Rangers miss out on acquiring Penguins star Jake Guentzel, now a Hurricane
The Penguins' Jake Guentzel returns to the bench after scoring during the third period of an NHL game against the Canadiens in Pittsburgh on Jan. 27. Credit: AP/Gene J. Puskar
It turned out that getting Alex Wennberg, the center they acquired on Wednesday from the Seattle Kraken, was the easy part for the Rangers.
The biggest fish of all regarding trade deadline speculation, Pittsburgh’s Jake Guentzel, got away from them Thursday night.
The Penguins traded Guentzel to the Carolina Hurricanes for forward Michael Bunting, prospects Ville Koivunen, Vasili Ponomarev and Cruz Lucius, and conditional first- and fifth-round picks in this year’s draft.
Carolina is four points behind the Metropolitan Division-leading Rangers with 20 games left.
The Rangers, in the market for a top-level right wing to play with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, were very much in the bidding for Guentzel, 29, a free agent-to-be who has 22 goals and 30 assists but currently is on long term injured reserve (upper body). He is eligible to come off LTIR on Sunday.
The Rangers, Carolina, Vegas and Florida reportedly were in the hunt for Guentzel, who has 219 goals in 503 games in his eight-year career. According to am ESPN report, the Rangers made a strong offer.
The decision for Rangers general manager Chris Drury was whether to part with forward Kaapo Kakko and high-level prospects such as Hartford forward Brennan Othmann and/or a first-round draft pick.
Carolina always seemed to have more to offer with high draft picks and top prospects. When the Hurricanes announced that Bunting would be a healthy scratch against Montreal, reports surfaced that Guentzel was headed to Raleigh.
With Guentzel off the board, Drury has to pivot to Plan B before Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline. Perhaps he could try to reacquire Anaheim All-Star Frank Vatrano, who clicked with Zibanejad and Kreider after Drury brought him in at the 2022 trade deadline.
Or Drury could try to bring back Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich. Buchnevich (24 goals, 24 assists) spent five seasons with the Rangers before being traded in the summer of 2021.
Vatrano entered Thursday night with 29 goals (11 on the power play) and 20 assists. He had five goals and eight assists for the Rangers in the 2022 playoff run that ended with a six-game loss to the Lightning.
Seattle right wing Jordan Eberle, a former Islander, has been mentioned in trade rumors, but he reportedly was negotiating a contract extension.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
