Pittsburgh’s 2025-26 season was defined by a run nobody fully expected. The Penguins finished 41-25-16, second in the Metropolitan Division, and ended a playoff drought on the strength of an aging core that still had enough left to win night after night against a division that keeps getting deeper. The story ended the way most surprise seasons do against a genuine title threat: Philadelphia eliminated Pittsburgh in six games in the first round on its way to a deep playoff run of its own. The schedule-makers didn’t waste the symmetry — the Penguins open 2026-27 against that same Flyers team on September 30, a rematch of the series that ended their year.
General manager Kyle Dubas spent the summer treating that near-miss as proof the roster is close rather than a reason to rebuild, adding scoring and defensive depth around a core that is not getting any younger. Whether that bet pays off is worth comparing across FanDuel, Hard Rock Bet and BetRivers before training camp settles the goaltending job and the fourth line.
Penguins Stanley Cup Odds: +6500 to +7500
Hard Rock Bet is the longest of the three at +7500. BetRivers sits in the middle at +7000. FanDuel is the shortest at +6500.
Odds current as of Tuesday, Sept. 15. Futures shift once training camp opens on Sept. 17, so check the best betting apps for the live number before committing.
A $100 ticket returns $7,500 at Hard Rock Bet against $6,500 at FanDuel on the identical outcome, and the conference market shows the same pattern from a different angle. Hard Rock Bet and BetRivers both price Pittsburgh at +4000 to win the East, while FanDuel undercuts the field at +3000 — a 33% gap on a team that no book treats as a favorite but that FanDuel clearly rates closer to the top of the conference picture than its rivals do. That kind of disagreement across three regulated sportsbooks over a roster with this much turnover is exactly why the full board is worth checking before a futures ticket goes in.
BET PENGUINS FUTURES AT FANATICSDubas Bet on Now, Not Later
The offseason additions were about immediate help rather than a youth movement. Andrei Kuzmenko signed a one-year, $5 million deal after posting 13 goals and 12 assists in 52 games last season, though he is still working back from a meniscus tear. Nicholas Robertson arrived from Toronto on July 1 for a 2028 fourth-round pick and signed a two-year, $6.5 million contract two weeks later, bringing the 32 points he scored with the Maple Leafs last season into a middle six that needed the scoring. Hendrix Lapierre came over from Washington on June 25 for a 2027 third-round pick and a 2028 fifth-rounder, then signed his own two-year deal. On the blue line, Trevor van Riemsdyk signed a two-year, $8 million contract for third-pairing stability, and Kaedan Korczak was acquired from Vegas for Parker Wotherspoon to add a right-shot puck-mover.
The subtraction that stings is Anthony Mantha, who led the Penguins with 33 goals and left for New Jersey on a two-year, $9.5 million deal. Nobody added this summer replaces that kind of finishing on his own; the plan is for the goal-scoring to come from more places rather than one. Noel Acciari signed with Philadelphia — of all destinations — and Ryan Shea left for Edmonton on a five-year, $20 million contract, clearing two more spots for the new faces.
The cap situation gives Dubas room to keep adjusting. Pittsburgh projects a $93,097,360 cap hit with a full 23-man roster and roughly $10.9 million in space, rising to an estimated $50.36 million of accruable room by the trade deadline. Not every move was about this season alone — Pittsburgh also locked forward Ville Koivunen into an eight-year contract in August, a long-term bet tucked underneath all the short-term ones. A front office with that kind of flexibility and a general manager who has already shown a willingness to add can realistically upgrade again in March if the first half of the season earns it — which puts a premium on Pittsburgh simply staying in the race into February.
BET NHL FUTURES AT HARD ROCK BETKarlsson’s Contract Year, Without His Old Partner
Erik Karlsson had his best season in a Penguins sweater, scoring 66 points in 75 games in a contract year — the final season of the eight-year, $92 million deal he signed before ever coming to Pittsburgh. The NHL Edge tracking data backs up the counting stats: Karlsson ranked in the 99th percentile in max skating speed at 23.74 mph, tied for fourth among defensemen with 19 speed bursts over 22 mph, and fourth in the entire NHL with 40 shot attempts between 90 and 100 mph. His shot profile is elite across the board — a 95th-percentile 14 high-danger shots on goal, a 96th-percentile 44 mid-range shots on goal, and 81 long-range shots on goal that put him in the 94th percentile, with six of those going in for a 98th-percentile mark tied for fourth in the league. He also logged 34.41 miles of skating distance on the power play alone, a 96th-percentile figure, and spent 45.4% of his ice time in the offensive zone.
