PITTSBURGH — Three bits of news in seven days, two likely involving the NHL club, and one gigantic question surrounding the Penguins: Why not orient everything they do in 2025-26 toward the idea of hopefully obtaining teenage phenom Gavin McKenna?

Answer: It appears that's exactly what they're doing, even if you won't hear the franchise talk openly about a tank.

But 21 years after drafting Mario Lemieux in 1984, the Penguins selected Sidney Crosby. Another 21 years later, and there's a chance to land McKenna, the Canadian Hockey League Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year who last week committed to Penn State?

It's too perfect.

It's like the Steelers having the opportunity to select their next franchise quarterback at home a couple months earlier in 2026 or the Pirates getting the best pitcher in baseball for a pittance and ...

Yeah, so about McKenna.

The 17-year-old will become arguably the biggest name ever in college hockey when he suits up for Penn State., part of a rule change allowing junior players to go this route. I can't wait. This past season with Medicine Hat of the Western Hockey League, McKenna had 41 goals and 129 points in 56 games, then amassed 38 more points in 16 postseason contests.

Video game numbers for the native of Whitehorse, Yukon, which also included a CHL-record 54-game point streak where McKenna had 40 goals and 137 points.

There's Crosby or Connor McDavid-level certainty that McKenna will be selected first overall in 2026. And the Penguins should tank to give themselves the best odds at obtaining the prodigy.

Or continue to do so, I should say.

My prior position used to be affording Crosby another kick at the can, however slight, with Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. My opinion also doesn't matter.

Based on their actions, it doesn't seem like that's in the same solar system as the Penguins' current thinking.

How else to interpret acquiring roster-filling defenseman Matt Dumba and earmarking a spot for goaltender Arturs Silovs, who's been solid in the American Hockey League but profiles more as an NHL dart throw?

They're not moves you make with an intent to pursue winning in 2025-26, and that's precisely why I love them.

Don't do this halfway.

Hop in that tank and ride.

The Penguins said the quiet part out loud with Dumba, who's been a shell of his former self. He played just over 15 minutes a night last year for the Stars and somehow managed an expected goals-for percentage of 39.8% on one of the best teams in the Western Conference during five-on-five play.

Traditionally, Dumba is a minus-31 over the past five seasons, and it seems the Stars would sooner have plucked a fan out of the stands than allowed one of Mike Johnston's former Portland Winterhawks to suit up during the playoffs.

Sounds like a 2025-26 Pittsburgh Penguin already.

Silovs arrives with slightly more intrigue, in large part due to his work with Vancouver's top minor league affiliate in Abbotsford.

Named most valuable player of the Calder Cup playoffs, Silovs went 16-7 with a 2.01 goals-against average and .931 save percentage, his five shutouts one shy of the AHL record for a playoff run.

In parts of five AHL seasons, Silovs has a 2.58 goals-against average, .906 save percentage and nine shutouts in 110 games, which included the 24-year-old's best season to date in 2024-25.

With Alex Nedeljkovic traded to the Sharks and Joel Blomqvist and Sergei Murashov either knocking on the door or close, the Silovs move could mean one of two things.

Either the Penguins are buying time for the two younger goalies by taking a chance on someone who got squeezed out of Vancouver, or they're thinking about trading Tristan Jarry.

Either way, no issues here.

It feels like the Penguins have been slowly and discreetly moving the goalposts on how competitive they plan to be in 2025-26, but it's tough to hide Dumba getting top-four minutes and Silovs becoming a regular part of the goaltending rotation.

Which takes me to Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust, two attractive candidates around the NHL draft and start of free agency. As much as I like both, their days must be numbered. Keeping them detracts from the ultimate goal of McKenna.

It's a plan, I'd also like to note, that could and should quiet the silly Crosby trade speculation.

Mario was that guy, that mentor for Sid when he entered the NHL. I'd have to imagine the routine-driven Crosby would grasp the importance of theoretically doing the same for McKenna, perhaps even opening the doors to his home.

Twenty-one years. Still blows my mind.

The Penguins should know better than anyone that you get nowhere in the NHL with mediocrity. In fact, as much as they've historically been defined by star power, don't forget the historic ineptitude that has produced those runs.

Move over "X Generation." It's time for the next chapter.

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