The Hardest Part of Penguins Fall is Still to Come
The waiting is the hardest part.
The Pittsburgh Penguins’ slow march to the bottom is going to take a while, and it appears the effort to avoid hitting rock bottom before turning around the franchise, which has been richly rewarded by the Sidney Crosby era, is failing.
The natural progression is undeniable, and things aren’t getting better.
This season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have shown every ability to claim leads over teams good and bad and absolutely no ability to hold those same leads, even against bottom-feeders like the San Jose Sharks, to whom the Penguins blew a three-goal lead on Saturday in a 4-3 shootout win.
By all accounts and gossip around the hockey water coolers and tap rooms, more Penguins trades are coming, and those moves by general manager Kyle Dubas could strip the team of vital pieces as even players in their 20s are likely headed out of town in exchange for future assets. The coming fall from chasing a playoff spot to rock bottom will hurt.
And make no mistake, the transmogrification will be protracted and take a season … or two seasons. Dubas has cited the LA Kings and New York Rangers as teams that quickly turned around after reaching their peak. The problem that Dubas has but doesn’t cite is the albatross of veterans on terrible contracts. Neither LA nor New York had a power play full of unmovable contracts with years remaining.
Long ago, the Penguins missed their shot to retool on the fly with bad moves by former GM Ron Hextall and Dubas, which further deepened the team’s problems and gave away the future capital that Dubas is trying desperately to restock.
The Washington Capitals weren’t quite in the same position, either. Washington kept their future assets, but their veteran players, such as T.J. Oshie and Nick Backstrom, stepped away from the game due to injuries, freeing up large chunks of salary cap space. If the veterans were still hanging around, perhaps Washington would be experiencing the same dreadful sensation as falling as are the Penguins.
The Detroit Red Wings have missed the playoffs since 2016, and the Ottawa Senators haven’t made the playoffs since 2017. Those teams hit rock bottom and have climbed upward, but they have more steps to take, so Penguins fans might want to get comfortable.
The worst part is the Penguins’ fall is going to take a while.
The Chicago Blackhawks missed the playoffs for a handful of years before giving Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews a hearty thanks and pat on the back on their way out the door. They’re a couple of years into their new era but are light years from playoff contention.
For everyone clamoring for a Penguins tear-it-down rebuild, it’s neither happening nor possible, and therein lies the greatest delay. The assets Dubas could acquire by stripping away the players around Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin wouldn’t amount to a booming haul that launched a rebuild. Further, most of the players surrounding the core have some sort of no-trade protections or otherwise unfriendly contracts that reduce their value.
Things are bad.
The Penguins have given up a mind-bending eight leads of two or more goals in the first 20 games. They’ve won four of them, but no healthy team would cough up a three-goal lead to San Jose one night after a vomitous collapse against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Edit: The total of blown two-goal leads is eight.
A few blown leads are a problem to be solved. EIGHT? That’s an ugly, season-undoing reality, and after a couple of seasons of the same, the underlying causes should have been seen a mile away. So, too, was the lack of finish in the lineup glossed over, the salary cap spaced instead used to buy draft picks through acquiring salary dumps.
At best, insufficient bandaids were slapped on festering wounds.
But rock bottom is a long way off. In the meantime, we wait and enjoy NHL debuts, such as Owen Pickering’s on Saturday and perhaps Tristan Broz’s and Villie Koivunen’s later this season.
But the waiting is the hardest part.
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It does look like it will be an ugly season. We can hope otherwise, but I have seen that the probability of the Pens just getting in to the playoffs is already extremely low. Perhaps we can hope that Malkin and Letang find the season so bad they decide to retire by the end of the season. Spending time in the press box would help them see the writing on the wall. Same goes for the disaster called Karlsson, although he can find another team to ruin. Let’s hope the prospects get some decent playing time without having their game… Read more »
if they retire, they count against the cap, we need to trade Letang or Karlson and have Malkin play wing this year and next.
You lack of knowledge is really showing with this post. Malkin and Letang retiring does NOTHING for the Penguins. Hockey contracts are guaranteed so even if they retire, we still have to keep the $12-million combined on our cap hit for next season.
Are they all actually guaranteed (at any age)? These two are 35+ contracts and those affect the cap even if they retire.
If they can approach the players with no trade and get them to reconsider, could be some help out there. But this team has been mismanaged by the previous two regimes and Dubas just threw gas on an already burning fire. He bears responsibility as well. He’s been terrible.
