Jordan Leandre | January 28th, 2019
Pittsburgh Penguins Vice President Jim Rutherford reported Monday afternoon that the team has shipped of defenseman Jamie Oleksiak to the Dallas Stars. In return, Pittsburgh will receive a fourth-round pick in the 2019 Draft.
As it sits right now, the Dallas Stars are three points out of the third seed in the Central division and are deadlocked with the Colorado Avalanche for the second wildcard spot. So it was evident that the Stars felt they needed to add depth at the blue line in an attempt to separate themselves from a feisty Avalanche team, and they did that with Oleksiak –– who also provides a familiar face having spent the first five-and-a-half years of his career in Dallas before being dealt to Pittsburgh last season.
In 36 games for the Pens, Oleksiak has four goals and seven assists to go along with a +5 rating.
On pace for a career-year, and on a team that already features a handful of promising defensemen, Oleksiak found himself being the odd-man out in Pittsburgh; thus making him expendable.
This move is by no means a world-beater of a deal, as Dallas still needs to improve upon their 29th-ranked goal-scoring offense. An offense that averages over 30 shots per night, yet is barely cracking above two goals per game. That being said, much like how you can never have too much pitching in baseball, blue-line depth becomes very important when you get to the playoffs. Which is why Oleksiak at least puts Dallas in the right direction moving forward.
As for the return for the Pens, a fourth-round pick is very solid. Considering Oleksiak is far from a superstar caliber defenseman, you couldn’t expect them to get a return of much more than a mid-round pick. It appears as if both of these teams won the trade in their own right –– it’s just a matter of whether or not Dallas can hit the ground rolling with the return of the 26-year-old lefty.
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