DON'T TRADE RAKELL

Here's an excerpt from my recent TribLive.com column:

The Penguins shouldn’t swap winger Rickard Rakell before the March 7 trade deadline. Rakell is on Crosby’s line, and Crosby is going for his 20th straight season averaging a point per game or better. That can’t be sabotaged. If Crosby is expected to stick it out through lean times, certain concessions must be made. Besides, Rakell’s contract runs through 2028 at a $5 million salary cap hit. He’s got 25 goals this year. That’s an acceptable rate at an acceptable salary, especially with the cap going up.

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Some of those reading this will bleat, "THE TEAM! You have to do what's best for THE TEAM! You can't put Sid ahead of THE TEAM!"

But in 2018, I proposed trading Evgeni Malkin for what would have been big return.

The Penguins had lost their second-round playoff series to Washington after winning Stanley Cups the two years prior. The run at the very top was over. It was time to reload with youth and energy. To avoid stagnation.

Your response: "You can't do that to Geno! He's an all-time Penguin great! GENO, GENO, GENO, GENO!"

The Penguins agreed with you. So did Crosby.

The Penguins chose nostalgia. They sold tickets, placated fans, kept the locker room happy. Malkin is finishing out a Hall-of-Fame career and is truly beloved in Pittsburgh. You can't say it was a bad choice.

But it's a choice that helped steer the Penguins to where they're at: Out of the playoffs for a third straight year, more stale than week-old bread.

So, if we're so strictly preaching what's best for the team, do it all the time.

Keeping Rakell isn't a cataclysmically bad move.

You'd get a first-round pick for him. No better. Maybe not even that. (I'm still shocked that the Penguins got a first-round choice from Vancouver for Marcus Pettersson and Drew O'Connor.)

Rakell figures to stay on Crosby's line as long as Rakell is in Pittsburgh. That means he should remain prolific.

I'm not sure how much the point-per-game mark means to Crosby. Most stats don't resonate with No. 87, but this is a benchmark of consistency. (Can a parallel be drawn with Mike Tomlin never having a losing season? Maybe. But Tomlin isn't currently tied with Wayne Gretzky for anything.)

Crosby wants good players to play with, and he lost Jake Guentzel at last year's trade deadline. (Guentzel was going to be a free agent. Rakell is not.)

Keep Rakell.

Best-case scenario: Rakell is still a productive player for the Penguins when they make the playoffs again. That's not an impossibility.