It's no secret that the Penguins are operating in "win-now" mode.
Personnel moves, most recently the acquisition of right winger Kasperi Kapanen from Toronto, are made with the goal of maximizing the chances of winning another Stanley Cup before Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang enter the twilight of their careers.
Most of their personnel moves, anyway.
But even though Jim Rutherford has publicly expressed an interest in upgrading his bottom-six forwards and No. 3 defense pairing, he doesn't necessarily expect to get immediate help for the major-league roster when he trades one of his most valuable assets, a No. 1-caliber goalie, before next season.
Not because potential trading partners aren't willing to part with pieces that could fill those roles with the Penguins, but because of the limited salary-cap space available to him.
Per CapFriendly.com, the Penguins have about $74.5 million committed to 11 forwards, eight defensemen and one goalie (Casey DeSmith) for 2020-21, when the cap ceiling will remain at $81.5 million.
That leaves roughly $7 million to re-sign some of their restricted free agents, who are forwards Jared McCann, Dominik Simon, Sam Lafferty and Anthony Angello and goalies Tristan Jarry and Matt Murray.
Now, Rutherford is actively trying to deal one of those goalies -- Murray is the heavy favorite to be traded -- but still seems unlikely to have the resources needed to keep all of the others, let alone bringing in players from another club.
Consequently, when he finally works out a trade for Murray (or Jarry), the return is likely to come in the form of draft choices or prospects, not someone from the other club's major-league roster.
"We've talked about different things with different teams," Rutherford said Tuesday. "We can do it either way. In a deal like this, based on where we sit (relative to the cap ceiling), it's hard to take much money back, so it's probably more apt to be futures."
The off-season goalie market is still in its formative stages, but figures to get quite active in coming weeks and months.
Rutherford said he has had "a lot of conversations" with other teams about his goalies, and there's no question the demand for a go-to guy will be high during the off-season.
However, that does not guarantee that the demand will exceed the supply, which includes unrestricted free agents such as Braden Holtby, Jacob Markstrom and Corey Crawford.
"There's a number of teams looking for goalies, and there's a number of goalies on the market," Rutherford said. "We have a very good goalie in his mid-20s (to offer), but there are other good goalies out in the market, too, and UFAs coming."
Last week, Montreal acquired goalie Jake Allen, who had lost his starting job in St. Louis to Jordan Binnington, and a seventh-round draft choice in exchange for a third-round choice and a seventh-rounder.
Allen is penciled in as the backup to Carey Price with the Canadiens, whereas the goalie the Penguins deal is likely to be a No. 1, so the return the Blues got doesn't necessarily reflect what the Penguins can expect to get for Murray or Jarry.
"All trades affect the market," Rutherford said. "I don't know if they set the market."