Talk about the game with Pens fans here!
It’s been a little over a month since the trade with Edmonton sent Tristan Jarry for Brett Kulak, Stuart Skinner and a second round pick. To add a little more commentary on what was touched on earlier on this website today, the trade has been aging better by the day for the Penguins. What started out as a nice escape to clear the troubling contract of Jarry (who went back to the IR soon after the trade) turned out to enhance the Pens quite nicely so far on the ice.
There’s the future second round pick, which has no short-term relevance besides beefing up the reserves. Kulak’s addition to Pittsburgh has finally provided them with a second top-four caliber left-side defenseman and served to make Kris Letang look the best he has looked in…quite a while. Much has been made of Letang’s decline — and to be fair, time waits for no one and the 38-year old has looked every bit of his age recently. Then again, last season Letang’s most common defense partner was Matt Grzelyck, this season it was Ryan Shea prior to Kulak joining the team. It’s about 14 months overdue, but finally Pittsburgh has a partner for Letang with an above-average defensive impact, so it’s probably no wonder that the results the Pens have seen on the ice out of Letang have drastically improved once the blueline was addressed.
That alone would probably make the Edmonton trade enough of a success, but the headline-grabbing focus is naturally going to be on the goalie-for-goalie swap. It’s not every day in the NHL these days that you see two teams exchange starting goalies for one another. Skinner can a polarizing figure, although so far the Pens have to be thrilled. Skinner has five quality starts out of eight per hockey-reference, so far easily out-pacing Jarry’s one quality start for Edmonton. Jarry does have that IR stint working against him there, but as Beau Bennett taught us the best ability is availability and that’s another point in favor of the deal working out favorably.
Skinner can tend to ride extreme highs and lows, right now he’s caught a groove with a 4-1-0 record since the Christmas break that features a .941 save% and only allowing seven goals in those five games. In that stretch, the Penguins have commanding wins over three division rivals (Philadelphia last night, New Jersey last week, Carolina back on 12/30). In all of those games Skinner was not only one of their best players on the ice, he was a driving factor in every victory.
Trades often live on in relitigation for months and years afterwards so it surely is early to plan a parade or anything, but what a short-term boost that deal has provided for the Penguins to this point. The Oilers, despite Jarry’s injury, are 9-5-2 since the deal in their own right, so they’re probably not too mad about how things have gone lately either — since in an indirect way the move served to open a path for Connor Ingram’s return to the NHL where he has looked fairly sharp.
—
Speaking of decisions paying instant dividends, Kyle Dubas has to feel assured about locking Blake Lizotte up for three more seasons earlier this week, not that he likely had many doubts about it in the first place. The length of the term isn’t back-breaking but it’s still a sizeable and notable one for a 28-year old with fourth line upside. It’s well-worth the commitment when a player is as capable as Lizotte to make an imprint on a game like he did last night against Philadelphia.
Lizotte scored a goal that ended up standing as the game winner and later threw a massive clean hit that triggered a response fight where he handled himself nicely (albeit, against a non-fighter in Matvei Michkov).
BLAKE LIZOTTE ABSOLUTELY LEVELED DENVER BARKEY
No love lost in the Battle of Pennsylvaniapic.twitter.com/6QmyIAbneq
— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) January 16, 2026
The supporting cast players for the Pens has been a massive issue dating back to the start of this decade. In 2021, perhaps Pittsburgh’s last best season where they won their division, Pittsburgh saw a +18 mark in goals for vs goals against at 5v5 when neither Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin were on the ice. By 2022-23, the first time they missed the playoffs, the Ron Hextall built team had slumped to -24 in that same category.
This season, the Pens are back strongly in the playoff hunt over halfway through the season and thanks to players like Lizotte and his frequent fourth linemates of Noel Acciari and Connor Dewar who have been on the ice for more goals for than against. When a team’s fourth line is not getting outscored despite the harsh defensive starts, that’s a good sign that they are going to be doing at least alright. Overall in the 5v5 category the Pens still have some work to do to with the performance of their mid-lines (players like Ben Kindel, Justin Brazeau, Kevin Hayes, Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen have all been out-scored at 5v5) but so far they’ve definitely found something to work with and some major improvements from their depth, to which Lizotte will continue to be a key piece for the foreseeable future.
In previous early years of Dubas’s stint with Pittsburgh, a veteran on an expiring contract like Lizotte would have been traded away by the deadline. Whether this re-signing indicates a significant step into a phase of retaining key contributors or is a one-off remains to be seen, though it certainly is a strong piece of evidence that the Penguins are looking to hold what they can instead of defaulting into strictly selling off all parts when the time comes.
—
Furthering the theme of improving the current roster, the acquisition of Egor Chinakhov has shown promise as an upgrade as well. Chinakhov’s stat-line with Pittsburgh isn’t overwhelming (three goals and an assist in eight games), his impact has been notable with his speed, shot and even a contribution of a shootout goal. Chinakhov is still something of a reclamation project coming off his stint in Columbus (he only manufactured three goals in 29 games at the start of the season with the Blue Jackets) yet there’s been encouraging early returns with the change of scenery.
In some ways, Dubas and the Pens have to hope this could be a case of “you get what you pay for” when comparing Chinakhov to a similar last year acquisition of Philip Tomasino. Chinakhov cost a fair bit more (a second+third round pick, compared to just a fourth rounder for Tomasino) and that is due to having a little bit more to work with. Last night’s short-side goal on the rush demonstrates an example – Chinakhov has the tools to generate game-breaking ability. Whether or not he has the consistency will be a lingering open question for a while. Finishing ability like this is worth the price, now it’s just about seeing how often he can deliver.
Fit in the frame of the big picture, it might also be pointed out that the move from adding second round picks — which Pittsburgh did under Dubas in every year in a stretch for the 2024-29 drafts (besides jockeying for draft positioning in 2025) — into now sending out a second round pick to bring in an NHL caliber player is some evidence of a sea change in the current organizational strategy. Whether it was trading away Jake Guentzel, Conor Timmins, Anthony Beauvillier, Luke Schenn, Tristan Jarry and Reilly Smith or taking on the bad contracts of Kevin Hayes and Matt Dumba, the Penguins operated for a couple years in a way of strictly accumulating second round picks. Now, in one instance at least, the worm turned the other way and Dubas acted on previously stated intentions to turn a pick into a current contributor.
The takeaway at this point shouldn’t be a drastic shift into an expectation of full-on spending, though it does seem notable that the tide could be starting to change in this regard depending on the inputs of the team. In the end, Dubas might get the best of both worlds where his ample cap space allows him to scour the league for future 22-25 year old players with potential while retaining more draft capital than just about everyone else in the league to use to select more than his fair share for the future too.
Because, ultimately, responding to the team’s inputs has been Dubas’s role in the past few years. He threw some caution to add/retain players like Erik Karlsson, Ryan Graves and Tristan Jarry in year one, when that didn’t work out in the standings, management shifted gears accordingly to pare down on players like Guentzel and Marcus Pettersson who needed new and expensive contracts, without dealing away quality performers like Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell who didn’t. The Pens got younger and suffered a bit to take lumps in losing key contributors without immediate replacement. Now that the team is in the hunt, it makes the situation appropriate for the manager to make moves that dovetail as good for the present while being good for the future, a fitting category for all three of the team’s transactions of the last month.
When the Pittsburgh Penguins traded Tristan Jarry to the Edmonton Oilers earlier this season, my immediate reaction was that it was probably a trade that needed to happen and had a good chance of working out for the Penguins. Perhaps in multiple ways.
It was a great time to move Jarry’s contract, it opened the position in the future for Sergei Murashov to eventually take the spot, they got a solid future asset in a second-round pick (even if down the road a few years) and were also getting some short-term NHL help.
Brett Kulak seemed like nothing special, but he is a legitimate NHL defenseman that has had some success in the league. The Penguins do not have a lot of depth at the position, and every viable NHL player you can get there can help.
Stuart Skinner has had the same inconsistencies and highs and lows of Jarry, but carries them on a significantly cheaper salary cap rate for this season and with no commitment beyond this season.
At the time, I argued that it would be nearly impossible to project which goalie would end the season with a higher save percentage from that point on, and no answer to that question would surprise me.
After Thursday’s win against the Philadelphia Flyers, Skinner has now appeared in eight games with the Penguins and has seen his save percentage climb from .891 with the Oilers, up to .901 with the Penguins. He is also on a little bit of a roll that has seen him win four of his past five starts, allowing just seven goals in the process.
Jarry, meanwhile, has only appeared in four games with the Oilers (due to injury — which was always another concern with him) and in that limited sampling has seen his save percentage drop from .909 with the Penguins down to .878 with the Oilers.
I am making no proclamations on either number. They are both insanely small sample sizes and my original point on both of them remains the same — they are largely the same goalie with the same inconsistencies and both of their performances are going to fluctuate and vary wildly throughout the season. You can split hairs on them, but the contract situation and long-term outlook beyond this season is the most important one.
But I also think Kulak has been a useful addition.
He is by no means a difference-maker, but he has at the very least given the Penguins a competent NHL defenseman, something they have not really had enough of from the start of the season. He has not only seemed to be a good fit next to Kris Letang, the Penguins as a team have been playing better defensively over the past month. It has been a steady upward trend to begin with for them going back to the start of the season, but things have really improved over the past 15 games.
The primary focus behind the trade itself was almost certainly financial and cap-related. But getting a couple of useful players in the short-term is also a nice bonus. Especially when both of them should be movable by the trade deadline if things go south with the season and the playoff race between now and then. If things keep progressing in a positive direction and the Penguins have a couple of useful players that might be able to help in that push.
