Rust, Rakell, and Karlsson: Why Penguins Must Trade Core Veterans Now

The Pittsburgh Penguins 2025/26 season will be crucial to the future of the franchise, but more importantly than that is this off-season, which many expected to be full of trades.

However, General Manager Kyle Dubas seemingly hasn't liked any of the offers this team has gotten on their players, and to this point, it's been a very quiet summer for the rebuilding Penguins.

While the team haven't fully committed to a rebuild yet, the expectation is that they will do just that, and while the fans may not like it, trading the veteran trio of Erik Karlsson, Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell is the way to do just that.

This is something that Josh Yohe has recently addressed with The Athletic, as the roster with these three may be too good to be terrible, but not good enough to compete, leaving them in the murky middle, a place that rebuilding NHL teams don't want to be in.

While trading them will hurt in the short term, if Dubas and the front office can get a solid return of prospects and future draft picks, the short-term pain will be worth it as the team looks to build a core of the future that can replicate the last 20-years of success in Pittsburgh.

Ultimately, many expected at least two of these three veterans to be traded this off-season, and with one of the most loaded draft classes in NHL history in 2026, that is still the expectation, and while it won't make 2025/26 easy viewing for fans, in the long run, it will be worth the pain to land a potentially franchise altering star.