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[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Metro Moves: 2025-26 New Jersey Devils preview

Sticking in the great New York City area to complete the Metro part of the Metropolitan Division after completing previews on the Rangers and Islanders, today we turn to the New Jersey Devils.

The Devils are a team looking for more entering 2025-26. They (barely) qualified for the playoffs last season, but had enough key injuries to be a non-factor in a first round loss. New Jersey is a testament to a build-through-the-draft rebuild, having acquired six top-10 picks from 2015-22; including picking first overall twice and adding, a second, fourth, sixth and seventh overall pick along the way.

It looked like the rebuild was taking flight after a first round series win in 2023, however some injury luck has turned bad and NJ failed to qualify for the playoffs in 2024 and then eeked into the final spot in the Metropolitan Division last season (by two points over Cinderella Columbus) and quickly bowed out. The time is now to compete and rise from a mid-range team into one of the better ones in the conference. Or it should be, anyways.

Key changes​

Additions: It’s been a quiet summer in New Jersey. Connor Brown parlayed an excellent playoff with Edmonton (5 goals + 4 assists in 20 games) into a $12 million contract over four years to come add some depth to the Devils. They also brought on Evgenii Dadonov — who scored a tidy (and surprisingly high) 20 goals and 20 assists for Dallas last season — to a very team-friendly deal of a $1.0 million contract for one year. The Devils also signed their 2019 fourth-round draft pick, Russian forward Arseni Gritsyuk (44 points in 49 KHL games last season).

Losses: Not much to speak of either. The Devs dropped forward Erik Haula in a trade to Nashville for a draft pick to clear some salary space, and saw a few free agents who were either minor pieces or short-term adds depart over the summer (Tomas Tatar, Curtis Lazar, Brian Dumoulin).

Projected lineup (from nhl.com)​

Ondrej Palat — Jack Hughes — Jesper Bratt
Timo Meier — Nico Hischier — Stefan Noesen
Arseni Gritsyuk — Dawson Mercer — Connor Brown
Paul Cotter — Cody Glass — Evgenii Dadonov

Brenden Dillon / Dougie Hamilton
Luke Hughes* / Brett Pesce
Jonas Siegenthaler / Simon Nemec

Jacob Markstrom
Jake Allen

Hughes is still to-be-signed as a restricted free agent, but expected to be wrapped up in time for the season. Defender Johnathan Kovacevic (who signed a $20 million, five year contract extension earlier this year) will miss the start of the season recovering from knee surgery. As an aside, the Devils have a real gift from Jack Hughes playing on a long-term contract worth $8.0 million per year (considered the best value contract in the whole league), but they take that gift and use the excess on pieces like Kovacevic, Brown and Cody Glass (resigned for $2.5m). Will that be enough or wise usage of the extra space? We shall see!

The injury bug has been a tough opponent to wrangle so far. Between both Hughes boys, Hamilton and Siegenthaler, there’s a bad penchant for getting hurt at the key time of year popping up with unfortunate frequency. Even Bratt had to have shoulder surgery shortly after the end of last season. If that luck changes this year, so too could the fate for the end of their season.

Beyond that, the trade adds for NJ will go a long way to determining their success. Markstrom was only OK at best last season, his first in Jersey. Ditto Meier, who has been a good add but perhaps not as much of a revelation and transformative one as initially expected and hoped. Hamilton has even had his name included in some trade whispers (fairly or not). If those three have big years and they can keep the Hughes boys in the lineup, NJD’s fortunes surely look a lot brighter.

—

Potential Outcomes
Here we paint some pictures of a semi-realistic best and worst case scenarios for the upcoming season..​

Reasonable best case scenario — The Devils have health, and become a big problem for the rest of the division and conference with their skill, depth and head coach Sheldon Keefe. Markstrom plays more like he did earlier in his career in Calgary to give them an above average netminder, and the young defense of L. Hughes, Simon Nemec and prospect Seamus Casey give some extra juice. New Jersey rolls to 100+ points and is right there contending with Carolina for the top spot in the division.

Reasonable worst case scenario — 1-2 of the Hughes brothers is out down the stretch. Those veterans mentioned above (Markstrom, Hamilton, Meier) are not huge impact players or making a big positive difference, for whatever reason. The young players don’t shine and the Palat/Noesen level players have a down year. The inconsistencies continue and NJ is fighting for a playoff spot come April, instead of being comfortably in one.

—
The Devils have good players like Hughes, Hischier and Bratt in their prime. They have plenty of skill to round out the team. While they might not be an obvious pick as a championship contender that has no holes or weaknesses, NJ should be more of a top-5 team in the conference during the regular season rather than a middle-5 one.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/66850/metro-moves-2025-26-new-jersey-devils-preview

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins to giveaway ‘Big Three Legacy’ series of bobbleheads this season

The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced three bobblehead giveaway nights for the upcoming season that will feature the team’s “Big Three Legacy” players on the roster.

The team announced the plans Wednesday for the bobblehead giveaways that will feature Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang.

The trio of “Big Three Legacy” players, as the team calls them, have played a combined 58 years for the Penguins franchise and now they’re being honored with bobblehead giveaways.

The longest-tenured trio in sports. Now on your shelf.

Introducing: The Big Three Legacy bobblehead series.
: https://t.co/onqXQtP82v pic.twitter.com/HCMAfAAvVJ

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 3, 2025

The team says the first 7,500 fans in attendance at the following games will receive one of the bobbleheads.

• Saturday, December 13 vs. San Jose Sharks — Sidney Crosby bobblehead
• Saturday, January 10 vs. Calgary Flames — Evgeni Malkin bobblehead
• Saturday, March 21 vs. Winnipeg Jets — Kris Letang bobblehead

The team says that the three bobbleheads will interlock to create a larger memorabilia piece for fans who are able to collect all three items.

A full promotional schedule for the season is expected to be announced soon.

The Penguins’ regular season will get underway on October 7 when they visit New York City to face former head coach Mike Sullivan who is now behind the bench for the Rangers.

Puck drop that night is scheduled for 8 p.m.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/6...hree-legacy-series-of-bobbleheads-this-season

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Metro Moves: 2025-26 Philadelphia Flyers preview

We’ve finished up the greater NYC area recapping the summers of the Devils, Rangers and Islanders, today we look to the other side of the commonwealth to examine the Philadelphia Flyers.

Long the classic example of the big market team with limited patience and seeking quick fixes, when Daniel Briere was promoted to general manager in the spring of 2023 he promised a slow and careful rebuild to try and finally get things right. Briere has mostly stuck to his guns, avoiding flashy trades or big free agents signings while letting some of his bad contracts expire and trading veterans for future pieces. It’s been very out of character for this franchise to sit in the background and perform the quiet, slow process of assembling young talent, but the Flyers have chosen this path for a while now.

The Flyers are looking to build through the draft — they just made five picks within the first 48 selections in 2025. Between this year’s draft and last year’s, Philadelphia has made nine selections within the top-60 picks. That will take some time to pan out for the future, but their trades and recent down years have positioned them to have one of the top prospect pools in the years to come.

The John Tortorella saga is finally over after nearly three seasons. Tortorella was arguably a little too effective at coaxing out a 38-33-11 record in 2023-24 from a team that was angling more for the bottom of the standings but then finally imploded at the end of last year. In his place comes Rick Tocchet. The former Flyer player received a massive contract of five years at reportedly over $5 million per year. NHL Coaching salaries are starting to increase across the board and Tocchet was one of the most sought after coaches available, which parlayed into the second biggest salary around after Mike Sullivan with the Rangers. This is one area the big market team can still act like a big market team and spend whatever they please in order to get the coach they wanted, and the Flyers made sure that happened.

Key changes​

Additions: The Flyers’ two biggest adds both targeted their forward group. They picked up Trevor Zegras from Anaheim for a relatively low cost (sending Ryan Poehling and a second round pick back to the Ducks). Philadelphia also signed center Christian Dvorak, though only to a one-year deal worth $5.4 million. Philadelphia continues in the endless search in their net with the free agent add of Dan Vladar on a hefty $3.3 million contract for two years, despite Vladar not exactly shining in a backup role with Calgary in the past few years. On defense, the team added depth players Noah Juulsen and Dennis Gilbert.

Losses: There wasn’t a lot out the door this summer. The Flyers did more work at the deadline, shedding Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost and Scott Laughton. They pretty much kept everything since then, besides the trade of Poehling and allowing Jakob Pelletier (a portion of the return in the Farabee/Frost trade) to become a free agent and depart.

Projected lineup (from nhl.com)​

Matvei Michkov — Sean Couturier — Travis Konecny
Tyson Foerster — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink
Alex Bump — Trevor Zegras — Owen Tippett
Nicolas Deslauriers — Christian Dvorak — Garnet Hathaway

Travis Sanheim /Cam York
Nick Seeler / Jamie Drysdale
Dennis Gilbert / Noah Juulsen

Samuel Ersson
Dan Vladar

Veteran Rasmus Ristolainen is recovering from surgery, his return will presumably help the defense out some. Otherwise, the change from Tortorella to Tocchet will merit watching how much it will open up some of their players. The usage of some like York, Couturier and even Michkov was hit and miss depending on whether Torts was running hot or cold on them in the moment.

Michkov’s sophomore campaign will be watching. He finished fourth in Calder voting with a solid rookie year of 26 goals and 63 points in 80 games. Michkov offers some of that top-end, game-breaking skill that NHL teams salivate over. The Flyers will be counting on him to be their Kirill Kaprizov or David Pastrnak as the No. 1 winger capable of taking over games and be as dynamic as anyone. Those are big shoes to fill but the 20-year old appears to be on his way to shaping up like something similar.

