The Pittsburgh Penguins biggest offseason need is an identity
After getting swept by the New York Islanders, people are discussing what the Pittsburgh Penguins need this offseason. What they really need is an identity.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have long been known as a skilled team who will score goals on you until the final whistle blows. They won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 based on this mantra. Somehow, the Penguins have lost this identity. Against the New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Pens played like a team who didn’t know who they were.
After getting swept by the Isles, there are a lot of hot takes about what the Penguins need. Do they need to move on from Matt Murray? Is Phil Kessel‘s time up in Pittsburgh? The answer to both of those questions, by the way, is no. In fact, the Penguins biggest offseason need is simply to find their identity.
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Going into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Pens had a lot of success in the month of March playing a more defensive game. Yet they completely abandoned it against the Islanders in the postseason. The Penguins even abandoned their trademark cerebral play. They won back-to-back Stanley Cups by ignoring what they couldn’t control and playing through it.
Their series against the Islanders ended with the Penguins stubbornly trying to pick fights against a team who welcomed them. In short, the Isles made the Pens abandon what had worked so well for them. By Game 4, the Penguins weren’t even recognizable.
Before the Penguins do anything this offseason, general manager Jim Rutherford, majority owner Mario Lemieux, and head coach Mike Sullivan need to sit down and figure out who they want the Pens to be. Do they want to go back to what worked in 2016 and 2017? Maybe the Penguins want to be a more physical, defensive team?
Regardless of their choice, the Pens need to build a roster that reflects who they are. This will help them make the tough decisions necessary to pry their Stanley Cup window open for a few more years. They’re not going to have Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, and Kris Letang as elite talents for much longer. So figuring out who they are is mighty important to their future.
Any roster moves the Penguins make will most likely be focused on the defense. Currently, they have six defensemen signed and none of them are Marcus Pettersson. Five of those six defensemen are signed past the 2019-20 season. All signs point to at least one defenseman getting traded.
But here’s the issue – the guy the Penguins would most like to be gone is pretty much untradeable. Jack Johnson‘s contract was dreadful before the ink dried. For Penguins fans, their expectations were so low, they were on the darn floor. Johnson didn’t even meet those expectations.
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While he doesn’t have a no-trade clause in his contract, his four years remaining and $3.25 million salary cap hit pretty much serve as a no-trade clause. If the Penguins want to get rid of Johnson, they’ll have to get extremely creative or give up a high draft pick.
Erik Gudbranson could also be on his way out. Don’t get me wrong, he’s been fine. A heck of a lot better than anyone expected, to be honest. But on the Penguins, Gudbranson is a third-pairing defenseman.
They can’t afford to be spending $7.25 million on their third defensive pairing. Even if the Penguins trade Johnson, doubling down by trading Gudbranson would give them a chance to rebuild their defense properly. It would give them about $13 million (after factoring in the cap rise) to retool their roster.
If the Pens need proof they don’t need to blow up their core, just look at the 2014-15 season. The Penguins quickly built a team who won the Stanley Cup not by subtracting from their core, but by adding to it. They made hockey trades to acquire players who fit what they wanted to do.
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The Penguins don’t need to overthink this. A Kessel trade isn’t necessary for the Pens to be great again. All they need to do is find out who they are and acquire players who fit what they desire to do. Rutherford faces an important offseason. He hasn’t had a good one since 2016.