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Way Too Early Expansion Draft Possibilities: Pittsburgh Penguins

(As per usual, my guidelines are here and I use a lot of info from capfriedly.com and hockeydb.com primarily).

So this might be kicking a team while they're down (well, as down as you can be coming off of repeat Stanley Cup Championships), but the Pittsburgh Penguins have to think about (among other things) making someone available for Seattle's forthcoming NHL team. While it's asking A LOT for it to work out as well as it did for Vegas, let's look at what players the Flightless Waterfowl might have to offer.

Forwards: Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist

Defensemen/Defencemen: Kris Letang, Brian Dumoulin, Olli Maatta

Goalies: N/A

So, let's get the obvious out of the way: Letang, Kessel, Crosby and Malkin have No-Movement clauses. And it's basically impossible to imagine the latter two ever leaving Pittsburgh for another NHL team. It's not impossible to imagine Malkin maybe going to Russia to play in the KHL but that's just conceptualizing and not anything I would assume would happen. As long as those two (and an adequate supporting cast) can keep the Penguins contending for Cups, they're not going anywhere.

Letang and Kessel are a cut or two below that level indispensability to the competitive core but they would, again, have to agree to being available. Granted, Kessel did have to waive it to go to Pittsburgh from Toronto in the first place so it's not impossible. That said, it's hard to imagine either of them voluntarily going to an expansion team.

Dumoulin and Maatta have no clauses preventing them from being traded, but I would think Pittsburgh would try to prevent losing either of these guys. They're the younger half of their top-four blueliners and unless there's a large infusion of high-quality youth coming, I see no reason why Pittsburgh would want to move on from either of them.

So, at this point, there's only one real solid choice here:

Patric Hornqvist (Right Wing)

Why Pittsburgh would make him available: Well there's a modified No-Trade Clause in his contract, but I wouldn't think that would stop him from being available. Also, at $5.3 million, he would create a lot of room for some young wingers to ride alongside either Crosby or Malkin.

I would be remiss if I didn't note how important he's been to the back-to-back squads they've iced recently. If you're making a list of the best wingers Sidney Crosby's ever had you're not going to find a lot of guys above Hornqvist on the list. I almost feel like if I suggest Hornqvist is (hypothetically) going away, that I'm also saying Pittsburgh's window of contention is closing when he goes. Depending on the development of younger players and trades and free agency, it's possible he can be replaced. It might be a tall order, but it's doable.

Lastly, being over 30 already, his gritty style might already be starting to diminish. That would presumably only make Pittsburgh's braintrust more willing to part with him, optics be damned.

Why Seattle Would Want Him: That cap hit I mentioned earlier wouldn't be cheap necessarily, but probably tolerable. The three-year commitment might be a bit long but nothing that couldn't either partially retained by Pittsburgh to create cap room or retained by Seattle by trading Hornqvist if an attractive offer came along.

His playing style (projected wear and tear aside) would be an excellent example for a young team to learn from. Also, those back-to-back championships would garner a lot of respect in a brand new locker room.

Along those same lines, Hornqvist having carved out over a decade in the NHL by the time he gets to Seattle (in this scenario, obviously) after literally being the last pick in his draft would arguably be even more important a contribution to the locker room culture he can provide than the aforementioned championship pedigree.

By definition, every player in that Seattle locker room would be there because the other 30 teams in the league (besides Vegas, who isn't making anyone available) decided they could do without them. Hornqvist knows that feeling on a much grander scale and I can imagine few better players in the NHL to show how to overcome those odds.

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