The Penguins’ new Hall of Fame class is, predictably, excellent. It’s a champagne franchise.

Marc-Andre Fleury won three Stanley Cups, is the Penguins’ best goalie ever and arguably the team’s most popular player ever. (Except for a few seasons when the fans scapegoated Fleury, but that’s been forgotten.)

Jim Rutherford won two Cups as a deal-making GM, and has the roots of having played for the team from 1971-74. Rutherford was the goaltender of my childhood.

Larry Murphy might be as underrated as a Hockey Hall-of-Fame defenseman can be. Fundamentally perfect and a puck-mover with few peers, Murphy won two Cups with the Penguins and two with Detroit.

The late Jack McGregor was the founding owner. Ground zero.

But the Penguins have a level above their Hall of Fame.

It’s retired numbers.

Those can be an overrated phenomenon and can turn clumsy.

The Montreal Canadiens have retired 15 numbers, leaving their current roster to wear the digits of a roller hockey team: Too many numbers in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. Untraditional, especially for such a storied franchise.

The Penguins have kept retired numbers in check.

So far.

Two obvious choices in Mario Lemieux’s 66 and Jaromir Jagr’s 68, plus the No. 21 worn by the late Michel Briere. Briere died after his rookie season, 1969-70, as the result of a car accident.

Looking ahead, Sidney Crosby’s 87 and Evgeni Malkin’s 71 are clear picks.

But how about after that?

I’m inclined to cut it off there, at least based on current evidence. Maintain exclusivity.

But the Penguins won’t.

The Penguins are currently a nostalgia franchise. It’s what they sell.

The best player at the next level is Fleury.

Fleury sold out an exhibition game at PPG Paints Arena before last season by way of playing a period to say good-bye and cap off his career. He’s coming back again this season when the new Penguins Hall-of-Fame inductees get honored before the Nov. 14 home game vs. Ottawa.

Fleury is beloved. He’s a draw.

His No. 29 will absolutely be raised to the ceiling at PPG Paints Arena, almost totally for the right reasons. (Maybe there could be a footnote mentioning Phil Bourque.)

But does retiring Fleury’s number open the floodgates for, say, Tom Barrasso, Paul Coffey, Ron Francis, Kris Letang and Murphy? (Coffey would be a definite except he played just five seasons in Pittsburgh.)

Every time the bar is lowered, more people fit under it.

There’s nothing wrong with retiring a lot of numbers.

But it lumps in Lemieux, Jagr, Crosby and Malkin with a lot who aren’t close. It makes the honor more generic.

It also sells tickets and creates hype for a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff series since 2018.

So, make space in the rafters.