4 Realistic Landing Spots for Penguins Winger Jake Guentzel

The Pittsburgh Penguins could have a big decision to make regarding star forward Jake Guentzel over the next few months.

The 29-year-old is one of their core players, has been an elite goal-scorer throughout his career and is also in the final year of his contract. So far, the Penguins haven't re-signed him, and it remains to be seen if they will be able to.

The other elephant in the room regarding Guentzel's future is that the Penguins aren't a lock to make the playoffs. Entering play Thursday, Pittsburgh is in 12th place in the Eastern Conference by points percentage and has some serious ground to make up in the playoff race. They also fell short a year ago to snap their 16-year streak of consecutive postseason appearances.

If the Penguins can't get within striking distance of a playoff spot by the March 8 trade deadline, it could force first-year general manager Kyle Dubas into doing something Pittsburgh hasn't done in almost two decades: become sellers.

If that happens, Guentzel will be the one player who is a clear trade chip given his impending free agency and the fact that he would have a ton of value—even as a rental—as one of the top players potentially available.

He is a 40-goal scorer, a proven playoff performer and has a track record of being able to play with superstar talents.

He has 14 goals in 30 games (a 38-goal pace over 82 games), and since the start of the 2018-19 season, has scored 173 goals in 361 regular-season games. That averages out to a 39-goal pace per 82 games. He also has a pretty affordable contract that carries only a $6 million salary-cap hit for this season. He does have a modified no-trade clause (he can submit a 12-team no-trade list), but that is far from a deal-breaker.

With all of that said, let's take a look at some teams that could be options if the Penguins had to make that decision.

The Colorado Avalanche are clearly missing something early in the season, and they still haven't really replaced the presence of injured forward Gabriel Landeskog.

Goaltending might be a concern, but there is a good chance that Alexandar Georgiev rebounds from his .896 save percentage, and there also might not be a lot of clear upgrades available at that position for the Avalanche to trade for.

But Guentzel could be an option to bring another top-line goal-scoring presence to the lineup to help replace the void that has been left by Landeskog. Mikko Rantanen (15 goals, 40 points) and Valeri Nichushkin (15 goals, 29 points) are still producing at high levels, but a lot of their offseason additions (Miles Wood, Ross Colton, Jonathan Drouin, Tomas Tatar before he was traded) haven't really panned out as expected. Those four offseason additions have combined for 18 goals. Guentzel alone has scored 14 goals.

Creating enough salary-cap space to fit in the remainder of Guentzel's $6 million salary might be tight (they have a projected $5.6 million in deadline space), but there are always ways around that, and the Avalanche have the first-round pick that would almost certainly have to be a starting point for the Penguins.

When looking at the Boston Bruins' roster it would be easy to think they need a No. 1 center to sustain their early success and make a serious run at the Stanley Cup.

Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci have retired, while Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha do not exactly scream "Championship top-six center duo."

But to their credit, Coyle and Zacha have arguably exceeded all expectations for that role and have given the Bruins some outstanding play down the middle. The other issue is that once you get beyond Calgary's Elias Lindholm, there aren't top-line center options that figure to be available.

The performance from Coyle and Zacha have also made it so the Bruins might have a different priority in the trade market: more help on the wings. Especially on the left side.

Brad Marchand obviously has things locked down on the top line, but there is a pretty significant drop-off after him offensively. At the moment, Danton Heinen and James van Riemsdyk are playing on the second and third lines, and neither is really lighting it up offensively with 10 total goals between them.

Guentzel, again, already has 14 goals on his own.

They could use a little more offense from that side and another potential impact scorer at the top of their lineup.

The problem is going to be what the Bruins could offer in a trade that would make them the winning bidder for a player of this caliber.

Their farm system is thin, they have just $3.8 million in projected deadline cap space, and they don't have any draft picks in the first three rounds of the 2024 draft. That would take a lot of creativity, and perhaps even another team involved to get something of value to Pittsburgh.

The defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights are off to a great start in the standings and have one of the highest scoring offenses in the league.

But there has also never been a big-name player who is potentially available in a trade or free agency that they didn't make a huge play for, and the Knights also have a massive black hole offensively on the left side of their forward lineup.

That is where players like Ivan Barbashev, Pavel Dorofeyev and Paul Cotter are logging most of the minutes, and they simply aren't producing much in the way of offense. Barbashev has been the most productive of the group, scoring eight goals through Wednesday, but he is far from a top-line star.

Guentzel would immediately be the best left winger on the team the second he stepped into the locker room and would give them what could be the most dominant top line in hockey alongside Jack Eichel and Mark Stone.

Vegas is also in a good position in terms of trade assets, at least regarding draft picks, as it still has nearly its full allotment of picks over the next three years, including all of its first-rounders.

It has a projected $4.5 million in deadline cap space, but again, those things can be worked out.

From the moment the Golden Knights entered the NHL, winning the Stanley Cup has been the singular focus. Winning one is not going to stop this front office from doing whatever it can to win another. They have the roster to do it again, and adding a top-line winger on the left side would really make them terrifying for the rest of the Western Conference.

The Dallas Stars don't necessarily need a player like Guentzel, because they already have one of the best, deepest rosters in the league. But that might be all the more reason to go all-in.

You have to consider the Stars are in a tough Western Conference that houses the past two Stanley Cup winners, both of whom have aggressive front offices that will almost certainly add to their already strong rosters.

When you have a chance to win it all, you don't want to let that window close without taking your best shot at it—though they would have to find more wiggle room than the $2.1 million in projected deadline cap room.

Adding the long-time Penguin could give the Stars one of the deepest collections of left wingers in the league and a dynamic one-two punch with Jason Robertson and Guentzel on the top two lines.

The newcomer could drop Mason Marchment to the third line, bump Jamie Benn down to the fourth line and give the Stars a nearly unmatched forward group that would be a nightmare for opposing teams to defend.

The Stars do not have many weaknesses, but that shouldn't stop them from trying to put themselves over the top.

Salary-cap info via CapFriendly.