Penguins Have Another Good Trade Deadline

The Pittsburgh Penguins have to be considered one of the biggest winners of this years trade deadline. They first acquired D Jordan Leopold from the Florida Panthers for a second round pick in 2010. Then yesterday, they acquired highly coveted LW Alexei Ponikarovsky from the Toronto Maple Leafs for prospect Luca Caputi and D Martin Skoula. Skoula was traded again to the New Jersey Devils today for a fifth round pick. Leopold gives Pittsburgh plenty of depth on defense. Surprisingly, no defensemen were traded today, so Ray Shero seems to be confident that all of these defensemen will contribute to his teams success. On the other front, Ponikarovsky is a guy that many thought would fit with Pittsburgh. When the deal was completed, fan reaction was mixed. Some did not like that Caputi was traded, but others were excited about Ponikarovsky. Eric Tangradi certainly makes it easier to trade a guy like Caputi. Ponikarovsky's debut will likely be on Saturday against Dallas at the Mellon Arena. He is experiencing some visa problems getting to the United States. Being from Ukraine, he was only allowed to come to the US as a visiting team player. There was a lot of talk about Ruslan Fedotenko being traded, but it didn't happen. After a great performance last night, some people wanted to see him stay. Maybe he will get on a hot streak here with 19 games left.

Ray Shero has acquired a lot of good players the last four seasons before the deadline. Lets take a look:

2006-07: Acquired Gary Roberts from Florida for D Noah Welch

               Acquired Georges Laraque from Phoenix for Daniel Carcillo and a draft pick.

2007-08: Acquired Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis from Atlanta for Erik Christensen,Colby Armstrong,Angelo Esposito,and a first round pick.

               Acquired D Hal Gill from Toronto for two draft picks

2008-09: Acquired Chris Kunitz and Eric Tangradi from Anaheim for D Ryan Whitney

               Acquired Bill Guerin from New York Islanders for conditional draft pick

2009-10: Acquired D Jordan Leopold from Florida for a second round pick

               Acquired LW Alexei Ponikarovsky from Toronto for LW Luca Caputi and D Martin Skoula

Shero has done a tremendous job improving his team for the playoffs.