Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas was busy this weekend, making a couple of trades and drafting four right-handed shooting defensemen and two forwards. He gets no break today as NHL free agency begins with the Pens likely to lose some players.
Defenseman P.O. Joseph leads the list of unrestricted free agents who can sign with any team starting today. Dubas did not make a qualifying offer to Joseph by yesterday’s 5 PM deadline due to arbitration issues.
Forward Emil Bemstrom and minor leaguers Corey Andonovski, Dillon Hamaliuk, and Maxim Cajkovic also were pending free agents who would become unrestricted unless they got a qualifying offer. The Pens said they would not list who did and did not get offers but Dubas said on Friday that Andonovski would get one.
On the trade front, the Penguins on Saturday acquired forward Kevin Hayes and a 2025 second-round draft choice from the Blues for future considerations. Then yesterday, they traded minor league prospect Lukas Svejkovsky to Tampa Bay for minor leaguer Bennet MacArthur.
Forget about Jake Guentzel returning to the Penguins. After failing to work out a contract for the winger, Carolina traded him to Tampa Bay yesterday and Guentzel has reportedly agreed to a seven-year contract with the Lightning.
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