Salary Cap Deep Dive: Pittsburgh Penguins

Navigating the salary cap is one of the most important tasks for a front office.  Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful.  Those that don’t often see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2024-25 season.  This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL.  All cap figures are courtesy of PuckPedia.  We’re currently covering the Metropolitan Division, next up is the Penguins.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Current Cap Hit: $88,037,434 (above the $88MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Rutger McGroarty (three years, $950K)

Potential Bonuses
McGroarty: $500K

McGroarty was recently acquired from Winnipeg after the winger told the Jets he wouldn’t sign with them.  He should have an opportunity to push for a roster spot right away (or at least be the first recall from the minors).  Bonus-wise, the exact structure of the $500K isn’t publicized but it’s likely two ‘A’ bonuses ($425K in total) and $75K in games played.  If he’s a regular, he should get the games played one at a minimum while his role will go a long way toward determining if he has a shot at one of the ‘A’ bonuses.

Signed Through 2024-25, Non-Entry-Level

F Anthony Beauvillier ($1.25MM, UFA)
F Lars Eller ($2.45MM, UFA)
F Cody Glass ($2.5MM, RFA)
F Matthew Nieto ($900K, UFA)
F Drew O’Connor ($925K, UFA)
D Marcus Pettersson ($4.025MM, UFA)
F Jesse Puljujarvi ($800K, UFA)
D Matt Grzelcyk ($2.75MM, UFA)

Glass was acquired from Nashville in a cap-clearing move from them this summer.  He’s only one season removed from a 35-point effort but struggled last year.  He’ll need to get back to his 2022-23 level if he has a shot at getting a qualifying offer, one that would carry arbitration rights.  As things stand, he’s a non-tender candidate.  Eller remains a serviceable third-line center most nights, a role he has held for most of his career.  However, he’ll be 36 when this deal is up and with offensive production usually under 35 points, he’s probably going to be going year-to-year moving forward at or slightly below this price tag.  Beauvillier is also coming off a rough year between three separate teams, resulting in a $2.75MM pay cut.  There’s room for him to rebound and it wouldn’t be shocking to see him land a multi-year deal next summer with a price tag above $2MM at a minimum.

O’Connor is coming off of his best season offensively by far after notching 33 points in 2023-24.  While both sides will want to see if this is repeatable before approaching extension talks, if he can maintain those numbers, he could triple that price tag heading into next season.  Nieto missed most of last season due to injury and is month-to-month heading into the start of the season, meaning he could land on LTIR to get the Penguins cap compliant.  Given the injuries, he’ll probably be looking at a contract close to this price tag again next summer.  Puljujarvi was a later-season signing last year and at this point, is simply looking to establish himself as a full-time NHL player once again.  A small raise could be doable if he does that.

Pettersson is now the most notable pending UFA on the roster.  He logged over 22 minutes a game last season while reaching 30 points for the first time, certainly a positive heading into early negotiations.  He’ll be entering his age-29 year next season so his next deal could push past the $5MM mark on a longer-term agreement.  Grzelcyk is looking to rebuild some value after a tough season in Boston.  If he does, he could get back to the near-$3.7MM AAV from his past deal.

Signed Through 2025-26

F Noel Acciari ($2MM, UFA)
D Sebastian Aho ($775K, UFA)
F Michael Bunting ($4.5MM, UFA)
F Kevin Hayes ($3.571MM, UFA)*
F Blake Lizotte ($1.85MM, UFA)
F Evgeni Malkin ($6.1MM, UFA)
G Alex Nedeljkovic ($2.5MM, UFA)

*-Philadelphia is retaining an additional $3.571MM on Hayes’ contract.

Malkin’s contract went to the wire two years ago and it wound up being a case of term being used to keep the cap hit down.  So far, he has provided a very strong return on the deal but he’s now 38 and showing signs of slowing down.  That could make the final couple of seasons a bit tougher to deal with from a value perspective.

Bunting was acquired at the trade deadline as part of the Jake Guentzel trade and seemed to fit in better with the Penguins than he did in Carolina, coming close to averaging a point per game following the swap.  Part of the challenge last summer for him was trying to argue that he could produce away from Toronto’s top line where he had spent the bulk of his still-limited NHL career (his first two full seasons at the top level).  But Bunting managed to produce at a similar rate last year and if he has a couple more seasons around that level of production (he had 55 points in 2023-24), he should have a case at a longer-term deal next time out at a price tag closer to the $6MM mark.

