I literally cited to 6 or 7 recent examples where it happened. The playoffs are a crapshoot and even the best teams are 60-40 or 65-35 favorites in each round. If we are waiting until we have Russian superstars decide they want to come to Pittsburgh or have Adam Fox want to play here to try, that's a plan doomed for failure also. Yes, I'd rather have the 2008 Penguins than the 2024 Penguins, but letting perfect be the enemy of good leads to 10+ years of being Detroit or Buffalo or Columbus or Arizona or Chicago far more often than it leads to being dominant. Everything is relative and they certainly have made mistakes and shouldn't overpay for random 35 year olds, but the NHL '94 GM wannabes who think they can just make a few trades and be awesome is unserious as well.
Those are not examples comparable to the Pens situation. Look deeper than that.
For one thing, Sullivan is still gonna be the coach. So that negates any chance right there. He's getting worse every year. The players go in sleep mode often throughout the year under his guidance.
What I'm talking about is a lot more than a few trades. They need to stop handing out long-term big $ deals, lose for a good block of years, accumulating 1sts, 2nds and 3rds.
Like, don't extend Pettersson. Trade him this summer. Don't sign Guentzel (if he wants to return) and don't extend Crosby. That won't accomplish anything.
They need to weaponize all available cap space by taking on bad contracts in exchange for more picks, not spend 10.5M on Sid in his twilight years for sentiment.
They need to acquire picks for draft years that will have those players blossom at the right time, when the Pens are relevant again. And that is very far away.
And this process needs to start happening right away, before they squander more years, accomplishing nothing like the last 2. It sucks, but it's the fastest route to getting back to where they want to be.