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[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins/Stars Recap: Crosby, Pens forecheck carries the day in Dallas

Photo by Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images

The Pens get to work and it pays off. Sidney Crosby gets a hat trick and Pittsburgh notches an upset win over the Dallas Stars

Pregame​

Evgeni Malkin is back from injury for his first game since March 23rd and the Penguins’ forward group actually looks pretty good at this time of year.

Welcome back to the lineup, Geno! pic.twitter.com/iiW7p1O9zi

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 5, 2025​

The Dallas Stars have to play again tomorrow, so they opt to give starter Jake Oettinger the day off so backup Casey DeSmith gets the net for the home team.

First period​

Kris Letang takes a penalty 21 seconds into the game but the Pens still get off to a hot start and test DeSmith early. When Letang gets out of the box he gets tripped and Pittsburgh gets their first power play of the game. They score on it, and it’s who else but Sidney Crosby scoring the goal to extend his point streak to 12 games. 1-0 Pens just 4:16 into the game.

LEGEND TO LEGEND pic.twitter.com/O1yZPntFNZ

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 5, 2025​

The Pens turn the puck over and Erik Karlsson gets caught in no man land. He tries to break up Oskar Back’s pass instead of falling back with Evgenii Dadonov and fails on it. Tristan Jarry is way deep in his net and Dadonov skates in and lifts the puck over him. 1-1 game.

Gonna just scoot right past ya pic.twitter.com/MN51PSSuH6

— X - Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) April 5, 2025​

The Pens get another power play but can’t score.

Shots are 12-8 PIT through 20. Good period for the visitors against a strong opponent, 1-1 score.

Second period​

Roope Hintz has a bad shift where he accidentally clips DeSmith’s head with his side and then takes a penalty. The Pens don’t score but get a couple looks, Crosby almost had a baseball-style mid-air goal but it went high. DeSmith shakes off the jarring hit he took to hold on.

Letang is back to the penalty box and the Stars score this time. Matt Grzelcyk lets a puck get by him and then Matt Duchene fires a pass with no respect to Ryan Shea’s ability to break it up. Shea doesn’t and Dadonov is on the receiving end to score his second of the game. 2-1 Dallas.

What a FEED from Dutchy pic.twitter.com/3DtIoqxFqN

— X - Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) April 5, 2025​

Shots are 11-5 PIT in the second period and 23-13 PIT overall in the game. Dallas is giving them some outside looks. Not a bad game for the Pens but they trail 2-1 heading into the third period.

Third period​

The Pens come out hot in the third and score 20 seconds in. Bryan Rust gets in on the forecheck and helps turn the puck over to Rutger McGroarty. The rookie bumps a pass over for Crosby and the captain quickly shoots it to the far-side to tie the game 2-2.

Sidney Crosby has TEN goals and 18 points over his 12-game point streak pic.twitter.com/EDYNgA0sFf

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 5, 2025​

The offense has been all Crosby and Dadonov so the latter steps back up for his third goal of the game. Dadonov collects an incoming puck, and sends a backhander by Jarry. 3-2 Dallas is back in front.

SECOND CAREER HAT TRICK FOR EVGENII DADONOV! pic.twitter.com/VspPKuw1fU

— X - Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) April 5, 2025​

With 11:11 to go, Rust finally breaks the Crosby/Dadonov monopoly on goal scoring. Rust’s pressure on the forecheck forces Ilya Lyubushkin to lose an edge and take a tumble. Puck goes to Crosby on the wall who centers it for Rust to backhand in. 3-3 game.

Rusty's 200th NHL goal is a beaut pic.twitter.com/is1ujws426

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 5, 2025​

A Cody Ceci-involved disaster puts the Pens ahead with just 1:43 to go. Ceci wanders over towards Thomas Harley after the latter was being hounded by Blake Lizotte and they have a huge collision. Danton Heinen receives the gift and passes it over for Lizotte to wire a one-timer by DeSmith. 4-3 Pens.

BLAKE LIZOTTE! Lizotte capitalizes on the brutal Dallas mistake, giving Pittsburgh the late lead!#LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/OwbYYi4Pt2

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) April 5, 2025​

Dallas uses their timeout to regroup. They pull DeSmith but it doesn’t work, Crosby fires a long-range shot from his own end right down the middle for his 30th goal of the season and to put the Pens up 5-3 with 1:15 to play.

That’ll do it, the Stars’ seven-game winning streak is history courtesy of the Penguins.

