Pittsburgh Penguins likely headed down same path Sharks had to travel
The Pittsburgh Penguins might not be headed for a near-complete roster teardown like the one the San Jose Sharks endured over the last two or three seasons. But the Penguins appear to be experiencing the same stages of decline that the Sharks – and their fans – have gone through in recent years.
A proud franchise used to being a consistent playoff and Stanley Cup contender is steadily losing more games than it wins. Despite its star power, the roster is aging with a handful of bloated contracts on the books. There are calls for change as attendance for home games starts to sag.
Sound familiar?
But while the Sharks, who hit rock bottom last season, believe they’re on the upswing after five playoff-less seasons that have included an almost total roster overhaul, the Penguins’ worst days appear to be on the not-too-distant horizon – if they’re not here already.
Going int Saturday, the Sharks sat tied for 30th place in the NHL’s overall standings with 13 points. With their 6-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday, the Penguins, who won Cups in 2016 and 2017, were in 26th place with 15 points.
The Sharks (5-10-3) finish their four-game road trip Saturday night in Pittsburgh and could come out of it with a better goal differential. The rebuilding Sharks, with the sixth-youngest roster in the NHL, are -21, and the Penguins, with the second-oldest roster in the NHL, were at a league-worst -26.
While the lopsided loss to Columbus was brutal in its own right, the Penguins’ low point this week was a 7-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Monday.
“I’m not going to sit here and say I’m frustrated. I’m not,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, an original Shark, told reporters after Monday’s game. “I’m determined to move this team forward. I know we’re a way better hockey team than what we displayed today. And I know we have a group of guys who care.
“None of us feel good about this.”
The Penguins responded two day later with a 3-2 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings, in which they rallied to earn a point after falling behind by two goals.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Penguins winger Bryan Rust said afterward. “We’re trying to get this thing going in the right direction as fast as we can. That was a good step.”
Still, if the Sharks’ template is any indication, the Penguins will likely be challenged to become contenders again — not just this season but for years to come.
Four years ago, the Sharks had Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Logan Couture, Kevin Labanc, Evander Kane, Erik Karlsson, Martin Jones, and Timo Meier on long-term contracts, most with at least some trade protection in a flat-cap world.
The Sharks’ prospect pool was also largely devoid of high-end talent, with the organization trading away multiple first-round draft picks throughout the 2010s for short-term solutions to keep the championship window open.
But the band-aid had to be ripped off the skin at some point. After more than 10 years of being a contender, they had to pay up.
In Oct. 2022, Sharks general manager Mike Grier, who had been on the job for a little over three months, reportedly declared that he was open for business, with everyone not named Tomas Hertl available.
Some Sharks players responded by saying that’s just what general managers do: they look for ways to improve their team for now or the future. Nevertheless, two years later, only 12 of the 44 players who dressed for at least one game with the 2022-23 Sharks team – a list that includes Vlasic and Couture — are still in the organization.
Kyle Dubas, the Penguins’ president of hockey operations, might not be planning the same kind of bloodletting. But on Tuesday, he traded center Lars Eller to the rival Washington Capitals for a pair of draft picks, and reports indicate that he’s willing to listen to offers for just about anybody on his roster not named Sidney Crosby, who signed a two-year, $17.4 million contract extension in September.
Sound familiar?
The problem for Dubas — as it was in the Sharks’ front office — is that most of his older players have at least some trade protection or are on bad contracts. Karlsson, Rust, Kris Letang, and Evgeni Malkin have full-no movement clauses and other thirty-somethings like Rickard Rakell and Kevin Hayes have modified no-trade clauses. Defenseman Ryan Graves and goalie Tristan Jarry appear to be untradeable.
The Penguins’ prospect pool has been rated in the bottom third of the NHL. But one of the team’s top prospects, defenseman Owen Pickering, was just recalled from the AHL, a sign that the Pens want to get younger.
The Sharks have experienced all of these problems in recent years, and at least one or two more lean years might be on the way. The Penguins might just be starting the rebuilding process, and who knows when it will end.
TRANSACTION: The Sharks assigned forward prospect Kasper Halttunen to the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League on Friday. Halttunen attended training camp with the Sharks but had been with the San Jose Barracuda for the last six weeks after he was assigned to the AHL in late September.
Halttunen, 19, had four points in six AHL games but was injured last month and hadn’t played since Oct. 25. He had been practicing with the Barracuda in recent days and was nearing a return to full health.