Brian Burke says Penguins won't continue trading away assets at deadline

Despite them being contenders in the Metropolitan Division, Pittsburgh Penguins President of Hockey Operations, Brian Burke, says the team need to buck the trend of giving away assets at the trade deadline.

"What assets are we going to give up to add? The answer is not many," Burke told NHL Network Radio on Sunday. "It's time for this team to stop the steady, and this will come out as a negative and I don't want it to because I love Jim (Rutherford), but stop the trend where we are going to give away a lot for a 20% chance at winning. You get close, you add, and Jim did what he was supposed to do. But we have to stop that trend at some point."

The Penguins have added near or at the deadline in 2019 and 2020, paying a hefty price to acquire help for a run at the Stanley Cup. In 2019, they traded a second round pick, two fourth round picks, Riley Sheahan and Derick Brassard to Florida for Jared McCann and Nick Bjugstad, both of whom are not longer with the Penguins.

Then in 2020, they got Jason Zucker from Minnesota, but had to give up a first round pick, defence prospect Calen Addison and Alex Galchenyuk.

"Do we believe we are a contender? Yes, we do, and we (GM Ron Hextall) have since we got here," Burke said. "Can we add with our cap situation if we decide to? We are pretty limited with the salary cap restrictions that we are under, so making a big deal probably would be difficult to do. But we would look, certainly."

With the Penguins not expected to make any big deals at the deadline, they'll still have a big addition on the way with Evgeni Malkin, who is getting close to making his 2021-22 debut after having knee surgery on June 4th.

Source: theScore.

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