Pens Add Leopold

			2009/2010 NHL Statistics
To Pittsburgh	Position	Age	GP	Goals	Points	2010 Cap Hit	2011 Cap Hit
Jordan Leopold	Defenseman	29	61	7	18	$1.75 million	UFA
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To Florida	Position	Age	GP	Goals	Points	2010 Cap Hit	2011 Cap Hit
2010 2nd Round Draft Pick

This deal is quite interesting. The Penguins have re-joined the rental market by picking up Jordan Leopold from the Panthers for a 2nd round pick this summer. The Penguins have now added a little bit more depth to their blueline with this move and to do so, they used one of their draft picks this summer, which isn't going to be a lottery pick and I don't believe that this draft is considered deep, so its a move to win now and mortgage a little bit of the futures to do so. This will be a popular phrase in the next few days.

Leopold is considered to be a middle-of-the-road offensive defenseman, not terribly great, but does have some value to his name. The Penguins have been dealing with injuries all year, but they go into the stretch run with a good compliment of players and Leopold will just add more veteran depth to the blueline, which should be helpful to their playoff run.

I have the remainder of Leopold's cap hit this season at $410,000, so the Penguins will have a bit of a lump to take on for the rest of the season, but they have been fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on how you look at it) to have some cap discounts due to injury this year. In the annual sense, they still appear to be okay, but with some discounts from Sergei Gonchar and Chris Kunitz, that should mean good things to their overall numbers.

There's not much going on in the Draft with this move. Leopold was not a popular guy at the Draft, not even dropped in a Waiver Draft, he just wasn't taken at all.

On the Sheet, Leopold was taken three times in Box 28, but doesn't rank very well in his box. Leopold's 18 points are well behind the box leader, Tobias Enstrom, who has 42 points. The move to Pittsburgh might help him out, but that isn't a guarantee.

Trading a pick to help your team win now is a popular way for teams to operate and I think the Penguins did a good job identifying a player that they could use going forward for a pick that will be awfully high in the end. The Penguins were obviously looking to improve their backend with a move and Leopold has some good experience and some decent career numbers and if they don't like him or he doesn't help, he's a rental, becoming an unrestricted free agent in July.

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