—

The big questions​

What will happen in Zegras’ second act? Zegras put up 61 and 65 points in his first two full NHL seasons from 2021-23. He was on video game covers and emerging as a young star player before hitting the skids and falling out of favor in Anaheim while going through injuries. Zegras only has 15 and 32 points in his last two seasons (in just 31 and 57 games, respectively), leaving him at a crossroads in what is also a contract year for him. Will the switch to a new team invigorate his career? At still just 24-years old he should be approaching his prime, and could make Philadelphia look like geniuses if he’s able to get back on track.

Is this year just setting the table for things to come? It’s difficult not to see this as another year setting the table for the future. The Flyers have $6.7 million in cap space from trades and buyouts this season that goes away. All their vets like Couturier, the LTIR-retired Ryan Ellis and Ristolainen will tick away that much closer to ending. Philadelphia isn’t trying to be non-competitive on the ice, but their foot isn’t really on the gas yet either as they continue to reload and allow time for players like Porter Martone, Jett Luchanko and Oliver Bonk to get closer to NHL ready.

Potential Outcomes
Here we paint some pictures of a semi-realistic best and worst case scenarios for the upcoming season..​

Reasonable best case scenario — Tocchet comes in as a breath of fresh air to revive a locker room that was beaten down by the prior coach. The team plays more free and the Zegras and Dvorak adds down the middle give Philadelphia enough power to be a factor in the wild card race. Against all odds a goalie (be it Ersson, Vladar, Ivan Fedotov or Aleksei Kolosov) emerges as a viable NHL starter and the team makes a run to the playoffs.

Reasonable worst case scenario — The defense/goalie combo doesn’t hold up and the Flyers lose a lot of 5-4 or 4-3 type of games this season. Zegras gets hurt or doesn’t mesh well and doesn’t look like a long-term piece of the puzzle. It becomes another “wait until next year” type of season and sixth straight spring of no playoffs.

—
The Flyers are positioned this season in an interesting way. There’s not much in the way of expectations, so it won’t be difficult to exceed them, or at least provide an entertaining year under a new coach to set the stage for the future. Sooner or later with a rebuild, you’d like to see a team put it into gear (though maybe not this team..) but Philadelphia looks content to play out the string one more year and give it time for their younger prospects to gain experience.

This should be a team in a better spot 3-5 years from now — but then again 3-5 years ago that last statement could have been made with a similar sentiment and optimism and hasn’t truly gained much progress. Time and patience has been on Briere’s side so far since he’s only had a couple years to truly start his rebuild in earnest, but even then he did not adapt the building strategy to trade prime-aged parts like Konecny and Sanheim to strip all the way down and bottom out like the Chicago’s and San Jose’s of the world.

In some ways, though loathe as they might be to admit it, the Flyers and Penguins are running in a sort of parallel path these days. The two PA rivals have:

• Prioritized attempting to build up their top-60 draft picks (the Pens had four in 2025 and already have four in 2026, the Flyers as mentioned above had nine such picks in the prior two years) and look to the longer-term
• They haven’t been shy to trade veterans for futures (Laughton, Sean Walker, Frost and Farabee on one side, Jake Guentzel, Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor on the other) but haven’t ripped their NHL rosters down to the foundation to be excessively bad in the short-term
• They each have some vets who via age/contractual situations that they’re likely going to be stuck with for better or worse (Couturier, Letang) for a while longer
• Similar inefficient contracts or dead space of about $14 million this year (Ellis, plus Kevin Hayes/Laughton retentions, Cam Atkinson buyout vs. Ryan Graves, whatever it is Tristan Jarry becomes, arguably Hayes himself as a player, Jack Johnson buyout), though Philadelphia’s light at the end of the tunnel comes much quicker
• A pair of new coaches and coaching staff
• They both probably think they’ll be better off down the line than they will be immediately
• And they both have a lot of work to do on the draft and development side if they want to return to the days where they were making some waves in the playoffs

For this year, the Flyers look about like a sixth place team, maybe plus or minus a spot or so. By design, they’re not going for it just yet but efforts to add talents like Zegras and 2025 first rounder Porter Martone could pay off in seasons to come.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/66859/metro-moves-2025-26-philadelphia-flyers-preview

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

The five Penguins players I am most curious about, 2025-26 edition

The influx of new players has slowed for the Penguins. Kyle Dubas brought upon sweeping changes when he first took over in the spring of 2023, bringing in eight new players for 2023-24. That number held strong with seven in 2024-25. This summer? So far, not so much. There could be as few as five newcomers, and they’re mostly not exactly of the exciting variety either — you’re not going to see too many Justin Brazeau or Connor Clifton jerseys in the crowd at the PPG Paints Arena this winter.

That turns this year’s list of some of the most interesting players a little more internal in nature. Doesn’t make it worse, just a little different.

Owen Pickering

It was nice to see Pickering earn some NHL time (to the tune of 25 games) in his rookie season, but his NHL stint ended in January getting some tough love in a hard practice from Sidney Crosby working him over and then struggling in his last handful of games. That was in January, now nine months and ago Pickering hasn’t been seen since on this level. How much has the 21-year old used that to grow and improve? The vaunted leap from Year 1 to Year 2 is a big deal and it will be critical for Pickering to show some development based off of where he was previously. And, besides, the Penguins need someone to play on the left side of their defense. It would be a great development if Pickering can raise his level.

Arturs Silovs

Silovs’ last work was being great in the AHL playoffs, helping Abbotsford win the Calder Cup and being named the AHL’s playoff MVP. The AHL isn’t the NHL, but that’s a pretty good launching point for the future. Silovs needs waivers to be sent to the AHL, the whole reason Vancouver went in the direction to trade him for a draft pick to get something out of him, therefore we can probably expect him to make Pittsburgh’s NHL team out of camp as the backup goalie. It hasn’t been smooth sailing in the NHL level for Silovs, so we might not really want to see him for that long if it doesn’t go well, but right off the bat he will be a very interesting character to track.

Tommy Novak

Many have mostly forgotten about Novak, and there’s not much fault in that considering he only played two games with the Penguins last season before getting injured. Novak will draw attention once he gets back out there, though. He can do things like this:

Tommy Novak, that was NASTY… pic.twitter.com/Gsrh4ZpZNX

— NHL (@NHL) March 3, 2024

And he’s also a very busy player with a great analytical profile. Novak sets up teammates for chances with frequency, he is great at forechecking.

Yet, Novak’s former GM had a less than glowing review about Novak’s recent play:

“When (Novak) was a fourth-line, league-minimum guy and scoring while getting some sheltered minutes, that fit him just fine. When you move up the lineup, it’s harder to find your space and be productive. If you want to move up the lineup, and get paid more, there’s more responsibility.”

“There’s a reason that guys get the higher salaries, because most nights, they’re getting the harder matchups and they’re expected to produce,” Trotz explained.

Trotz, of course, hasn’t been the most savvy manager but his words can’t be totally dismissed. Novak still has to prove himself and bring an added level of consistency. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes in Pittsburgh, is he playing on the second line with Evgeni Malkin? Centering a third line of his own, perhaps with good friend and longtime teammate Phil Tomasino?

Ville Koivunen

Koivunen was great in Finland in 2023-24, scoring 56 points in 59 games. He followed that up with his first full season in North America by putting up 56 points in 63 games in the AHL and then getting a little taste of the NHL at the end of the season, which also went well with seven points in eight games.

It’s one thing to play out the string at the end of a season, it’s another thing to go through the full grind. By this time about six months from now, we’ll know a lot more about Koivunen and how big a piece of the puzzle he could be moving forward. His vision and passing ability are legit, it’s already apparent this is a special player in terms of how he sees the game and thinks the game. The curiosity will come in how he handles long stretches of play, can he get to the net? Can he keep up with his feet? Will he be effective and fit in longterm? So far there’s a lot to feel confident about and be impressed with, but Koivunen might not be a top-6 player for the next 5-10 years for the Penguins, there’s still a lot to prove and see out of him.

Avery Hayes / Tristan Broz

I’m going to stick these two together, because very strangely enough both of these players were born on the exact same day — October 10, 2002. What are the odds of that? (Also in states that border each other, though their listed hometowns of Westland, MI [Hayes] and River Falls, WI [Broz]) are about 650 miles away via automobile). Despite that common bday, they’ve taken very different paths to get here: Broz was heralded as a top player in his age range and made a second round pick in 2021, Hayes went undrafted and had to earn an NHL contract the hard way. They have some similarities too, Hayes won two OHL championships (in 2022 with Hamilton, in 2023 with Peterborough), Broz was a national champion at the University of Denver. Both are on the upswing and have a sort of knack for coming through and winning observers over.

So it’s only fitting to combine them as they look to make their NHL debuts in the same season. This might be better subtitled “players I’m curious to see in training camp” because that is more applicable or accurate for the time being. Still, it will be interesting to see what kind of opportunities players like Broz and Hayes get this season. Do the Pens continue to call-up players from Wilkes that are only warm body space fillers (Boko Imama, Joona Koppanen, Valtteri Puustinen, Emil Bemstrom, etc). Bemstrom is out of the organization now, but it would be nice to see players in the Broz/Hayes mold push up the organizational rankings beyond the type of vanilla and exceedingly limited type of forwards that tend to get recalled that aren’t going to provide a lot of contribution to the NHL on their best day. Of course, the Broz/Hayes level guys have to hold up their end of the bargain by impressing and performing well themselves, which will be another area to watch.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/6...ayers-i-am-most-curious-about-2025-26-edition

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Metro Moves: 2025-26 Washington Capitals preview

Continuing south down the lovely, traffic-congested I-95 corridor, we depart from Philadelphia (after tagging up the NYC area recapping the summers of the Devils, Rangers and Islanders) and head for Washington DC. The Capitals were a surprising division winner last season, their 111 points easily outpacing Carolina’s 99. The Caps took advantage of having the best record in the Eastern Conference to earn playing the worst playoff team in the first round, the Montreal Canadiens. Washington quickly dispatched Montreal in five games but then found themselves no match for the Hurricanes in the second round.

