Mark Madden's Hot Take: If the Penguins want development, a kid line is the answer

Winning when it’s not expected and when you’re supposed to be rebuilding comes with an unusual set of challenges.

You’ve got to keep trying to win, but development can’t be put on the backburner.

That’s the circumstance the Penguins find themselves in after a whirlwind 6-2 start that sees them just two points off the top of the Eastern Conference.

For example, 18-year-old rookie forward Ben Kindel is doing great things, not least his spectacular give-and-go goal Thursday at Florida.

But, as this space has noted, the proper role for Kindel is not in the bottom six, where he is currently playing. That won’t polish his skill set.

But Sidney Crosby wants to center Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust.

Kindel would not benefit skating on a line with Evgeni Malkin. Malkin is off to a torrid start — two goals and 10 assists in eight games — but that nonetheless seems a poor fit.

Kindel’s best position is center. But the Penguins have two centers who indelibly occupy the top two spots on the depth chart.

How can coach Dan Muse approximate the best of all worlds?

Form a kid line.

Recall winger Ville Koivunen, 22, from the Penguins’ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton affiliate. He has three goals and six assists in five games since being sent down after two NHL games and really shouldn’t have been demoted so quickly in the first place.

Winger Rutger McGroarty, 21, should return from injury within a month. After he gets back in the swing at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, summon McGroarty to Pittsburgh and put him and Koivunen on Kindel’s wings.

That’s your third line. Give them third-line minutes. But don’t make them play chip-and-chase. Let them find their own style and live with their mistakes. Let them grow.

That’s if you’re looking to develop.

Not if you’re looking to squeak into a wild card and get swept in the first round by, say, Carolina or Toronto.

That said, it’s not like Muse has put the clamps on his bottom six in terms of playing hockey. Kindel’s give-and-go with Tommy Novak at Florida confirms that.

Nobody saw the Penguins putting together this kind of start.

It could dissipate in the wink of an eye.

But the Penguins are already well on their way to flushing a good shot at a top-five draft pick in the NHL Draft lottery. Gavin McKenna, we hardly knew ye.

No matter what, they can’t minimize the developmental path. It’s what’s most important. The young players have to get better.

If you want to do a kid line immediately, have forward Tristan Broz drive from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to Pittsburgh along with Koivunen. Broz, 23, has three goals and two assists in six American Hockey League games and could have easily made the Penguins in the preseason.

If there are complications with veteran contracts, juggling the roster, etc., then waive somebody, trade somebody, push somebody down a flight of steps. The feelings of borderline veterans don’t matter. Ask Ryan Graves and Danton Heinen.