“You’ve always got a chance to win the Stanley Cup if you have Sid and Geno.”

For Penguins fans, that’s long been a catchphrase of encouragement and sometimes desperation.

It rings true: The Penguins won Cups with Crosby and Malkin in 2009, ’16 and ’17 and were a legit championship threat nonstop from 2008-18.

But the Penguins haven’t won a playoff series since 2018. The current group seems primed for a postseason run. But we said that last year when the Penguins won their division, then stumbled in the first round for a third straight time.

We’re already debating the coming summer’s free agency, as fans and talk-show hosts are wont to do. Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust are in their contract years. Who will the Penguins retain?

If the Penguins lose again in the first round, there’s no good reason to keep any of them. Certainly not at inflated prices.

Unless making the playoffs for a 17th straight season in 2023 is a primary goal, or you want to sell tickets based on nostalgia, at some point you turn the page. (Cue saxophone.)

The fans won’t like it. Crosby won’t like it.

But at some point, the run ends. You start to put together a new run.

Sure, the Penguins can still win a Cup, or at least a few playoff series.

But this is likely their last best chance to do that. If the Penguins are one-and-done, significant changes should occur.

That won’t be at the behest of new owner Fenway Sports Group. The same people are still in charge of hockey operations.

The Penguins’ nucleus has done better longer than those in Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles that each won multiple Cups this century. That’s because the Penguins’ core players are superior.

Finances obviously figure in. Malkin might give a hometown discount, Letang won’t and Rust has to grab his one big payday no matter where he gets it.

But one way or the other, this is this group’s last best chance. Assuming that wasn’t last season. Or 2018.

So does GM Ron Hextall trade draft picks to bolster this group? That seems ill-advised. Never mind organizational depth, the Penguins have precious little talent below the NHL level.

Should Hextall make a so-called “hockey trade” to strengthen? Like the deals then-GM Craig Patrick made in 1991 and ‘92: Talent for talent. Take a risk, maybe find a better fit.

The Penguins traded John Cullen and Zarley Zalapski in ’91, Paul Coffey and Mark Recchi in ’92. Cullen finished fifth in NHL scoring that season. Zalapski was the fourth pick overall in 1986 and a top-four defenseman. Coffey and Recchi are Hockey Hall of Famers.

Ron Francis (another Hall of Famer) and Ulf Samuelsson were the big gets in ’91. In ’92, it was Rick Tocchet and Kjell Samuelsson. Talent for talent.

That sort of trade won’t happen now: The locker room then was more cutthroat and just wanted to win. This locker room is more fragile. No- and limited-movement clauses are factors. So is having to finagle the salary cap.

The Penguins could use a better backup goalie. But if Tristan Jarry gets hurt or falters badly, who could adequately replace him? Jarry has been brilliant, not least Tuesday at Boston.

The Penguins have had trouble clearing the front of their own net. But the primary responsibility of playing defense for the Penguins is moving the puck to the forwards quickly and efficiently. When the Penguins got 6-foot-5 bruiser Erik Gudbranson in 2019, he couldn’t do that. Gudbranson was thus a liability.

Every team needs to do better in front of its own net. But hockey isn’t like that now. You don’t batter foes who get near your blue paint. You keep the puck from getting there.

Hextall is short on trade capital. (Call Vancouver, where Jim Rutherford is in charge: Maybe he’d get Kasperi Kapanen a third time.)

If the Penguins don’t flip to the Atlantic Division for the first two rounds of the playoffs via being a wild card and stay in the Metropolitan Division, things look OK.

The New York Rangers seem a year early. Barring the acquisition of a top-flight goalie such as Marc-Andre Fleury, Washington looks a year late. Carolina is the class of the Metro talent-wise but plays like the Penguins. It’s difficult to out-Penguin the Penguins.

Maybe Hextall should trade draft picks. Maybe the Penguins should go all in.

But will you buy tickets when the collapse hits? Will Crosby want to keep playing here?

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