David Perron escapes Edmonton in trade to Pittsburgh

Congratulations David Perron. You are going to a contender – a place without forensic investigations where you get to play with the ‘current one’ and not have to hear the name ‘Connor McDavid’ every two seconds.

On Friday, the Penguins sent a first round draft pick in 2015 and Rob Klinkhammer to the Oilers for the shifty Perron.

The 26-year-old winger’s contract expires at the end of 2015-16 and has an uber-manageable salary cap hit of $3.8125. Real salary number for this year is a little higher at $4.25 million per CapGeek.

And in return, the Oilers get Klinkhammer (who is serviceable, but lacks major offensive talent) and a first round pick that will likely be in the 20-30 range.

Perron has just 19 points in 38 games this year, but since Edmonton is a  freaking zoo, who knows how those will translate somewhere else. He did once have 42 points in 57 games with St. Louis.

Perron took the high road instead of doing is best Snake Plissken a la the "Escape from New York" and Los Angeles Movies. Per NHL.com.

"It's always hard leaving a place where you're emotionally involved, no matter how tough the situation was here. Once you look past that, there's not many better opportunities to go to and I'm really excited about that," Perron said.

"At the stage I'm at in my career, I think the first few years you're just happy to be in the League and to get more ice time and more opportunities. After a few years you just want to win," he said. "Obviously it's not going to happen this year in Edmonton. It's nice to get an opportunity in Pittsburgh and to have that kind of trust they did to acquire me."

Playing with the Penguins certainly helped Patric Hornqvist, whose points per-game have zoomed from last season’s 0.70 to 0.88 this year. His goal-per-game is also at a career-high of 0.39.

This will also help the Penguins' depth, which has been tested this year between injuries (to Hornqvist and others at the moment) and the mumps.

For the Oilers … losing a talented player and getting nothing tangible (at the moment) in return – looks like McDavid’s likelihood of being banished to Oil Country just increased. Poor Connor.  Another rebuild on top of a rebuild. It must be Friday in Edmonton.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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