Summer Synopsis: Pittsburgh Penguins

There is no gentle way to put this, the Pittsburgh Penguins were a mess last season. Despite having Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby both healthy for the first time in years, the Penguins missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006 and the first time during the Malkin/Crosby/Kris Letang era.

Penguins ownership addressed the disappointing season by relieving Ron Hextall and Brian Burke of their duties and set out to rebuild their hockey operations. They succeeded by hiring Kyle Dubas to run the organization’s hockey ops and he kickstarted a dramatic change in the team’s on-ice personnel.

No one knows if Dubas’ moves will work, but there is no arguing that he had a plan from the outset of the offseason and he has completely rebuilt the Penguins’ defense and bottom-six forward group. Whether it will be enough remains to be seen as the Penguins play in the most difficult division in hockey and the Eastern Conference is sure to be a buzzsaw this season.

Draft

1-14: C Brayden Yager, Moose Jaw (WHL)
3-91: D Emil Pieniniemi, Finland (SM-sarja)
5-142: RW Mikhail Ilyin, Severstal Cherepovets (KHL)
6-174: C Cooper Foster, Ottawa 67’s (OHL)
7-217: LW Emil Järventie, Finland SaiPa (Liiga)
7-223: D Kalle Kangas, Finland

Dubas opted to hang on to Pittsburgh’s highest first-round pick in quite some time rather than dealing it away to shed salary or acquire an impact player. While Yager will not likely make an impact during the Crosby/Malkin era that doesn’t mean he won’t be an impact player for the Penguins in the not-too-distant future. Many people expect the Penguins to go into a full rebuild in the next few years and Yager could become a good building block as he possesses terrific leadership skills and has a very high offensive ceiling. Yager does come with some risk as well, but high risk and high reward was a theme with the Penguins’ picks in the 2023 NHL entry draft.

Pittsburgh opted to take Pieniniemi in the third round and he brings a lot of mobility to the Penguins’ back end as well as good defensive instincts and a lot of intensity. Some have him projected as a possible top-4 defenseman in the future, but his development would be key in him reaching that kind of ceiling.

Mikhail Ilyin is an interesting pick in the fifth round as he is currently playing out his KHL contract in Russia. He doesn’t possess a very good shot but does have good offensive instincts and can be a playmaker from the center position.

The Penguins don’t have much in the prospect’s cupboard, but they did well to add some players with a lot of upside but that carry some risk. For Dubas and his draft position, he almost needs to take some gambles to see if he can hit on the next big thing for the Penguins.

Trade Acquisitions

F Dillon Hamaliuk (San Jose)
D Erik Karlsson (San Jose)
F Rem Pitlick (Montreal)
F Reilly Smith (Las Vegas)

It seemed very improbable the Penguins would be able to land Karlsson when the rumor popped up on July 1st. They spent most of their available cap space in free agency and the door appeared to slam shut on those rumblings. Except they never went away, and as the summer pressed on it seemed more likely the three-time Norris Trophy winner could in fact land with the Penguins. San Jose could never seem to get a trade market going for Karlsson’s services and Dubas and company remained diligent in their pursuit. Finally, on August 6th the deal was completed, and the Penguins were able to give up very little in terms of futures and somehow also managed to shed a lot of dead weight from their salary cap ledger. It was a major win for the Penguins, even if adding Karlsson comes with a mountain of risk.

How Karlsson will be used remains to be seen, but current power-play quarterback Letang has already said he will shift from the point to allow Karlsson to take his place. That alone should be huge for Pittsburgh as their powerplay was underwhelming last season, especially given the personnel they deployed with the man advantage.

Smith was also a big add for the Penguins at the cost of just a third-round pick. He will make for a terrific replacement in the Penguins’ top-six forward group and could be in line for a career year. Smith is fresh off winning the Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights and will likely start the year with either Crosby or Malkin. While the 32-year-old isn’t a natural goal scorer, he is more than capable with the puck and is dynamic off the rush. He comes with two years left on his contract at $5MM per season, leaving little downside for the Penguins in this trade.

UFA Signings

C Noel Acciari (three years, $6MM)
D Will Butcher (one year, $775K)*
C Lars Eller (two years, $4.9MM)
D Ryan Graves (six years, $27MM)
G Magnus Hellberg (one year, $785K)
C Vinnie Hinostroza (one year, $775K)
G Tristan Jarry (five years, $26.875MM)
F Andreas Johnsson (one year, $800K)
F Joona Koppanen (two years, $1.55MM)
G Alex Nedeljkovic (one year, $1.5MM)
F Matt Nieto (two years, $1.8MM)
D Ryan Shea (one year, $775K)
F Radim Zahorna (one year, $775K)

*-denotes two-way contract

The Penguins had a decent amount of cap space entering the offseason but had a lot of holes to fill on a team that just wasn’t very good last year. Dubas quickly went to work in addressing his top defensive pairing, solidifying his goaltending, as well as building depth in the team’s bottom six forward group.

Ryan Graves is not a perfect top-pairing defenseman, but on Pittsburgh he doesn’t need to be. His job will be to fill the hole that Pittsburgh tried to fill by committee last season unsuccessfully. Graves will pair with Letang and should form a solid top-defensive pairing for the next few years. Graves won’t be asked to provide a ton of offense from the back end but is capable of chipping in having posted 26 points last year in 78 games. He will also benefit from getting more offensive zone starts as in New Jersey he started almost 63% of his shifts in the defensive zone.

Some people might think the Karlsson trade was Dubas’ biggest gamble, but I would venture to say it was the signing of netminder Jarry to a long-term deal. Jarry is a two-time all-star and has shown glimpses of being an above-average NHL netminder. However, those moments and accolades have been sandwiched between injuries and very inconsistent play. All that to say, signing Jarry was a risk for Pittsburgh. The goaltending market wasn’t great this offseason with left Dubas with few options and he went with the familiar one for the club. Whether it will pan out remains to be seen, but in his time with Pittsburgh Jarry has been unable to get the Penguins out of the first round, and this past season he couldn’t even get the team to the first round.

