PITTSBURGH — The Colorado Avalanche were looking for a steady presence on their blue line.
The Pittsburgh Penguins were looking to continue adding young talent that can help them now and into the future.
On Tuesday, the two sides struck a deal in the NHL’s first trade since the Olympic freeze lifted late Sunday night. Defenseman Brett Kulak, recently acquired by the Penguins from the Edmonton Oilers in the Tristan Jarry trade, is headed back to the Western Conference and will join the NHL’s best team.
In return, Colorado is sending a key member of its blue line to Pittsburgh. Defenseman Samuel Girard, a member of Colorado’s 2022 Stanley Cup team, is headed to the Penguins and will almost certainly find himself on the second pairing alongside another Quebec native in Kris Letang.
The Penguins are also receiving a 2028 second-round pick as part of this trade.
Kulak, 32, is in the final season of a contract that counts $2.75 million against the salary cap.
Girard, 27, counts $5 million against the salary cap and isn’t scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent until the summer of 2027, giving the Penguins control of him for portions of two seasons.
Kulak, an Edmonton native, played parts of five seasons with the Oilers and was a member of the Edmonton team that was swept by Colorado in the 2022 Western Conference final. He’s a cerebral defenseman who, after a slow start with Pittsburgh, was a steady influence alongside Letang on the Penguins’ second pair.
While Kulak was not playing well with the Oilers earlier this season, he was fairly solid in Pittsburgh, producing seven points in 25 games. He did, however, take nine minor penalties in those 25 games.
Girard, a second-round pick in 2016, briefly broke into the NHL as a teenager with Nashville before being traded to Colorado. He’s produced 37 goals and 235 points in 588 NHL games. Girard, a native of Roberval, Quebec, also put up 28 points in 67 games for the Avalanche in postseason games. His best season came in 2021, when he had 32 points in 48 games. He hasn’t reached that scoring rate again but has strong underlying numbers on this year’s Avalanche team. He could be an option to play on the Penguins’ second power-play unit. Though he was on the 2022 Cup team, he was injured in the second round against St. Louis and missed the rest of the playoffs.
Dubas has a penchant for adding young, talented players to the Penguins’ roster. He did the same thing two months ago while dealing a second-round pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets for forward Egor Chinakhov, who has responded by scoring eight goals in 18 games with the Penguins. Other young players that Dubas has added in the past year — Justin Brazeau (28), Tommy Novak (28), Parker Wotherspoon (28), Artūrs Šilovs (24), Connor Dewar (26) and Ben Kindel (18) — have made the Penguins better now and down the line.
Girard’s numbers have dipped a bit in recent seasons, and he’s hardly a shutdown defenseman. His name has been in the rumor mill for a while, partially because of his $5 million salary cap hit. Still, the Penguins like his offensive prowess, his puck-moving, his skating and the fact that he’s only 27. They believe this to be an upgrade and are delighted to have added a second-round pick to their collection of draft selections as well.
In the next three drafts, the Penguins now own three first-round picks, seven second-round picks and six third-round picks.
They also still have approximately $10 million in cap space this season and a projected $48 million in cap space next season. Colorado has around $8 million in cap space this season and approximately $13 million in cap space for next season.
The Avalanche now possess only two first-round picks, two second-round picks and one third-round pick in the next three drafts.