Remember the 2008-09 season when Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang were all key parts of the Pittsburgh Stanley Cup team? They were 21 and 22 then, now they are 37 and 38 and the Penguins need to move on.
The Penguins are last in the metro division and the once proud 16-year playoff streak is now giving way to what will be three years straight of missing the playoffs.
It hasn’t just been the last three seasons though. The Pens haven’t won a playoff series since 2018. The only thing that the team has to sell to its fans is that they still have Malkin and Crosby playing.
Pittsburgh had a good dynasty. From 2008-17 they went to four Stanley Cup Finals, and won three of them. Crosby and Malkin are NHL legends, they did their job and more with what was expected from them 20 years ago.
Time has passed, and it’s time for a new era of Penguins hockey to come. Other guys like Rickard Rackell and Bryan Rust are nice players, but even they are 31 and 32 years old with not many more prime seasons ahead.
Tristan Jarry has not been what the team has needed at goaltender, and he has been demoted to the AHL. The franchise and roster that once was bursting at the seams with talent and prestige now just feels bland with no hope in sight.
The franchise shouldn’t feel bad about having down years. But they should feel bad about not building for the future, like they should have started doing years ago. They are only making the rebuilding process longer and harder for the fans.
General Manager Kyle Dubas hasn’t done anything to be proud of in his tenure. Coach Mike Sullivan has two Stanley Cups that came in his first two seasons, but hasn’t won a playoff series since.
It might be time to clean house from top to bottom. Yeah, it would mean a lot of uncertainty. But it is better than being certain of being bad every year.
The Penguins should embrace being at the bottom of the league, and build through the draft like they did over 20 seasons ago to try and become great again. They should consider trading players that have been around for a while. I would have to say that it would be hard to see Crosby go though, trading Crosby might make sense from a logical standpoint, but it wouldn’t feel right seeing him in another uniform. Besides, he is still the best player on the team.
Whatever they choose to do, they can’t just keep bringing back the same core as they get older and older. They are way past the point of competing for a Stanley Cup.
The Penguins haven’t had a young exciting player in a long time because they have consistently traded their first rounders to get more experienced players because they were in “win now” mode. Well, they aren’t winning now.
The fact of the matter is that it isn’t fun anymore being a Penguins fan, it is up to the franchise to change that.
