Only scenario where Guentzel should be moved is if we are out of the playoffs by 6+ pts come the TD, which would help kick start a rebuild

Outsider Perspective: I am in the Pittsburgh needs to do a full rebuild camp. Before Dubas arrived in Pits I couldn't see a way where they would be a cup contender going into this year. I thought they should work on getting younger.

Adding Smith for a 3rd. Good move but for the wrong team in my mind. It made them older.
Adding Karlsson. Again wrong team and 10m cap was too much.
Adding Acciari. Good move. Right team. He is older but his cap is low and would help in a complete tear down scenario.
Resigning Jarry Expensive. Good goalie but I thought they should go for a cheap cap tandem.
Adding Graves. I actually liked this signing. Reasonable cap hit, solid #4 dman. Younger guy.
Adding Eller. Didn't love the move based on his age and cap. Not terrible but already adding Acciari, it felt a bit redundant. One or the other. The other guy should have been in his 20s.

I do think the best bet for Pits is to sell Guentzel and to talk with Crosby, Malkin and Letang. See if they want to be moved to a competitor for their final years. Crosby would fit PERFECTLY on Colorado, for example.

They can either do a full rebuild and be competitive in a few years again. Or be mediocre for the next few years with Crosby and Malkin, not collect any assets and be irrelevant for the next 8-10 years.

Those are just my thoughts

Adding Karlson was pretty cheap cause it allowed us to get rid of a bunch of trash (cap dumps) for a 1st and helped us free up cap space.

Id also rather be mid af with the the core 3 than see them on another team. They will retire as penguins

I understand getting rid of all the junk contracts. But 10m x 4 years is rough AND Pittsburgh traded their 1st this year also.

Good thing is, if Dubas were to retain 50% on Karlsson, he could resell him for ALOT. Which is possible.

That was also prolly the idea behind getting Karlson, Go on 1 last potential run and then trade Karlson when we start the rebuild at 50%

This is an idea I can get behind!

I think you are right. I don't hate what we did this summer, I would've personally rebuilt, but a move like Karlsson was worth a shot imo. But at this point I agree it is time to rebuild. If we don't trade Guentzel at deadline and still miss playoffs then we get into the territory where it becomes very difficult to even start a rebuild.

Agree on the Karlsson point. I would love to see the core 3 stay, but I think they deserve the right to go where they want once we decline. Which I think has already started. Mid this year could turn into a bottom 10 team next year. I would hope they stay, but ultimately if they want to chase one more cup I think they've earned the right. And I think it's pretty obvious that it will not happen here.

Gonna nitpick this because I'm very not in the "we need to rebuild immediately" camp. But I honestly don't think I really agree with any of your assessments. The Big Three still haven't given me any reason to doubt that they can compete. Anyone who thinks they're the problem doesn't watch the Pens. Give it a few years and we won't have the chance, and we're staring at a long, hard rebuild regardless of if we sell now or in 2 or 3 seasons. So why not see how much gas is left in the tank? FSG still hasn't given any indication that they're interested in a rebuild either.

I agree that I would have like to get younger, but that doesn't make Smith or Karlsson bad aquisitions. Smith is essentially replacing Jason Zucker (only a year older than Zuck), and why would anyone ever say no to a major contributor to the reigning champs for only a 3rd? Karlsson's point production doesn't jump off the page (I mostly blame the awful PP scheme) but he's still a steller, fun to watch offensive force, and isn't even as bad defensively as I expected.
Acciari has honestly been the worst aquisition. He doesn't work at center, and the Pens don't have a good replacement. 3x$2M is a lot for a 4th line wing, where he should be.
By cap hit, Jarry is the 12th most expensive goalie. But he's been one of the league's best this season: per Evolving-Hockey, he has the 4th highest GSAx. There weren't any good alternatives on the market anyway. A cheap tandem wouldn't be keeping the Pens alive as much as Jars & Ned have.
Graves sucks. No sugar coating it. He's prone to defensive lapses and doesn't use his formidable size in any meaningful capacity - the two areas we hoped he'd improve us. Karlsson and Letang have both looked better with Pettersson than with Graves, and I don't think that's a coincidence.
Eller has been a pleasant surprise. He's been one of our more consistant depth pieces (low bar, I know), and plays both special teams. I think in a perfect world he'd be the 4C, but there's no easy way to upgrade him.

I'd rather watch every Stanley Cup for the rest of my life go to Washington, Philly, and the NY teams than see any of the Big Three in another jersey. We'll take being mediocre. We will be for a while anyway. The Pens won't be competative again in a few years. They've had too few good picks and prospects for too long. We don't have a lot of guys in the system who are likely to play NHL games, let alone become regulars. Tearing it down would help, but we're so far behind that it wouldn't really out much of a dent in the rebuild length.