The Winnipeg Jets traded prospect Rutger McGroarty to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for prospect Brayden Yager on Thursday, following McGroarty’s desire to start his NHL career with a different franchise, a league source said.
The Penguins then promptly signed McGroarty to a three-year entry-level contract, according to the source.
Winnipeg drafted McGroarty with the No. 14 pick in 2022. He’s completed two years of college hockey at Michigan, and The Athletic previously reported that his view of his long-term future with the Jets had changed since the conclusion of the 2023-24 NCAA season.
Winnipeg wanted to sign McGroarty to a professional contract in April but was unwilling to promise a path to playing time. McGroarty’s Michigan teammates Frank Nazar and Gavin Brindley, who signed with the Chicago Blackhawks and the Columbus Blue Jackets respectively, played in NHL games last season while the Jets were focused on their playoff run.
The Jets didn’t view McGroarty as ready to make that kind of impact then, nor were they ready to guarantee him a roster spot for the 2024-25 NHL season. McGroarty could have signed and attended training camp but risked being demoted to the AHL.
While McGroarty could have returned to Michigan, the Jets explored a trade for him this summer instead.
McGroarty finished seventh in NCAA scoring as a sophomore last season and earned First-Team All-Big Ten honors. The 20-year-old then captained Team USA to gold at the world juniors after returning from a fractured rib and a punctured lung in a game against Penn State in November.
The breakdown between both sides
McGroarty was Winnipeg’s dream pick at No. 14 in 2022. They valued his character, his leadership ability and his finishing skills, and we won’t rewrite that history based on this trade — as inevitable as it became.
“I think you have to really look at the intangibles when you look at a player like a McGroarty,” general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said after drafting McGroarty in 2022. “There are probably some guys who are better skaters, more skillful. But if you look at his numbers over the different leagues he’s played in, he’s scored 50 goals.
“Doing that with the type of attitude and the type of character and the type of hardness that he has, man, I think that smile on his face coming toward our table is going to be etched into my memory for a long, long time. That was genuine, that was real. That’s what he’s all about.”
It is the movement from that once-thrilled position to McGroarty’s trade request that Jets fans were concerned with this summer. McGroarty’s NHL path appeared blocked in Winnipeg, with the Jets unwilling to promise a route to playing time but his fixed desire to play elsewhere raised questions about the changed relationship between prospect and club. Those questions are unanswered, even now.
McGroarty has yet to give his version of his trade request, although one source close to the player told The Athletic that McGroarty loved the city of Winnipeg and his time there. — Murat Ates, Jets staff writer
What Jets are getting in Brayden Yager
Despite that assurance, it won’t be lost on anyone that the American star’s discontent has been resolved by the acquisition of 19-year-old, Saskatchewan-born, prairie-raised 2024 WHL champion Brayden Yager. Yager was the 14th pick in the 2023 draft, balancing McGroarty’s selection at that same spot one year earlier, and comes with a similar list of intangibles and awards. The 6-foot right-shooting center was named the CHL’s Sportsman of the Year in 2024 following his second straight Brad Hornung Trophy win as the WHL’s most sportsmanlike player. He was also named to the 2024 Memorial Cup All-Star team.
What about Yager’s on-ice acumen? Yager’s best-case scenario likely sees him top out as a second-line center with enough offense to justify the position and enough all-around ability to make him reliable in all situations. For now, it might be safer to consider him as a likely middle-six contributor with upside, but Yager’s speed and offensive ability would make him a popular prospect even without considering the off-ice intangibles.
From Winnipeg’s perspective, it’s a clean and optimistic exit from a situation that had grown untenable. That’s a GM win, although further conversations with the Jets’ player development and McGroarty himself are necessary to identify why this trade became necessary. There may yet be more than meets the eye. — Ates
GO DEEPER
Why Penguins prospect Brayden Yager is so much more than just a scorer
How McGroarty fits with Penguins
The Penguins, in possession of a few top-tier prospects and craving more of them, traded their best prospect to the Jets on Thursday. This is a pretty good indication of their affection for the player they’re receiving.
The Penguins have a gaping hole on Sidney Crosby’s line and Crosby, to the surprise of many, still hasn’t signed a new contract with only one year remaining on his deal.
The 6-foot-1, 200-pound McGroarty projects as a top-line power forward at the NHL level. A year older than Yager, his NHL timeline is faster as there is every reason to believe he will play in Pittsburgh at some point this season, perhaps as soon as the Oct. 9 opener.
Yager, the first draft pick of the Kyle Dubas era in Pittsburgh, did nothing to disappoint the Penguins during the past 15 months. He projects as a top-six center at the NHL level and the Penguins’ plan was for Yager to be in Pittsburgh by the 2025-26 season.
McGroarty will have to earn an NHL job in training camp, but there’s every reason to believe he has a legitimate opportunity to do so. The Penguins have five spots in their top six — Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, Michael Bunting and Rickard Rakell — taken. While Drew O’Connor did a nice job on Crosby’s left wing late last season, he’s probably at his best in a third-line role. McGroarty, who can play the left or right wing, figures to get a long look.
McGroarty, a native of Lincoln, Neb., has produced 34 goals and 91 points in 75 career games at Michigan. — Josh Yohe, Penguins senior writer
Required reading
(Photo: Junfu Han / USA Today)