Key changes​

Additions: It’s been a very quiet summer for the DC hockey club. The Caps saw something they obviously like a lot in 23-year old Justin Sourdif, enough to send a second round pick for a player who has only four career NHL games under his belt. Add in a trade for depth defender Declan Chisholm and that’s it for external additions.

Losses: The Caps waved goodbye to Andrew Mangiapane in free agency after one fairly disappointing season in Washington. They also lost Lars Eller (Ottawa), Taylor Raddish (NY Rangers) and Alexander Alexeyev (Pittsburgh) to the free agent market, though without much hand-wringing in any of those cases.

Projected lineup (from nhl.com)​

Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Anthony Beauvillier
Aliaksei Protas — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Tom Wilson
Sonny Milano — Connor McMichael — Ryan Leonard
Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Justin Sourdif

Rasmus Sandin / John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun /Trevor van Riemsdyk
Martin Fehervary / Matt Roy

Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren

After making several big swings last year — that all paid off— to bring in names like Dubois, Chychrun, Roy and Thompson, the Caps coasted this summer. They were able to re-sign Beauvillier, who looked good on any line he played on with the Caps. Chychrun too was re-signed ahead of free agency to keep the 20-goal blueliner in DC for the longterm.

A big point of emphasis for Washington will be the placement of McMichael. The 24-year old broke out with a 26-goal, 57-point season last year and can play in the top-six on the wing or center his own line. Washington is planning on trying him in the middle for a third line and hoping that he can stay productive and provide a depth option there— if not then they might need to add more center depth at some point.

On the back-end, the Caps will go as far as Carlson can take them. It’s no coincidence that the only time Washington has missed the playoffs in the last decade (2022-23), Carlson was injured for half the season and his absence was felt in a major way. Since then, he’s comeback strong with two 50+ point seasons and Washington has rolled on. Washington has merged the Ovechkin/Backstrom/Oshie era into a new one with younger players like Strome, Protas and Chychrun stepping in, and the next wave of Leonard, Ivan Miroshnichenko and Andrew Cristall not far from making their way up the ranks to join in. Carlson (and of course Ovechkin) have been the major bridges from the past success of the 2010’s merging into the present and future. Carlson tends to get lost in the shuffle some behind the major stars, but his presence and impact as a quality 1D can’t be understated.

The big questions​

What happens after the mission is complete? So much energy and effort was expended surrounding Alex Ovechkin’s chase for the goal record over the past few years but especially last season. That’s for good reason, historic records like that don’t fall very often! But now that Ovechkin has passed Gretzky, what happens after the finish line? Ovechkin scored 44 goals in 65 games, it’s not like he’s going to disappear but he had a dogged drive to set the record, seeing what happens now that it’s all gravy will be interesting.

Can Carbery buck the Jack Adams trends? Spencer Carbery has done a wonderful job as NHL coach, his first year in 2023-24 steadied the ship in the wake of Peter Laviolette’s departure and then last year Carbery won coach of the year with a 51 win, 111 point season. Most Jack Adams winners don’t tend to stay on top of the mountain once they get there with many cases of fading away and getting fired only a few years later. Carbery’s systems and base looks solid but he’s got a lot of work to do to keep the arrow pointing the way it is.

Potential Outcomes
Here we paint some pictures of a semi-realistic best and worst case scenarios for the upcoming season..​

Reasonable best case scenario — It looks a lot like last season, Ovechkin keeps filling the net and the supporting players are in lock step behind him. Charlie Lindgren bounces back from a soft season to provide good play as the 1B goalie and Thompson keeps his juju going. Washington competes for another division crown and is comfortably a playoff team.

Reasonable worst case scenario — There’s some shooting regression (Washington’s 10.6% 5v5 shooting percentage was tops in the league) and players who had career seasons last year like Strome, Protas, Dubois and McMichael aren’t as productive as they were. The third line becomes a major sore spot if Milano can’t rebound and Leonard isn’t an instant impact player and the forward group looks more “big and slow” than big and dangerous like last year. Thompson struggles and Washington has to fight tooth and nail to qualify for the playoffs.

—
The Capitals look like they’re in a great spot. Their +56 goal differential last year was the second best in the East and they’re bringing back all nine players who recorded 30+ points last season, including seven 20+ goal scorers. Washington may not have a Stanley Cup winning ceiling on paper, but they should be somewhere in the mix as one of the quality teams in the league in what could be the swan song for the top goal scorer in NHL history taking a victory lap.

As a closing thought, for fit the Capitals would probably prefer to add a center but with just over $4 million in projected cap space, they look like they could add a Bryan Rust/Rickard Rakell type pretty nicely to round out their top six. (It would probably be too much for the Pens to hope about getting top prospect Cole Huston or Cristall in return, but one can dream and see players Miroshnichenko or Hendrix Lapierre as targets Pittsburgh might be interested in). Include Milano ($1.9m) back in the trade and the money would work.

As a further tangent, it will also be interesting with the playoff salary cap (which as a reminder is based only on the 20 players dressing for that game), does a team in this position this look to scratch an expensive $3.0 million backup goalie (Lindgren) for a cheaper option to give more playoff cap room? That would give even more flexibility for them to add more pieces, should that strategy be employed. It will be very interesting to see how contending/playoff teams adapt to the new rules in place and still look to cut as many corners as possible to maximize space on hand.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/66880/metro-moves-2025-26-washington-capitals-preview

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins’ Prospects head to Buffalo

Now that September is here and we have already crossed off a full week, it just means hockey is inching ever closer with each passing day. There hasn’t been an official announcement from the Pittsburgh Penguins on when training camp will begin or who is being invited to participate, but we know it will be soon with the the annual NHL Prospect Challenge tournaments set to commence later this week and through next weekend.

As is tradition for the Penguins with the Prospect Challenge, they will head to Buffalo to join the Buffalo Sabres, New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins, and Columbus Blue Jackets at this year’s tournament. There are other prospect tournaments being held at different team locations across the league, but the Penguins always head to Buffalo each preseason to take part.

As of right now, no roster has been announced by the Penguins noting which players will be heading to Buffalo to represent the team, but whoever does end up making the cut should make this the most talented prospect team the Penguins have ever fielded at this event.

Some names to look out for will be 2025 first round draft picks Ben Kindel, Will Horfcoff, and Bill Zonnon. Goaltender Sergei Murashov could make an appearance as well along with another 2025 draft pick Gabriel D’Agile to make up the goaltending tandem. Harrison Brunicke could use this as a launching pad to a strong training camp and possibly an opening night roster spot.

There will be a full roster announced at some point later this week, but until then all we can do is speculate on some names who may be making the trip to Buffalo.

One important item we do know about the Penguins in regards to the Prospect Challenge is the schedule they will be playing, starting on Friday, September 12th and wrapping up on Monday, September 15th for a total of three games to be played.

Here is the full Penguins slate in Buffalo:

• Friday, September 12th vs. Boston Bruins @ 3:30 PM
• Sunday, September 14th vs. Columbus Blue Jackets @ 3:30 PM
• Monday, September 15th vs. Buffalo Sabres @ 12 PM

Three games against three different opponents over the course of four days will be a nice appetizer to feast on before training camp opens soon after the players return to Pittsburgh. This tournament will also serve as a nice preview of some names who may not be ready to make an NHL impact for the Penguins this season, but figure to be a major part in the next chapter of Penguins history.

More importantly than anything we see on the ice this coming weekend, this signals the last major hurdle of the offseason before hockey is back. By this time next week, we should have a better idea of when training camp will begin and we can fully focus on the 2025-26 season.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/66872/penguins-prospects-head-to-buffalo

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Pat Brisson opens door to more Sidney Crosby speculation

Sidney Crosby spoke to the media in Las Vegas during the NHL’s annual preseason, and hoo boy, the result wasn’t very settling for Penguins’ fans.

Sidney Crosby on his Penguins future, on speculation (Montreal?) about it and more: ‘That’s the hard part about losing’
My latest for ⁦@TheAthletic⁩ from the NHL Player Media Tour in Las Vegas https://t.co/RP5u8qNUW8

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) September 9, 2025

Crosby’s frustrations with the lack of competitiveness by the Penguins, and speculation on his future will kick into high gear after this one.

Matt Larkin of Daily Faceoff asked Crosby during the Player Media Tour availability Monday night about his future with the Penguins in the context of the losing seasons the past few years and how difficult it is to deal with the speculation because of it.

“I mean, I understand it,” Crosby said. “It’s not something you want to discuss. You’d rather be talking about who we’re getting at the (trade) deadline or, you know, where we’re at as far as, are we one or two or three in the division?. But you know, it’s one of those things. That’s the hard part about losing. I think everybody thinks that the buzzer goes and you lose a game and that sucks, but there’s so much more than that. It’s the (roster) turnover. It’s the unknown, the uncertainty, the question marks — that’s the stuff that’s tough. It makes you appreciate all those years that we were competing and going after the big acquisition every single trade deadline. I don’t think I took it for granted, but I definitely appreciate it that much more now.

“But it doesn’t change my approach. I still go out there trying to win every single game and try to be the best that I can be. I think that youth and having that energy around you isn’t a bad thing, either. We’ve got a lot of hungry guys, a lot of competition for spots. So I think you just try to find different things you can feed off of and still continue to learn through it.”

As usual, Crosby cleans it up at the end with some cliches and general empty words that he’s a master of, but the answer in the middle about what has made the last few years so tough stands out as perhaps the most public display of a cutting critique of his professional frustration. There was also no clear declaration that he was committed to stay in Pittsburgh, either, or clarification to cut off the speculation, you might have noticed.

