The NHL trading deadline is 3pm Wednesday and the Toronto Maple Leafs have pulled off a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Maple Leafs have traded forward Alexei Ponikarovsky to the Penguins for forward prospect Luca Caputi and defenseman Martin Skoula.
Ponikarovsky has 19 goals and 22 assists in 61 games this season. He has 114 goals and 143 assists in his nine-year career. Ponikarovsky was a fourth-round pick by Toronto in the 1998 NHL Draft.
Skoula has three goals and five assists in 33 games this season with the Penguins. He has 44 goals and 149 assists in 10 NHL seasons spent with the Penguins, the Colorado Avalanche, the Anaheim Ducks, the Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Wild.
Caputi is considered a top prospect in the Penguins’ system. He has 23 goals and 24 assists in 54 games for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League. Caputi is a Toronto native and played his junior hockey for the Mississauga IceDogs of the Ontario Hockey League.
