I don't agree on the JR thing. JR f***ed this team by paying 1st liner prices for 3rd liners that he fell in love with and simply *had* to have, and chasing outright dogshit players like Jack Johnson and Ryan Reaves. That's how JR f***ed this team, not by throwing guys away. Dude got insanely lucky over like an 18 month span with all of his deals working perfectly and it brain-poisoned him into thinking every move he'd make would be golden, so he just started slinging valuable assets around without a single thought about how it'd affect the team in the future.
I will never understand or agree with this weird fascination around hanging on to a dude like Rakell. It's dumb, shortsighted thinking (not you, just the overall thought that you have to hang on to him unless an overpayment falls into your lap). Dude's a solid player on a terrible team that can and should be used, as soon as possible, to bring in more draft capital or young players. If that means getting a 1st and using it to draft a guy, go for it. If that means getting a 1st and then trading that, a more universally sought after asset, in order to get a young guy for the future like Clarke from LA (to use a recent discussion topic), then do that. Seems pretty straight forward for a team in the Pens' position. Rakell does nothing for this team. His points here don't matter, and honestly, are probably detrimental.
You don't know if he's gonna get injured or drop into a lull in production again like last year or whatever. Strike while the iron's hot, and right now, I don't think it's gonna get any hotter. I don't think it's about rushing, it's about moving a guy who is likely one of the more valuable players available at the TDL in a year he's probably not going to reproduce moving forward.
I think a lot of the trepidation and hesitation regarding moving guys like Rakell and EK and Rust is that people simply cannot reconcile within themselves that the era's finally over. But it is, and has been for years. The team needs to start acting like it to try and mitigate the post-Sid misery as best they can. It's gonna be bad either way, but continuing to bury their head in the sand and passing up free lotto tickets just to keep a guy who does nothing for this team like Rakell is gonna make it worse. /shrug