The season hasn’t been one bad thing after another. There’s certainly been positives and the kind of positives which usually lead to victories in this league. The negatives are winning out at this point. The power play is 0 for its last 34 with no signs of snapping out of a season long funk. The longest funk of the Crosby, Malkin, and Letang era of 17 years. Rickard Rakell has zero goals and has been out of the lineup for an extended stretch which has seen Evgeni Malkin’s play fall off. Now, we have a potential long-term injury to Bryan Rust.
Unfortunately, for the Penguins their success this season is very much tied to the entire top six performing. Sidney Crosby’s line is among the best 5v5 lines in the entire league this year. Evgeni Malkin’s line started off very good with clear chemistry between Reilly Smith and him. Rickard Rakell may not have had a goal, but he was playing fine and helping with the line’s overall effectiveness. With Rickard and Rust out of the lineup the Penguins are effectively limited to one proper looking top six line. This is a tough ask for the remaining top six guys. This was always a possible situation. They are going to need to hope for one of those PDO runs because the season is lurking towards life support.
As President/GM of the team Kyle Dubas has a responsibility to try and navigate these kinds of situations. There comes a time where something has to give if you want to keep the train on the tracks. The issue is that there really aren’t a ton of moves to be had, at least few that will help the current product.
Jake Guentzel is a pending UFA. He would have a lot of value in a trade. You also have zero ability to replace anything even close to what he does for this team so you are throwing up the white flag not only on this year but next year as well (I believe he will re-sign if not traded). This is a non-starter for me.
Marcus Pettersson is a really good player and should hypothetically have some value, but it won’t be worth anything to consider moving him for. Just look at the Nikita Zadorov trade. Also, take a look at the other top four left defenseman the Penguins have. Pettersson is a vital piece to keeping the defense functional.
Reilly Smith? You just acquired him for a third round pick. Teams aren’t swimming in cap space. Acquiring id round draft picks have little to no use for this team right now and that’s the likely return.
Rickard Rakell has zero goals and you would be trading at the literal basement level value he could have. Rakell remains a good player and I don’t think the goal drought will last long when he returns. Move a guy like Rakell and you’re marrying yourself to players like Alex Nylander and Drew O’Connor in the top six. Sounds fun…
I would trade Ryan Graves off of the team yesterday. Problem being he’s been bad, he has a decent sized cap hit at 4.5M, and only five and a half years left on his deal. He is currently the only Penguin signed for the 2028-29 season. This signing was as big whiff on a team that couldn’t whiff on middle tier contracts. They are stuck with it for now and it ties up a much needed 4.5M
Jeff Carter’s 3.125M is what it is. It doesn’t look like that equipment allergy is coming.
Right now, the easiest way to save a few bucks in a trade would be to move Noel Acciari and his 2M cap hit. It won’t save a ton of money. You have to start somewhere. There’s just no need to pay above league minimum for what he brings. The team traded Brock McGinn, they can trade Noel Acciari
What about Mike Sullivan? Could he be a candidate to be on the chopping block? I don’t think this is likely. I’m not there yet considering a lot of the underlying numbers of this team have been positive. A few years back I would have definitely traded out Sullivan for Bruce Boudreau. Now, Boudreau is 68 years young and I don’t know if coaching is still something he wants to be doing. He is a senior advisor for the Niagara IceDogs in the OHL he is still actively working in hockey. This leads directly into the next option
What’s the most realistic move? Firing Todd Reirden for his connection to the power play. Is it a season saving move? No on its own, no. Should somebody pay the price for the power play being what it is? Yes. There needs to be some kind of accountability for one of the most surprising and unacceptable developments of this season for the Penguins. Could someone like Boudreau be good for this role? Yes, for sure. Even if it isn’t Boudreau there is a definite change needed.
Here's to hoping the Rust injury isn’t of the long term variety, because if it is… no bueno.
Thanks for reading!
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