Pittsburgh Penguins Historic 20 Year Trade Tree
po Joseph signs with the St Louis Blues for I believe it was one year 950k obviously the move in the back end of that is the Penguins bringing in Sebastian AO two years 775k but with po Joseph’s departure is the end of the Phil kessle branch of one of the longest tenured trade trees in NHL history running from 2001 until 2024 and potential to go beyond 202 before it is now down to as we’ll pull up the trade tree here for everybody watching on YouTube at tip of the iceberg it is now down to Eric Carlson a 2026 third round pick and minor leager Dylan jaluk who is right now unsigned so he could be gone in the matter of a couple of months and it could be down to a 2026 third round pick and just Eric Carlson we’ll bring up the trade tree here and it all dates back to 2001 when Jeff Norton of all people was traded for Bobby doues that Branch didn’t last long and Johan Hedberg that then went to Alex goosi in a Vancouver second round pick that went to then of course Matt ninan and James Neil which went to Patrick hornist and Nick sping which then created the bulk majority of this tree because Nick sping of course included in the Phil kessle trade horist traded for Mike Mat and Colton seier kessle then traded for Galchenyuk and Joseph Galchenyuk turns into Jason zooker which Clips off at that point mat turns into Ryan paling and Jeff Petri in a trade that all of us are still having nightmares about but then Jeff Petri kept this thing alive when he was part of the Eric Carlson trade last August for Dylan huk who is still technically under control by the Pittsburgh Penguins Eric Carlson a 2026 San Jose third round pick and REM pitlick was part of that as well but pitlick was traded for a conditional seventh and the conditions were not met so his branches cut off as well crazy trade tree starting back in 2001 including I would say at least two Hall of Famers right Phil kessle potentially Eric Carlson is there potentially and a couple of very important pieces for a couple Stanley Cup runs from the Pittsburgh Penguins yeah it’s no doubt looking at some of the names on here I mean it’s some of the biggest names in recent memory too for Penguins fans I mean you mentioned yeah like there’s Hall of Famers like Phil kessle Eric Carlson but Jason Zucker ended up being a really fun player for a couple years Patrick hornquist ended up becoming huge piece of Stanley Cup runs like you mentioned um if you really get into it James Neil was fun to have around for a couple Seasons even Matt ninan whenever he popped off for his in his last season here a ton of fun and the the run that Johan Hedberg went on in his rookie season was one of those memorable ones uh it’s just looking at some of the names on here they’re big names they’re popular names they are hockey names names too I mean like yeah maybe Alex Galchenyuk didn’t work in Pittsburgh and a lot of the recent stuff hasn’t been great that’s a former top oh I forget what pick he was but a former early early early first round pick that found his way into this uh Jeff Petri is an NHL veteran of of many games and for its worth po Joseph at one point was The Penguin’s top defensive prospect so yeah the names on like there’s no small names on this list Nick spings kind of got a history in hockey um when you get into the minute details of things is whenever you start really seeing the little names that are here but for the most part these are these are mostly some pretty big prominent names not only in for the Penguins but just in hockey in general I mean the one name you didn’t mention there Alex gagoski was a great nhlr for a very long time right yeah he was yeah yeah that’s another one there’s a lot of names on here it’s a very interesting trade tree that I’m happy continues I thought it came to an end I completely forgot about mat turning into Petri turning into Carlson but here we stand with Carlson and a third round pick I’m not sure that penguins are going to retain himalia this offseason the question that I have here before we wrap this one up and also before this gets completely outdated and somebody gets traded what is the craziest part of this trade Tree in your eyes oh it’s tough it’s tough uh as I kind of look at it I’d say the craziest part might be I mean I mean not all the details are into it but just the Eric Carlson trade itself yeah je yes Jeff Petri is involved but I mean Casey the Smith was involved in it too and he’s not going to be in this but it was a huge trade that brought so much to the Penguins this past season or sorry that had so much leave the Penguins this past season because it was Kyle dubis coming in because there’s the whole story behind it it’s Kyle dubis coming in he’s got a mess on his hands and has and wanted Eric Carlson in Toronto and now he’s got a team that has the assets to make it happen and it’s a team that Carlson wants to go to and what does he do he somehow ships out all of the bad contracts most of the bad contracts um for a player that going into his second year should be way better other than that the Phil Kess one’s obvious and uh yeah I’d say it sticks on to the Eric Carlson deal itself yeah it’s not officially a part of this trade treat because the the branch was clipped but you know who was involved in that Phil kessle trade initially was Caspar Capon then the Penguins brought him back and had him back on the roster as well so that’s a weird little uh addition to this as well I think the funniest and most interesting part of this trade tree is the guy it all starts with if I said Jeff Norton to most hockey fans you mentioned a lot of these names are names that just average hockey fans are going to know or average Penguins fans are going to know nobody knows really Jeff Norton unless you’re one of the older generation and a big fan of hockey or you’ve studied the plaque outside of PPG Paints Arena because he is one of the two New York Islanders Defenders on the Mario Lemieux statue outside PPG Paints Arena the fact that that guy is heading up this extensive and crazy tread trade tree is what I think is the most interesting part of this and the craziest part of this as well is obviously Jeff Norton and Rich pylon Pon whatever you want to say uh but Mario lemuse splitting down between those and then now we look at Norton as as part of this part of Penguin’s history as well I forgot about that part the the statue if maybe you do know Jeff Norton because he was a journeyman in the NHL between the uh late 80s into very early 2000s 15 years in the NHL 799 career games so close to 800 um by getting the points right I am 384 total points in his career he’s a playmaker 52 total goals um that helps whenever you play defense and I’m not checking that part out but 15 years in the NHL over one two three four five six seven eight teams three games in Boston only 32 in Pittsburgh and yet here he is starting this for the Penguins um just an insane start for it he doesn’t have a picture on hockey reference so much how much more do you need yeah I mean essentially the Penguins traded Jeff Norton for Eric Carlson over the years and couple of cups in the way yeah over yeah over 20 years later but still hey it’s it’s what you do it’s that old you know if I have a paperclip and can get to a house by just exchanging one thing for one thing and that’s essentially what the Penguins did and they won a couple of Stanley Cups on the way with some of these players being key contributors you mentioned you know Patrick warfist obviously Phil Castle obviously and they’re hoping you know Eric Carlson even though they’ve just entered a rebuild but I thought it was fun to look back on that because one of the big branches was cut off obviously we thought the Phil kessle Branch would have led to another 20 years but instead the return for Phil kessle was Alex scalak that didn’t work quickly and he was gone and po Joseph who now walks for absolutely nothing in free agency to the St Louis Blues obviously it might be a while before we revisit this trade tree hopefully I mean Eric Carlson has I believe three years remaining on his current deal and obviously the Penguins need to do something with that 2026 third round pick whether that is make the selection and see where that player’s career goes or if they use it as part of a trade who comes back and returns so uh it’ll be a nice little sidebar to keep an eye on a nice little fun entertaining offseason piece to keep an eye on but uh I thought it was interesting and we should bring it back up because we had a couple conversations over text throughout the week whenever po Joseph’s uh potential to leave uh started to spring up on Sunday
The departure of P.O. Joseph for the St. Louis Blues cuts off a branch of one of the longest running trade tree’s in Pittsburgh Penguins history.
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