The Penguins didn't trade Nick Bjugstad to Minnesota because they were desperate for a long-shot chance to add a seventh-round choice in the 2021 draft.
They already have two of those (accounting for half of the selections they currently hold in that draft) and recent history suggests that Bjugstad is just slightly more likely to meet the conditions required for the Wild to part with that seventh-rounder than he was to supplant Sidney Crosby as the Penguins' No. 1 center if he had remained here.
Minnesota will retain that choice unless Bjugstad appears in 70 games or records 35 points during the 2020-21 season; that's something he's managed once, on each count, in the past five seasons.
Both came in 2017-18, when he put up 49 points in 82 games while playing for Florida.
Bjugstad has had core-muscle and spinal surgeries during the past year, and the Penguins and Wild profess to be confident that he's healthy. And if Bjugstad is able to take full advantage of his size, skating and skill -- something that hasn't happened all that often since he entered the NHL in 2012-13 -- he certainly seems capable of contributing at least a point every other game.
But even if Bjugstad has a strong bounce-back season and the Penguins add a third seventh-round selection in next year's draft, the most important thing they got out of the deal will be $2.05 million in salary-cap space, even though they retained half of Bjugstad's $4.1 million cap hit.
Even so, shedding 50 percent of Bjugstad's contract might not be the last salary cap-related move Jim Rutherford will be compelled to make in coming weeks and months.
The cap ceiling for the coming season will remain at $81.5 million; per figures compiled by CapFriendly.com, Rutherford has $72,503,508 in cap space committed to 10 forwards, eight defensemen (one of them being recently signed free agent Josh Maniscalco) and goalie Casey DeSmith.
That leaves him with slightly less than $9 million in cap space available, and at least five restricted free agents from his major-league roster on which to spend it.
That's without factoring in any additions Rutherford might want to make when the free-agent market opens Oct. 9 or the seven-figure cushion he likes to have going into a season to address any personnel emergencies or player-acquisition opportunities that might arise.
That list of current Penguins who need new contracts includes forward Dominik Simon, Jared McCann, Sam Lafferty and Anthony Angello and goalie Tristan Jarry. (Matt Murray needs one, too, but appears to have been supplanted by Jarry as the Penguins' go-to goalie and is expected to be traded during the off-season.)
None of those players figure to receive break-the-bank deals, although Jarry probably can anticipate a nice bump in pay from the $700,000 he earned last season.
Rutherford has made it known that he would like to upgrade his bottom-six forwards -- the most conspicuous void looks to be at center on the No. 3 line, where McCann did not perform to expectations after being moved there -- and third defense pairing.
Where McCann fits into the Penguins' plans, assuming he does anywhere, likely will have an impact on several players, in several ways.
If he is given another chance to center the third line, it would remove the urgency to identify a new candidate -- be it someone already in the organization, such as Teddy Blueger, or a guy acquired via a trade or free agents -- for that role. Conversely, if Rutherford would opt to relinquish the Penguins' rights to McCann, there would be more money and cap space to invest in the other restricted free agents or someone from another club.
Jack Johnson and Chad Ruhwedel project as the No. 3 defense pairing, at least for now, but Ruhwedel, 30, never has appeared in more than 44 NHL games in a season, so it's unclear how his effectiveness might be affected if he assumes an every-game role.
The Penguins have not committed to keeping Maniscalco, who shoots right-handed, on the major-league roster during the coming season. However, if they are confident he is capable of making the jump from Arizona State to the NHL without spending some developmental time in Wilkes-Barre, it might lessen their urgency to add a right-shot defenseman via trade or free agency before training camp.