As we began our conversation, sitting across from each other in a downtown breakfast diner Thursday, I asked Brian MacLellan about the parallels between his Capitals and their longtime rivals, the Penguins.

The Caps have Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and John Carlson signed long-term. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang aren’t going anywhere in Pittsburgh.

Rebuild? Um, not really an option for either.

“No,” he said, shaking his head in agreement. “Pittsburgh, us, and Boston.”

Although, MacLellan added, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci came back on one-year deals this season for the Bruins, so who knows what they do after that.

The Caps and Penguins? Even all these years after the Crosby and Ovechkin eras began, the mission remains pretty clear-cut: be competitive. A teardown isn’t an option for either.

“Both teams have good players,” MacLellan said. “How do you move on from good players?”

And let’s be honest, it’s not like there was ever a Plan B when Ovechkin needed a new contract in July 2021. If you’re MacLellan, you’re not going to owner Ted Leonsis and suggesting walking away from the player who put your franchise in a whole new orbit — especially not after extending Ovechkin’s buddy Backstrom in January. Once that happened, the Ovechkin extension and closing the door on a rebuild were fait accompli.

“Our franchise wants him (Ovechkin) to finish his career with us,” MacLellan said. “The guy is chasing Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky. Why would we let him walk away and do it somewhere else?

“So it kind of sets the direction of your franchise once you do that. Because you’re committing to him to finish his career, and he has some individual goals, but you have to have a competitive team if you’re doing that.”