Molinari: Give Penguins (& Everyone Else) a Break

There’s a pretty good chance the Pittsburgh Penguins will lose their game in Las Vegas Friday night.

After all, the Golden Knights are faster, deeper and more skilled than the Penguins. That’s a bit of an advantage, don’t you think?

Hey, it’s no coincidence that Vegas sits atop the Pacific Division, while Pittsburgh has sunk to the bottom of the Metropolitan.

That Vegas is 22-6-3 on home ice also doesn’t do much to inspire confidence that the Penguins have any real hope of leaving town with more than some leftover meal money.

But there might be another factor at work Friday. A hurdle for some clubs that the NHL absolutely could have avoided, had it been so inclined.

Because the trade deadline is at 3 p.m. that day, it’s quite possible that the Penguins will have fewer than 20 players available when they venture into T-Mobile Arena.

If president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas is a particularly active seller Friday, there seems to be little chance the Penguins could bring in replacements for the guys Dubas sends away in time for the game.

Should that be the case, it will enhance the chances of Vegas winning – something sure to delight the clubs with which it is competing in the Western Conference – and conceivably increase the risk of injury for players still on the Penguins’ roster, since some might be forced to take on roles and/or workloads to which they are not accustomed.

Now, losing another game – something at which the Penguins have been quite proficient in 2024-25 – isn’t really an issue for them. Fact is, it actually would work to their benefit if it leads to them moving up a slot or two in the rankings for the draft lottery.

While a few teams’ status could change before the end of the week, at this point, the Penguins look to be one of at least six clubs that are active sellers leading up to the deadline.

The others are Buffalo, San Jose, Chicago, Seattle and Nashville. Of those half-dozen teams, the Penguins and Blackhawks are the only ones scheduled to play on Deadline Day.

Should the Blackhawks be particularly aggressive sellers on Friday, they conceivably could hustle in enough players to flesh out their lineup for a home game against Utah, since their farm team is based in Rockford, Ill., about 90 miles from Chicago.

The Penguins’ situation is radically different; their American Hockey League affiliate operates out of Wilkes-Barre, which is even farther from Las Vegas geographically than it is culturally.

If Dubas makes multiple moves Friday and the parent club needs to add guys from Wilkes-Barre, it’s hard to imagine they could make it to Nevada for the opening faceoff.

Now, it’s conceivable that rather than messing with the chemistry in Wilkes-Barre, where Penguins prospects are developing into a pretty capable group, Dubas will accept players with limited abilities (and expiring contracts) in some of his trades, just to fill out the major-league roster.

Even then, however, there’s no guarantee any of those additions would be in uniform Friday.

There is, however, an easy and obvious solution to all of this: The NHL should make Deadline Day an open date for every team. No games.

If the league can cease operations for nearly two weeks to stage the Four Nations tournament – which absolutely proved to be a wise choice to spur interest in the game — it can take one day off to help preserve the integrity of competition and perhaps reduce the threat of injuries.

Deadline Day already is a highlight of every season for many fans. There’s no reason to infringe on the attention it commands by staging games of diluted, if not dubious, quality.