Penguins acquire forward Emil Bemstrom in trade with Columbus

Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas orchestrated a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets during the first period of his club’s game vs. Montreal on Thursday night, acquiring 24-year-old forward Emil Bemstrom in exchange for forward Alex Nylander and a conditional sixth-round draft pick in 2026.

Bemstrom, 24, carries a cap hit of $900,000 and will be a restricted free agent after this season.

A fourth-round (No. 117 overall) pick in 2017 by Columbus, Bemstrom has played his entire NHL career over parts of five seasons with the Blue Jackets.

Through 204 career NHL games, he’s scored 31 goals with 38 assists.

The 6-foot, 195-pound native of Nykoping, Sweden, has five goals and six assists over 32 games with Columbus this season.

Per Aaron Portzline of the Athletic, if Bemstrom scores six goals with the Penguins by the end of the season, the sixth-round pick that Columbus received will become a third-round selection.

His career-best campaign as far as goal-scoring came as a rookie in 2019-20, when he had 10 in 56 games.

Last year, he contributed a career-best 22 points (7 goals, 15 assists) over 55 games.

A right-handed shot who’s split time this year between Columbus and its American Hockey League affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, Bemstrom has been deployed primarily at right wing for the Blue Jackets in a bottom-six role.

​

Power play goal for Columbus!

Scored by Emil Bemstrom with 03:11 remaining in the 1st period.

Assisted by Ivan Provorov and Adam Fantilli.

Columbus: 1
Anaheim: 0#ANAvsCBJ #CBJ #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/6V5SWkGYOt

— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) October 25, 2023

At the NHL level, he’s averaged 12 minutes, 2 seconds of ice time per night while also seeing action on Columbus’ power play. In the AHL, Bemstrom has 26 goals and 47 points in 33 career games.

Following the Penguins’ 4-1 win over Montreal, coach Mike Sullivan offered his initial thoughts on Bemstrom, which he admitted were limited at the moment.

“He’s a talented player,” Sullivan said. “He scored 10-plus goals in the league a couple years when he was in Columbus. Beyond that, I don’t have a real good grasp of his overall game. I know (Dubas) and the hockey ops guys do and so they obviously think he’s a guy that can help us.”

Nylander, the eighth overall pick by Buffalo in the 2016 NHL Draft, joined the Penguins in early 2022 from Chicago in exchange for Sam Lafferty.

The 25-year-old brother of Toronto Maple Leafs star William Nylander, he appeared in 14 total games with the Penguins over the past two seasons, recording a goal and an assist.

The majority of his time was spent in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where he put up strong offensive numbers, totalling 56 goals and 56 assists in 142 games.