Penguins plug a hole with Ryan Johnson, and Buffalo buys a long shot

Pittsburgh made the smarter half of this trade, and it isn't close. The Penguins needed a body on the blue line by Tuesday. Buffalo had a former first-rounder going nowhere in Rochester. Both teams got what they asked for, but only one of them got a first-round pick to fill a hole.

The deal went through Monday night. Pittsburgh gets Johnson, a 25-year-old defenseman Buffalo took 31st overall in 2019. Buffalo gets veteran defenseman Caleb Jones and 23-year-old prospect Daniel Laatsch.

Why Pittsburgh did it

The Penguins put Trevor van Riemsdyk on injured reserve Monday and had no extra defenseman left on the NHL roster. That's not a depth problem. That's a "who dresses on Tuesday" problem.

Van Riemsdyk was eating 18.8 minutes a night through five games, per NHL data. Nobody expects Johnson to soak up all of that, but he's a left shot who skates well and plays the defensive side of the puck. That's the job description for a seventh defenseman.

It's the second time in a week Pittsburgh has traded for a lefty buried on someone else's depth chart. Kyle Dubas is shopping the clearance rack on purpose, and with a penalty kill at 94.1 percent by our count, he doesn't need a star. He needs bodies who don't hurt it.

Why Buffalo did it

Johnson had stalled. He played 41 NHL games as a rookie in 2023-24 and only three in each of the next two seasons. All seven of his career NHL points came in that first year. He opened this season in Rochester.

Jones is a veteran who knows what a seventh defenseman's Tuesday looks like. Laatsch is a 6-foot-5 lottery ticket from Wisconsin. That's a fair return for a player whose path in Buffalo ran through Owen Power, Rasmus Dahlin and Mattias Samuelsson, who are all playing 21 minutes or more a night, per NHL data.

The Sabres' real problem sits elsewhere. Their penalty kill is at 60.0 percent through six games, by our count. No depth trade fixes that, and nobody in Buffalo should pretend this one does.

Cap sheet

• Pittsburgh adds: Johnson, $875,000 cap hit through 2027-28.
• Buffalo adds: Jones, $900,000 cap hit, final year of a two-year deal; Laatsch, $860,000 entry-level deal, pending RFA in 2027.
• The swing: about a wash on the NHL cap. Johnson's number is a hair under Jones'. Laatsch's deal counts only when he's in the NHL.
• Space on Tuesday morning's cap sheets: Buffalo about $2.6 million, Pittsburgh about $8.7 million. Treat both as rough until the paperwork settles.

Prospect watch: Daniel Laatsch

• Drafted: Pittsburgh, 2021, seventh round, 215th overall.
• Path: Wisconsin, where a hip injury cut short his 2024-25 senior season, then 29 games in the ECHL with Wheeling last season.
• Now: hadn't dressed in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's first three games, so a fresh organization is a fresh look.
• Rights clock: entry-level deal runs out after this season; he's a pending RFA in 2027.
• The read: a big left shot with a long way to go. Buffalo is betting on size and a new start, not a timeline.

The Ferda take

Pittsburgh wins the week because it solved a real problem with a former first-rounder on a cheap deal that runs through next season. Buffalo gets a veteran and a long shot for a player it had stopped using. Call it a C-plus for the Sabres and a B for the Penguins.

What's next: Pittsburgh plays in Chicago on Tuesday, and the first look at Johnson in black and gold could come there or soon after. If he sticks on the third pair through November, Dubas found a regular for less than a million dollars.