The complication is that Karlsson’s regular defensive partner last season, Parker Wotherspoon, was the player traded to Vegas for Korczak, meaning the best version of Karlsson last season came alongside someone who is no longer on the roster. Whether he finds the same chemistry with a new partner in what is supposed to be his final year under this contract is one of the two or three biggest swing factors for how far this defense corps carries the team.
The Crosby-Malkin-Letang Farewell Watch
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang have combined to win three Stanley Cups together and form the longest-tenured trio in North American major professional sports history. All three are entering seasons that carry real questions about how many are left. Crosby, 39, led the team with 74 points in 68 games and is in the final year of the two-year, $17.4 million extension he signed at an $8.7 million cap hit — he still projects inside the top 50 overall with 90 points forecast for the season, evidence the decline everyone keeps predicting has not actually shown up in the data. Malkin, 40, bounced back from two seasons below a point-per-game pace with 61 points in 56 games after a move from center to the wing, on a one-year, $5.5 million deal that could be his last; the games he missed to injury over the previous two seasons may have inadvertently kept him fresher for the ones he did play. Letang, 39, is signed through 2027-28 at a $6.1 million cap hit, but his role has shrunk as Karlsson has taken over as the team’s primary workhorse defenseman.
None of that changes the arithmetic for bettors: a team built around three players in their late 30s and 40s is a team whose outright price should reflect real downside risk in the second half of an 82-game schedule, whatever the results say through October and November.
The Goaltending Job Nobody Has Locked Down
Arturs Silovs signed a one-year deal on July 5 and is the presumptive starter after a 3.07 goals-against average last season, but the crease is not settled beyond that. Sergei Murashov, 22, posted a 2.20 GAA and a .919 save percentage across 38 AHL games and was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in late April; the expectation is for Murashov to be competing for a roster spot this season, not waiting behind it. Joel Blomqvist, who signed a two-year contract and spent time being assigned and recalled between the NHL and AHL last spring, is the third name in the competition. The position looks like a genuine organizational strength rather than a hole to be papered over, and letting three goaltenders compete into camp — rather than handing the job outright to Silovs — suggests Pittsburgh upgraded the position even without a marquee free-agent signing.
Prospects Pushing for Jobs Now
Harrison Brunicke, 20, earned real minutes on Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s top defensive pairing and produced seven playoff points; he is expected to compete for a roster spot this season. Rutger McGroarty, 22, acquired from Winnipeg in 2024, managed only nine points in 32 NHL games and still has real skating concerns, but the work he put in over the summer is reason for optimism. Bill Zonnon, 19, impressed at the Penguins’ inaugural prospect tournament in Detroit, part of a 2-1 showing that included a shootout win over Columbus and a win over the host Red Wings; he produced seven points in 11 AHL playoff games after his junior season ended and is targeting next season for his NHL arrival. Tomas Galvas, a Czech defenseman named the top blueliner in the Czech Extraliga last season, signed his entry-level contract in July and scored highlight-reel goals throughout the tournament despite the language adjustment. William Horcoff, 19, scored 25 goals as a Michigan sophomore despite offseason shoulder surgery and remains a 2028-29 target rather than an immediate answer. None of these names move the Cup number, but any of them contributing early would soften the cap crunch the veteran core is creating.
SHOP NHL FUTURES AT FANDUELBest Bets and Predicted Finish
Best Bet: Penguins to win the Eastern Conference (+4000 at Hard Rock Bet) — Pittsburgh already proved it belongs in the conversation by making the playoffs last season, and Hard Rock Bet and BetRivers both pay 33% more than FanDuel for the same outcome. A healthy Crosby, an improved goaltending group and Dubas’s added scoring depth are a reasonable combination for a return trip, and there is no reason to accept FanDuel’s shorter number when the other two books are offering the same distance for more.
Value play: shop the full board. With FanDuel undercutting the conference market and all three books disagreeing meaningfully on the Cup price, comparing the complete list of online sportsbooks before betting is the only way to know which number is actually available in a given state.
Fade: Penguins Stanley Cup at FanDuel’s +6500. At a 1.5% implied probability, that price assumes the goaltending competition resolves cleanly and the 39-and-40-year-old engine room holds up over 82 games. Hard Rock Bet’s +7500 pays 15% more for the same bet, and the age risk in this roster argues for taking the longer number if a Cup ticket is going in at all.
Predicted finish: third or fourth in the Metropolitan Division, 88-95 points, and a first-round matchup that could easily be a rematch with Philadelphia if the standings fall the way last year’s did.
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