NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Kyle Dubas' first trade as the Penguins' president of hockey operations is a big one.
The Penguins on Wednesday acquired winger Reilly Smith from the Golden Knights in exchange for a third-round pick in the 2024 draft. The pick sent to Vegas was the Golden Knights' original pick that the Penguins had previously acquired in the Teddy Blueger trade.
Smith scored 26 goals and 30 assists in 78 games for the Golden Knights this season, and four goals and 10 assists in 22 games in the Golden Knights' run to the Stanley Cup.
Smith, 32, is a left-handed shot who is listed at 6 foot 1 and 185 pounds. He has two years remaining on his current contract that carries a $5 million cap hit. There was no salary retained in the trade. Smith had a 12-team no-trade list as part of his contract this season. That is reduced to a 10-team no-trade list for this coming season, and an 8-team no-trade list in the last year of the deal.
Dubas acknowledged in his pre-draft press conference last week that the Penguins could seek to add players via trades just like this one, where the Penguins capitalize on their $20 million in cap space by taking on contracts that cash-strapped teams are looking to shed.
"The asset that we do have right now is, we have cap space — nearly $20 million in cap space, or slightly more," Dubas said. "Obviously we have some big needs that we need to fill using that, but what I’ve seen in the marketplace is that also puts us in position to acquire players from other teams that are looking to shed salaries, either to become cap compliant, outright, or different players they want to re-sign of their own, or they have different needs that they’ve identified.
"The market has been that way, I think, since the pandemic began and the cap went flat, where each summer teams pay a premium to offload people, or they can try to find a fit where maybe there’s a team that believes it’s close to contending or wants to contend, can take on players that can still bring in good value without giving up a lot of it and without giving up their cap space."
Danny Shirey will have a Drive to the Net tonight breaking down Smith's skillset more.
