NHL trade grades: Penguins, Kraken soak up sellers' market in 2 deals with Jets
The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 NHL trade deadline.
Winnipeg Jets get: Defenseman Luke Schenn
Pittsburgh Penguins get: 2026 second-round draft pick, 2027 fourth-round draft pick
Winnipeg Jets get: Forward Brandon Tanev
Seattle Kraken get: 2027 second-round draft pick
James Mirtle: I had a front-row (press box) seat when the Maple Leafs acquired Luke Schenn at the trade deadline two years ago for a third-round pick.
At the time, it felt like he would be simply a bit part, depth addition to a contending Toronto team. Instead, he stepped into a top-four role alongside Morgan Rielly and was one of the Leafs best players as they finally made it out of the first round of the playoffs.
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And Toronto tried to bring him back in the offseason, only to get outbid on the generous three-year deal Schenn landed in Nashville.
Schenn, 35, is two years older than that postseason with the Leafs, and what he brings isn't flashy. But he also won't be expected to do as much with the Jets, filling primarily a third-pair slot and PK duties.
His game is a perfect fit for the postseason and this team, given he brings size and physicality, not to mention the experience of two deep Stanley Cup runs with the Lightning in 2020 and 2021. And his underrated ability to make a nice, no-nonsense play to break out of his zone has been a big part of his late-career resurgence over the past few years.
The only downside for the Jets is they didn't get any of the deal retained, as $2.75 million is a hair high to pay for another year beyond this one. Credit to the Penguins, meanwhile, for flipping Schenn for a better pick outlay than what the Canucks got for him two years ago.
I'm less bullish on the Tanev addition if only because the Jets really could have used a higher level add up front. They were in hard on some of the bigger fish, such as Brock Nelson, and Tanev is certainly not that.
What he is, however, is an incredibly hard worker who brings a strong checking game and elite penalty killing – something the Jets need to upgrade given they sit 15th. His underlying numbers at even strength have taken a dip as he's aged, but some of that has been the challenging environment in Seattle the past few seasons.
Tanev started his career in Winnipeg and was part of their big playoff run in 2018, so the fit in that respect should be seamless. And it feels possible this turns into more than just a rental situation, too, which would boost this grade.
Jets grade: B
Penguins grade: A-
Kraken grade: A-
Sean Gentille: Way back on Wednesday night, when the Penguins acquired Tommy Novak from Nashville for Michael Bunting, Luke Schenn's involvement in the deal screamed 'quick flip.'
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Contenders will always make room for big, tough, high-character Cup-winners. The Penguins, as they've laid plain over the last few months, are no contender. And for as much as Kyle Dubas gassed up Schenn in a round of post-trade emails with Pittsburgh media, smart money should've always been on Schenn winding up somewhere else.
'(We) feel that having Luke's defensive play, character, leadership, toughness and spirit is something we need here to help push our program through this phase and preserve our culture and standards as we work to return to contention,' Dubas said.
They'll miss out on that, it seems, while adding two draft picks to their cache. Dubas, should he desire, can now select 10 players in the first round of the next three drafts. This market favors sellers, and he's taking full advantage.
Schenn, meanwhile, re-surfaces on one of the best teams in the league. The Jets got themselves a physical right-shot defenseman who can kill penalties and clear the net-front. In a vacuum, that's fine — it's certainly a player profile that they can use. Given how the Western Conference is shaping up, he should help the Jets along the way.
Still, they need to be careful about how much they put on Schenn's plate. He's 35 years old now and was never going to win any foot races in the first place.
You could say something similar about Tanev. He can still skate and still seems like a player who can be a factor over the course of a playoff run, but his overall game has dipped over the past two years. Seattle's defensive numbers are worse with him on the ice. I'm not sure that's how Winnipeg, in a perfect world, would've spent a second-round pick, though the state of the market might say otherwise. If this is what it takes for a true Cup contender to get better, what other choice do they have?
Jets grade: C-
Penguins grade: A
Kraken grade: A
(Photos: Ethan Miller and Alika Jenner / Getty Images)
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