VANCOUVER — From the moment the Pittsburgh Penguins were ousted by the New York Islanders in four games in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, general manager Jim Rutherford has been steadfast in his desire to retool his team’s roster before next season.

That retooling could include trading away a five-time all-star defenseman.

The Penguins are listening to trade offers for Kris Letang, multiple sources confirmed before the first round of the NHL Draft began Friday night.

Given several opportunities, Rutherford has not ruled out trading Letang in any public comments he has made this offseason.

“It’s the same as anything,” Rutherford said in an interview on 93.7 FM this week. “There’s been great players traded in this league. You know, somebody comes along with a package that makes sense for the Penguins, we have to look at it.”

Trading Letang would be a dramatic transaction, and finding a partner with the cap space to accommodate his contract and the tradable assets to tempt Rutherford to complete the deal wouldn’t necessarily be easy.

Letang, 32, has three years left on a contract that pays him $7.25 million annually. As more defensemen sign rich, new contracts, Letang’s salary looks more and more like a bargain. Still, with the salary cap expected to increase to no more than $82 million next season, not all teams could fit him into their budgets.

Letang also has a lengthy injury history, including major neck surgery in April 2017 and a stroke in 2014.

The Penguins remain committed to a win-now philosophy, so Letang would not be moved for prospects or picks. The trade would have to make the Penguins a better team in the near term.

Given Letang’s accomplishments and ability to play in all situations, it certainly wouldn’t be easy for the Penguins to replace him.

In the last five years, the only NHL defensemen to average more ice time per game than Letang’s 25 minutes, 52 seconds are Ryan Suter, Drew Doughty and Erik Karlsson.

Last season, Letang finished fifth among NHL defensemen with 16 goals and eighth with 56 points. He finished sixth in voting for the Norris Trophy, given to the top defenseman in the league.

When Letang was on the ice at five on five last season, the Penguins outscored their opponents, 74-47 (plus-27). When he wasn’t on the ice, that advantage dropped to 108-103 (plus-5).

Despite his impressive resume, Letang also committed high-profile gaffes in playoff losses to the Islanders last season and Washington the year before that.

After the latest playoff exit, Letang bristled at the notion he might need to change his game.

“That’s the thing, maybe next year you are saying, ‘We have Kris on our lineup and he doesn’t do anything offensively,’ so are you going to rip me apart because I don’t produce anything?” Letang said. “I totally (understand) sometimes I make mistakes. I wish I could take those back. At the end of the day, yeah, I wish I could have done something (different) at different times.”

Trading Letang wouldn’t be Rutherford’s first choice when it comes to making moves to retool the roster this offseason.

He made that perfectly clear when he completed a trade of Phil Kessel to Minnesota earlier this month, only to see the deal scuttled when the 31-year-old winger exercised his modified no-trade clause to nix it.

Note: The Penguins will open next season with a home game against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, Oct. 3, the team announced. The rest of the schedule will be revealed Tuesday.

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