{"id":770076,"date":"2026-06-30T14:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/770076\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T14:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:44:14","slug":"nhl-free-agency-names-to-keep-an-eye-on-for-the-penguins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/770076\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Free Agency: Names to keep an eye on for the Penguins"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NHL\u2019s annual free agency period begins tomorrow, the Penguins enter the official start of the 2026-27 league year with a ton of cap space. They\u2019re not expected to be overly-aggressive by targeting players who will command significant salaries and term on those contracts, per their very own general manager making the decisions.<\/p>\n

However, they can still use the signing period to their benefit. Pittsburgh signed some under the radar players last summer like Parker Wotherspoon and Justin Brazeau who were instrumental to their success. They found the player who would lead them in goal scoring during 2025-26 in Anthony Mantha for just a $2.5 million guaranteed salary. Last year proved the possibility to find quality adds at decent costs to the team, just because it\u2019s not one of the flashier or bigger signings of the summer doesn\u2019t mean it can\u2019t serve up some importance.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, here are some potential targets for the Pens. For this list, we will not consider players in-line for expected contracts of three years or more, since Pittsburgh hasn\u2019t signed an outside free agent for 3+ years since the summer of 2023. Most of those decisions (including the Ryan Graves contract) did not work out and the team doesn\u2019t look like they\u2019re going to try that again at this point. That means the best of the free agent class, like Mason Marchment, Jacob Trouba, Mario Ferraro, Ryan Shea, heck even Andrew Peeke and Logan Stanley are pushed off to the side as options that would require more of a contractual commitment than it seems the Pens will be looking to make.<\/p>\n

AFP Contract Projection: $1.934 million AAV for two years<\/p>\n

The Penguins don\u2019t really need any more forwards<\/a>, but that\u2019s never stopped them from loading up on depth in the past in similar situations. Regenda has a lot of intriguing elements going for him: he\u2019s young as far as free agents go (26), he\u2019s a big winger (6\u20193\u201d, 215 pounds), he\u2019s showed a little bit of scoring touch at the NHL level (nine goals, one assist in 24 games last year with San Jose), he\u2019s physical (59 hits last year for a 11.0 hits\/60 rate). He\u2019s played in the Olympics with Slovakia. A lot within his profile to like, the Pens have the space and opportunity to offer that maybe others can\u2019t. The team wouldn\u2019t turn down a Mantha-esque type of replacement, not that Regenda would or should be expected to score 30+ goals and 60+ points next year.<\/p>\n

AFP Projection: $2.36 million AAV for two years<\/p>\n

van Riemsdyk turns 35 next month, not sure how much appetite the Penguins would have with a two-year contract for him but he\u2019s got some size (6\u20193\u201d, 210 pounds) and 751 games of experience that would add some depth to shore up the right side of their defense with skating ability and a history of strong defensive impacts. The Penguins don\u2019t currently have that many defenseman in a \u20185\/6\u2019 type of role that could shade more into being used as a \u20185\u2019, van Riemsdyk could be a nice short-term patch and insurance if 20-year old Harrison Brunicke needs more AHL developmental time.<\/p>\n

AFP Projection: $2.15 million AAV for two years<\/p>\n

A player like Soucy, turning 32 soon, works as a potential good fit for the Pens as a stay-at-home left shot defender who might help the team out similar to the way Brett Kulak briefly did last season. The issue might be that Soucy isn\u2019t quite the caliber of a matchup defender, using him with someone like Kris Letang could be a bigger ask than what Soucy can deliver at this point. Still, Soucy could add size (6\u20194\u201d, 211 pounds) and some PK and provide the type of legitimate NHL caliber depth that has been lacking for the Pens on the blueline these days, though his puck moving deficiencies might not align with team preferences for the spot they\u2019re looking to fill.<\/p>\n

AFP Projection: $1.36 million AAV for one year<\/p>\n

Bean, 28, is a former first round pick whose career has been riddled with injuries. His 2025-26 season ended with an undisclosed injury leading to surgery in December that limited him to 16 games. In the six seasons that he\u2019s been a full-time NHL player he\u2019s appeared in: 42, 67, 12, 72, 64 and 16 games in each year. Availability has been a major concern, but it\u2019s also a player whose trajectory with defensive impact has been trending up when he\u2019s been able to play.<\/p>\n

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Bean is a smart puck mover and would represent a risk but could fill in nicely on a third pair for a team like the Penguins. The risk of being on IR for a significant stretch of the season is real, but also reflected in a very manageable contract.<\/p>\n

AFP Projection: $1.2 million AAV for one year<\/p>\n

Talked a lot about Reilly recently<\/a>, his profile does fit for the types of players that the Pens have brought in recently. However, he\u2019s also turning 33 next month and has failed over the past few years to establish himself firmly in a niche of keeping a consistent lineup spot with several different teams. The ceiling might be what it is for him at this point as more of a swing player and depth rather than a regular third pair option the team would truly be looking for.<\/p>\n

AFP Projection: $866k AAV for one year<\/p>\n

If the Pens are searching for the next Wotherspoon, Jordan Harris might fit the profile in this free agent cycle. The soon-to-be 26 year old had a lost season in 2025-26 after a fractured ankle in October limited him to just eight NHL games. Harris is a player, who earlier in his career with Montreal in the 2022-24 timeframe looked intriguing.<\/p>\n

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Harris has decent puck moving ability but has a falling stock – he hasn\u2019t been given a qualifying offer the last two years. He would probably be in a position to need to compete for a spot and prove it, rather than being penciled into a huge role like Wotherspoon was, but this is another case where the lack of quality options at the bottom of the depth chart could find an answer with enough pieces thrown in the mix to see what happens. Sign Harris and if worst comes to worst that he doesn\u2019t outshine someone like Ilya Solovyov, he can be waived. That course wouldn\u2019t solve the need that comes along with it, making Harris more of a complimentary shot than a sole target.<\/p>\n

AFP Projection: $850k AAV for one year<\/p>\n

Saving perhaps the best for last, Carlile gives off some young Ryan Shea vibes with a similar size (6\u20193, 190) and being a late-bloomer who spent a handful of years toiling in the AHL before getting a chance with Tampa last year in a depth role (42 games and two more in the playoffs) and making a decent accounting on the PK. Carlile might be redundant for Pittsburgh, since they have a similar player in Ilya Solovyov as a depth option, but this could be a projection along the Shea\/Wotherspoon area. At only 26 years old, Carlile\u2019s future might be worth taking a low-risk flyer on at a position of need if the Pens think he potentially could stick on their third pair next season if given the opportunity to grow, just as a player like Shea did in recent years. Shea has graduated into big money now, targeting Carlile would reset the cycle back to a younger and less expensive option.<\/p>\n

As one can tell, we spent the majority of time on defensemen since that appears to be the biggest need for a team that looks likely to lose Shea and lacks a natural internal replacement for the important role he filled last season as one of the team\u2019s steadier players. Going shopping in the bargain bin comes with inherent acceptance of dealing with flaws and limitations, but there is enough quantity to pick through that a team like Pittsburgh should be able to find a decent enough option or two to help round out their team in an affordable and relatively low cost manner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NHL\u2019s annual free agency period begins tomorrow, the Penguins enter the official start of the 2026-27 league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,1325,575,85],"class_list":["post-770076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-general","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}