Penguins deal Erik Gudbranson to Ducks for Andreas Martinsen, pick

Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford is quite familiar with Bob Murray, his counterpart with the Anaheim Ducks.

After all, they collaborated on five trades during Rutherford’s first five seasons with the Penguins.

On Thursday, the long-time contemporaries caught up in the press level of American Airlines Arena and watched Murray’s Ducks lose to the Dallas Stars, 2-1.

On Friday, Rutherford and Murray bartered for a sixth time.

The Penguins sent veteran defenseman Erik Gudbranson to Anaheim in exchange for minor league forward Andreas Martinsen and a seventh-round draft pick in 2021.

While the general managers crossed paths Thursday, the transaction didn’t literally happen overnight.

“This conversation, I don’t know exactly when, but I’d say maybe right from the start of the season (is) where conversations have gone on and off,” Rutherford said in a phone conversation with the Tribune-Review on Friday.

With the potential impending return of Bryan Rust from long-term injured reserve as well as Nick Bjugstad potentially being activated from regular injured reserve for Saturday’s road game against the Stars, the Penguins needed roster and salary-cap space.

As a result, Gudbranson and his $4 million salary-cap hit — no salary was retained — were jettisoned to California. According to Cap Friendly, a site that tracks salary information, the Penguins have $663,359 of cap space.

“It was only the matter of the cap,” Rutherford said. “We really, really like Erik. He was a good team guy, and he played well for us. He came out of a situation where he hadn’t played as well in Vancouver, and he came here. We felt he was very solid for us. I don’t feel totally comfortable moving him on. But it’s certainly part of the business we do in the cap system.

“He was a cap casualty.”

The Penguins acquired Gudbranson from the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 25 at the trade deadline. The Penguins added Gudbranson, in part, to aid a blue line that was dealing with injuries. At that time, they didn’t have enough defensemen.

Before Friday, they had too many defensemen.

Even with Brian Dumoulin sidelined because of an undisclosed ailment, the Penguins were carrying eight healthy defensemen, including five right-handed shots such as Gudbranson, before Friday’s deal.

Part of that that glut of starboard-oriented defensemen included rookie John Marino.

The Penguins acquired Marino’s signing rights from the Edmonton Oilers in an offseason trade. The team coaxed him to leave school a year early and signed him to a two-year entry-level contract. Following a surprisingly effective training camp, Marino made the NHL roster to start the regular season. After being a healthy scratch for the first two games, Marino has remained in the lineup while veterans such as Gudbranson and Jack Johnson became scratches along with reserves Juuso Riikola and Chad Ruhwedel.

Marino’s presence altered quite a few things.

“It changed it a lot,” Rutherford said. “With the scouting reports and all the input (director, player development ) Scott Young had on him (and scout Kevin) Stevens and everything they talked about him, they said that he would be ready to play in the NHL. That’s why we brought him out of Harvard when we traded for him. We brought him out a year early. Right from the first day he got here, from camp right through to now, he’s certainly done what those two guys said he would do.”

In nine games, Marino has no points but recently was bumped to the top pairing next to Kris Letang during Dumoulin’s convalescence.

Assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League, Martinsen, 29, has not played in the NHL this season. In one game with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls, he has no points. He is signed to a one-year, two-way contract with a cap hit of of $750,000 at the NHL level.

One of eight Norwegians to ever play in the NHL, Martinsen (6-foot-2, 225 pounds) has appeared in 152 NHL games with the Colorado Avalanche, Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks and has 23 points (nine goals, 14 assists). He played in 24 games for the Blackhawks last season and scored four points.

He may have some company joining him in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton as some replacements could be sent back to the AHL considering incumbent players like Rust, Bjugstad and Alex Galchenyuk appear close to returning to the lineup.

As his team gets healthier, Rutherford is high on how his hobbled squad has operated as of late, even on the heels of a three-game losing streak.

“I like a number of things with our team,” Rutherford said. “We set out to change some things in the summertime. We wanted to get quicker. We wanted to get more team unity, more togetherness. I’ve observed that we’ve probably had more now than we had all of last year. We have good balance throughout our lineup, balance where we have all our lines that can play against any other line. And we play hard, we play with speed, we play with determination. These are all signs that lead towards a team that has a chance to be a good team and a chance to contend.”

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