The Pittsburgh Penguins don’t have Rickard Rakell for Thursday’s matchup, but their other trade deadline acquisition is finally available. The team activated Nathan Beaulieu off injured reserve, and he could potentially make his Penguins debut Thursday evening.
After an exhausting triple-overtime Game 1, the Penguins could get some fresh legs in the form of Beaulieu, who hasn’t played since March 4 when he was still with the Winnipeg Jets. The 29-year-old defenseman was acquired for nothing more than a conditional seventh-round pick at the deadline given the uncertainty that surrounded his injury at the time.
The conditions of that pick would have Winnipeg receive the seventh-round selection only if the Penguins win three rounds and Beaulieu plays in 50 percent of the games. That’s still certainly a tall task at this point and means there’s no risk in putting Beaulieu into the lineup whenever he’s ready.
Of course, whether he can actually help is still up for debate. The left-shot defenseman was averaging fewer than 11 minutes over his 24 games with Winnipeg this season before the trade and hasn’t played more than 40 games in a single season since 2018-19. Never much more than a third-pairing option, he can’t represent much more than that for the Penguins either.
Still, defensive depth is certainly important for the playoffs, and Penguins fans should know that as well as anyone. During the 2017 Stanley Cup run they dressed eight different defensemen – none of which named Kris Letang – and iced a sort of mismatched group of journeymen and depth players. No one that year averaged even 22 minutes a night. You never know what will come about in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and having experienced options to insert into the lineup is never a bad thing.
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