Will the Penguins be Buyers or Sellers at the Deadline?

It might be a little premature to pose such a question. After all, the season’s barely a quarter of the way done and we’re still in the playoff hunt. Heck, Evgeni Malkin has yet to play a game for us due to knee surgery. His presence may well be enough to lift us out of our present state of mediocrity.

However, when PenguinPoop writer and commenter Jim questioned whether we should consider trading Bryan Rust, it got me to thinking. Will we be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline? Or more to the point, should we be buyers or sellers at the deadline?

How does that old saying go? If you come to a fork in the road take it? Well, that kind of describes the plight of our Penguins. To tear down or not to tear down.

I’m notoriously bad at making predictions. But I’m going to skip ahead and make some any way.

I think this Pens team is WYSIWYG. In other words, what we’ve seen is pretty much what we’re going to get. Malkin’s return could give us a boost. But even with Geno in tow, we don’t match up any more with the league’s elite.

Yeah, we were competitive against Florida and Toronto. But the Capitals destroyed us, 6-1. Calgary’s dominated us in two meetings. The Oilers cut through our tissue-thin defense the other night like a knife going through hot butter. After they recovered from their Cup hangover, the Lightning torched us 5-1.

No sense kidding ourselves. The Pens are a mediocre, middle-of-the-pack bunch. Eighteenth in the league in goals for. Eighteenth in goals against. Dreams of a last stab at a Stanley Cup are just that. Dreams. Even when fully healthy, as presently constructed this team has no chance.

Does this mean GM Ron Hextall should do his best Jim Rutherford imitation and start wheelin’ and dealin’ to upgrade?

Uh uh. Too many flaws…too many holes. You can only patch a worn-out tire so many times before you need to buy a new one. To say nothing of our egregious lack of cap space.

We’ll start with the defense. Although Kris Letang is still a special talent, his goal production is waning and he’s a UFA at the end of the season. Tanger almost would surely bring a decent haul should Hextall elect to deal him. Rather shockingly, defensive pillar Brian Dumoulin appears to be in decline (minus-seven, Corsi of 48 on a strong possession team). He’s got another season left on a team-friendly contract that pays him $4.1 million. He, too, could be trade bait.

Wunderkind John Marino appears to have stalled. Mike Matheson possesses wondrous skills that for some reason don’t translate into production. Chad Ruhwedel is a No. 7 d-man masquerading as a No. 6. Only Marcus Pettersson, much more assertive this season and one of the team’s most pleasant surprises along with Tristan Jarry, is exceeding expectations.

In other words, it would take a major overhaul to bring our defense up to Stanley Cup snuff. An overhaul we simply aren’t in a position to make.

While we’re evaluating needs behind the blue line, we could use a backup goalie to replace an ineffective Casey DeSmith. Maybe attainable. Maybe not.

I like our team better up front, especially when Malkin returns. We have decent depth with players like Evan Rodrigues and Danton Heinen in support roles, mitigated to an extent by the continued struggles of top-sixers Jason Zucker and Kasperi Kapanen. I personally think we lack a power element that youngster Drew O’Connor may provide if given a chance. Not a given under veteran-oriented coach Mike Sullivan.

Barring any significant upgrades, especially on defense, I think we’ll pretty much be standing where we are now as we approach the March 21 trade deadline. Perhaps a handful of games above break-even and scratching and clawing for an Eastern Conference wildcard spot.

If so, as my esteemed colleague Other Rick has so often suggested, perhaps it’s time to opt for the tear down. Distasteful though it may be, flip pending UFAs Letang, Malkin and Rust for assets in the form of up-and-comers and/or draft picks. Maybe RFA-to-be Kapanen and Zucker, too, if you can move them.

I’m not saying it won’t be painful. Parting with treasured all-timers like Geno and Tanger will hurt deeply, emotionally and artistically. If we move out all the players as suggested, we’ll need to promote a pack of not-ready-for-prime-time kids from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton who, at this early stage of their development, are hardly bona fide big-leaguers.

For a stretch it would be a return to the early 2000s or worse yet, the early ‘80s pre-Mario “Boys of Winter.” God, were those teams awful.

The good news…our new ownership group has deep pockets and should be able to sustain a few lean years while we rebuild.

The talent pool in the upcoming drafts is reputed to be strong. Take your medicine now. And build for a brighter future.