The trade deadline is rapidly approaching us. At the time of this publishing, we are under a month out from the March 8th date set.

With the Penguins still being in somewhat unpredictable territory for what they will do at the deadline (buy, sell, or stand pat), I decided to look at some past trade deadlines, just for the heck of it.

Not every deadline deal is the same; we often imagine big time names coming and going, and while those do happen, there are also a lot of little deals that happen, depth trades and things of that nature, that comprise a lot of the craziness of the trade deadline.

For the Penguins, that has resulted in some rather weird trades in recent years. Players who you may have never thought would be Penguins (or become Penguins again), or maybe just oddly random additions.

The kind of trades that make you say what? are usually my favorite to look back on, so here we go.

March 3rd, 2023: Nick Bonino Returns

Once a hailed hero in this town and a third of the HBK line that helped propel Pittsburgh to two Stanley Cups, Nick Bonino’s career was a bit of a runaround after leaving Pittsburgh. He spent three years in Nashville, a team he helped beat in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2017, but after that had quick stints in both Minnesota and San Jose before being traded back to Pittsburgh.

Nothing against Bonino, but it wasn’t a reunion anyone was necessarily clamoring for. His offensive touch had dropped off slightly, and nearing his mid 30s it was becoming harder and harder to maintain the playing style he once did.

Nevertheless, then-Penguins general manager Ron Hextall traded to bring Bonino back. The mechanics of the trade may have ended up being just as odd as Bonino’s return itself.

Bonino had to be funneled through a broker (the Montreal Canadiens) to make the money work. Montreal got a draft pick for their services (from San Jose), meanwhile the Sharks received a seventh rounder in 2023 and a fifth rounder in 2024.

Bonino would play all of 3 games in his return before an injury prevented him from playing again in 2022-23.

March 21st, 2022: The No-Game Wonder

Ahead of the 2022 trade deadline, while Ron Hextall was at the height of his reign of terror in Pittsburgh, the GM was rather odd about what he did to alter the team. He swapped forwards with Chicago, sending out Sam Lafferty to get Alex Nylander, which was, at best pointless and at worst stupid.

In fairness to Hextall, he did make a good trade with the Anaheim Ducks to bring in Rickard Rakell. I know Rakell has been in slumps this season, but that has made us forget how good he has been when he’s clicking.

But by far, the weirdest trade was to acquire Nathan Beaulieu from the Winnipeg Jets. Bringing in an injured defenseman on Long Term Injured Reserve was something Hextall absolutely had to do, and so he did it, sending a conditional seventh round selection to the Jets to make the deal happen.

Beaulieu never played in a single game for the Penguins, and it seemed like this deal was made just to be some silly little geese. The conditions on that pick were incredibly stupid: the Penguins had to advance all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, and Beaulieu had to play in 50% of the games.

Obviously, neither one of those happened, and the whole trade happened for no reason. Awesome stuff.

February 24th, 2020: Patrick Marleau, The Ultimate Veteran

We often forget the weird trade deadline that was 2020, probably because a once-in-a-century pandemic forced the league to shut down mere weeks later. Tons of weird trades took place, like Ilya Kovalchuk to the Capitals, Wayne Simmonds to the Sabres, and Mike Green to the Oilers.

But I don’t think any one of them can out-weird Patrick Marleau to the Penguins.

Then-general manager Jim Rutherford swung a deal to bring in the ultimate experienced veteran in Marleau, who was 40 at the time of the deal. Marleau had been with San Jose from 1997 to 2017, when he joined a young Maple Leafs squad to help guide the group.

After his contract became too much to handle, Toronto paid Carolina a first round pick to buy out Marleau’s deal. He returned to San Jose for the 2019-20 season, but as the season turned south in a hurry management did him a solid and tried to give him a chance at a Stanley Cup, something his longtime teammate Joe Thornton was not afforded.

The Sharks netted back a third rounder in return.

Thanks to the Covid shutdown, Marleau played in just 8 games with the Penguins (12 if we’re including “playoffs”), not the kind of time Rutherford was hoping for. Pictures of him in a Penguins jersey continue to be the weirdest thing I’ve seen on the internet (and I mean come on, that’s saying a lot).

Marleau returned to San Jose for one final season in 2020-21 before hanging up the skates.

February 29th, 2016: A Hodgepodge of Guys

This one is kind of a two-for-one deal, you’ll see why.

En route to a Stanley Cup win in 2016, Jim Rutherford made several key moves to put his team over the top. He added speedy winger Carl Hagelin from Anaheim in January, and only a few days before the trade deadline, acquired Justin Schultz from Edmonton.

However, Rutherford was not done. On deadline day itself, he made two trades with the Arizona Coyotes. First, he shipped underperforming forward Sergei Plotnikov out west, for a conditional pick that Pittsburgh never received.

But before he did that, he completed a four player trade that had no ramifications at all.

The Penguins sent middling center prospect Matia Marcantuoni to the Coyotes in exchange for three guys: defenseman James Melindy, and forwards Dustin Jeffrey and Daniel O’Donoghue.

None of these players would play in an NHL game after the deal. Jeffrey had previously played for the Penguins, appearing in 100 games during the late 2000s and early 2010s.

O’Donoghue played handfuls of AHL games, but could never fully stick there. He retired after the 2015-16 season. Melindy, mostly an ECHL player in his career, still plays today for the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers, where former Penguin Matt Cooke has recently become the head coach.

As for Marcantuoni, he never made it to the NHL either. He made it to the AHL but retired after the 2016-17 season.

March 28th, 2013: Jarome Iginla Is A Bruin…Uh, I Mean Penguin

This might be the one you thought of when you first saw the title.

Similar to Patrick Marleau, Iginla had spent so many years in one spot, seeing him anywhere else was inherently odd. Iginla had played roughly a decade and a half with the Calgary Flames, who finally dealt him in 2013 to the Penguins for two prospects and a first round pick.

Iginla and the Penguins had a good thing going, despite how weird he looked in black and (at the time) Vegas gold. He put up 11 points in 13 regular season games anhd had another 12 in 15 playoff games.

Sadly for the Penguins, their playoff run came crashing down in the Eastern Conference Finals at the hands of the Boston Bruins. It was even more crushing for Iginla, who had turned down a trade to Boston earlier in the season. If its a consolation, however, the Bruins lost in the Finals that year, meaning at least Iginla hadn’t lost out on a ring by choosing Pittsburgh over Boston.

The trade had opened the floodgates for Iginla in different uniforms. Before he retired in 2017, Iginla played for the Bruins (the year after the Pens), Avalanche, and Kings.

(Featured image of Patrick Marleau by Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)