2025-26 NHL team preview: Pittsburgh Penguins
LAST SEASON
The Penguins talked like a team wanting to push for a playoff spot when training camp opened last season. As captain Sidney Crosby pointed out, their consecutive playoff misses in 2022-23 and 2023-24 had been close ones, so an extra win or two could make the difference. But most of us saw through the false optimism. The Pens’ big swing was summer 2023, not 2024. The former was the offseason in which they loaded up with the likes of Erik Karlsson, Ryan Graves and Reilly Smith, and it didn’t work. Last offseason, they made only minor roster tweaks to a team that wasn’t good enough in the first place, so it was pretty clear their playoff odds were long.
Nothing that ensued, then, was a big surprise. A six-game losing streak in October showed us who the Pens were pretty quickly. A mini surge in late December got their chin above .500 for about a week, but they never really threatened for a Wildcard berth. And that was despite exemplary work from Crosby, who set an NHL record with a 20th consecutive point-per-game season, and Rickard Rakell, whose 35 goals and 70 points marked career highs in his age-31 campaign. Franchise icons Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang showed signs of decline at 38 and 37, respectively. Pittsburgh’s goaltending was mostly nightmarish, with Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic struggling with their confidence. The Pens adopted a seller posture for a second consecutive Trade Deadline and sold off veterans such as Alex Beauvillier, Michael Bunting and, flipped before playing a game for them, Luke Schenn. Pittsburgh mutually parted ways with respected head coach Mike Sullivan after 10 seasons and two Stanley Cups, bringing in relative newcomer Dan Muse as a replacement.
Pittsburgh was widely acknowledged as the one franchise openly embracing an all-out rebuild this summer. Does that mean the Pens are on the path to maxing out their ping-pong balls at the 2026 NHL Draft? And how certain are we that Crosby can stomach his team taking a dive?
KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES
Additions
Arturs Silovs, G
Anthony Mantha, LW
Connor Clifton, D
Justin Brazeau, RW
Mathew Dumba, D
Parker Wotherspoon, D
Rafael Harvey-Pinard, LW
Robby Fabbri, LW (PTO)
Dan Muse, head coach
Departures
Matt Grzelcyk, D (Chi)
Alex Nedeljkovic, G (SJ)
Pierre-Olivier Joseph, D (Van)
Matt Nieto, LW, (UFA)
Emil Bemstrom, C (Sui.)
Mike Sullivan, head coach (NYR)
OFFENSE
Given how poor their season went, the Pens weren’t actually a terrible offensive club in 2024-25, finishing 18th in scoring and delivering the NHL’s No. 6 power play at 25.8 percent. Still having the likes of Crosby, Rakell, Bryan Rust and Erik Karlsson out there will do that. At 5-on-5, they sat in the top half of the NHL in shot attempts, shots, scoring chances, expected goals, you name it. But with pretty much every major offensive contributor on the wrong side of 30, it’s debatable whether the Pens can sustain a decent attack in 2025-26, especially when it’s highly likely we see some of their top weapons traded. What are the odds that Rakell, Rust and Karlsson finish the season as Penguins?
If those veterans do get moved, Crosby and Malkin won’t have much help left around them. Top young forward Rutger McGroarty has excellent potential but is out indefinitely to open training camp with an upper-body injury and could take time getting back up to speed when he does return. Tommy Novak is just a season removed from being a pretty efficient playmaker with the Nashville Predators and could surprise in a full season as the Pens’ third-line center. Anthony Mantha, plucked off the UFA scrap heap, could score 20 goals if he stays healthy. Overall, the offensive ceiling for this team is fairly low and could get a lot lower if and when GM Kyle Dubas starts the fire sale.
DEFENSE
As you can guess: if the Pens scored at a decent rate last season yet didn’t sniff the playoffs, it was because they couldn’t keep the puck out of their own net. They rated among the worst teams in the league in preventing scoring chances and high-danger chances at 5-on-5, and their penalty kill ranked a pedestrian 18th. There’s little reason to expect things to change in 2025-26. Karlsson will continue sponging up as many minutes as possible; while his Norris Trophy years are behind him at 35, he can still drive the play. Is it strange to project just-a-guy Ryan Shea to play top-pair minutes with him? Well, Letang and newcomers Connor Clifton and Matt Dumba are righties, lefty Graves has been a total bust, and youngster Owen Pickering is better off playing sheltered minutes early on, hence the hunch on Shea, who plays a simple and uncomplicated game that could complement the more dynamic Karlsson. We could see Parker Wotherspoon get some starting minutes here, too. No matter how we look at it, this D-corps is pretty clearly a glue-and-popsicle-sticks venture, and the pairings don’t appear remotely solidified at the moment.