Here are your Pens Points for this Friday morning…
The Pittsburgh Penguins welcomed the Philadelphia Flyers to Pittsburgh on Thursday for a rather meaningful Metropolitan Division clash. Two minutes into the game, the Penguins claimed a 1-0 lead via a Justin Brazeau tally and never looked back. Sidney Crosby recorded another goal and assist, as Pittsburgh earned an easy 6-3 win. [Recap]
Heading into Thursday night’s game, rookie forward Ben Kindel hadn’t recorded a goal in 14 games. That’s a noticeably long drought for someone who has been one of Pittsburgh’s better players to this point in the season, but it’s important to remember that, for an 18-year-old rookie, a drought like this is quite common. [PensBurgh]
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins forward Tristan Broz and goaltender Sergei Murashov were selected for the American Hockey League’s All-Star Classic event. [Trib Live]
News and notes from around the NHL…
As of Thursday afternoon, the New York Rangers were sitting dead last in the Eastern Conference, with many wondering if they will shape up to be sellers by the March 6 trading deadline. If they continue to sit well out of contention, how will that affect Artemi Panarin’s future in the Big Apple with unrestricted free agency looming? [TSN]
I guess the media dubbed Thursday’s game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Vegas Golden Knights the Mitch Marner Bowl, with this being Marner’s first game against his boyhood squad after leaving in a trade that signaled the end of the “Core Four” era. [Sportsnet]
The Boston Bruins retired Zdeno Chara’s No. 33 jersey on Thursday, honoring the 6-foot-9 Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman who led the franchise to a 2011 Stanley Cup victory. [Associated Press]
Who: Columbus Blue Jackets (21-19-7, 49 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (22-14-10, 54 points, 3rd place Metropolitan Division)
When: 7:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: Locally televised on SportsNet Pittsburgh and FanDuel Sports Network Ohio, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: This is the last game the Penguins will be playing in Pittsburgh for almost two weeks. The Pens are about to take off on a West Coast road swing through Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver over the next eight days, starting with a 5 p.m. ET Monday game against the Kraken.
Opponent Track: The Jackets are heading into the weekend on a three-game win streak. Elvis Merzlikins had a succinct answer when asked Thursday what’s changed for the Jackets:
Season Series: This marks the last time the Jackets and Pens will meet this season. All three prior games in this season series have gone to overtime, with the Penguins losing in a shootout in October but winning in overtime in November and earlier this month.
Hidden Stat: The Penguins are in a playoff spot in no small part thanks to their success against division opponents this season. Including their 2-0-1 record against the Blue Jackets, the Pens have gone 9-1-3 against teams in the Metropolitan Division so far this season. (Last season, Pittsburgh missed the playoffs after going 9-13-4 against division opponents).
Getting to know the Blue Jackets
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Cole Sillinger – Adam Fantilli – Kirill Marchenko
Boone Jenner – Sean Monahan – Kent Johnson
Dmitri Voronkov – Charlie Coyle – Mathieu Olivier
Danton Heinen – Brendan Gaunce – Mikael Pyyhtia
DEFENSEMEN
Zach Werenski / Dante Fabbro
Ivan Provorov / Damon Severson
Jake Christiansen / Erik Gudbranson
Goalies: Elvis Merzlikins, Jet Greaves
Potential scratches: Denton Mateychuk (day-to-day), Egor Zamula, Zach Aston-Reese
Injured Reserve: Brendan Smith, Isac Lundestrom, Miles Wood, Mason Marchment
- Blue Jackets defenseman Denton Mateychuk is day-to-day after taking a hard hit from Brandon Tanev during the Jackets’ Sunday win over the Utah Mammoth. Columbus general manager Don Waddell said the team doesn’t expect the injury to be long-term.
Coaching change in Columbus: The Blue Jackets fired former coach Dean Evason last week after one and a half seasons and a 19-19-7 start to the 2025-26 campaign. Evason told The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline he was “blindsided” by his dismissal.
The switch allowed the Jackets to bring in Rick Bowness, 70, who had most recently coached the Winnipeg Jets for two seasons from 2022 to 2024. He hasn’t been with the team for very long— he got the job offer Monday afternoon and joined the team Tuesday morning, per ESPN— but he’s since led the Jackets to wins over the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks.
Bones got the boys ready to go
CBJ x @PNCBank pic.twitter.com/tJ0gjt6C8V
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) January 14, 2026
Season stats
via hockeydb
- Kent Johnson played a season-high 20:55 during his first game with Bowness. The Jackets could be hoping to see some more production from the second-line winger if he keeps getting more playing time going forward.
- Like the Penguins, the Blue Jackets have at times had a problems with holding on to late leads through the first half of the season. They blew third-period leads 15 times in their first 47 games, per Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. When asked about that habit after the Jackets held on to a comfortable lead in Thursday’s win over the Vancouver Canucks, Bowness said, per Portzline: “I don’t even worry about it. It was before I got here. I’m just not worried about it… That’s in the past. I know how I want us to play, so that’s the bottom line. And we’re building on that.”
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin
Anthony Mantha – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Brett Kulak / Kris Letang
Parker Wotherspoon / Jack St. Ivany
Ryan Shea / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Ryan Graves, Kevin Hayes
IR: Erik Karlsson, Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones, Rutger McGroarty
- The Penguins had an off day Friday after Thursday’s 6-3 win over the Flyers.
- Sidney Crosby has 69 points (24 goals, 45 assists) in 48 career games against the Blue Jackets, which ranked behind only Patrick Kane for the most among any active NHL player. Kris Letang meanwhile leads all NHL defensemen with 14 goals against the Blue Jackets, his highest total against any single team, per Penguins PR.
- The Penguins are 14-1-4 in their last 19 games against the Blue Jackets, and they’re 16-0-2 in their last 18 games against the Jackets at home, per Penguins PR.
- The Pens’ special teams have been thriving lately. They’re heading into Saturday’s matchup having gone 16-for-16 on the PK over their last four games, and they’re currently ranked second in the NHL with a 29.4 percent power-play success rate.
Pregame
The Penguins use what they have been lately, Arturs Silovs gets his turn in the goalie rotation.
Lined up and ready for hockeypic.twitter.com/kaOXCpKag7
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 17, 2026First period
Columbus gets the first goal of the game, a shot from Zach Werenski hits Noel Acciari and drops right to Zach Aston-Reese. Aston-Reese is quicker than Silovs as his quick shot slides on in. 1-0 CBJ to open things up 2:42 into the proceedings.
Back in his old stompin' grounds!
CBJ x @FanaticsBook pic.twitter.com/xdHYYBFzt9
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) January 18, 2026
The Pens answer back in short order, matching the unlikely goal-scorer of Aston-Reese with a player scoring his first of the season for himself in Connor Clifton. Nice job by Clifton to stay activated deep in the offensive zone and finish off the goal to tie the game.
Cliffy nets his first as apic.twitter.com/Uyz5ke23GE
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 18, 2026
A Columbus turnover in their own end happened at the wrong place at the wrong time, and to the wrong guy. Sidney Crosby is there to grab a misplayed puck, he quickly centers the puck for Rickard Rakell to direct on net just as fast. 2-1 lead for the Penguins.
BRB WATCHING THIS ON REPEATpic.twitter.com/vel3tKI3JM
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 18, 2026
Good reaction from Pittsburgh, Columbus only had two shots after their goal in the last 17+ minutes of the period.
Second period
The Blue Jackets make a strong response early, the Pens get a power play but do little with it and the Columbus momentum keeps building up. They strike when Kirill Marchenko fires up out of no where in the neutral zone to grab a puck on the rush and shoot it in. 2-2 game.
MARCHY BROUGHT THE MAGIC TO PITTSBURGH!
CBJ x @FanaticsBook pic.twitter.com/MKT9jHpEz5
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) January 18, 2026
Things don’t get much better for the Pens, most of their opportunities are few and far between. It looks like both teams might get to intermission tied but Danton Heinen redirects an Erik Gudbranson point shot late in the period and Columbus is back in front, 3-2.
DANTON BURIES ONE
CBJ x @FanaticsBook pic.twitter.com/H8F8Okmzqp
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) January 18, 2026
Bad period for the Pens, can’t say it was undeserved. Columbus outshot Pittsburgh 13-8 in the period, most of the Pens’ chances were one-offs and not much in the way of consistent pressure.
Third period
Pittsburgh starts the period well by killing an overlap of a second period penalty, Clifton and Crosby flash to get chances that narrowly miss out on hitting the back of the net.
The aggressive play leads to some CBJ chances, Silovs does well to stop Adam Fantilli on a breakaway and fight off a 2-on-1 rush.
The Pens get a glorious opportunity with a late power play with 7:49 to go, still looks bad and doesn’t help.
It takes until about the 1:35 mark to get Silovs out of the net for the extra attacker, it doesn’t take long for the Pens to make it count with another 6v5 goal against Columbus late. Kris Letang shoots for a deflection, Crosby obliges with a typically outstanding redirect into the net past Elvis Merzlikins. 3-3 with 1:01 to go.
Overtime
Crosby-Malkin-Letang start it out for the Pens. Ben Kindel sneaks on the ice and gets a shot, Merlikins stops him.
Merzlikins keeps the game going with two point-blank stops on Evgeni Malkin. Silovs does his part with a stop on Charlie Coye from righti n front.
Crosby and Novak get really good looks at the net too before time expires but no one scores.
Shootout
The Pens go first, it’s Rakell. Merzlikins stays with the dekes and pokechecks the puck away when Rakell gets too close.
Kent Johnson takes the first turn for Columbus, dekes to the backhand and scores.
—
Crosby is picked to shoot second, he goes with his move to shoot for the glove, but only hits the glove and can’t score.
Fantilli gets the chance to win the game, Silovs makes the stop on the low shot.
