Nashville declines. McDonagh is surprisingly still somewhat productive at his age, and his contract ends sooner. His contract is also much more moveable in the last year. No reason to swap him for a declining middle six winger

No thanks on Jarry. His cap hit is way too high for an average goaltender. His trade protection also makes him difficult to move if he starts to go the way of Petersen or Campbell.

Not that I think LAK should be targeting Jarry, but what evidence are you claiming Jarry is "average?" Statistically he's well above average, and outside of durability, has been good for PIT. One of their only strong performers this season. He's never been great, but also hasn't had a poor season as a starter.

The dream I had was Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and Karlsson all requested to be moved and the rebuild starts in earnest so we don't have half a decade of indecisiveness like Detroit had at the end of their playoff streak with Holland in charge.

In the last 4 seasons (since Jarry took over as starting goaltender for the Pens), Jarry has a .912 SV% and 2.67 GAA.

Here are other similar goaltenders in that same timeframe.

Cam Talbot - .911 SV%, 2.70 GAA
Filip Gustavsson - .911 SV%, 2.78 GAA
Stuart Skinner - .911 SV%, 2.68 GAA
Darcy Kuemper - .910 SV%, 2.76 GAA

So yes, I think that puts him in pretty average company.

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/pittsburgh-penguins-mike-sullivan-likely-next-nhl-coach-fired

The Kings have the Pens old goalie coach, he was fired for his development of Jarry.

GAA is a largely team stat. Average save% over that time is .903, so yes those would all be statistically above average. Who do you consider a cost effective goalie then? Maybe half a dozen good goalies and even they fluctuate year to year with inconsistencies. But Talbot has plenty of equal upside to improve as well.

I don't think the Kings are targeting a long-term goaltender right now. They currently have Erik Portillo in the AHL who is currently 2nd in the league in SV% and putting on a goaltender clinic regularly down there. The Kings aren't ready to turn the starting job over to a guy with no NHL experience, but he's likely going to be the NHL backup next season.

I think they'll go with an inexpensive short term goalie again for next season. Charlie Lindgren from Washington would be my first choice. If Portillo doesn't look good in his NHL debut next year, then I think they'll consider a longer term option. But right now the plan is inexpensive goaltending until Portillo is ready to take over full time, or until he proves he's not capable of being an NHL starting goalie.

McD actually almost kept up production with Rakell this season. I think the best part is the shorter contract. Rakell's contract is far too long for a middle 6 winger when Nashville has alot of upcoming winger prospects

I haven't heard much from Pens fans who want to kick off a full on rebuild. Genuinely curious, do you think management will ever bite the bullet?

Ever? Yes. Soon? Probably not. Eventually the ownership will end up seeing a problem with being bad for a long time and know they need to be really bad for a shorter time to hopefully accelerate the process of being more profitable. That's how it usually works. Better than being a team like Calgary where ownership refuses to rebuild because they can't afford it.

Makes sense. Marquee franchises are often prevented from doing what's in the best interest of the team because of ownership or fans being short-sighted. As a Sox fan, I would hate to have John Henry running my hockey team

Those are above average numbers. League average isn't .910 sv% any more, it's like .902

Same ownership group. Fans don't pay the bills, at least not directly. So we don't care when ownership runs up millions in losses every season they rebuild. Which is what happens most often in many smaller markets. Until ownership realizes the losses long term can be mitigated with a full rebuild, that's when it happens. I don't fault ownership for being that way either.

Great, in that case the Kings are doing fine with Cam Talbot and this trade is entirely unnecessary.

Also, these numbers are from the last four years, and the league average hasn't been .902 for 4 years.

OTT declines