Penguins Acquire Goaltender Mathieu Garon; Ship Sabourin to Edmonton in Exchange

There have been a lot of rumors the last month or so that the Penguins would soon be making a deal.

Well, GM Ray Shero delivered yesterday, although not in the way many expected, sending backup goaltender Dany Sabourin, minor league forward Ryan Stone and a 4th round pick in 2011 to the Edmonton Oilers for goaltender Mathieu Garon.

Garon, 31, makes $1 million per season and will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer. He has struggled with consistency this year to the tune of a 6-8 record, a 3.17 GAA and a .895 SV %.

Pretty pedestrian statistics to be sure, but Garon is a veteran who has shown he can be a number one man. Last year, he led the way for the Oilers with 26-18-1 record and a 2.66 GAA, and previously won 31 games for the LA Kings a few years back.

Garon got caught up in a numbers game in Edmonton, with the Oilers having to choose between Dwayne Roloson, Garon and young netminder Jeff Droulin-Deslauriers, who Edmonton would have lost on waivers if they attempted to send him to Hamilton of the American Hockey League.

In giving up Stone, the Penguins cast aside their 2nd round pick in 2003 who never showed the ability to stick at the NHL level, despite many opportunities. He's likely to be nothing more than a fringe 4th liner, and Shero did him a favor by giving him a chance with a different organization.

Sabourin is another guy who had many chances to make an impact in Pittsburgh with Marc-Andre Fleury's several injuries the last few seasons, but never showed the consistency to do so. By making this deal, Shero is trying to bring in a veteran backup who can push Fleury, much like Ty Conklin did last year. The common thinking -- not necessarily shared by this writer -- is that Fleury performs better when capable of being pushed by his goaltending partner for playing time.

Overall, it's hard to be disappointed with losing Sabourin and Stone. But there's no guarantee Garon will prove to be better in the long run than Sabourin, especially given his inconsistency this season. He does have some proven track record, though, and that's something which Sabourin did not have. If that's what the Penguins were looking for, they succeeded in that respect. Apparently, Shero had to throw in the draft pick to make the deal, which seems a little surprising to me because we're not talking about impact players on either side here.

Garon has joined the team and will back up Fleury today against the Rangers. He'll wear #32, which forward Chris Minard has given up in exchage for #14.

Recap of the Rangers game tomorrow.