—
Egor Chinakhov has to score against his former to keep the game going, his shot to the blocker side hits the net.
Marchenko could win it for CBJ, he was 5/5 on the season but Silovs comes up huge with a stop.
—
Bryan Rust leads off Round 4 with the teams even. He bobbles the puck near the net and doesn’t get much of a shot off.
Coyle goes for the Blue Jackets with yet another chance to win, and this time they do after a strong forehand deke outmaneuvers Silovs.
Some thoughts
- A cool little aspect of Malkin playing the wing these days is that sometimes his shift can bleed into when Crosby comes on the ice. That can’t happen when both are centers and change onto the ice for one another. Malkin extended a shift in the first period while the puck was in the offensive zone and got to generate a bonus chance out of it. Fun wrinkle about his move to the wing.
- Dan Muse and the Pens look loyal to their goalie rotation, which you can’t knock too much given how well things are going across the board and how condensed the schedule is in this Olympic year. That said, if the concept of rotating goalies is going to stay, the question might shift to how long the team will stay loyal to Silovs being a part of that rotation? That’s a bigger picture question for a different day but one that might be worth asking when Silovs has won eight out of 22 decisions with a GAA over 3 and save percentage under .890% when Joel Blomqvist (.925 save%) and Sergei Murashov (.923%) are performing well and a phone call away for an alternative that could be performing better.
- To that end, Moneypuck had Columbus with a 1.4 expected goal total at the point Silovs had surrendered a third goal.
- One area Muse has remained too stubbornly loyal to is the shootout order and picking veterans who aren’t performing (Crosby) to go ahead of players who are (Chinakov). Once again, Chinakhov very nearly never even got an opportunity to shoot, the game could have been decided before Round 3 since neither Crosby or Rakell were able to score. This is a very correctable area, maddening to see it continue tonight, and know it’s probably not going to change next time either. It’s tough enough to win shootouts (where the Pens are 1-7 this season) since the goalies aren’t very good at stopping shots, failing to put the shooters in the proper alignment is makes the odds of success even slimer.
- This was a sneaky tough position for Pittsburgh to be in, seeing Columbus days after a coaching change (and 2-0-0 coming into the night under Rick Bowness). The former coach seemed to be somewhat unpopular among the players, there’s always that period of revitalization, extra energy and a boost from a new voice coming in. That doesn’t make for an easy opponent, even if it’s not exactly a stacked lineup to deal with. The Pens probably don’t have room to complain too much in the sequence of the schedule since they’ve seen so many opponents in b-2-b situations lately (plus the good fortune of facing Philadelphia last way in full-on collapse mode) but that uncontrollable element worked against them tonight.
- Cool to see Clifton get a goal, he played with confidence the rest of the night after that. As mentioned before, the Karlsson departure from the lineup makes for a great opportunity for Clifton to play regularly for the first time in a while. He hasn’t been poor so much as just lacked for the chance. Now it’s here. Clifton was probably one of the more noticeable better players on the ice for the Pens. And yes, I do mean that as a sort of backhanded compliment towards most of the rest of the team that should not have that be the case.
- The Pens’ power play (0/3 on the night) might not be the singular reason they didn’t win, but it’s high on the list. Looking back, that early second period power play where they did nothing and Columbus only took off from there was a huge turning point in the game from the dreaded ‘what could have been’ type of thoughts. Then getting a chance to tie the game in the third period and get back in it disappeared without much coming of it. Big turnaround from Thursday night when the power play was incredibly effective (albeit, against a majorly struggling Philadelphia PK played a part in that discrepancy as well).
- I don’t have the statistical backup at the moment but boy it sure feels like the 6v5 goals at the end of regulation where a goalie is pulled is way up this season. If not for the whole league, then certainly for the games Pittsburgh has been involved in. Luckily for the Pens, Columbus has been as allergic as they have this season when it comes to preserving third period leads.
- Things you don’t see every day is eight total OT shots (and no goals). It usually doesn’t take that many looks at the net to end a game in a 3v3 format.
- This game is tough to reconcile the question on if Pittsburgh got a fair shake or not at the end of the day. In some respects, maybe not: the expected goal count was 5.25 – 2.6 in the Pens’ on Moneypuck. On the other hand, the Pens were bad on the power play and had large stretches of unimpressive play. They certainly deserved getting something out of this one, all things considered it would have been pretty nice if someone could have scored in OT. Certainly enough players (Kindel, Malkin, Crosby, Novak) took great shots and had the chance. They couldn’t do that so taking the old school equivalent of a tie (one point) is ultimately fitting.
The next game is about 44 hours from when this one ended, which isn’t too bad. The part about it being, what about 2,500 miles away in Seattle might be the more daunting aspect.
Talk about the game with Pens fans here!
Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (22-14-11, 55 points, 3rd place Metropolitan Division) @ Seattle Kraken (21-17-9, 51 points, 3rd place Pacific Division)
When: 5:00 p.m. eastern
How to Watch: Locally broadcast on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and KONG, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: Today starts another three-in-four stretch; the Pens will be in Calgary on Wednesday night, followed by a quick turn to Edmonton on Thursday. Then the team gets two days off before playing in Vancouver on Sunday at which point they head home and get three more days off until another homestand begins late next week.
Opponent Track: Seattle is returning home today for the first time since an eastern swing. It wasn’t a successful one, the Kraken only had a 1-3-1 record with the lone win coming against the disheveled Rangers. On the other hand, the Kraken have been pretty decent at home lately, sporting a 3-0-2 record in their last five home contests.
Season Series: The Kraken took a 3-2 OT win over Sergei Murashov and the Pens back on November 22nd, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin scored the goals for Pittsburgh on that day.
Hidden Stat: Pittsburgh is looking to snap a four-game losing skid against the Kraken (0-3-1), per Pens PR. Overall, the Pens have won just two out of nine all-time matchups against Seattle (2-5-2).
Getting to know the Kraken
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Jared McCann – Matty Beniers – Jordan Eberle
Berkly Catton – Shane Wright – Kaapo Kakko
Eeli Tolvanen – Chandler Stephenson – Frederick Gaudreau
Jaden Schwartz – Ben Meyers – Ryan Winterton
DEFENSEMEN
Vincent Dunn / Adam Larsson
Ryan Lindgren / Brandon Montour
Ryker Evans / Jamie Oleksiak
Goalies: Philipp Grubauer and Joey Daccord
Potential scratches: Tye Kartye, Max McCormick, Cale Fleury, Josh Mahura
Injured Reserve: Matt Murray
- In some ways this looks like a platonically ideal, perfectly average lineup. No standouts, no anchors. Nothing that strikes fear in an opponent, but still one decent enough to put up a solid effort on any given night to not be chalked up ahead of time as a sure win.
- The second line features some young players with potential. Catton just turned 20-years old last week and is embarking on his rookie season. Wright only turned 22 earlier this month and the once-presumptive number one overall pick in his draft class looks like he’s still trying to figure things out. Kakko, a former second overall pick by the Rangers in 2019, might never live up to that lofty draft billing but has become a decent enough player.
- The above is only tepid praise, there isn’t room for much more just yet. Even a player like Berniers, a former second overall pick himself, is in his fourth full season and hasn’t topped his rookie total of 57 points (he’s on pace for 54 points this season). Seattle took a patient approach with their expansion strategy, so far the former top-10 picks haven’t really gone supersonic in their developments, to steal a Seattle-centric term. The franchise is young and some of those players are still young but to this point that seems to be a theme of waiting to see some tangible progress or get impressed by something or someone.
- Matt Murray is nearing a return from a lower body injury suffered in late-November. A hip surgery and rehab from that took him out of the NHL picture for a while, it seemed like this fall he was just getting back into a good place fighting for a backup spot with the Kraken and performing well in early looks before going down again.
Season stats
via hockeydb
- Not much impressive going on here, though long injury absences to McCann and Schwarz don’t help the season total numbers. Not a lot of game-breaking forwards to be found, Seattle ranks just 25th in offense by averaging 2.74 goals/game. No one under them is in a playoff position, tough to be good without having a potent offense in this league and Seattle’s major problem is they don’t have a lot of players that are going to consistently generate points.
- Eberle’s name alone is enough to cause a chill up the back of a Pens’ fan. Would you believe he only has 14 goals and 19 points in 35 career games against Pittsburgh? Certainly seems like more, and maybe that’s because there is more. Playoff trauma (6G+3A in 10 games, including one goal in each of the four games in the 2019 series) is definitely a helping hand in his reputation.
Key to the game: Can the Pittsburgh defense have another good night?
There are a lot of the small aspects that are tantalizing for the Penguins in this matchup. You could go with Pittsburgh’s third ranked power play against Seattle’s 32nd ranked penalty kill. Focus could go to Seattle ranking 32nd in 5v5 Corsi allowed while the Pens have been hovering in the lower top-10 for 5v5 expected goals and Corsi for as another potential turning point.
However, we’re going to lean into the other direction, where the Kraken have been poor in their 5v5 process offensively (in addition to defensively, the advanced stat models are not very fond of Seattle’s work to say the least). The Kraken have generated very little in terms of Corsi and Fenwick for shot attempts, they’re last in total expected goal production and unimpressive in actual goals.