Hayes was a faceoff ace for St. Louis last season but saw his point total nearly cut in half compared to 2022-23, resulting in the Blues parting with a second-round pick to shed the rest of the contract.  Assuming he stays in a bottom-six role, his Pittsburgh portion of the contract is about what his market value might be in 2026.  Acciari had a quiet first season with the Penguins on their fourth line.  He’ll need a bounce-back effort to have a shot at matching this price tag even though he’s above average at the faceoff dot.  Lizotte, meanwhile, was non-tendered by the Kings after a quiet season but his track record as an effective bottom-six piece helped earn this agreement.  He’ll need to get back to scoring double-digit goals per season if he wants to cross the $2MM mark.

Aho came over from the Islanders in free agency, getting a one-way salary for the fourth and fifth straight seasons.  Until he locks down a full-time top-six spot, however, he’s likely to stay close to the league minimum moving forward.

Nedeljkovic took over the starting job down the stretch last season, helping him earn this deal to avoid testing free agency.  He has been hit or miss throughout his still relatively brief NHL career and will need two more seasons like last year to have a shot at getting back to that upper echelon of platoon options.

Signed Through 2026-27

F Sidney Crosby ($8.7MM, UFA)
D Erik Karlsson ($9.999MM, UFA)*

*-San Jose is retaining an additional $1.5MM on Karlsson’s contract.

Many expected Crosby to sign a contract extension on July 1st but it wound up taking more than two full months before he put pen to paper on this deal, maintaining the same cap hit he has had since 2008.  He’s entering the final season of a now-illegal 12-year contract and at the time it was signed, some wondered if those last couple of years could be tough from a value perspective given that he’s entering his age-37 season.  Considering he’s coming off yet another season of averaging more than a point per game (something he’s done in all 19 years), those concerns were unfounded, helping him earn this extension.

Karlsson, as expected, wasn’t able to match the 101 points he put up in his final season with San Jose.  However, with 56, he was still well above average in that regard.  It’s going to be next to impossible for the 34-year-old to provide surplus value on his cap hit but as long as he’s still one of the higher-end offensive players among NHL blueliners, they’ll do okay value-wise.  He’s not a $10MM player at this point but he’s not necessarily too far off that mark either.

Signed Through 2027-28 Or Longer

D Ryan Graves ($4.5MM through 2028-29)
G Tristan Jarry ($5.375MM through 2027-28)
D Kris Letang ($6.1MM through 2027-28)
F Rickard Rakell ($5MM through 2027-28)
F Bryan Rust ($5.125MM through 2027-28)

Rust has become a consistent and dependable secondary scorer, notching at least 20 goals in five straight years including a career-best 28 last season.  Someone with that type of offensive track record would be passing at least $6MM on the open market although it’s worth noting he’ll be 36 when this deal ends.  Rakell’s first full season in Pittsburgh (the first on this contract) was a strong one but he took a step back last season, dropping to 37 points.  He has only passed 50 points twice in the last seven years which makes this deal a bit on the pricey side unless he can get back to that level of production.

Letang has been a strong offensive producer from the back end for most of his 18-year NHL career and getting that at this price tag is pretty good, for now at least.  However, he’ll be turning 41 when this deal ends.  At some point, Pittsburgh will have to scale back his minutes with his production dropping accordingly which will turn this into a bad-value contract.  That point isn’t coming this season, however.  Graves had a particularly rough first season with the Penguins.  Signed to stabilize their back end, he struggled while playing a more limited role.  He’ll need to find his form again or this could be a drag on their books for a while.

Jarry’s price tag is reasonable for a starting goalie.  However, he found himself benched down the stretch last season, leading some to wonder if he’ll be in more of a platoon situation with Nedeljkovic (when he’s able to return from injury).  This would be an above-market deal for a platoon netminder but if he can reclaim the outright starting job and make 50 or so starts per season, this deal should hold up okay.

Buyouts

D Jack Johnson ($917K through 2025-26)

Retained Salary Transactions

D Jeff Petry ($1.563MM in 2024-25)
F Reilly Smith ($1.25MM in 2024-25)

Best Value: (non-entry-level) Crosby
Worst Value: Graves

Looking Ahead

It won’t be hard for the Penguins to get into cap compliance with Nieto moving to LTIR or the team returning to carrying two goalies when Nedeljkovic returns.  However, the fact that an injury puts them this tight to the cap means they’ll be hard-pressed to bank any sort of significant in-season cap space unless they elect to carry fewer than the maximum of 23 players.

They project to be one of the teams with above-average flexibility after that.  While they have nearly $69MM on the books for next season already, Pettersson is the only contract of significance to contend with.  More than $23MM comes off the books the following summer and they only have five players that are truly signed long-term.  GM Kyle Dubas has one of the oldest rosters once again heading into this season but the opportunity to reshape it further is coming fast.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.