Lars Eller was determined to do his part to get the Pittsburgh Penguins out of the slump they found themselves in in just a month of the 2024-2025 season.

“The adversity we go through has to make us better,” the reliable third-line center said Tuesday in Cranberry. “We have to grow and improve from it. We talked, the players talked, the coaches talked. We are where we are and we have to crawl out and find our way back, play by play, team by team.

“Everyone.”

Eller doesn’t get a chance to carry out that edict.

On Tuesday evening, he was traded to the Washington Capitals, the team he helped win its only Stanley Cup title in 2018. In return, the Penguins received assets that could help them in the future.

Just not in the near future.

The Capitals returned a pair of draft picks in the 2027 third round and the 2025 fifth round.

The fifth-rounder was originally owned by the Chicago Blackhawks and was dealt around the NHL, making stops with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Capitals. Current Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas, in his previous role as Maple Leafs general manager, was selected by the Blackhawks in 2023.

As for the present, this trade – with a hated division rival – certainly suggests that whatever plans the Penguins (6-9-2, 14 points) had to be a contender this season – simply for the playoffs, let alone ​the Stanley Cup – are stunted.

In announcing the transaction via a release, the Penguins boasted that they now had “10 selections in both the 2025 and 2027 NHL Drafts to accompany nine selections in the 2026 NHL Draft.”

Dubas stated via email with Pittsburgh-based outlets that the transaction was orchestrated with a binary chase.

“It indicates that with Blake Lizotte returning from injury and having depth options at center with Cody Glass, Noel Acciari and Sam Poulin on the roster, plus younger centers making progress in our system, we are looking to increase the minutes for those players wanted,” Dubas wrote. “And give them more opportunities and increase our assets and cap space to give us more flexibility.”

Dubas indicated that a transaction involving Eller had been in the works “since the spring.”

Poulin is a top prospect who will see an immediate increase in playing time following Eller’s departure.

A first-round pick (No. 21 overall) in 2019, the 23-year-old Poulin enjoyed a strong season at the American Hockey League (AHL) level with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before being recalled to the NHL selection on Monday. At the time of the promotion, he was Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s second leading scorer with nine points (three goals, six assists) in eleven games.

After previously skating as a center and left winger, he was used almost exclusively as a right winger this season.

About five weeks earlier, he was exposed to waivers (and went undrafted), a necessary procedure for a player to be assigned his professional service time to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

“I want to play in Pittsburgh,” Poulin said Monday. “I’m just happy that I stayed with this organization and that I can be with this team again.”

Will there be other recalls coming out of Northeastern Pennsylvania?

“Players will only be recalled and given opportunities when we feel they have maximized their development (with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) and are ready to take that step,” Dubas wrote. “Some guys have earned that out of camp and others are starting to come on strong as they helped (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) get off to a great start. We look forward to seeing which guys we can continue that step with (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton), help them win and earn their chance to step up when those opportunities arise.”

The 35-year-old Eller, who scored the championship goal for the Capitals in 2018, skated in 17 games this season and was the Penguins’ fifth-leading scorer with seven points (four goals, three assists) and an average of 16:25 ice time per game , including 2:08 on the penalty kill.

As a left-handed shot, Eller also had the team’s second-most faceoffs this season (184), winning 56.2% of them.

Eller was signed as an unrestricted free agent in 2023 and is in the final year of a two-year contract with a $2.45 million salary cap hit. After Tuesday’s trade, the Penguins now have a salary cap hit of $1,782,625, according to Puckpedia. That figure also takes into account forward Matt Nieto ($900,000), who is currently on long-term injured reserve, a designation that provides temporary relief from the majority of his salary cap.

This trade came less than 24 hours after the Penguins were bluntly dropped at home by the Dallas Stars, 7-1.

“There’s going to be bad, there’s going to be good throughout a season,” Eller said Tuesday afternoon. “And (Monday) was obviously very bad in many ways. During a season there are ups and downs.

“That’s all I’ll say.”