Match that up against a Pittsburgh team that has only allowed 23 total goals over their last 11 games (a 2.09 GAA that ranks tops in the NHL in this stretch) and that stands out as a weakness versus strength matchup that the visitors will need to keep going for best odds of success. The Penguins’ franchise has never really been thought of as a defensive juggernaut – and perhaps they’re even performing over their own abilities right now – but how long they can play a simple kind of road game and keep shots and goals down in the next week will be a topic to monitor. They’ve been great in this area since Christmas, the results have followed to the tune of a 7-2-2 record.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin
Anthony Mantha – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Brett Kulak / Kris Letang
Parker Wotherspoon / Jack St. Ivany
Ryan Shea / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Ryan Graves, Kevin Hayes, Joona Koppanen
IR: Erik Karlsson, Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones
- Karlsson participated in a non-contact jersey during yesterday’s practice and is travelling with the team on this four-game road trip. The exact phrasing of his injury announcement (“Karlsson is out with a lower-body injury and will be re-evaluated in two weeks.” Pens PR, January 13th) implied an ominous tone. He may well require that time or longer before he can return to the lineup but seeing him at least on skates so soon after the injury and going on this trip has to be an encouraging sign at this point.
- From the ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ files: the Pittsburgh PK has killed off the last 18 shorthanded opportunities they’ve faced, dating back five games now.
- Evgeni Malkin has six points in six games since his return from injury (2G+4A).
- Should the goalie rotation hold, with no reason to think that it wouldn’t, the net would be Skinner’s tonight.
The road dogg
Sidney Crosby is looking to move up the rankings on this road trip by passing Mario Lemieux in yet another category this season.
Today will be Crosby’s 1,400th NHL game and fittingly enough for the perfectly balanced player, he will make it an even 700 of those games played on the road. It remains personally astounding that Crosby “only” has 782 road points in the 699 games to this point (1.12 per game) compared to the 958 points he’s scored in 700 home games (1.37). Favorable matchups, more predictable environments, ability for familiar routines and not traveling are very real factors that naturally make home games easier, it’s just the discrepancy involved will never not be eye-catching.
[And, in the games played category, if curiosity tingled: Alex Ovechkin has 770 career road games (1.11 points/game). Lemieux only had 443 road games (1.77).]
Pregame
Pittsburgh gets Ryan Graves into the lineup and gives Jack St. Ivany a night off. Stuart Skinner gets the start in goal.
First period
It’s not the smoothest start for the Penguins, though you wouldn’t know if from the scoreboard. Skinner has to stop Eeli Tolvanen on a clean breakaway early. Pittsburgh gets the game’s first power play but don’t do much with it. Soon after it expires they score anyways. Blake Lizotte sends a pass back to Parker Wotherspoon and it glides on into the net in no small part to the large frame of Anthony Mantha taking goalie Joey Daccord’s vision away. 1-0 Pens out of nowhere. Who needs a power play when you have Lizotte and Wotherspoon?
SPOONS SERVING TOP SHELFpic.twitter.com/pawUaZ9pRL
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 19, 2026
The Kraken are awarded a power play, yet it’s the Pens who score. Connor Dewar knocks the puck away from an opponent and has a step right by them for a breakaway. Dewar makes it count by blowing a shot by the glove of Daccord. 2-0.
Connor Dewar, picking pockets on the PK
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 19, 2026
Seattle is the next on the board, Skinner and Brett Kulak can’t smoothly handover a transition play, the next thing they new Ben Meyers had the puck going to the net and lifted a beauty of a shot to the top corner.
these kids are all right, aren't they?!pic.twitter.com/zFAfsY2Swa
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) January 19, 2026
That’s the end of the first. The Pens are up, though they didn’t have a great start. Pittsburgh only managed three shots at 5v5, seven total in the period. They made the most of some chances as they popped up but there was a lot of downtime in between. The Kraken didn’t do much better posting five 5v5 shots of their own and six total in the first 20 minutes.
Second period
Lizotte gets sent off for a minor penalty, the Pens kill it off.
The period becomes heavy on the wall battles, Seattle wins one of those battles when Justin Brazeau can’t clear the defensive zone on his backhand along the boards. A couple of passes later it’s a tie game when Ryan Winterton makes a short pass for Ryan Lindgren to chip in. 2-2 game.
you know what they say, kids… always clean up after your rebounds!pic.twitter.com/gzE1EEubMB
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) January 19, 2026
Pittsburgh finds an answer, Sidney Crosby wins an offensive zone faceoff back to Brett Kulak. Kulak pulls the puck towards the middle of the ice as he drifts backwards and tosses a long-range shot on goal. There’s enough traffic again to foil Daccord. 3-2, Pens back in front with five minutes to go.
Ben Kindel gets needlessly driven into the ice late in the period by Lindgren, Pittsburgh gets their second power play of the game, but again are held off the board by Seattle’s 32nd ranked penalty kill.
Both teams scored in the second period, the Pens were able to handle the shot count by a tidy 15-8 margin in the middle frame. That’s more of what was expected coming into this game for Pittsburgh to take advantage in that department.
Third period
The Pens start out strong, Evgeni Malkin and Egor Chinakhov nearly team up for a goal but are denied on a nice save by Daccord. Daccord’s got nothin’ for Brazeau top-shelf shot off a drop pass from Anthony Mantha that hinders the goalie’s vision yet again. 4-2 Pittsburgh, still 17:39 to go.
The pressure continues, Kulak hammers a shot on net with a ton of traffic in front, Daccord fights it off but leaves a rebound that Noel Acciari knocks off the post.
Kulak takes his second minor penalty of the game, Seattle makes them pay. Holy cow does Tolvanen hammer a slapshot. Lotta power on that one. 4-3 game, the Kraken still have 12:13 to work with.
Eeli Tolvanen puts it right to the top shelf
— NHL (@NHL) January 20, 2026
Brandon Montour gets a penalty called on him and the Pens have a chance for a potential dagger but they can’t score on the power play. Instead the dagger comes a little later from Rickard Rakell. Crosby wins the puck back off the wall and quickly passes it back to Rakell who jams one in front the front of the net. 5-3 game.
67 FINDS THE BACK OF THE NET
And that makes it a multipoint night for Sid in game no. 1400pic.twitter.com/Ly6gFCkFin
— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) January 20, 2026
Seattle pulls the goalie but there’s no late-game dramatics to be found today. Dewar shoots from way back to extend the score to a 6-3 final.
Some thoughts
- The early start wasn’t the best, perhaps for understandable reasons considering the long plane flight yesterday combined with an odd 2pm local start. Body clocks must have been going haywire, tough to get the legs freed up- which shown through in the Pens’ game in the early going. They got better and grew stronger in their play as the game went along.
- Have to give Seattle some credit though, they clogged things up as much as possible and made Pittsburgh play a hard game along the boards. We all know Crosby doesn’t mind getting in the trenches and muckin’ it up but that makes for a long night at the office when the puck is along the wall so often and a player has to fight for and earn every inch out there.
- To that end of making the game tough, the Pens had their share of moments too. Daccord’s eyes were taken away with bodies in front of him, that strategy brought success for the visitors to score on a couple of innocent enough long-distance shots, had the goalie been able to see them.
- Dewar’s shorthanded goal was only Pittsburgh’s second of the whole season, now 48 games into the season. That’s a bit of a surprise with how generally good the PK has been and even how productive many of the typical PKers have been at even strength.
- It was also only the second game of the season for the Pens that two defenseman scored in the same game (the other being 10/25 vs CBJ).
- You can tell how dissatisfied the coaches were with St. Ivany by opting to dress four left-handed defensemen instead, a rarity for them to select these days. The move also got Graves into his first NHL game in over a month. Shame there for St. Ivany, how long will he stay in the doghouse?
- While one right-handed defenseman in St. Ivany is stock down in recent days and games, Connor Clifton would have to be the opposite for stock up. These last five games were the first time this season Clifton has gotten picked to play five in a row, he’s been making the most of the opportunity with his physical play (as to be expected), the more surprising inputs have been his skating and puck moving being noticeable these days. And if you haven’t seen the #content Clifton produced from the team’s jet, spend the next 3:17 of your day on it. A star is born?
- The Pittsburgh PK gave up their first goal in 21 tries against them in the third, took one heck of a blast from Tolvanen to break the streak. Considering the Pens’ PK scored a goal for themselves they found an unconventional way to keep it even.
- The power play was hardly as good, though. Aside from picking on a weak Flyer PK last week that group hasn’t been performing that well lately, perhaps the one area where Erik Karlsson’s injury absence has been felt the most.
- Casual two point night for Crosby in his 1,400th career NHL game. Such a satisfying career to watch unfold, especially since becoming the 45th player in league history to hit this many games looked more a longshot at times. Instead, only Wayne Gretzky had more points through 1,400 games. Maybe Connor McDavid has something to say about that one day, for now that speaks to how great Crosby has been.
The Pens will now head north of the border for a bit, next game is in Calgary on Wednesday to try and repay the Flames for winning in Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago.
The Penguins announced a trade on Tuesday, sending forward Valtteri Puustinen and a seventh round pick to Colorado in exchange for defenseman Ilya Solovyov.
Puustinen, as mentioned in the last Wilkes Weekly, was climbing the ranks of the all-time WBS scoring list but will see his progress stopped with 101 career AHL points with the Penguins. The 26-year old former seventh round pick in 2019 has been a part of the Pens’ organization professionally since the start of the 2021-22 season, scoring 24 points in 66 career NHL games with Pittsburgh. His place in the organization peaked with 20 points in 52 games during the 2023-24 season before sliding into a role more of organizational depth over the last two seasons.
Pittsburgh picks up 6’3”, 208 pound left handed defenseman Solovyov. Similar to Puustinen, Solovyov has been playing mostly in the AHL since the start of the 2021-22 season, though he has played 16 NHL games with the Avalanche this season scoring three points (1G+2A) in a limited role that saw him average 11:13 of ice-time per game. Solovyov had been something of a regular for the Avs, playing seven games since January 4th and even stringing together a three-game point streak from 1/6 – 1/10. Solovyov played for the Avs just last night in their win over the Capitals, although for only 8:34.