Crosby’s agent Pat Brisson, on the other hand, took to voice the frustrations to a whole new level.

“Well, it’s a reality,” his longtime agent, Pat Brisson of CAA Sports, told The Athletic on Monday night regarding the buzz generated by Pittsburgh’s lack of success. “First of all, he’s been so consistent for 20 years. He had another great year last season. He just keeps going. The comparison is Tom Brady. We want Sidney to hopefully be in the playoffs every year. We want him to hopefully win another Cup or two. So each year the team that he’s playing for fails to make the playoffs, it creates a lot of speculation. In reality, he’s not getting any younger. We’re here to support him. It’s the beginning of the season here. Let’s see how things are going. Hopefully they have a great season and the speculation will go away.”

“But at the same time, the reason we all talk about this is because he’s such a great player still,” added Brisson, who was hanging out with Crosby during his Player Media Tour stop Monday. “He continues to be such a difference maker. Like a Tom Brady, that’s how I look at it.”

And well, Tom Brady did leave the New England Patriots to go win a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

So again, I asked Brisson, is it possible Crosby will entertain a trade out of Pittsburgh one day?

“I mean, I’m answering something that … let’s put it this way, it’s always a possibility, you know?” Brisson said. “It’s been three years they haven’t made the playoffs. It all depends on how Sid is going to be and how the team is going to do. I maintain the same position that I do believe that he should be playing playoff hockey every year. In my opinion.”

Oh yes, a Tom Brady comparison. You know, the guy who left his franchise after 20 years to finish things out in a better on-the-field-spot somewhere else. Followed up by directly saying that a trade is “always a possibility”.

Not very settling indeed.

On one hand, the task at hand and focus for Crosby remains on getting the Penguins back up a level. As LeBrun also wrote and emphasized, “Crosby for sure only sees himself as a Penguin for life”. But all the losing the Penguins have been doing is raising obvious questions about what will happen in the few remaining years that Crosby has left as a player. Neither Crosby nor his agent closed the door or outwardly dismissed the possibility of him playing for a team other than the Penguins one day.

On the other hand, Crosby hasn’t been in the playoffs in the last three seasons, and that’s not because he hasn’t held up his end of the deal. Crosby has done his part, it’s been others around the organization on and off the ice that are responsible for the team’s decline. Anyone that fiercely competitive isn’t going to be happy about such a situation, and the job of Crosby’s agent is to advocate for him, so it’s not out of line or abnormal to hear those comments, jarring as they may be.

Whether this is a shot across the bow toward the Pens to focus on short-term improvement, or preseason chatter that won’t mean much remains to be seen. But the story about the possibilities on Crosby’s future won’t being going away any time soon, especially if the Penguins don’t have a good start to the season on the ice. Crosby and his agent might not want to discuss the speculation out there around him, but they also didn’t do anything to quell it when they had the chance. In fact, the opposite happened to stoke even more of that speculation.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/66912/pat-brisson-opens-door-to-more-sidney-crosby-speculation

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins (finally) release prospect squad roster

The Pittsburgh Penguins are sending their prospects up to Buffalo to compete in the annual pre-season challenge that begins on Friday afternoon when the Pens youngsters take on a team of Boston Bruins players. Pittsburgh will also play on Sunday and Monday.

Buffalo bound

Penguins prospects are slated to play three games from September 11-15 at LECOM Harborcenter in the annual Prospects Challenge.

Details: https://t.co/4ycH2b2Z9T pic.twitter.com/t6hWIi3Gs4

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 10, 2025

From the team:

For the fourth-consecutive season, the Pittsburgh Penguins will participate in the annual Prospects Challenge held in Buffalo, New York. The tournament will run from September 11-15 at LECOM Harborcenter.

The Penguins are one of five participating teams along with the Buffalo Sabres, Boston Bruins, Columbus Blue Jackets and New Jersey Devils, and will play three games total. Pittsburgh will open its play against the Bruins on September 12 at 3:30 PM. Following that, the Penguins will take on the Blue Jackets on September 14 at 3:30 PM and then conclude the tournament with a tilt against the host Sabres on September 15 at 12:00 PM. All three games will be streamed on the Penguins website.

Pittsburgh’s roster will consist of 24 players made up of 14 forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders. The full roster, which will be coached by Kirk MacDonald, Nick Luukko, Brad Malone and Ryan Papaioannou, can be viewed here.

Appearing in game action for the first time in a Penguins sweater is one of Pittsburgh’s three 2025 first-round draft picks Ben Kindel (11thoverall). Also attending the Prospects Challenge are eight other 2025 draft picks, including Brady Peddle (3rd round, 91st overall), Gabriel D’Aigle (3rd round, 84th overall), Travis Hayes (4th round, 105th overall), Ryan Miller (5th round, 130th overall), Quinn Beauchesne (5th round, 148th overall), Jordan Charron (5th round, 154th overall), Carter Sanderson (6thround, 169th overall) and Kale Dach (7th round, 201st overall).

Ville Koivunen and Owen Pickering, who both spent stints with Pittsburgh last season, will be returning to the Prospects Challenge as well.

Other notable prospects playing for the Penguins will be forwards Avery Hayes, Tristan Broz, Atley Calvert and Gabe Klassen, defensemen Harrison Brunicke, Emil Pieniniemi and Finn Harding, as well as goaltender Sergei Murashov. Forwards Max Graham, Nolan Renwick and Brayden Edwards, as well as defensemen Daniel Laatsch and Chase Pietila will be making their Prospects Challenge debuts.

Rutger McGroarty, Bill Zonnon and Peyton Kettles will not participate in the Prospects Challenge due to injury. Their statuses will be updated prior to Pittsburgh’s training camp by Kyle Dubas.

It’s a bummer McGroarty won’t be able to play coming off a broken foot suffered in April but there’s zero reason to put extra on his plate at this point and presumably have him fresh for the full NHL training camp that starts after the games in Buffalo. Zonnon and Kettles, two high draft picks in ‘25, participated in the Penguins’ summer development camp and are curious and unfortunate absences with injuries of their own. It remains to be seen how injured those players are, this prospect challenge event is a low enough priority that with any question at all are around for the season ahead that players tend to be held behind, but the note about Dubas giving an update later on might add a bit of seriousness to some statuses there.

As is custom, the team’s collegiate prospects like Will Horcoff and Joona Vaisanen are back in school and unable to participate in this pro event.

Despite the various absences, the roster contains 12 players who made our recent listing of the Top 25 players Under 25 years old within the organization, and several more honorable mentions that will be looking to make names for themselves on their own journies.

Last year’s prospect challenge was a launching pad for Harrison Brunicke into nearly making the NHL team out of training camp as an 18-year old, and the Pens will certainly be hoping he can replicate that type of performance. It’s also a critical year for players like Owen Pickering, Ville Koivunen, Tristan Broz and Avery Hayes to get off on the right foot and start making a great first impression heading into the full training camp to come.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/66969/penguins-finally-release-prospect-squad-roster

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Pierre McGuire joining Penguins Radio Network broadcast team

Longtime NHL analyst Pierre McGuire will be joining the broadcast team on the Penguins Radio Network this upcoming season.

The network announced the news on Wednesday morning, saying that McGuire, who worked with the Penguins organization in the early 1990s, will be part of pre-game and post-game coverage on the radio network for 41 of the team’s games this upcoming season.

McGuire will also be part of some episodes of Penguins Live Weekly, the broadcast team’s weekly podcast.

A mainstay throughout the National Hockey League media landscape over the past several decades with TSN and with NBC Sports, McGuire worked as between-the-benches on-ice analyst alongside Doc Eric and Eddie Olczyk for several years.

Throughout his career as an analyst, McGuire has been a part of several memorable moments in Penguins history, including when he was caught between then Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette and former Penguins assistant coach Tony Granato, who nearly went toe-to-toe themselves in 2012 as tempers flared on the ice ahead of the cross-state rival’s upcoming playoff series.

McGuire was also part of some more humorous moments, like asking Phil Kessel “How’s your breath?” after a big game in the 2016 Eastern Conference Final, with the Penguins winger thinking he was asking about the smell, followed by a clarification that McGuire was asking about his conditioning.

A polarizing figure that there is no shortage of opinions about, McGuire’s involvement with the Penguins broadcast team will certainly offer plenty of insight and knowledge alongside Paul Steigerwald and Brian Metzer.

The Penguins’ 2025-26 season is less than one month away as the team will head to New York City to face former head coach Mike Sullivan and the Rangers on October 7 at Madison Square Garden.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/66977/pierre-mcguire-joining-penguins-radio-network-broadcast-team

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins getting a style change?

Many on social media noticed something different about Sidney Crosby’s helmet from earlier this week when the Penguin captain was on the ice in Las Vegas as part of the NHL’s media events.

87 mph… because of course. pic.twitter.com/okoOYvLHSo

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 10, 2025

Crosby’s black helmet wasn’t the typical glossy black that the team has worn for his whole career. It was a matte style, which just so happens to also coincides with what campers earlier this year at the Mario Lemieux fantasy camp were adorned in, also featuring the 1990s/2000’s throwback gradient RoboPenguin jersey.

The Pens are still yet to announce their expected new alternate jersey for this season, Crosby’s attire at the league’s media showcase is a clear signal of what could be ahead.

There’s been no official word if the Pens are slightly altering their helmet or going to incorporate it with a new alternate jersey, but showing up in a different look at a high-profile event has started the speculation, and in some cases wish fulfillment, that what is old could be new again with the return of the RoboPenguin.

While on the subject of whimsy, did the Penguins also tease the return of Fleury Flakes?!?! Fleury himself to retire as a Penguin officially?

