Barn Burner: What went wrong for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2023-24 (featuring Frank Seravalli)

On Monday’s episode of Barn Burner, Boomer and Rhett had Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli on the show to break down what went wrong for the Pittsburgh Penguins this season, who look destined to miss the playoffs for a second straight campaign.

“This Pittsburgh Penguins roster is really poorly constructed,” started Frank. “There are holes all over the place, they have poorly evaluated talent, their bottom six was not fixed, the Erik Karlsson trade was not what they needed.”

With the current coaching carousel happening in the NHL the past couple of seasons, missing the playoffs for a second year could ignite the hot seat for one of the longest tenured head coaches in Mike Sullivan. Frank would shed light with Sullivan’s coaching resume and recent contract extension, he doesn’t envision him going anywhere.

“I don’t believe that for a guy that helped the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups, that Mike Sullivan woke up these last two years and forgot how to coach hockey. I don’t see it.” Frank stated, “I think he’s one of the five best coaches in the league and the Pittsburgh Penguins have rewarded him as such.”

The fellas would also go on to discuss the rolling total of errors stacking up from the Penguins front office that has pushed foreseeable success for the squad further into the future.

Frank: “For me it’s the other moves that were made, the contracts, and term. I get that part of the Karlsson deal was to wipe away some contracts that you didn’t like but multiple years for Lars Eller, multiple years for Noel Acciari, I can’t understand what their thought process is. The Riley Smith trade? That was one I understood. You take a cap casualty from Vegas, a guy who has cup pedigree, sure bring him in. But, he didn’t work and you should’ve moved him at this years deadline. The fact that he didn’t get traded blows my mind.”

Finally, with the rumour mill swirling around the Penguins captain, Sidney Crosby, this trade deadline, there has been a lot of controversy about what the next steps in the Hall of Famers career are, starting with what this years exit interviews will look like.

“He says all the right things because that’s actually what he’s thinking and feeling.” said Frank. “He wants to be a Pittsburgh Penguin, has no intentions or visions  to go elsewhere and I would be real surprised if we get to the 4th of July this year and the Pittsburgh Penguins haven’t announced a new extension with Sidney Crosby. I think they’ve already done work on it. I think they have already had initial conversations

The Penguins currently sit 7 points back of fellow Pennsylvania resident Philadelphia Flyers for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with 9 games left on the schedule.

Watch Monday’s episode in full here:

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