The Penguins had two glaring needs at the trade deadline, a third-line center and a little help on defense. Jim Rutherford filled one of those holes by trading with Ottawa for center Derick Brassard. Strangely, though, he didn’t get defensive help. In fact, he traded away one of the Penguins’ best defensemen, Ian Cole.
Trading Cole led to some uneven defensive performances by the Penguins recently, but that doesn’t mean they’re destined to fail in their quest for a third Stanley Cup. They need to improve defensively and become a little less sloppy with the puck in their own end, but they have the personnel to pull it off, even without Cole.