Mark Madden: Here's a starting point for the Penguins' next GM to fix this mess

As the Pittsburgh Penguins begin a crucial and difficult offseason, a lot must change. It started with GM Ron Hextall and president of hockey ops Brian Burke being fired.

A good replacement GM won’t be easily found. It’s not an attractive job: An elderly roster encumbered by eight players with some form of no-movement clause.

My choice would be Kyle Dubas, Toronto’s GM. He’s out of contract at season’s end. He’s an analytics whiz, hockey’s version of Billy Beane. Dubas’ vision has been compromised in Toronto by old-timey hockey types like president Brendan Shanahan.

Could Dubas be lured by ultimate control and a bunch of money? Let’s find out.

Beyond that, Jason Botterill is a solid choice. Formerly the Penguins’ assistant GM, he currently fills the same job in Seattle under Ron Francis. But perhaps recycling should be avoided, totally fresh eyes sought.

The Penguins also need a CEO and a legit director of hockey ops, not a casino greeter like Burke. Fenway Sports Group needs to implement stronger structure.

Looking at the roster, lots of players need to go.

That’s easier said than done. These are rotten, flawed talents who other teams won’t want.

The new GM should explore using buyouts and absorb the salary cap hit. Make trades via retaining salary or giving sweeteners. Minnesota GM Bill Guerin, ex of this parish, relaunched the Wild via buying out dried-up vets Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.

Tristan Jarry is easy to discard. He’s a free agent. Let him walk.

He’s a losing goalie. The talent is there. His stats are fine. But he has let the Penguins down too many times. He’s too often hurt. Jarry will also want too much, for too long.

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Jarry says injuries compromised his performance this season. But if that’s the case, why did he play in a meaningless game Thursday at Columbus?

The most important thing the new GM must do is straighten out the goaltending. That hurt this season’s Penguins more than anything else.

The new GM should get rid of Jeff Carter, Mikael Granlund, Jeff Petry and Jan Rutta. Those players wrecked the Penguins on the ice, never mind their cap figures.

Beyond merely playing badly, that quartet slowed the team down and made it hard to execute coach Mike Sullivan’s preferred style. The three-man core is aging but played well. To surround them with older, fading players was insane.

Buy out Granlund and Petry. That’s a good place to start. They’re the most expensive of the disposable players. Ty Smith can replace Petry. Whoever slots in for Granlund can’t possibly be worse.

Sullivan needs to ditch his phobia of not giving young talent a legit chance. Look how long it took Drew O’Connor to get a proper look.

If O’Connor gets Carter’s minutes and role all season, he does better than Carter five-on-five.

If Hextall doesn’t sign Rutta, Smith gets that spot. He is faster and a more apropos fit for the Penguins’ style. (Although that style has to change. Keep reading.)

It’s difficult to get younger in the NHL, especially when you’re largely devoid of prospects like the Penguins are. Free agency is mostly for older players. (You can’t get bigger and stronger overnight, either. That’s another significant problem.)

Commit to Alex Nylander at wing. Try Samuel Poulin and Filip Hallander up front. Poulin was a first-round pick, Hallander a second. Give them a real chance and serious minutes. If they’re not ready, well, what the heck is Granlund ready for?

The Penguins are beyond stale. I’m tired of saying that. They need youthful spark and desperate-to-stay-in-the-NHL energy. I’m tired of saying that, too.

That brings us to Sullivan.

The new GM must demand that Sullivan adjust his coaching to fit the team’s talent, not continue to live in some 2017 fantasyland. If Sullivan won’t, fire him.

Pinching is a microcosm. The Penguins pinch on 30/70 pucks or better.

Petry and Rutta are too slow to get there. P.O Joseph is too physically weak to win the pinch. Brian Dumoulin isn’t what he was. Mark Friedman and Chad Ruhwedel shouldn’t be in the NHL. Only Kris Letang and Marcus Pettersson are equipped to handle that frequency of pinching.

Combine that with forwards cheating on the offensive side of the puck, and the result was an 82-game nonstop odd-man break against.

Yet the Penguins kept doing it.

The same goes for the defensemen constantly activating. Most of them have minimal offensive skill. They’re no threat. What good does it do?

When a business is failing, you often hear this uttered: “This is way we’ve always done things.”

This is far from a complete analysis. This space is only so big.

It’s easy to overreact to the just-completed season because the Penguins missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006. Most pundits had the Penguins pegged as just making it or just missing it, and the latter happened. It’s not a monster surprise.

But the path traveled was a stink sandwich, and everybody has got to take a bite.

That includes the core three. They did their part, but they were at the scene of the crime.