Madden Monday: About the idea of the Penguins tanking for Gavin McKenna; Sunday's trade for a goalie

If you think that the Pittsburgh Penguins are tanking for newly signed Penn State hockey star Gavin McKenna, Mark Madden of TribLive and 105.9 The X disagrees.

During this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Madden said the Penguins may end up putting themselves in a great draft lottery position for McKenna without losing on purpose.

“I think they’re just rebuilding. I don’t think they are intentionally making their team bad,” Madden said. “I just think they’re trying to get the ship right for the long run and not worrying about the short run. That’s not tanking. You can just rebuild too.”

If the Penguins were trying to tank for McKenna, Madden insists there is only one surefire way to prove it.

“If they were tanking for McKenna, they would trade Sid,” Madden said.

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Of course, the organization might like the idea of Sidney Crosby playing with McKenna for a year or two, as Mario Lemieux did with Crosby. After all, Crosby’s body appears to be in better shape approaching 38 years of age than Lemieux’s was at 40 when he only lasted 26 games of Crosby’s rookie season.

“People always tend to analyze in extremes when it comes to a situation like this,” Madden said. “I think the Chicago Blackhawks, when they burned it down and got (Connor) Bedard, they proved it’s not good to burn it all the way down.”

One reason the Penguins could struggle again this year — intentionally or not — is the goalie situation. The team dealt Alex Nedeljkovic to San Jose on July 1. They filled that void on Sunday with Arturs Silovs from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for forward Chase Stillman and a 2027 fourth-round pick.

Arturs Silvos lost his blocker and still made the save. ????

(????: MSG Network, H/T: @GinoHard_) pic.twitter.com/w59wdshNYH

— BarDown (@BarDown) November 20, 2024

My read on that was, perhaps, that Kyle Dubas might have found a taker for Tristan Jarry, and this trade was a precursor — similar to how most people are assuming the Matt Dumba acquisition last week was a preemptive buffer for a looming Erik Karlsson trade.

Madden has a different theory.

“(Silovs) is 24, which indicates to me that there is dissatisfaction with one of the prospects. And I would guess that’s (Joel) Blomqvist, because he did not look good last year when he got called up to Pittsburgh. So I would think that maybe Silovs and (Sergei) Murashov might be the goalie tandem they’re looking forward to in the long run.”

Also, during the podcast, Madden and I discuss that trade for Dumba. We talk about the Pirates drafting Seth Hernandez in the first round, T.J. Watt’s ongoing contract saga and Patrick Rooney Jr.’s comments about the state of the Steelers.