Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Mark Recchi prefers to stay with the Penguins, but if a trade helps the club, he would accept it. Click photo for larger image.

Mark Recchi of the Penguins has eight goals in his past 12 games. Nine assists, too. He's versatile -- able to play all three forward positions and contribute on both special teams -- and a proven winner with established leadership skills.

Hard to figure out why any team would be interested in adding him for the stretch drive and playoffs, huh?

It's a given that Penguins general manager Craig Patrick will hear from at least a few clubs interesting in acquiring Recchi before the NHL trade deadline at 3 p.m. Thursday. Less certain is how Recchi will react to the idea of changing teams.

Owner Mario Lemieux made it clear months ago that Recchi, the Penguins' No. 2 scorer, will be traded only if he asks to be, and Recchi has maintained that he doesn't want to leave.

Yesterday, he softened his position somewhat, but that doesn't mean he'll be prodding Patrick to ship him away. Recchi said he might be willing to switch teams -- but only if he believes the trade will benefit the Penguins.

While there's no question that, at age 38, Recchi would relish another chance to compete for a championship -- just as it's obvious he won't get that opportunity by hanging around here for the balance of this season -- he won't ask to be sent to a playoff team simply for his own sake. If there's not something substantial in the deal for the Penguins, he said, he won't sign off on it.

"I'm not going to go somewhere and have the Penguins not get anything," he said. "I'd like to see them get something if I do have to move."

Recchi acknowledged hearing that teams would like to graft him onto their roster -- "Obviously, there are rumblings, and there are some teams out there looking for some things," he said -- but reiterated that he won't ask Patrick to deal him.

"Unless the team comes to me with something, I'm not doing anything," he said. "[If] they come to me and it's a win-win for everybody, it's something I'll have to think about."

At least part of the reason Recchi isn't eager to leave is that his permanent residence is here. He signed with the Penguins in 2004 and has no interest in transplanting his wife and children.

Actually, a best-case scenario for the Penguins -- getting a nice prospect or draft choice for Recchi before the deadline, but having him back in their lineup this fall -- might not be as far-fetched as it seems at first blush.

Recchi's contract for 2006-07 features a two-way option: The team holding his rights could retain him by agreeing to pay him $2,228,000, and Recchi could trigger the option by agreeing to play for $760,000.

If the team declined to exercise its option, perhaps because of salary-cap concerns, and Recchi did likewise, he would become an unrestricted free agent. As such, he could rejoin the Penguins, who would have no reservations about adding his talent and intangibles back into their personnel mix.

Patrick said he has not discussed possible deals with Recchi, but Recchi's insistence that any trade involving him work to the Penguins' benefit dovetails with the approach Patrick said he will take in the next week. Patrick said he does not have a list of players he's looking to deal and will make a trade only if it's in the team's long-range interest.

"What we would hope to do, if we're going to move anybody, it's going to be to make ourselves better for the future," he said. "Better for next year, and the years after."

Patrick confirmed that he has a list of "untouchables" but declined to say which players -- or even how many -- are on it.

"I'm not going to get into that," he said, "but we definitely have people we won't trade."

At the very least, the list includes Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, a couple of teenagers who should give the franchise a formidable 1-2 combination at center for years to come. Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, and perhaps a few other young players, might well be on it, too.

If Recchi agrees to be traded, he likely will be the Penguins' most valuable commodity, but there could be a healthy market for left winger John LeClair, too.

LeClair has a goal in each of his past three games and has been playing his finest hockey of the season of late. He has been assertive around the net and is passing, shooting and deflecting the puck better than he has since joining the Penguins.

LeClair suggested recently that having one year, worth $1.5 million, left on his contract might dissuade some teams from pursuing him, but a club that feels it's one power forward away from a championship run isn't likely to be put off by that.

Then again, if the Penguins don't get a satisfactory offer for LeClair, or anyone else, Patrick said he won't agonize over keeping his current group of players for the balance of the season.

"We're not going to make trades just to make trades," he said. "Our goal is, if we can, [to] make some trades that make us better for next year and beyond."

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NOTES -- Defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who rejoined the Penguins Tuesday after playing for Russia in the Olympics, was excused from practice yesterday.