That 2nd round pick in the Vancouver trade would need to be a 1st for this to make sense for Pits. Pod has limited value.

What’s the reasoning behind the 1st round pick swap between the Pens & the Sharks? Personally, I don’t think they (San Jose) would be interested in doing that.

Its because of the conditions on the first, its a top 10 protected first. OP is saying Pit finishes bottom 10 so the sharks get their 2025 1st instead

these constant low ball offers, like the penguins would demand a 1st being included here.

Lekkerimaki is not on the table

I do somewhat wonder about it. The phrasing on the trade seemed to be that the Pens would get the option to either give the top 10 2024 1st or defer it to 2025 as opposed to it automatically being deferred.

If the pick is 9th or 10th do the Pens choose to defer it and risk dropping off more next season and pulling a Sharks (giving up the 3rd overall pick which became Tim Stutzle), or do they just give the pick up now? The Pens had an incredibly healthy season (4.1M in cap hit man games lost, 10th lowest in the league. 150 total man games lost) and they're one of the oldest teams in the league. It's not unreasonable to see a scenario where the one or more of the "big 4" (they seem to be counting EK65 in that now) miss a good chunk of time with injury considering the youngest of them will be 34 and already has an extensive injury history.

Obviously if they somehow end up with a top 5 or so pick, whether from winning the lottery or just completely falling off a cliff they'll defer, but I'm curious what the threshold for them actually choosing to defer is.

From the Karlsson trade over the summer. Our 1st we traded was top 10 protected, meaning if we finish in the bottom 10 of the standings we decide which pick we give SJ, top 10 pick in 24 (almost definitely wont) or whatever our 1st ends in being in 25. But only if we finish bottom 10....