Report: Golden Knight Call Penguins for Jake Guentzel

With a need on the wings and injury pool cash to spend on the NHL trade market, the Vegas Golden Knights have checked in with the Pittsburgh Penguins for pending free agent winger Jake Guentzel, according to Sportsnet report Elliotte Friedman.

On the Headlines Segment of Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night, Friedman rattled off a handful of teams interested in Guentzel. The Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers were on the list, but the team Friedman led was the Golden Knights.

“After they lost to LA last week in the great (Jaromir) Jagr retirement ceremony night, I think talk really intensified around the Penguins,” said Friedman. “Obviously, the big name is Jake Guentzel. Everybody is really interested in him. I think some of the teams that have expressed interest are Vegas, Vancouver, Edmonton, Carolina, Florida.”

You can watch the HNIC segment here.

Guentzel, 29, is a pending unrestricted free agent who has 52 points, including 22 goals. The LW has been prolific beside center Sidney Crosby, scoring 36 goals last season and 40 markers in the season before that. He’s been named to two All-Star games and has been a constant offensive force for Pittsburgh, but the NHL trade rumors are swirling.

His contract, with a $6 million average annual value, expires this summer. Pittsburgh president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas has delayed a decision on Guentzel’s future but seemed to indicate that Guentzel isn’t in the team’s long-term plans, even if they don’t trade him by the March 8 NHL trade deadline.

“I think the way our whole strategy plays out in the next two-and-a-half weeks, how our team continues to play, will dictate the answer at the trade deadline,” said Dubas. “We’ll continue to have those discussions leading up to that and then afterward. But I would say I understand how valuable he’s been as a teammate, a person in the community, and a contributor helping this team win a Stanley Cup … We have to take stock of where we are at and be realistic about the fact that one of the issues we have is a need to get younger.

PuckPedia.com shows the Golden Knights with about $6 million of salary cap space. VGK captain Mark Stone is out of the lineup week-to-week. The chatter is that Stone will be ready for the playoffs, but not before.

Guentzel has one Stanley Cup ring (2017) with the Penguins.