Why trade him now?

Wednesday, 13 February 2013 17:26

Written by Dave Molinari

It's pretty clear that the Penguins had lost faith in left winger Eric Tangradi a while ago -- had he not been traded to Winnipeg today, he would have been a healthy scratch for the ninth consecutive game this season -- but the timing of the move still is interesting.

The early guess is that the Penguins, who got only a seventh-round draft choice from Winnipeg for Tangradi, made the move more for his benefit than their own by trying to put him into a spot where he might have a chance to establish himself as an NHL regular.

There certainly is no guarantee the pick they got from the Jets will yield an NHL-caliber talent.

Tangradi never had anything close to the impact management hope for when it got him from Anaheim with Chris Kunitz in the 2009 trade that sent Ryan Whitney to the Ducks, and ended his Penguins career with one goal and four assists in 45 games.

What's more, he failed to record a goal in his final 39 games here.

Still, Tangradi was capable of stepping into the lineup if needed, even if he didn't contribute as much as the Penguins once hoped he would.

Given the apparent shortage of NHL-caliber forwards on their farm team in Wilkes-Barre, that gave Tangradi at least a small measure of value.

Then again, the Tangradi trade and the demotion of defenseman Dylan Reese to the Baby Penguins a few hours earlier leaves the Penguins one player below the 23-man limit on their major-league roster, and it's not out of the question that general manager Ray Shero might be investigating trade possibilities that would result in someone being brought in to fill that spot.