The NHL trading deadline this year, thanks to the lockout that interrupted the start of the season, has been pushed back till April 3rd. Obviously the Pittsburgh Penguins don't care about deadlines. The Pens are on a trading frenzy and on Wednesday they completed their 3rd trade in as many days, this time landing former league MVP  and 6 time all star forward Jarome Iginla.

The trade is the biggest of the 3 pulled off in recent days by Penguins GM Ray Shero. In just the past few days Shero acquired former Dallas Stars captain Brenden Morrow and rugged defenseman Douglas Murray from San Jose.

The price to pay for Iginla appears to be steep. A 1st round pick in 2013. and the rights to 2 touted college players already drafted  by Pittsburgh by the names of Kenneth Agostino and Ben Hankowski.

Iginla has been with the Calgary Flames for the past 16 years, serving as captain most of those years. he has never won a cup playing in Calgary, losing in the finals 1 time, this to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Iginla is set to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.

Iginla was scratched from Calgary's lineup Wednesday night when the Flames hosted the Colorado Avalanche. The scratch meant that iginla's 441 game game playing streak came to an end.

Earlier in the day Canadian broadcast network TSN reported that Iginla was heading to Boston. obviously that report turned out to be incorrect in the end. This year Iginla has 22 points, including 8 goals. He is by far the most popular player  in recent history to suit up for the hockey crazed Flames fans. Calgary has missed the playoffs every year since 2009. For his hall of fame career so far Iginla has 525 goals and over 500 assists.

The trades come on the heels of the Penguins streaking to the end of the season. They currently are riding a 13 game winning streak going into a match Thursday night against Winnipeg. Speculation seems to believe that Iginla will miss the Thursday game and possibly be set to make his Pittsburgh debut Saturday against the NY Islanders. The Penguins are 1st in the Eastern Conference with 52 points. The Montreal Canadians are hot in pursuit with 47 points.

In looking bigger picture the Pens 52 points trails only the Chicago Blackhawks in the entire NHL. the Hawks off their record start to the season have 53 points. The top finisher wins the Presidents cup and more importantly the players will tell is home ice throughout the entire playoffs should they keep winning each series. If the playoffs started today Pittsburgh would take on the 8th place NY rangers in the 1st round of the Eastern conference playoffs.

 

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