The Pittsburgh Penguins cannot actually cover it anymore — the rebuild is on.
After dropping to the Dallas Stars, 7-1, on Monday evening in embarrassing style, sending them to a 6-9-2 document, they began the method of promoting off veteran gamers on Tuesday evening by sending veteran middle Lars Eller to the Washington Capitals for 2 future draft picks, in keeping with a team announcement.
Eller solely spent elements of two seasons with the Penguins, however he’s a revered veteran and was one of many few shiny spots on the roster to this point this marketing campaign. Sending him to a divisional rival — Washington — for nothing however draft picks is a transparent signal that administration is able to punt on this season and begin trying towards the longer term.
The Penguins have been hesitant to totally decide to that kind of course of so long as they’ve future Corridor of Famers like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang on the roster, however the outcomes are getting laborious to disregard. The Penguins haven’t received a playoff collection since 2018 and have missed the playoffs completely in every of the previous two seasons. They appear very more likely to make {that a} third consecutive season this marketing campaign.
The query now turns into how a lot do the Penguins commerce between now and the NHL commerce deadline.
Crosby might be the one really untouchable participant on the roster, whereas a number of different veterans (like Malkin, Letang and Erik Karlsson) all have commerce protections constructed into their contracts. So offers may very well be tough to make.
Different gamers who might probably be on the transfer embrace pending free brokers like Marcus Pettersson, Anthony Beauvillier and Matt Grzelcyk. Expectations on these returns needs to be low and would in all probability be similar to what the Eller commerce seems like.
The larger query is whether or not or not their modifications additionally embrace head coach Mike Sullivan. Given how sloppy and disorganized the Penguins have regarded to this point, mixed with the dearth of latest success, his seat would seemingly be a bit of heat.
As for Eller and the Capitals, this can be a good reunion for the 2 sides as he spent a number of seasons in Washington within the late 2010s, together with their Stanley Cup-winning 2017-18 season. Eller scored the game-winning objective of their Stanley Cup-clinching win in opposition to the Vegas Golden Knights that season.
He’ll present strong depth at middle for a crew that appears to be headed again to the playoffs for the second yr in a row.
