There’s nothing left to compete for. The core of the team is too old and they all have NMCs anyway. Jake has to be moved now because he has the most trade value. He also has zero incentive to resign here.

My favourite kind of post are the ones where people lament the GMs shortcomings, and then propose they trade for awful players to fix it.
Good ****

And how is this proposed roster better than Carolina, New Jersey, or either New York team? Not even mentioning the Atlantic.

Not sure how these players are awful but ok

It's not about the team on paper, it's about the team on the ice

Olaf is ****ing terrible lmao. Like even the basic eye test (let alone analytics) would tell you that. Dude is barely worth a contract, let alone what he is making

So who are the other awful players. You did say "playerS"

Was a general line about these types of AGMs - hence being plural

This particular version is Olaf

Actually I'd need to check but I don't even think that players is plural in this context lol

Well Olafsson isn’t even a .5ppg. Gets most of his points on the PP, so basically useless at ES. And gets paid over 4.5 million per year. Pretty much Kappy 2.0 all over him but more expensive.
Donato is like a .25 ppg player at best and you’re paying him 2 million to play on the 4th line.
Dube is ok.
Archibald isn’t bad for a cheap 13th forward.
Barbashev has had 1 really good season. This year he wasn’t much special. He’s picked it up a bit since getting traded. But still a hit or miss player.

We need to rebuild, were done as contenders. In isolation I like the moves you made, but the core will all be a year older and can drop off at any moment. And while this team is an improvement there's just no way we'd beat New Jersey, Rangers, and all these younger teams in a 7 game series. The team getting older will offset the good moves you made and likely it will be another mediocre year. The sooner we rebuild the better it will be for us. If we push it off then were in for a decade of brutal hockey.

-Buffalo passes (and that's if it even gets past Petry's NTC) - Petry will be turning 37 and carrying that $6.25M AAV into 2024-25, which is the year they need to figure out extensions for Rasmus Dahlin & Owen Power, not to mention the fact that the rest of their D-corps besides Samuelsson also expires that summer. I don't think the fit is awful but if I'm the Sabres I bank on some positive development getting me the extra 4-5 wins they were missing this year to get in the playoffs.

-The Granlund trade was already bad; this makes it so, so much worse. You'll basically wind up trading #46OA in this year's draft + a 2024 3rd for 21 games of Mikael Granlund and a 2024 5th. I'd at least ride it out a little longer to see if he can rebuild value instead of flushing multiple futures down the toilet for a potentially failed playoff push.

-DeSmith is a perfectly average backup; I don't think teams will give up an asset for a guy like that when they could just sign another perfectly average backup like David Rittich for a similar cap hit without giving up a pick. Besides, I'd rather have a veteran around as backup if you're going to stick with Jarry - he's not exactly an iron man in the pipes, and if he gets hurt here you've got a trio of guys behind him with a *combined* 63 professional games between them. If you're trying to to retool on the fly, you have to have *some* sort of veteran depth between the pipes just in case.

-I like Dube as your middle-6/PP specialist option more than Olofsson - and personally, I think you can squeeze Calgary a little harder here. They are so close to the cap, I think you'll be able to get a guy like Dube for a little less than market value - think what the Jackets had to do with Oliver Bjorkstrand last summer.

Finally something I can take instead of people just bashing at me for "bad trades". Thank you for your thoughts.

Thank you for being a rational human being. The team isn't toast and they aren't rebuilding - just something we have to live with

I mean you just cabt rebuild. The staff has stated many times over the last 5 years that we wont be rebuilding. With a new gm and other staff, this team can be turned around. Let's not forget what happened in 2015. We barely squeezed into a playoff spot and guess what... we won the cup. Not saying that will happen, but not all hope is lost even if we dont make the playoffs. Again, right moves and changes and we will be fine.

Edit: we didnt win the cup that year that was 2016

The team is toast and we will be forced to rebuild by 2025 anyway.

I have no idea how anyone who saw that game last night can be optimistic.

I could care less what happens this year. It was a dud season. You know we wouldve beat the Rangers last year if our goalies didnt die right? This is all on Hextall. We know that. He made the team older, slower, he didnt fix things one bit. The only good move he has made Is trading for Rakell.

Who cares what happened last year? You can’t wind back the clock. Everyone knows Burke and Hextall ruined the team but the damage is done now. You don’t win cups when your core players are all 35 plus. Yes we could improve the bottom six and goaltending and make the playoffs next season… to go out in the first round. What little chance we had at improving this team went out the window last offseason when two awful trades were made and Geno was brought back.

I also have no idea how you can sit here and watch this team burn while Sid is still here. He doesnt deserve to to through a rebuild. Letang for sure doesnt. You know he will keep fighting till the end. Geno is a different story lol. But still. I'd rather see Crosby succeed in his last years than rebuild for the future and be better in our future. Because who knows when the penguins will get another generational talent like Sid. Probably never to be honest. He turned this entire organization around. We owe him for everything hes done for this organization

This is about realism. Not what you think should happen. We wont rebuild. We just wont.

It's not though. Exactly, then rebuild in 2025. Rebuilding now does nothing - who cares to cut off 2 years of a rebuild when you still have Crosby, Malkin, and Letang? A couple simple moves and you're an easy playoff team. It's wild how many Pens fans want the Pens to suck, I'm pretty sure you've been actively rooting for them to lose in this forum lol

Because there’s nothing left to play for. There’s nothing to contend for. It’s over.

Also, despite being this age Crosby and Geno have been great. They clearly arent falling off. Letang had a down year a little but only because of what he went through this year. Hes still a warrior. The problem with this team is what you mentioned. Bottom 6, goaltending, and the defense (we just need to get younger in those areas in general). We can do that without selling and rebuilding.

Exactly. Simple moves make this an easy playoff team. Are they going to be favorites, obviously no. But I'd much rather watch 2 more seasons of playoff hockey than do this weird half rebuild thing to try and cut like 1 year off of being competitive again.

Well this is hockey, so there is the playoffs to play for and then the Stanley Cup to contend for.