Back on Feb. 10, when the Penguins acquired Jason Zucker from Minnesota, the question appeared to be: “Have the Penguins done enough to catch the Capitals atop the Metro Division?”

That question is still very much up for debate.

Now, on Feb. 25, another question needs to be asked: “Did the Penguins do enough to hold off the rest of the division?”

Frankly, the overall picture hasn’t changed that much. Back then, the Penguins trailed Washington by four points. Now they are two back.

They had been three in front of Columbus. Now they are three points in front of the third-place Philadelphia Flyers and four points in front of the fourth-place New York Islanders.

Those teams have loaded up to track down both the Pens and Caps.

So have the fifth-place Carolina Hurricanes who gave away four assets to acquire Vincent Trocheck (Upper St. Clair) from the Florida Panthers, two pieces to attain defenseman Sami Vatanen from the New Jersey Devils, and a first-round pick to nab New York Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei.

Those moves occurred Monday before the NHL trade deadline.

On the same day, the Islanders obtained nifty forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau from Ottawa for a first-round and second-round pick next year and a potential third-rounder in 2022.

And the Flyers added depth at forward by giving away mid-round picks and Kyle Criscuolo to the Anaheim Ducks and Montreal Canadiens to bring in one-time Penguin Derek Grant and Nate Thompson.

Meanwhile, Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford wasn’t to be left out on “Deadline Day.” He got veteran forward Patrick Marleau from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for a third-round pick (that can become a second if the Penguins win the Stanley Cup). He also swung a deal with Buffalo to bring Conor Sheary back to Pittsburgh, along with fellow forward Evan Rodrigues.

Dominik Kahun went out the door to complete that transaction.

As for the Caps, they decided to mine for goal-scoring potential by taking Ilya Kovalchuk away from Montreal on Sunday and taking a flier on discarded Penguins and Ducks prospect Daniel Sprong on Monday.

My hunch is to say that of all the teams in the Metro Division race, the Hurricanes improved themselves the most. They didn’t get a goalie. But Trocheck has 36 points in 55 games. That will help the flexibility at forward. Plus, Skjei and Vatanen offset injuries to Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesce.

The price was steep, unloading five players currently under contract, a first-round pick, and a second-round pick. Introducing that much new talent into the system may be cumbersome, too. However, let’s not forget that two weeks ago when Zucker came to Pittsburgh, the theme around these parts was, “don’t worry about the return” if the player is worth it.

This activity from the ‘Canes may be more about attempting to distance themselves from the fast-fading Columbus Blue Jackets and the other fringe teams in the Eastern Conference to hold onto a wild-card spot, than it is about zeroing in on the Penguins and Capitals.

But Carolina is no doubt in better shape now and may be more of a threat to the Penguins’ position for the playoffs.

Or suddenly a more difficult potential matchup within them.

“I’m sure it got more competitive,” Rutherford said when I asked him about Monday’s Metro Division moves. “Usually at the end of (Deadline Day) other teams have improved. But we can only deal with what we can control. And the Penguins have improved.”

Agreed. I wouldn’t say a ton. But some.

I’d rather have Marleau, Sheary and Rodrigues bouncing up and down the forward lineup than the likes of Sam Lafferty, Anthony Angello and whatever other Penguins are on the “Blandisi Highway” between Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Then there is the Zucker factor. Despite some decent success so far, I’m not sold that Rutherford is sold that Sidney Crosby is sold on Zucker as a permanent winger.

And if no one is sold on that, then Zucker may just be renting the spot.

These veteran moving pieces may allow head coach Mike Sullivan some more comfort in trying Zucker elsewhere if needed. And Crosby may have comfort in playing with either Sheary or Marleau.

Sheary was often on a line with Crosby during his first stint in Pittsburgh. Marleau has been a teammate with Crosby on Team Canada in international play.

“I think he’s making the adjustment,” Rutherford said of Zucker’s arrival from Minnesota. “I think there is a little more of an adjustment to make. But so long as he uses his speed throughout the whole game, he’s going to be able to play (on Crosby’s line).”

I would’ve liked to see the Penguins add at least one defenseman. It appears, though, that Rutherford has plenty of faith in Brian Dumoulin and John Marino returning to full health and Justin Schultz returning to top form.

“We did look at that,” Rutherford replied when I asked him if the club looked at adding a depth blueliner. “We feel like we have nine NHL defensemen in the organization now.

“The (defensemen) that were available today, the prices of them didn’t make sense. Because a depth defenseman we would have gotten may not have played a whole lot if we are healthy. So nothing made sense for us on defense.”

All in all, Rutherford wasn’t exactly doing jumping jacks when speaking to the media after the deadline passed Monday. However, he did project an image of being content and secure.

“We’ve felt good about (the team) all year. We feel better today. And we feel we have a stronger team. Hopefully we get healthy in the next week or two. And when we have a whole team, we’ll see what we’ve really got,” Rutherford said.

It does appear that Rutherford has improved the Penguins over the last two weeks.

Enough to improve results from what we saw against the Islanders during last year’s playoffs?

Well, it couldn’t get much worse than that.

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