It was Kostin not Kyrou right? (and technically you have to give up the 2021 ANA 7th for Barzal bc we got that for Guddy who we got for Pearson who we got for Hagelin who we got for Perron who we traded the first for iirc)

you are right...i was trying to go off memory its not a great memory i have haha

im pretty sure penguins traded Klinkhammer and 2015 1st round pick for Barzel pick

If they don't trade the Barzal pick they don't end up with Hagelin....... it's easy to look back and say 'what if' but they might not have the back to back cups without that move

hard to imagine a world where Barzel doesnt make a team better than Hag

Equally hard to imagine winning both cups without Hagelin

eh 15-16 yea i can get onboard with that logic but 16-17 he scored 2 goals..... so not that hard to imagine

Made the PK elite and shut down very good offensive players

maybe pk but he was a -2 doesnt scream shutdown. id say it was mainly crosby and guentzel playing great mix with Fluery killing the capitals

Caps severely outplayed the Pens during that 2017 series, but Fleury stole the show. The Pens D couldn't cope with the relentless forecheck of the Capitals, they couldn't stop the cycle & had a hard time moving the puck out. After game 6, I thought for sure they were finished. Thank goodness they played a decent game in game 7.

Exactly. I have absolutely zero issues with the hagalin trade. If pens don’t have hagalin do we win back to back cups? Maybe. Maybe not. I’d rather not play with history and take the guaranteed cups.

If only GMs could see 5 years into the future before every trade/draft.

Oh yeah, and the Pens head scout stated that they were going to take Lauzon at #31, not Kostin. They were pretty sure that Lauzon would be available at #51 so they figured the flip of 1st/2nd would actually be zero cost to them. It is a moot point.

The Barzal pick was traded for Perron. At the time of the trade (January) it would have been the 24th pick, it ended up being the 16th due to a Pens bad slide in the second half.
At the draft Edmonton traded this #16 and #33 for Griffin Reinhart. So they knew it was #16 and #33. Griffin Reinhart couldn't stick on the Oilers, spent a few years in the AHL, and then vanished to the KHL.
Point being, the Penguins didn't make the worst trade with the pick.

Buffalo would still screw it up

Actually the Pens would still screw it up. If you go outside top-5 picks, I bet the Pens have some of the worst drafting overall.

i mean luckily the nhl gave them 4 top 2 picks in 4 years..... MAF Malkin Crosby Staal. set them up for next 10 years.....Staaal left but they got sutter and 8oa for him. i mean they drafted Pouliot instead of Trouba Forsberg Wilson (TOM WILSON!!) or even Teravainen

Well, years of having Dick Tarnstom be the teams leading scorer, and having Rico Fata as the best forward helped get those high picks. They traded up for Fleury's pick, the Caps got gifted Ovechkin forcing the Pens to settle for the Lumbering Oaf, Crosby yeah.

Staal was even the wrong pick... then the 8oa was the wrong pick too, which you acknowledge.

They also traded 2016's.

Boston tried to trade down w Washington fit Backstrom but Ovechkin “ hand picked” backy

Blues aren't giving up sundqvist and kyrou especially for Reaves

Yeah this trade happened already. Lmfao. Penguins traded Kostin**** and Sundqvist for reeves and 2nd pick

I read it as the 15th, 17th and 18th pick in the first round. Not 3 different years

Yeah. Looking at this trade now idk wtf Pittsburgh was thinking. Lol

I think it had more to do with winning the cup and making a short term investment. Reaves is one of the best fighters in the league and it makes other players think twice about hitting someone. Kostlin hasn't developed into a starting forward in the NHL but he isn't in the same boat as Lauzon. And Sundquist at the time hadn't really shown that he was going to be anything but a 3rd line forward long term. Reaves seems entirely about being an immediate impact player for the Pens.

Losing Barzal, now that is rough. But using Perron as a trade piece to get Carl Haggelin and winning the cup, worth it IMO.

eh I don't know, the year he came back from the ankle he didn't really do a damn thing. They could have won without him.

He still played 15 games and was a great PKer. Why mess with history?