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Trade: Penguins, Stars reverse last year’s Jamie Oleksiak deal

Dallas Stars v Pittsburgh Penguins

PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 11: Jamie Oleksiak #6 of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates with the puck against the Dallas Stars at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 11, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Matt Kincaid/Getty Images)

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On Dec. 19, 2017, the Pittsburgh Penguins sent a conditional 2019 fourth-round draft pick to the Dallas Stars in exchange for Jamie Oleksiak in an effort to strengthen what was at the time a very shorthanded defense. It was not a trade that moved mountains or shook the NHL to its core, and unless you are a fan of either team you probably forgot that it ever happened. Maybe you didn’t even realize that it happened.

It is worth noting today, just a little more than one year later, because those same two teams got together on Monday and decided to call a do-over on the whole thing.

It was then that the Penguins sent Oleksiak back to the Stars in exchange for ... a 2019 fourth-round draft pick.

The same pick they sent Dallas a year ago.

For all intents and purposes the Penguins rented Oleksiak for one year and then sent him right back where they got him from as if the whole thing never happened.

Let’s break this down to figure out just what everybody is getting out of this, starting with Dallas.

Oleksiak, a first-round pick by the team in 2011, was once a promising prospect in the Stars’ farm system but never really developed as hoped and he certainly never seemed to fit with former coach Ken Hitchcock last season. So they shipped him away last year and gave him a fresh start with a Penguins team that desperately needed some additional defensive depth.

He returns to the Stars after a year away in almost exactly the same manner, hoping to help fill some depth on a blue line that has been without Marc Methot and Stephen Johns all season. General manager Jim Nill said on Monday after the trade, via The Athletic’s Sean Shapiro, that he wanted to add a “weight guy” to bring some size and big-minute ability to the Stars’ blue line. Oleksiak is one of the biggest players in the league so he definitely fixes the size issue that Nill was looking to address, but that ignores one really important question: Is Oleksiak going to actually improve the Stars’ defense when it comes to scoring and preventing goals, which should be the number one question that gets asked anytime you add or subtract a player from your roster.

That is a question that will be answered over the coming weeks and months.

After arriving in Pittsburgh Oleksiak’s game definitely seemed to take a step forward, and he played well enough in the eyes of the Penguins that they were willing to sign him to a three-year contract that pays him more than $2.1 million per season. Despite that promising development, and the brand new contract, he wasn’t always a regular in the Pittsburgh lineup this season and didn’t really log a ton of big minutes when he was. He showed flashes of putting all of his skills together, but it was never consistent.

So now he goes back to the team where it all started getting yet another fresh start.

In 36 games this season Oleksiak scored four goals to go with seven assists for the Penguins.

As for the Penguins, they now shed that salary and create some additional salary cap space for themselves for both this season and in the future. That will probably proved to be important once general manager Jim Rutherford really starts working the trade lines in an effort to complete his roster for a playoff run. The return of the draft pick also gives them eight draft picks in 2019, including three fourth-round selections, to use as trade capital.

It also helps ease the log-jam they were set to have on defense whenever Justin Schultz returns in the coming weeks. When that happens the Penguins would have had as many as nine NHL defenders on their roster (Kris Letang, Brian Dumoulin, Olli Maatta, Schultz, Marcus Pettersson, Jack Johnson, Jusso Riikola, Chad Ruhwedel, and Oleksiak) without making any additional moves. A trade seemed likely at some point.

With Oleksiak now back in Dallas and Schultz not quite ready to return it seems likely that Riikola will get a more extended look in the short-term, likely on the second pairing alongside Maatta.

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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.