The Pittsburgh Penguins remain one of the oldest teams in the NHL. Who is to blame for roster construction, Mike Sullivan or Kyle Dubas?

Mike Sullivan became the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 12, 2015, and inherited a roster that was the 14th oldest in the league with an average age of 27.13.

At the time of his hiring, Jim Rutherford was the general manager but left in 2021, leaving the door open for Patrik Allvin and then Ron Hextall.

When the former Philadelphia Flyers GM took over the Penguins, the club became the fourth oldest at 28.29. However, before the first puck drop of the 2022-23 season, they shot straight to the top with an average age of 29.54.

When Kyle Dubas assumed the GM role on June 1, 2023, he inherited the NHL’s oldest lineup. Heading into the 2024-25 season, the Penguins are the oldest or second oldest team, depending on where you check these statistics.

Elite Prospects has them ranked second, behind the Edmonton Oilers (30.86) at 29.79, just slightly ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes (29.62) and Nashville Predators (29.55).

Bleacher Report Open Ice has the Penguins in the top spot, as reported last week.

Now, Dubas has only been on the job for a single season and has begun to draft some prospects who will impact the NHL level one day.

Meanwhile, Sullivan has been behind the bench for nine seasons now. During his first campaign, which began in December, the Penguins employed 11 skaters who played at least 10 games during the 2015-16 season.

Since then, the 2018-19 campaign is the only year the lineup featured at least nine skaters under 25 who played over 10 games.

The start of the new decade did no favors to the team’s average age since the 2021-22 season featured just two players under 25, followed by 2022-23 with just three.

In the most recent year, 2023-24, the number started to trend in the opposite direction, with six skaters playing more than 10 games.

So, who is to blame for these totals? Is it management’s inability to find talented prospects who adjust to the NHL, or is it the coach’s failure to get something out of young players under 25?

When Sullivan coached in Boston from 2003 to 2006, he ran the 14th-oldest lineup with an average age of 27.55. He had Patrice Bergeron, Joe Thorton, and Andrew Raycroft, all under 25 at the time.

However, the team did not employ more than nine skaters under 25 in more than 10 games at any point during his two seasons behind the bench.

Meanwhile, during Dubas’ tenure as GM of the Maple Leafs, the Original Six had the 17th, 28th, 7th, 11th, and 20th oldest teams.

The Penguins GM and head coach have different team-building philosophies. One of them will eventually have to give because Pittsburgh is neither at the top of the contenders’ list nor lining up for a lottery pick.

Yet, every day that passes, the fanbase collectively wonders what the future entails for Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang, the core players who have been skating together for two decades.

Either Pittsburgh injects youth into the lineup to maintain its current position or risks watching some of the franchise’s greatest players skate in meaningless games in the twilight of their careers.