Penguins make two moves to shore up defense at trade deadline

CHICAGO — In the run-up to the NHL's trade deadline, Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford said he felt pressure to add to his team's defensive depth.

Consider that pressure alleviated.

Rutherford made two deals just before the 3 p.m. deadline Wednesday, acquiring 39-year-old Mark Streit and 23-year-old prospect Frankie Corrado.

He did not move goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

The Penguins sent a 2018 fourth-round pick to Tampa Bay for Streit. They moved Eric Fehr, Steve Oleksy and a 2017 fourth-round draft pick to Toronto to acquire Corrado.

Streit is the marquee addition. A puck-moving lefty, Streit is 12th among active NHL defensemen in scoring with 428 points in 11 seasons.

He started the day as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers, for whom he had five goals and 21 points in 49 games this season. Just before the deadline, he was moved to Tampa Bay in a deal that sent center Valtteri Filppula to the Flyers. Tampa Bay flipped him to the Penguins.

Streit, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, makes $5,003,250. Tampa Bay retained 50 percent of that salary, and Philadelphia picked up 4.7 percent.

“The price earlier in the day was quite a bit higher than it was when we eventually got him,” Rutherford said.

Rutherford felt no pressure to make sweeping changes because, in general, his team has performed well this season. They came into Wednesday night's game in Chicago with the third-best winning percentage and most potent offense in the league.

“We feel the team we have, as long as we're healthy, we're capable of beating anybody,” Rutherford said.

Their defense, however, needed some work, in part because it has been giving up goals and shots at an alarming rate and in part because it has been racked by injuries.

Kris Letang is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Olli Maatta (hand) and Trevor Daley (knee) had surgery and are expected back about the beginning of April.

Rutherford said the addition of Streit, Corrado and Ron Hainsey does not mean there has been any change in the injury status of Letang, Maatta or Daley.

“Status is the same, but the same is two of them could be out until playoff time and we don't really know how long Kris is going to be out,” Rutherford said. “Those are three important guys. It was important that we added the guys that we did.”

Heading into the deadline, Fleury's future was foremost in the minds of many fans.

The longtime franchise cornerstone has slipped behind Matt Murray on the depth chart, and with an expansion draft looming in June, his days in black-and-gold look to be numbered.

Rutherford said, however, he didn't come close to moving Fleury on Wednesday.

“He's an important part of our team,” Rutherford said. “I know he hasn't played as much this year as certainly he would like and he's capable of, but I would think that now we get past the deadline and going down the stretch here, it's going to be important to have two healthy and fresh goalies going into the playoffs. That plan didn't change.”

How comfortable is Rutherford that the Fleury situation will reach a conclusion acceptable to both parties before the expansion draft?

“Real comfortable,” he said.

Corrado, meanwhile, is a 6-foot, 190-pound right-handed shooter who has won praise for his puck possession but has yet to earn a regular NHL job. He was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after the trade.

Fehr, 31, became expendable to the Penguins when he was passed by on the depth chart by several younger forwards. The Penguins didn't retain any of Fehr's $2 million salary. He has one more year left on his contract.

“He was a good player for us, but when we start looking at next year and start projecting about re-signing the players we want, not having that contract on the books was really important,” Rutherford said.

Jonathan Bombulie is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jbombulie@tribweb.com or via Twitter at @BombulieTrib.