Here’s Why Penguins Should — & Shouldn’t — Trade Jake Guentzel (+)

The Pittsburgh Penguins have plenty of reasons — some of them very good — to trade Jake Guentzel at the NHL deadline if they haven’t signed him to a new contract by then.

Or at least are completely confident that a deal with him will get done before he attains unrestricted free agency July 1.

The Penguins not only have the oldest team in the league — Guentzel, 29, is one of their few foundational pieces who isn’t in his mid-30s — but a shallow pool of top-shelf prospects with the potential to be impact players in the NHL over the next few years.

That’s the price they’re paying for routinely trading early-round draft choices for immediate roster upgrades for most of the past two decades.

Was it worth it? The three most recent Stanley Cup banners hanging in PPG Paints Arena would seem to provide a pretty emphatic answer to that question.