Penguins Perspectives: Do you want to win the Stanley Cup or do you want to win the offseason?
Welcome to Penguins Perspectives, a weekly column by KDKA-TV Digital Producer Patrick Damp. Each Friday, Patrick will talk about the week that was, the week to come, what to watch for, and more.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - For another year, we sit here on the outside looking in - the Stanley Cup Playoffs are well underway and the Penguins weren't invited to Lord Stanley's table.
It once again has a not-insignificant portion of the fanbase wondering if it's time to rebuild and finally move on from a golden era of Penguins hockey.
It's a completely fair question and isn't from some cynical place. You miss the playoffs two years in a row and something clearly is not working. Especially when you once held the longest streak of postseason berths in North American sports.
However, I will pose this question: do you want to win the Stanley Cup or do you want to win the offseason?
Over the past few years, we've seen a lot of teams win the offseason - the Ottawa Senators, the Calgary Flames, and the Buffalo Sabres, among others.
A summer of savvy moves, bringing in depth pieces, stockpiling draft capital, and looking ready to take the next step. I will give Ottawa and Buffalo this - they are young and up-and-coming. Talent is there and they should (keyword being should) be right back in the mix next year.
And yet, those three teams are in the same spot as the Pittsburgh Penguins - out of the playoffs.
The Penguins are in a very precarious position. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang are not immortal. Father Time remains completely undefeated in sports and one day, maybe this coming season or not soon after that, he will get his victory over them.
For now, though, Crosby continues to hum along at a point-per-game pace. Evgeni Malkin is scoring 25+ goals. Kris Letang and newcomer Erik Karlsson both put up north of 50 points.
Goals, points, and production win Stanley Cups, hopes and dreams do not.
The reigning Stanley Cup champions didn't hang onto their precious draft picks and prospects. They went out and got names like Mark Stone, Alex Pietrangelo, and Tomas Hertl.
The Tampa Bay Lightning's biggest drivers are north of 30.
The Carolina Hurricanes' biggest contributors are all 29 or older.
Yes, the league is skewing younger because the game is developed and coached much better making players NHL-ready at 18-21 rather than 24-26.
The Penguins do need to restock their cupboard and have actually done so fairly well the last two years between good drafting and a couple of trades bringing in younger talent.
Right now, the Penguins continue to get contributions from those who make the biggest bucks. No, it's not the same as it once was, but that means getting better depth to supplant them.
The precipitous drop-offs came swiftly for many of the modern era's biggest stars. Point drops of well over 10 points in their final seasons. Names like Toews, Alfredsson, Zetterberg, Iginla, and others hit the end of the road and hit it hard. Sure, injuries and other factors played a part, but the drop-offs were sharp.
That has yet to happen for these players, and to be clear it could happen next year. You can't predict the decline.
After almost 20 years of competitive and championship hockey, when the rebuild comes, it will be long and it will be painful. That much is guaranteed.
Trying to avoid what could go wrong rather than focusing on what you have and what works turns you into those same Ottawa Senators, those same Columbus Blue Jackets, and so many others who run toward safety rather than taking a risk and going for a championship.
After all, isn't that what sports are about, trying to win?
Asset management is certainly important, don't we know that right now with so many contracts weighing the Penguins down on the margins? However, they don't hand the Stanley Cup out based on how well you managed your entire system, they hand it out after winning 16 playoff games.
So, I end it with one more question - do you want to lose more slowly because you got value for players on the top of your roster who can win you a championship in hopes of maybe competing for one in some hypothetical future?
A rebuild is inevitable and it's not guaranteed to work, just ask some of those teams mentioned above. Trying to avoid pain in the future means toiling in more mediocrity now.
Making those savvy moves in the offseason for good asset management that gets your punditry praise in September rarely means a Stanley Cup in June.
So, do you want to win a Stanley Cup or do you want to win the offseason?