Starting our day with a balanced breakfast. pic.twitter.com/dkQeebIFz9

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 11, 2025

What does it all mean?! Probably that we need some real hockey to talk about sooner than later, which there’s good news on the horizon with the Pens’ prospects heading up to Buffalo for games starting tomorrow and then the full return of training camp soon.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/66990/penguins-getting-a-style-change

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins sign Fleury to PTO, will play in preaseason game

Marc-Andre Fleury’s long goodbye will end where it all started for him, with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Penguins announced today that Fleury has been signed to a professional tryout and will practice with the team one day on September 26th, and then take the ice and play in the preseason game the next day on Saturday September 27th against Columbus.

HE’S BACK

Join us September 27th for Flower’s return: https://t.co/bK1ykH8BGC pic.twitter.com/GxWqA9NN4D

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 12, 2025

From the team:

The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to a professional tryout contract, it was announced today by President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Kyle Dubas.

Fleury, 40, will join the Penguins for practice at 12:00 PM on Friday, September 26, before suiting up to play in parts of Pittsburgh’s exhibition game against Columbus on Saturday, September 27 at 7:00 PM at PPG Paints Arena.

“The entire Penguins organization is honored to welcome Marc-Andre Fleury back to the ice in Pittsburgh,” said Dubas. “This past year everyone witnessed how beloved and respected Marc is in the game of hockey, but the adoration goes beyond his accolades and career. Marc means so much to our team, our fans and the City of Pittsburgh because of the person he is and the example he set. The Penguins feel he and his family are most-deserving of this opportunity to celebrate this full-circle moment back where it all started in front of the black and gold faithful.”

The three-time Stanley Cup Champion (2009, ’16, ’17), all with Pittsburgh, enjoyed a 22-year career in the NHL from 2003-25 as a member of four clubs (Pittsburgh, Vegas, Chicago and Minnesota). Over the course of his NHL tenure, Fleury played in 1,051 regular-season games with a 575-339-97 record and 76 shutouts. He has recorded 15 20-win seasons, nine 30-win seasons and two 40-win seasons, and only Martin Brodeur has more regular-season games played and wins than Fleury in NHL history.

The Sorel, Quebec native has achieved many individual awards from the NHL for his play which includes four NHL All-Star Game selections (2011, ’15, ’18, ’19), one Second-Team NHL All-Star selection (2021), one Vezina Trophy (2021) awarded to the goaltender who is adjudged to be the best at this position over the course of a season and one William M. Jennings Trophy (2021) awarded to the goaltender with the fewest goals scored against them during the regular season.

Fleury had his longest tenure with a club as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he spent 13 seasons from 2003-17. Fleury holds nearly every major goaltending record in Penguins history as his games played (691), wins (375) and shutout (44) totals all rank first in club history. Additionally, his 2.58 goals-against average is first, while his .912 save-percentage sits second among Penguins goaltenders with a minimum of 100 games played. Playoff success followed for Fleury as his 115 games played, 62 wins and 10 shutouts all rank first in club history while his 2.65 goals-against average and .908 save percentage rank third and fourth, respectively.

As a member of the Penguins, Fleury was recognized for numerous club awards as well. This includes three Players’ Player Awards (2015, ’16, ’17), two Baz Bastien Memorial Awards – Good Guy Awards (2010, ’12), one Defensive Player of the Year Award (2012), two Edward J. Debartolo Community Service Awards (2006, ’14), four A.T. Caggiano Memorial Booster Club Awards (2011, ’13, ’14, ’15), one Masterton Nominee – Comeback Player (2017) and two team MVP Awards (2011, ’15).

Fleury was originally drafted by Pittsburgh in the first round (1st overall) of the 2003 NHL Draft. He is one of three goaltenders in NHL history to be taken first overall (Rick DiPietro – 2000, Michel Plasse – 1968).

Tickets for Fleury’s return are available here.

Well, that’s certainly one way to turn a meaningless exhibition game into a must see celebration of a legendary career. Signing a contract with all three Stanley Cup rings is quite the flex too.

Welcome home, Flower. The black and gold missed you

Read more: https://t.co/oZr416yko9 pic.twitter.com/dZbuiqrQaA

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 12, 2025

Fleury, 40, announced his retirement from the NHL at the conclusion of the 2024-25 season. He opted to extend his playing days by joining Team Canada at the World Championships with Sidney Crosby. Looks like he will get one more chance to play with Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang before hanging ‘em up for good and receive the send off he deserves in a Penguin jersey.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/67009/penguins-sign-fleury-to-pto-will-play-in-preaseason-game

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins announce training camp schedule for upcoming season

The Penguins have announced dates for the team’s upcoming training camp ahead of the 2025-26 NHL season and practices will be open to the public.

The team will open training camp on Thursday, September 18 at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry Township.

Our training camp schedule is here!

The Penguins' training camp, presented by @UPMC, will have all practices free and open to the public.

Details: https://t.co/TYjDqGSJo0 pic.twitter.com/stQNNRMMWg

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 12, 2025

The training camp roster, which the team says will be announced at a later date, will be broken up into three groups.

The first group that day will take the ice at 8:45 a.m., with the second and third groups practicing starting at 11:30 a.m. and at 2 p.m.

Fans in attendance for the team’s practice on Friday, September 26 will get a chance to see Marc-Andre Fleury in action as he skates with the team before playing in the Penguins’ preseason game against the Blue Jackets the following night.

Earlier today, the Penguins announced that Fleury had joined the Penguins on a professional tryout. The longtime Penguins net minder will have a chance to bid farewell to Pittsburgh having retired as one of the most beloved players in NHL history.

Following the completion of training camp and the preseason schedule, the Penguins’ season will begin on October 7 when the team will travel to New York City to take on the Rangers and former head coach Mike Sullivan.

The team’s full practice schedule can be found online.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/67019/penguins-announce-training-camp-schedule-for-upcoming-season

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

More on Sidney Crosby and the future

Admittedly, seeing a franchise’s biggest current icon plant seeds to angle towards an exit is not a potential topic that’s fun to think about, let alone give spotlight to. After this week, one can’t bury their head in the sand over the matter any longer about what the future could hold for Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

As Tim Benz from the Trib pointed out, agent Pat Brisson, used the word “baseless” just a few months ago when refuting trade rumors about Colorado. Brisson’s tune and tone has changed quite a bit in the past few months by stating a trade is “always a possibility”.

Crosby, for his part said, “I don’t feel like I’m there yet,” when it came to thinking about moving on from the Penguins, but he also pointed out how difficult it’s been to slog through losing seasons.

Both Crosby and Brisson ended on hopeful notes for a scenario where the Penguins get back on track with a good season this year and then the matter doesn’t have to be broached. Left unsaid by Crosby but spelled out by Brisson is that it’s now impossible to ignore that the door could open later on if the frustrations continue.

As we all know, a satisfying season is not likely to happen at the team level. The Pens are closer to the beginning of their rebuild than getting back into contention, no matter how much GM Kyle Dubas uses his favorite word “urgency” when it comes to seeing them team become good again. These things can’t be rushed, which isn’t breaking any news to Dubas. It’s not that he’s simply paying lip service to the idea of being strong, almost everyone involved in NHL teams has legitimate hopeful that pieces will come together to work out, but the process of building has to be intentional and purposeful, which is the path Dubas has charted.

One angle that I haven’t seen out there in great detail is the impact of what Crosby might have seen this spring and summer firsthand with the situation that long-time Crosby friend, peer, training buddy and fellow Nova Scotian Brad Marchand experienced. Marchand isn’t a star of Crosby’s magnitude, but he doesn’t have to be for their situations to align close enough. Marchand was drafted by Boston in 2006, and played in their organization from 2008-25. He won a Cup there and reached two more Stanley Cup Finals since Boston, like Pittsburgh, was one of the most competitive, consistent and successful Eastern Conference teams of the past 15-20 years. Marchand eventually became the team captain and franchise centerpiece (apologies to David Pastranak) after the departures of Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara.

Marchand’s expiring contract in 2025 and a downturn by the Bruins led Boston to trade him, which was an almost unthinkable move just weeks or months before it happened (or maybe even in the moments after it happened to some observers). Marchand finishing out his playing days as a Bruin always seemed inevitable, until it wasn’t.

Completing the trade was only the first step, part two was what came next. On his new team, Marchand was obviously having a lot of fun with the whole Dairy Queen escapade adding to his legend, a legend that got more chapters added when Marchancd was one of the Panthers’ top players throughout a Stanley Cup run by scoring 10 goals and 20 points in 23 games. Those experiences wouldn’t have happened if Marchand quietly wrapped up his career in Boston over the next few years.

For Crosby to witness and live through all of that vicariously, including attending Marchand’s summer Stanley Cup party, it’s not difficult to imagine him wondering in his heart of hearts how much fun it would have been to be in his buddy Marchand’s position this year instead of more or less professionally stuck on a Pittsburgh team miles from relevant. The perfect example was there looking him right in the eye.

Competing for titles was a component Brisson mentioned directly recently as well.

“We want Sidney to hopefully be in the playoffs every year. We want him to hopefully win another Cup or two. So each year the team that he’s playing for fails to make the playoffs, it creates a lot of speculation. In reality, he’s not getting any younger. We’re here to support him. It’s the beginning of the season here. Let’s see how things are going. Hopefully they have a great season and the speculation will go away.”

Hope in one hand and do you know what in the other…

The question for the rest of Crosby’s career will come down to how much tolerance he has for realizing he will not win another Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh and in fact might never play in the playoffs again if he stays for the last 2-3-4 years that he plays hockey. At this point he has to seriously accept the possibility of swallowing that bitter pill, or deciding to take an off ramp to go to a situation where he can. The general gist from many Penguin fans is accepting Crosby has earned the right to choose to end his career the way he wants. He surely has given all to be expected (and then some) to a singular franchise like the Pens in the last 20 years.

