Penguins Reshape Their Blue Line

When the season was over, Penguins management and the coaching staff sat down and talked about what to do with the team moving forward.

They decided that they wanted to get a little bit heavier on the back end and improve their transition game, and the moves that Ron Hextall has made in recent days have helped the Penguins accomplish those objectives:
- Acquiring defenseman Jeff Petry (and forward Ryan Poehling) from Montreal in exchange for defenseman Mike Matheson
- Acquiring defenseman Ty Smith from New Jersey in exchange for defenseman John Marino
- Signing defenseman Jan Rutta to a three-year deal on the first day of free agency
- Signing defenseman P.O Joseph to a two-year contract extension, the first one-way of his young career
While it was difficult to part with Matheson and Marino, both very good NHL players, the Penguins are happy with the group they now currently have and feel like they have nine competent defensemen on their roster. On the right side, there is Kris Letang, Petry, Rutta, Chad Ruhwedel and Mark Friedman. On the left side, there is Brian Dumoulin, Marcus Pettersson, Smith and Joseph.
Hextall said they don't necessarily have to make a trade, as their cap situation has improved and they are a little closer to being compliant. And someone like Smith doesn't need to clear waivers, so they would be able to send him to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton if needed.
"We like our nine defensemen, and we'll kind of wait and see how things play out, if we go to camp with nine," Hextall said. "We feel very good about the depth. Obviously, we'll look at everything that comes along as we go, and if we can strengthen one area, we'll certainly look at it."

Let's start with the Petry deal. Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes told the media that the Penguins didn't want to trade Matheson, but Montreal insisted that he needed to be part of the deal. Pittsburgh was willing to pay that price in order to get Petry, a 34-year-old veteran who's been a top defenseman in this league for a long time.
He's still a valuable contributor and has more of a well-rounded game than Matheson, who's immensely talented, but isn't quite as consistent. And when you're in a win-now situation like the Penguins are, they felt having a player like Petry will be more beneficial to that end.
"First of all, when you're trading for good players, you're going to have to give up good players," Hextall said. "Mike is a good player. We certainly valued Mike. But we just feel like Jeff at this point is a little a little better fit for us. He can play all situations; he can log big minutes.
"We just feel now, our right side, it's extremely strong. We're feeling pretty good about our right side, and when you get an opportunity to add a player of Jeff Petry's magnitude, we felt like it was a good fit with our group."
Petry will aid the Penguins with both of their objectives, in terms of getting a little bit heavier on the back end and improving their transition game. At 6-foot-3 and 209 pounds, he'll certainly add size that didn't exist previously on Pittsburgh's blue line.
And he's been really good offensively throughout his career, scoring double-digits in goals four of the past five seasons. Petry didn't last year, but came on strong towards the end, with 21 points in the last 30 games. He's a great puck mover and loves to shoot it.
While Petry is more of a two-way defenseman who checks both of the boxes Hextall mentioned, Smith is more offensive-minded, while Rutta is more defensive-minded.
The Penguins feel that as such a young player, Smith has a lot of upside. After being a first-round draft pick in 2018, he made New Jersey's roster two years later and was named to the NHL's 'All Rookie Team' after leading all rookie blueliners in assists (21), points (23), and power-play points (7) that season.
He had a bit of a sophomore slump last year, but the Penguins feel that was just part of the growing pains that come along with the development process for young defensemen in this league - somewhat similar to the ones Marino experienced on his own path.
"We have high hopes for Ty," Hextall said. "Obviously, there's a little bit of risk on our part there, but we feel pretty good about it. Our hopes are that Ty is going to come in and build on his first year, learn from his second year and continue to become a better player.
"He's a young man, he's 22 years old. He played as a 20-year-old, that's a hard position to play as a 20-year-old. So we do believe the upside is pretty high."
Smith will be competing for a spot with Joseph, who's ready to take the next step in his professional career. Penguins director of player development Tom Kostopoulos said he thinks the 23-year-old blueliner is NHL ready, and Hextall echoed that sentiment. "P.O Joseph is a fourth-year pro this year, and we feel like he'll be ready to go, so we're excited about P.O," Hextall said.
Rutta, a back-to-back Stanley Cup champion with Tampa Bay in 2020 and '21, has been around for a lot longer. Hextall described the 31-year-old as a very good penalty killer, and a solid guy who can play with any left hander on their team. And at 6-foot-3 and 204 pounds, Rutta is another big body.
"We feel like it's a good addition to our team, and we feel like we kind of added a little bit of the girth that we feel like we need in front of the net and in penalty killing situations," Hextall said.
While most of the reshaping has been done on the blue line, the Penguins did add an option up top with Poehling. Hextall and the staff members who were with him in Philadelphia before joining him in Pittsburgh have always liked the forward dating back to his draft. Montreal took him 25th overall, two spots after Arizona selected Joseph and two spots before the Flyers picked Morgan Frost.
After turning pro for the 2019-20 season, Poehling essentially split his first two campaigns between the NHL and AHL before getting more of a full-time role this past year. Hextall said while things didn't go the way Poehling would have liked in Montreal, at 23, they think he is only going to continue to get better.
"Sometimes change can spur a guy on, and we're hoping he can be a good two-way player for us," Hextall said. "He's got good size. He plays the middle of the ice and can also play the wing. So we feel pretty good about the acquisition. You look at our salary cap, it's another guy that we can fit under the salary cap."
And finally, speaking of the cap - Hextall said at the moment, it's difficult to add another forward or two because of their situation with that, but isn't ruling anything out.
"I feel pretty comfortable with our group depth-wise," Hextall said. "We don't have a whole lot of money to spend here, so you always look for things. Our job is to continue to look and see if there's any areas that we can make our team better."