We are rapidly approaching the crazy time of the year in the NHL. We are already seeing some wacky trade proposals for an offseason that is shaping up to be a very entertaining one.

In that spirit, I decided to create a whole Penguins team consisting of players the Penguins have traded for in recent time. At some point, I might do an all-time traded for team, but as for now, I took the most recent players needed to fill out a whole team.

That means the most recent 12 forwards, the most recent six defenseman, and the most recent two goaltenders the Penguins have traded for. The only caveat here is that each player on this list had to have played at least one NHL game, whether that was before the trade or after the trade.

Some of these players have come from the days when the Penguins were all out buyers. Some were from the last few years where the team made some very odd deals. Some of these names I’m sure you forgot.

I’ve decided to split the roster into two parts, with the first half of the team (in alphabetical order) being on this list, and the second half being released in a few days.

But let’s meet the first half of this rag tag team:

Nathan Beaulieu, D

Nathan Beaulieu is one of my all time favorite odd Penguins trades, because he literally never played a game for the team.

When the Penguins acquired Beaulieu at the deadline in 2022, the defenseman was on Long Term Injured Reserve, and a timetable for his return was unknown. The Penguins sent a conditional seventh round pick to the Winnipeg Jets in that deal, but the Jets only received that pick if the Penguins reached the Stanley Cup Finals and Beaulieu played in 50% of the games.

Beaulieu spent the remainder of the regular season on LTIR, but was activated during the first round of the playoffs. Despite reportedly being good to go, he was a healthy scratch for all games in the first round, which Pittsburgh was eliminated in.

Safe to say that neither one of those conditions hit, and the Penguins were able to keep their pick.

Emil Bemström, C

Another player with some very odd trade conditions, it’s Emil Bemström. The Penguins traded for the depth forward well ahead of the deadline, sending AHL forward Alex Nylander and a conditional sixth round pick in exchange for Bemström’s services.

The condition? The sixth round pick would upgrade all the way to a third round pick if Bemström scored at least six goals for the Penguins during the rest of the season. The saga was weird enough that I started the official Fifth Avenue Emil Bemström Six Goal Watch™ to track every goal and see if he would actually harm the Penguins by scoring a lot of goals.

Thankfully, Kyle Dubas’ weird draft pick antics didn’t end up costing him; Bemström scored three goals while Alex Nylander, who was stuck in the AHL with the Pens, broke through in Columbus for a tremendous performance down the stretch.