The Penguins, who have dressed 12 different defensemen through 48 games, are still seeking answers on their bottom part of their blueline in what’s been a season-long search. Jack St. Ivany was made a healthy scratch yesterday, Ryan Graves has bounced between the NHL and AHL on another erstwhile season, Harrison Brunicke has been assigned back to junior and Caleb Jones recently suffered an injury in his AHL rehab stint coming back from a lengthy injury.
It remains unclear where Solovyov fits into that mix, especially since the team has some decent LHD options in Brett Kulak, Parker Wotherspoon and Ryan Shea. Pittsburgh has never been shy about shuttling bodies in and out to see what may happen, Solovyov could be the next short-term opportunity to see what ability he has coming off his recent time in Colorado.
The Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 win over the Seattle Kraken on Monday evening was a pretty great team win. They carried play for most of the game, got some big saves from starting goalie Stuart Skinner when they needed them, quickly responded whenever Seattle pushed back, and had extremely balanced scoring from the entire lineup.
They received two goals from defenseman (Parker Wotherspoon and Brett Kulak).
They had a shorthanded goal.
The top line scored.
The third line scored.
The fourth line pushed play and had multiple members of it contribute points. Connor Dewar scored two goals (including the shorthanded goal), Blake Lizotte had two assists, and Noel Acciari was a plus-3 and nearly added a goal of his own when he rang a shot off the post in the third period.
The play of that fourth line is what I want to talk about today, because it has been a big part of the Penguins’ success this season. Certainly not the biggest part, but definitely a big part. It is definitely a positive asset and contributor to the Penguins’ current standing in a playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
The trio of Lizotte, Dewar and Acciari has become something of a sparkplug for this team and continues to post strong numbers for itself almost every night.
During Monday’s game they were on the ice for more than eight minutes of 5-on-5 play, and controlled 72.4 percent of the expected goals during that time.
For the season, they have played 218 minutes together and own a 10-6 goals advantage, a 52 percent shot attempt share and a 54.6 percent expected goals share. By pretty much every objective measure, they have been one of the Penguins’ most effective trios on a per-minute basis. What makes it stand out so much more is they have done it while taking on some of the hardest minutes on the ice, at least in terms of where they are being asked to start their shifts. They have started just 23 shifts (only 16 percent of their zone starts) in the offensive zone, and have primarily been set up with defensive zone draws. Just based on proximity to the nets you would expect a line with that sort of deployment to be getting crushed in terms of shots and chances. Not the case with these guys. They have consistently pushed play and flipped the ice in the Penguins’ favor.
They have also played incredible lock-down defensive hockey, and in those 218 minutes the Penguins are allowing just 2.00 expected goals per 60 minutes. Just for perspective on that, the top team in the NHL this season in preventing expected goals on a team-wide level is allowing 2.27 per 60 minutes.
Across the board they have been outstanding, and it is some nice complementary team-building from general manager Kyle Dubas and his staff to piece that together. That is at least a promising sign because it was a blind spot for him during his time in Toronto.
Lizotte and Accairi were both free agent signings, while Dewar was added at last year’s trade deadline in a deal that was pretty much an afterthought at the time. It has turned into a nice little win, especially when you consider the added components to it, and how Dewar seems to be the element that brings that group together.
Keep in mind, Lizotte and Acciari were on the Penguins roster since the beginning of the 2024-25 season. When they have played with a third player that is not Dewar they are not anywhere near as effective togther. Adding Dewar into the mix is where things really took off for that group.
Just before last year’s deadline the Penguins sent a fifth-round pick to Toronto for Dewar and defenseman Conor Timmins. Timmins was then flipped this offseason, along with Isaac Beliveau, for a second-round pick and defenseman Connor Clifton.
So far the Penguins have turned a fifth-round pick and Isaac Beliveau into a excellent fourth-line forward, a second-round pick (No. 39 overall in 2025 — defenseman Peyton Kettles) and a depth defenseman that could probably be flipped for another pick that is at least comparable to that fifth-round pick they originally gave up at any time.
Dubas has not hit on all of his big NHL moves, and the jury is obviously still out on the draft picks, but the one thing that has consistently impressed me with his Penguins tenure is the way he has managed assets and salary cap space.
Turning a fifth-round pick into Dewar, Kettles and Clifton is shrewd business.
A bunch of little mistakes add up into big problems.
But a bunch of little wins can add up into big advantages and big wins.
Whenever I hear a team or its fans raving about their fourth line as being their identity I immediately get a red flag. All I can think of is some of those New York Islanders teams that just weren’t particularly good, trotting out Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck to check people for 10 minutes a night. That is not to say a good fourth line is not important — it is. But if that is the first line you talk about involving a team, that is probably not a good sign for that team’s overall upside. You need a good fourth line to win. The fourth line can not be the biggest reason you think you are winning.
This fourth-line, however, is legitimately good. It is also not the Penguins’ identity. That still sits with the superstars at the top. This fourth line simply is exactly what you want to see for a good team. Complementary hockey. Knows its role. Not asked to do too much. Helps win the minutes and come out ahead when the superstars are sitting on the bench. It is not the reason this team is in a playoff position and competing for a playoff spot. It is just one of the reasons.
Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (23-14-11, 57 points, 3rd place Metropolitan Division) @ Calgary Flames (21-23-5, 47 points, 7th place Pacific Division)
When: 9:30 p.m. eastern
How to Watch: Locally broadcast on Sportsnet Pittsburgh, SN1 and TVAS in Canada, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: The road trip continues tomorrow night in Edmonton, then an uncharacteristic two-day break gives the chance for some team bonding until the trip finishes up in Vancouver on Sunday. After that the Pens get a few days to regroup after heading home, not playing again until next Thursday Jan 29th to start their busy run to the upcoming Olympic break.
Opponent Track: Since we last saw the Flames in Pittsburgh on January 10th they went on to finish their eastern road trip with a loss to Columbus and win over Chicago before returning home to split another pair of games with a win over the Islanders last Saturday followed by a loss (in overtime) to the Devils in their last game on Monday. Thus continues an up-and-down stretch where they’ve won six out of the last 12 games (6-5-1).
Season Series: The Flames took a 2-1 decision in a rough and tumble game a couple weeks ago, Devin Cooley made 27 saves to break Pittsburgh’s then six-game winning streak. Egor Chinakhov scored the lone goal for the Pens, Matthew Coronato’s third period goal to break a 1-1 tie helped Calgary secure the win.
Hidden Stat: Rickard Rakell is on a three-game point streak. Pittsburgh is 12-2-2 this season when Rakell records a point (h/t Pens PR).
Getting to know the Flames
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Connor Zary – Nazem Kadri – Matvei Gridin
Jonathan Huberdeau – Morgan Frost – Joel Farabee
Yegor Sharangovich – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Ryan Lomberg – Justin Kirkland – Adam Klapka
DEFENSEMEN
Kevin Bahl / Zach Whitecloud
Yan Kuznetsov / MacKenzie Weegar
Joel Hanley / Hunter Brzustewicz
Goalies: Dustin Wolf and Devin Cooley
Potential scratches: Dryden Hunt, Brayden Pachal
Injured Reserve: Blake Coleman, John Beecher, Samuel Honzek, Jake Bean
- The biggest change to the lines from the last recent PIT/CGY game is the trade departure of key defenseman Rasmus Andersson and the addition of Whitecloud from that transaction. It’s a big loss to the current squad – Anderssen had 10 goals and 30 points this season for the Flames, ranking third on the team in both categories.
- The 21-year old Brzustewicz has replaced Anderssen on the top power play. Despite only having one career NHL point in 16 games, he has an offensive profile with a 92 point season in the OHL in 2023-24 and 44 points in the AHL since the start of the 2024-25 season.
- Coleman, who was on IR back for the Jan 10th game, has dropped his no contact jersey in practice and may be nearing a return.
- Perhaps luckily for Chinakhov, Brayden Pachal has been a scratch lately.
- Wolf has been Calgary’s primary goalie, but lately there’s been more of an even split due to Cooley playing really well lately (including, as mentioned, in Calgary’s recent win over the Pens). The two Flames goalies have each played three out of the last six games, Cooley did play their last game. He picked up the loss in OT, but stopped 29/31 shots to get there. Given how well he did against Pittsburgh in the recent past, it’ll be interesting to see if the Flames go back to Cooley for this game or turn the net back over to their usual starter in Wolf, who is only 1-5-0 with a .891 save% and 3.71 GAA in the calendar year of 2026 (compared to Cooley’s 2-0-1 record, .951 save% and 1.33 GAA stat line).
Season stats
via hockeydb
- The size and ruggedness of the Flames really stood out in their last game against the Pens. Klapka at 6’8” and 235 pounds is a menace and was getting under the skin of several Penguin players. Klapka’s 172 hits this season ranks 4th in the entire NHL, he’s going to throw the body on the forecheck on every available opportunity. Kevin Bahl at 6’6”, 230 has been a force averaging over 21 minutes per game this season, and has four assists in his last six games. Yan Kuznetsov presents another big body on the blueline, Pachal laid one of the biggest hits of the season last game. Mackenzie Weegar isn’t a huge frame, but a stout one with 117 hits this season. That game had a lot of tempers raised with post-whistle scrums and physicality throughout, surely that fresh memory will be at the top of everyone’s minds for tonight.
- Generating offense has been a real struggle for the Flames. Their 2.55 goals/game mark is only 29th in the NHL, their power play at 14.9% is a dreadful 31st. It’s not for a lack of trying (28.9 shots/game ranks 12th) but the lack of skill and overall ability has hindered them in a major way.
