The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed center Cody Glass from the Nashville Predators, the team announced on Tuesday.
Glass, 25, is under contract through the end of the 2024-25 season and has a salary of $2.5 million. The trade also brings with it a third-round pick for 2025 and a sixth-round pick for 2026, so Pittsburgh now has three third-round picks for 2025 after Tuesday’s draft pick swap with the St. Louis Blues:
After the trade, the Penguins are only $249,233 under the salary cap. They also now have a surplus of centers on the roster, as Lars Eller, Kevin Hayes, Blake Lizotte, Noel Acciari and Glass are all natural centers. Because of this, it stands to reason that the Penguins could make another move to get rid of one of those contracts to give themselves more salary cap flexibility during the season.
The 6’3″, 200-pound Glass was drafted sixth overall by the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017 and has scored 29 goals and 71 points in 187 NHL games between Vegas and Nashville. He hasn’t quite lived up to his first-round qualities so far, but he brings size, speed and untapped scoring potential to the Penguins’ bottom half and is effective at both ends of the ice.
Cody Glass has played his best hockey of the season in recent weeks. Here he is rewarded for his efforts with his 3rd goal of the year.
Great game between him and Sissons. pic.twitter.com/BekV6xgmLD
– Alex Daugherty (@AlexDaugherty1) March 2, 2024
Kyle Dubas, the Penguins’ general manager and president of hockey operations, has publicly stated that he wants to add some younger talent with potential to the roster, and the trade for Glass — which represents both a salary cap hit for Nashville and a change of scenery for Glass — helps achieve that goal.
It remains to be seen if the Penguins will take further steps in this direction before training camp begins next month.
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