Penguins Should Move Jake Guentzel If Teams Meet the High Price

Jake Guentzel Russell LaBounty-USA TODAY Sports

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ distressing season continued this past weekend, with the Pens losing to Minnesota Friday and Winnipeg Saturday.

They’ve now won just five times in their last 14 games (5-6-3 since New Year’s Day), and they’re currently languishing in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division. Even with the herculean efforts of captain and superstar center Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh has been unable to win consistently, and that struggle has led to significant speculation about key veterans on their roster – most notably, winger and looming UFA Jake Guentzel.

The Penguins’ asking price for Guentzel is rumored by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman to be very high, with a first-round draft pick and better-than-average prospect or young NHL player deemed to be what Penguins GM Kyle Dubas is looking for in a Guentzel trade. Guentzel ranks second on the Penguins in assists with 29 and is second to Crosby in points with 51.

Teams will pay more for Guentzel if they get an indication he’d be prepared to sign a contract extension, and a new deal for Guentzel to remain in Pittsburgh seems less and less likely with each day we get closer to the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline.

Not all teams will be able to absorb Guentzel’s $6-million salary cap hit, but even if he’s only a rental player for the remainder of this season, Guentzel would be a massive upgrade for a team like the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers or New York Islanders. All three teams are in the playoff mix in a way the Penguins just aren’t these days. If Dubas can create a bidding war for Guentzel’s services, and they can bring back a first-rounder and a younger player or prospect, that will be a job well done by Pens management.

It certainly would be painful for Pittsburgh to part ways with Guentzel. The 29-year-old has been a fixture and a Stanley Cup champion with the Pens, and many Penguins fans would prefer to see him as a lifetime member of the organization that selected him 77th overall in the 2013 draft. But those kinds of one-team players are increasingly rare at the NHL level. Roster turnover is an inevitability for organizations, and Pittsburgh’s inability to be an elite team this season – even with Guentzel contributing terrific numbers – is a huge red flag about their current and near-future status.

Dubas has to make the tough decision to let Guentzel go, and he also has to justify it to Crosby and fellow stars Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson, who all stayed with the team with the knowledge the Pens intended to remain a Cup contender. But the franchise cannot keep going back to a competitive well that’s pretty much run dry.

If there were a number of elite young players in Pittsburgh’s system, the Penguins might have enough reason to retain Guentzel and continue augmenting their core. But because of trades in past years, the Pens’ elite prospect list is short, and that means Dubas is approaching a crossroads with his team. He can’t afford to keep going in the same direction when that direction seems more futile with every game the team plays.

Guentzel has been a good soldier for the Penguins, but sometimes, that’s not enough to keep teams loyal to all their top players. In this instance, it’s about beginning to truly turn the page on Pittsburgh’s Cup-winning era. Guentzel being moved now seems to be a fait accompli. Because of their struggles as a group, the only question remaining is which team the Pens will be dealing Guentzel to.