Should the Penguins Be Deadline Sellers?

Friends, readers, hockey fans, lend me your ears—or eyes.  With apologies to William Shakespeare, I come neither to bury the Penguins, nor to praise them. 

Instead, I ask a simple, pragmatic question. Is it time for Ray Shero and the Penguins to take a big picture look at their organizations and make a strategic retreat at this season’s trade deadline? 

In the preseason, the Penguins were a popular pick to return to the Stanley Cup to represent the Eastern Conference.  As of the time of completion of this article, the Pens sit in 10th place in the East, four points out of eighth, and spotting every team in front of them at least one game in hand.  The trade deadline is a little over two weeks away.  They just fired their coach. 

The conventional wisdom from most Penguins fans and media has been to suggest that the team has made its coaching change with the hopes of getting ready for the trade deadline and then making a few big moves to get this team into the playoffs.

But is that really the right approach?

In 2008, the Penguins made a hail mary trade for Atlanta’s Marion Hossa, giving away two character forwards, their top prospect Angelo Esposito, and a 2008 first round draft pick.  The move almost paid off in a Stanley Cup.  But when Hossa bolted for Detroit, the Penguins were left with no long term gain to a move that both severely damaged its already weak prospect pool and harmed the wing depth of the NHL team.

For better than three months, the Penguins have suffered the ill effects of a club that lacks depth, lacks talent on either wing, lacks character and grit, and lacks an effective Plan B in the minors.  But the core of the roster remains intact, with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Ryan Whitney, and Mark Andre Fleury all signed to recent long-term contracts. Ray Shero believes this core to be of championship caliber.

If one shares the organization’s faith in their crop of young franchise players, then the reasonable expectation is that the Penguins will compete for titles nearly every season into the near future.  However, they will continue to be betrayed by a lack of a supporting cast unless the front office does something to improve the status quo.  Given salary cap constraints that weigh heavily on any team with five young players locked up to long term contracts, significant roster additions via free agency are not a realistic option. 

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