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The impossible reconstruction of the Pittsburgh Penguins

 Charles-Alexis Brisebois
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The impossible reconstruction of the Pittsburgh Penguins
Credit: The Penguins are in trouble in the standings. There’s no doubt about it. Apart from the Canadiens, no other team in the East has a worse points percentage than the Penguins. It doesn’t look good for Pittsburgh in the short term. But who could have predicted such an outcome… except everyone? At some point, the […]

The Penguins are in trouble in the standings. There’s no doubt about it.

Apart from the Canadiens, no other team in the East has a worse points percentage than the Penguins. It doesn’t look good for Pittsburgh in the short term.

But who could have predicted such an outcome… except everyone?

At some point, the club will have to do what should have been done at least a year ago: launch a proper rebuilding process to rebuild a powerful team.

But that’s impossible to do over there.

For one thing, the owners don’t want it to happen right away. They seem to want to offer Sidney Crosby a competitive team as long as he’s with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

He has two years left on his contract… after this season.

If Crosby doesn’t want to go, he’s not going. And reading Josh Yohe’s piece on The Athletic, it seems clear that the same thing is happening with Evgeni Malkin.

Malkin will be as free as a bird in a year and a half.

Then there’s the Kristopher Letang case. While Josh Yohe doesn’t see him as untouchable and opens the door to a trade, he doesn’t see him being traded this season.

And let’s just say that the door isn’t wide open. It’s just that it’s not locked…

The Penguins won’t easily be able to get rid of Letang’s contract ($6.1 million until 2028)… or Erik Karlsson’s ($10 million on the club’s books until 2027)… or Bryan Rust’s… or- I think we get the picture.

The club has no youth and doesn’t seem able/willing to trade its quality pieces. It’s going to take a while before the rebuilding starts, and when it does, it won’t be a retool on the fly: it’ll be painfully long.


Overtime

– Coming up.

– Really?

– Good listening.

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