If the Pittsburgh Penguins make the decision to sell at the upcoming NHL trade deadline, there's no question that winger Jake Guentzel would become the top player available.
When Guentzel burst onto the scene, he did so as a rookie in 2017, the second year of Pittsburgh's back-to-back Stanley Cup championships.
He scored 13 goals in 25 playoff games that year to cement himself immediately as a Penguins hero, and he's backed that up his entire career with 465 points in 504 career games.
Still just 29, Guentzel has a lot of good hockey left ahead of him, but his value is at an all-time high, and the Penguins are at an inflection point where it might make sense to move on from a franchise cornerstone to set the stage for the next generation.
Doing so would very much not go over well with the fan base, which expects to be in win-now mode as long as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang are in black and gold.
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NHL Trade Deadline: Jake Guentzel
Contract Status: Expiring, $6 million cap hit.
Potential Destinations: Dallas, Boston, Vegas, Edmonton, Florida, New York Rangers
Guentzel has excelled this season, putting up 22 goals and 29 assists for 51 points in 49 games. If he stays healthy and stays above a point-per-game pace, it would be the fourth such season in his career, though just the second where he didn't miss significant time due to injury.
It's incredibly rare for offensive talents of Guentzel's level to become available at the trade deadline, and even rarer for one with his sterling track record of playoff success.
In 58 career postseason games, Guentzel has 58 points, putting him 9th in postseason production among active players aged 30 or younger.
If Guentzel is made available, the Penguins will be able to command a king's ransom for him. It would start at a first round pick, likely include a second or third rounder on top, and could extend to a quality prospect already-drafted. The Penguins could also look to swap him for a younger player with more team control to try to keep the current window open, but it would need to be a player not too valuable to the acquiring team for it to make sense.
General manager Kyle Dubas, in his first year in charge of the team, has the unenviable task of being the one to decide whether to pull the plug on this incredible era of hockey.
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