With training camp and the preseason still ahead, the Pittsburgh Penguins are set up to be one of the league’s most unpredictable watches. That could make for a wildly entertaining season - or a maddening one. There are open spots all over the roster, young players waiting for their chance, and enough uncertainty to keep the storyline moving every night.
At the center of it all is Sidney Crosby. Nothing about his status feels shaky.
Based on his comments at the NHLPA media tour, his next contract could be done at any time, and neither side sounds worried about dragging it out. For anyone wondering whether Crosby might be headed elsewhere, the message is simple: he’s a Penguin, and he’s staying that way.
General manager Kyle Dubas has also built a roster that is, for lack of a better word, crowded. There are enough forwards to stock two NHL teams, the defense is uneven, and the Penguins even have three goalies in the mix.
That kind of clutter can become a mess fast, but for now it also gives the season some real intrigue. The Penguins are currently listed at +6500 to win the Stanley Cup and +196 to make the playoffs.
One of the bigger roster questions ties into the rising cost of young talent around the league. Fraser Minten just landed a seven-year, $50.4 million deal from the Boston Bruins, while Vancouver also locked up 20-year-old defenseman Zeev Buium on an eight-year, $75.040 million contract.
Minten, 22, was Toronto’s second-round pick in 2022, and Boston got him at the March 7, 2025 trade deadline as part of the Brandon Carlo deal. The Bruins also received a 2025 fourth-round pick and a 2026 first-rounder.
That’s the kind of return that makes the current market look wild. Boston moved a top-pair defenseman for a first-round pick, a second-round asset with upside, and a fourth-round pick, and even that now looks light in the middle of this price surge. The article also points to Dubas adding to the chaos by sending out unproven players, while Carolina’s Alexander Nikishin remains unsigned.
The roster squeeze could get expensive in Wilkes-Barre, too. The AHL doesn’t have a salary cap, which matters here because the Penguins could end up with a roster that includes Ville Koivunen, Ryan Graves, Justin Brazeau, Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones, and other NHL contracts.
If Brazeau makes the club, then Elmer Soderblom or Hendrix Lapierre would be the one left out. Even with those players in the minors, the WBS Penguins could still carry a roster costing more than $25 million.
That kind of money sitting in the AHL may be part of doing business, but it raises a fair question about how the Hoffmann Group, which took over in June, will view the spending. If Lapierre is the biggest deployment mystery, Dubas’s work shopping through the bottom six has also raised eyebrows inside the organization.
There’s also a broader league issue that doesn’t sit right: the buyout process. Anaheim is effectively going to buy out Chris Kreider without penalty after putting him on waivers for the purpose of a mutually agreed contract termination. Kreider is expected to give up about $4 million in salary, assuming he has already received his $1 million signing bonus, while Anaheim clears a $6.5 million cap hit.
That setup is too easy, and the article argues it cuts against the spirit of the cap. Anaheim couldn’t trade him and apparently didn’t want to pay the cost of moving him, so the Ducks are getting out cleanly while Kreider moves on. The article says there are no extenuating circumstances here, and the NHLPA should not let this become the new normal.
Ironically, Kreider would fit the Penguins well. At 35, he’d bring some edge to a roster described as heavily analytics-driven, plus a needed presence around the net on the power play.
He isn’t as fast as he once was, though he still has enough speed to matter. But Pittsburgh doesn’t have the room.
In Other News...
Penguins Walk Into A Charged Road Test Columbus Has Circled
Opening night at Nationwide Arena already has a little extra juice, with Columbus set to host Pittsburgh on Oct. 9 in one of the early tests on a schedule that also features some emotionally charged dates later on. For Blue Jackets fans, this is the kind of game that tends to matter beyond the standings, especially when the Penguins are the opponent and the building gets a familiar dose of old rivalry energy right away.
The rest of Columbus 2026-27 slate has a few other spots circled, including a Dec. 31 meeting with Washington that brings Boone Jenner back into the picture and a Feb. 20 date with Nashville. Those games give the Blue Jackets a chance to connect the season to the broader storylines around former faces, fan memory and the kind of nights that keep an arena buzzing long after the schedule is released. [Read more 🡒]