GOALTENDING
If you’re Pens fan with PTSD over last season’s goaltending, I don’t blame you. The team’s .891 save percentage ranked 29th in the league. What a soap opera Jarry was. In a stat that hardly feels real, he allowed a goal on the first shot of a game six times in his first 22 contests. He was waived and demoted to the AHL in January. He was back to looking like an NHL goalie after returning in March, but it would be an understatement to call him a volatile option. Nedeljkovic wasn’t much better and publicly criticized himself for his play. It was thus wise for the Pens move on from ‘Ned’ and acquire Arturs Silovs, who was blocked on the Vancouver Canucks behind Thatcher Demko and Kevin Lankinen. Silovs has mostly been a below-average goaltender at the NHL level, posting an .880 SV%, but he’s only 24 and flashed some bellcow ability filling in for an injured Demko during Vancouver’s 2023-24 playoff run. Dubas has stated he’s running a meritocracy in goal and will have Jarry and Silovs compete for the starting job, with Joel Blomqvist and Sergei Murashov waiting in the wings.
COACHING
Muse represents quite a departure from the high-profile Sullivan. Who is Muse, exactly? He’s worked in the NHL as an assistant coach with the Predators and, for the past couple seasons, the New York Rangers. Between those two stints, he coached the under-18s and under-17s for USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, helping the Americans to gold at the 2023 U18 Worlds. He also won a USHL championship coaching the Chicago Steel in 2016-17. Muse is known to work well with young players. His hiring seems to signify the Pens’ shift to a rebuild mentality.
ROOKIES
McGroarty remains the Pens’ crown-jewel prospect. His fast, gritty game in theory makes him an intriguing Crosby linemate. But we only got eight NHL games of McGroarty last season, and he’s out indefinitely now, so his first full NHL campaign will start late. Plenty of other Pittsburgh rookies have opportunities to make splashes, however, given how shallow the lineup is. Skilled right winger Ville Koivunen was close to a point-per-game player at the AHL level and impressed with seven points in his first eight NHL games last year. He should be a top-six forward, especially with McGroarty out of the equation. Having played exactly 25 games last year, Pickering maintains his rookie status and has a real shot to climb the depth chart given how weak the left side of Pittsburgh’s blueline is. Harrison Brunicke has top-four upside, got a taste of the AHL late last season and should at least see preseason action, though he likely needs another year of seasoning before seriously pushing for a roster spot.
BURNING QUESTIONS
1. How much losing can Sidney Crosby take? When I asked him last week about all the trade talk around him, he admitted he understood it and that it’s the “hard part about losing.” On one hand, as an all-time class act and ambassador for the game, he feels like someone who’d play for one franchise his whole career. On the other hand: he is competitiveness incarnate. It’s hard to fathom looking back years from now and realizing Crosby won his final playoff series at 30 years old. He commences a two-year extension this season, and between him, agent Pat Brisson and Dubas, no one appears to be on exactly the same page about Crosby and the Pens’ future. Sid’s patience will be tested.
2. Is this the last ride for Evgeni Malkin? ‘Geno’ is one of the most underrated NHL players of all-time, owner of three Stanley Cup rings, two scoring titles, a Hart Trophy, a Conn Smythe Trophy and a Calder Trophy. He is Pittsburgh royalty. But he’s 39 and enters the final year of his contract. Will he retire after this season? And will he consider going to a contender as a Trade Deadline rental if he wants to chase one more Cup?
3. Who will be left on this roster by season’s end? Setting aside the obvious on Crosby: Rust, Rakell and Karlsson all carry significant trade value. But they all have term left on their deals, meaning Dubas doesn’t have to move them this season. Then again, once we factor in that Pittsburgh has all three salary-retention slots open, the idea of these players being multi-year rentals with retained salary increases their value, meaning the Pens could deal them for major returns in-season.
PREDICTION
*Reads from dusty scroll*
Every 21 years, the Penguins franchise decays and starts over, building around a generational talent selected first overall in the NHL Draft.
It was Mario Lemieux in 1984, it was Crosby in 2005, and it shall be Gavin McKenna in 2026. The Pens will lean into the tank, sell off some veterans at the Deadline, finish as a bottom-three team in the NHL and win the Draft Lottery. Just as Crosby lived with Lemieux as a rookie, McKenna can apprentice with Crosby next season, and winter 2027 is when the Crosby trade talk will reach its true fever pitch.
Advanced stats courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and Money Puck
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POST SPONSORED BY bet365
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