The Pittsburgh Penguins got back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the 2025-26 NHL season, but the bigger conversation in Pittsburgh is no longer about the return trip. It’s about what comes next.
After a three-year playoff drought, the Penguins were knocked out by the Philadelphia Flyers in six games, and that exit only sharpened the debate over how to handle a roster built around Sidney Crosby and a group of veterans who are no longer getting any younger.
That tension was laid out plainly in a recent mailbag from The Athletic’s Josh Yohe.
“I appreciate the bluntness,” Yohe wrote while answering a question about the Penguins’ plan. “The Penguins would tell you that the plan is to get younger and become a championship contender as urgently as possible.”
Yohe pointed to the young talent Kyle Dubas has brought in, including Egor Chinakhov, Elmer Söderblom, Ben Kindel, Bill Zonnon, Will Horcoff, Harrison Brunicke, Liam Ruck, and Markus Ruck. But he also made clear that the age curve on the current roster is still a major obstacle.
“Of course, Evgeni Malkin turns 40 this summer. Sidney Crosby turns 39 this summer,” he wrote. He also listed Kris Letang, Erik Karlsson, Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell, Trevor van Riemsdyk, Andrei Kuzmenko, and Tommy Novak among the team’s older regulars.
Yohe said those veterans account for half of Pittsburgh’s projected opening-night skaters, which puts the franchise in a tricky spot. The Penguins want to stay competitive, but they also need to keep moving toward a younger core.
Crosby, for his part, still produced at a high level last season even while missing time because of injury. He finished with 74 points in 68 regular-season games and added five playoff points. He also passed Mario Lemieux for Pittsburgh’s all-time points lead with his 1,724th career point and now sits at 1761 points.
The real question, though, is how much longer Pittsburgh can keep trying to thread the needle.
“Bringing back Malkin is nice for nostalgia, but how does it help build a team for the future?” Yohe wrote, before raising similar concerns about Letang, Karlsson, Rust, and Rakell. He suggested that moving some of those veterans could help speed up the rebuild.
“I respect all of these players, but at some point, if they stay too long, they’re going to slow down the rebuild,” Yohe wrote.
He did draw one firm line when it came to Crosby.
“Crosby is different. He wants to play a few more years, and he’s a living legend.”
Even then, Yohe made his stance clear on the larger roster picture.
“You can’t rebuild around him. I’m not sure you can reasonably build something with a group of players this age.”
Dubas has already signaled that he is not interested in tearing everything down. Instead, he has taken a “semi-pivot” approach built around younger NHL-ready players, a path that keeps the Penguins in the mix while they try to prepare for what’s ahead.
Now the franchise has to decide how long it can keep leaning on sentiment before roster turnover becomes unavoidable. Crosby is still elite, but the next Penguins chapter will depend on what happens with everyone else.
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The Penguins keep surfacing in the middle of a trade market that could reshape more than one roster, and the latest chatter has them tied to a mix of young talent and proven names. Pittsburghs interest is said to extend to Seattle forward Shane Wright, though the price tag around him is described as steep, which is hardly surprising for a player whose age and upside make him the kind of target teams do not move lightly.
Erik Karlsson remains the more complicated piece of the puzzle for Pittsburgh, because his status is tied to both the Penguins place in the standings and the cost of any extension. He is in the final year of his contract, so the front office has to balance the possibility of keeping him against the reality that a trade could become the cleaner path if the club is not positioned to contend. [Read more 🡒]
Penguins May Be Closing In On A Costly Young Center Pivot
The Penguins are still hunting for help down the middle, and Shane Wright has emerged as a name worth watching. The 22-year-old Seattle center was taken fourth overall in the 2022 NHL Draft, but his fit with the Kraken has not matched the expectations that followed him into the league, which has opened the door to a possible move.
For Pittsburgh, the appeal is obvious: a young center with a manageable contract and room to grow. The problem is the cost. Seattles asking price is said to be substantial, and Kyle Dubas may only push harder if the Penguins miss on their primary target, Jason Robertson, leaving Wright as a more expensive Plan B than Pittsburgh would like. [Read more 🡒]