The Penguins, Senators and Golden Knights completed a three-way trade today which involved the following:
To #Sens
2018 1st round pick (PIT)
2019 3rd round pick (PIT)
Filip Gustavsson
Ian Cole
To #Pens
Derick Brassard
Vincent Dunn
2018 3rd round pick (OTT)
Tobias Lindberg
To #GoldenKnights
Ryan Reaves
2018 4th round pick (VAN)
Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reported that “The #VGK are retaining 40% of Derick Brassard’s salary as part of this deal.”
Lots of folks were left scratching their heads as to why Vegas was retaining salary on the deal. John Shannon of Sportsnet was also curious about this:
So my question…why would Vegas take money on Brassard and help Pittsburgh? It appears otherwise, Brassard was heading to a western team, VGK got involved to keep him in the east. As I was told “Better to face him in round 4 than 2.”
— John Shannon (@JSportsnet) February 24, 2018
And he got his answer:
Am told that western team was Winnipeg https://t.co/RasFxxzDZJ
— John Shannon (@JSportsnet) February 24, 2018
So the Golden Knights facilitated this move to keep Derick Brassard away from the Jets and reduce Winnipeg’s strength up the middle.
Of course the Vegas GM is denying this played a role:
#VGK GM George McPhee said they were able to keep Brassard in the east, but said it wasn’t a material part of the deal. #NHLJets
— Scott Billeck (@ScottBilleck) February 24, 2018
The Trade Deadline drama continues until Monday, February 26th at 3 pm ET.
As always stay tuned for the latest Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose news by keeping it locked to our web site illegalcurve.com and on social media including Twitter | Facebook | Instagram. You can also follow me on twitter as well (@icdave).