Kovacevic: Seriously, what in heck are the Penguins doing this summer?

MILWAUKEE -- It's possible that the Penguins will get lucky and that free-agent signee Brock McGinn will represent "an upgrade for us" over expansion loss Brandon Tanev, as Brian Burke lousily phrased it a few days ago.

It's also possible that free-agent gain Danton Heinen will offset the glaring giveaway of Jared McCann, who never needed to be exposed to expansion and, thus, never needed to be traded.

It's also possible that free-agent retainee Evan Rodrigues will blossom into a better all-around forward than free-agent loss Freddy Gaudreau, who was smartly snapped up by Billy Guerin in St. Paul for the same price.

Oh, it's unlikely on all three counts, I should add, but one or all could work out.

Now, here are three other offseason decisions that, at least from this perspective, rate a zero on that same scale:

1. It couldn't be clearer that Ron Hextall's satisfied to enter the 2020-21 NHL season with Tristan Jarry as his starting goaltender.

If his words ("Those guys did a good job for us last year," Hextall said last week, referring also to Casey DeSmith. "We anticipate them both being back.") and Burke's words ("Tristan's the reason why we won the division," Burke said last week. "He's going to be really good here in the future") aren't convincing enough, then consider only that every move made to date has left the team's salary cap status virtually unchanged from season's end, with scarcely $2 million in space. That wouldn't buy the Shaler JV's third-stringer, let alone an NHL free agent, let alone a trade acquisition of any repute.

If Hextall and/or Burke were serious about goaltending, they'd have been at least a nominal player in the Marc-Andre Fleury process rather than watching the Golden Knights send him to the Blackhawks for next to nothing. But they weren't. They never wanted Fleury.

I don't believe they want additional goaltending at all. I believe they're ready to ride through an entire regular season and have everyone, notably their own skaters, wondering how Jarry might react to Game 1 next spring.

Imagine that being a plan.

2. Cody Ceci was allowed to walk.

I don't mean to make him sound like some Norris candidate, but he was young, smart, tough, a perfect fit for the Mike Sullivan structure at both ends of the ice, a perfect partner for the mercurial Mike Matheson, a big enough blue-line presence in a league that just rewarded all four playoff semifinalists for having a bunch of those, and he'll now have to be replaced by ... someone exactly like him.

Which won't happen internally unless Chad Ruhwedel spends all summer chugging cans of spinach. 

Why was Ceci lost?

Because Hextall assessed that the Oilers' contract to land him -- four years, $3.25 million AAV -- was a little high. Which it was. And big whoop. Part of an executive's job is to weigh needs within an existing context, not against the open market. The Penguins needed Ceci back far more than they needed any one of McGinn, Heinen, Rodrigues, Zach Aston-Reese or Dominik Simon. If it meant putting up an extra $1 million in AAV to keep Ceci -- and it wouldn't have been more -- that's a no-brainer. And once that's done, then go play around with signing fringe forwards.

Imagine fringe forwards being the priority.

3. Seriously, what the heck are they doing?

Meaning the plan. The priorities.

What happened to Hextall, Burke, Sullivan, Sidney Crosby and everyone else saying they liked the composition of the roster?

For that matter, what happened to various other needs/wants expressed along the way, such as seeking more size, snarl, etc?

I don't happen to see those as a priority myself, but I bring it up in search of any sense of identity. Or desired identity. If at least that were discernible, then other subtractions along the way could be ignored. But it isn't. I've less of a clue as to what kind of team Hextall wants to build in Pittsburgh than when he took over.

Maybe that'll change in the next couple months, but I'm not seeing how.

• Once more: I'm not inflating Ceci, I swear. Yeah, all of his advanced analytics were at career highs. But yeah, also, Sullivan and Todd Reirden shrewdly minimized the top-line matchups and defensive-zone draws Ceci and Matheson encountered. That might've been the biggest single variable in Ceci's leap in performance from how he fared in both Ottawa and Toronto. He was handled like a third-pairing guy.

But it worked. And it could've continued to work for the foreseeable future.

• No one anywhere wins a Stanley Cup by thinking small. The Penguins were left with one big problem on Long Island, and they're running away from it rather than right at it.

• Evgeni Malkin turned 35 over the weekend. As if your Monday wasn't off to a lousy enough start.

• Nothing about the Steelers' training camp, which resumes this afternoon at Heinz Field, could be less of a surprise than that the offensive line's a concern.

But my goodness, it really is. Maybe even more than anyone could've anticipated.

Kendrick Green's been in place and performed well. Although he hasn't been anointed the starting center, he'll be that Thursday night in Canton against the Cowboys and, to date, he's earned it.

