Mar 3, 2023 3 min read

The Pittsburgh Penguins, who sit seventh in the Eastern Conference standings and made several last-day trades Friday in a bid to secure their NHL-leading 17th consecutive playoff berth.

The Penguins acquired defenseman Dmitry Kulikov from Anaheim for forward Brock McGinn and a 2024 third-round pick. They also brought back forward Nick Bonino in a three-team deal involving San Jose and Montreal.

In trading Bonino to Pittsburgh, the Sharks acquired two draft picks and the rights to Penguins prospect Arvid Henrikson. The Canadiens acquired Sharks defenseman Tony Sund for retaining half Bonino’s salary.

Bonino, a two-time Stanley Cup champion with Pittsburgh in 2016 and ’17, is returning for his second tour of duty with the Penguins. The forward played with Pittsburgh from 2015-17 and recorded 27 goals, 39 assists and 66 points in 143 regular-season games. He played an integral part of the Penguins’ back-to-back championships, recording eight goals, 17 assists and 25 points in 45 playoff games, including the series-clinching goal against the Washington Capitals in 2016.

The 6-1, 195-pound forward has skated in 59 games with the Sharks this season, recording 10 goals, nine assists and 19 points.

With the Ducks this season, the 32-year-old Kulikov appeared in 61 games and recorded three goals, 12 assists and 15 points while averaging 20:13 minutes of time on ice per game. He leads all Anaheim players with 103 blocked shots, and his 87 hits are tied for second on the team.

Kulikov is in his 14th NHL season. He also played for Florida, Buffalo, Winnipeg, New Jersey, Edmonton and Minnesota.

Trades reduced to trickle:

Excuse Seattle Kraken general manager Ron Francis if he had to check his calendar once or twice.

Given all the wheeling and dealing that took place around the NHL over the past few weeks, he wondered if the league’s trading deadline had been switched.

“At one point there, I thought maybe they moved the trade deadline to like Wednesday, and nobody told me,” Francis said after the deadline officially arrived on Friday.

What surprised him and his counterparts was how a majority of the blockbuster deals were completed well in advance, turning deadline day into a bit of a dudline.

With Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko already dealt to the New York Rangers, Timo Meier in New Jersey, Ryan O’Reilly in Toronto, the Boston Bruins bulking up their NHL-leading roster with Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway and Tyler Bertuzzi, and Ottawa removing the last high-profile name off the market by landing Jakob Chychrun on Wednesday, the trades completed on Friday paled in headline-grabbing attention.

“It feel like it’s been going on for three weeks with today being really quiet,” Washington Capitals GM Brian MacLellan said. “Most of the hard work had been done earlier.”

The Minnesota Wild made the most notable moves by acquiring Anaheim defenseman John Klingberg for defenseman Andrej Sustr, the rights to forward Nikita Nesterenko and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 draft. Anaheim also retained half of Klingberg’s salary.

Minnesota, which began the day three points behind Central Division-leading Dallas, also acquired center Oskar Sundqvist for a fourth-round pick sent to Detroit. The Wild freed up roster room by trading under-performing forward Jordan Greenway to Buffalo in exchange for a 2023 second- and 2024 fifth-round pick.