Key to the game: Penguins vs. goalie
This one is pretty cut and dry; while the Flames have been impotent offensively and don’t have a lot going for them these days, the one area they are getting great inputs from is the play of their goalies. Early in the season that was Wolf, lately it’s been Cooley as the hot hand.
The Pens ran up a 2.75 expected goal total against Calgary on January 10th, yet Cooley only gave up one actual goal and the Flames won a 2-1 game almost entirely due to the strong play of their goalie. The Flames low overall talent level gives them a very narrow path towards winning games, they’re going to need a goalie to steal it for them more often than not. That presents a clear challenge for Pittsburgh in this game: overcome the Flames’ strongest suit in the goalie factor (whether it ends up being Cooley or Wolf) and the rest ought to be right there for the taking. A performance for the Pens similar to the last game against Seattle (where Pittsburgh scored 5 non-empty net goals on 2.88 expected) would be the ideal in this game, as it would in just about any game. Given Calgary’s unimpressive defensive metrics, that should be on the table, though Pittsburgh (at 9th in expected 5v5 goals and just 21st in 5v5 actual goals) will need to execute on their chances in ways they didn’t in the last meeting.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin
Anthony Mantha – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Brett Kulak / Kris Letang?
Parker Wotherspoon / Ryan Shea
Ryan Graves / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Jack St. Ivany, Kevin Hayes, Ilya Solovyov
IR: Erik Karlsson, Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones
- All eyes will be on Letang after he missed practice yesterday and was deemed day-to-day with an upper body injury by the team. Letang’s potential absence or lack of being 100% is a huge blow for an already depleted blueline that doesn’t have Erik Karlsson.
- Karlsson has said he’s feeling better but won’t play tonight, though it’s hard to tell when he’s being serious or not. You would think he’s not playing tonight, but who knows.
- The current goalie rotation would mean Silovs plays tonight, though in game strategy with a very tough matchup looming tomorrow against Edmonton, does Dan Muse make a departure from that in hopes to put the goalie in better form out for the first game of the b-2-b where presumably the team has a better chance of a positive result? If not, Must may be bet Skinner can raise his levels against his former team tomorrow, though they already have seen Skinner play against the Oilers and it didn’t go well (5 goals against on 22 shots) which also can be a data point for the current decision.
- Found it curious when early yesterday the Pens somewhat quietly sent Joona Koppanen back to the AHL, which didn’t make much sense on a long road trip like this. Turns out that was a precursor move to open up an NHL roster spot for the trade to bring in Ilya Solovyov and then it made perfect sense.
The multi-point master
Sidney Crosby is riding a streak of three-straight games with multiple points. Last game pushed him past Gordie Howe, the next one will tie Mark Messier and Marcel Dionne. Seemingly every game Crosby is approaching and/or passing legendary names in any number of categories – the two points last game vs. Seattle tied Mario Lemieux’s total of 784 road points.
Pregame
Kris Letang can’t go in this game due to an upper-body injury so go ahead and just don’t look at this blueline group tonight.
First period
Pittsburgh gets the first power play, Ryan Shea is out there with all the big guns. He looks nervous and loses the puck over his stick twice for no reason. They do get a few chances down to the net a little after that.
Shea looks a lot more comfortable at 5v5, feathering a shot in that Evgeni Malkin can deflect. Dustin Wolf overplayed the angle and gets caught leaning a little while the puck trickles on in to the far side. 1-0 Pens thanks to Malkin’s 11th goal of the season, 7:49 in.
Attn: Flames country
HE WILL BE FIREpic.twitter.com/Yz2lrP5k5N
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 22, 2026
Rest of the period scoots on along. Calgary is a nothin’ happenin’ team to start things off, generating only five shots on goal. Pittsburgh gets 11 and carries a 1-0 lead
Second period
Connor Dewar comes close to scoring a couple of times but can’t keep his hot hand going.
The second line comes through again, Malkin enters the zone and passes across the middle for Tommy Novak. Novak touches a pass over for Egor Chinakhov who pulls the puck back to change the angle catches Wolf with a hard shot, even though his body momentum is falling back from the net he still gets a lot of velocity on his seventh goal of the season. Pittsburgh pushes their lead to 2-0.
TIC. TAC. TOE.
WHAT A RELEASE FROM CHINNY
— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) January 22, 2026
The Flames find a way to get a goal back juuust before the final buzzer. Zach Whitecloud takes a point shot that doesn’t look like much trouble until Yegor Sharangovich makes his way to the middle of the ice and puts a deflection on it. Ends up in the net with 2.7 seconds on the clock.
It was almost all systems under control, right up until the very last bit. Calgary gives themselves more of a chance and something to believe in heading into the third. Shots in the second were 9-8 in favor of CGY but Skinner was making it looks easy right up until a shock out of no where beat the buzzer.
Third period
Pittsburgh comes out the gates strong and responds to Calgary’s late-period goal. Bryan Rust gets down low and throws the puck to the net. Sidney Crosby is right out in front and hacks at a puck that leaks through Wolf and to the back of the net. 3-1 game 50 seconds into the third.
Our captain
Sidney Crosby has surpassed Mario Lemieux for the eighth-most road points in @NHL history (785). pic.twitter.com/duCIEKdUbR
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 22, 2026
Dewar trips a Flame on the following shift to allow the first Calgary power play of the night, his teammates take care of business and keep the PK going strong.
Calgary has a great chance a little later when Pittsburgh’s defensive structure breaks down a little and an unmarked player in the middle of the ice takes a big shot. Skinner makes a great save with the glove that he can’t control but that ends up working out just as well. Jack St. Ivany plays the puck up for Novak and the Pens have a 2-on-1. The defender completely ignores Novak to take away the pass, so Novak skates the puck all the way in makes a slick backhand deke and casually flips the puck top shelf on Wolf. Pretty stuff for Novak’s ninth goal of the season and extend the lead to 4-1.
HERE COMES TOP SHELF TOMMY!pic.twitter.com/hDNBlRpeVd
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 22, 2026
That capped off most of the notable moments. Calgary beat Skinner but glanced a shot off the post and from there it was just about riding the game out until the clock reached 0:00.
Some thoughts
- The Malkin line with Chinakhov and Novak are a super-fun watch. There’s obviously the production element on a night like tonight where each member of the line scored a goal. Even beyond those contributions they are playing exciting hockey, working off one another very well and growing in chemistry in the offensive zone as they get more time together. All have some speed on the puck all can handle the puck and are unafraid to carry it in and through opponents when they drive up the ice.
- Sidney Crosby took a Bryan Rust centering pass to what looked like the side of the leg above the knee on the first shift of the game. Looks like the worst was avoided save for a moment of pain that had the captain instantly doubled over and smarting for a bit. That’s all the Pens needed at this point when key players have been dropping like flies lately.
- Our key to the game for the Pens from the preview was out-scoring the expectations to improve over where they stumbled against Calgary two weeks ago in a 2-1 loss. Chinakhov’s second period goal (to make the score 2-0) on 1.04 total expected goals from Moneypuck. It was looking good at that point and continued from there. Crosby’s early third period goal extended that race to 3 actual goals vs 1.52 expected. In the end it shook out to be four goals on just over two expected, which is precisely what was needed. In the last Pens/Flames matchup the Pens weren’t getting the finishes. They had it tonight, leading to a fairly drama-free game of being out in front for most of the contest. That’s a good way to live.
- The developing story of the day for the Pens was breaking the goalie rotation to play Skinner again. Turned out to work very well, Skinner only saw 19 shots but did more than his part in allowing only one goal on 1.77 expected from the Flames.
- Another angle was that bare bones blueline for the evening. Gotta factor in quality of opponent (low!), also gotta tip a cap to those guys for a great effort. It was shades of the 2017 playoff run with an undermanned crew stepping up and doing what it takes to get the job done. Wotherspoon was breaking up plays all over the ice. Connor Clifton, as always, made his presence known with some big hits. Shea pitched in as he could on the one power play of the night. Even Ryan Graves blocked three shots. Forwards, especially centers like Ben Kindel and Blake Lizotte, were drifting way back defensively and appearing mindful to make themselves available as options for quick bail outs.
- One of the few times the Pens got trapped in their defensive zone for a long shift happened during the second period. Wotherspoon was almost 2:30 into his shift and still had enough vinegar in the tank to put Morgan Frost on his wallet twice. I don’t know if you want to call Wotherspoon the most improved player or maybe just the one who has had the opportunity to emerge this season and show his stuff, but my goodness he’s impressed at every turn. What a solid player he is.
- Speaking of that blueline, Kris Letang was only briefly on the ice for the morning skate, taking basically a quick lap around the rink and then leaving. That doesn’t sound like it bodes well for his chances to play tomorrow night against Edmonton. Erik Karlsson has been on the ice much more in recent days, though he couldn’t go today he did make a comment yesterday about not being a “mascot” for this road trip. Wouldn’t expect him to rush into a return three weeks prior to the start Olympics yet it would be a massive benefit if Karlsson can answer the bell tomorrow or at least on Sunday in Vancouver.
So that’s that, another impressive win in the books. Now the Pens move on quickly to Edmonton and get ready to take on an Oiler team that has been quite the boogeymen for them in recent years.
Talk about the game with Pens fans here!
Pregame
There’s nothing better than an unexpected return to the lineup, each team has a good one tonight. Nine days ago, Erik Karlsson wasn’t to be re-evaluated for two weeks. He’s back tonight. Arturs Silovs starts in goal.
Tonight's lineup at the Oilerspic.twitter.com/ONaXhjdPXK
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 23, 2026
Edmonton gets a welcome return of their own, Leon Draisaitl is back from Germany on a family business in time for the game. Former Penguin goalie Tristan Jarry faces his old team for the second time.
