The Pittsburgh Penguins can’t really hide it anymore — the rebuild is on.
After losing to the Dallas Stars, 7-1, on Monday night in embarrassing fashion, sending them to a 6-9-2 record, they started the process of selling off veteran players on Tuesday night by sending veteran center Lars Eller to the Washington Capitals for two future draft picks, according to a team announcement.
Eller only spent parts of two seasons with the Penguins, but he is a respected veteran and was one of the few bright spots on the roster so far this campaign. Sending him to a divisional rival — Washington — for nothing but draft picks is a clear sign that management is ready to punt on this season and start looking toward the future.
The Penguins have been hesitant to fully commit to that sort of process as long as they have future Hall of Famers like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang on the roster, but the results are getting hard to ignore. The Penguins have not won a playoff series since 2018 and have missed the playoffs entirely in each of the past two seasons. They seem very likely to make that a third consecutive season this campaign.
The question now becomes how much do the Penguins trade between now and the NHL trade deadline.
Crosby is probably the only truly untouchable player on the roster, while several other veterans (like Malkin, Letang and Erik Karlsson) all have trade protections built into their contracts. So deals could be difficult to make.
Other players who could potentially be on the move include pending free agents like Marcus Pettersson, Anthony Beauvillier and Matt Grzelcyk. Expectations on those returns should be low and would probably be very similar to what the Eller trade looks like.
The bigger question is whether or not their changes also include head coach Mike Sullivan. Given how sloppy and disorganized the Penguins have looked so far, combined with the lack of recent success, his seat would seemingly be a little warm.
As for Eller and the Capitals, this is a nice reunion for the two sides as he spent several seasons in Washington in the late 2010s, including their Stanley Cup-winning 2017-18 season. Eller scored the game-winning goal in their Stanley Cup-clinching win against the Vegas Golden Knights that season.
He will provide solid depth at center for a team that looks to be headed back to the playoffs for the second year in a row.
