With their season having come to an abrupt end Wednesday night on Long Island, It's fair to debate how long the Penguins should keep their veteran core -- specifically, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang -- intact to continue trying to win another Stanley Cup.
Indeed, the merits and minuses of trading Malkin and/or Letang -- Crosby isn't going anywhere -- before next season surely will fuel countless conversations in these parts for quite a while.
The motivation for considering such seismic moves likely would be based on financial considerations, not performance, since Letang and Malkin both showed at times during the 2020-21 season that they still can elevate their games to a level few players can reach.
However, Malkin ($9.5 million cap hit) and Letang ($7.25 million) are scheduled to account for a significant portion of the $81.5 million salary-cap hit the Penguins will be allowed next season, and should ownership/management determine that it's time to overhaul the roster -- not an unreasonable thought after four consecutive playoff disappointments -- it's conceivable that Ron Hextall would at least listen to any offers he receives, even if he doesn't aggressively market either player.
Mind you, moving either player likely would not be easy: Malkin would have to sign off on any trade because of the no-movement clause in his contract, while Letang's has a provision that allows him to name 18 teams to which he would accept a deal.
Hextall, it should be noted, is expected to at least explore the possibility of re-signing both, presumably for less money than either is making on his current deal.
"Obviously, both guys are top players," Hextall said recently. "We would certainly be interested in having discussions at some point."
If there is not a trade or a new contract for either in the next year, both might have to choose between retiring and extending their careers elsewhere via free agency.
Perhaps it would be a relatively easy call to move on, but it's worth remembering that both are in their mid-30s and have never played for any team except the Penguins.
Loyalty and commitment have to go both ways, of course, and there are times when money can trump all other factors for either party. Regardless of the circumstances that would bring it about, though, seeing Malkin or Letang in another team's sweater would be the Penguins' equivalent of Franco Harris as a Seattle Seahawk.
MORE PENGUINS
• Mike Sullivan doesn't complain about officiating much, but a lot of his peers have during the first round of the playoffs. Justified or otherwise, there's a pretty easy way to address that: Press your team's management and ownership to let the league know the team wants the rules to be enforced the way they're written, regardless of the score or the time of the game. The league office has the final say on such things, of course, but if the owners who pay Gary Bettman's salary -- and are responsible for renewing his contract when it is expiring -- make it clear to him that they're not happy with the way games are being officiated, it's reasonable to expect the league to offer a little additional, uh, guidance to referees on how to execute their duties.-- Molinari
• When the regular season was in its final weeks, the Penguins talked about how important it was to finish first or second in the East Division because it would give them home-ice advantage for at least one round of the playoffs. Turns out it wasn't worth the trouble, at least for them, since the Islanders won two of the three games played at PPG Paints Arena during Round 1. It probably isn't much consolation for them as their offseason gets underway, but the Penguins aren't the only team that hasn't had much of a home-ice advantage in this postseason. Road teams were 19-21 through the first 40 games of the playoffs, and only a 3-0 showing by home clubs Wednesday got them onto the sunny side of .500. Something to keep in mind the next time anyone tries to present home ice as much more than a guarantee of a little extra ticket revenue for an owner whose club gets a Game 7 in its own building. Because the top two finishers in the East Division, the Penguins and Washington, lost in Round 1, Boston, which did not have home ice in the first round, will have it in the second against the New York Islanders. -- Molinari
STEELERS
• We're beginning to get an idea of what new offensive line coach Adrian Klemm's mantra will be with his young offensive line, which figures to field a unit that includes only one starter -- right guard David DeCastro -- with more than 20 career starts (presumptive left tackle Chuks Okorafor is second with 19). Wednesday, second-year left guard Kevin Dotson said the line would be in a three-point stance a lot more. Thursday, right tackle Zach Banner took it a step further. "We call that necessary violence. Offensive line is a tough thing to love. You don’t want to play offensive line when you’re little. You want to catch the ball. You want to throw the ball. You want to run around. There’s that “thug mentality,” that we have when we put our helmets on. It’s still professional. It’s still structured." Thug mentality? That conjures a distinct image. "The last thing I want people to think is that we’re walking around town beating people up or doing stupid stuff," Banner said. "At the same time, we’ve got to come off the ball and kill people. That’s the mentality we have to have." The line isn't getting a lot of respect, especially nationally, because of its overall youth. But Banner said the unit is channeling that to play with a chip on its collective shoulder. "The most concerning thing for us as players and coaches is if the tape looks bad," Banner said. "That’s the only thing we can evaluate. We want to make progress, just like everybody else wants us to. And we need to come out ready. The best people to judge it against is one of the best defenses in the league. If we can handle it in practice against a great front, then we can do it against anybody." -- Dale Lolley on the South Side
