Here are the five keys to the Pittsburgh Penguins having a successful offseason.  

1. Re-signing Players

The Penguins knew they were going to re-sign a lot of their best players and that's exactly what they did. They gave Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang huge, eight-year contracts. They also gave Pascal Dupuis a three-year contract and Kunitz a two-year extension for his fine play. They had to extend these players because they are a part of the core of the team. 

2. Signing a Defensemen

The Penguins needed a new defenseman to help Letang out. They got "the piece" back on the first day of free agency by signing defenseman Rob Scuderi to a four-year deal. He played the last four seasons with the Los Angeles Kings and before that he played with the Penguins. He has won two Stanley Cups, each with these two teams. It will be interesting to see if Dan Bylsma actually pairs them together which would be great because Scuderi can help Letang not turn the puck over and make him perform well in the playoffs.

3. Getting a Third-Line Winger 

Pittsburgh is in desperate need of a third-line winger after losing Matt Cooke to free agency and possibly losing Brenden Morrow too. They will look in free agency for a winger, but not that much is out there. Almost everyone that was out there in free agency is now gone because they were all signed on the first day. If they cannot find anyone, they may be able to get someone in a trade. The last possibility would be moving someone from the fourth line to the third line, but that's risky.

4. Get Prepared For Next Season

The Penguins are going to be needing to be prepared heading into next season. They want to have a great regular season and a long run into the Stanley Cup Finals. They are going to have to find the right line combinations heading into the season and defensive line combinations. We'll see what Bylsma does.

5. Getting more money to be under the cap

After all of the signings that the Penguins have done this offseason, they are very close to being over the cap. They are going to need to find a way to get more money to get under the cap. One could say that they can trade Matt Niskanen, a defenseman who is decent, to another team. He can get them some good cap space since he has only one year left on his contract. There will be some trades for the Penguins this summer but who will they trade? We will have to see.