Trade for Brassard signals Penguins going for three-peat

The trade is long and complicated. But for the Pittsburgh Penguins, the point is simple:
Three-peat.
General manager Jim Rutherford got aggressive and creative in a three-team trade to acquire center Derick Brassard on Friday, three days before the 2018 NHL Trade Deadline, because the Penguins have a chance to do something no NHL team has since the New York Islanders in 1980-83: raise the Stanley Cup three years in a row.

RELATED: [Brassard traded to Penguins in deal with Senators, Golden Knights]
"What we're trying to do now is win," Rutherford said.
The Penguins started 20-19-3 this season. But since Jan. 5, they have gone 16-3-1, best in the NHL in terms of point percentage (.825), climbing back into first in the Metropolitan Division.
Centers Evgeni Malkin (35 points) and Sidney Crosby (31) -- each a winner of the Hart Trophy as most valuable player and the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs -- are first and second in the League scoring in that period, respectively.
In short, the Penguins look like themselves again.
Now their third-line center is Brassard. At least in theory he can play with forward Phil Kessel and create even more of matchup nightmare than the Penguins once had with Nick Bonino, who signed with the Nashville Predators as a free agent July 1. Brassard has 55 points (22 goals, 33 assists) in 78 career playoff games; Bonino has 40 points (16 goals, 24 assists) in 75 career playoff games.

"He's a [heck] of a player," forward Patric Hornqvist said of Brassard. "He can play both sides of the puck. He's good on the power play. He's good down low in our end too. He's a 200-foot guy."
Brassard bumps Riley Sheahan to fourth-line center, further strengthening the Penguins down the middle. Sheahan, whom Rutherford acquired from the Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 21, has rediscovered his offensive game with the Penguins. He has 24 points (eight goals, 16 assists) in 53 games with them. But he is better suited to using his 6-foot-3, 214-pound body in a defensive role.
Rutherford said this was the most complex trade he had made, and he has been a GM in the NHL for 24 years. The Penguins had little room under the NHL Salary Cap. Brassard is signed through next season with an average annual value of $5 million. But Rutherford made it work.
To get Brassard from the Ottawa Senators, he sent defenseman Ian Cole, goaltending prospect Filip Gustavsson, a first-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft and a third-round pick in 2019 to the Senators.
To fit Brassard under the cap, he sent forward Ryan Reaves and a fourth-round pick in this year's draft to the Vegas Golden Knights, who retained 40 percent of Brassard's salary this season.
Rutherford also received a third-round pick this year and forward prospect Vincent Dunn from the Senators and forward prospect Tobias Lindberg from the Golden Knights.
The price was steep. Cole played each game in the past two championship runs, averaging 16:13 of ice time in 2016 and 18:50 last spring. Gustavsson, a second-round pick (No. 55) in 2016, starred for Sweden at the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship and was named the best goaltender in the tournament.

"We feel Gustavsson is one of the game's top goaltending prospects, a dynamic talent," Senators GM Pierre Dorion said in a statement.
A first-round pick is a first-round pick.
But this is the time to pay the price, and the Penguins can afford it. Defenseman Kris Letang is back after missing the playoffs with a neck injury last season, and Rutherford said they feel strongly they have enough depth. They are young in goal with Matt Murray, 23, who has two Cup rings, and Tristan Jarry, 22. That first-round pick ought to be late; the Penguins are seventh in the NHL standings. The pick will be No. 31, the latest first-rounder ever now that the NHL is a 31-team league, if the Penguins win the Cup again.
"We gave up a lot," Rutherford said. "But a lot of the things we gave up are futures, and our mandate is to win now. We can hang onto those futures, and they can probably help three or four years down the line."
Look out the next three or four months. The Penguins have a history of finishing strong under coach Mike Sullivan. They went 24-9-1 after the All-Star break in 2015-16, second-best in the NHL, and won the Cup. They went 20-8-6 after the All-Star break last season, tied for best in the League, and won the Cup. They're 9-1-1 since the All-Star break this season, and just got better.
"Our team does everything they can to give us the opportunity to win," Crosby said. "We've been playing good hockey here, so we need to continue to do that. Hopefully we can stay with the pace and keep going."
-- NHL.com correspondent Kurt Dusterberg contributed to this report.