Will the Penguins hit the NHL’s hot stove before the holiday roster freeze?

The NHL’s roster freeze is coming up next week, but rumors are flying about what teams may be looking to do prior to it

The NHL’s holiday roster freeze begins at midnight on Friday (December 20th) lasting through Dec. 27th. Given that the Penguins have been among the more active teams this season by already making a couple of trades, they stand to be a club that might look to continue tinkering with the roster.

Here’s the hot stove from the national media via Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet last night to give the lay of the land.

The Rangers are open for business, which isn’t a shocker since they’ve been spiraling. They have a ton of cap space needed after trading away Jacob Trouba, and lately the Pens have been making a lot more trades within the division (including sending Chad Ruhwedel and Reilly Smith to the Rangers in 2024). In theory, Marcus Pettersson is a great fit for Rangers. After his injury last night, it remains to be seen how quickly his trade availability might play out. Even if it doesn’t involve Pittsburgh, it’ll be interesting to keep an eye on the Blueshirts this week as they look to shake things up.

A name that might make sense for NYR was mentioned in Brandon Saad. Saad has been a healthy scratch lately for the Blues, and despite his no trade clause Friedman said he would be interested in at least considering a move. Saad is signed through 2026 and only has four goals and 10 points in 27 games this season. Pittsburgh may not be an exact fit with his $4.5 million contract, but this is the type of player they have been collecting lately. It’s a shame that Saad’s contract doesn’t align more with the 4.5 years Ryan Graves has remaining, given St. Louis’ penchant for adding defensemen seemingly at random lately, but as it stands Saad to Pittsburgh isn’t the most natural of fits in this moment.

Boston’s Trent Frederic was mentioned by Friedman for having several teams being interested in the feisty winger, but this is an easy situation to quickly rule out for the Penguins. Frederic is approaching free agency next summer and surely a candidate to be swept up by a contender, Pittsburgh chasing after a commodity on a short-term deal doesn’t make sense for them at this point.

Vincent Desharnais is another name drawing attention. The free agent signing hasn’t fit in with Vancouver, playing only 17 games this year and averaging just over 15 minutes per contest. Chatter is growing loud that the Canucks are looking to move him along and give him an escape to a new team.

Desharnais is signed this season and next at a $2.0 million cap hit. Friedman indicated that Vancouver’s preference could be to shed his salary completely with a goal to gain cap flexibility by not bringing back an NHL contract in return. The Pens don’t have a third right shot defender on the NHL roster currently, which makes for a natural fit on some levels. While Desharnais isn’t a world beater, he does have a 6’7” frame and could add a badly needed physical presence and some PK ability to the team.

Desharnais has big issues mobility-wise, but Pittsburgh should be desperate for any considerations of even near-NHL caliber defenders. With his size, reasonable cap hit and some level of playoff history (16 games of averaging 17 minutes for Edmonton last spring) he could be a contender to be traded back out before 2026, not to mention adding badly needed depth option on the Pens’ current blueline. His time in Edmonton showed he can be hidden on a third pair enough to not do damage, and considering most of the non-Owen Pickering depth defenders this year in Pittsburgh, well, Desharnais wouldn’t stand out as any worse.

From all the various trades, Pittsburgh has stockpiled 18 total picks from the second to fifth rounds in the next three drafts, up six from the allotment of 12 that initially get doled out by the league. Having all these extra picks gives them ammunition to work with, or at least the options to work with. Generally NHL caliber defenders fetch at least a fourth round pick (let’s make a second Chad Ruhwedel reference) and depending on market demand Desharnais probably wouldn’t break the bank for assets going to Vancouver if the main motivation is gaining cap space.

PuckPedia shows the Pens with $3.88 million current cap space. So it’s clear Pittsburgh would have room if they wanted on that front as well. Desharnais doesn’t pop off the charts as a “must buy”, but the team has done enough ground work where they can at least shop around and figure if what options might make sense for the immediate term and longer outlook to put their excess draft capital to use.

That might not mean Desharnais, and it might not mean it needs to happen before the holiday deadline freeze, but with league activity looking to spike up before that happens the opportunity for the Pens to get involved will linger up until the freeze hits.