The trade deadline is several months away, but that never stops the rumor mill from churning out names and proposals in trade talks.

For the Penguins, they find themselves in a unique position within the NHL. They aren’t your traditional contender: a team with a young/semi-young core that has it all put together, or is close.

Heck, they might not even be a contender at all. Penguins fans consider them to be, but that is not a league-wide sentiment, not yet anyways.

But if you are of the mind that they are, this Penguins team doesn’t have the kind of time left that many of the other contenders do. Pittsburgh is a desperate team. Desperate to win one last Stanley Cup for their fleeting core. Desperate to prove the Erik Karlsson trade was the one they needed to get over the hump. Desperate to show that those old glory days aren’t all the way gone.

And with that, it’s reasonable to assume that new general manager Kyle Dubas (named to that role by President of Hockey Operations Kyle Dubas, by the way) will be active in his first season with his new team.

One of the things Dubas was known for during his time at the helm of the Toronto Maple Leafs was his activeness. He was constantly tinkering around with the edges and depth of the roster that the Maple Leafs were icing. He was never afraid to make moves, and he even showed he was willing to push all the chips in and go for it when the time was right.

Last season was a prime example of that, when he acquired Ryan O’Reilly, Jake McCabe, Noel Acciari, Sam Lafferty, Erik Gustafsson, and Luke Schenn to bolster his core lineup in a gotta-have-it playoff run for Toronto.

Now, with a different layout but similar cap crunch, Dubas is going to have to get creative with how he manuevers any trade for the Penguins. Any money coming in is going to have to result in money going out for a team that is currently just $17,351 under the salary cap, per CapFriendly.

With that, there appear to be some some early targets emerging for trade rumors as the season heats up.

P.O. Joseph

P.O. Joseph took a huge step last year in what was his official rookie season. The Quebec native played in 75 games for the Penguins as their everyday third pairing defenseman, and seemed to really carve out a role for himself on this team moving forward.

Joseph is the last remaining piece of the Phil Kessel trade, that saw Joseph and forward Alex Galchenyuk come to Pittsburgh in the summer of 2019. Galchenyuk did not last long in Pittsburgh (pawned in early 2020 in a package that brought in Jason Zucker), and Joseph took a longer time to develop than some may have hoped.

But he did develop, and now at 24, there’s not much left for him to do. Despite his solid play, new management brought in extra depth on the blue line, something that Joseph is now currently losing out to.

Joseph has been surpassed on the depth chart by both Chad Ruhwedel (his defense partner last year) and the upstart Ryan Shea, who at 26 is in his first NHL season.

Shea has been tremendous to date, something not many people expected from him when he came to Pittsburgh. Joseph was even scratched for another rookie in John Ludvig for a game this season, and had Ludvig not been concussed in his debut, he likely would still be ahead Joseph.

He’s fallen out of favor with head coach Mike Sullivan, and while we can debate whether that’s fair or not, it’s what has happened so far.

Add that to the fact that Dubas and his new regime have no loyalty to Joseph. They didn’t acquire him, and they didn’t sign him to his current deal.

It seems like the perfect recipe for a mid-season trade.

Rickard Rakell

A lot of fans are not going to like this idea, and that’s completely understandable. Rickard Rakell is a very popular Penguin, and he was just about the only thing former GM Ron Hextall did right while in Pittsburgh.

But this has been a nightmare start to the season for Rakell. He is yet to score a goal 14 games into the season, and he has a mere 3 assists to show for his efforts.

Has he been snakebitten? Absolutely. But when a player is making $5 million, a 13 game goal-scoring drought is very hard to ignore.

Like Joseph, Dubas has no loyalty to Rakell, which means it’s not out of the realm to think Rakell might not be around here too much longer.

His contract would make it hard to trade him; Rakell is in the second year of a six year extension Hextall gave him last offseason. In his first season under the new deal, Rakell proved he earned that money with a 28 goal, 60 point campaign.

This season? That’s only something the Penguins could dream of getting.

It’s worth noting that 2 of Rakell’s 3 assists came in that 10-2 blowout win vs San Jose, so his overall season numbers are actually worse than they would indicate.

If Rakell were to be moved, it would have to be in a massive deal for both sides, given his cap hit and term. Rakell would also leave a hole in the top six, something that would have to be addressed by the return the Penguins got for Rakell, plus potentially others.

It’s unlikely, but given his drought to start the year, it’s not impossible.

Matt Nieto

This is a bit of an off-the-wall pick for a trade, but it’s definitely possible.

Think back to the last few seasons, if you will. The Penguins have traded underperforming forwards in several recent years, usually as part of a larger deal.

Zach Aston-Reese and Dominik Simon went to Anaheim as part of the Rickard Rakell deal. Brock McGinn was sent to the same city a year later.

Pittsburgh has a history of moving depth forwards in and out of their lineup, and while even the aforementioned moves happened under Ron Hextall, Kyle Dubas has a similar style in that sense.

He’s already shown us that he is more than willing to make the small, change of scenery type trades, when he sent Mark Friedman and Ty Glover to Vancouver for Jack Rathbone and Karel Plasek (who he immediately terminated, but you get the idea).

Nieto was signed as a free agent this year, but has not offered the team much of an offensive upside to this point. He has just a single point, a goal he scored in the team’s 10-2 win over the Sharks. Sure, Nieto never been known a the player to lead his team in points, but he has failed to make much of any impression on the lineup to this point.

Pittsburgh’s fourth line was abysmal to start the season, and although the addition of Vinnie Hinostroza helped, they could still use a boost.

If there’s any candidate for depth forward on the move, Nieto probably fits that bill the most. Nieto is in the first of a two year deal that counts for $900K against the salary cap. He would be an easier player to move given his low cost.

(Featured photo by Gaelen Morse/USA Today Sports)