3 defenseman options Pittsburgh Penguins could add at trade deadline

1. Cody Ceci, Ottawa Senators

Ottawa has already traded Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel, and Mark Stone may not be far behind. But their potential trade deadline assets extend back to the blue line too, as Ceci is in the final year of his contract before becoming a restricted free agent.

Ceci has 20 points (five goals, 15 assists) in 57 games this season (entering Sunday), and a few days ago NHL insider Elliotte Friedman proposed him as a trade piece for the Senators with a team in mind:

"Yes, I do see Cody Ceci as a guy who could be potentially moved…Right-hand shot defensemen are always looked for out there. I don’t know if it’ll be specifically him, but Tampa Bay is a team that’s been looking for a right-hand shot D, and he’s the kind of guy. The thing that really makes sense with a guy like a Ceci in Tampa is he doesn’t have a contract for next year. So Tampa is going to have some big salary cap issues, so he’s the kind of guy they could acquire and then move if they decided they want to do that."

And here’s Bob McKenzie of TSN, on the subject of Ceci during his appearance on an Ottawa radio station last week:

"I don’t know whether there’s been as much action on Ceci or whether it’s been as big a priority as these other things. But even if the Sens are not making it a priority in terms of initiating talks on Ceci, there obviously are teams out there that are interested in him. They’re going to call, and they’re going to talk. So I would think that there’s no reason why you can’t run multi tracks here, and talk trades on all of these guys."

So Ceci appears to be available, and the Penguins have a need barring surprisingly good news on Dumoulin or Letang. The prorated remainder of his $4.3 million salary for this year should be no problem, and no obligation for next year makes trading to Ceci a slam-dunk move that could make a real difference for Pittsburgh down the stretch.