Pens hold steady on deadline day

By Jeff

What? Ray Shero and the Pittsburgh Penguins didn't make a move in the final minutes of the trade deadline today? But Rob Rossi told us that his NHL sources told him not to be surprised if the Pens pulled off a stunner.

Damn you, Rossi!

This is a new and weird feeling for Pens fans who have grown accustomed to Shero making some kind of deal on Trade Deadline Day. I capitalized it because it's a holiday to hockey fans. Too bad it was kind of boring this year. Almost like when I was 4 and cried on Christmas when I got clothes.

Well, being kind of mature now, I realize that clothes may have been a boring gift back then, but they served a purpose. Unlike the Shredder action figure I opened next and was very excited about. Shredder may have brought me joy instead of tears at that moment, but he wasn't going to really help me in any way.

That's how this Trade Deadline Day was for the Pens. Shero has spoiled us into thinking he is going to do something big on this day every year, so we are a little confused and sad when he doesn't. But the no deal was the best move the team could make. Dustin Penner fetched a former first-round pick, a future first-round pick and a future third or second-round pick. Since when did Penner become Marian Hossa? If Shero was going to make a big splash today on someone like Penner, Alex Hemsky or another similar player, he would have had to overpay.

Just look at the how New Jersey Devils were able to get David Steckel and a second-round pick from the Washington Capitals for Jason Arnott. The same Arnott was on Shero's radar, but there was no way he was giving up a second-round pick for a 36-year-old with 14 goals. No, instead Shero gave up a seventh-round pick for a 38-year-old with 14 goals in Alexei Kovalev. Maybe I am biased, but give me Kovalev for seventh-round pick and no one from the active roster over Arnott for a second-rounder and a player on my NHL club any day of the week.

Shero doesn't make deals just to make them. The team didn't need another third-line center posing as a No. 2 center. No one should be sad that Arnott is not a Penguin today.

And let us not forget that Shero already made his big move when he acquired James Neal and Matt Niskanen for Alex Goligoski. So let's be happy the Pens didn't sacrifice their future today on overpriced players and just blame Rossi for getting our hopes of that the Pens might do something wild.


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