Key departures<\/p>\n
Matt Grzelcyk<\/a>, D: An unsigned free agent, Grzelcyk had an NHL career-high 40 points (one goal, 39 assists) in 82 games last season. …Alex Nedeljkovic<\/a>, G: Traded to the San Jose Sharks on July 1, he was 32-22-12 with a 3.05 GAA and .898 save percentage as Pittsburgh’s primary backup the past two seasons. …P.O Joseph<\/a>, D: Signed a one-year contract with the Canucks on July 2. He played his first four seasons with the Penguins before signing a one-year contract with the St. Louis Blues on July 2, 2024. Joseph was traded back to Pittsburgh on Dec. 18, 2024, and had one assist in 24 games. …Matt Nieto<\/a>, F: An unsigned free agent, Nieto had seven points (two goals, five assists) in 54 games in two seasons with the Penguins, including three points (one goal, two assists) in 32 games last season.<\/p>\n On the cusp<\/p>\n Rutger McGroarty<\/a>, F: The 21-year-old had three points (one goal, two assists) in eight games for Pittsburgh last season and got a look on the first line with center Sidney Crosby<\/a> after being recalled from Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton of the American Hockey League on March 29 before sustaining a season-ending lower-body injury April 8. …Ville Koivunen<\/a>, F: The 22-year-old had seven assists in his first eight NHL games after being recalled with McGroarty. He could start the season on a line with second-line center Evgeni Malkin<\/a>. …Owen Pickering<\/a>, D: The 21-year-old had three points (one goal, two assists) in 25 games as a rookie last season. Selected with the No. 21 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, Pickering could earn a top-pair role.<\/p>\n What they still need<\/p>\n Decisions on Bryan Rust<\/a>, Rickard Rakell<\/a> and Erik Karlsson<\/a>. Rust has chemistry with Crosby on the first line and has won the Stanley Cup twice in 11 seasons with Pittsburgh. Rakell led the Penguins with 35 goals as a top-six wing last season. Karlsson has led their defensemen in points in each of his two seasons since being acquired from the Sharks on Aug. 6, 2023. Still, general manager Kyle Dubas said he would listen to trade offers with Pittsburgh looking toward the future.<\/p>\n They said it<\/p>\n “At some point, we’re going to have to make the call to go into this mode, to try to build, to transition to that next era of the team, contending again. We know what people say about the prospect pool and the (draft) class, and how long of a road people think it’s going to be. But we are down there, and every ounce of our focus is about getting the team back to contention as urgently as possible.” — general manager Kyle Dubas<\/p>\n EDGE stat to watch<\/p>\n The Penguins ranked sixth in the NHL in high-danger shots on goal (656) last season, which included 634 by forwards to rank fourth as a team. Rakell led Pittsburgh and ranked tied for ninth in the League with 22 high-danger goals. Rakell (88 high-danger SOG; 97th percentile), as well as frequent linemates Crosby (87 high-danger SOG; 97th percentile) and Rust (79 high-danger SOG; 95th percentile) each excelled from high-danger areas last season. Penguins forwards accounted for 87.6 percent of their goals (212 of 242) as a team last season, the sixth highest mark in the NHL. — Troy Perlowitz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key departures Matt Grzelcyk, D: An unsigned free agent, Grzelcyk had an NHL career-high 40 points (one goal,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-28933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}