Mark Madden's Hot Take: Big contracts for Penguins' aging stars have handcuffed Kyle Dubas

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in deep decline.

That’s OK, for now. Keep that first-round pick. Get more balls in the draft lottery. Maybe the Penguins get lucky. It’s happened before.

Despite my faith in president of hockey ops/GM Kyle Dubas, he can’t do as he says. Dubas can’t reassemble a contender posthaste around Sidney Crosby and the other aging big-contract stars.

I doubt Dubas believes he can. But he’s got to say that.

NHL players can’t be unrestricted free agents until they’re 27 or until accruing seven NHL seasons. Because youth is non-existent in the UFA pool, so is speed. The Penguins prefer to play fast, but they’re slow going on slower.

Dubas may ditch, say, Rickard Rakell and Reilly Smith. If he can find any takers. But replacing them will be the next versions of Rakell and Smith. Maybe the new models will perform better. But maybe not.

Can Jake Guentzel be retrieved? The Penguins will try. But Guentzel not only has the scent of big money in his nostrils, he’s also getting a taste of contending in Carolina. Guentzel has 11 points in seven games with the Hurricanes. Sid who?

Dubas is in a tough spot.

Ownership’s mandate is certainly to sign Crosby to an extension July 1, the first day he can. Crosby wants to win, not pass the baton.

So, the pretense of the nostalgia act continues. The illusion of hope created by the big names. (It sells tickets. So far.)

But there are a few things the Penguins could attempt next season.

They could take a flyer on the youth they do have.

Put center Brayden Yager, 19, on the big-league roster. Last year’s first-round pick has 35 goals and 54 assists in 56 Major Junior games. Use forwards Vasily Ponomarev and Ville Koivunen, two of the prospects acquired in the Guentzel trade. Perhaps even trade Tristan Jarry and promote goaltender Joel Blomqvist, who is excelling with the Penguins’ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton farm team.

Would that work? Probably not.

Would coach Mike Sullivan trust young players more than, say, Noel Acciari? Probably not.

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Most of those mentioned might not be ready. You’d have to cut the experiment short if their development were being hindered.

But that’s why they call it gambling. It can’t be worse than what we’re seeing. (Unless it is.)

Another option is to change structurally. Be more systematic. Emphasize defense that leads to counterattacking.

The Penguins want to play fast, as they did when they won Stanley Cups in 2016 and ’17. But they can’t.

New Jersey has beaten the Penguins seven straight times by being clearly much faster. But the Penguins keep trying to outskate the Devils. The results are bad, the optics worse. The Penguins got swept in a home-and-home vs. Edmonton this month by a cumulative 10-1. The Oilers skated rings around the Penguins.

I mentioned the speed disparity to a Penguin earlier this season and was dismissively told, “The whole league plays fast.”

Being more conservative would emphasize the Penguins’ experience and selectively utilize the speed they do have in opportunistic situations.

But the Penguins aren’t going to do that.

As previously mentioned in this space, if the Penguins retain the four big contracts and the head coach, nothing will change.

I’m sure Dubas has a vision. But, to a large degree, it seems handcuffed.