Trade to Florida leaves former Penguins center Derick Brassard with sunny disposition
Former Pittsburgh Penguins center Derick Brassard had no trouble finding the bright side of the trade that sent him to the Florida Panthers on Friday.
“Super excited to be here,” he said after taking morning skate in Florida with his new team Saturday. “Waking up and seeing the sun and everything, it was awesome.”
It’s hard to blame Brassard for that take. When he boarded a plane in Pittsburgh on Friday, it was 19 degrees with a couple of inches of snow on the ground. On his first full day in Florida, it was 75 and sunny.
While the trade improved the weather forecast for Brassard, it had the opposite effect in the standings. The Penguins are flirting with the top spot in the Metropolitan Division. The Panthers came into Saturday 11 points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
If the Panthers don’t make a quick climb up the standings, Brassard and Riley Sheahan will likely be flipped to a contender before the Feb. 25 trading deadline.
“Every point is important,” Brassard said. “I’m going to just try to bring some compete level on the ice and be there for the guys. I have confidence we can turn this around.”
Brassard’s spot on the lineup card is also changing. Rather than playing third-line center behind Aleksander Barkov and Upper St. Clair’s Vince Trocheck, he started Saturday’s game on the wing with Trocheck and Mike Hoffman. He’ll also see power-play time.
Sheahan, meanwhile, is slotted in as Florida’s fourth-line center.
“I played most of this year on the wing,” Sheahan said. “To be back at center, it’s kind of where I’m comfortable. Looking forward to getting started.”
Florida’s coach, former Penguins defenseman Bob Boughner, said he too is looking forward to Brassard and Sheahan getting started.
“I like the experience,” Boughner said. “I like that they both have gone on deep runs in the playoffs with teams. I think that’s going to help us. Both guys are natural centermen. That’s going to help in the faceoff circle. Sheahan’s a heck of penalty killer. Brass is a power-play specialist.”
Follow the Pittsburgh Penguins all season long.
Jonathan Bombulie is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jonathan at jbombulie@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BombulieTrib.
Jonathan Bombulie is the TribLive assistant sports editor. A Greensburg native, he was a hockey reporter for two decades, covering the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for 17 seasons before joining the Trib in 2015 and covering the Penguins for four seasons, including Stanley Cup championships in 2016-17. He can be reached at jbombulie@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.