As he prepares to face Penguins for 1st time, Jake Guentzel fitting in with Carolina

Around the midway point of the season, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel was asked about potentially signing a contract extension as a pending unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason.

He largely declined to answer the question.

“I’m not going to go too much into detail about it,” Guentzel said Jan. 6 at PPG Paints Arena. “I’m just trying to play, and we’ll see what happens as we go.”

Just over two months later, what happened was he became Carolina Hurricanes forward Jake Guentzel via a trade March 7.

Guentzel and reserve defenseman Ty Smith were sent to Carolina in exchange for NHL forward Michael Bunting, forward prospects Ville Koivunen, Cruz Lucius, Vasily Ponomarev and two conditional draft picks.

A two-time 40-goal scorer, Guentzel has done well so far with the Hurricanes, producing 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in eight games.

His ninth game with Carolina is Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena, where he will join a long list of players from the Penguins’ 2016-17 Stanley Cup championships teams to make a return after moving on.

While the Penguins are 2-6-1 since dealing Guentzel away, the Hurricanes are 6-1-1 since he joined their lineup. He has had his fair share of highlights already in his new uniform.

• March 12: New YorkRangers 1, Hurricanes 0 — Guentzel made his debut with his new team at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C. He logged 15 minutes, 12 seconds of ice time on 19 shifts and recorded one shot on goal.

• March 14: Hurricanes 4, Florida Panthers 0 — Guentzel recorded his first point with the Hurricanes, collecting a secondary assist on a goal by forward Martin Necas during a home win.

• March 16: Hurricanes 5, Toronto Maple Leafs 4 — In a road victory, Guentzel scored the winning shootout goal. In regulation, he recorded two primary assists on power-play goals by forwards Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho.

• March 17: Hurricanes 7, Ottawa Senators 2 — Guentzel scored his first true goal with the Hurricanes in a lopsided road win. He also picked up a secondary assist on a goal by Jarvis.

• March 19: Hurricanes 4, New York Islanders 1 — In a road victory, Guentzel collected three points with an empty-net goal and assists on a pair of goals by Jarvis.

• March 22: Washington Capitals 7, Hurricanes 6 — In a shootout loss on the road, Guentzel recorded three assists, all primary helpers on goals by Aho (twice) and Jarvis (on a power-play opportunity). He was denied on his lone shootout attempt.

• March 24: Hurricanes 2, Maple Leafs 1 — Guentzel had the primary assist on the winning goal during a power-play chance by Aho.

“There are a lot of high-end players on this team. Just trying to help the team out as much as I can,” Guentzel told the Associated Press after playing on the team’s top line with Aho and Jarvis against the Islanders. “As a line, lately we’ve had a little run here and it’s been fun. Hopefully it kind of keeps going, and we’ll see what happens.”

Note: The Penguins had a scheduled day off on Monday.