The Pittsburgh Penguins' season came to an end a little over a week ago. They lost Game 7 to the New York Rangers, blowing a 3-1 series lead. The elimination marked the fourth year in a row in which the Penguins have failed to win a playoff series.

The reality is the Penguins may be past their window to contend with their current group and an aging core. It's tough to see them managing to take home a fourth Stanley Cup in the Sidney Crosby era. Now with several key players in need of new contracts, Pittsburgh has some tough decisions to make this offseason. A major question being how many of their free agents they're able to bring back.

Pittsburgh did just lock up Bryan Rust to a six-year deal, which carries a $5.13 million cap hit. The Penguins still have several notable free agents though. The most important ones are Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. Both Malkin and Letang have been with the Penguins for all three of their Stanley Cups in this era, spending over a decade and a half with the team. Rickard Rakell, Evan Rodrigues, Casey DeSmith and others are all set to become unrestricted free agents as well. Meanwhile, Kasperi Kapanen and Danton Heinen are both restricted free agents. The Penguins do have about $24 million in cap space to work with, but it won't be enough to bring back all those pieces.

Key Free Agents

It was reported by The Athletic's Rob Rossi that the Penguins had offered Malkin and Letang each a three-year contract at just a $5 million cap hit. Obviously, that's an extremely low offer for each player. That is not a realistic offer to be able to keep either of them.

Despite injury issues, Malkin scored at a great pace when he did play. He finished with 20 goals and 42 points in just 41 games. While a three-year term makes sense, that cap hit is far too low to be a realistic offer. If Malkin hits the open market, he could get much more money.

In the case of Letang, he remained the Penguins' top defenseman at 35 years old, scoring 68 points in 78 games this season. He also averaged nearly 26 minutes per game. A couple months ago, Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli reported Letang was looking for a five-year deal with a cap hit of at least $7 million. Given how important Letang still is for the Penguins, it's a fairly reasonable ask in terms of price.

General manager Ron Hextall did say the Penguins are hoping to re-sign both Malkin and Letang. That provides a bit of optimism that the pair could be back. Malkin also noted he hopes to stay in Pittsburgh. It still seems like there's a decent chance the two sides could be headed for a split though.

It's a tricky situation f0r Pittsburgh. Keeping Malkin and Letang would be important but would likely mean they don't have the cap space to go after, or even retain, other talent. With Malkin and Letang both in their mid-30s (and Malkin having issues staying healthy), the Penguins have reasons to try to get younger.

Given Pittsburgh's lack of playoff success, management also has to decide whether they feel they can contend again. They couldn't get out of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs yet again. That's despite the talented roster they had at their disposal. If they lose some of their free agents, it doesn't make their chances for next season look any better.

Not many expect the Penguins to entertain the possibility of a full-on rebuild. That's particularly true given the talent they still have. But, they do need to look at their roster and figure out how competitive they can be over the next few years. It's a tough situation. Currently constructed, the Penguins likely won't be able to contend in a tough Eastern Conference.

They can find their way back to the playoffs once again but may not necessarily have the pieces to make a deep run. If they opt to extend both Letang and Malkin, they'll be using a huge chunk of their remaining cap space on players in their mid-30s, leaving them with little other cap space to add. However, by letting them walk, Pittsburgh is extremely unlikely to able to bring in anyone to replace them and will almost surely take a big step back next season.

Regardless, the Penguins have some key decisions to make over the next few weeks. Those decisions could potentially change the look of their team in a significant way.