It seems the Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues have a specific goal in common which could reportedly bring the two sides together on a trade either today or sometime during the first-round of the 2015 NHL Draft.
According to TSN's Darren Dreger, who appeared on Toronto's TSN 1050 on Friday morning, the Penguins and GM Jim Rutherford are a team to watch in the next few hours and, further, the Blues seem to involved in many of the potential Pittsburgh trade reports that Dreger has thus far come across.
"Maybe Pittsburgh. I think that there's a strong appetite inside the Penguins' organization to just change things up a little bit. And by a little bit, it could be a pretty significant trade," Dreger said, via TodaysSlapShot.com. "I keep hearing rumblings that - we know Rutherford is looking for a top-6 forward. We know that. Well, is T.J. Oshie from the St. Louis Blues a top-6? On a deep team like Pittsburgh, I think it's a bit of a stretch. But if he can play in their top-6, good for him."
The trouble for Rutherford, of course, is that with Sidney Crosby ($8.7 million) and Evgeni Malkin ($9.5 million) carrying such massive cap hits, the Penguins lineup is very top heavy. Any offseason shopping he does will be dictated by their salaries, along with Kris Letang.
"But I keep hearing rumblings that if all else fails, Pittsburgh and St. Louis might do something just to shake things up a little bit for both clubs," said Dreger. "So maybe we see Oshie to the Pittsburgh Penguins with a young prospect like Ty Rattie, as an example, and then coming back the other way is Brandon Sutter of the St. Louis Blues. I mean, those are some of the rumblings that kind of dropped in my lap last night."
Oshie's name has come up in trade speculation for the Blues time and again in the past year. He was reportedly a candidate to be dealt ahead of the trade deadline in March and his name has again been bandied about this offseason.
The Penguins were said to be looking into deals for the likes of Brandon Saad and Jiri Hudler, though neither of those seems likely as Saad was a key component for another Blackhawks Cup run and Hudler is one of the few high-quality veterans on a very young Calgary team.
While Rutherford would likely be reticent to deal Sutter - a 26-year-old former first-round pick - this potential trade doesn't really seem to be about value. Their numbers are fairly similar - last season Oshie scored 19 goals and added 36 assists, while Sutter potted 21 and added 12 helpers - and really, this could simply be a case of two GM's in Rutherford and Doug Armstrong looking to alter the makeup of their rosters.
Interestingly, this isn't the first time the Pens have been linked to Rattie - in Nov., Rutherford and Co. were said to be eyeing the young goal scorer. There's no denying Rattie's talent, he's simply stuck behind a logjam of elite forwards in St. Louis.
It may be in Armstrong and St. Louis' best interests to ship him out for max value now, rather than keep him in the AHL for another season.
