Mailbag: Penguins' present, Krug's next contract, Byfuglien's future

Here is the April 22 edition of Dan Rosen's weekly mailbag. If you have a question, tweet it to @drosennhl and use #OvertheBoards.

Evgeni Malkin is 33, Sidney Crosby is 32, Patric Hornqvist is 33 and Kris Letang is 32. The Pittsburgh Penguins do not have a strong farm system when it comes to prospects. Does general manager Jim Rutherford sleep at night, knowing this organization is going to have to rebuild in the next couple of years? -- @theashcity

Rutherford's mandate for Pittsburgh is to win now as long as Crosby, Malkin and Letang are in their prime and playing at a high level. That means taking every reasonable form of action. That's how you get forward Jason Zucker in a trade with the Minnesota Wild. It required the Penguins to give up top defenseman prospect Calen Addison and a conditional first-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, but Zucker is a veteran player who can help the Penguins win now, so Rutherford has to make that move 10 times out of 10. Addison may turn into an elite defenseman, and the player drafted with that conditional pick could turn into an all-star. We don't know. Neither do the Penguins. But they know Zucker and they know, or believe, they can win with him.

There will come a time when the Penguins will have to go through a rebuild. It will be difficult. But I don't think Rutherford will be the GM when it happens. He's 71, won the Stanley Cup three times and is in the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder. He doesn't need to prove himself through a long rebuild in Pittsburgh. He'll know when it's time to go and that's when he'll get out. He doesn't want to leave the cupboard completely bare, but winning the Stanley Cup again is all that matters.

Who was injured but now available to play thanks to this lengthy pause? -- @yodermaker

The list is long, but I'll give you the highlights.

The Colorado Avalanche are the headline team because forwards Nathan MacKinnon (lower body), Mikko Rantanen (lower body), Nazem Kadri (lower body) and Andre Burakovsky (lower body), and goalie Philipp Grubauer (lower body) should be healthy when the NHL season resumes. All were out of the lineup in Colorado's 3-2 overtime win against the New York Rangers on March 11, the night before the season was paused due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

Staying in the Central Division, St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko is healthy after rehabilitation following Oct. 28 shoulder surgery.

Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos should be back. He was expected to miss 6-8 weeks when the Lightning announced he was having surgery March 2 to repair a core muscle injury. Defenseman Jake Muzzin (broken right hand) should be good to go for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Atlantic Division.

The Metropolitan Division has a lot of key players who should be available, including Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton and Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel. Hamilton will be back after having surgery to repair a fractured fibula in his left leg Jan. 17. Guentzel, who had surgery to repair his right shoulder Dec. 31, has not had any known setbacks and likely will be ready to go when the season comes back; he was expected to need 4-6 months to recover. The Hurricanes also should have defenseman Sami Vatanen and goalie James Reimer back from their lower-body injuries. Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones and forward Oliver Bjorkstrand were expected to be out 8-10 weeks because of ankle injuries sustained 11 days apart in February. They should be healthy when the NHL season resumes, a huge plus for the Blue Jackets, who may not have been able to hold their Stanley Cup Playoff position had the season not been paused because of the injuries; they're tied with the Hurricanes for the first wild card from the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the New York Islanders.

New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider said Monday his fractured foot, an injury sustained Feb. 28, has healed. Islanders defenseman Johnny Boychuk (eye) and center Casey Cizikas (lower body) are ready to go. And Philadelphia Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk (finger) is working his way back toward being ready; general manager Chuck Fletcher said April 10 that van Riemsdyk was 1-2 weeks away from being cleared.

Forwards Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty will be back for the Vegas Golden Knights after being labeled week to week with lower body injuries. Pacioretty was injured March 9 and Stone last played Feb. 26. Defenseman Jakob Chychrun, who was week to week with a lower-body injury sustained Feb. 19, could be a huge boost to the Arizona Coyotes. The Vancouver Canucks should have goalie Jacob Markstrom healthy after he was injured Feb. 22 and was expected to be reevaluated two weeks after a lower-body procedure; the Canucks were 3-5-0 without him.

What kind of contract will Torey Krug most likely get and will it be in a Boston Bruins uniform? -- @BostonDiGiorgio

Krug, the Bruins defenseman who could be an unrestricted free agent after the season, said he wants to stay in Boston. He even named his dog Fenway; it doesn't get much more Boston than that.

Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said they want to re-sign Krug but haven't landed on anything yet, and the NHL salary cap uncertainty for next season likely is an issue. I'd say a sweet spot for the 29-year-old to re-sign with the Bruins would be a contract of at least seven years worth about $7 million per season. But with zero certainty about the salary cap, the Bruins could be thinking that they just aren't in a position to give Krug that kind of contract now.

My feeling before the pause was that Krug was a lock to re-sign with the Bruins. He means too much to them and he's a perfect fit. I'd say it's more 50-50 at this point.

What do you think happens with Video: PIT@BUF: Crosby races in and backhands puck home? -- @aksinnaeve

Video: PIT@BUF: Crosby races in and backhands puck home, which ran through the 2020-21 season, on April 18. He should have teams interested if he wants to play next season. I think it's still a big if, though.

He didn't play this season, and what if he liked his time away enough to realize he didn't need the NHL in his life? What if the 869 regular-season games, 66 postseason games and a Stanley Cup championship with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010 is enough for the 35-year-old defenseman? It's possible that it is. There are enough red flags out there of this being the case. He didn't want to play for the Jets at the start of the season. He didn't want to continue with his rehab after ankle surgery, with the next step getting on the ice. He did not want to be traded by the Jets either. He walked away from a contract worth $7.6 million this season and next, money he would have received had he decided to finish his rehab and play this season and next, whether for the Jets uniform or elsewhere. That seems like enough to suggest Byfuglien isn't interested in playing right now. But he hasn't spoken publicly or officially retired, so no one knows what will happen tomorrow, next month or next year.

If Byfuglien decides he wants to play, it's likely there will be teams willing to sign him as an unrestricted free agent. If I was a GM, though, my only offer would be an incentive-laden, one-year contract. I don't want to run the risk of Byfuglien wavering on his desire to play in the second season or getting injured. I honestly don't know which way this will go, but the reward of signing Byfuglien to a one-year contract seems to me to outweigh any risk involved if he wants to play.

Do you see Video: PIT@BUF: Crosby races in and backhands puck home as a Calder Trophy contender next season with the Minnesota Wild? -- @TJRinger1

I'm in the need-to-see-it-to-believe-it camp when it comes to Kaprizov, Minnesota's fifth-round pick (No. 135) in the 2015 NHL Draft, who still hasn't signed his entry-level contract with the Wild. The hype around Kaprizov is well earned. He led the Kontinental Hockey League in goals each of the past two seasons with CSKA Moscow, scoring 30 in 57 games last season and 33 in 57 games this season. He was third in points this season with 62. But how will that translate to the NHL? How does his game translate to the smaller ice sheet in North America? He had a great showing in the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship, which was played on the smaller ice at Bell Centre in Montreal and Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, with 12 points (nine goals, three assists), tied for the tournament high, to help Russia finish third. But that was against junior-aged players. It's a great tournament, but it's not the NHL. So we still don't know if Kaprizov is going to be the next Artemi Panarin, who won the Calder Trophy as a 24-year-old with the Chicago Blackhawks after coming over from the KHL. I think Kaprizov will be on Calder Trophy watch lists before next season if he signs with the Wild, but there will be some skepticism until he proves himself in the NHL. He has a lot of hype to live up to.

Listen: Video: PIT@BUF: Crosby races in and backhands puck home