Mario Lemieux never left the Penguins (until he sold the team, anyways), but it sometimes gets lost in the shuffle that his ownership stake in the franchise after 1999 also likely would have prevented him from playing for anyone else. It has always been taken as a fait accompli that Crosby would mirror that script to ride off to the sunset having only known the jersey of one NHL team. Suddenly, I’m not so sure that a Marchand path wouldn’t be the preference. That’s a decision only Sidney Crosby can make for himself but one that likely won’t be going away.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/67016/more-on-sidney-crosby-and-the-future

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Ranking The Top-10 Defensemen in the Metropolitan Division For The 2025-26 NHL Season

There’s an interesting mix of defensemen in the Metropolitan Division, and a changing of the guard. Noah Dobson has been traded out. Brent Burns slumped away and left as well. Kris Letang was a top tier blueliner for almost 15 years but is facing the effects of Father Time. Erik Karlsson and Dougie Hamilton have seen their names in various levels of trade talents after unsettling years and even Adam Fox — who finished in the top-five of Norris voting the previous four seasons before last year— saw his game picked apart.

Let’s project who the top-10 are in the division for this season. There’s honestly probably not that much space in between about the 4-12 part of the list that is subject to be sorted out depending on how the year goes, but we’ll give it a go just the same.

HM: Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, Rasmus Sandin, K’Andre Miller

10. Jakob Chychrun, Washington Capitals. Chychrun was one of only three NHL defenders to crack the 20-goal mark last season. He doesn’t kill penalties or move the needle defensively, but in this day and age it’s such a huge advantage to have a weapon on the blueline that can finish like a forward.

9. Luke Hughes, New Jersey Devils. Hughes looks primed for a true star turn and break out year now in his age-23 season and his third full-time go at the NHL. He put up 44 points (7G+37A) in 71 games last season after missing some time at the beginning of the year from an off-season shoulder surgery. Hughes has about all the skill of his two older brothers and even more size at 6’2, the arrow is pointing up for him to become a true impact player.

8. Dougie Hamilton, New Jersey Devils. Hamilton is a player that’s difficult to place because his perception and performance can fluctuate. He doesn’t kill penalties, but he does tilt the ice and put up 40 points last season, despite missing time with injury. He feels like a player with a lot to prove this year and be able to showcase his talents.

7. Adam Pelech, New York Islanders. Longtime partner Ryan Pulock is falling off in major ways, but Pelech remains one of the most stout defensive defenders in the league with a 100% EV defense impact from Advanced Hockey Stats. That kind of metric can’t be denied a place on this list, even though Pelech didn’t score a single goal in 2024-25 (he did have 21 assists). When it comes to taking care of business in his own end, the numbers say literally no one is better than Pelech.

6. Erik Karlsson, Pittsburgh Penguins. Karlsson’s game gets picked apart by no other these days, but he’s a lock for double-digit goals and 40+ assists, which he’s put up in the last three seasons (and basically every year that he’s healthy). He’s 35 but his skating metrics are still best in class for how freely he can get around the ice. He’s defensively lax but continues to tilt the ice in his team’s favor while playing 23+ minutes per game.

5. Vladislav Gavrikov, New York Rangers. If you’re schemeing up the perfect defensive defender, you’ll end up with something like Gavrikov. 6’3”, 220. Able to kick in ~30 points per year. Blocks shots, excellent defensive impact, eats 23 minutes. The Rangers sunk a ton of money into bringing him on board, and for good reason, he was one of the top players in the league last season at his position and should be again this year.

4. John Carlson, Washington Capitals. Personally, I think Carlson is one of the most under-rated or at least under-celebrated defensemen of this era. He’s been a complete workhorse his whole career, logging 1D minutes for the last 15 years and putting up 725 points in 1,088 career games. He moves the puck well, can take on the toughest minutes, blocks more than his fair share of shots and is a lock to put up 50 points very deep into his career.

3. Jaccob Slavin, Carolina Hurricanes. It takes a certain appreciation of the fine details to recognize what makes Slavin so special, but sometimes his solid play is overwhelmingly clear, like it was at the 2025 4 Nations where he was arguably the best defender on the ice. Slavin doesn’t shine with the puck on his stick, but he’s exemplary in every other function when it comes to being an elite matchup defender, as solid as the day is long. He’s a special, special player.

2. Zach Werenski, Columbus Blue Jackets. It was hard not to rank Werenski first, based off last year he would have deserved it. No one came close to the 26:45 per game that he averaged, and with 298 shots (and 23 goals) he was one of the best offensive players on the ice last year any time he was on it (82 points in 81 games). At 28-years old, he’s in his prime and an absolutely elite defender and total difference-maker. Werenski is a Blue Jacket, but he pretty much should be wearing a blue Superman cape.

1. Adam Fox, New York Rangers. This takes a little projection, but we’re seeing a bounce-back for Fox. Last year was a down season and he still scored 10 goals and 61 points. Now, he’s back reunited with David Quinn, who was behind the bench in New York when Fox was at his best. The addition of Gavrikov should help boost Fox’s play, but he’s a player that already tilts the ice and gets tremendous returns.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/6...ropolitan-division-for-the-2025-26-nhl-season

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins/Bruins Prospect game wrap up

Hockey got started on Friday afternoon when the Pittsburgh Penguins prospects took on a team from the Boston Bruins, in Buffalo NY.

Here were the lines the Pens used:

Travis Hayes – Tristan Broz – Ville Koivunen
Kale Dach – Ben Kindel – Avery Hayes
Ryan Miller – Atley Calvert – Jordan Charron
Max Graham – Gabe Klassen – Carter Sanderson

Owen Pickering / Finn Harding
Emil Pieniniemi / Harrison Brunicke
Brady Peddle / Quinn Beauchesne

Sergei Murashov got the start in net. Brayden Edwards, Nolan Renwick, Daniel Laatsch and Chase Pietila were scratched for the opener.

Some scattershot observations of what went on:

• Harrison Brunicke remains a human breakout machine rushing the puck himself up the ice. The space is there so why not take it, but he looks more junior than NHL style, it’ll be interesting to see how/if that adjusts next week.
• Sergei Murashov had to make a few big saves early on former second round pick Fraser Minten
• Finn Harding attempted a low percentage breakout pass that Minten stepped into and created another chance. Learning lesson for him that this isn’t the OHL any more.
• Jordan Charron and Ryan Miller combined for the first good Pittsburgh scoring chance (mini fist pump) but couldn’t finish in tight to the net.
• Ville Koivunen scored the first goal of the game while there was a delayed penalty about to be called on Boston. Tristan Broz stopped a back pass from nearly going into the unguarded net (talk about flashbacks!) and skated the puck all the way up the ice himself. Boston was playing very passive and falling back, Broz hit Koivunen right in the middle. Koivunen glided in, had a ton of space to do so and picked his spot on a hard wrist shot. 1-0 Pens.

Penguins goals in September?

We. Are. So. Back. pic.twitter.com/A5hBfS9fx6

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 12, 2025

• Gabe Klassen always stands out to the eye as a noticeable player at these September Buffalo games. He’s 22, undrafted and spent most his time at the ECHL last year (65 games in Wheeling compared to just six in Wilkes) but he shows well in this venue with his active stick causing turnovers and getting in on the forecheck. Not that he’s got an NHL future but he seems to be one of those deep organizational players that brings a little more to the table than you might guess.
• Early in the second a Bruins player checked Ben Kindel into the boards from behind, instantly Quinn Beauchense stepped up and dropped the gloves and fed a bunch of right fists in defense of his teammate. The Bruin prospect picked up an additional minor penalty for his hit on Kindel to send the Pens to the first power play of the game.
• Kindel was out for the ensuing power play, apparently no worse for wear. It doesn’t do much and looks as disjointed as you’d expect for non-NHL players in September working it.
• The Pens getting a lot of point shots from defenders and redirections from in front but don’t score.
• With 10:38 to go in the second, Murashov’s day is done after stopping all 11 he saw (but not very many in his final 20 minuters). 2025 draftee Gabriel D’Aigle gets in the net, just in time for Boston to get a four-minute power play from a high stick penalty by Travis Hayes.
• Being short a player doesn’t stop Brunicke from jumping up on a 2-on-1. His shot is stopped.
• Pens kill the penalty, the Bruins didn’t get much going on their long power play either.
• Kindel and Kale Dach jam at a puck from in the crease. Somehow it doesn’t go in. Dach is having a nice little game too. The seventh round pick is a slippery little player, and he was only in the BCHL last season (a notch below Canadian juniors), unlike many others today is a step up in competition from what he’s used to.
• Klassen takes a tripping penalty, a few bullet points after he was praised! That active stick got a little too active in the neutral zone reaching out to get the puck.
• Charron gets robbed by point blank range by a great save against.
• Dach joins the “got robbed of a goal” list late in the second. Nice outing for some of these later 2025 draft picks.
• The Penguins look great in the third with a dominant offensive-zone shift from their first line. Several times Brunicke goes all one-man show and takes over dekeing around players and creating shots for himself. No goal but heavy pressure.
• Pickering totally drops a Bruin player trying to put the puck through him on the rush. Pickering’s had a nice game with his puck touches and first passes. Nothing flashy, as is his style but he looks the part of a sturdy defender today.
• Boston somehow gets a 2-on-0 and they don’t score. Hard to tell if the shot was on target or D’Aigle made the stop but he does get his fallen body in front of a couple of rebound chances.
• Boston scores, all the way from the wall on a spinning turnaround attempt. Strange one but it did feel like the B’s were getting closer. 1-1.
• Behind the net, D’Aigle didn’t leave the puck for Pickering and turned it over. The Bruins develop that into a great scoring look, D’Aigle makes the save.
• D’Aigle leaves a rebound and it leads to another save he has to make, Bruins with all the momentum now and the goalie is looking shaky.
• Out of no where, Avery Hayes wins it for the Pens with a late goal. Hayes snuck behind the defense, Pickering hit him with a beautiful stretch pass and Hayes lifted the puck over the Bruins goalie’s shoulder for the difference-maker, basically a walk off winner with 26 seconds left in the game. 2-1 Pens.

