Guentzel opens up about possible trade: 'It's just a lot'

The possibility of being traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins is weighing on Jake Guentzel.

"It's a lot more than you think it is," Guentzel told The Athletic's Rob Rossi. "It's moving everything. You're changing your whole lifestyle. You're meeting a bunch of new people, and if you've got a family ... it's just a lot.

"Then you've got to go play hockey, right? There's a different system, different guys to learn how to play with, where to go eat. It just seems like a lot of organizations are different in every aspect. How teams travel is different. You've got to get new gear - like, I don't like new gloves. That seems like a small thing, but I really don't like wearing new gloves. So it's something you think about in the back of your mind."

It's unclear at this point if the Penguins will move Guentzel, a pending unrestricted free agent. Pittsburgh has won three games in a row but is still seven points back of a playoff spot with 26 games to go.

Guentzel is the biggest rental forward name potentially on the block this year, and he's reportedly drawn interest from several Stanley Cup contenders. The 29-year-old is a two-time 40-goal scorer with a proven track record of playoff success and had 52 points in 50 games this season before an upper-body injury ruled him out for up to four weeks in mid-February.

The Penguins drafted Guentzel 77th overall in 2013, and he's appeared in 503 regular-season games with the organization since. He stated before the season that he wants to stay in Pittsburgh, but he's coming to grips with that not being a guarantee.

"I don't know if you can get away from it," he said. "And if you want to stay, that doesn't make dealing with it any easier. I think it makes it harder."