First period
The Penguins strike early, Anthony Mantha gets behind the defense and Justin Brazeau gets the puck to Mantha with a really nice pass that Mantha steers over Tristan Jarry. But wait – Mantha might have been off-side on the rush. Edmonton takes their timeout to give it an extra long look, they ultimately decide to not challenge it, goal stands.
It only takes 22 seconds for another Mantha goal. He again gets behind the defense, this time in the neutral zone. Again Brazeau feeds Mantha the puck, this time for a breakaway. Jarry’s defense was to fall belly first to the ice, didn’t work as he still gets beat low. 2-0 goal.
The Oilers look stunned, they’ll take another big shot only 15 seconds after that goal. Ryan Shea throws a puck on net, Sidney Crosby curls out of no where into the middle of the ice to deflect the puck. It’s another goal, three of them coming 37 seconds across. Jarry doesn’t know whether to cry or wind his watch.
Luck may have turned, Connor Dewar hits the post and the puck stays out. Silovs makes a nice save at the other end. The Pens get the first power play, Bryan Rust takes a nice shot but Jarry stops it. Connor McDavid rockets up the ice, Crosby tries to stay with him, he also gets his stick into McDavid’s hands a few times and the refs even up the penalties by sending Crosby off. The Pens kill the penalty.
The fireworks continue, Evgeni Malkin sets up Egor Chinakhov in front, a sprawled out Jarry keeps the puck out the net with 20 seconds left. The play goes right back down the other end, Zach Hyman beats Silovs but not the post. The puck falls right to the goal-line however it miraculously stays out in a scramble.
Connor Clifton heats tempers up by slamming Mattias Janmark into the boards from behind.
An exciting, shocking and thrilling period. Three goals in a 37 second span ripped it open early, not much settled from there. Pittsburgh’s up 3-0 on the scoreboard, Edmonton out-shot them 13-9, yet somehow did not score.
Second period
McDavid takes a penalty for slashing Erik Karlsson’s stick. It’s the Oilers who score, Jake Walman takes off on the rush. 3-1 game.
Jake & bake
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 23, 2026
On a delayed penalty call against the Oilers the Penguins worked their 6v5 group. Malkin makes a beautiful pass from behind the net through about three sticks to get to Rickard Rakell. Rakell measures his shot and wires an equally nice wrister past Jarry. 4-1 game, no penalty on the Oilers after all since the Penguins scored. That’s one way to shield the struggling Pittsburgh power play.
A RICKY ROCKET GOES UPSTAIRS!pic.twitter.com/xZj3ZMzIYI
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 23, 2026
Bouchard kisses a shot off the crossbar, it stays out. A little later in the sequence Malkin pokes the puck away from McDavid and even though he’s at the end of a 1:21 long shift the big guy races down the ice on a breakaway. Malkin moves to his backhand, it looks like he runs out of room but he pulled so much lateral movement out of Jarry that there was enough room for the puck to slide in. 5-1 game.
Ben Kindel hurries and accidentally shoots the puck over the glass with 3:03 to go, giving Edmonton a power play. The Oilers take a ton of offensive zone time, the Pens PK holds strong with Silovs standing tall on a few big stops.
Say it in your best Doc Emerick voice: “what action!”. Another incredible period of hockey, highlighted by two insanely skilled plays by Malkin. The Pens head into the third period up by four goals.
Third period
The Pens keep pourin’ it on. Novak gains a zone entry and dishes a routine looking pass over for Egor Chinakhov. There’s nothing routine about Chinakhov’s release that scorches in and out of the net so fast Malkin shoots the rebound. 6-1 lead.
Raise your hand if you're happy Chinny is a Penguinpic.twitter.com/VNWnBvdiqa
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 23, 2026
Edmonton gets one in garbage time, Matt Savoie unleashes a top shelf snipe from the right faceoff circle with about six minutes left making the score 6-2.
Savvy snipe
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 23, 2026
The rest of the game plays out quietly, Pittsburgh gets out with a convincing win and another strong effort.
Some thoughts
- If we’re in the trust tree, I’m pretty sure Mantha was offside on that first goal. The Edmonton video team no doubt had a better look and more technology to stop and pause it and look at all the angles, so maybe he wasn’t or was just too close to call with the on-ice decision saying it was good. Kinda looked like he was off from what I could see with his back leg getting into the offensive zone just a little bit before the puck did. A little too close for comfort though all is well that ends well.
- Stuart Skinner and Brett Kulak got a nice ‘welcome back’ video and a big standing ovation during the first TV timeout. At 3-0 at that point, you know a lot of people were thinking in that moment and over the course of the night about just why that trade had to be made for the Oilers, if only for one night.
- 3 goals in 37 seconds? You don’t see that type of goal explosion every day.
- The competitiveness in Crosby was on display turning on the jets to not let McDavid skate away from him. Crosby even started in a trail position, not too many are going to go the full length of the ice with McNasty in that situation. The competitiveness went over the line for the refs with the series of little slashes along the way but in that moment there was just no way Crosby was going to allow McDavid gain separation.
- Jack St. Ivany took the full brunt of a ‘Bouch bomb’ slapshot from Evan Bouchard, he can really bring it. St. Ivany was hobbled to the the extreme. Naturally, he was back for the start of second period and able to shake it off like it was nothing.
- A lot was made, here included, about the goalie usage decisions. At the end of the day, no choice is a bad one when both goalies are playing extremely well. Silovs’ performance might not draw a lot of attention, which is a shame because it deserves it. 29 stops on 31 shots and anytime a goalie holds McDavid (and Draisaitl) off the scoresheet they probably had a great night. Silovs certainly qualified for that praise.
- The final score said blowout, the way it ended up there was anything but one-sided. As mentioned above, the first goal was a whisper away from being overturned which could have butterfly effected the whole night. It truly is a wonder that Wotherspoon helped keep the puck out of the net when the puck was laying literally on the goal-line and no less than Draisaitl right there to jam it in with Silovs out of commission seconds after it hit the post and stayed out by the narrowest of margins in the first place. Then, at 4-1, Bouchard narrowly misses scoring only to almost immediately have Malkin create and convert a breakaway in a turn of fortune that salted the game away. It’s not to say the Penguins were necessarily lucky because a team still has to make their luck through their own efforts, more like it was very close to swinging in a different direction. A blowout game can still have its precarious moments.
- To that end the final score wasn’t completely indicative of how the Pens played, which wasn’t perfect. They were a bit reckless up 3-0 when it came to some decisions with the puck and when it came to pinching up, willing to trade chances with Edmonton when they didn’t have to. They gave up a goal while on the power play. They didn’t have an even strength shot for well over 10 minutes in the second period. Obviously when you get a huge goal outburst it doesn’t have to be a flawless 60 minutes, the Pens were very good and certainly flexed enough offensive muscles to deserve a big win; there just was more to the story than simply the score at the end of the night.
- How about the 39-year old Malkin A) having the burst to stay ahead of Ekholm chasing him at the end of a 1:21 shift, B) keeping a rolling puck on old ice in his possession and C) converting a very wide deke. Outstanding effort, everyone in this matchup obviously hones in on Crosby and McDavid, Malkin gave what should be a needless reminder that those two aren’t the only special, special players involved.
- This was the Pens first win in Edmonton since December of 2019. Back then Dan Muse was an assistant coach in Nashville working with Nick Bonino as a player, Justin Brazeau was in the ECHL, Yegor Chinakhov was playing in a lower-tier Russian league having gone undrafted in the NHL a few months earlier. Ben Kindel was 12 years old! It had been a while.
Certainly one of the more thrilling, satisfying and biggest wins of the season for the Pens to shake off what had been a house of horrors for them, win a third game on this road trip on a back-to-back effort. The Penguins have definitely had much lower high water marks of their whole seasons the past few years then this, even though at this point they still have high hopes to keep the momentum going to finish the trip strong on the last leg coming up in Vancouver.
Talk about the game with Pens fans here!
It may not have been their best overall performance of the season so far, but the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night is certainly high on the rankings. They had every reason to lose that game just simply based on the schedule and the matchup.
The Oilers have dunked on the Penguins pretty much every time they have played them over the past four or five years, the Oilers were rested, the Penguins were playing the second half of a back-to-back and their fourth game in six days, they are three games into an extended road trip and they did not have one of their top defenseman in the lineup (Kris Letang). They were also playing their backup goalie.
When the week began I had that game penciled in as a loss just based on all of that. Not only did the Penguins win, they did to the Oilers what the Oilers have recently done to the Penguins and just dunked all over them. They gave up some chances, but Arturs Silovs was great and the Penguins feasted on their former goalie (Tristan Jarry). Anthony Mantha scored two goals, Evgeni Malkin showed he still has the juice, and Egor Chinakhov scored another goal on a shot so ridiculous nobody even saw it actually go into the net.
It has the Penguins in the second spot of the Metropolitan Division after 50 games and starting to very much look like a playoff team. Not just in the results, but also in the process behind the results.
They have a top-10 points percentage in the NHL, tied for the fifth-best in the Eastern Conference and are only two points back (with a game in hand) of the fourth-best team in the Eastern Conference.
They are also a top-10 team league-wide in pretty much every underlying 5-on-5 metric when it comes expected goals and scoring chances, while also consistently improving their overall defensive metrics.
If it looks like a duck, and if it quacks like a duck….
This is all important to keep in mind because the Penguins have just 11 games before the 2025-26 NHL Trade Deadline, and general manager Kyle Dubas and his staff have to be having a lot of discussions right now. Not only about potential trades, but also simply what their overall plan is going to be.
Buy? Sell? Stick to the plan? All of the above? It is going to be fascinating to watch.
