Despite a win over the Washington Capitals in the season finale, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ season ends before the playoffs start for a third-straight season. They’re paying their debts they accrued when they heisted three Stanley Cups in less than a decade and became the first team to win consecutive Cups in the salary cap era.
You can run but you can’t hide and the Penguins are at that point now.
Kyle Dubas will be entering his third offseason in charge of the Penguins. His first one went rather miserably as he re-signed Tristan Jarry and locked up Ryan Graves to albatross contracts.
He spent this past offseason signing lesser players to less-tenured contracts such as Anthony Beauvillier, who later recouped the Penguins a nice trade package.
Throughout the season, Dubas acquired young guys through trades and waivers. Both Phillip Tomasino and Tommy Novak seem to figure into the Penguins’ longer-term plan. Vladislav Kolyachonok was a waiver pickup. He’ll likely have to fight in camp for a spot but is a young depth piece the Penguins surely won’t just cast away.
Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen, two of the Penguins’ better prospects, came up for the stretch run and looked awesome in that time. McGroarty got hurt and may miss a portion of WBS’ playoff run as well but the experience in the NHL was valuable.
Koivunen posted a cool seven points in eight games and almost had his first career goal but it wasn’t meant to be as he punched it into the net.
This all goes without mentioning the blue line and goaltending prospects the Penguins boast.
Owen Pickering played a lot of games in Pittsburgh early in the season but dropped off a little and was sent back to Wilkes-Barre to play consistent top line minutes. Harrison Brunicke, a second-rounder last offseason, looks like a guy who could contribute at some point next year and may even get the nine-game trial at the beginning of next season just to get some experience.
Goalie Joel Blomqvist was shuffled between Pittsburgh and WBS due to injuries and Jarry’s incompetence. Sergei Murashov set a new record for consecutive games won in Wilkes-Barre and basically dominated the ECHL.
All of this is hugely positive for the Penguins who traded Jake Guentzel at last year’s trade deadline signaling the official retool.
With Sidney Crosby not only still on the roster, but performing at an elite level still, you can’t justify tearing it all the way down. In fact, look at teams like Chicago and San Jose that have done that. They’re perennial bottom-feeders right now.
Instead, Dubas is giving this core every chance by supplementing with prospects who could begin flooding the NHL next year. The Penguins have a ton of cap space going into the offseason and can create more if they can find a way to move off of bad contracts. They certainly have the draft capital to attach to a contract and entice a team to take it.
Those picks can also be traded for young NHL-ready players. With 30 picks over the next three drafts, the Penguins will have to trade a few of them. You can only have 50 players contracted at any given time in your organization. The math just wouldn’t be mathing if he didn’t. Dubas must be smart about it.
These young guys combined with Crosby’s brilliance should give Pens fans hope. Evgeni Malkin likely will be entering his last year as his contract expires. Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson on the same defensive pairing will have to be addressed in some way.
There is no doubt some questions about the team as the offseason begins but there is also no shortage of reasons why the Penguins couldn’t be a lower-level playoff team next season with the right buttons being pushed.
Kyle Dubas has done an awesome job restocking a Penguins prospect cupboard that was behind bare when he arrived. Now, it’s time to supplement it with pieces that can push the Penguins back into the playoffs in what turned out to be a weak Eastern Conference.