Paul Zeise: Penguins should try to win now or rebuild. Stop trying to do both

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins front office and ownership group are in a tough spot, so I understand what they are trying to do.

They are trying to have their cake and eat it, too. They are trying build for the future and win now. Kyle Dubas said as much Monday when he met with the media.

"We're not looking to simply squeak into the playoffs. It's to return the team to become a contender as soon as possible," Dubas said. "Can we do that this season? Can we do that next season? It's hard to put a timeframe on it. But this is obviously not a strip-it-down-to-the-studs situation here. The people in the room are too good for that. It's trying to use every method we can to acquire future assets."

I understand it perfectly and I think it is ridiculous that the Penguins are still in this wilderness somewhere between competing and tanking. They are the ultimate example of a team stuck in mediocrity that has no clear path out anytime soon, mostly because of the way they have handled the last few seasons.

This probably should be a season the new-look, rebuilt Penguins take a major step forward in the Eastern Conference. That, however, would be a team built around one star (not three) in Sidney Crosby, a bunch of young talent and perhaps a young goalie like Joel Blomqvist.

That would be a team that two years ago shed themselves of Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, didn't commit a bunch of money to Tristan Jarry and didn't trade for or sign some of the bad contracts they did.

It would be a team that maybe even saw the bottom fall out and, thanks to their willingness to strip it down, perhaps had a few first-round picks, more young prospects ready to burst onto the NHL scene and a bunch of cap space to sign some free agents to get the roster back to one that is ready to compete.

The problem is that would have meant they acknowledged that the window to win with the three-star model was likely over after 2020 and certainly after 2021. The three stars for the most part have not been the problem; the three-star model, however, has been a big problem.

Individually, the three stars have played well and been healthy and available, especially last season. And yet the Penguins have missed the playoffs for two seasons in a row because the front office has had to try to build a roster around their skill set, their preferred way to play and their contracts.

As a result, the front office has had to try to "rebuild" around the 800-pound elephant in the room, which is that they must continue to try to win to keep the stars happy. It is a model that has run its course but one that has led to a number of bad decisions in terms of signing older guys to try to "win now."

The poster child for that was last year when the Penguins acquired Erik Karlsson with the hopes that he, too, could find some fountain of youth. They didn't move forward with Karlsson. The one area he was definitely supposed to help was the power play, and well ...

Trading for Karlsson was an act of desperation by a general manager feeling the heat to try to give this core group of stars the illusion — or delusion — that they indeed still had a window open to contend. It made no sense at all because the team wasn't and isn't close to contending.

There is this irrational fear that trading or moving on from Letang and Malkin would mean the end of the franchise or something. I've said it before, but it is true — if the Steelers operated like the Penguins, Ben Roethlisberger would still be the starting quarterback and Troy Polamalu would be playing safety.

Now it is too late to move on from Letang and Malkin because they both have no-trade clauses and both have made it clear they want to finish their careers with Crosby and vice versa. It should have been done a few years ago, but it wasn't, so at least the band is all here for the Penguins to take their fans on a nostalgia tour the next few years.

OK, fine. I get it. You can't trade them, so you are stuck with them and stuck with this model for at least the next two or three seasons. Wonderful. Well, not really.

That only further makes it imperative that Dubas looks at the contracts of Rickard Rakell, Ryan Graves, Jarry and Karlsson, maybe even kick the tires with Bryan Rust about waiving his no-trade clause and do everything in his power to shed their salaries.

I will even go to the Buddy Ryan line, "Trade them for a six-pack — and it doesn't even have to be cold" for four of those players. Rust would have to bring a good return, but the other four should be traded with the express goal of shedding their salaries.

They proved they can miss the playoffs with those guys, so why not just move on from them and save a bunch of money and salary cap space to add players who might actually make them better?

Of course, Dubas was insistent that they are not just going to shed assets to shed salary, so once again, they are hamstrung in how much they can do.

"The only thing that is really important to us: If we are moving players out, the return has to be good," Dubas said. "I don't think we will be looking to move salary or do poor deals or attaching assets."

The Penguins are certainly in a tough spot, but by the same token, they are here because they put themselves here. The rebuild process should have begun two years ago, and if they had, it would almost be complete now. But instead, they are years away from returning to becoming a contender.