Penguins and Blue Jackets complete a trade prior to season's end

Both the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Columbus Blue Jackets had made a trade prior to the March trade deadline. Due to conditions, the trade was completed this evening as the Blue Jackets traded Alex Nylander and a conditional sixth round choice to the Penguins for Emil Bemstrom.

The primary condition to this deal was the 6th round draft pick involving Bemstrom having to score six goals with the Penguins. If this occurs, the sixth-round pick would have turned into a third-round pick. Prior to their game against the New York Islanders, Bemstrom needed to score 3 goals to reach that goal.




This season has been filled with trades for the Penguins as newly minted general manager Kyle Dubas formerly of the Toronto Maple Leafs tried to jumpstart his team by bringing in Eric Carlson from the San Jose Sharks, starting goaltender Tristan Jarry to a long-term deal.


Unfortunately for Dubas, his season did not go as planned as the Penguins sputtered and did not take off until the very end of the year where they put on a push for the ages but came up short and did not make the playoffs.

Many questions remained for this team on what Dubas will do in the offseason and what will the team look like in September. It's certainly clear that this team has a lot of work ahead of them and many questions to answer.