Sometimes the best trades are the ones you least expect.
When the Pittsburgh Penguins acquired Trevor Daley earlier this season in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks, there was hardly any fan fare, but the 32-year-old defenceman has been an important element of his club’s playoff run.
On Saturday’s edition of Coach’s Corner, Don Cherry handed out some praise for the Penguins’ smooth-skating blueliner.
“Whenever a big goal happens, watch as (Sidney) Crosby runs to him because he held the fort as they say,” Cherry told host Ron MacLean.
Daley is coming off his best individual performance of the playoffs, scoring a goal while racking up a plus-3 rating in 28:41 of ice time in Pittsburgh’s 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals in Game 4.
The standout effort was especially timely for Pittsburgh, who were without star defenceman Kris Letang, serving a one-game suspension, and Olli Maatta (injured) on Wednesday night.
“He stepped up just like he can. (Head coach Mike Sullivan) has the confidence in him,” Cherry said.
Daley has totalled one goal and four assists in nine playoff games after recording six goals and 16 assists in 53 games following the deal from Chicago.
“We like Trevor because he can skate,” Penguins GM Jim Rutherford said when he traded for Daley last December. “He can move the puck, something that we’ve talked about in trying to improve that. Improve our back end where we’ve got more puck movers and he can certainly do that.”