Some thoughts​

• The first goal of the game saw the 61st occurrence where Crosby, Malkin and Letang factored into the goal, per Bob Grove. Who knows how many more Big 3 exclusive goals there will be, always fun to see.
• Casey DeSmith now has 187 career games but this was the first time DeSmith played against the Penguins. He played pretty well, including a series of big stops against Rakell, Koivunen and Grzelcyk in a third period scramble but the Pens kept pushing and eventually got enough by him.
• Dallas plays a more important game tomorrow against Minnesota so it was tactically wise to rest their starter but it’s interesting that for one reason or another the Pens have faced a team’s backup goalie for four straight games. Presumably that will end tomorrow against Chicago since they don’t play today.
• Dadonov has the look of the Russian guy who if this was 25+ years ago would be smoking cigs during intermission (shoutout Sergei Zubov) and then coming back out and skating around and through everyone.
• Dadonov’s three goals brings him close to 20 on the year, if he gets there that would make the eighth player on their team to get to 20+ this season (counting Mikko Rantanen and Mikael Granlund who did most of their damage on other teams). That’s the most in the league, having that many capable options for scoring should come in handy for them come playoff time. Now they just need to get one of the league’s better defenders in Miro Heiskanen healthy and they should be ready to rock and roll.
• What stands out most about Crosby’s point streak? Gotta be the amount of goals, he’s got 11G+9A in this 12-game run. Of course, 20 total points in 12 games isn’t that far behind in impressiveness. Crosby’s three goals today pushed him up to his 13th career 30-goal season.
• It’s a shame that Rust wasn’t credited with an assist on the second Crosby goal. Rust didn’t get to the puck but it was his pressure and effort that started the chance. Really nice pass from McGroarty, building the chemistry with Crosby/Rust in the final few games is a huge benefit for the future,
• In that regard, the Penguin forecheck in the reason they won today. All three of their 5v5 goals were kickstarted by great F1 forechecks (Rust on the first two, Lizotte on the GWG).

The Pens are back at it tomorrow in Chicago. Puck drops shortly after 6:00pm eastern.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/2025/4/5/...rick-pens-forecheck-carries-the-day-in-dallas

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Chicago Blackhawks 4/6/2025

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

The Pens gear up for the first of two games in a row against Chicago

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (31-34-12, 74 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division) @ Chicago Blackhawks (21-45-10, 52 points, 8th place Central Division)

When: 6:00 p.m. ET

How to Watch: SportsNet Pittsburgh and Chicago Sports Network in the local markets, streaming on ESPN+

Pens’ Path Ahead: After not seeing Chicago in the first 77 games of the 2024-25 season, the Pens will deal with them twice in a row with the next game back in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. The Pens then get two days off before their final road game of the season coming up next Friday in New Jersey before returning home to play the Bruins a week from today in Game No 81. The season ends with a 4/17 home game against Washington.

Opponent Track: The Blackhawks found themselves on the wrong side of history in their last game by giving up two goals to Alex Ovechkin, watching him tie Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record of 894 career goals. Chicago was winning that game 3-2 at the start of the third period before slumping away to a 5-3 loss on Friday. Overall it’s been tough times, in the last four weeks (since March 8th) CHI has a dreadful 1-10-2 record as their tear-down build continues to scrape the bottom.

Season Series: It’d be difficult to find a season series more delayed than this one. PIT/CHI plays tonight in Game No. 78 of the season for the Pens, then again on Tuesday back in Pittsburgh to knock out a whole season series within a few days.

Hidden Stat: In the Sidney Crosby era (2005-present), the Penguins have only won three out of 12 games played in Chicago (3-6-3). That record has been boosted by Pittsburgh winning in both of their last two trips to the Windy City!

Getting to know the Blackhawks​

Projected lines (from yesterday’s practice)

FORWARDS

Ryan Donato - Connor Bedard - Ilya Mikheyev

Teuvo Teravainen - Frank Nazar - Tyler Bertuzzi

Landon Slaggert - Oliver Moore - Philipp Kurashev

Lukas Reichel - Joe Veleno - Nick Foligno

DEFENSEMEN

Alex Vlasic / Sam Rinzel

Kevin Korchinski / Connor Murphy

Wyatt Kaiser / Artem Levshunov

Goalies: Spencer Knight and Arvid Soderblom

Scratches: Jason Dickinson, Colton Dach, Pat Maroon, TJ Brodie, Ethan Del Mastro, Louis Crevier, Alec Martinez

IR: Shea Weber, Laurent Brossoit

—First, the irony and absurdity that literal Hockey Hall of Famer Shea Weber is on Chicago’s books, where he’ll be next season as well. Chicago’s full circle from dealing out LTIR-retired contracts like Marian Hossa and Brent Seabrook to taking on the cap hit of their own.

—This lineup has four new rookies all 20 or younger (Moore, Rinzel, Levshunov, Korchinski) finishing out the stretch in the NHL much the same way the Pens are giving McGroarty and Koivunen a late look. Levshunov, the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft, might be the most intriguing to watch after a very impressive age-18 season in the AHL has him primed to be an NHL impact player sooner than later.

—Before and after those callups, we’re dealing with a very young lineup that’s gotten younger over the season after dealing Seth Jones, Taylor Hall and Petr Mrazek away. There’s a few random vets here and there, but counting scratches there are 13 players in the 19-23 year old range with the NHL club right now.

