When you've got approximately $60 million of a projected best-case-scenario $72 million salary cap invested in just 15 players on a 23-man active NHL roster, there's bound to be some organizational shifts come the offseason.
Whether those shifts end up being of the seismic variety or not, is entirely up to the approach of your GM and owner.
For the Pittsburgh Penguins, there seems to be a pretty clear intent on the part of GM Jim Rutherford and owner Mario Lemieux to keep star players like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury, despite their massive cap hits.
The same can't be said for the likes of veteran defenseman Kris Letang and Rob Scuderi and forwards Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis.
"Kunitz, 35, has struggled with an iron deficiency since the 2014 Winter Olympics. Factor in his declining production and $3.9-million annual cap hit for the next two seasons, and he's not an attractive trade candidate. Same goes for the 36-year-old Scuderi, with his $3.4-million annual cap hit through 2016-17 and modified no-trade clause," writes Lyle Richardson of The Hockey News.
Richardson believes that if Kunitz and Scuderi can't be unloaded via trades - unlikely for the many reasons stated above - buyouts, which would free up in excess of $4.7 million in cap space, could be in their future.
As for the rest of the roster, Josh Yohe of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review believes that Crosby, Malkin and Fleury are in no danger, but players who've dealt with increasing injury problems in recent seasons like Letang and Dupuis - injuries which could put their NHL careers in jeopardy, especially for Dupuis - may be headed for offseason trades, assuming there are teams willing to bet on their return to health.
The Penguins currently face a must-win game - though let's face it, in the NHL playoffs, they're all must-wins - in Game 4 of their series against the formidable New York Rangers tonight.
If the Penguins are unceremoniously ousted from the first-round of the NHL playoffs tonight, expect Rutherford not to be kind to the Pittsburgh roster in his offseason effort to return the team to its former glory.
In the NHL, loyalty means nothing when the team isn't winning and the Penguins roster is far too talented to be sneaking into the postseason and facing a potential first-round playoff exit.
