Mailbag: Penguins, Capitals retooling around aging cores; Lindgren's future with Rangers

Here is the Oct. 9 edition of the weekly NHL.com mailbag, where we answer your questions asked on X (formerly Twitter). Send your questions to @drosennhl and @NHLdotcom and tag them with #OvertheBoards.

Which aging team will rebuild first, the Penguins or Capitals? Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin and Co. are all 35-plus. Time for a youth movement? How much longer do these teams have until they start the rebuild? -- @theashcity

The Capitals and Penguins are in the mushy middle of the NHL, attempting to retool on the fly around aging cores that have brought them so much success. They're borderline Stanley Cup Playoff contenders but not Stanley Cup contenders. The Penguins missed the playoffs the past two seasons. The Capitals barely made it in last season despite a minus-37 goal differential and were swept by the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference First Round. For the Capitals, Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson have two more years left on their contracts. For the Penguins, Sidney Crosby (three more), Erik Karlsson (three) and Kris Letang (four) are all signed through at least the 2026-27 season. Evgeni Malkin has two remaining. Timelines suggest it'll be the Capitals who move into the next generation first, but I don't expect either team will go into a full-fledged Chicago Blackhawks-type or San Jose Sharks-type rebuild.

They're both trying to set the table now to avoid that by being smart with assets (like Pittsburgh trading Jake Guentzel last season when it was clear it wasn't a Cup contender) and not rushing prospects if they're not ready for the NHL. They need to keep their first-round picks too and continue to build a prospect base through the draft.

Essentially, they're attempting to do the same thing, which is to stay relevant with the franchise legends while building levels behind them. The levels are mid-to-late 20s impact NHL players, players in their early 20s who have the potential to develop into impact players, and recently drafted prospects who will be ready in a few years. Washington added forwards Andrew Mangiapane and Pierre-Luc Dubois, and defensemen Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy hoping to build on last season and not just return to the playoffs but make some noise in the postseason. The Penguins retooled their depth and might have landed a future star by acquiring 20-year-old forward Rutger McGroarty in a trade with the Winnipeg Jets. If they hold up, they could compete for a playoff spot. How it plays out will determine what happens before the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline on March 7. Management, it appears, will let the players dictate how they proceed this season, but it's still going to be in line with trying to stay relevant while keeping a focus on the future after the legends are gone. It's not an easy plan to execute, but if it works it'll keep the Penguins and Capitals out of the dark days of a full-fledged rebuild.

With Ryan Lindgren hurt, it looks as though Victor Mancini has cracked the opening day lineup for the New York Rangers. If he plays well, what does that mean for Lindgren's future? Lindgren is rugged, old school and loved by his teammates. Is that enough to keep Mancini out? -- @jacob\bass\

It's less about Mancini and more about Lindgren's long-term future with the Rangers. When he's healthy, he will play. Lindgren is starting the season on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, which is paving the way for Mancini, the 22-year-old rookie defenseman. Lindgren and Adam Fox have been a longtime defense pair, and I would expect the Rangers will get back to that. It'll allow them to move Braden Schneider to the right side and have their pairs set. Schneider has been on the left with Jacob Trouba on the right, and Mancini has been the right defenseman on the third pair with Zac Jones on the left. Mancini is a right-handed shot, but he's had a strong camp and took advantage of Lindgren's injury and the roster spot opening for now.

However, as you mentioned, Lindgren is rugged and old school. He plays a hard game, which is what draws that love from his teammates. They can trust him to do all the dirty work to get the job done. They know he's going to put his body on the line and play through injuries and pain. That also makes Lindgren injury prone. He has missed 44 games in the past five seasons, but played through many more injuries that likely could have forced him to miss time. The more pounding his body takes the less of a chance there will be of him holding up long term. He's on a one-year, $4.5 million contract and can be an unrestricted free agent after the season. The Rangers have to decide if they want to commit to him long term. They could have done that in the offseason, but instead settled on a one-year deal to walk him to UFA status. That could be a sign of his future in New York beyond this season.

With all the talk about now paying goalies, while pointing to the goalies that have won being on teams with Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Nathan MacKinnon, conveniently left out of the debate, is there a team in the cap era that didn't have those level centers who were constant contenders? -- @K92moore

The answer is yes, but before I get there let's add Jack Eichel (Vegas Golden Knights), Anze Kopitar (Los Angeles Kings), Aleksander Barkov (Florida Panthers) and Patrice Bergeron (Boston Bruins) to your list. Connor McDavid obviously belongs, but he hasn't won the Cup yet with the Edmonton Oilers. I'll even add in-their-prime Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov (Capitals).

The Carolina Hurricanes, Nashville Predators, Rangers and Dallas Stars have not had that caliber of center, yet all have been consistent contenders.

It took the Hurricanes a while to get there, but they have made the playoffs in six straight seasons. Sebastian Aho is a terrific center, but he's not at the level of the players mentioned above. And the Hurricanes have done it without elite goaltending. They're a contender every season because of their system.

The Predators have never had a top No. 1 homegrown center like the ones mentioned above, but they have made the playoffs in eight of the past nine seasons, including the Stanley Cup Final in 2017. Goaltending, first with Pekka Rinne and now with Juuse Saros, and defense have been their backbone for years.

I'm a big believer in Mika Zibanejad as a No. 1 center, but he's not a top five No. 1 center. The Rangers, though, have gotten to the Eastern Conference Final in two of the past three seasons with Igor Shesterkin as the obvious No. 1 goalie and arguably the best in the League. When they had Henrik Lundqvist in that role, the Rangers never had a true No. 1 center, but they reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2014 and got to the conference final in 2012 and 2015.

The Stars have won with the sum of their parts and strong goaltending. They reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2020 and have gone to the Western Conference Final the past two seasons without any homegrown No. 1 center. In fact, the center with the most points on the Stars since 2019-20 is Joe Pavelski, who did not even play center most of his time in Dallas.

After seeing the New Jersey Devils first two games, do you think they made a mistake by signing Brett Pesce to a long-term contract? Seems like Johnathan Kovacevic has been great and so has Seamus Casey. It will be hard to keep everyone, including Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec, together in the future? -- @rudshar98

We can't overreact or overanalyze two games on back-to-back nights separated by 21 hours in a unique environment, which is what the 2024 NHL Global Series Czechia presented by Fastenal was last Friday and Saturday. Kovacevic had a goal and an assist Friday. Casey scored his first NHL goal in his second game Saturday. They were impactful in the Devils getting 4-1 and 3-1 wins against the Buffalo Sabres, but that's not enough to draw conclusions such as saying it was a mistake to sign Pesce to a six-year, $33 million contract (average annual value of $5.5 million). Pesce is a proven NHL defenseman who play a strong two-way game and has played 627 regular-season games and 57 playoff games. He's going to be a big part of the Devils' success this season. If Kovacevic and Casey continue to play well, they'll push for ice time, creating a good problem for the Devils to have. They're built to win this season and that's the focus. When healthy, they could have eight defensemen for six spots. That's the kind of depth that can turn a team from being a playoff contender into Stanley Cup contender.