The Pittsburgh Penguins hired Kyle Dubas ahead of the 2023-24 NHL season, hoping he'd get this organization back to Stanley Cup contention in Sidney Crosby's final years. It's safe to say Dubas has made a slew of mistakes in his short time in Pittsburgh and has this Penguins team in a brutal spot.
At 23-27-9, the Penguins have just 55 points in 59 games - the fewest in the Metropolitan Division. They're not completely out of the playoff hunt, but with the team seven points back with only 23 games to go, the odds are certainly not in their favor. They had a chance to make things a bit more interesting coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break, but took two losses on home ice against division rivals by a combined score of 13-6.
Now, the Penguins are in a rough spot. They'd like to compete with the likes of Crosby, Karlsson, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang on board, but as their record shows, they are not close to good enough to be true Stanley Cup competitors. What this team should be doing is entering a rebuild.
They've begun to do so, trading veterans like Lars Eller and Marcus Pettersson midseason, but the Penguins still have others, like Crosby, that they should strongly consider parting with.
Penguins should strongly consider trading Sidney Crosby, even if that's the outcome nobody wants
The Penguins trading Sidney Crosby is something nobody really wants to see go down. Crosby has spent all 20 of his Hall of Fame seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and it'd be a real shame to see him wear another uniform. However, Crosby is still, even at age 37, one of the best centers in the NHL and deserves something that the Penguins can't offer him - a chance to win.
Kyle Dubas had his chance to build one last contender around Crosby and botched it, making several key mistakes along the way. He gave Tristan Jarry a six-year extension only to soon place him onto waivers and bury him in the AHL. He signed Ryan Graves, a defenseman who is without a point in the 42 games he has played this season after recording just 14 points his first year in Pittsburgh, to a six-year deal worth $27 million. He also traded for Erik Karlsson, who has looked like a shell of the player who won a Norris Trophy right before the Penguins acquired him and is making $11.5 million annually through the 2026-27 season, $10 million of which is paid by Pittsburgh.
Those contracts hamper Pittsburgh's ability to add talent around Crosby, and the Penguins have already parted with some talent like Eller, Pettersson, and even Jake Guentzel over the last couple of years.
Let me make a couple of things clear. Chances are, after spending 20 years in Pittsburgh, Crosby probably doesn't want to be traded. The Penguins also almost certainly don't want to trade their franchise player.
With that being said, how does Crosby staying put help either side? It's abundantly clear that he is not going to win another Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh with where the Penguins are right now. It's also abundantly clear that the Penguins should be rebuilding. They've slowly begun that process by trading some of their supporting cast, but Crosby is the player who can net Pittsburgh the haul it needs to truly get going on a rebuild. Keeping Crosby around while only trading role players will make the Penguins bad enough to continue to miss the playoffs, but not give them the assets to turn this ship around.
A trade is almost certain to not go down, but it would benefit all sides.