Ten things that will happen before the end of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ next season:

1. Winger Ville Koivunen will be NHL Rookie of the Year. Good speed, great playmaker, plays the 10-foot game that Sidney Crosby prefers. He had seven assists in eight NHL games this season and only scratched the surface. Koivunen will play on Crosby’s line and excel.

2. The Penguins will try to accelerate their rebuild to fit Crosby’s timetable and to no good effect.

3. Tristan Jarry will be the No. 1 goaltender unless the Penguins rush prospect Sergei Murashov, 20, as per the previous paragraph. Jarry’s contract (three more years at $5.375 per) is difficult to move. Winning now shouldn’t be the goal, and Jarry is perfectly adept at not winning.

4. Rushing the rebuild might take the form of a big-name signing that would be better done in a few years when rebuilding nears completion, and the Penguins’ needs are clear.

5. Winger Rutger McGroarty, defenseman Owen Pickering and center Vasily Ponomarev will join Koivunen to form a young nucleus on next season’s Penguins. Hopefully their youthful energy dissipates some of the locker room’s mercenary staleness. Defenseman Harrison Brunicke almost made the team at training camp but hasn’t yet turned 19. He’s nonetheless impressive.

6. Coach Mike Sullivan will use his young players properly. That’s because he’s finally got some young players worth using and because a lot of the old guys really stink.

7. Rickard Rakell’s production will drop. Bryan Rust’s will not.

8. Evgeni Malkin isn’t the sort to put in a huge summer of preparation for his last NHL season. That means his play, production and energy will continue to be meh. Malkin will nonetheless be feted constantly on his farewell tour, and deservedly so.

9. Erik Karlsson will get traded, with the Penguins retaining $3 million per on the remaining two seasons of his contract. That will be money well lost. Dollar for dollar, value for money, Karlsson has been the Penguins’ worst player these past two seasons. His failings have been astounding.

10. The Penguins will not make the playoffs. Next season is about development. Or should be.