Resetting the Pittsburgh Penguins depth chart, are they a good forward away?

The busiest day of the summer for hockey has come and gone now that July 1 has passed.

The Penguins have become a team of contradictions. Kyle Dubas says he wants to add a forward, but he also wants cap space. He has mentioned he will try to compete again this year, but he hasn’t made many obvious improvements to what was a team that didn’t make the playoffs in the first place. The Pens want to build for the future and acquire more young assets, but most of what they’re stockpiling won’t be available before Evgeni Malkin’s contract expires in 2026.

So the Penguins are in a strange situation right now. Whether they want to admit it or not, the team is designed to do little more in the short term than play until its veterans’ contracts become negotiable and they can be replaced with others to start over. It’s not a pretty situation, especially for a franchise that hasn’t known how to do anything but go all-out since the bold hiring of Marian Hossa in 2008.

That’s the cold reality of franchise life cycles, which if Penguins fans hadn’t learned over the past two years, they’re likely in for another “what goes up must come down” lesson in 2024-25, according to this group.

The roster space is as thin as ever; maybe there’s a spot for Sam Poulin, maybe a future summer trade will open something up on its own to help facilitate that. Pittsburgh now has a big presence at center after acquiring Kevin Hayes and Blake Lizotte, and in its quest to trade veterans for picks, a deal that sends Lars Eller to a contender fits the profile of its front office. The timing of that could vary from the preseason to the deadline, though.

In that regard, whatever you say, at least this team is loaded with players and names. That sounds exciting until you realize that most of the additions (Hayes, Beauvillier, Grzelcyk) have had their individual arrows pointing downwards over the past 12-24 months. It’s not the most encouraging sign.

Is this club one good player away from going far?

Tarasenko signed a $5 million contract last year and now has the glow of another Stanley Cup hanging over him, making it hard to see a Penguins offer having that big of an impact on him. They have a lack of cap space and the overall talent on the team right now doesn’t make him a great fit.

But adding a player like Tarasenko would surely make the roster look better quickly. It would give Drew O’Connor a better role and then get a fringe-level player off the roster entirely. If the Penguins really want a chance to do something with their 2024-25 team while still playing to rejuvenate themselves and prepare for the next era, they could use the help and excitement a quality goal scorer could bring. So far, little has been done to freshen up what was already evident as a stale team on the ice.