Picking Up The Pieces
By Bob Grove

The Penguins' plan to re-establish themselves as a playoff team during the 2005-06 season went wrong at almost every turn and now lays in pieces around them as they play out the final six weeks of the schedule. But no one in the organization, from top management on down to fourth-line grinders, should be going through the motions.

There's plenty to accomplish between now and the opening of training camp next September. In fact, steps back toward the playoffs can be taken right now. The road to recovery begins this month with the NHL trading deadline on March 9. The Penguins should be involved but are not likely to be among the most active teams, given the fact most of the players that would interest other general managers are young and ostensibly off-limits. General manager Craig Patrick is not expected to craft any blockbuster deals, although the deadline is always capable of producing some unexpected turns.

Among the players most likely to be moved are veterans Mark Recchi, John LeClair and Ric Jackman. Jackman has already requested a trade in response to his uneven playing time this season, and as a right-handed defenseman with a good shot he can help a team that needs offensive support from the blue line.

Recchi and LeClair both hit the Olympic break with offensive momentum, Recchi scoring 17 points over 11 games and LeClair 10 in his last 10. That won't hurt their marketability to teams looking to plug holes as they prepare for the playoffs. Recchi, in particular, still has value.

Unfortunately, perhaps the most attractive and tradeable asset the Penguins had, right wing Ziggy Palffy, is retired.

On the ice, the Penguins and coach Michel Therrien must use the final six weeks to do some hard evaluation of their roster, some members of which are likely not in the team's future plans. You can learn a lot about the intangibles a player brings to the table when he's playing every night for a last-place team, and at the end of a season in which the pieces just never fit together, the Penguins need to pay close attention to character.

This could very well be the end of the line for Konstantin Koltsov, whose complete creative failure has been complemented by his utter inconsistency elsewhere. Tomas Surovy, now 24, has improved without the puck but shows no signs of becoming a consistent scorer.

The difficult piece of this evaluation is separating a player's struggles from the environment in which they've taken place. In some cases, surely, players' performances have been affected to some degree by the chaos and frustration that enveloped this team from the start.

Indeed, a lack of confidence has hurt the Penguins, especially their younger players. That's why it's important for the team to assign as many young players as possible to the AHL for the Calder Cup playoffs. First on this list is goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

Despite his numbers, there is no question that Fleury has had a productive NHL season. On many nights, he was a primary factor in keeping the low-scoring, defensively challenged Penguins within range of one or two points. He's still working to control his rebounds and play the puck around the net, and he's also still in search of making it a habit to come up with the big save at the big time. Where better for him to get that chance than in the AHL playoffs, where the Baby Penguins should be primed for a long run?

The next critical stop is the NHL Entry Draft, where the Penguins will almost certainly be a lottery team once again. That means a shot at drafting either center Phil Kessel or defenseman Erik Johnson. Neither one will be playing in the NHL next season, but both are legitimate No. 1 picks in a draft class that is not very deep. Another prospect to consider will be 6-4 center Jordan Staal, the not-so-little brother of Carolina's Eric Staal.

Pittsburgh's depth chart at center is loaded with Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Christensen, Ryan Malone and Maxime Talbot, and that may affect their choices. Another defenseman is always a wise choice, although it should be noted that the Penguins' scoring depth on either wing-aside from Michel Ouellet-is astonishingly thin.

On the other side of the draft, the Penguins must focus their efforts on bringing Malkin to Pittsburgh. This will be tricky without the Russians in the IIHF agreement, but the Penguins desperately need him to complement Crosby and present a 1-2 punch at center that will give opponents difficult defensive choices. The Olympics were an emphatic confirmation that Malkin, amazingly comfortable at both ends of the rink, with or without the puck, is ready for the NHL.

Clearly. the Penguins have major decisions to make. Whether Patrick, the longest-tenured GM in team history, is the man making them remains to be seen. His contract is up this summer, and the decision on his future here is the biggest one facing the team this off-season.

Bob Grove has been covering the Penguins since 1981 and currently serves as a regular co-host on the Penguins Radio Network.