{"id":735956,"date":"2026-07-01T01:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/735956\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T01:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:37:07","slug":"robertson-penguins-trade-chatter-settle-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/735956\/","title":{"rendered":"Robertson-Penguins Trade Chatter, Settle Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was some responsible and some not-so-accurate reporting over the last several days regarding the Pittsburgh Penguins\u2019 trade pursuit of Jason Robertson<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Elliotte Friedman reported on his 32 Thoughts Podcast that other teams thought Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas<\/a> had momentum for a deal on Friday and Saturday, but it obviously didn\u2019t get to the finish line. <\/p>\n

\u201cI heard that there were talks with Pittsburgh\u00a0on Friday\/Saturday.\u00a0There were a couple of teams who thought there was some momentum there, but obviously it didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Penguins\u2019 pursuit of Robertson, 26, has been a poorly kept secret. Another report, which PHN won\u2019t quote, indicated the Penguins would send both Rickard Rakell<\/a> and Bryan Rust with first-round picks to Dallas for Robertson. <\/p>\n

Such a move would be the equivalent of four first-rounders (because both Rust and Rakell would fetch a first-rounder in a trade) from the Penguins\u2019 hands to Dallas for Robertson. <\/p>\n

Dubas obviously wasn\u2019t interested in such a price. Or maybe it was Dallas that didn\u2019t like the haul. But if the Penguins put both wingers and two first-rounders on the table, the view here is that Dallas would have leaped at such a deal. <\/p>\n

Also, that\u2019s about the maximum the Penguins can offer. They are a team trying to focus on the future, and first-round picks for a rebuild will be increasingly valuable. Giving up three would be tantamount to declaring any rebuild or retool over, despite no heirs apparent to Sidney Crosby or others at the top of the lineup, aside from Robertson. <\/p>\n

Dallas did accept an offer from Seattle, in which they received three first-round picks and a young player, but Robertson would not sign with Seattle, despite a contract offer worth over $15 million per season. <\/p>\n

Last season, Robertson potted 45 goals in 82 games, the third 40-goal campaign in his six seasons. He has 213 career goals in just 456 games. <\/p>\n

The Penguins\u2019 wingers are slightly less productive, but significantly so. Rust has scored 60 goals in 143 games over the last two seasons, while Rakell has 59 goals in 141 games over the same period. <\/p>\n

Of course, one need not look past Dubas\u2019s comments Friday night. Not only did his words offer little hope for a big move, but his body language screamed, we tried, it\u2019s not there, we\u2019ll keep trying. <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think we\u2019ll continue to work away at it. What I wanted to (get) was maybe not so much late 20s (difference maker), but in the range of some of the guys that have been moved, in past years, they haven\u2019t gone for that level of asset, right?\u201d said Dubas. \u201cThere were multiple top 10 picks moved, which isn\u2019t overly common. So, for us, we would aspire to be involved in every one of those conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a follow-up response, Dubas clarified. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt might not be the same way that everybody else does it, but I don\u2019t know that we\u2019ll pivot (after not being able to make the trades). We\u2019ll continue to stay involved in all those discussions and see where it lands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubas will undoubtedly continue his pursuit, but the market has been set. And there is one often overlooked factor regarding the Penguins\u2019 ability to recruit such players. While Penguins captain Sidney Crosby is universally respected, if not revered, players understand the Penguins must undergo a revitalization, which is much less attractive for an elite player. As examples, Dylan Larkin and Zach Werenski are players on competitive but not contending teams, and they\u2019re asking out. Robertson would qualify as a top-tier player who may force the Penguins to pay a premium or wait out other options before accepting Pittsburgh. <\/p>\n

In other words, Robertson is attainable but not for a trade price the Penguins should pay, at least not this summer. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: jason robertson<\/a> nhl trade<\/a> Penguins Trade<\/a> <\/p>\n

Categorized:Penguins Trade Talk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was some responsible and some not-so-accurate reporting over the last several days regarding the Pittsburgh Penguins\u2019 trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[31689,385,4983,5863,99],"class_list":["post-735956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-jason-robertson","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-trade","tag-penguins-trade","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}