RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesSTOCKHOLM, SWEDEN - NOVEMBER 14: Erik Karlsson #65, Sidney Crosby #87 and Evgeni Malkin #71 of the Pittsburgh Penguins listen to the American national anthem before a game against the Nashville Predators during the 2025 NHL Global Series on November 14, 2025 at Avicii Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. (Photo by André Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images
Now a few weeks into free agency, the NHL has reached the quiet part of their calendar for the next month or so. Most the major moves are made and summer vacations and resets are in full swing as teams go slightly dormant to recharge the batteries for the upcoming season.
But news and changes are only one short phone call away, let’s set the table for what has happened so far this offseason and what could still be on the ol’ to-do list from last month’s action items .
Step 5b: More about free agents
On a related note to Step 5 above, there’s restricted free agency ahead for Arturs Silovs, Egor Chinakhov, Joel Blomqvist, Ville Koivunen and Alex Alexeyev. Aside from what the decision is about Alexeyev, either new contract agreements or at least qualifying offers will be sent to the rest of that group by the deadline later this month for progress in that area in the near future.
Koivunen remains an RFA with limited leverage on getting a new contract, beyond that the rest are taken care of. Alexeyev decided to sign in the KHL, the Penguins made sure to retain his NHL rights. Silovs signed a one-year deal, Blomqvist got two years (and an interesting structure within ), Chinakhov got the most money and years for all at three years. Newly acquired RFA’s in Nick Robertson and Hendrix Lapierre got on the books for the next two years.
Step 6: June 1 free agents
This year there wasn’t much drama for the Penguins on drafted players whose rights expired yesterday. Zam Plante and Luke Devlin don’t apply since they are still enrolled in college that means Pittsburgh retains their rights a while longer
Nothin’ happening here, though prospect Cruz Lucius will qualify for unrestricted free agency on August 15th and likely choose to sign with a different NHL team soon after.
Step 7: Front office silly season
Todd Nelson’s name is starting to get floated around as a potential head coaching candidate.
The Pens made it through the bulk of the offseason without many moves within the front office. The notable exception is when Vokie Mpofu got hired to be an assistant GM for Nashville. Mpofu was an important behind the scenes executive over the past couple of years, his spot and role was replaced by another familiar face to Kyle Dubas when Brandon Pridham was hired by Pittsburgh under the title of hockey operations consultant.
Step 8: Draft prep
The bulk of the month will likely be spent finalizing a plan for the NHL draft, to be held June 26-27 in Buffalo.
The Penguins currently have seven picks, including three in the top 54 selections of the draft. Pittsburgh only has one pick over Rounds 4-7 (Nashville’s sixth rounder).
As tends to be the case under Dubas, the draft featured some activity and movement via trades. Pittsburgh traded a few picks around and ended up moving up in the fourth round to draft Parker von Richter and then moved to grab a fifth round pick to get goalie Matvei Nikonovich.
They remained the same at the top of the draft, taking the Ruck twins with their first two picks.
Step 9: Pro Scouting
Another behind the scenes action point, the Penguins will definitely be trying to find the next versions of Parker Wotherspoon, Anthony Mantha, Arturs Silovs and Justin Brazeau, if they can. All of those players contributed mightily to team success in 2025-26 and any NHL team can always strive for improvement around the margins if they find the right fits available.
Dubas gave signals the Penguins would seek value free agents and not look to make lengthy contractual commitments, and that’s exactly what happened. Andrey Kuzmenko was brought on as essentially an Anthony Mantha replacement on a one-year contract. Defenders Declan Carlile and Trevor van Riemsdyk were each given two-year contracts to add to the blueline that lost Ryan Shea and Connor Clifton as free agents.
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Looking ahead, there’s not too much between now and training camp that the Penguins really have to do by this point. Most of their heavy lifting to shape the roster for next season has been completed, though further touches can still be made and we’ll throw them out here.
Step 10: Logjam of forwards
In numbers, the Pens have added more this off-season than they’ve lost up front (Kuzmenko, Robertson, Lapierre in, only Mantha and Noel Acciari out as free agents from the NHL roster). That position was already stacked with recent-ish trades to add Chinakhov and Elmer Soderblom last season and ended up retaining veterans Evgeni Malkin, Blake Lizotte and Connor Dewar with contract extensions. As of now, it’s possible to build a realistic top-12 without Lapierre or Justin Brazeau in the lineup and it would take injuries for any of Koivunen, Rutger McGroarty, Tristan Broz and Avery Hayes to see NHL time.
Pittsburgh has Brazeau and Tommy Novak as players in the final season of their contracts with July 2027 free agency dates looming. Veterans Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell are under contract through 2028 but never in shortage for trade whispers.
Now that the team knows their efforts to hunt for a big game possibility like star forward Jason Robertson won’t be happening, do they look the restack the deck a little bit? Dropping a forward via trade for a defenseman would make a lot of sense given splits. This doesn’t need to be addressed in summer but at some point the course is going to have to reverse for some forwards heading out to balance out all the incoming entries over the last six months.
Step 11: Comfortable with the blueline?
The current defense is very unusual for an NHL team, it contains two legitimate left shot defender...
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