PITTSBURGH — The common narrative around the Penguins these days involves affording Sidney Crosby another kick at the can.

Using 2024-25 as a transition year. Stockpiling assets. President of hockey operations Kyle Dubas essentially doing everything within his power to keep the competitive window open.

But we might be missing something important here, an iconic player who's occasionally known as Mr. 101: Evgeni Malkin.

While Dubas' work over the past 12 months — bringing to 30 the Penguins' number of draft picks over the next three years, including 18 in the first three rounds — makes sense, I disagreed with one portion of his latest media availability earlier this month at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

"What I want to do is temper the expectation that we're going to use all these [draft picks] right away this summer and do whatever we have to do with them," Dubas said. "We're going to survey the landscape as urgently as we can each day to find moves that can best help propel the team ahead."

Look, it might be splitting hairs or me reading too much into this. But it's also reasonable — no, preferable — for Dubas to try and accelerate the Penguins' timeline.

The 2025-26 season represents the conclusion of Malkin's four-year, $24.4 million contract that he signed on July 12, 2022. He'll be 39. The general expectation is for him to retire (at least from the NHL) and return to Russia. It's certainly hard to see another Penguins deal in his future.

Which is one of several reasons why I don't think Dubas would be wrong for stepping on the gas pedal some this summer.

Not in a foolish, mortgage-the-entire-future kind of way, but one in which the Penguins honor a franchise legend who is perpetually under-appreciated because he's played his entire career alongside Sid.

"Relative to the age of the group and their contracts, my goal is to try and build a group around those guys and give them one or two chances while they're still on those contracts," Dubas said, talking about Crosby, Malkin and Kris Letang.

Well, if Malkin only has one year left ... that has to be now, no?

And Malkin deserves that.

Just think for a second about the mindset of so many professional athletes, the ego, the alpha-like desire, the want or need to command attention.

Malkin has spared us from that.

He's been the frustrating turnover guy, the offensive-zone penalty guy, the game-has-slowed-some guy. But Malkin has never needed to have a "C" stitched on his sweater, nor has he sought to be the public face of the Penguins.

Shoot, Malkin has always hated that stuff, though he has been the unpolished source of truth in the Penguins' dressing room, the place reporters know to go for an honest appraisal.

The dude has also played hockey well, at a Hall of Fame level and one that damn sure should've had him included in the NHL's top-100 list back in 2017.

Yeah, still bothers me, too.

We're talking about someone with 511 goals and 1,340 points — 44th and 31st, respectively. Malkin has won the Calder, Art Ross, Hart and Conn Smythe trophies, along with hoisting the Stanley Cup three times. A no-doubt Hall of Famer.

Still not convinced? Let's look at this another way.

Ignore for a second the longtime partnership with Crosby. If Malkin was on another team, you better believe that club would be doing everything within its power — especially with all those tradable picks and $26 million in projected cap space according to PuckPedia.com — to compete.

So, why shouldn't that happen here?

Again, I'm not saying Dubas should grab the first thing he sees and sprint out of the store. Just shop aggressively.

The Penguins need at least one more top-six forward; bottom-six depth; a left-shot, top-four defenseman; and perhaps a different bridge to one of the three talented young goalies in the organization.

The list isn't small, but it is doable when considering Dubas' portfolio of assets and money. Especially if he can somehow find landing spots for Tristan Jarry, Erik Karlsson and Ryan Graves.

I also want to be fair to Dubas. Despite those three moves clouding his work with the Penguins, the pivot over the past year has been smart and effective.

A conditional first, two players and a legit prospect for Marcus Pettersson and Drew O'Connor? A second and a fourth for Luke Schenn (not to mention those picks plus Tommy Novak for Michael Bunting)?

Solid work.

Dubas also isn't saying this will take forever. Another of his quotes from that same session: "If there are opportunities to use the excess capital that we've accumulated, whether it's cap space or draft picks, to add players to the program to help propel it ahead, we won't hesitate to do that.

"I've said before that there's no ambition on my end to have this take any longer than it needs to take."

In free agency or trade terms, Dubas will be looking for players with productive years ahead for a reasonable rate versus veterans who might quickly decline, which is fair.

But we also need to remember that Malkin's legacy here is not small, even if it has been sometimes easy to overlook because of Crosby and the Penguins' legacy of star power.

It's something that I really hope they honor appropriately.

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