AP File Photo Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby is expected to miss a few more weeks after wrist surgery early last month.

Eighteen years.

That’s how long it has been since the Pittsburgh Penguins started a National Hockey League season without Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin in the lineup. That roster included 38-year-old Mario Lemieux and the team’s leading scorer was defenseman Dick Tarnstrom with 52 points.

Adding Malkin and then Crosby in the next two drafts changed the franchise forever. When both players are in the lineup the Penguins can beat any team on any given night and when one is injured the other seems to always elevate their game.

Tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh will be without both of its stars who have carried the franchise since entering the league. What’s keeping Crosby out of the lineup is a wrist surgery that was performed on Sept. 8. He was expected to be out six weeks and he looks to be on track for that return. With Malkin, it’s a knee injury that is expected to keep the superstar out of the lineup for at least two months.

While those timetables are not the end of the world, Pittsburgh fans will really get a look into what a future without its stars could look like — especially against a team like Tampa Bay with depth that would make the 2002 Red Wings jealous.

During Monday’s skate the top two centers for the Penguins were 36-year-old Jeff Carter and the ever-reliable Evan Rodrigues — so long as you’re relying on Rodrigues to not appear on the stat sheet. The rest of that lineup does not provide much of a threat offensively, especially with Jake Guentzel also sidelined to start the year recovering from COVID-19.

The first couple of games to start the season should really show how lacking in depth Pittsburgh is and that goes further past the main roster. The Penguins have one of the weakest prospect pools in hockey.

Now once Crosby returns, then eventually Malkin, things will appear to return to how things have been since the two have been apart of the team, but that brief look at the rest of the roster will be eye-opening. With both Crosby and Malkin back in the lineup the Penguins will surely make the playoffs, but when it really counts in the playoffs, teams with greater depth like the Islanders, Lightning, Bruins, Maple Leafs and Panthers will make quick work of them.

If Pittsburgh does not address its depth problems with good young talent, the Penguins will find themselves as a first- or second-round bounce from the playoffs every year until the wheels fall off the Crosby-Malkin wagon.

Recently there have been futile attempts to add young prospects down on their luck, including Jared McCann, Nick Bjugstad and Alex Galchenyuk — all who were once top center prospects moved by the teams who drafted them and quickly fizzled out behind or alongside Crosby and Malkin.

Consistently, the best way to turn around franchises in the NHL has been through the draft and the prime example is right in Pittsburgh. Now the Penguins should never tank with Crosby and Malkin, but clearly trading away their first-round picks for slightly above-average talent like Jason Zucker is not solving any problems.

The last time Pittsburgh made a first-round selection was in 2019 when Samuel Poulin had his name called. While Poulin looks like he could be a helpful piece in any system, he is intended to just be a complimentary player for either Crosby or Malkin on the wing in the top six. Aside from Poulin, the other notable Pittsburgh prospects are center Filip Hallander; wingers Nathan Legare, Kasper Bjorkqvist, Valtteri Puustinen; defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph; and goalie Filip Lindberg. Not including the goaltender, none of those skaters are noted as blue-chip prospects who will drive their own lines, but similar to Poulin they figure to be possible complimentary pieces.

What Pittsburgh needs to do this season is keep its first-round pick; adding someone at the deadline with it will not help them win the cup this year. With that first-round pick the Penguins need to try and begin finding their own young center to eventually replace the inevitable loss of production from Crosby and Malkin.

Considering where the Penguins usually are slotted to select it seems like an impossible feat to find elite talent, but while the Penguins trade their first-round pick often, their rivals in Washington have shown elite talent can be found. In 2010, Washington drafted center Evgeny Kuznetsov at No. 26 and recent top center prospects Connor McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre were taken at Nos. 25 and 22, respectively. Those prospects will ensure that as Backstrom and Ovechkin will not have the weight of the organization on their shoulders as they age.

Drafting a center in the mid- to late first round now would give a prospect of that caliber enough time to develop before the regression of the 34-year-old Crosby and 35-year-old Malkin.

While it seems like they may never regress, one day it will happen and Pittsburgh needs to be ready to avoid being as bad as they were at the tail end of Lemieux’s career and when Jaromir Jagr left. With Malkin in the final year of his current deal and coming off one his worst statistical seasons ever the clock has already started ticking for the Penguins.