- The Pittsburgh Penguins were a single goal in Game Seven away from advancing to the second round for the first time since 2018, but ultimately their injuries and inability to finish off the New York Rangers doomed their season. That has left the team with an offseason of major uncertainty, and that uncertainty may not involve just their two big-name franchise pillars that are out of a contract. According to Larry Brooks of the New York Post, Fenway Sports Group, the new Penguins owners, “may not be so enamored with Brian Burke keeping his post as president of hockey ops after a second straight first-round flameout.” Burke was hired in tandem with GM Ron Hextall last February, and under their stewardship, the Penguins have had a points percentage above .600, albeit with two first-round losses as Brooks mentions. Burke is a highly experienced hockey executive who is widely respected across the league, and the Penguins parting with him so early in his tenure would certainly be a surprise. While a summer front office shakeup is not something many had on their radar for the Penguins, especially given the high-stakes negotiations the team is currently engaged in, it now looks like it’s a possibility that cannot be ruled out.
Penguins Rumors
Offseason Checklist: Pittsburgh Penguins
With the offseason in full swing aside from the two teams in the Stanley Cup Final, it’s time to examine what each squad will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at the Penguins.
Despite some key injuries in the playoffs, the Penguins nearly got past the Rangers in the opening round which gave GM Ron Hextall a tough choice to either run it back with this same core with Sidney Crosby still a high-end center or to start a rebuilding phase. Considering their stated intention is to keep their win-now window open, their summer checklist reflects that.
Get Goaltending Stability
Tristan Jarry was once viewed as Pittsburgh’s goalie of the future following a stellar junior career. When Matt Murray was traded to Ottawa two drafts ago, he became their goalie of the present. However, it’s now fair to wonder whether or not he’s their goalie of the future beyond next season. The 27-year-old is coming off a strong regular season that saw him post a GAA of 2.49 and a.919 SV% but 159 games into his NHL career, there are still some questions about whether or not he should be their long-term starter. If management is sold on Jarry, then working out a long-term extension with an AAV starting with a five would be worthwhile and that move can be made as of July 13th.
But what if they don’t feel that way or want to see what 2022-23 brings before making that type of commitment? That’s when things start to get a bit dicey. There is no Jarry-like prospect in the minors that’s a year or two away from being NHL-ready. There isn’t even an NHL-caliber backup under contract with Casey DeSmith set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer and journeyman Louis Domingue (their starter for most of the playoffs) also hitting the open market. In an ideal world, they would add a quality backup on a multi-year deal and give themselves a short-term upgrade at that second spot and a bit of longer-term stability.
Of course, an ideal world implies that they have the cap space to do this and accomplish their other summer objectives. As we’ll get to shortly, the only way something like this could happen is if things don’t go well on those other fronts. A short-term low-cost deal might be all they can afford and if they head into next season with Jarry on an expiring deal and a short-term backup, that’s not an ideal situation to have for a very important position.
Keep Or Replace Veteran Stars
Now, let’s get to the obvious. Right now, Pittsburgh has over $23MM in cap space which sounds wonderful without context. That context is that two of their long-time veteran stars, center Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang, will become unrestricted free agents next month. Accordingly, most (if not all) of their offseason planning will revolve around this duo in terms of trying to keep them or finding a way to replace them.
When healthy, Malkin remains a high-end NHL center and has averaged less than a point per game just once in the last decade. However, there’s one other key thing that has happened just once in the last decade and that’s the 36-year-old playing at least 70 games in a season. Malkin has had long run-ins with injury trouble and this past season was no exception which really complicates things from a valuation standpoint. When Malkin is in the lineup and producing at a point-per-game rate, his market value isn’t that far off from the $9.5MM AAV of his soon-to-expire contract. But since he can’t stay in the lineup consistently, it’s also a huge risk to give him that type of money. The only way the Penguins can make part of his pay based on staying healthy is with a one-year deal and Malkin has no reason to accept that as he can likely land a three-year or four-year commitment next month. While a pay cut is likely, it probably won’t be a substantial one.
