Talk of Jake Guentzel to Vancouver is “very real.”
The Pittsburgh Penguins forward may be set to rejoin some very familiar faces in Vancouver.
There are some very loud rumblings of a potential trade brewing between the Vancouver Canucks and the Pittsburgh Penguins, and arguably the top National Hockey League insider in the business has confirmed that those rumblings are genuine.
NHL insider Elliotte Friedman was recently discussing the personnel situation in Vancouver when he touched on the rumors that have been swirling around Guentzel over the last several days.
"They are gonna get a top 6 forward," said Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast. "I think they've got a list... a couple of teams have told me they think the Canucks have 4-5 guys they are looking at. Guentzel? I think that's very real as a possibility."
Guentzel is currently having a terrific season with 20 goals and 27 assists to his name already for a total of 47 points in his first 43 games of the regular season, so it's no mystery why the Canucks are interested in acquiring him. On top of that there are some very strong Pittsburgh connections for Guentzel in Vancouver, a level of familiarity that likely only heightens the Canucks' desire to acquire the talented forward.
Long time former Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford is currently running the show as the president of hockey operations for the Canucks, and there is an argument to be made that Rutherford, the man who drafted Guentzel, may know him better than anyone in the NHL. Additionally former Penguins assistant coach Rick Tocchet is currently serving as the head coach of the Canucks, so he is also intimately familiar with Guentzel as a player.
The big question here will be whether or not the Penguins will be willing to move Guentzel at a price that is realistic for the Canucks to accommodate. The Penguins are currently still in the hunt for the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, but if they begin to falter this trade could happen sooner rather than later.
