Insider Calls Penguins Trade "The Dumbest Hockey Trade in Last 25 Years"

As we steam towards the NHL trade deadline on Friday, one of the trades that went down on Wednesday left some observers scratching their heads. In fact, insider Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff absolutely destroyed the Pittsburgh Penguins/Nashville Predators trade that sent 35-year-old Luke Schenn to the Pens along with Tommy Novak for Michael Bunting:

On the surface, this is arguably the dumbest hockey trade that's been executed in the last 25 years. These two teams that are so far out of it shouldn't even be allowed to call each other when it comes to the trade deadline. I'm not even kidding.

Among the hard-to-fathom features of this deal include the fact that all of the players have term remaining on their contracts, Bunting is out for a while after appendix surgery, not to mention the fact that GM Kyle Dubas has been saying for over a year now that the Penguins need to "get younger". So why bring in a 35-year-old defenseman?

"On the surface, you go 'What are they doing?'" continued Seravalli. "These are not needle-movers for either of these teams, there's salary being moved, there's term, there's families being uprooted five weeks before the end of the season for two non-playoff teams..."

But then, the insider unveils a theory that there could be more to this. He calls St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong one of Dubas's best friends in the industry, and wonders whether he might be intending to flip Schenn to St. Louis to join his brother Brayden... Which then, perhaps, could allow Armstrong to flip the pair to another team...? And we know there are teams interested in pairing up the Schenns, like the Toronto Maple Leafs.

"Definitely a head-scratching move," but there could certainly be more to come.