Mark Madden: With Penguins committed to winning now, they should trade No. 14 pick

The Pittsburgh Penguins didn’t win the Connor Bedard lottery, not least because they couldn’t. Nor did rivals Philadelphia or Washington. They could have. So, there’s that.

The Penguins got the 14th pick in the first round. That’s the equivalent of a scratch-off ticket winning you another scratch-off ticket. (Bedard probably won’t drop that far.)

That pick provides a dilemma for whoever Fenway Sports Group hires to be the Penguins’ next GM.

The Penguins are committed to winning now. That was decided last offseason when they re-signed Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang to keep alive the eternal bond of brotherhood between those two and Sidney Crosby. It’s further cemented by having eight players with some form of no-movement clause.

Problem is, the Penguins can’t win now. They’re a fading team, one that will be difficult for the new GM to change.

Under the premise of winning now, the new GM should trade that 14th pick to get a modicum of immediate help. But that help won’t help enough, so all trading that 14th pick does is dig the hole deeper for the long term.

That hole is deep already. At some point, the Penguins will be a 1984 level of bad. Roll over, George Orwell and tell Eddie Johnston the news.

Compounding the situation is that the core three expect help. They believe they can win. What else would they think?

The new GM must choose between serving a mistaken philosophy or causing bad feeling in the locker room and with fans by addressing reality.

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He likely will indulge the former, it being the path of least resistance and easier to execute. (Except for the winning part.)

So, trade that 14th pick. Get another old guy.

I’d love to be wrong regarding the Penguins’ potential for 2023-24. But they haven’t won a playoff series since 2018. Their 16-season playoff streak is over. They’re force-fed a speed-based style that they’re mostly too slow to execute and have zero interest in changing.

Florida narrowly edged the Penguins for the Eastern Conference’s second and final wild card, but the Penguins wouldn’t be duplicating the Panthers’ tear through Boston and Toronto. Boston might have swept the Penguins.

Beyond a few players, the Penguins aren’t dynamic. As hockey keeps swinging toward heavy, the Penguins have zero physical presence. They play men’s league no-check.

Here’s advice for the new GM: Announce your presence with authority.

When Jim Rutherford became the Penguins’ GM in 2014, he traded high-scoring winger James Neal to Nashville three weeks after being hired. It wasn’t a popular deal. But winger Patric Hornqvist came to Pittsburgh, adding a physical element (perhaps the last the Penguins have had) and scoring a Stanley Cup-winning goal.

So, good trade. That swap changed the team.

The new GM should make a trade like that. Whether it’s Jake Guentzel or Bryan Rust or whoever. (No-movement clauses permitting or adjusted.)

Not trying to run those two (or anybody) out of town, but the Penguins badly need to change. There needs to be a level of tension. It’s not a country club, but it is a get-along gang. It’s the same players, with the same coach, playing the same way, making the same mistakes, failing via the same bad habits.

Losing has become normalized via its rigid methodology. “Playing the game the right way” is getting the wrong results.

As for who’s the next GM, I have no idea.

Mathieu Darche, Tampa Bay’s director of hockey ops, will likely pass and wait for a better opportunity. Ex-Chicago GM Stan Bowman is still in NHL purgatory because of the Blackhawks’ 2010 sex-assault scandal. Toronto GM Kyle Dubas’ contract is up, but the Maple Leafs would be stupid to not re-up him. (Which means they probably won’t.) But if Dubas leaves Toronto, he can get a better job than Pittsburgh. The elderly roster and clogged salary cap can’t be conquered by analytics, not in the short term.

Somebody will take the job, though. There’s only 32 of them.

One rumor has Dubas coming to Pittsburgh, bringing Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe with him, and the deposed Mike Sullivan becomes the New York Rangers’ coach.

This has zero chance of happening. It’s fiction invented by the Rangers’ stooge media who thinks the NHL revolves around a team that’s won one Stanley Cup since 1940. (Pronounced NINETEEN-FORTY!) Sullivan is liked by FSG, signed through 2027 and will have more power than whoever the next GM is.