Trade Request Creates Golden Opportunity for Penguins to Land Promising Top-Six Forward

The Pittsburgh Penguins have remained committed to getting younger this off-season, and while they've signed a few new pieces in free agency, we haven't seen them acquire an impact name as of yet.

There's still plenty of time for that to change with the team looking to move veterans Erik Karlsson, Rickard Rakell and potentially Bryan Rust, and now they may have a new target.

As of Thursday, it appears as though 24-year old forward Yegor Chinakhov is available after saying this in an interview back in Russia about his current situation with Columbus.

The 24-year old former first-round pick has untapped potential, tallying a career high of 29 in 53 games back in 2023/24 for the Blue Jackets, but the size and the underlying numbers are good, meaning that there should be many teams pursuing him.

On top of that, Chinakhov has one-year left on his current deal at a very palatable $2.1 million, meaning that a contending team out there could look to fit him in as a one-year rental, but for the Penguins, he's young enough to be seen as a player of the future if they could acquire him.

It's unclear whether or not they'd want to use Karlsson or one of their veterans to acquire Chinakhov or what their division rival Blue Jackets would even be asking for, but as of right now, if he's truly available, Kyle Dubas should try and capitalize and add a young talent for cheap.