Ron Hextall says he's been pretty impressed by what he's seen from the Penguins since he replaced Jim Rutherford as general manager.
He likes how it has responded to a steady stream of adversity, how resilient it has been.
He could, he said Saturday, be content to enter the stretch drive and Stanley Cup playoffs with his current depth chart, assuming the Penguins' many injured players are able to rejoin the lineup before the regular season ends.
But that doesn't mean Hextall won't be exploring possible moves between now and the April 12 NHL trade deadline. Especially if he gets an opportunity add some muscle to his team.
"(Team toughness) is certainly something we'd like to address here, at some point," Hextall told DK Pittsburgh Sports on Saturday. "It's got to make sense for us, and there has to be a willing partner, as well. But it's something we would like to address, for sure."
That became a front-burner issue again during the Penguins' just-concluded two game series against Buffalo, during which the Sabres spent considerable time and energy trying to physically abuse Sidney Crosby.
That didn't work out any better for Buffalo than anything else it tried to do in those games -- Crosby scored or assisted on five goals, which is three more than the Sabres' entire team managed to generate -- but it did underscore the merits of having someone around to deter opponents from taking liberties with the Penguins' skilled players.
Trouble is, a lot of guys who are effective with their fists can't do enough other things with their hands to warrant regular playing time. And being able to rely on only 17 of the 18 skaters dressed for a given game puts a team at an obvious disadvantage.
"We know Sid can battle through it, but it would be nice to have somebody to help out in the physical part of it, as well," Hextall said. "But again, there's not a lot of these guys around, because you've got to be able to play the game, too. We certainly will continue to try to address it and see what comes our way."
Although he has a wish list of players who could take on that role, Hextall recognizes that landing one of them probably won't be easy. Even if their current club is willing to part with them, the Penguins have to be willing to give up assets that satisfy the other club and to have the salary-cap space required to accommodate the player's contract.
"You've always got your eye on a couple of guys at every position, right?" he said. "But the other team has to be willing (to part with him) and the price has got to be right. It's why we always have these great ideas that we come up with and a lot of them don't come to fruition."
Hextall seems cautiously optimistic that all of the Penguins' injured players -- a group that includes prominent forwards such as Evgeni Malkin, Jason Zucker, Kasperi Kapanen and Teddy Blueger -- will be healthy before the playoffs begins, but is in the market for at least one forward who could be plugged into the top-six to fill some of the short-term void there.
"It's hard to predict, but I do expect ... maybe it's more 'hopeful' than 'expect,' but I'm certainly hopeful they all return before the regular season is over," he said. "It would be nice, right now, with our injuries to add a little bit of skill up front. That's what we'd like to do, but we've got salary-cap issues and other things we have to deal with, players coming back and roster issues, so we'll see if anything shakes out that makes sense.
"We have some guys who are still going to be out for weeks, so if we could add something that helps us the next few weeks and after that, we certainly would move on it, if the price was right."
The trade that sent Eric Staal from Buffalo to Montreal for a pair of draft choices Friday was the first high-profile deal of the pre-deadline period, and evidence that serious conversations between general managers are becoming more frequent.
"Obviously, when there is a deal made like the one (between the Sabres and Canadiens), it starts to speed things up a little bit," Hextall said. "I think things are starting to ramp up a little bit."
One facet of the Buffalo-Montreal exchange that might be overlooked is that it came in the wake of a decision by Canadian officials to allow NHL players entering the country to quarantine for seven days rather than the 14 required of members of the general public. That enhances the chances of trades between clubs based on opposite sides of the border.
"I think it opens things up a little bit, because I think the Canadian teams ... it's hard when you're not going to have a guy for two weeks," Hextall said. "A week does make a difference, especially when you look at the amount of time we have left in the season and you take two weeks out of it.
"That will probably open things up a little bit and hopefully, there will be more players available or more teams to deal with. It's always hard to find a perfect fit in a salary-cap world, in terms of the player and the assets and the cash and cap space that have to go back and forth. It's gives you more options."
Hextall and his staff figure to look into all of the ones that are presented to them, but -- at least as things are today -- he seems willing to live with the group that he has if the right offer doesn't come along.
At the same time, he's hardly willing to commit to preserving the status quo.
"Our group has been very resilient," he said. "I really like the way we're playing. We're finding ways to win. We're not sitting here feeling sorry for ourselves because we've got five guys who are pretty significant forwards out of our group (because of injuries) right now. We've had guys step up, and that's a really good sign.
"I could certainly live with this roster. I really like our team, the way we were playing when we weren't even whole. If we come back healthy, I really like our team. In saying that, anytime you have a chance to improve your team when you're playing the way we are, yeah, we will look at everything. And if we can improve the team, we certainly will. In saying that, we're not going to give away multiple future pieces, necessarily, but if we can find the right piece and the right deal, we'll absolutely move on it."
