There was a significant failure during the trade deadline in Pittsburgh.

After attempting to create space under the salary cap in a rather rocky fashion by placing Kasperi Kapanen, Brock McGinn and Mark Friedman on waivers, the organization made two questionable trades, acquiring Mikael Granlund and Nick Bonino.

Most experts wondered why they made all these personnel moves to add only two 30+ year old veterans to the roster?

The work of GM Ron Hextall has been heavily criticized, when in fact, the club doesn't seem to have really improved for the last stretch of the season, as well as for the playoffs possibly.

However, we just learned that the Penguins had a much bigger plan in the first place, which could have changed a lot of things if there hadn't been a flop in the negotiations.

According to TSN's Darren Dreger, it was forward J.T. Miller who was the main target for the Penguins. Miller who was Hextall's primary target at the trade deadline. It was for him that the organization was making emergency room in its payroll.

According to Dreger, the Penguins made a serious offer to the Canucks, which included at least two first-round draft picks, but Vancouver ultimately turned it down, as there was no center in the offer to replace Miller.

Wow, what a major disappointment for Pittsburgh fans to hear that!

There could have been Miller in the lineup right now, but since the offer fell through and the Penguins had already lost Kapanen to the waivers with nothing in return, they had no choice but to fall back on Granlund and Bonino, since the market was already stripped of the majority of interesting players.

It's really a flop for the Penguins to have bet everything on Miller, without the certainty of having the necessary elements to make the deal happen.

Credit: HabsolumentFan