Kovacevic: Even with Letang, hardest work's still ahead here for Hextall

MONTRÉAL — Trade Marcus Pettersson, John Marino or both.

Yeah, the NHL Draft’s here tonight, and all 32 GMs will be on the Bell Centre floor trading picks and players, there'll be a Kris Letang extension in hand, maybe other moves, and it’ll all be a blast. Especially the part where we’re all back doing this in person. In hockey's Mecca, no less.

But sorry, at least from this perspective on the floor’s press risers, the most meaningful business won’t begin until the Penguins are moving defensemen out.

Why?

Well, let’s take Ron Hextall at his word when he confirmed here yesterday my exclusive reporting from the previous day that he expects to sign Letang “real soon,” possibly here at this event. 

Once that occurs, this’ll be his roster breakdown as it reflects signed players:

• Forwards: 9
• Defensemen: 7
• Goaltenders: 2

And know, too, that two of those forwards are Drew O'Connor and Radim Zohorna, who weren't seen as good/ready enough by Mike Sullivan to partake in the recent Stanley Cup playoffs.

It doesn’t take the ghost of Toe Blake to see something’s amiss. And once Evgeni Malkin’s signed — as Hextall further suggested he’s next in line — that’ll leave the team two forwards short, one defenseman too many and with, uh, roughly $8 million left in cap space, given Letang's $6.1 million salary and presuming Malkin's paid $7 million.

Look, I get it. I appreciate, even applaud Hextall’s approach to date. If he moves defensemen to clear cap space now, before Letang, before Malkin, he loses leverage. But it’s got to happen, whether it’s here or in the days that follow.

For one, there’s zero justification for keeping intact the NHL’s highest-paid defense corps if they can’t hold 2-0 leads in Games 5 and 6 or a third-period lead in Game 7. Not to bring up a sore subject. They just aren’t that good, and they definitely aren’t the league’s best. 

For another, Mark Friedman’s ready for a more prominent role, and P.O Joseph’s ready for the NHL. So the replacements are at hand and inexpensive.

For yet another, man, scroll up and look at that cap space figure again. 

Why not keep Rickard Rakell? Seriously, if he isn’t around and Malkin’s retained, who’ll be Geno's second-line right winger? Kasperi Kapanen? Really?

Moreover, let’s remember that a second-round pick was sent to Anaheim for Rakell. Everyone will feel that here tomorrow, even if that’s seldom felt at the time of the trade. And it’s lousy asset management, to say the least, to give up a conditional second-rounder for Jeff Carter, then sign a 37-year-old visibly declining player to an extension, but then to let a same-cost asset — only a younger, fresher, faster player — simply walk. 

Messes remain. And they’ll linger until the broader balance is set right.

• For a Malkin deal to not get done, Geno’d have to price his way out of Pittsburgh. And as anyone who knows the man can attest, there’s nothing about his personality that fits such a scenario. He’s always prioritized his comfort level, throughout his career, and that includes his uncommon dynamic alongside Sidney Crosby, his genuine love of how much he’s loved in Pittsburgh and more.

• Similarly, the Penguins are neither underselling nor undercutting him. Trust me on that.

• Filip Forsberg isn’t coming through that door, my friends. And Vince Trocheck isn’t coming home. And neither is J.T. Miller, who’s now being dangled by old friend Patrik Allvin in Vancouver. These players aren’t affordable in the Penguins’ cap scenario and, believe it or not, that wouldn’t change even if Malkin were out. Check my roster/cap counts up there again.

• Know who'll be happiest when both Letang and Malkin are back?

Sid.

Know who knows more than all the rest of us combined about winning?

Yep.

• I’ve got no issue with the Casey DeSmith signing. Two years at a $1.8 million each is the going rate for backup goaltenders and, as Hextall doubly noted here yesterday, DeSmith’s been decent in Pittsburgh — his .914 save percentage ranked 18th in the league last season — and the market this summer won’t be full of options on that front.

• It’s not an awesome draft, as Taylor Haase details from here. That means no one should expect an awesome prospect falling to the Penguins at No. 21 overall.

And yet, that’s not the part that hurts. Not when compared to the two-pick gap that’ll be experienced tomorrow when the next pick doesn’t come up until the fourth round. That’s the killer. It’s always, always applying too much pressure on a pick — never mind the scouting staff — to have one player essentially carry the flag for an entire class. There has to be quantity to go with quality. That’s how Letang and Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust suddenly pop up in Pittsburgh someday and make mega-impacts. All were third-rounders, remarkably.

This has to stop. I’ll never be in favor of a blow-it-up rebuild for as long as Sid’s here. But the draft can’t be sacrificed any longer.

• The NHL remains the only major professional sports league in North America that’s yet to commit to reporters returning to the locker rooms. This is stupid, shortsighted and … oh, hey, everything that Valerie Camillo of the Flyers’ front office described in this column for The Hockey News yesterday better than I ever could:

• It's cool that Logan Cooley, a West Mifflin native, will be taken among the top two or three selections tonight. Not just in the obvious way, either.

I covered his uncle, John Mooney, when he was annihilating national scoring records as a phenom at Serra Catholic, and I'm compelled to state this bluntly: John was a terrific player who'd go on to skate D-I, but what he was achieving at the time was infinitely more a reflection of the low caliber of play around him -- he'd sometimes skate a circle around each individual opponent on the ice before finishing, just to show off -- than anything else. And we've come such a long, long way.

I see lots of the uncle in here, by the way:

• I never move faster than with the release of the NHL schedule, which happened yesterday, if only to find out what logistical hell I'll need to endure to make the annual pilgrimage to Winnipeg. And, befitting my luck, this season's lone visit will be Nov. 19, the night before Steelers-Bengals back at Heinz Field.

Hey, first-world problems. I'll pull it off.

• I’ve never covered a draft in Montreal, which once was the event’s perennial home, and I can’t help but think of this rather momentous occasion:

Never forget: None of us would be talking hockey in Pittsburgh in 2022 if not for that. 

• Obviously, Taylor and I have a ton more to come from here the next couple days, ably assisted from afar by Danny Shirey with instant analysis of the picks. 

Thanks for reading this.