{"id":382990,"date":"2026-01-02T06:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/382990\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T06:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:26:10","slug":"letang-eager-for-another-taste-of-the-playoffs-with-penguins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/382990\/","title":{"rendered":"Letang eager for ‘another taste of the playoffs’ with Penguins"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his 20th season, Letang has 20 points (three goals, 17 assists) in 39 games. He has the most points (792), goals (178) and assists (614) by a defenseman in Pittsburgh history.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou kind of take it for granted most of your career,\u201d Letang said.<\/p>\n

Not now. Not after it could have been cut short long ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt certain points, you start realizing how lucky we are,\u201d Letang said. \u201cTo have the chance to play that long with everything that happened throughout my career, it takes a big support cast, you know? Like a family that\u2019s there for you, a good organization to help you out going through those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Letang has had two strokes — one in late January of 2014 and another on Nov. 28, 2022. A small hole in the wall of his heart was found after the first. It was fixed in a surgical procedure this past April.<\/p>\n

There was neck surgery in April 2017. The resulting pain had Letang consider early retirement. Instead, he had 51 points (nine goals, 42 assists) in 79 games the following season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe takes a lot of pride in being able to play a lot of minutes and taking care of his body,\u201d said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby<\/a>, Letang\u2019s teammate since 2006. \u201cThose certain things that happened are out of your control, but I think he does everything in his power to be able to be consistent and, year after year, contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n

The end is closer than the beginning now. Nobody knows exactly when it\u2019ll come, but it\u2019s inevitable.<\/p>\n

Letang is signed through 2027-28 on a six-year, $36.6 million contract ($6.1 million average annual value). He’s likely to play it out.<\/p>\n

But the ice time has dropped. Letang is averaging 21:38 per game this season under first-year coach Dan Muse, down from 24:07 in his career and 23:32 last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe comes to work every single day,\u201d Muse said. \u201cPreparation, you know, daily habits, all those things. I think he\u2019s a guy that every single day, he\u2019s going to come to work. He\u2019s going to come to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Letang is unbothered.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t play, sometimes, 28, 30 minutes,\u201d Letang said. \u201cYou play 22 and, sometimes, those 22 minutes can feel like you played like 30. So, I don\u2019t really pay attention to it. Doesn\u2019t really affect you.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still a sign of change. Not the only one, either.<\/p>\n

Letang is part of a core three, along with Crosby and fellow center Evgeni Malkin<\/a>. At 20 seasons together, they are the longest-tenured trio in the history of major North American pro sports.<\/p>\n

And this could be it.<\/p>\n

Crosby has 43 points (23 goals, 20 assists) in 39 games this season at age 38. He\u2019s signed through next season on a two-year, $17.4 million contract ($8.7 million AAV).<\/p>\n

Malkin, however, is in the final season of a four-year, $24.4 million contract ($6.1 million AAV). At 39 years old, he has 29 points (eight goals, 21 assists) in 26 games but is recovering from an upper-body injury that has sidelined him since Dec. 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re starting to think about it, when you see contracts and stuff like that,\u201d Letang said. \u201cSo, yeah, we want to give it our all. And we do every single year. It\u2019s not like because it\u2019s [Malkin\u2019s] last year of his deal that we\u2019re trying harder. We always do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know how exciting it is to play in the playoffs. We want to have another run, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Letang has had an impact, regardless of if that run comes. Evidence is never far away.<\/p>\n

His influence can be seen in Alex, who recently turned 13 and is a forward on a peewee team. Now, it’s Kris’ turn to sit and watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be overcoaching him,\u201d Letang said. \u201cYou just wanted to give him some guidance and kind of, like, transmit your passion for hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his 20th season, Letang has 20 points (three goals, 17 assists) in 39 games. He has the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-382990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382990","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=382990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}