Already, there's been significant change at the top of the Pittsburgh Penguins team. Out is Mike Johnston, here now is Mike Sullivan. With the Phil Kessel addition this offseason, Penguins GM Jim Rutherford clearly signaled to the rest of the NHL that Pittsburgh was on a mission to land the second Stanley Cup championship of captain Sidney Crosby's career. But things, as things so often tend to do, have not gone to plan. Johnston paid the price already and Rob Scuderi followed shortly thereafter, but what's to come this offseason? What will happen to the team as currently constructed if Crosby and Co. fail to right the ship and go on, at the very least, a deep playoff run?
Rutherford is said to be chasing deals and even told ESPN's Pierre LeBrun on Sunday that he wanted to bolster the blueline - adding Trevor Daley Monday likely helped, but it'd be surprising if that was his one and only move there - but if this season continues in the mediocre and, at times, outright repugnant fashion that it has, will there be deeper changes to the makeup of the Penguin core?
"They're all in," LeBrun said Wednesday afternoon, while appearing on Hamilton's TSN 1150, per Today's Slap Shot. "This is the moment here for the Penguins. They're not - there's no such thing as protecting any future assets here right now, if you're the Penguins. This is trying to keep the window open one last crack and taking a run at it, before it's time to make bigger decisions and maybe retool the whole outfit."
What further changes could come this season are hard to pinpoint. Rutherford already played his biggest chip, firing Johnston and installing Sullivan, a guy who has developed young players and a young team in the past - prior to becoming the head coach of the Boston Bruins, he led Boston's AHL affiliate, and once he'd risen to the NHL, he was instrumental in helping an 18-year-old Patrice Bergeron to find and develop his now stellar two-way game.
But the Penguins, as currently constructed, have underachieved to such a degree that really, anything seems possible, now or in the offseason - even that which was once thought impossible. Of course, no movement clauses for players like Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kessel, Marc-Andre Fleury and Kris Letang will limit some of the things that Rutherford can even consider, unless of course the aforementioned players are motivated to move elsewhere.
Crosby, despite reports of a "paranoid ownership" placing undue pressure on him, and a supposed rift with Mario Lemieux, isn't going anywhere. He's the heart and soul of the team and, even with limited production this year - he's got just six goals and 13 assists through 30 games - and body language that suggests his struggles really are affecting him mentally, remains the face of the franchise.
Fleury is streaky and can be inconsistent - over his last five games prior to suffering a likely concussion, Fleury posted save percentages of .889, .920, .923, .950 and .882 - but he's still an elite netminder in the NHL when he's on his game. His career save percentage is .912 and he led the team to their only Crosby Cup in 2009.
Letang is the perfect kind of puck-moving defender the league so desperately needs and seeks and he's the closest thing the Pens have to a No. 1 on their blueline. It's hard to fathom seeing a player like Kessel, acquired just this offseason, asked to waive his no-move again so quickly.
Which leaves us with Malkin, Crosby's superstar sidekick.
Malkin was openly critical of the team earlier this season before attempting to walk his comments about the lack of camaraderie and the prevalent in-fighting the team was dealing with, back. Rumors and reports in the past have suggested that he may be happier elsewhere and while the possibility of Malkin and his eight-year, $76 million contract, which carries a $9.5 million annual cap hit and has six seasons remaining on it, being shipped elsewhere seems farfetched, nothing in today's NHL is impossible, especially when falling short has become the norm for such a talented team.
And this is where the situation gets trickiest for Rutherford. If he wants to alter the makeup of a team that's consistently underperformed since that 2009 Cup-winning season and may be on the verge of doing so again, he almost has to start with one of the stars on his roster. Otherwise, any changes would be purely cosmetic.
David Perron's a free agent after this season and could potentially be dealt ahead of the trade deadline in a further effort to shore up the blueline, but Perron's not an integral part of the team's makeup. He's a talented guy playing on the top line, but he's an ancillary player and personality. Chris Kunitz is 36 now and has just one more year left on his deal after this season. He's long been Crosby's left-hand man, but considering his advancing age and limited production this year - he's got just four goals and seven assists this season - perhaps moving him will become a possibility.
Really, if the Pens fail to make a run again, Rutherford may be forced to make those deeper changes to the Pittsburgh roster whether he wants to or not, because otherwise, he could potentially be the one handed his walking papers in the offseason.
There's a lot riding on Sullivan's impact and the remainder of the 2015-16 NHL season for this Penguins team. With ownership changes likely afoot and fans surely tired of seeing their too-talented team fall apart down the stretch, something will have to give in Pittsburgh eventually. And whether it's a blockbuster trade at the deadline or in the offseason or Rutherford's ousting, it's entirely possible that a playoff-less year or another early postseason exit could mean a new-look Penguins team come next training camp.
