Penguins add AHL defenseman John Nyberg in trade from Dallas

The Penguins have made a minor league trade today with the Dallas Stars. AHL forward Oula Palve is heading out of the organization and the Pens add 23-year old defenseman John Nyberg from the Stars.

Palve, at 27, is playing in his first pro season in North America after starring in the Finnish league for several years. However he wasn’t much of an impact player, was barely on the NHL radar at all in training camp and quickly demoted. He didn’t find much footing in the AHL either, scoring just one goal and adding seven assists in 37 games. Plus/minus is a flawed stat but Palve was a -20 in Wilkes-Barre where only two other players were in double-digits, a sign that not much was going his way.

Nyberg is at least a bit younger, so there’s that going for the Pens. However his career has been low impact so far as well as the hockeydb resume shows:

Our SBN Dallas blog Defending Big D appears to not have mentioned Nyberg at all since November, but the line was positive saying he, “looks notably better this season compared to last” so maybe that’s a bit of hope as well. Obviously the Dallas front office didn’t see much of a future for him after almost two years in their club.

In the end, this is likely a very forgettable move, but we shall see how Nyberg does with a new organization and if he has any upside or future. Palve clearly didn’t have much of a meaningful future at all with the Pens’ organization so this might just be an “easy come, easy go” type of transaction that never gets referenced again at the NHL level. Nyberg, as the team announced, will report to Wilkes-Barre.