Just for laughs, here is where the Penguins have been (and ranked) after 50 games over the past eight seasons in terms of their place in the league standings, and their overall ranks in 5-on-5 goal differential, expected goal share, scoring chance share, high-danger scoring chance share and expected goals against per 60 minutes.
Season Games Played Record Points Points Percentage 5-on-5 GF% 5-on-5 xGF% 5-on-5 SC% 5-on-5 HDSC% xGA/60 2025-26 50 25-14-11 61 .610 (9th) 51.2% (10th) 51.4% (9th) 51.2% (9th) 52.7% (10th) 2.65 (14th) 2024-25 50 20-22-8 48 .480 (26th) 43.7% (29th) 50.2% (17th) 48.7% (23rd) 50.1% (18th) 2.63 (26th) 2023-24 50 23-20-7 53 .530 (19th) 53.1% (8th) 52.4% (8th) 52.2% (10th) 52.7% (7th) 2.62 (19th) 2022-23 50 25-16-9 59 .590 (14th) 49.5% (19th) 52.3% (9th) 50.9% (15th) 52.0 (13th) 2.65 (19th) 2021-22 50 31-11-8 70 .700 (7th) 55.3% (8th) 53.4% (8th) 52.8% (7th) 53.5% (8th) 2.25 (6th) 2020-21 50 32-15-3 67 .670 (9th) 55.1% (8th) 49.4% (18th) 51.3% (11th) 48.3% (19th) 2.19 (13th) 2019-20 50 31-14-5 67 .670 (4th) 54.8% (5th) 53.8% (3rd) 53.1% (5th) 54.0% (3rd) 2.06 (2nd) 2018-19 50 27-17-6 60 .600 (11th) 54.4% (5th) 51.4% (10th) 51.5% (11th) 52.1% (11th) 2.49 (23rd)
This is the Penguins best record and best placement in the standings since the 2021-22 season, which was also their most recent Stanley Cup Playoff appearance. It is also one of the few times over the past eight years where they have consistently been in the top-10 across all of the scoring chance and expected goal metrics. They are 13 points ahead of where they were at this point a year ago and significantly better in terms of where they rank in their underlying metrics. The 2023-24 team had similar rankings in those metrics, but were not getting the same results and were eight points back of the current pace. That team missed the playoffs by just three points. They are two points ahead of the 2022-23 pace, but that team was much worse with its process. That team missed the playoffs by one point.
This team does not just simply have a better record than their most recent teams. It is also playing better. Significantly so.
This is not a Stanley Cup contending team right now. Not this season. It might be a pretty good team. It is starting to look like it is a pretty good team. Even during that losing streak back in December they were still carrying and controlling games for the most part. They have certainly left some points on the table, and that might end up looming large, but they have also picked up a lot of points. There is a lot to be said for that response. There is a lot to be said for how they have played, how they are playing and perhaps more importantly, how (and where) they are improving.
The forward group has no real weaknesses. There is not a single line you do not want to see on the ice at any point in any game. They can roll four lines and keep controlling the game with any of them. The goaltending has been inconsistent at times, but winnable. Erik Karlsson is playing the way they expected Erik Karlsson to play when they originally traded for him a few years ago.
So how do the Penguins play this over the next month-and-a-half? There is obviously going to be a wait-and-see element to this and how those 11 games go. The most sensible approach is stay the course and let these guys show what they have. Whatever happens, you have a full season sampling here and can make your adjustments and changes as needed in the offseason.
Mantha is going to be the curious case because I always imagined he was signed with the intention of being this year’s Anthony Beauvillier. Cheap contract, hope for some production in the top-six of the lineup, then flip him at the trade deadline in March for some additional future assets. He has been better and way more productive than Beauvillier, and should not only bring a comparable return (a second-round pick), but perhaps even more given how much more he has produced. He is also the big-body presence that NHL general managers love at this time of year. Trading him could also open up a roster spot for one of the young kids in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton right now like Rutger McGroarty or Ville Koivunen.
If this group keeps playing the way they are, however, it would be difficult to disrupt that. They deserve a chance to take a kick at the can and see what happens.
The Penguins still have more draft capital, and especially in the first three rounds, than any other team in the NHL over the next three-or-four years. They could certainly use more of those assets, but it is also not a huge necessity.
Strategic buying is certainly within reason. The Penguins should not trade anything significant for a short-term rental, but if you can find a player that has long-term value beyond this season, that should be in play.
Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson has been the big name kicked around given his contract status, and the Penguins certainly have the salary cap space to pay him what he wants in the future, but that does not seem like a trade deadline move. That is an offseason move. The option for that discussion will almost certainly still be there then when Dallas might be more inclined (or likely) to make a move involving him.
The ideal trade option would be trying to find a young defenseman (or some sort of young high-level talent) that has upside and term/team control remaining. Depending on the player, the contract and the upside, I would not be opposed to being aggressive if it is a true hockey trade. The Penguins have salary cap space and assets to move, and given how active Dubas and the Penguins have been over the past year-and-a-half I can not imagine they are going to just sit and do nothing.
Even if it requires a young forward or one of those draft picks, if you can find somebody that fills that need you should not ignore it. Even if the cost is high. As long as it is a hockey trade and fits in to the long-term plan, it can work.
With that in mind, I am going to say something controversial here: I do not think the first-round pick should be off the table *in the right move.*
There should be lottery conditions attached to it. It should only be for a player that fits for multiple seasons. Do not trade that pick for a rental. That would be outrageously stupid. But keep something in mind here: If the Penguins do end up as a playoff team, that first-round pick is going to be in the back half of the round. The Penguins still have that Winnipeg Jets second-round draft pick that is very likely to be very high in the second-round. At that point the difference between, let’s say, pick No. 22-25, and perhaps pick No. 34, is not overly significant. You also still have plenty of assets to potentially move up from that spot high in the second-round if you needed or wanted.
Even thinking about moving that pick is obviously only something you do for somebody in their early-mid-20s, and somebody that is a high level player. That is a difficult trade to find, and chances are you will not find it, but it is definitely something to keep an eye out for given where the team is, where the pick could end up being. and what you still have to work with in terms of assets. This is why stockpiling assets the way Dubas has is so important. It gives you flexibility. It gives you options. The Penguins certainly have a lot of them. This will be fascinating to watch.
Egor Chinakhov has made an instant splash since joining the Pittsburgh Penguins. The 24-year old has been able to unlock his talents, which are readily apparent. Chinakhov has scored five goals and added one assist in his 12-game stint with the Penguins. On the surface that isn’t overwhelming. With more context, it stands out since all of his goals and points so far have come at even strength. It’s a small sample to date, though the data is encouraging; Chinakhov’s 2.17 goals/60 at even strength with the Pens is a massive number (tops in the NHL this season with a longer run of data is Brad Marchand with 1.89, Nathan MacKinnon is second at 1.70).
What makes the figure stand out even further is that is this isn’t a player going to the net and knocking in loose rebounds or deflecting pucks or even building his sample largely off of teammate’s passing plays that leave a goalie vulnerable for back-door tap ins. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with gaining results that way either, but Chinakhov is producing in a way that is more tantalizing and excites on a deeper level. Chinakhov is doing most of his work on the rush and using his overpowering shot and fast release to torch goalies. He’s shown a knack to pick corners and tendency to snipe on the shortside, hallmarks of a quality NHL goal scorer.
Raise your hand if you're happy Chinny is a Penguin
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 23, 2026
The full mastery of his ability was on display in this goal against Calgary, drawing the puck in prior to releasing it, changing the shooting angle in the type of advanced move that differentiates a normal shooter from an exceptional one in today’s NHL.
TIC. TAC. TOE.
WHAT A RELEASE FROM CHINNY
— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) January 22, 2026
There’s no doubt Chinakhov has had a boost in the classic ‘change of scenery’ to enter a new situation by coming to the Penguins. Given normal stat rates, we can’t expect him to carry 2+ goals per 60 for the long haul, though the current production will undoubtedly open doors for more opportunity to increase actual totals despite the decline in the rate of time it takes to get there. Chinakhov has played with the second power play group, getting an average of 1:14 per game often coming from short shifts as the power play is expiring. The potential of an increased role and an eventual promotion to the top power play could be the next step to unlock even more total production. The most important thing for now is he has proved his shot can’t be denied, now it will be up to the coaches to figure out how they can maximize his abilities.
The other absolutely apparent standout skill for Chinakhov is his skating ability. Per NHL Edge, his max skating speed is right up there with anyone in the league, his ability to have 20 or 22+ mph bursts are incredible. The only thing holding down his percentile ranking on 18-20 mph bursts has been a lack of playing time and opportunity relative to the other players in the league.
The raw tools of being a lightning fast skater with an absolute rocket of a shot are standing out with the Pens as the player gets a chance to show what he can do.
In a sense, the challenge of maximizing the abilities has been the ready made story of Chinakhov’s career. It was a frustrating one for both him and the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first chapter. He couldn’t find much in Columbus, being moved all over the place and given limited opportunities in a rapidly changing cast of linemates couldn’t have helped matters.
If a team wants a player to bring consistency, it stands to reason the team should return the favor. It’s not hard to see that the Blue Jackets failed in that regard, resulting in failing to unlock the player as a whole into his full potential.
The Penguins have been able to provide more steadiness, since Evgeni Malkin returned from injury he’s been a constant with Chinakhov. Tommy Novak has been there all along. The results have followed as the trio continues to grow in chemistry with their complimentary offensive skills and proclivity to get on the rush fitting Chinakhov’s strengths of skating and shooting ability like a glove.
That’s made for a great first impression with his new team and shown an instant ability to impact games in special ways. The Penguins have a lot to be excited about in the coming days, weeks and months to see just how much more Chinakhov can add.
CHINAKHOV 
! 
