The Penguins did indeed make two trades over the course of the NHL Entry Draft weekend in Vancouver, but none of those trades involved current players.
The Penguins ended up with five draft picks over the course of the two day draft.
On Friday, the Penguins selected forward Samuel Poulin of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with the 21st overall pick.
On Saturday, the Penguins traded a 4th, 5th and 7th round pick to Arizona to move up to the third round. With that pick they selected forward Nathan Legare, also of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.Channel 11’s partners at DKPittsburghSports.com were covering the draft in Vancouver, and found out that Poulin and Legare not only play in the same league, but have been friends since childhood.
“Yes, it’s one of my good buddies,” said Legare. “His father coached us when we were young. It’s very special, like we train together so it will be great to train together when we go to Pittsburgh.”
In Round 5, the Penguins selected forward Judd Caulfield from the United States National Team Development Program with the 145th overall selection. A two-year player with the NTDP, Caulfield recorded 26 goals, 48 assists and 74 points in 123 career games, including 36 points (12G-24A) this past season.
Pittsburgh selected forward Valtteri Puustinen with the 203rd overall pick in the seventh round. The 5-foot-9, 183-pound Puustinen played the majority of the 2018-19 season with HPK of Liiga, Finland’s top professional league, recording 13 points (10G-3A) in 47 games.
The Penguins’ final selection of the draft was defenseman Santeri Airola with the 211th overall selection, which was acquired from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for a 2020 seventh-round pick. The 5-foot-11, 163-pound Airola played the majority of the season on SaiPa’s Under-20 team of Jr. A SM-liiga.