The Pittsburgh Penguins went into the offseason with a chance to make a real push, and instead they’ve spent the early part of it raising more questions than answers.
After sneaking back into the playoffs and entering the summer with draft picks and cap space, plenty of people expected the Penguins to land meaningful upgrades. That wave never really arrived. The trade market got expensive, free agency didn’t line up cleanly, and the result is a group of additions that, for the most part, doesn’t move the needle.
That’s the frustrating part for Pittsburgh. The team didn’t just stand still - it made moves that are hard to square. Around the division, other teams have improved, while the Penguins may be drifting toward a familiar problem: a roster that looks less settled than it should at this point in the offseason.
One of the head-scratchers is Hendrix Lapierre. Pittsburgh added another young skater to a crowded mix, even though Lapierre has never been a major offensive force at the NHL level.
The Penguins paid a premium to get him from the Capitals, and unless he suddenly breaks out at 24, it’s going to be tough to justify the cost. The one thing working in his favor is that his contract price is modest.
Kaden Korczak is a different kind of gamble. He’s young, cheap, and still has room to grow, but he hasn’t yet carved out a major NHL role.
The fit becomes murkier because Pittsburgh already has too many right-side defensemen. On top of that, the loss of Parker Wotherspoon still doesn’t make much sense, especially with the left side of the blue line looking unresolved.
Nick Robertson initially looked like the kind of move that could quietly pay off. Then came the extension, and the price tag was higher than expected.
That changes the equation. Instead of treating him as a flexible add-on, the Penguins now have to use him in a bigger role because of what they’re paying him.
There’s also the possibility that bringing him in could help open the door to a trade for his brother, Jason Robertson.
The right-shot defense logjam remains one of the strangest parts of Pittsburgh’s offseason. That’s why the addition of Trevor van Riemsdyk in free agency feels awkward unless more changes are coming.
He can play both sides, but he’s more effective on the right, which only adds to the congestion. It also pushes Harrison Brunicke further from the NHL picture, while making the team older in the process.
Andrei Kuzmenko, meanwhile, looks like the most sensible swing the Penguins have taken so far. He’s stepping in as the Anthony Mantha replacement, and he brings previous NHL success along with a long injury history.
That makes him a real gamble, but it’s a manageable one on a one-year deal. If Pittsburgh is going to find a useful bounce-back candidate, Kuzmenko might be the best bet of the bunch.
Declan Carlile is another low-cost roll of the dice, even if plenty of people don’t love the signing. The Penguins appear to be hoping he can fill the kind of role Parker Wotherspoon had, and on paper the comparison makes some sense. The difference is experience: Wotherspoon came to Pittsburgh with 108 NHL games, while Carlile has only 46.
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Penguins Offseason Suddenly Hinges On One Outside Decision
For a Penguins offseason that already feels like it is being shaped from the outside, the most interesting part may be how much of the conversation still runs through Kyle Dubas. The organizations prospect pipeline has been painted in a fairly rosy light, with the kind of top-five, top-20 and honorable-mention chatter that suggests there is real depth coming, but the bigger question is how that young talent fits into whatever Dubas is trying to build next.
Even as the front office gets nudged in one direction and seems to want to go another, the Penguins are waiting on decisions and dominoes elsewhere in the league that could change the market around them. That is the tension of this stretch for Pittsburgh: the future looks better on paper than it has in a while, but the path to getting there still depends on choices being made far beyond the South Side. [Read more 🡒]
Penguins Rebuild Timeline Suddenly Feels Like A Bigger Dubas Test
Kyle Dubas has spent much of Pittsburghs rebuild trying to manage two timelines at once, keeping the veteran core competitive while also trying to build a younger group that can eventually carry the Penguins forward. The problem is that the middle ground is thin. The organization has prospects and recent draft picks on the way, but not nearly enough players who are already in that crucial stage where they should be pushing for NHL jobs and proving they can stick.
That gap puts even more pressure on the next wave of young Penguins to show real progress soon, especially the players who are supposed to move from promising to dependable over the next couple of seasons. It also makes the coming drafts and development decisions feel more important than usual, because Dubas is not just looking for talent. He is trying to find the right timing, and Pittsburgh still has to answer how many of these young pieces can actually arrive before the rebuild starts to lose patience. [Read more 🡒]