Penguins
Molinari: Penguins’ Rebuild Requires More Than Just Good Trades

The Pittsburgh Penguins drafted Mario Lemieux on June 9, 1984.
Five seasons later, Lemieux made his first appearance in a Stanley Cup playoff game.
Not a Stanley Cup final game.
A first-round playoff game.
That’s how long it took one of the greatest players – if not, the greatest player — in league history to carry his team past a regular-season finale.
Although some might see that as nothing more than a footnote from ancient hockey history, there is a hard reality in there for the current edition of the Penguins. Specifically, for the people charged with restoring the club to the place among legitimate Cup contenders that it held for so long, as well as the club’s fan base.
An effective rebuild – or overhaul, or whatever one cares to label it — requires a lot of things. Prudent decision-making on everything from trades to draft choices, contracts to waiver claims, of course. More than a little good fortune, like having a Jake Guentzel or a Kris Letang remain available in the third round of an NHL draft, too.
But the most necessary variable might be the one that can be the most difficult to muster: Patience.
Building anything of consequence, be it a skyscraper or a quality NHL roster, can’t be rushed, because short cuts generally beget mistakes that can delay, or even sabotage, the entire project.
The Penguins didn’t arrive at their current circumstances in a matter of weeks or months, so there’s no logical reason to think they can climb back to being a consistent contender in such a short period.
Major progress, which entails more than some modest bump in a wild-card race, will be incremental, not immediate. If/when it happens, it will be evident as the young talent president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas brings in via trades and the draft develops, when those players’ productivity begins to match – or exceed – their potential.
Mind you, the challenges facing Dubas today do not begin to rival the magnitude of those then-GM Eddie Johnston confronted after the 1983-84 season, but the simple truth is that there are no quick fixes that will rocket the Penguins back to a place among the league’s elite.
Dubas presumably placated the when-is-he-going-to-do-something segment of the fan base for at least a few hours late Friday night, when he dispatched free-agents-to-be Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor to Vancouver for a first-round draft choice in 2025 or 2026, forward Danton Heinen, defenseman Vincent Desharnais and forward prospect Melvin Fernstrom.
While the Penguins might be a lesser team for the balance of 2024-25 in the wake of that deal, chances are they will be a better one in the future because of it.
That certainly was the case last winter, when Dubas sent Guentzel and defenseman Ty Smith to Carolina for conditional first- and fifth-round picks, winger Michael Bunting and forward prospects Vasily Ponomarev, Ville Koivunen and Cruz Lucius.
(If the Penguins “won” that trade, it’s because they picked up assets with the potential to help them in the years ahead, not because the Hurricanes failed to win a Cup with Guentzel. Ideally, both teams benefit from a deal, if only because that enhances the possibility of those GMs collaborating again in the future.)
Pettersson and O’Connor were widely expected to be moved before the March 7 trade deadline – not trying to negotiate a new contract with either was a less-than-subtle hint that they would be gone – but there’s no reason to think Dubas is done.
The only question is, how much of his depth chart is he willing to carve out? Will he look to deal only guys who will be unrestricted free agents July 1, like Anthony Beauvillier and Matt Grzelcyk, or will he also consider moving productive players such as Rickard Rakell and Michael Bunting who remain under contract? And will he ask anyone to waive a no-movement or no-trade clause?
Regardless of the route he chooses, Dubas should feel little urgency to complete any transaction until the deadline is closing in. Obviously, if an agreeable offer comes along before that – like, say, the one that landed Pettersson and O’Connor in Vancouver – there’s nothing wrong with acting on it.
But because it’s the buyers – teams looking to bolster their roster for a short-term objective, be it a spot in the playoffs or a Cup – who feel the most pressure to get something done, prices tend to rise as the deadline nears. Sure, there’s a risk of a potential trading partner filling its need elsewhere if the seller doesn’t act with sufficient haste, but that generally is a gamble worth taking.
(That trade-deadline buyers tend to be the more motivated party to reach an agreement explains why sellers often routinely seem to end up with assets whose value outweighs that of whatever they are giving up.)
And Dubas’ patience should not be limited to negotiating with other clubs. He should have absolutely no urgency to promote young players from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to the parent club unless he and his staff are certain the player is mentally and physically prepared to handle the challenges of competing at this level.
Rushing a prospect to the NHL is not in the best interest of the player or the organization. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with allowing a young player to refine his game in the American Hockey League, and force-feeding the NHL to him could seriously stunt his development if he’s not ready.
Patience isn’t just a virtue for a team in the Penguins’ situation.
It’s a necessity.
And if Dubas operates with it, the Penguins just might attain their lofty objective sooner than expected. Maybe, just maybe, even in less than five years.