Mark Madden's Hot Take: Penguins have to extend or trade Jake Guentzel this offseason

The Penguins’ offseason will be one of difficult decisions. One of the primary ones involves winger Jake Guentzel.

Guentzel, 28, is heading into the last year of a contract that pays $6 million annually. He had a quietly effective season, collecting 36 goals and 37 assists in 78 games.

Listed at 5-foot-11, 180 pounds, the slightly-built winger goes to difficult areas and takes a beating. He’s only missed more than six games in one of his seven NHL seasons. Guentzel has courage and durability, not to mention 414 points in 453 career games.

Guentzel has been a great linemate for Sidney Crosby, who’s picky about such. It might seem simple to skate with Crosby. It’s not.

Whoever the Penguins hire to make their hockey decisions will have to broker an extension for Guentzel or trade him. One or the other.

Guentzel should be in his prime, or at worst near the end of it. (Unless the punishment he’s absorbed is adding up and he screeches to a halt). The Penguins can’t let Guentzel walk (and bring zero return) after next season.

Taking the issue into the season invokes constant buzz. Do you want to distract Guentzel with negotiations? What if Guentzel gets hurt? The trade deadline can be haphazard. (See Granlund, Mikael.)

On a team splattered with no-movement clauses, Guentzel isn’t impossible to deal: He submits a list of 12 teams he won’t go to. He’d bring good return.

Jason Zucker is likely to leave via free agency. Zucker had a good season, and his heartbeat was evident on a team that was mostly limp. But it was also the first of his three full seasons in Pittsburgh that wasn’t crippled by injury.

Signing Zucker would be taking a chance in that regard. He figures to get a bigger payday someplace else.

It would be best to have change among the top-six forwards. If you bring all of them back, it feels too much like the same team. The Penguins are beyond stale.

If big change isn’t made, you’re just hoping the decline of an aging team organically stops and reverses itself. But hope isn’t a plan.

The Penguins might have to take a step backward next season to maybe take big steps forward after that. If that’s wasting a year of Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, well, the Penguins might not have a choice. Does anyone really see a quick fix?