Then there’s Letang. Over the last four seasons, only three blueliners have more points than the 35-year-old. The low-end in terms of AAV for those three players is $7.875MM (Victor Hedman who left money on the table to stay in Tampa Bay) and the high end is $9.059MM (Nashville’s Roman Josi). You can be sure that Letang’s representatives will be pointing that out in negotiations. Letang isn’t a stalwart defensive defender but he has killed penalties for the Penguins and while he has had injury issues of his own in the past, he has been healthier in recent years. While Pittsburgh would love to try to get Letang for less than his expiring $7.25MM cap hit, he could very easily get more if he gets to the open market. The length of the contract is a priority though so if the Penguins are willing to go with a longer deal than they might prefer, it should yield a lower AAV than he’d get otherwise.
Both players have been franchise stalwarts for the last 16 years but with everything else that Hextall needs to go this summer, it will be difficult to keep (or replace) both at market value and still have money left to fill their other needs. But with how important those two are, they’re certainly going to try to find a way to make it work.
Create Cap Flexibility
If Hextall is going to be able to keep both of his veteran stars, keep some of the other notable pending UFAs (including wingers Rickard Rakell and Evan Rodrigues), find a quality backup goalie, and leave some wiggle room for in-season movement, something has to give. Some tough decisions are going to need to be made on some impact players.
One of those is winger Kasperi Kapanen. The team has twice used a first-round pick on him, first to draft him and then another to re-acquire him back in 2020 but the return on their reinvestment wasn’t great in 2021-22. After an impressive shortened campaign, the 25-year-old struggled this past season, notching just 11 goals and 21 assists in 32 games while chipping in with three assists in their seven-game loss to the Rangers. That’s not a terrible return on a $3.2MM cap hit but it’s safe to say they were hoping for more. If they tender him a qualifying offer this summer (technically speaking, that offer is only worth $840K based on the structure of his expiring deal), Kapanen will be arbitration-eligible where his prior years could push his value closer to $4MM which is below the walkaway threshold. His trade value won’t be overly high because of this situation so a non-tender is a definite possibility. While that would create some extra flexibility, it’d also create another impact roster spot to be filled.
Then there’s Jason Zucker, another winger. Former Penguins GM Jim Rutherford paid a sizable price to bring him in as well but he hasn’t been able to play at the level he did with Minnesota. When he has been healthy (and that has been a struggle the last couple of seasons), he has been more of a secondary producer which isn’t great for someone with a $5.5MM price tag. A buyout would give them a little less than $3.5MM in cap space for next season while adding $1.733MM to 2023-24’s cap but also would create another spot to fill. Alternatively, a trade with some retention that yields less relief next season but carries no penalty for the following year is an option while they could also add a draft pick or prospect to try to get a team to take the contract in full. None of these are desirable but carrying him on the books next season could cost them the ability to retain a more impactful player.
There are also some candidates to move on the back end. Marcus Pettersson hasn’t lived up to his inflated contract, one that carries an AAV of just over $4MM for three more years. Flipping him for someone that makes less money is something that can be considered. John Marino ($4.4MM for five more years) has been in trade speculation going back to during the season and a similar idea could be done with him, especially if they’re able to bring Letang back. It’s unlikely they can clear the full contracts but moving one of them could give them a little more financial flexibility. Even with $23MM in cap room for the time being, the Penguins certainly are going to need all the financial flexibility they can get.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Penguins Promote Tom Kostopoulos
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have promoted Tom Kostopoulos to director of player development, following the departure of Scott Young to the Vancouver Canucks earlier today. Kostopoulos has been with the organization as a development coach for the past four seasons and had previously played in the system as captain of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The team also promoted Madison Nikkel to video coach.
Latest On Mike Sullivan
- Brian Burke, the President of Hockey Operations of the Pittsburgh Penguins, gave a wide-ranging interview to Mike DeFabo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Among many topics he covered, one of the more interesting nuggets from the interview came when he was asked about the large number of coaching vacancies across the league. Burke spoke about the leaguewide vacancies, saying that, generally speaking, NHL clubs’ “ownership and management are too impatient on the coaching front.” He also reiterated his faith in coach Mike Sullivan, stating that they were “thrilled” with his work and view him as one of the best coaches in the NHL. So while some aggressively change-oriented fans might want to see a different coach behind the bench of the Penguins, who have not won a playoff series in four seasons, it doesn’t look like they’ll get their wish as long as the two-time Stanley Cup champion wants to coach in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh Penguins Add Teena Murray To Front Office
- Continuing their run of front office announcements, the Pittsburgh Penguins today named Teena Murray as their senior vice president of integrated performance. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Mike DeFabo notes, Murray will oversee the strength and conditioning staff, rehabilitation, sports science, and medical staff, reporting directly to general manager Ron Hextall. Considering Pittsburgh’s long history of injury-prone seasons, it’s an important role to fill for this team.
