The Penguins are that guy who stays past last call and wakes up in a "bad situation". You won your cups. It's time to have the conversations and move on. Adding Karlsson to this was a mistake. All your main ingredients are expired. You can't spice your way out of this.
Funny thing is, I think the main ingredients are fine.
Crosby 55p/53games is great value at 8.7m
Malkin 42p/53gm at 6.1m is also fine
Letang 32p/53gp at 6.1m also fine
That's the core. And they are doing their part. Sure they are declining, but the value for their cap hits is still great. The rest of the roster is hollowed out, and I don't see how you fix it.
Guentzel, Rust, Pettersson and Nedeljkovic are great for their roles and cap hits. Eller has surprised. After that though? The other half of the roster is garbage.
Karlsson was an interesting move, but he hasn't had an impact commensurate with his trade price or cap hit.
Graves sucks.
Jarry is bad when it matters, always has been.
Smith and Rakell are empty sweaters lately.
Carter, Nieto and Acciari are ghosts.
Our "youth" are all replacement level: DOC, POJ, Puljijarvi, Ludvig, Puustinen, Harkins
You need to roll over half the roster to fix this, and there's no picks, prospects or cap space to do it. We are toast because of our depth.