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Christmas doesn't come for 11 more days, but for Pittsburgh Penguins fans it has arrived early.
The #Pens have acquired defenseman Trevor Daley in exchange for Rob Scuderi, per club.
— Jenn Menendez (@JennMenendez) December 15, 2015
Daley, like Scuderi has 1 more year left on his contract, and he's also falling apart fast in terms of not being so great anymore, but Scuderi has been a terrible anchor for the Pens.
Here's what our Chicago blog, Second City Hockey, said about Daley earlier this month:
Daley, 32, has struggled with the Blackhawks after being acquired as part of the Patrick Sharp deal with the Stars during the offseason. A longtime veteran in Dallas, he's reportedly had trouble fitting into Chicago's system and LeBrun says "he's probably a bit frustrated with his role these days" given that he's used to playing a much larger role. Last season with the Stars, Daley played a career-high 22:53 per game. This season, he's not even getting 16 minutes a night.
From the Pens:
Daley, 32, was in his first season with the Blackhawks after spending his first 11 years with the Dallas Stars. He had six assists and was plus-1 in 29 games with Chicago this year.
The 5-foot-11, 195-pound blueliner had the best offensive year of his career last season in Dallas, tallying 16 goals, 22 assists and 38 points in 68 contests. His goal, assist and point totals were all career highs. He also had a career-best six power-play goals.
Daley’s 16 goals last season ranked fifth among all NHL blueliners, trailing only Oliver Ekman-Larsson (23), Erik Karlsson (21), Dustin Byfuglien (18) and Brent Burns (17).
16 goals is more than Scuderi has in his career.
Update:
Pens will keep some salary:
#Penguins retain $1.125M of Scuderi's cap hit this year and next year. https://t.co/XLxc78peoU
— General Fanager (@generalfanager) December 15, 2015
With Pascal Dupuis on LTIR, they have the ability to do this and still have some room to add more salary in the future. With the Pens salary structure they have the space to do this. Not ideal, but hey, they traded an inferior player for at least a marginal upgrade, and that literally isn't free.