Pens Continue Bulk Buildup
The Pittsburgh Penguins made another trade Thursday to add size and toughness, acquiring center Wayne Primeau from the Tampa Bay Lightning for forward Matthew Barnaby.
The deal was the fifth by general manager Craig Patrick in two weeks to toughen up his team and came a night after Primeau's brother, Keith, scored two goals in the Philadelphia Flyers' 5-1 victory over Pittsburgh
Wayne Primeau isn't the scorer his brother is, but is good on faceoffs one of the Penguins' glaring deficiencies. At 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds, he adds more size to what until recently was a mostly European-style team that largely avoided physical play.
"It's easier to fulfill what they want in him than what we wanted," Lightning general manager Rick Dudley said. "We're looking for someone to take us out of the wilderness, and he couldn't do that. But you put him on a team where he's not a key, key guy, and I'm not saying he won't be an important guy, but with the people they got there he can fall into a role."
Primeau welcomed being traded to the team led by the player he once idolized, Mario Lemieux.
"When I was growing up, he was always my favorite player and my sister's favorite player," Primeau said. "I'll probably be a little nervous at first, but I'm looking forward to it."
The 24-year-old Primeau had two goals and 13 assists plus a team-high 77 penalty minutes for Tampa Bay. He played previously for Buffalo, where he had four goals and seven assists in 42 playoff games.
Primeau has 23 goals and 41 assists in 289 NHL games.
In his flurry of trades, Patrick has acquired physical forward Kevin Stevens, who was reunited with Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr on the top line; and brawlers Krzysztof Oliwa and Steve McKenna. He also recalled physical rookie forward Billy Tibbetts, who is serving a four-game suspension.
Patrick made the deals after teams began targeting Lemieux and Jagr for rough play, knowing the usually passive Penguins didn't have the tough guys who could retaliate.
The enguins also have traded away two players whose ice time had decreased significantly under new coach Ivan Hlinka, Barnaby and defenseman Jiri Slegr.
After being dealt by Buffalo for Stu Barnes in March 1999, Barnaby quickly became a fan favorite in Pittsburgh for his feistiness and willingness to drop his gloves whenever provoked. But he was relegated to the checking line early in the season and didn't play in some games at all, and he asked Patrick to trade him more than a month ago.
Barnaby's playing time picked up a little after Lemieux came out of retirement and told Hlinka he needed to start playing four lines. However, Barnaby never did seem to find a role and had only one goal, four assists and 168 penalty minutes in 47 games.
"Matthew is a gritty, miserable guy to play against," Dudley said. "Matthew is going to be real good for our guys. He's an intense son of a gun, and not afraid to say what he is thinking. I always felt he's more skilled than a lot of people give him credit for."
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