Pens and Devils swap top-4 defenders

The Penguins were sitting over the league's $82.5M salary cap before this deal and desperately needed to open up some space to get their last remaining RFA, Kasperi Kapanen, signed to a new deal. Swapping Marino for the younger Ty Smith has opened up a little over $3.5M in salary and brought the Pens back to below the cap. As of right now the Pens have ~$3.34M with which to lock down Kapanen.

Marino notched just 25 points in 81 games for the Pens last season, which is honestly not too shabby for a defensive defenseman. However, a 26-point season in 56 games in 2019-20 set the bar a little higher than expected and what was thought to be one down year in 2020-21 became back-to-back down years as 2021-22 was not much better. The Devils see value in Marino, however, as he has already established himself as a capable NHL defensive defenseman. Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald had money to spend and decided that a cost-certain stay-at-home defender was worth spending money on.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Penguins have nabbed a young, offensive-minded defender who is yet to really establish himself at the NHL level, though the potential is certainly there. Smith was limited to just 66 games last season, but put up a respectable 20 points for the Devils. With the Pens not really having the most robust prospect pool, having a 22-year-old potential stud defender is certainly not a bad thing.

Just a good old fashioned hockey trade here! We don't see too many of those anymore.