My issue with Jake is that the player we currently employ is not the player we signed to his deal. He's fallen off a cliff in terms of play and production. He put together the least impressive, most boring PPG campaign I've ever seen. It was predictable from miles away that his production in the regular season would not translate to a playoff atmosphere. Tons of soft points against atrocious teams. For all the drum banging people love to do (not you, just in general) about the Pens winning the division, like that f***ing matters
, the East had 3 of the 4 worst defensive teams in the NHL.
No, I would not build around Jake Guentzel. He's a sidecar, a complimentary winger, an "in addition to" piece. By the time this team is any sort of competitive or competent again in the post Sid/Geno era, Jake is likely to be north of 30 by a couple years. The second one or more of the big three decide to move on, whether in retirement or to chase the Cup in a better spot, I'd move Jake to the highest bidder.
In all honesty, and I know this is a sacrilegious and scoring hot take, but I hope Geno's knee forces him to retire next summer. I hope he looks at his career earnings, his injury status over the past few years, the current status of the team, and decides to hang 'em up while he has a bit of gas left in the tank to go home and play in Russia for a couple of years a la Datsyuk. This team's a bedazzled turd floating around the pool. Paper tigers, and have been for a while. They'll skill their way into the playoffs with no real world, actual chance of making any noise in the post season because of how they're coached and how they're built. I'd rather Geno retire and help force this team into a rebuild than watch any more of this bullshit, 1st or 2nd round exits annually while we tread water in mediocrity.
So, in short, no. I'm not attached to anyone on this roster and outside of Letang, and maybe Dumo, I don't really think anyone is "worth" their contract, or really worth a damn. Playoffs are all that matter for a team in our current position. I couldn't give a shit less about how Sullivan coaches in January if he's going to continually torpedo this team come spring. I couldn't give a shit about Sid and Jake (and Rust) posting nice numbers in an awful division during the regular season if they're going to continue their multi-year tradition of ghosting it in the playoffs.
I realize the team won't blow it up until they have to because of the revenue big names generate, but this team's stale, boring, and predictable. I can't wait for the rebuild, personally.