• Coming to a golf course near you ... the Steelers' starting outside linebackers? When asked if he's been in contact with T.J. Watt this offseason, Alex Highsmith said the two have traded texts, with most apparently being about their golf games. "I haven’t seen him yet. He’s training where he’s training. I’m training where I’m training," Highsmith said. "But we communicate a lot. We’ve both taken up golf as an offseason hobby, so we talk about that a lot. I know when he gets back, we’re going to try to hit the course sometime. I’m excited to be on the field with him and be able to rush the passer alongside him." Watt hasn't been at the Steelers' OTAs this week, though he's hardly alone when it comes to the team's veteran starters. A lot of them aren't at camp, but that's fine since the first week of OTAs has been all about the young guys learning. -- Lolley
• The draft finished up earlier this month and now the scouting community begins prepping for next year. BLESTO will hold its preliminary meetings Tuesday to begin going assembling its draft lists. And what a draft it figures to be. Early estimates have approximately 600 additional players available in next year's draft, either because underclassmen stayed in school or seniors applied and received an additional year because of the pandemic. While this year's draft really tailed off around the fifth round -- though there were some gems to be mined -- next year's draft figures to be solid through all seven rounds. But the lack of depth overall in this draft is why the Steelers were content to take a punter, Pressley Harvin III, with their final pick. Might as well take a player with a legitimate shot to make the roster as opposed to taking another guy whose chances to make it are minimal. -- Lolley
PIRATES
• Nick Gonzales, the Pirates' first-round pick last year, is going to be sidelined four to six weeks after breaking his pinky finger in a game last weekend. Not to suggest there is ever a good time to get injured, but this is really inopportune for Gonzales for a couple of reasons, the most prevalent being that he was absolutely crushing the baseball. His .294 average and nine extra-base hits over his 13 games played tell part of the story, and according to data sent to me, his average exit velocity so far was 97 mph. How high is that? Not only is it the fourth-best in all of minor-league baseball, it’s higher than any Pirate hitter this year, a good 5 mph better than team leader Phillip Evans’ 92 mph average. Yes, take into account that Gonzales is still in high Class A and the small sample size, but that power was part of the reason why draft evaluators pegged him as a fast riser through the Pirates’ system. He already is skipping low Class A, and there was a belief entering the year that he could have potentially reached the majors late in the 2022 season. Missing a month or more certainly hurts those chances, though a late-season promotion to Class AA Altoona could still be in the cards. -- Alex Stumpf
• After Major League Baseball removed over 40 minor-league franchises from affiliated ball last year as part of its restructuring, the league offered an olive branch to some of the cut teams, including former Pirates affiliate West Virginia Black Bears, by including them in the MLB Draft League. The concept of the league was to showcase potential players from the NCAA, NAIA, junior colleges and high school ahead of the draft. One problem: From what I’ve been told, the players aren’t worth getting excited about. The league got started this week, and right now, there aren’t any highly rated prospects to scout. Some players could emerge from this field to be taken in the middle or late rounds, but if you’re looking for players who could go early come draft day, look back to the NCAA. -- Stumpf
• While more and more mock drafts had the Pirates taking someone besides Jack Leiter or Kumar Rocker with the first overall pick, Jim Callis of MLB.com put in his latest mock draft that the Pirates seem to be targeting bats over pitchers. Looking at the position player group, there are some good high school shortstops, including Jordan Lawlar and Marcelo Mayer, but the highest-rated college hitter right now is Louisville catcher Henry Davis. While the Pirates have an obvious need for catching prospects, Davis doesn’t really fit their mold. The Pirates value defense and pitcher management above all else out of their catchers. Davis doesn’t grade out well defensively behind the plate, with one evaluator saying that robo umps are the only way he could stick at the position, referencing his poor framing. He also doesn’t call games and gets pitches sent to him from the pitching coach via an earpiece. That said, his bat is the real tool to watch and he could potentially move to either third or first base, but don’t expect the Pirates to simply draft a catcher first overall just because they need one. -- Stumpf