The PHN+ Q&A: Penguins Offseason, Turbulence, Trades & Reaction

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — The Pittsburgh Penguins face a rough offseason. It is the second consecutive early summer after 16 straight years of playoff appearances, and even a hard-charging run worthy of the late Arnold Palmer wasn’t enough to bring the warm-and-fuzzies to most of the fanbase.

Fortunately for the Penguins, that late run did cool some tempers and provided some future-looking optimism.

Who knows what our talks would be like if the Penguins missed the playoffs by 10 points and stunk down the stretch? I assure you, the Sidney Crosby talk would be red-hot across Canada.

From potential Penguins trades to prospects cracking the lineup to offseason priorities, we put out the call for PHN+ subscribers to have their say and jump ahead of the Twitter crowd to ask their questions.

I must say, you delivered. It was also nice to get some different questions with a different tone.

I will ask subscribers not to blast my answers all over the internet. I’m going to answer without worrying about the guardrails of public consumption. So, from Penguins trades, Tristan Jarry to Reilly Smith and prepping for next season, here we go: