The idea of the Pittsburgh Penguins trading for New York Rangers center Vincent Trocheck was a hot debate on local sports talk radio Tuesday.

I don’t see a reason for the debate. If the Pens can do that, they should.

In his recent “32 Thoughts” podcast, SportsNet insider Elliotte Friedman put the Penguins on the fringes of the derby to acquire the 32-year-old Upper St. Clair native. Utah, Detroit, Colorado, Minnesota and Los Angeles are all potential suitors. That said, Trocheck does have 12 teams on his no-trade list. Most of them are believed to be Western Conference teams. So that may be a factor.

This is absolutely a trade president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas should pursue. The Penguins are in a playoff position with just 22 games to go. Trocheck plays center. Sidney Crosby is hurt. So is Blake Lizotte.

Trocheck is great at faceoffs (57.2%, 15th in the NHL). He’s good in shootouts (41%). The Penguins need to start earning points in that regard.

The Pittsburgh Hornets alum was top 20 in Selke Trophy voting last year. He had 20 points in 16 playoff games with the Rangers in 2024. He was also part of a Team USA penalty kill unit that didn’t allow a goal throughout the entire Olympics en route to a gold medal last month in Italy.

Again, where’s the debate?

Near as I can tell, here are the reasons for hesitation that I’m getting from some Pittsburgh fans and media members.

• Trocheck is a 32-year-old veteran who costs $5.6 million against the cap: So what? That’s not as big a number as it used to be, and it won’t seem like very much at all by the time he enters his final year in 2028-29. Not to mention, he’s durable, having missed just one regular-season game over the last four years.

Right now, the Penguins’ projected cap space (according to Puckpedia) is $10.54 million, fourth most in the NHL. Next year, their projected cap space is $47.07 million, the third most in the league.

Evgeni Malkin, Noel Acciari, Kevin Hayes, Connor Dewar and Anthony Mantha are all unrestricted free agent forwards this summer. The Pens won’t be resigning all of them. You can add defensemen Connor Clifton, Ryan Shea and goalie Stuart Skinner to that mix. That’s a little bit more than $22 million coming off the books.

Especially with Malkin’s status uncertain after this year, having a center like Trocheck in the fold as a second/third liner with Ben Kindel behind Crosby would be a positive acquisition beyond the end of this season.

• When Crosby comes back, there will be too many centers: Too many centers? I don’t even know what that means. When has a team ever had too many centers? That’s like saying a baseball team has “too many” pitchers.

Presumably, if acquired, Trocheck would start his Penguins career on a line with Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell. If Crosby comes back healthy in time for the playoffs, he’ll go back between those two. Tommy Novak can keep centering a line with Malkin and Egor Chinakhov.

Then, Trocheck can slide between Mantha and Justin Brazeau and have Kindel center the fourth line with some combination of Acciari, Kevin Hayes, Avery Hayes, Blake Lizotte, Dewar or whoever else you want.

Leave Kindel with Brazeau and Mantha if you want, and have Trocheck center the fourth line. It’s not forever. It’s for 20 games and the playoffs. Wasn’t Matt Cullen important as a fourth-line center in 2016-17?

And if Novak gets injured or fades, Trocheck can hop up to the second line, and Malkin can stay on the wing where he has thrived.

In the playoffs, you are usually one injury away from “too many centers” turning into “not enough centers.”

• The Rangers are going to ask for too much in return: Maybe. Here was a suggested package that the Penguins would have to give up to get Trocheck.

For a team like the Rangers, which has already let the world know it is in full-sell mode (presumably with no salary retention), Trocheck shouldn’t cost that much.

From the prospect pool, I’d avoid giving up Seregi Murashov, Harrison Brunicke or Will Horcoff. However, if the eventual package includes some loose combination of a first rounder, and/or a second rounder and a prospect such as Rutger McGroarty, Bill Zonnon, Ville Koivunen, Owen Pickering or Tristan Broz, I’m not going to cry over that.

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All of these picks and prospects acquired by Dubas weren’t collected with the intent of every single one making the NHL with the Pens and staying here their whole careers. Some of them were acquired with the intent of moving them in trades like this one.

The Pens are trying to live in two worlds at once — build for the future while pushing for the playoffs with Crosby, Malkin and Kris Letang still in Pittsburgh. The second half of that equation can’t be aided with future picks and guys in Wilkes-Barre.

Keep in mind, the Pens drafted 13 guys last year. They have 16 picks over the first three rounds of the next three drafts. And we’re worrying about too many centers for six weeks? All those prospects are going to log-jam each other if they are all used. Some of them have to be moved.

Not every young player that gets traded haunts you like Markus Naslund. Sometimes they are Angelo Esposito, Noah Welch or Kasperi Kapanen (the first time around). We talk about them a ton as prospects, then they get traded, and it works out for the Penguins.

Trocheck’s two-way play, faceoff skills and PK acumen will age well. I’ll take that known commodity through 2028-29 over a couple of pick/prospect “what if” scenarios.

Again: Cullen, Matt.

If the likes of Minnesota, Detroit and Colorado outbid the Penguins’ best offer and the Rangers are reluctant to trade Trocheck within the division, so be it.

But I still want Dubas to actually make his best offer.

Listen: Tim Benz and Brian Metzer talk Penguins in this week’s hockey podcast