Hello? Hello? anyone with a clue out there? Even if they waived the no move clauses, who is going to want those contracts? Karlsson’s is too much and Letang’s is too long.
In the meantime, take it on faith and take it to the heart my friends. We were there when movie producers owned the Lightning…over time a creepy puppet on a tricycle led to Jeff Vinik.
“…the transmogrification will be protracted and take a season … or two seasons.”
With all due respect, “You dream, General.” It’s going to take way longer than that. Sigh.
With a few shrewd moved this team is competing for the last spot next year and back in the mx the year after. The good news is the parody of the NHL will allow a quick turn around.
Really? Like what? Keep dreaming. This is going to take a decade. And with yinzerville fair weather fans, the “Team is going to move” stories should begin sometime next season for sure.
You nailed it when you said parody instead of parity.
Perhaps I should have been more clear on the actual next step, which is decay to rock bottom. That’s what is going to take a year…or two.
Good.
Gotcha. And the real question, perhaps above all others, is whether we, as fans, want to see 87 stay thru that knowing what’s coming? I mean, Mitch Marner isn’t coming thru that door. 😉
1. Malkin isn’t retiring after the season. 2. They can be a good team by the 2028-29 season with the right moves and good drafts as a bottom feeder.
Going to miss the playoffs again
So be it.
Jim Rutherford also shoulders some blame, he does not get let off the hook either. He did a lot of questionable moves during his last few years as the Penguins general manager, especially after the second Stanley Cup one. Some argue that the penguins should have started to retool after they lost in the second round of the playoffs to the Washington Capitals in 2018. Most of the damage occurred, unfortunately during Ron Hexall’s two years as the general manager. More so, NHL expansion really hurt the Pittsburgh Penguins. I don’t blame Rutherford‘s decision to let Fleury go in the… Read more »
Rangers took 5 years. They were 4th in the Metro in 2017 and didn’t reach that level again until 2022 (2nd). Five years is pretty quick for a rebuild and the Rangers made it faster than usual because they were able to trade quite a bit of talent for picks. Given contract limitations and the age of the talent, the Penguins probably won’t be able to stockpile high end picks like the Rangers did. KD is already playing the long game by acquiring xtra 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round picks for THREE drafts from now (2027). It’s still fun to… Read more »
RANGERS HAVEN’T WON THE CUP FOR 30 YEARS NOW!!! What turnaround is that?
Stockpiling draft picks sounds good but I have very little faith in our scouting system. Most higher picks over the years have either failed or not really been very good. There needs to be a huge clean house and it should start with stubborn Mike Sullivan and through the scouting system which has not taken any heat for their ineptitude. What can happen? Miss the playoffs and say “wait till next year”?
I hate the idea of trading Rust, but I’m sure he would fetch a very nice return. I know he has a full NMC this year, but he might be willing to accept a trade this season if he could control the destination rather than having no control next year.
It’s been 30 years since the Rangers won the cup and 10 now since the Kings won; so I’m not sure what your definition of a “quick turnaround” is?
Are you trying to be contrary? They are two of the most competitive teams in the league and near the top of the standings. That’s the turnaround. If the Stanley Cup is the only barometer, then Rangers have been rebuilding for 30 years. Huh?!
People who literally buy into the “Stanley Cup or bust” thing are insufferable… Talk about taking all of the fun out of sports fandom. The idea is to be good enough to make it a possibility every year. From 2007-2018 the Pens had as good a chance as anybody to win the Cup. Thats what you want. Its a very hard thing to do and some luck is definitely required. Rangers and Kings both did a good job. Bad examples would be Edmonton (took wayyyyyyy too long), Buffalo, Detroit is taking a long time, New Jersey is sputtering on their… Read more »
Iny humble opinion,what this team needs to do is first of all is tell Karlsson to go see a proctologist to get his head out of his butt and start playing like a defense man or give up on the no trade clause and get him off of the team,he is playing like some kind of chicken,he is afraid of getting hit and afraid of giving hits.Karlsson is the biggest problem on the team,as far as the way the team is playing as a whole goes,they need to get back to basics,and play as a unit.the power play needs to… Read more »
Karlsson has never been a good defenseman in his NHL career….he is -107 in plus/minus which would be a heck of a lot more except he has scored almost 200 goals and has over 600 assists in his career. The Pens got him to SCORE knowing the deficiencies he would have on D. It hasn’t worked out obviously and his horrible D play would be overlooked by everyone if he would start scoring like he was supposed to.
