last year of his entry level contract and still can be sent to the AHL without waivers. His best use might be hedging against injury and adding to depth but more than ever young players get antsy about opportunity. George played 33 NHL games in 2024-25, down to just four in 2025-26. He’s already spent parts of the last two years in the AHL.
These days, the once nearly dead practice of interdivision trading is back in a big way. Within the last year, the Pens have picked up Hendrix Lapierre from Washington, Egor Chinakhov from Columbus and sent Philip Tomasino to Philadelphia. It hasn’t been too long since the Pens sent Cody Glass to New Jersey, Anthony Beauvillier to the Caps or even Reilly Smith to the Rangers. Some of these trades have been important, others not so much but it stands to give evidence that more than ever teams are willing to work with even their closest opponents if the best deal available comes from a rival. That said, there hasn’t been a Pittsburgh/NYI trade since Bill Guerin was acquired back in 2009, so that’s been an area where the two teams don’t end up completing trades between each other in the recent past.
How to find a way to make a deal satisfying for NYI could be a hurdle. The Islanders have little cap space and haven’t made many moves this off-season. One area that stands out is their levels of 20-24 year old forward talent is pretty much non-existent besides top youngster Calum Ritchie. In a need-for-need area, players like Tristan Broz, Rutger McGroarty or Ville Koivunen would fill some holes within the NYI organization for young talent.
Whether or not they’d be interested in giving up George or see the value in anything that Pittsburgh would give up is obviously a huge assumptive leap in logic, and could be a reason nothing comes to pass going down this path. It’s surely not 10/10 obvious that both sides have a ton of motivation and clear match, though there’s enough around lining up to make a scenario plausible.
As mentioned, there are often injuries that could make George a very valuable player to retain for the near future from the opposite perspective. There’s not even dots to connect at this point, but the Pens want young talent and they badly need some NHL level players for the blueline. George isn’t a sure thing just yet, though he fits the mold of the type of player that Pittsburgh has brought in recently for players in their mid-20’s that don’t have a clear path to a big role prior to their acquisition. That might not mean he’ll be available for a trade this off-season, but depending on how the situation develops shortly it could present an opportunity to fit a common roster-building strategy deployed in Pittsburgh if anything changes.
