Penguins acquire Daley from Blackhawks for Scuderi

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday acquired defenseman Trevor Daley from the Chicago Blackhawks for defenseman Rob Scuderi.

The Penguins will retain 33 percent of Scuderi’s $3 million salary, general manager Jim Rutherford said. Pittsburgh expressed interest in Daley for about a month, according to Rutherford, but could not find common ground with Chicago until Monday.

Daley, 32, has scored 231 points and 67 goals in 785 NHL games, 756 with the Dallas Stars. He had six assists but did not score a goal in 29 games with the Blackhawks this season, his first since being traded from the Stars with forward Ryan Garbutt for forward Patrick Sharp and defenseman Stephen Johns on July 10.

"We like Trevor because he can skate," Rutherford said. "He can move the puck, something that we've talked about in trying to improve that. Improve our back end where we've got more puck movers and he can certainly do that."

One game into Mike Sullivan’s tenure as Pittsburgh’s coach, Rutherford said Daley's addition could prove useful in Sullivan's system, which focuses on clean breakouts. With defenseman Kris Letang recovering from an upper-body injury, Daley's versatility could also aid Sullivan, who Rutherford said would make all lineup decisions.

Sullivan was named Penguins coach on Saturday after Mike Johnston was relieved of his duties.

"With Letang out, [Sullivan] has to play around a little bit," Rutherford said. "The nice thing about Trevor is he's a left shot, but he likes to play on the right side. So, that's going to help. He can play either side."

Pittsburgh generated 45 shots in Sullivan's first game, but lost 4-1 to the Washington Capitals at Consol Energy Center. Rutherford said he was impressed with the effort and thinks Daley could fit in with the Penguins.

"Trevor's been a good NHL player and he certainly can help our team, as I said, for a puck-moving point of view," Rutherford said. "I was watching tonight's game for many reasons. There are always a lot of emotions around when you make your move as we just did and sometimes it takes a little while. But I thought our team played hard and created a lot of scoring chances."

The Penguins will not make additional trades for the foreseeable future, Rutherford said.

"Not right now," he said. "I'd like to give Mike a little time with this group, see how it settles in, then we'll take a look at it. But one of the things with making the move with the coaching change was making it when we did, it gives us enough time to make other adjustments if necessary. I don't think we need to. I think our team is pretty good, but we have to get a few breaks around the net and score some goals."

Scuderi, 36, was three seasons into his second stint with the Penguins after previously winning a Stanley Cup in 2008-09 during his first run in Pittsburgh from 2003-2009. The Penguins drafted Scuderi in the fifth round of the 1998 NHL Draft.

Rutherford said Scuderi did not have to wave his no-trade clause for the trade to go through.

"We weren't looking at moving him until this point where this became a fit," Rutherford said. "In the summertime, we were looking at getting more cap space. That was a time, leading up to training camp and training camp, where I talked to some teams about it. But that was more about opening up cap space than a deal like this."