Pittsburgh needs exactly what Simon Edvinsson is, a 23-year-old left-side defenseman with top-four minutes already on his resume. The Detroit Red Wings still do not have him signed with the 2026-27 NHL season underway, and rival clubs are circling: Carolina is one offer sheet threat Detroit already has to account for. A Simon Edvinsson trade to the Penguins would answer that, and it would put interim general manager Shawn Horcoff in position to acquire his own son.
Will Horcoff is a 6-foot-5 left wing, 19 years old, and the player Pittsburgh took 24th overall in the 2025 NHL Draft. He is back at Michigan for his junior season rather than in the Penguins system, which is part of why Detroit would have to ask for more than his name.
Pittsburgh Needs Exactly What Edvinsson Is
Tyler Miller of Sports Illustrated’s Red Wings site put the two clubs together as trade partners on Oct. 1. That is Miller’s own proposal, not a report of talks between Detroit and Pittsburgh. Miller wrote:
The Penguins are in dire need of young, dynamic defensemen who can play the left side. And Edvinsson would fit that exact profile and would be a nice fit in Pittsburgh. And knowing that Will is in Pittsburgh, that could be a nice starting point for the Red Wings.
Edvinsson did get some time with Moritz Seider last season for Detroit, but he is asking for a big contract and likely will not receive it for the time being. If Edvinsson does not get the contract that he is looking for, he could request a trade and the Penguins could come calling and scoop him up.
The need underneath it checks out. Pittsburgh’s two most important defensemen, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson, are 39 and 36, and both shoot right. Edvinsson shoots left and is 16 years younger than Letang. In 72 games last season he scored nine goals and recorded 16 assists with a plus-12 rating.
Why Kyle Dubas Would Make The Call
Letang and Karlsson are not long-term answers, and Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas has spent the past year trying to get younger without stripping the roster. His pattern is buying former first-round picks whose development stalled somewhere else: he traded for Egor Chinakhov, Nick Robertson, and Hendrix Lapierre. Edvinsson is the same kind of bet on a younger blue line, except he has already proven he can play, so Detroit gets to charge for that.
What A Real Simon Edvinsson Trade Would Cost
Miller stopped at calling Will Horcoff a nice starting point, and starting point is the right phrase. A winger who has not signed an entry-level deal and is still in college does not move a top-four defenseman on his own, and Detroit would be the team giving one up.
Horcoff is the reason Pittsburgh would resist. In 40 games for Michigan last season he scored 25 goals and recorded 14 assists with a plus-10 rating, a jump from four goals in 18 games as a freshman.
So the ask starts with Horcoff and adds a defenseman closer to ready. Owen Pickering, Pittsburgh’s 2022 first-round pick, is 22, 6-foot-5, shoots left and is playing in Wilkes-Barre. From there it is draft capital: a 2027 first-round pick and a 2028 second-round pick alongside the two players. That is the shape of a return for a 23-year-old defenseman already logging top-four minutes, and it is the part of the deal the proposal left blank.
