Fans can be fickle, and fans can be loyal. Since the days of Mario Lemieux and later Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins fans came to the game through individuals rather than a successful team, and so Penguins fans can be the most loyal to players.
Their players.
However, sometimes fans projected more skills and more production upon the players. Hockey people can do the same thing, elevating players who don’t necessarily meet perceptions. After all, remember the very sought-after, and one of the first analytics darlings, Daniel Winnick? And after winning a Stanley Cup in 2017, center Carter Rowney cashed in and signed a three-year contract with Anaheim, and was barely heard from again.
Of course, there are also players we believed had more to give, such as Zach Aston-Reese, P.O Joseph, and Nick Bjugstad, and perhaps we overrated them. Hey, we’re humans at PHN, too (and we still think ZAR and P.O are better than they showed in Pittsburgh).
We’ve already run the gamut with the Penguins’ most underappreciated players, and to no surprise, some of the Penguins’ more overrated players were indeed submitted by PHN readers as underappreciated. The simple fact of believing a player is underappreciated is a good sign that they may be overrated.
Our list is a mix of those hyped by fans and those perhaps inflated by hockey people.
As a list of honorable mentions, we debated and waffled on including Phil Kessel on the list. Perhaps no player in recent memory has been so highly valued by fans and so undervalued by hockey people. Perhaps the polarized ends of the ethoses balanced the universe?
Chris Kunitz was often submitted for our underappreciated list, but he was so valued by hockey people that he was placed on the Olympic team. He was a great complement to Crosby, but outside of a few years, his career arc was not that of an All-Star or Olympian. He was among our top-10 overrated Penguins, but didn’t make the final five.
Top 5 Overrated Penguins
5. Daniel Sprong
Fans still mention Sprong as the patron saint of former coach Mike Sullivan’s steadfast (and largely imagined) refusal to play young players. Sprong was the Penguins first pick (second-round) in 2015. His offensive talent wasn’t really in question–it was the rest of his game that limited his career. After bouncing around, Sprong finally had somewhat of a breakthrough, scoring 21 goals with the Seattle Kraken in 2022-23. He followed that season up with 18 goals the following season with Detroit before scoring just five goals with three teams last season.
Sprong was the quintessential overrated player whom fans affixed far too many hopes and fought far too hard for. In nine NHL seasons, he played for eight teams (Seattle twice) and this summer signed in Europe when the NHL offers dried up.
4. Jesse Puljujarvi
The never-ending and exasperating campaign for him was slightly less maddening than a toddler demanding a toy by pounding on the floor in the middle of Walmart.
This selection is based purely on the deafening and persistent fan reaction and demand. His opportunities within hockey had largely been exhausted until he had double hip surgery in the summer of 2023. Penguins GM Kyle Dubas wisely rolled out a free-agent tryout, though Puljujarvi wasn’t quite ready, so he eventually signed an AHL PTO before making his way to the NHL in parts of 2023-24 and 2024-25. Eventually, the Penguins’ coaches and management pulled the plug on the opportunity to revive his career, allowing him to become a mid-season free agent to the chagrin of many.
3. Brandon Tanev
No one defends the crash-bang style players more so than PHN. However, former Penguins general manager Ron Hextall Jim Rutherford lavished a six-year, $21 million deal upon Tanev after his 29-point season with Winnipeg the season prior.
Tanev was and is a fast, gritty player well suited to fourth-line duty. However, his contributions have not met his NHL salaries (currently $2.5 million with the Utah Mammoth), and his contributions can be replaced with much less expensive players.
Though no one in the league takes a better team headshot.
Brandon Tanev collection of team headshots
2. James Neal
Fan favorite. 40-goal scorer.
However, Neal’s contributions came–and perhaps he contributed–to the Penguins’ lowest points from 2011 through 2014. He scored goals, though never again came close to his 40-goal output in 2011-12, faithfully playing beside Evgeni Malkin.
There was an annual gap between Neal’s perceived value and his statistical value; the team chemistry and change were immediate when former GM Jim Rutherford swapped Neal for Patric Hornqvist (though there was the matter of ill-fitting coach Mike Johnston to overcome first).
Neal’s goal totals after his eye-popping 40 were 21, 27, 23, 31, 23, and 25, before age caught up and he fought to stay in lineups in Calgary, Edmonton, and St. Louis for four more seasons.
Neal did score on a 40-goal pace in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, netting 21, but the disparity between those seasons and the remainder of his career was significant.
1. Derick Brassard
Oh, what should or could have been. The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions were tired but preparing for a third Cup run. Rutherford swung one of the most complicated trades of the salary cap era, essentially giving up a first-round pick and a prospect goalie (Filip Gustavsson) in addition to other players with NHL salaries to acquire Brassard.
Big Game Brass.
Brassard was stout in the New York Rangers’ runs to the Stanley Cup Final and Conference Final appearances several years prior, but he was a complementary player. Brassard was traded to Ottawa for Mika Zibanejad and became a featured player on a lesser team, though his statistics remained complementary rather than front-line.
Except no one told Brassard. The hockey world hyped Brassard as a winner and a middle-six center capable of lifting a good team to a Stanley Cup. Fans drank that information like water on a hot day. Everyone expected Brassard to be the new battery in the Penguins dynasty.
Read More (From 2018): Finally! Derick Brassard Traded to Penguins: Details and Analysis
As it turned out, Rutherford should have kept the receipt. Brassard wanted to be a top-six player despite Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin performing in their prime. Seriously?! He and a much younger but already fully in command of the team, Mike Sullivan, had “many conversations” about Brassard’s role.
Brassard lasted just 54 games with the Penguins over about 12 months, scoring a whopping 12 goals.
He was never happy in Pittsburgh. He never again played a strong role on a winning team. Everyone expected more, but it was Brassard’s demand for more that undid everything. There’s never been a bigger canyon between expectation and performance in the Crosby era–and perhaps in the Penguins’ history.