Free Agent Focus: Pittsburgh Penguins
Free agency is now less than six weeks away and many teams are already looking ahead to when it opens up. There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market in mid-July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. Next up is a look at the Penguins.
Key Restricted Free Agents
F Danton Heinen — Heinen joined the Penguins last offseason after the Anaheim Ducks chose not to issue him a qualifying offer, and he did everything asked of him in a depth role for Pittsburgh in 2021-22. Playing in 76 games, Heinen notched a career-high 18 goals serving in a middle-six role on the wing. Every aspect of his game took a gigantic step forward in Pittsburgh this season, and the former Bruins fourth-round pick truly showed his ceiling as an NHL player. 26 now, (he’ll turn 27 before free agency opens on July 13), this is undoubtedly the best chance Heinen will have to earn a big contract in his career. With that kind of production, Heinen could likely earn a deal north of $2.5MM per year in free agency, likely even into the $3MM range. As a restricted free agent with arbitration rights, though, it’s not a sure thing Pittsburgh qualifies him. The Penguins have some higher priority players to give money to this offseason, to say the least, and the arbitration risk with Heinen could be too high.
F Kasperi Kapanen — Kapanen’s second season in Pittsburgh was mired in inconsistency. Failing to take a step forward in his development and even healthy scratched at times, Kapanen managed 11 goals and 32 assists after scoring 30 points in just 40 games last season. A strong shooter, Kapanen isn’t the grittiest or most defensively responsible player either. He’s also eligible for arbitration, like Heinen, but with his poorer season and inconsistent track record, the risk for an intolerable offer is likely lower than Heinen’s. Considering Kapanen’s ceiling as he demonstrated in 2020-21, the Penguins would likely want to keep him around with the hope that he finds that level of game again.
Other RFAs: F Justin Almeida, F Jordy Bellerive, F Kasper Bjorkqvist, F Jan Drozg, F Alexander Nylander, D Niclas Almari, D Pierre-Olivier Joseph, D Cameron Lee, D Will Reilly, G Alex D’Orio
Key Unrestricted Free Agents
F Evgeni Malkin — There’s little left to say about Malkin, who’s cemented his legacy as one of the elite players in the history of the NHL with 1,146 career points and a gigantic trophy shelf as well. More importantly for the Penguins, he had a gigantic bounceback season this year from his eight-goal campaign in 2020-21. Although he was limited to exactly half the season (41 games) with injury, he regained his point-per-game pace and tallied 20 goals and 42 points. With his injury history though, and at age 35 already, anything more than a three-year deal for Malkin would be an ill-advised move. The Penguins will do everything in their power to keep him, no doubt, and he’ll likely take a little bit of a pay cut from his previous $9.5MM cap hit to make it happen.
D Kris Letang — Letang had a monster season, finishing seventh among all NHL defensemen with 68 points in 78 games. He also finished fourth among defensemen with an average time on ice of 25:47. He’s coming off a $7.25MM per season deal and, right now, he’s worth at least that if not more. Also at age 35, though, giving Letang term is a gigantic risk. Letang is reportedly the team’s first priority to re-sign, but it’ll take more than the team’s last offer of just under $7.25MM for four years. Whether or not the team and the player can come to a compromise on term and value remains to be seen.
F Rickard Rakell — Adding Rakell at the trade deadline turned out to be a smart move from general manager Ron Hextall, as the skilled but inconsistent winger scored 13 points in 19 games, reclaiming some of his former glory in Anaheim. Unfortunately, Rakell was injured in the playoffs and registered no points in two games, averaging just 9:26 per night over the two. The 29-year-old is evidently one of the best secondary scoring options the team has, but it’s unlikely Pittsburgh can afford to give him the best offer available on the open market.