That’s it for the first game. Not an impressive third period, but unsurprisingly the “big” names (for this venue anyways) of Koivunen, Broz, Hayes, Pickering and Murashov made the difference for the Pens.

The Pens are back at it in a couple of days on Sunday afternoon against the Columbus Blue Jackets at 3:30.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/pittsburgh-penguins-prospe/67024/penguins-bruins-prospect-game-wrap-up

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Sidney Crosby says he wants to be in Pittsburgh, isn’t a fan of tanking

The 2025-26 NHL season is less than one month from getting underway and Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby spoke Monday about how he wants to be in Pittsburgh and says he does not support the idea of the team tanking.

Crosby addressed the topics while out helping deliver season tickets to fans as part of a long-standing team tradition.

When asked about the benefits of tanking, the Penguins captain shot down the idea of him supporting it.

“It’s professional sports, you play to win,” Crosby said. “That’s how I view it and you’re not gonna convince me otherwise.”

Sid on the idea of tanking this season: (not a fan) pic.twitter.com/eIxQ3T1JY2

— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) September 15, 2025

“If you’re one of those people that believe that, then you’re entitled to believe in that, but that’s not why I signed up to play the game and that’s not the game that I know,” Crosby added, saying that people are allowed to take, but it’s not one that resonates with him.

Crosby also addressed a lot of the discussion in the hockey world surrounding him and his potential future being up in the air as to whether or not he could request a trade out of Pittsburgh.

“This is where I want to be. I love it here.”

Sidney Crosby said he doesn’t like the narratives out there. Sid wants to stay with the #Penguins pic.twitter.com/bijv3OxX1b

— Austin Bechtold (@AustinRBechtold) September 15, 2025

“There’s a lot of narratives out there and I don’t think a lot of those have comes from me,” Crosby said. “This is where I want to be,” Crosby said. “I love it here and I can’t keep having to answer the same question over again.”

The topic of the Penguins’ potential for tanking this season comes as the team has missed the playoffs the past three seasons and have not won a playoff series since 2018 along with Gavin McKenna, who will be playing college hockey at Penn State University, projected to be the first overall pick in next year’s NHL Entry Draft.

The 2025-26 season for the Penguins will get under on October 7 when the team travels to New York City to face the Rangers and former head coach Mike Sullivan at Madison Square Garden.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/6...nts-to-be-in-pittsburgh-isnt-a-fan-of-tanking

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Bigger surprise for Penguins: playoffs or last place?

For how some people are wired, today could be considered the last day of summer. Unofficially, of course, but from the pro hockey perspective it’s here. The Penguins report tomorrow for their first day back – though only for headshots, team media and other off ice chores that need completed in preparation for the season. Then Thursday is the first day of practice on the ice with the coaches and off we go. Before you know it the first preseason game will be on Monday, and in this last asinine exhibition schedule (where the Pens play four times in the first six days or completely unnecessary reasons) will be in full swing.

Here’s one more to consider, what’s more likely for the Penguins this season – a positive surprise or a negative one? Let’s try to paint a few pictures here.

On the bright side: Dan Muse’s coaching helps tightened up the defense a little better than the pure personnel would suggest, and that in turn helps Tristan Jarry have a bounce-back. Maybe the team even gets a surprise when Arturs Silovs figures things out at the NHL level and becomes a capable 1B type of goalie. The roster gets managed to the point where struggling veterans of the past (Kevin Hayes, Noel Acciari, Ryan Graves, Danton Heinen, etc) see their roles drastically reduced, if not taken off the NHL roster entirely via trades or waivers, and in their place young players like Owen Pickering, Ville Koivunen, Rutger McGroarty, Tristan Broz and Avery Hayes all form a 2016-ish type of wave of new talent to help the stars. And the stars shine, Sidney Crosby plays like Sidney Crosby, but the big surprise is that Evgeni Malkin doesn’t go gentle into the night and plays/produces more than last season. It also helps that across the division that none of the Islanders, Flyers or Blue Jackets are better than expected and the Rangers’ strife continues.

And the darker outlook: Dan Muse is Mike Johnston 2.0 as a coach who proves to be better at developmental levels than the NHL. The defensive personnel plays to their talent level, which is not a pretty picture. The goaltending doesn’t have much of a chance, but doesn’t prop the team much up either. Then either through practical purposes or slow markets, the Pens aren’t willing/able to make sweeping changes and drop multiple under-performing veterans, so the Graves/Hayes/Acciari class of players continues to amble along with uninspiring NHL play, blocking younger players to the minors for much of the season. The best players on the team, all 30+, have some injuries in their ranks and players like Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell can’t replicate career-best seasons from last year. Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang’s play continues to diminish. It’s a long, cold winter in Pittsburgh and when it breaks they’re at the bottom of the division and among the lowest-performing teams in the league. That leads to a 7-9% chance of winning the lottery, but they don’t and draw the sixth overall pick.

—

So, which is more likely? In actuality, there probably won’t be 15 elements of best case scenario to all hit, one after another. Some items and individual pieces of the season will go well, others invariably will not. It might be easier to see a scenario for this roster construction where more of the bad is easier to fall into place than the good, but teams can wildly out-perform what everyone “knows”, assumes or expects before the year starts. Just within the Pens’ division last year, Washington probably out-performed their point total by 15-20 points and Columbus did even better by 25-30+ points beyond what almost everyone was sure would be a rotten season. Which is to say positive surprises can and do happen when a season comes together.

Are the Penguins there? It would be difficult to say yes with a lot of conviction. Their defense looks awful, and by design the team was willing to take on mid-level (or worse) veteran players like Connor Clifton and Matt Dumba as cap dumps to pile up more draft capital. Pittsburgh isn’t angling towards immediate competition, but they haven’t torn down by trading Rust, Rakell or Erik Karlsson just yet either. That could change in a hurry, but with another season beginning — and no prorated cap to allow contending teams to bank space to load up at the deadline — a trade deeper in the season isn’t as simple as it once was.

A good baseline for the Penguins would seem to be about 80 points (their over/under in most books is 77.5). If there’s about a 10 point fluctuation, are they more likely to end up with 90 points and near the playoff line, or let’s say 67-70 points and down at the very bottom?

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/67110/bigger-surprise-for-penguins-playoffs-or-last-place

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Report: Penguins bringing Robby Fabbri to camp on a PTO

Unlike last week’s PTO that went under the radar, today’s report about the Penguins bringing Robby Fabbri to training camp on a tryout will be one that catches attention.

Hearing the Penguins will bring Robby Fabbri to training camp on PTO.

Former first-round pick. Has 106 goals and 216 points in 442 career games. Spent last season with Anaheim.

— Matt Vensel (@mattvensel) September 17, 2025

Multiple knee injuries have hindered the former first round pick’s career but Fabbri, 29, did put up 16 points (8G+8A) in 44 games with Anaheim last season. Fabbri’s season was cut short by a knee surgery in November, followed by his return only to suffer an upper body injury in February that ended his year.

Prior to that, Fabbri scored 32 points in an 18-goal season with Detroit in 2023-24, including five tallies on the power play.

The Penguins have a glut of mid-line forwards but Fabbri could offer some speed and scoring touch that any organization is always going to seek out. Perhaps best of all, for a team that has struggled to score goals and finish chances, that’s always been a calling card for Fabbri.

Robby Fabbri joining the Pens on a PTO pic.twitter.com/fjUKy8yEK8

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 17, 2025

That adds one more layer to the competition of camp, and gives youngsters like Ville Koivunen, Rutger McGroarty and Philip Tomasino one more person to have to compete against for a player who could fill a similar role as an offensive-minded role.

The Pens will have no shortages of options, going deeper down the roster with Danton Heinen, Justin Brazeau, Blake Lizotte, Connor Dewar, Tommy Novak and Anthony Mantha among others like Kevin Hayes and Noel Acciari also looking for spaces in the lineup. Where Fabbri will fit within that mix or how big of an opportunity he will have to win a job over some of those players remains to be seen but he’ll be one more player for the Penguins to consider, and also a veteran to use for the non-sensical preseason schedule that has them playing five games in eight days between Sept 22-29. Teams need some NHL experience to meet minimum guidelines, and if nothing else having Fabbri join up will help them get through that unnecessarily busy exhibition slate while they sort out just who will be playing where to start the regular season.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/67143/report-penguins-bringing-robby-fabbri-to-camp-on-a-pto

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins announce training camp roster

The Penguins have announced their initial training camp roster of 69 players.

One step closer to hockey season

The training camp roster has been set: https://t.co/hjVzryHhhX pic.twitter.com/01xm6ofdEY

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 17, 2025

From the team:

The Pittsburgh Penguins have invited 69 players to their 2025.26 training camp presented by UPMC, it was announced today by President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Kyle Dubas.

The training camp roster (click here) includes 37 forwards, 24 defensemen and eight goaltenders. Five additional players, Noel Acciari, Rutger McGroarty, Tanner Howe, Bill Zonnon and Peyton Kettles, are attending training camp but are injured and not medically cleared to participate.

Training camp opens on Thursday, September 18 at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. All practices at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex are free and open to the public.

The Penguins’ 2025-26 training camp roster includes 22 players who skated in at least one game with Pittsburgh last season. Sidney Crosby, who is entering his franchise-record 21st season, and alternate captains Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are returning for their 20th season as a trio.

