Who is Teddy Blueger? The need to know for VGK fans

Prior to the thrilling 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes, the Vegas Golden Knights made another trade deadline deal to bolster the roster in preparation of a run at the Stanley Cup. The trade made on Wednesday afternoon between the Golden Knights and Pittsburgh sent Teddy Blueger to Vegas in exchange for and a 2024 3rd round draft pick. The trade with the Penguins is the third deadline deal made by the Golden Knights as they also acquired Ivan Barbashev from St. Louis and Dysin Mayo from the Arizona Coyotes.

Who is Teddy Blueger?

The 28-year old Riga, Latvia native has spent his entire NHL career in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization, in fact, he was drafted by the Penguins in the 2nd Round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. Over the past five seasons at the NHL level, Blueger has 23 goals and 59 assists for 92 total points. So far in the 2022-23 NHL season, he has collected two goals and eight assists for 10 points.

As you can tell, he is not known as a prominent scoring center but more as a defensive center that will be more valuable on defensive situations and as a critical fourth line center. He will be a major factor in penalty kill situations. You will see a lot of his shots will be either a snap shot or a backhanded shot. And to further bring in what to expect, he was fourth in the NHL during the 2020-21 season with short-handed goals.

Much like that of Ivan Barbashev and Phil Kessel, the Latvian-born center will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. There is a good chance the Golden Knights will have preferential treatment with Blueger when it comes to re-signing with the club for a few more seasons.