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.

Back on Monday, I unveiled the first ten players of this team. If you missed the first half of our roster, you can check it out here.

But let’s meet the second half:

Michael Leighton, G

The first goaltender to appear on this list is somebody you probably never knew was a member of the Penguins organization. Michael Leighton is best known for his run with the cross-state Philadelphia Flyers in 2010 that saw them make it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals.

He was the man in net when Patrick Kane scored the most anti-climatic goal in Stanley Cup Finals history. He bounced around a ton after that run; some time spent in the Flyers organization, various other AHL teams, the KHL for a bit, and then finally he wound up with the Tampa Bay Lightning organization in the summer of 2017.

Shorty into the season, while playing in the AHL, the team dealt Leighton to Arizona, where continued to play sparingly for their AHL team. Then, in mid-December, the Coyotes traded him to Pittsburgh in a trade that included a pick swap, and forward Josh Archibald being sent out west.

In all, he played in just six games for Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton over the rest of the season. But he still counts!

Alex Nylander, RW/LW

A relatively minor, yet bad, deal at the time, saw Hextall and the Penguins send checking forward Sam Lafferty to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Alex Nylander, who was in the AHL at the time and remained there during the remainder of the season.

In 2022-23, he was often shuttled between the NHL and AHL, but he got into nine games with the Penguins and five this past season.

In February of this season, after unsuccessful small stints in the NHL and a majority of his games coming in the minors, Kyle Dubas traded him to Columbus along with a conditional pick for forward Emil Bemström. Nylander earned another chance with the Blue Jackets and absolutely broke out, perhaps resurrecting his NHL career.

Jeff Petry, D

Jeff Petry has been involved in a lot of trades in recent time. Since July 16th, 2022, Petry has been traded three times.

That date marked his trade from Montreal, where he was disgruntled and requested to be moved, to Pittsburgh. Petry arrived along with forward Ryan Poehling (who we will meet soon) in exchange for Michael Matheson and a draft pick.

Petry (and Poehling) only lasted one year in Pittsburgh, and while he wasn’t awful, it was hard for Pens fans to watch Matheson succeed in Montreal and also pack more of a punch offensively for the Canadiens.

Petry, meanwhile, was involved in the Erik Karlsson trade, which took him back to Montreal before the team flipped him to Detroit.

Rem Pitlick, LW/RW

Speaking of that Erik Karlsson trade, here’s Rem Pitlick. He was the second piece in the deal that ended up in Pittsburgh, arriving from Montreal.

Pitlick was a very up and down forward when he got to the Penguins. He had some runs of success in the NHL, but could never fully stick around long enough. In Pittsburgh, he had another chance to grab hold of an NHL job, but in a bit of a shock, he ended up being waved before the season.

Going unclaimed, he spent the remainder of the calendar 2023 year before being traded to Chicago just around the turn of the year. Though he stayed mostly in the AHL even with the Blackhawks organization, he did get a nine game run before the season was out.

Ryan Poehling, C/LW

Coming over with Jeff Petry in the Matheson trade, Ryan Poehling was an interesting depth forward when the Penguins acquired him.

Poehling was a decent checking forward for the team, and had the occasional scoring touch, especially when the team was shorthanded. Three of his seven goals in 53 games for the team came while shorthanded.

But he was one of very many bottom six forwards that incoming general manager Kyle Dubas decided to move on from. Despite him being an RFA at season’s end, the new Penguins regime did not tender Poehling a new offer, making him an unrestricted free agent, leaving to sign with the cross-state rival Philadelphia Flyers.

Rickard Rakell, RW/LW

Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like Rickard Rakell has been a Penguin for a long time. Like, long enough that he wouldn’t have qualified for this list, but sure enough he definitely does.

Rakell was the big acquisition the Penguins made in 2022, when at the trade deadline they sent Zach Aston-Reese, Dominik Simon, and some futures to net Rakell. Prior to this season, he probably stood as Hextall’s biggest (and only) real trade win, but after a subpar 2023-24, that theory is much less certain.

Rakell just wrapped up his second full season (and third overall) season with Pittsburgh, and is under contract with the team for several more seasons. Given his cap hit, it’s unlikely that he gets moved, but I suppose never say never.

Jack Rathbone, D

This one was a bit of a weird trade, even at the time. Shortly into the 2023-24 season, the Penguins traded Mark Friedman, who missed out on an NHL job in Pittsburgh, along with minor leaguer Ty Glover in exchange for Karel Plasek and Jack Rathbone.

Rathbone was assigned to the team’s AHL club, but Plasek was bumped down to the ECHL to start. Almost immediately after the trade however, the Penguins terminated the contract of Plasek. It was soon reported that Plasek was all set to go play in Europe, and that the main goal of acquiring him was to gain a contract slot.

Rathbone, meanwhile, who had a few up and down seasons in the NHL and AHL with Vancouver, stuck out the year in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, having not received a call-up at any point.

At still such a young age, his NHL hopes are far from over, but it was somewhat interesting that he was essentially buried in the minors this season for Pittsburgh.

Reilly Smith, LW/RW

What was once thought of to be an amazing trade for the Penguins ended up being a disappointment. Kyle Dubas was taking advantage of a cap-strapped Vegas Golden Knights team that had just won the Stanley Cup, and paid pennies on the dollar for Reilly Smith.

All summer we looked at it as a steal, and once the season started, I’m pretty sure arrest warrants were out for Dubas in Clark County. But after Smith’s legendary first month with the team, he collapsed, and collapsed hard.

Several bad slumps led to him being a woeful top six forward for the Penguins. He was under half a point per game, and the longstanding rumor that he was unhappy playing in Pittsburgh continued to hang over him, however true it ever was.

His $5 million cap hit didn’t make things any easier, and that probably stood in the way of any potential Dubas plan to move him out at the deadline. Now with just one year left on his deal, it should be interesting to see if the Penguins can find a taker for him.

Ty Smith, D

From one Smith blunder to another, Ron Hextall fumbled badly when he gave the New Jersey Devils John Marino in exchange for Ty Smith and a third rounder.

Marino, though perhaps a tad overpaid, went on to excel in Jersey, while Smith spent the bulk of his time in the Penguins organization buried in the minors. Despite two full seasons under his belt at the time of the trade, he did not make the roster heading into the 2022-23 season. He was called up when injuries plagued the blueline, but he only got into nine games.

Salary cap issues, a logjam of depth defensemen, and injuries all conspired against him, and he did not see a single NHL game this past season. At the trade deadline, he was sent to Carolina as a throw in for the Jake Guentzel deal, but because the Hurricanes did not have an AHL affiliate for 2023-24, he wound up staying with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to end the year.

Tomas Vokoun, G

It has been a long time (since Michael Leighton) since the Penguins traded for a goalie who had any NHL experience at any point in their career. So we have to go all the way back to the summer of 2012 to find the last time this happened.

Here is where we find Tomas Vokoun, who the Penguins had acquired from Washington for the very high cost of a seventh round pick. He was coming off a 48 game season with the Capitals, and played 20 regular season games for the Penguins as Marc-Andre Fleury’s backup in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season.

He also wound up unexpectedly playing in 11 playoff games that year, putting up some tremendous numbers as Pittsburgh made it to the Eastern Conference Finals.

It would end up being Vokoun’s last season; he retired after the 2012-13 season. at age 36, having played exactly 700 games in his NHL career.

(Featured photo of Alex Nylander by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)