After what has been a week of Jake Guentzel news of where he may or may not go, it is official. He will be with the Carolina Hurricanes when it’s all said and done. The Hurricanes got Guentzel and Ty Smith for Michael Bunting, three prospects, and two draft picks.
The 29-year-old forward from Omaha, Nebraska has been with the Penguins since being drafted by them as the 77th overall pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. Guentzel made his NHL debut back in the 2016-17 season where he played 40 games tallying 16 goals and 33 points. He’s spent the last eight seasons with Pittsburgh accumulating 466 points in 503 games over that span. What made him a top-tier trade target for the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline was the production that he was putting in for the Penguins during the 2023-24 season. In 50 games, he has tallied 22 goals and 52 points making it his fifth straight season of being essentially a point-per-game player.
Related: What Happens Next for Penguins & Guentzel
He is in the final season of a five-year, $30 million deal that he signed back in December 2018. The last two seasons, including the 2023-24 season, have a 12-team no-trade list and it seems that Carolina was not a part of that modified no-trade clause. His current average annual value (AAV) is $6 million and he is due to be an unrestricted free agent (UFA) at the end of the season. It will be interesting if the Hurricanes will be able to extend him past this season. People around the league and even fans were surprised by the move because Carolina has not been known to make a splash move at the trade deadline for potential rentals of Guentzel’s level.
In 60 games for the Hurricanes in 2023-24, Bunting has tallied 13 goals and 36 points in his first season in Carolina. He signed his current three-year, $13.5 million deal back on July 1, 2023, with an AAV of $4.5 million per season. The first two seasons of the deal have a 10-team no-trade list. Furthermore, he is set to be a UFA after the 2025-26 season.
Related: Hurricanes Seeing Immediate Impact of Bunting Addition
He will be reunited with Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas, who had the same position when both guys were with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The fact that Bunting will be joining back up with Dubas makes sense as he was a player he liked. While with the Maple Leafs, Bunting accumulated 112 points in 161 games over two seasons. Of those 112 points, he tallied 46 goals scoring 23 each season in Toronto. He plays a physical two-way game that Dubas wants from the players that he acquires in trades.
Full Trade Details
At around 11:29 pm Eastern on Thursday, March 7, Friedman gave the full details of the trade between the Penguins and the Hurricanes. The deal includes two prospects from Carolina along with two 2024 conditional picks.
The Hurricanes got a high-scoring winger that fans wanted all season with the Penguins retaining 25 percent of Guentzel’s contract. That will bring down his AAV to $4.5 million for Carolina for the rest of the 2023-24 season. Guentzel has a proven track record when it comes to scoring as he’s had two 40-goal seasons since 2018-19 and 2021-22. Furthermore, he even tallied 36 goals during the 2022-23 season as well. His best season came in 2021-22 where he finished with 40 goals and 44 assists for 84 points in 76 games. He is someone head coach Rod Brind’Amour could slot in on the first power-play unit and within the top six right away.
On the flip side for the Penguins, they will get a top-six guy in Bunting who is known to score goals as well with the aforementioned 46 goals in two seasons with Toronto. The physicality and crashing to the net will give opportunities for more power-play chances because Bunting during the 2022-23 season was second in the NHL for drawing the most penalties. He will be a great replacement for Guentzel on the power play and vice versa for the Hurricanes.
When it comes to the prospects and picks that the Penguins received along with the defenseman that the Hurricanes acquired, this is where it gets really interesting.
The Penguins received forward Ville Koivunen who has 21 goals and 55 points in 57 games for Karpat of the Finnish Liiga. He’s only played 12 games in North America for the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League (AHL) in 2022-23 tallying one goal. He is a 51st overall pick from the 2021 Draft by the Hurricanes. They also acquired forward Vasili Ponomarev who has eight goals and 29 points in 39 games with the Chicago Wolves in the AHL. He made his Hurricanes debut when he scored his first NHL goal and two points versus the Washington Capitals on Jan. 5 in a 6-2 Carolina win. He is a 53rd overall pick back in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. The final prospect the Penguins got in the trade was forward Cruz Lucius who has 12 goals and 31 points in 32 games for the University of Wisconsin of the NCAA. He is a former 124th overall pick in 2022 by the Hurricanes.
Related: Vasily Ponomarev Has a Storybook NHL Debut for Hurricanes
The two conditional draft picks that the Penguins acquired are very Stanley Cup-laden. The 2024 conditional first-round pick turns into the Philadelphia Flyers 2024 second-round pick (that Carolina owns) if the Hurricanes don’t make it to the Stanley Cup Final. The 2024 conditional fifth-round pick that is Carolina’s will only be given to Pittsburgh if the Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup.
The final piece of the deal is Carolina acquiring defenseman Ty Smith. He is a former New Jersey Devil selection in the 2018 Entry Draft as the 17th overall pick. In 51 games for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL, he has nine goals and 32 points playing on the top defensive pair. He played in nine games for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2022-23 accumulating one goal and four points. Dubas signed him to a one-year, $775,000 deal back in July 2023 where he will become a restricted free agent (RFA) while being arbitration-eligible after the season. He will be a solid call-up player for the Hurricanes if there is even an injury to one of their seven defensemen on the roster.
Grading the Trade
When it comes down to it, the trade was beneficial for both the Penguins and the Hurricanes. Pittsburgh gets two more years of Bunting’s $4.5 million through the 2025-26 season. They also acquired three prospects in Ponomarev (RFA after 2024-25), Koivunen (RFA after 2025-26), and the rights to Lucius. Furthermore, they currently will get at least one pick in the 2024 NHL Draft either as a first from Carolina or the Flyers second. Additionally, if the Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup, they get the 2024 fifth as well from Carolina.
The Hurricanes got the top-six goal scorer they needed in Guentzel while having 25 percent of his contract retained. They also got a top-end AHL defenseman who has previous NHL experience in Smith. General manager Don Waddell and company were able to keep their high-end prospects in Scott Morrow and Alexander Nikishin, without giving up an outright first-round pick, which speaks volumes about going for it while not giving up the future.
If there was a way to grade this trade right now, it would be graded as an “A” for the Hurricanes which could turn into an “A+” if they can extend Guentzel past the 2023-24 season. But that is another situation for another time. Overall, this was a great trade for the Hurricanes who have a playoff phenom in Guentzel who has won a Stanley Cup in his career with the Penguins. He is a bonafide goal scorer who can put up over 30 goals a season touching 40 tallies twice.
It’ll be interesting to see where he is placed in the lineup for the first game for the Hurricanes which is on Saturday, March 9 versus the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center. What a trade by the Hurricanes which fans should be excited about with 20 games left in the regular season.
