The Penguins are moving on from Reilly Smith.
The Penguins on Monday traded Smith to the Rangers in exchange for a 2027 second- and a conditional 2025 fifth-round draft pick. The Rangers own two fifth-round picks in 2025 -- their own, and one that originally belonged to the Wild. The Penguins will receive the lower of the two.
Smith, who was acquired in a trade with the Golden Knights last summer, had one year remaining on his contract that carries a $5 million cap hit. The Penguins retained $1.25 million (25%) of Smith's salary, freeing up $3.75 million in cap space.
The Smith era in Pittsburgh had a fine start, with Smith on Evgeni Malkin's wing, recording six goals and six assists in his first 13 games. He recorded a single assist in his next 12 games, and only two goals and six assists in his next 28 games. He was bumped down to the third line as a result, where he remained for the rest of the season. He finished the year with 13 goals and 27 assists in 70 games.
Kyle Dubas said at the draft on Friday that he wouldn't expect the Penguins to make the kind of cap-dump trades where teams attach picks and prospects to tough contracts in order to entice other teams to take those contracts on.
"I think with where we're at, the only thing that's really important to us is that if we're moving players out, the return has to be good," Dubas said before Day 1 of the draft in Las Vegas on Friday."I don't think we're a team with where we're at where we're going to be looking to do these types of deals, that where we're looking to move salary over, willing to do core deals or attach any assets."
In sending Smith to the Rangers, the Penguins didn't have to attach any of those future assets. They got future assets back. Dubas has mentioned on a number of occasions wanting to load up on picks and prospects in order to restock the prospect pool. He did that in the Smith deal, while dumping some salary, too.
