![\"NHL:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Pittsburgh-Penguins-trade-Jack-St.-Ivany-at-Calgary-Flames-tagreuters-com2026newsml_mt1usatoday28061.jpeg\")
Credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh Penguins traded <\/a>a buried defenseman for a faded forward prospect on Monday in what is likely a minor trade, but curious nonetheless. <\/p>\n Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas<\/a> cleared St. Ivany, a right-handed defenseman, two days before the NHL free agent frenzy in exchange for David Gustafsson, a depth center who was the Winnipeg Jets\u2019 second-round pick in 2018. <\/p>\n Both players are 26. <\/p>\n St. Ivany appeared to be turning the corner and ready to claim a full-time NHL roster spot last fall, but an early-season injury followed by a flukey injury in January derailed his season. First, he missed the first 28 games due to a lower-body injury, returning in December. Then on Jan. 26, he blocked a shot, which forced him to undergo hand surgery.<\/p>\n When St. Ivany returned in mid-March, he never reclaimed his role on the third pairing. Including 20 games last season, St. Ivany has 53 games of NHL experience. The Penguins signed him as a college free agent out of Boston College in 2022.<\/p>\n Gustafsson is a big center and more of a defensive specialist. In 149 NHL games, he has just six goals and 20 points. But he\u2019s a big body who takes care of the defensive zone. However, his career high is just 46 games played, set in 2022-23. Otherwise, he was frequently a healthy scratch with Winnipeg. <\/p>\n Update: After announcing the trade, the Penguins announced they tendered Gustaffson, who is a restricted free agent, a qualifying offer. Gustafsson is arbitration-eligible.<\/p>\n Snap Analysis<\/p>\n PHN gives this trade a bad grade because St. Ivany flashed his very best game in that short gap from mid-December to later January before he suffered another injury. St. Ivany unequivocally showed that he could be an NHL defenseman. <\/p>\n Winnipeg won this trade. <\/p>\n St. Ivany was a late bloomer who continued to improve throughout his Penguins career. Pointedly, his biggest problem was not poor play but staying healthy at the NHL level, but his right-handed stick only added to his potential value as a physical, stay-at-home defenseman.<\/p>\n Currently, the Penguins only have three right-handed defensemen, and one of whom is a prospect: Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, and Harrison Brunicke. D-man Connor Clifton is headed toward free agency on Wednesday. <\/p>\n At worst, St. Ivany was merely right-handed insurance against injury to the other RHDs, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson. And insurance if Brunicke isn\u2019t ready, despite a powerful performance in the AHL playoffs. An eighth defenseman.<\/p>\n Gustafsson might be another of Dubas\u2019s unearthed finds, but his steady diet of press box nachos on a bad team is concerning. Also, his similarity in potential role to Hendrix Lapierre, whom the Penguins acquired for a third and fifth-rounder last week, is also curious. <\/p>\n The Penguins weren\u2019t lacking for potential bottom-six forwards. It seems like the Penguins gave up on St. Ivany in this deal, which would be a mistake. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: david gustafsson<\/a> Jack St. Ivany<\/a> Penguins Trade<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> <\/p>\n Categorized:Penguins Trade Talk<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect The Pittsburgh Penguins traded a buried defenseman for a faded forward prospect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[100145,44363,10174,73,75,74,1067],"class_list":["post-231552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-david-gustafsson","tag-jack-st-ivany","tag-penguins-trade","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-penguins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}