The Penguins added plenty of newcomers this season, including free-agent signings Anthony Mantha, Justin Brazeau and Parker Wotherspoon, as well as trade acquisitions Arturs Silovs, Connor Clifton and Matt Dumba.

Coming off a successful Prospects Challenge last weekend, Pittsburgh’s top pick in the 2025 NHL Draft Ben Kindel (11th overall) will be attending training camp alongside forward Ville Koivunen (trade with CAR, 2024) and defensemen Owen Pickering (21st overall, 2022) and Harrison Brunicke (45th overall, 2024).

Attending Pittsburgh’s training camp on a professional tryout contract are forwards Robby Fabbri, Cal Burke and Brett Murray, as well as defenseman Jake Livingstone and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

On Thursday, Group A will hold their first practice at 8:45 AM, followed by Group B skating at 11:30 AM and Group C taking the ice at 2:00 PM.

After three days of practices, the Penguins will begin their preseason slate with a matchup against the Canadiens at the Bell Centre in Montreal at 7:00 PM on Monday, September 22.

The Penguins will play seven preseason games this year prior to their season opener against the New York Rangers on Tuesday, October 7 at Madison Square Garden at 8:00 PM.

Below is a look at the Penguins’ complete training camp schedule (all practices are at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex unless otherwise noted):

September 18

8:45-10:15 AM – Group A Practice
11:30 AM-1:00 PM – Group B Practice
2:00-3:30 PM – Group C Practice

September 19

8:45-10:15 AM – Group B Practice
11:30 AM-1:00 PM – Group C Practice
2:00-3:30 PM – Group A Practice

September 20

8:45-10:15 AM – Group C Practice
11:30 AM-1:00 PM – Group A Practice
2:00-3:30 PM – Group B Practice

September 21

OFF-ICE RECOVERY DAY

September 22

11:30 AM – Morning Skate
7:00 PM – GAME AT MONTREAL (Bell Centre)

September 23

8:45-10:15 AM – Group A Practice
11:30 AM-1:00 PM – Group B Practice
2:00-3:30 PM – Group C Practice

September 24

11:30 AM – Morning Skate
7:00 PM – GAME AT COLUMBUS

September 25

DAY OFF

September 26

10:30 AM – Morning Skate
12:00 PM – Non-Game Group Practice
7:00 PM – GAME VS. DETROIT

September 27

10:30 AM – Morning Skate
7:00 PM – GAME VS. COLUMBUS

September 28

11:00-11:35 AM – Group A Practice
11:35 AM-12:20 PM – Group A and B Scrimmage
12:20-12:55 PM – Group B Practice

September 29

11:30 – Morning Skate
7:00 PM – GAME AT DETROIT

September 30

DAY OFF

October 1

11:30 AM – Morning Skate
7:00 PM – GAME AT BUFFALO

Dubas should be giving an updated status soon about the injured players, including Rutger McGroarty. Noel Acciari is coming off a surgery and also is listed as a non-participant at the start of camp due to injury.

As usual, camp will move fast. The first game is already coming up on Monday. Due to all the preseason games there are only six full practice days.

Based on when Group C disappears (after September 23rd and before the 28th) it’s easy to predict a big roster cut will happen around that time to pair the roster down to about 45 players. That means a lot of the players will only have one week’s worth of time to practice and show their stuff before moving back to juniors or the minor leagues.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/67148/penguins-announce-training-camp-roster

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Top storylines to track at Penguins 2025 training camp

The boys are back! The Penguins take to the ice today for training camp, and as always it will move quickly with the first exhibition game already coming up on Monday night. Next week will build to an exciting crescendo that will see Marc-Andre Fleury return to practice on Friday ahead of his final game next Saturday night. Here’s some of the main storylines we will be watching.

How does the defense sort out?

To put it charitably, there’s a lot of question marks. To put it less diplomatically, this group is looking like an outright weakness at the NHL level based on talent level no matter how it sorts out. There are way too many right shot defenders and while there are plenty of warm left handed bodies, there are more questions than sure things.

Since it doesn’t look like an Erik Karlsson trade is coming, he’ll be a staple that can play 23+ minutes and carry the mail in a huge role. Who his partner will be is much less certain. Will Ryan Graves get a shot? Could it be Owen Pickering’s time? Do the Pens get crazy and move a right shot player like Kris Letang, Matt Dumba or Connor Clifton to their off-side? The possibilities are many, the quality options are few. If you can even say there’s any at all.

New look Penguins

For the first time in a decade, it won’t be Mike Sullivan manning the whistles and running the show when the Penguins open a training camp. Dan Muse gets his first crack at being an NHL head coach and will have his work cut out from him right out the gates. Muse inherits a lower-end team that lacks quality on the blueline and will have to find a way to cut down chances against. Whether the new system be able to facilitate that to some degree or prove to be too uphill of a battle remains to be seen, but the good news is that expectations will be low. If Muse can insert some freshness and help elevate play over a fairly low bar it will be seen as a win.

Young player watch in full effect

Harrison Brunicke went from no where to the final cut last training camp, but where he fits on a crowded right side will be a real question he could impress upon the decision makers with a great showing. Brunicke will have to kick the proverbial door in to earn a temporary nine game NHL cameo before being assigned back to juniors for the season, unless he really emerges as the rare fulltime teenaged NHL defenseman. It’s a lot to ask but so far the youngster has impressed at every turn.

There’s also Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty, with the latter having a question to be answered about his health later today by Kyle Dubas after the announcement McGroarty will not be participating to start camp. Both Koivunen and McGroarty finished the season in the NHL in featured 18-minute a night roles, but neither are sure things to receive such prime opportunities right off the bat, and the immediate future is especially . Both should be in the mix but it’s going to require good showings to solidify their places with the big club. That also goes for Pickering, who the team could really, really use as a defender with some upside to show himself to be of NHL quality.

Then you’ve got something of a forgotten player in Philip Tomasino, who could be a second line player or could be buried deeper in the lineup if he gets lost in the shuffle or doesn’t perform well.

Marc-Andre Fleury’s latest last goodbye

Has there ever been a preseason game so anticipated? Prices have popped and the mood should be celebratory for Fleury to play a period and take a final bow in front of the Pittsburgh fans and alongside the players he has been so closely bonded to over the years. The good news is it looks like the game will be readily televised on NHL Network and available beyond for all to see, and it’s coming up in just nine days.

New faces slotting in

There’s a new winger named Anthony looking to revive his career on a one-year deal, Mantha replaces Beauvillier as the main add up front. Mantha’s addition is perhaps complicated by his return from ACL surgery last November. If healthy, Mantha should be on a scoring line (most likely with Evgeni Malkin) and have double-digit goals by the trade deadline and make for a potential flip to a contender.

Deeper in the lineup, 6’6” Justin Brazeau will find a place on a lower line and look to add size and some scoring touch as depth. Tommy Novak isn’t truly a “new” new player, but he only played two games in Pittsburgh due to injury after a mid-season trade and is another fresh face that will find a spot in the lineup. One player hoping to find a place in the lineup will be tryout Robby Fabbri who will come to Pittsburgh looking to land a job.

The defense is begging for a player like Parker Wotherspoon or even Alexander Alexeyev to step up and show they are capable of adding something to the lineup. Neither have been staples previously but necessity might demand a role from players like this. Ditto for Dumba and Clifton — both primarily picked up as salary cap dumps in exchange for draft picks but will look to serve in some capacity that remains to be seen depending on how capable either shows to be in training camp.

Questions in net

What will the Pens get out of Tristan Jarry? Is he going to be the guy who played his way off the team early last season? Or the capable starter? Somewhere in between? I don’t think anyone can have great confidence in exactly what they’re going to get out of Jarry. One thing is for sure, it hasn’t been a pretty picture to start in the last two seasons.

Jarry in October:
2023: 2-5-0, 2.84 GAA, 2 shutouts, .893 save%
2024: 1-1-0, 5.47 GAA, 0 shutouts, .836 save%

The Penguins will have a new backup after the trade of Alex Nedeljkovic, they spent a draft pick on waiver eligible Arturs Silovs, so he should be first in line for the job. Joel Blomqvist could conceivably push both the established goalies and have the Penguins go with three healthy netminders over parts of the season if his play dictates it, and/or if the team is looking for answers they’re not getting from the other goalies.

Silovs is intriguing coming off winning the Calder Cup and being named AHL playoff MVP, but it also can’t be ignored that he’s had his struggles and been inconsistent at the NHL level.

Something old, something new

You could easily build a Penguin opening night lineup and not include all of Kevin Hayes, Noel Acciari and Danton Heinen. All these players are in their 30’s and either slowing down mightily or not coming off great seasons, but all of them also make at least $2 million against the cap, and some like Hayes and Acciari are very respected by players and management alike for their off-ice attitudes, demeanors and intangibles. The story worth watching be how much of the old guard will be sticking around and if there are any trades or waivers to be had to send a veteran out of the plans out of the picture.

Any trade of a player like Rickard Rakell or Bryan Rust, or the always unfortunate training camp injury would open up a spot via the domino effect somewhere down the lineup. Will the Pens be bold enough to use waivers to clear veterans with NHL salaries? One would think they didn’t recently sign players in their 20’s like Tomasino, Brazeau and Connor Dewar to not play them, and those are the very spots that they Heinen/Hayes/Acciari tier of veterans would have been without the summer signings.

The Pens have plenty of cap space to keep 30 players if they could, but the roster limit of 23 healthy players is in effect. That speaks to the broader splits of roster construction means keeping eight defensemen might make sense, which only opens up room for 13 healthy forwards.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/67134/top-storylines-to-track-at-penguins-2025-training-camp