The NHL trade deadline is just days away, and the Pittsburgh Penguins are an absolute disaster.
Pittsburgh has lost four consecutive games in regulation, with a 7-2 loss on home ice against the Edmonton Oilers serving as the most recent, and most embarrassing, defeat.
Looking at a larger sample size, the Penguins are 8-12-4 since Christmas and have fallen out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
With an overall record of 27-21-9 (63 points), Pittsburgh is currently fifth in the wild card race and nowhere near the New York Rangers for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are in serious trouble.
All teams go through slumps, as that’s the nature of the NHL. For the Penguins, they’ve had several slumps and also several hot streaks so far this season. Right now though, Pittsburgh seems to be at its lowest point of the season.
In fact, this might be the lowest point for Sidney Crosby and company in years. As a Penguins fan, I know how quickly fans panic despite the team’s sustained success. This time, however, things feel different.
General manager Ron Hextall has drawn criticism lately from fans in the Steel City for declaring that he does not want to trade top picks. To me, that mentality doesn’t make a ton of sense after spending the offseason re-signing core players to help the team compete for the Stanley Cup.
Sure, this season has not been great for the Pens, but the star players are doing their part, and it’s Hextall’s job to support those star players with quality role players. That is unless he sees this team as being on the verge of a Chicago Blackhawks-type rebuild.
To further exemplify Hextall’s questionable decision-making, Rob Rossi has reported that head coach Mike Sullivan wants to acquire Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun, but that Hextall’s stance on draft picks may prevent that from coming to fruition.
I’ve seen a head coach and general manager not on the same page before in Pittsburgh, and both were fired before the Penguins were able to win again. If I’m pulling the strings, I want to avoid that by getting Sullivan the players he wants, as he’s proven he can win.
The icing on top of this disastrous cake was the decision to place forward Kasperi Kapanen on waivers on Friday after signing him to a two-year extension in the offseason. It’s the perfect one-player summary of the mess the Pens have to sort out in the coming days.
At this point, any year with Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang that isn’t spent trying to win is a waste. With that said, I’m not sure that this team has enough pieces to get itself into contention, even with big moves at the deadline.
Can the Penguins figure out how to salvage this season? They’ve got less than a week to come up with solutions to their mounting problems.