Did the Penguins lose the Jake Guentzel trade?

After months of speculation, the Penguins traded winger Jake Guentzel on Thursday ahead of Friday's NHL trade deadline. 

At that moment, the Penguins became sellers for the first time in about 15 years. Trading an impending free agent makes sense for a team fading out of playoff contention, but did Pittsburgh get enough for its star asset? 

Guentzel and defenseman Ty Smith went to Carolina for a conditional 2024 first-round pick, a conditional 2024 fifth-round pick and forwards Michael Bunting, Ville Koivunen, Vasily Ponomarev and Cruz Lucius. The Athletic's Scott Wheeler ranks Ponomarev, Koivunen and Lucius as the No. 6, 7 and 9 prospects from Carolina's pool. 

It sounds like a haul for a player without a long-term deal, right? That may not be the case based on reports surfacing in the aftermath of the deal. The Athletic's Josh Yohe and Rob Rossi wrote that Dubas prioritized gaining quantity over quality in the trade.

Once the Penguins and Guentzel failed to work out a long-term deal, the possibility he would be traded — especially if Pittsburgh failed to contend — was always there. 

Even though Guentzel, a key contributor on back-to-back Stanley Cup teams at the start of his career, morphed into Sidney Crosby's most trusted wing, there were reasons to be hesitant to offer a new contract to a player approaching 30. 

Guentzel's expiring contract likely caused roadblocks in obtaining maximum value back, but there's also reason to wonder if Dubas has the right mentality to successfully perform a rebuild. 

During his tenure in Toronto, Dubas built the Maple Leafs into a perennial playoff team, but they also made waves in free agency and drafted Auston Matthews, one of the best players in the game. Can Dubas bank on those things happening in Pittsburgh? 

He needed to bring back at least one top prospect to win the deal and set the Penguins up for the future. Instead, he stockpiled "good" prospects, none of whom were regarded as the best the Hurricanes had. 

Dubas could think it's best to build a roster with quality depth, something the Penguins are lacking, but it's essential to add players who can play on the top lines if the franchise is going to make one last run with Sidney Crosby. 

Maybe he believes the Penguins will be fortunate enough to draft those top-tier players, much like Pittsburgh has used the draft to build every championship team in its history. 

However, that feels like an extremely risky gamble and wouldn't be as necessary if the Guentzel trade brought back at least one of those prospects.