Penguins made bad trade because of what Evander Kane said?!

A few days before Monday's deadline, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the San Jose Sharks faced off in an intense match, which ended with four players and  one head coach ejected from the game following a brutal line brawl at the benches during a commercial break. 

Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was staying out of it at the start, however, when he saw that defenseman Brenden Dillion kept wanting to get involved with Zach Aston-Reese, who was already busy punching someone else, the captain had enough and started throwing rights into the mix. Unfortunately for him, Sharks enforcer Michael Haley caught up to him and tackled Crosby to the ice. The officials were there to break it up before Haley made some real damage on Sid's face. 

NHL insider Elliotte Friedman revealed in his latest 31 Thoughts column on Sportsnet that Sharks forward Evander Kane, who was chirping throughout the entire line brawl, yelled out something to the Penguins that could have pushed GM Jim Rutherford to make a last-minute move at the deadline. 

"Days before Pittsburgh acquired  Erik Gudbranson, the Penguins had a nasty game with San Jose where Sidney Crosby ended up fighting Haley — a tough customer. According to The Athletic’s Josh Yohe, a Penguins player saw Evander Kane look at their bench and say, “Who on this team is going to do anything about it?” Gudbranson badly needed a fresh start, and, if anyone can breathe new energy into his career, Sergei Gonchar is a great bet. But you have to believe Gudbranson ended up in Pittsburgh (and Adam McQuaid in Columbus) with Washington in mind."

The Penguins have been criticized, even by their own fanbase for acquiring Gundbranson at the deadline. Everybody expected the worst-case scenario to be Ottawa Senators' Cody Ceci, but Rutherford outdid everybody’s worst fears and called Vancouver GM Jim Benning at the last minute to offer up Tanner Pearson in return. Funny enough, Pearson fought Kane in the line brawl... 

However, with so many injuries on the back end in Pittsburgh, it might not have been such a bad decision at the end of the day. You have to admit that the Canucks former defender's statistics aren't great, but it could bring in the much needed physicality the Pens lack if they want to push into the postseason and make it last. 

"He’s a real heart and soul guy… He can protect our players. He puts us in a stronger position to push back when we get into more physical games," Rutherford said at his post deadline press conference. 

He didn't say if he had listened to Kane though...