Other UFAs: F Brian Boyle, F Evan Rodrigues, F Anthony Angello, F Michael Chaput, D Nathan Beaulieu, G Casey DeSmith, G Louis Domingue
Projected Cap Space
The Penguins are currently over $23MM away from the $82.5MM salary cap Upper Limit, which is top ten in the league in terms of offseason space. Yet signing Malkin and Letang will likely take $15-16MM away from that number, leaving Pittsburgh with only around $7.5MM to work with to fill out the roster. With four forward spots and a backup goalie slot to fill, Pittsburgh will need to make concessions somewhere, either via trade or relying more heavily on their aging stars to carry the workload.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Penguins Make Three Front Office Promotions
- The Pittsburgh Penguins announced three front office promotions today. Chris Pryor moves from director of player personnel to assistant general manager, Andy Saucier moves from video coach to hockey operations analyst/pro personnel, and Erik Heasley will assume the role of general manager of AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Pryor becomes an AGM for the second time in his nearly 30-year NHL management career, serving in that role for the Philadelphia Flyers from 2016 to 2018. Saucier had been the team’s video coach since 2012.
Latest on Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin
The Pittsburgh Penguins have earmarked the 2022 offseason for years as a potential turning point for the franchise. Two-thirds of the core that has led the team to its lengthiest run of playoff success in franchise history, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, were scheduled to hit unrestricted free agency. In recent years, Bryan Rust has thrown his name onto the list of important Penguins with expiring contracts this season as well.
The team dealt with Rust, signing him to a long extension last month. Malkin and Letang remain unsigned with now less than a month remaining until free agency begins on July 13. However, The Athletic’s Rob Rossi reports that the organization’s top priority is signing Letang to a multi-year extension, according to multiple sources.
While the wording of that headline could raise some eyebrows, it’s unlikely that the inference the team truly prioritizes Letang over Malkin is accurate. It’s impossible to go into such a pivotal offseason without a plan of attack, and management needs an order of operations in order to manage their salary cap situation. The goal here is likely to figure out an average annual value for Letang as soon as possible so that they can make the appropriate salary cap moves to accommodate Malkin.
The last reported offer the Penguins made to Letang was “a little less” than his current cap hit of $7.25MM for four years, but that was almost a month ago now. If Letang signs for his current cap hit, Pittsburgh would be left with about $15.6MM in cap space this offseason, per CapFriendly. With that number, the Penguins would need to not only re-sign Malkin but also find a goalie to pair with Tristan Jarry and fill multiple spots at forward. It’s extremely doubtful they’d be able to make that work.
Really, all the Penguins are looking for at this point is some cost certainty. General manager Ron Hextall will need some time to make some cap-clearing trades work if necessary, but the team remains fully committed to retaining their core.
Metro Notes: Strome, Flyers, Hanus
It was obvious to anyone watching the Eastern Conference Final that New York Rangers forward Ryan Strome wasn’t playing fully healthy. During his end-of-season availability today, Strome revealed that he had suffered a pelvic injury midway through the regular season and managed it all the way through the rest of the season and playoffs.
What’s unclear at this point is whether surgery will be required or not. It’s bad timing for Strome, who could hit unrestricted free agency on July 13 if he’s not re-signed by the Rangers. Strome did express his interest in re-signing today, but it’s anyone’s guess whether or not that will come to fruition. With the bevy of Rangers prospects finally starting to emerge through the cracks, the team will have to make space for those kids somewhere. It seems logical from an organizational perspective that Strome wouldn’t be retained, especially with the acquisition of Andrew Copp.
- The Fourth Period’s Anthony Di Marco refutes the reports that the Philadelphia Flyers have narrowed down their coaching search. He does go so far as to say that the three rumored finalists of Barry Trotz, John Tortorella, and Peter DeBoer are still under consideration, but he makes the distinction that the Flyers have just two or three names remaining on their coaching search list. Whether or not an outsider to those three ends up with the job remains to be seen.
- The ’Baby Penguins’ made some news today, as AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton announced the signing of defenseman Clay Hanus from the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks for 2022-23. The Pittsburgh Penguins affiliate will add some solid defensive depth, as Hanus exploded for 74 points in 68 games this year. He’ll look to continue his development as an undrafted free agent with WBS and hopefully receive an NHL deal from Pittsburgh at some point down the road.
Penguins Unlikely To Qualify Jan Drozg
- Penguins prospect Jan Drozg is highly unlikely to be tendered a qualifying offer this summer, notes Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The 23-year-old had ten points in 23 games with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season before requesting to be loaned to another AHL team in the hopes of getting more playing time. While he got his wish and was sent to Grand Rapids, he struggled mightily with them down the stretch. Rather than bring him back, it would make more sense that Pittsburgh opts to let Drozg go where he’ll likely look to head back overseas.