Next step for Penguins won’t be to their liking
The trajectory this franchise is on is hard to miss.
And, presumably, more than a little disturbing to the people who run it.
Two years ago, the Penguins reached the third round of the
Stanley Cup playoffs.
In 2014, they went out in Round 2.
This spring, they lasted all of five games in the opening round before being eliminated by the New York Rangers.
The next, logical step on that
path leads to a seat in front of their televisions when postseason play begins in 2016.
Sure, some mitigating circumstances, especially injuries, contributed to the Penguins’ early exit from the Rangers series. Three of their top four defensemen — Kris Letang, Christian Ehrhoff and Olli Maatta — never got onto the ice.
Strip Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh and Dan Boyle from New York’s blue line and Round 1 probably plays out a lot differently.
But overcoming adversity is part of the challenge when contending for a championship, and the Penguins organizational depth has become suspect in the best of times, let alone when injuries become an issue.
Their lineup is top-heavy with high-priced, elite talent, which limits the salary-cap space to flesh out the major league roster.
What’s more, there is little top-end forward talent in the organizational pipeline, in part because of the winnow philosophy management has embraced for nearly a decade.
Draft choices routinely have been traded for shortterm upgrades or to patch holes on the roster, and that inevitably takes a toll on the depth chart.
Every major personnel move Jim Rutherford pulled off in his first season as general manager was consistent with ownership’s mandate for quick success. Some of the trades he made justifiably have been skewered, but the motivation behind them should not be questioned.
Rutherford simply was acting on the philosophy laid out by ownership when he took the job a year ago, and whether his bosses continue to cling to the win-now mindset will determine how the Penguins approach this offseason.
What complicates that decision is that the two centers around which this team revolves, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, are in what should be their prime years, but the quality of their supporting cast has eroded in recent seasons, while its age has risen.
And while a major rebuild could consume several of what should be among Crosby and Malkin’s most productive seasons, there is an obvious risk in counting on players on the downside of their careers to produce at high levels.
Pascal Dupuis, who has fit in nicely on Crosby’s right side, hopes to return in the fall after being forced out of the lineup by blood clots, but what’s to say that, at age 36, he won’t experience the same decline as Chris Kunitz, who is a few months younger?
Sure, Dupuis had a strong start in the fall — six goals and five assists in 16 games before being diagnosed with those blood clots — but so did Kunitz. He scored eight times in the first 11 games, then got all of 10 in the 68 regular-season and playoff appearances that followed.
That doesn’t mean Dupuis is doomed to a severe drop in production, or that Kunitz can’t rebound. Just that assuming a best-case scenario for either, let alone both, isn’t necessarily prudent.
The Penguins are believed to have just under $15.5 million tied up in nine players who are set to become unrestricted free agents, and could use some of that cash to shop for wingers for the top two lines.
But there is no guarantee the Penguins will be able to turn up a capable top-six winger or two via free agency, which this summer shapes up mostly a jobs fair for the overpaid and underachieving.
That means Rutherford might have to look for upgrades via trades, which will be a bit more tricky if there is a moratorium on parting with early round draft choices.