A trade scenario Ron Hextall is looking to avoid and some Penguins history he may want to replicate

While meeting with the media Sunday, Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ron Hextall had to deal with a lot of hypothetical questions.

About how the team may create salary-cap room. About how it may approach various methods to make his roster better. About what he is going to do with the goaltending.

But there was one “what if” that Hextall didn’t want to consider. At all.

What if you end up in a position where the franchise is out of the playoff mix by the time the trade deadline hits? Could the Penguins become a seller?

“I certainly hope not. If we play the way we’re capable of playing, I see us certainly making the playoffs. With injuries and with our inconsistencies this year, I guess it’s a fair question. But as I said, I think when you look at our top players, for the most part, they’ve performed well. I think some of our role players need to be better at times, and we certainly expect that,” Hextall said.

Indeed. Their role players need to perform a lot better. The third and fourth lines are ineffectual. The blue line isn’t helping much offensively. And backup goalie Casey DeSmith has not been good replacing an injured Tristan Jarry.

If you need a refresher on the ugly numbers, we compiled them as the Penguins went into the All-Star break.

So, if many of the current Penguins aren’t good enough and the general manager can’t envision what a pre-trade deadline fire sale would look like, then what might Hextall do to bolster the roster?

The simple answer is there’s not much they can do. Not with a salary-cap situation that currently has just $18,430 of space.

That’s barely enough for nachos and a beer at PPG Paints Arena during a game.

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“We would like to get better. Sometimes getting better is making a move that maybe is a better fit than what we have,” Hextall said. “We’ll continue to look here at upgrades. We got to be creative with our cap situation. But I think 22 teams are either within $2 million of the cap or on LTIR (long-term injured reserve), so there’s a lot of teams that are in a tight situation here, and certainly, we’re one of them. We’re going to have to be creative, but we’d certainly like to find something that upgrades our group, and maybe it’s a better fit.”

Hextall is also on record as saying he doesn’t want to trade a first-round pick as merely a vehicle to get the receiving team to also take on a bad contract or two.

So do you know what kind of trade the Penguins need to make? They need to reboot the Marian Hossa trade with the Atlanta Thrashers. Except this time with no big ticket like Hossa coming on board.

And no first-round pick or significant prospects going out.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Well, Tim, if there is no Hossa in a new version of the Hossa trade, what would the Penguins be getting?”

Pascal Dupuis. That’s who they should be trying to get. That’s who else they got in that deal.

Dupuis is the kind of guy they need now. An affordable player who can float anywhere between all four lines and may be a better fit here than he was in his former place of employment.

In exchange, out go a few skaters who the Penguins can afford to lose off the cap. Although, some of the guys the Penguins may be pushing out the door this year could be an insult to Colby Armstrong by comparison.

Sorry, Colby.

But that’s the high end of what Ron Hextall can do. Get a Dupuis or two. Maybe a Justin Schultz for the blue line. That’s an ask that may seem lofty now, based on how those guys helped win Stanley Cups. But those were players who simply appeared to be attainable, useful players when they were acquired.

That may not be enough this time around in 2023. But Hextall certainly doesn’t have enough as it is right now. And if those kinds of moves are the best he can do, then it’s best to do it and hope it works.

Brian Metzer of the Pittsburgh Penguins Radio Network joins me for our weekly “Breakfast With Benz” podcast. We discuss Hextall’s options, the state of the Eastern Conference and Tuesday night’s game against the Colorado Avalanche.

Listen: Tim Benz and Brian Metzer talk Penguins