Nedeljkovic was an interesting signing for the Penguins as it cemented the departure of long-time backup Casey DeSmith. Nedeljkovic has had runs where he has looked like an NHL starter but has also had longer runs where he’s been run of out the game on a nightly basis. Which goaltender turns up in Pittsburgh will be something to keep an eye on, especially if Jarry has a year like he did last year.

RFA Re-Signings

F Jonathan Gruden (one year, $775K)*
F Alex Nylander (one year, $775K)
F Drew O’Connor (two years, $1.85MM)
F Valtteri Puustinen (one year, $775K)*
D Ty Smith (one year, $775K)

*-denotes two-way contract

O’Connor is a player the Penguins have been high on for several years. He was a highly sought-after college free agent and has had showings that would make you think he is an NHL player. Unfortunately, those glimpses have come only a handful of times and are always split up by long stretches of play where O’Connor looks invisible on the ice. O’Connor has eight goals and nine assists in 78 career NHL games and at 25-years-old he is no longer a prospect. He will be given every chance in Pittsburgh to show that he is a solution in the bottom six and with his size and speed he should be able to carve out a role. However, if he can’t, he will likely find himself shuttled back and forth between the NHL and the AHL.

Much like O’Connor, Nylander is a player who has shown glimpses of being an NHLer but hasn’t been able to put it all together. The Penguins tried Nylander in their top six last year in place of Bryan Rust, and he looked fine for a few games but didn’t appear to be a long-term answer. He is likely not suited for a bottom-six role, so if he is going to be in an NHL lineup it should be in more of a scoring role. Pittsburgh is banking on growth from Nylander this offseason and would likely love for him to be able to slide into the Penguins top-9 in some type of scoring capacity. But given his inability to be an impact player up until this point in his career, it’s a long shot at best.

Departures

F Josh Archibald (unsigned UFA)
C Nick Bonino (New York, one year, $800K)
F Drake Caggiula (Edmonton, two years, $1.55MM)*
G Casey DeSmith (traded to Montreal)
D Peter Diliberatore (PTO Arizona)
D Brian Dumoulin (Seattle, two years, $6.3MM)
F Mikael Granlund (traded to San Jose)
F Danton Heinen (PTO Boston)
D Dmitry Kulikov (Florida, one year, $1MM)
F Nathan Legare (traded to Montreal)
D Josh Maniscalco (Chicago (AHL), one year)
D Jeff Petry (traded to Montreal)
F Ryan Poehling (Philadelphia, one year, $1.4MM)
D Jan Rutta (traded to San Jose)
G Dustin Tokarski (Buffalo, one year, $775K)*
F Jason Zucker (Arizona, one year, $5.3MM)

Dubas moved on from a lot of Penguins players turning over nearly half of their NHL roster. The most notable loss is probably Zucker who had a terrific final season in Pittsburgh posting 27 goals and 21 assists in 78 games while being one of the few Penguins to show a pulse on most nights. Zucker had injury problems that plagued most of his time in Pittsburgh but was finally able to remain healthy last season. Dubas did well to replace Zucker with Smith, who should be able to replicate or better Zucker’s production.

Dumoulin was a long-time Penguins defenseman who was a big part of their back-to-back Stanley Cup wins. But his play really dropped off his last few seasons in Pittsburgh as he started to show his age and really struggled in high-leverage situations. Dumoulin along with Jeff Carter had become lightning rods for criticism as fans found it difficult to move past the glaring errors in the defensive zone that seemed to happen on a nightly basis. Dumoulin should be better insulated in Seattle and might see better results with the Kraken.

Granlund was never likely to fit in Pittsburgh given his lack of footspeed and forechecking. His skillset never really suited the Penguins system, and his acquisition was universally panned just moments after it happened. Granlund had just one goal and four assists in 21 games with the Penguins and was probably a big reason why Ron Hextall is no longer with the team.

Salary Cap Outlook

A lot of people have written the Penguins off as being at the end of their run as a contender. However next summer they have few impact players to sign and could have over $20MM in cap space available to them. Depending on how this season goes, the Penguins could load up for one more run in the Crosby/Malkin era. Dubas will have a lot of options going forward and could even add a long-term impact player in season, so long as he makes a dollar-for-dollar trade.

Key Questions

How Will Karlsson Fit In? The Karlsson trade has been widely viewed as a big win for the Penguins but how the trade will ultimately be viewed comes down to results on the ice. If Karlsson can quarterback the Penguins’ powerplay to much better results and show decent results at 5 on 5, it will be a big improvement for Pittsburgh. If his defensive lapses start to become glaring and he can’t improve the powerplay, it could be viewed in a negative light. It should be an interesting question going forward.

Can Jarry Be A Number One? Jarry was gifted the starter’s role when Pittsburgh dealt Matt Murray to the Ottawa Senators in 2020. Since that time, he’s been the default number-one goaltender for the Penguins because they’ve never had a better option. With him signed to a long-term lucrative extension, it’s obvious that Penguins management sees Jarry as their number one goalie. But will he provide the team with number-one goaltending?

Can Crosby And Malkin Stay Healthy? It’s been rare for the Penguins to have the services of both Crosby and Malkin for an entire season, however, last year they did, and they missed the playoffs. They are unlikely to have both players for a season given their age and their track records with injuries. Crosby has changed his game and is less explosive to the net, however, he has suffered fewer injuries recently. Malkin has tried to adapt his game as well. But can both men stay healthy for another season? Time will tell.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.