Andrei Kuzmenko arrives in Pittsburgh with a simple assignment: give the Penguins the kind of offense they hoped to get from Anthony Mantha, and maybe then some.
The Penguins signed Kuzmenko to a one-year deal in July, one of several moves they made when free agency opened on Jul. 1.
He steps into the same sort of opportunity Mantha had a year ago, when Pittsburgh bet on a player coming off a major injury and got a huge payoff. Mantha responded with a career 2025-26 season, putting up 33 goals and 64 points in 81 games after signing a one-year contract and returning from a torn ACL.
Kuzmenko is looking for that kind of reset after a much quieter 2025-26. He finished with 13 goals and 25 points in 52 games, a far cry from the version of himself that lit up the league with the Vancouver Canucks in 2022-23.
In his debut NHL season, Kuzmenko scored 39 goals and totaled 74 points in 81 games while shooting 27.3%. Since then, he has managed just one other 20-plus-goal season, that coming in 2023-24, and has bounced through the Calgary Flames, Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers.
When the 2026-27 season begins in September, Pittsburgh will be his fifth NHL team in five seasons.
There’s a clear path to minutes for him in Pittsburgh. The Penguins are expected to give him a healthy workload in the top nine, and that should put 20 goals within reach for the third time in his career. He looks like a natural third-line fit, especially alongside Ben Kindel, where Kuzmenko can finish off the chances Kindel creates and add some real scoring punch to that group.
That doesn’t mean he’s locked into one lane. If injuries hit or someone in the top six slips, Kuzmenko can move up. There’s also a good chance Penguins head coach Dan Muse tries him with Evgeni Malkin at some point, even if the third line remains the cleanest fit on paper.
The power play should be another place where Kuzmenko gets work. He won’t be on the top unit, but he ought to be a regular on the second group.
Last season with the Kings, he logged 155:31 on the power play and scored eight of his 13 goals there. That kind of touch makes him an easy candidate for a role with the man advantage in Pittsburgh.
So the projection here is straightforward: a bounce-back season is very much in play, and 20 goals doesn’t feel out of reach. The Penguins have already hit on reclamation bets with Anthony Beauvillier and Anthony Mantha, and they’ll be hoping Kuzmenko joins that list.
There’s even another layer to this one. If Pittsburgh falls out of the race by the trade deadline, Kuzmenko could become a piece they move for an asset or two. If the Penguins are still hanging around a playoff spot, though, they’d likely be glad to keep him, just as they did with Mantha this past season.
Pittsburgh’s top free-agent additions from last year all worked out. Kuzmenko now gets the chance to keep that streak going.
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