Tim Benz: Want a rebuild for impotent Penguins? Let's examine what that really means.

Blow it up! Tear it down! Total reboot!

We hear those reactions from Penguins fans after almost every season-ending playoff exit. Those calls for drastic change are often hyperbolic emotion.

Prisoner-of-the-moment stuff.

Presently, though, demands from fans and media to reconstruct the team resonate more logically after the club’s putrid performance in the NHL’s best-of-five, qualifying-round defeat in the Toronto hub.

Losing to the 24^th-seeded Montreal Canadiens was a humiliation. Worse yet, that defeat occurred on the heels of the impotent four-game sweep at the hands of the New York Islanders in the first round of the 2019 postseason.

Mike Sullivan was once the head coach who could never lose a playoff series. He won his first nine on the Penguins bench. Now he’s lost three series in a row and nine of his last 10 postseason games.

The fallback belief of “Sully always pushes the right buttons” isn’t so accurate anymore.

General manager Jim Rutherford used to have the Midas touch with every move he made. Now he’s a guy who signs Jack Johnson and trades for Patrick Marleau. He’s a guy who acquires Derick Brassard and tries to make up for that deal by getting Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann.

Matt Murray was once a 23-year-old goaltender who already had two rings on his fingers and figured to be in Pittsburgh forever. Now it’s pretty likely that he’ll never put on a Penguins jersey again.

As for the alleged high-scoring assembly of talent led by Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang? They never score in the playoffs anymore. The club has only 28 goals in its last 14 playoff games — an average of 2 per contest.

Indeed, there’s plenty of reason to feel as if the need for major change exists. Short of trading Crosby, John Marino or Jake Guentzel, just about any move that’s made could be justified for the right return.

But with this organization, when we say “rebuild,” let’s make clear what we are really saying. Because “rebuild” doesn’t mean reconfiguring the bottom six forwards.

“Rebuild” doesn’t simply mean buying out Bjugstad or foisting Johnson onto another team’s roster. “Rebuild” means more than moving on from Marleau, Conor Sheary and Justin Schultz in unrestricted free agency — or Murray, McCann and few others in the restricted pool.

A rebuild is firing the coach and/or the general manager. A rebuild is trading some combination of Crosby, Malkin and Letang.

Is this franchise and this fan base ready for any of that? I don’t think so. Even if they should be.

If Sullivan is fired today, he’ll be coaching at PPG Paints Arena on some other team’s bench at the start of next season.

What Penguins fan — or owner, for that matter — is going to endorse the idea of Crosby playing the last six years of his contract in another jersey?

Trade Letang! OK. His mental errors and decision-making continue to confound and frustrate. And his extended postseason minutes yield fewer positives than they had.

But if he goes, that’s three of the Penguins top six defensemen who are likely gone before next year. Pierre-Olivier Joseph is a fine prospect. I doubt he can play three defensive spots at once, though.

Malkin trade rumors aren’t exactly a new thing. Twitter has had him dealt to the Kings or Panthers so many times, I expect his jersey to be retired in Los Angeles or Florida the same day it is in Pittsburgh.

But if there is a major piece of the core to be moved, he’s probably it. Malkin would have to waive his no-movement clause. His new team would need $9.5 million in salary cap space — or close to it. And what Pittsburgh got back in return wouldn’t be as substantial as it would’ve been a few years ago when that topic was first broached in internet chat rooms.

Management may strip the supporting cast that Rutherford worked so hard to get under cost control for the next few years. Theoretically, valued players such as Bryan Rust, Brian Dumoulin and Patric Hornqvist could be shipped for prospects, picks and some of the speed the Penguins have seemingly lost.

The Penguins have done that a few times over during the Crosby-Malkin era. Key components such as Marc-Andre Fleury, Jordan Staal, James Neal and Phil Kessel have all been dismissed with plenty of quality NHL years remaining.

Barring the Alexis Lafrenière ping-pong ball bouncing into Mario Lemieux’s pocket, I bet that will be the strategy. Some uncomfortable moves will be made. But I doubt rising to the level of firing Sullivan or Rutherford. Dan Bylsma and Ray Shero got six years of playoff failures against lesser-seeded teams after the 2009 Cup.

Sullivan and Rutherford are only halfway there.

Due to roster composition and contract construction, my belief is the Penguins are either unwilling or unable to move any of those big three stars. Even though a potential deal for Letang or Malkin makes sense now more than ever.

Look for the Penguins’ most familiar faces back in the team photo at the start of next season. And look for a similar result in the 2021 playoffs.