Annnnnnnnd ... that's it, kids. Zach Banner's been on and off the field, coming off the knee surgery. Chuks Okorafor's been slow to get involved. Trai Turner's been ... just slow. And Kevin Dotson's apparently been supplanted as first-team left guard, at least for now, by fourth-year practice squad guy Rashaad Coward.

I find the latter most intriguing, in large part because I'd love to see anyone at all rise up in these situations, regardless of history or pedigree. If that's Coward, who's shown well, so be it. If that's Aviante Collins, another fourth-year guy in camp who's shown well, so be it.

But at some point presumably very soon, the priority needs to flip from personnel to chemistry. After the Hall of Fame Game, there'll be a month left for these individuals to become a unit. And in all likelihood, the five who'll start in Buffalo have yet to line up together for a single snap in OTAs, minicamp or here.

• What's wrong with Dotson?

It might be nothing at all. He was briefly held back last week with what Mike Tomlin termed a minor injury, though he still was taking second-team reps behind Coward once cleared to return. He also might never have been in the plan for Canton, though that wouldn't explain Green's involvement.

It also might be that his coaches are still displeased with him, as I'd reported to be the case a month ago. Now, contrary to some warped interpretations of my reporting -- which I believe originated with an Instagram comment, insanely enough -- I never gave a reason for why the coaches were mad. If only because I never heard a firm reason. Still, it ended up becoming this massive issue that I claimed Dotson was out of shape, which was both funny and dispiriting.

That said, the source I got for the coaches being mad was ... wow, it's as close as one gets, let's put it that way. There was something they definitely didn't like.

Maybe that's it. Maybe it isn't.

• Don't bury Mason Rudolph before a single exhibition. That makes no sense. Anyone can have a lousy camp weekend.

But go right ahead and bury him if he stinks in Canton.

I'm almost being serious, too. This is the time of year for backup quarterbacks. This is the time for which they prepare. And if Rudolph, the only QB on the roster signed into 2022, can't fend off Dwayne Haskins and/or Josh Dobbs, both of whom have out-performed him to date, then that won't reflect particularly well on him in and of itself. He needs to make clear that No. 2 really is No. 2 ... and dependable enough to be No. 1 if needed.

• Hoy Park's late double in the Pirates' 15-4 flogging by the Phillies yesterday at PNC Park should serve as a line of demarcation. And not just because it was the young man's breakthrough big-league hit.

It should also put an end, once and for all, to Derek Shelton lineups like these:

And that should begin tonight, right here in Milwaukee. 

I get respecting the vets. Always have, always will. It's part of competitive athletics at all levels.

But Park, 25, was slashing .327/.475/.567 in 48 games for the Yankees' Class AAA team before Brian Cashman, for some insane reason, found him to be a fair return for Clay Holmes. And that dude's got to play. Every. Single. Day.

He isn't alone. Rodolfo Castro appears to have little to gain from Class AAA, though that might prove wrong. For as long as he can hit here, though, he should stay here. And play here. And the same goes for Tucupita Marcano, the middle infielder who was the headliner in the Adam Frazier trade. He went 2 for 4 with a triple and walk yesterday for Indianapolis. When he's ready, he needs to roll. And the same goes double, obviously, for any and all pitchers.

Two months remain. Team results don't matter much, but individual progress sure does.

Just not for most of the names in that lineup up there.

• It's wholly plausible at this point that Mitch Keller just isn't very good at pitching.

Not to be that guy, but describe for me one sequence that's ever been seen from him that'd make anyone feel otherwise. Not even a full game. Like ... a full inning.

I rest my case.

• Remember all the silliness that arose once it became clear the Pirates' draft plan would focus on spreading the bonus money over more than just the No. 1 overall prospect?

They're cheaping out!

Well, then ...

Allow me to translate, please: The Pirates had a maximum of $14,394,000 they were allotted to spend on the entire draft class. If they spent more than an additional 5% beyond that, they'd have to forfeit next year's first-round pick. So ... they spent the full allotment plus the 5%.

To. The. Penny.

No one should applaud this, mind you. Nineteen other teams achieved exactly the same. It's nothing more than doing what a team should do, and that goes a billion times over for a team building from the bottom like the Pirates.

Only reason I mention it here is to underscore, yet again, that it helps to understand how these things work before mindlessly parroting along with the talk-show choir. If anything, for whoever really, really hates the Pirates or Bob Nutting, it only strengthens their stance to not be wrong about something this obvious.

As for the draft itself, the approach was superlative. But as Ben Cherington himself spoke yesterday, "It doesn't mean anything if we don't develop them."

Exactly. We'll see.