Penguins acquire forward Mikael Granlund from Predators

The Pittsburgh Penguins shook up their beleaguered bottom-six ranks Wednesday evening with a series of transactions that resulted in forward Mikael Granlund being the newest member of the team.

Granlund, who turned 31 on Sunday, was acquired from the Nashville Predators in exchange for a second-round pick in this year’s NHL Draft.

Capable of playing wing or center, the left-handed Granlund is in the second year of a four-year contract that carries a salary cap hit of $5 million.

Appearing in 58 games this season, Granlund (5-foot-10, 185 pounds) has scored 36 points (nine goals, 27 assists) while averaging 18 minutes, 39 seconds of ice time per contest. He is also a contributor on both special teams units as he has clocked an average of 3:03 of power-play time this season as well as an average of 56 seconds with the penalty kill.

A native of Oulu, Finland, Granlund was a first-round pick (No. 8 overall) of the Minnesota Wild and spent parts of eight seasons with that franchise before being traded to the Predators midway through the 2018-19 season. He has played with the Predators for portions of the past five campaigns.

Before this transaction could be completed, the Penguins dealt forward Teddy Blueger to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for minor-league defenseman Peter DiLiberatore and a third-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft and assigned forward Brock McGinn as well as defenseman Mark Friedman to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.

Following all of these transactions, the Penguins currently have $1,095,478 of salary cap space according to Cap Friendly. The NHL’s trade deadline is 3 p.m. Friday.