That is all on the coaching. If players don’t do their part then have a seat at the end of the bench. Somehow, Sullivan hasn’t figured that out.
Dubas has made some mistakes with the roster (FA signing like Graves, signing Jarry to 5 years) but he’s been wise to be steadfast about not giving up future assets, trading Jake, etc…as hard as that was. So for the mistakes he’s made for the current team, I forgive him because to me it’s more important planning for the future at this point. I like Kouivenen and Ponomarev who came back for Jake (also Lucius and Bunting and a 2nd but for me the meat were those 2 prospects then the pick we used on Brunicke). And Dubas has done… Read more »
The top end prospects generally come at the top of the draft and that’s where the Pens are headed.
I find the lack of acceptance of this teams position a long time ago by fans strange and the continued doom and gloom sensation writing on this website strange as well. Pens fans and apparently journalists alike seemed to have warped their mindsets to think this team could never be bad again and seemed surprised now that it has happened. It has gone like this for every major contender and WINNER especially for decades. Detroit, New Jersey. Both eventually fell apart in fantastic fashion. Took less time than the Pens. Chicago did it really fast, so did LA. Colorado was… Read more »
I am probably the minority, but I’m excited about the team. The very long overdue changes are coming. Yeah, sure it will be painful at times but the Pens will be building something. That is way more fun than “trying not to drown” while chasing highly un-probable goals with the current team. (cups, playoff advancements etc) Keep Sid (of course), Geno, and Tanger. The team still needs to sell tickets and jerseys. Swap the rest, other than OC and Puulijarvi, out for futures and young players. Maybe lightning strikes on he lottery as there are some really good players coming… Read more »
Action steps: Keep Geno as Sid’s LW #2 line is DOC centering Bunting and Jesse P (who played like a man possessed on Saturday and was noticeable on all fronts). All 3 are strong forecheckere. Give this line a shot for 10 games with consistent ice time. Waive or outright release some dead weight – the Grzzz, Shea and replace with Belliveau who leads WBS with +8 after only 7 games. The kid must be doing something right. Trade Rust – his value will never be higher. His choice is to be RW on line #3 on a team that… Read more »
I think what Dubas doesn’t understand is…the fans want to see the kids! We are sick and tired of the same bs!!!
Anyone else getting suspicious of letang being out for days for “illness?” Longer this goes, more i wonder if he might be headed back to Habs…
I was starting to hope for Pens to shake up d-pairings, try Graves-Letang, Pettersson-Karlsson, Pickering-St. Ivany. I’m over Grez, but he could be good 7th D. But, i have feeling something big is brewing on trade front…
Or…God forbid….another stroke (#3). He also has a congenital hole in his heart. Also had neck surgery. I hope it’s just something like an UR illness and nothing career ending. We should know no later than 24 hrs before their next game. But he hasn’t looked the same for a while even though he’s a workout warrior.
Or how about he is just sick? You know there are things going around this time of the year. My son just got over pneumonia and my coworkers son was just at the doctors today and he has it.
Me, too. I’ve been battling coughing, etc for a month now.
Can you trade for dead contracts? As in Karlsson to Utah for Shea Weber’s contract? If so, doing that and packaging good assets with bad (Rust plus Jarry, something plus Graves), there could be $20M+ in the off-season to make one last run with signings like Chychrun/Fabbro/Bowser or even an RFA like Peterka.
Utah would not want to trade that contract for Weber….It is an asset used to increase their LTIR so they can spend over the cap if they want and its reduced by LTIR….same with Montreal and their goalie Carey Price that’s been on LTIR for years now.
They waited too long. Would have been bad, Probably not this bad.
Pens were never up 2-0 on CBJ. C’mon man!
Hextall opened the barn doors and let the horses out and Dubas came in – killed the horses and burned down the barn. This team has roughly 23% of their cap tied up in Karlsson, Graves, and Jarry. It’s darn near impossible to overcome that – especially with the NTCs being handed out like candy. They have been trying the middle of the road “let’s retool on the fly and remain competitive” approach and it’s been a complete and utter disaster. The continued bargain shopping and reclamation projects like Grzelcyk aren’t working – and that’s putting it kindly. The NTCs… Read more »
Coach needs to go!