The Penguins are not what they used to be

It’s pretty silent in the NHL. Normal, it’s July 16th…

Canadiens fans are still hoping to see Kent Hughes add a top-six forward to Martin St-Louis’ squad, but they’ll probably have to resign themselves to the inevitable: the 2024-25 season will be another one of misery, and any real attempts to improve the club in the short term won’t come until next summer… or the one after that.

The fact remains that, at least, the Montreal club is progressing. If we can avoid injuries, we ‘ll finish higher (in the standings) than in recent campaigns.

In Pittsburgh, we’ve just missed the playoffs by three points… after having missed them the season before too… and after having lost outright in the playoffs four years in a row.

In short, the Pens’ best years belong to the past. Everyone sees it… and everyone knows it.

Everyone, that is, except perhaps Kyle Dubas, President of Hockey Operations and GM of the Pennsylvania franchise.

Not only will he be launching a book entitled The Franchise: The Business of Building Winning Teams in October – even though he’s never won a championship – Dubas continues to operate from the perspective that he believes Pittsburgh is capable of winning in the short term.

We’re still waiting for Sidney Crosby to sign a three or four-year contract extension, which would probably put an end to another Stanley Cup…

But frankly, the sky isn’t quite as blue in Pittsburgh as it is in Montreal. And it’s getting darker and darker, whereas in Montreal, it’s getting brighter.

The Penguins are heading straight for the wall. The Kevin Hayes deal alone sums up everything that’s wrong with Pittsburgh.

Here’s what the Penguins lineup is likely to look like in October 2024 (if everyone is healthy):

Drew O’Connor – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting – Evgeni Malkin – Rickard Rakell
Anthony Beauvillier – Kevin Hayes – Matt Nieto
Blake Lizotte – Lars Eller – Noel Acciari

Marcus Pettersson – Kris Letang
Ryan Graves – Erik Karlsson
Matt Grzelcyk – Sebastian Aho

Tristan Jarry
Alex Nedeljkovic

We’re a long way from the team that went in search of Stanley Cups years ago…

If we classify these players by age at birth, and not by name, here’s what we get:

26 – 36 – 32
28 – 37 – 31
27 – 32 – 31
26 – 35 – 31

28 – 27
29 – 34
30 – 28

29
28

Seriously, it makes no sense how old the Penguins are. They won’t be able to compete in the new, fast, intense NHL, and they won’t develop any players…I’d much rather be a fan of a young team rebuilding than a fan of a team destroying itself at breakneck speed without knowing it’s doing so.

The Penguins are a bit like the Titanic after hitting the iceberg. And Kyle Dubas is the conductor of the small band of fiddlers who keep on playing as the ship takes on water.