Tim Benz: Penguins have at least 1 solid strategy for upcoming year

You aren’t going to read this a lot this year. So enjoy it while it lasts.

The Pittsburgh Penguins really hit the bull’s-eye on something.

Their plan to have 40-year-old goalie Marc-Andre Fleury come back on a one-game professional tryout contract to suit up one last time as a Penguin in a ceremonial capacity Saturday night was a great decision.

The three-time Stanley Cup champion will play part of a preseason game versus Columbus before heading off to a retirement from the NHL that he announced last year.

Granted, Fleury’s goodbye tour has lasted so long, I kinda thought he might be a lost member of Kiss. I’m half expecting him to have Gene Simmons makeup underneath his mask Saturday.

But credit to the Penguins. On a weekend that features Paul Skenes mania, Penn State-Oregon in a Top 10 battle Saturday night, and half the city leaving for Ireland to watch the Steelers play, the Pens have done the impossible.

They’ve created buzz (and ticket sales) for an NHL preseason game featuring a team that’s likely going to finish out of the playoffs for a fourth straight year.

“I’m pretty excited to go back and play with the boys again,” Fleury said on Wednesday on 105.9 The X. “I haven’t skated all summer. I didn’t train all summer. So hopefully I keep a few pucks out. I don’t think people will want me to play again.”

C’mon, Flower. Who are we kidding? You’ve seen the Penguins’ goaltending depth chart. They’ll want you to stay.

The Fleury return is just part of what is now an obvious business strategy for the franchise: Sell the past because we can no longer sell the present.

And, frankly, the future is too murky to figure out at this point.

That’s why, beyond the Fleury promotion, the Penguins are leaning hard into their “relaunched” team Hall of Fame. Eddie Johnston, Kevin Stevens, Ron Francis and Scotty Bowman have been named to the class this year. Each of the “Big Three” remaining players from Fleury’s Stanley Cup teams — Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang — is getting his own bobblehead doll night.

More sports

• First Call: Former Steeler hoping to get healthy for Vikings; Pens goalie tandem rated worst in NHL
• 3rd down has not been the charm for Steelers defense; neither has 4th
• Pitt football notebook: Pat Narduzzi hopes Panthers have learned from early-season loss

Not to mention multiple 10-year anniversary nights for the 2016 Stanley Cup team, Star Wars night and Mister Rogers cardigan sweater night on March 1.

Are Mr. McFeely and King Friday XIII going to be the team’s third defensive pair that night? Hey, that close to the trade deadline? They might have to be.

But, I mean, what else are the Penguins going to do? Tommy Novak jersey night probably isn’t going to pack PPG Paints Arena.

That’s where the Penguins are, though. It’s a franchise that is in a rebuild it can’t publicly endorse because it has to still make it appear like it is trying to win in the present, so as to pacify those three legendary players who want to end their careers in the only place they have played.

“We have to focus on doing what’s right for the Pittsburgh Penguins,” general manager Kyle Dubas said last week. “This is our sole focus. I knew when I signed up for this job that this was likely going to be a part of it. It doesn’t deter us from the task at hand.”

Last time the Penguins were in a spot like this, they tried to embrace the present and the future at once. Remember the “X-Generation” in the “pre-Sid, post-Mario” early 2000s. Fleury does. He was a part of it.

Unfortunately, so were the likes of Ramzi Abid and Guillaume Lefebvre.

So, instead of marketing the uncertainty of the likes of Avery Hayes and Tristan Broz, the Penguins are leaning into their glorious history because nostalgia never lets you down. Even the new head coach is embracing the living, breathing monuments to history that are still on his depth chart.

“Skating around with guys that have been in this league for 20-plus years and talking a little bit, especially with (Evgeni) Malkin, Letang. This is their 20th training camp. How cool is that?” said Dan Muse at the start of training camp. “Then, the next shift, you grab one of the guys that’s coming into their first training camp ever, and it’s like, ‘It’s your first training camp. How cool is this?’ How lucky are we?”

I’m not sure how lucky we’ll be feeling in March or April. Check back with me after the draft lottery is held, and we’ll see how high the Penguins are picking in the first round. If they somehow win it and get uber prospect Gavin McKenna out of Penn State, then there will be something from the future to promote.

Until then, I’ll be online shopping for a black and gold cardigan.

Listen: Tim Benz and Pierre McGuire talk about the Penguins’ preseason and the team’s Hall of Fame