—They’re young enough where Reichel was scratched for last game due to missing a team meeting by oversleeping thanks to a phone battery failing him. We’ve all been there but this isn’t a very professional operation at the moment with large doses of youth and inexperience permeating the team, and not in a good way. Many fans yearn for starting anew with young players, but Chicago’s current situation shows the growing pains and bumps along the way that come with competing in the world’s toughest league with so many learning the ropes at the same time.

—When Reichel gets back into the lineup today it sadly looks like it will be at the expense of Pat Maroon, who has announced his retirement at season’s end. Would be nice to see the big guy play some more before he goes out. On the vet front, Brodie’s been almost unplayably bad (and on this team it’s saying something) and Martinez joined Matt Grzelcyk in the “so bad contenders don’t even want the depth on an expiring contract at the deadline” area.

Player stats​

(via hockeydb)

—Bedard has failed to meet a lot of the lofty tags and designation he was given upon entering the league but he’s put up 120 points in 144 games as a teenager in the NHL without a ton of team support or structure. It’s probably important to remember that Bedard was the second youngest full-time NHL player in the league this year (behind SJ’s Macklin Celebrini). There’s always a hot take looming but his career path might be heading for more Nathan MacKinnon than Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid. That’s not too shabby either.

—Bertuzzi has three more years on his contract and in a quiet moment would be forgiven for wondering just what he signed up for in his career by going to Chicago last summer as a free agent.

—It’ll be interesting to see if Knight and the Hawks can grow together. A former first round pick in 2019, Knight made it to the NHL super-quick and was looking like a future star by 2022 and age 21 when he inked a contract to match (three years, $4.5m cap hit). Since then, as only goalies can, he’s floundered. The skill is there somewhere but he’s certainly a player with a loud ticking clock to get back on track before he skids out of control.

And now for the Pens​

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Rutger McGroarty - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust

Rickard Rakell - Evgeni Malkin - Ville Koivunen

Danton Heinen - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari

Connor Dewar - Kevin Hayes - Philip Tomasino

DEFENSEMEN

Matt Grzelcyk / Kris Letang

Erik Karlsson / Conor Timmins

Ryan Graves / Ryan Shea

Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic (Tristan Jarry played yesterday)

Potential Scratches: Vladislav Kolyachonok, Tommy Novak (lower body), Boko Imama (bicep surgery, out for season)

Injured Reserve: P.O. Joseph (upper body)

—We purposely inverted the bottom-six forward lines from how the Penguins list them due to usage. Heinen-Acciari-Lizotte all played 13-15 even strength minutes yesterday against Dallas. The Dewar-Hayes-Tomasino line were all in a 5-6 minute range. Some of that was due to the Stars’ style fit better for capable players along the boards to take more shifts and some due to performance. It certainly was the right call since Heinen and Lizotte teamed up for the game winner yesterday.

—Joona Koppanen quietly got sent back to the minors over the weekend since Evgeni Malkin returned to full health.

—No official word on the goalie for today but Alex Nedeljkovic could be in-line to start only his second game in the last four weeks due to the back-to-back. Pretty crazy how things have shifted from last year at this time when the Pens were roaring down the stretch and Nedeljkovic was in net for the last 13 games. This year it’s been a strong finish but with Nedeljkovic mostly watching from the bench.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/2025/4/6/...ttsburgh-penguins-chicago-blackhawks-4-6-2025

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins/Blackhawks Recap: Mostly lifeless Pens tripped up in Chicago

Photo by Chase Agnello-Dean/NHLI via Getty Images

Rickard Rakell scores late, but the Penguins can’t climb out of a hole they dig against the Blackhawks

Pregame​

There’s a mild surprise to start the day, Philip Tomasino is injured and can’t play so the up-and-down from the AHL Joona Koppanen is back up for the day. Alex Nedeljkovic gets the nod in net on the second half of the back-to-back.

Tonight's lineup in Chicago.

Philip Tomasino is being evaluated for an upper-body injury and will not play. pic.twitter.com/dAEs5JrlRR

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 6, 2025​

First period​

Of all the periods in a season, the first was definitely one of them. That’s about as much as you can say about that, no goals or penalties or very much in the way of exciting developments.

On the plus side, there is a lot of skating and end-to-end play and a lack of whistles, so that’s nice.

Shots are 8-6 PIT through 20.

Second period​

The second period is a lot like the first. No goals or penalties for the longest time and lots of stretches of whistle-free play. Blake Lizotte deflects a puck past goalie Spencer Knight, but his stick was comically about straight vertical in the air and it was an easy and correctly ruled not a good goal.

With 2:59 to go, the Penguins earn the first power play of the game. The first goal is scored on it, but by Chicago. The Blackhawks got one odd-man rush early but couldn’t score. More zone time happened for the Pens but another situation of a loose puck near the wall caused trouble for Erik Karlsson, as it seems to do. Puck and player both get by him and CHI had another 2-on-1 with Kris Letang back. But the ‘Hawks make two passes through Letang and Frank Nazar wires a short-side shot by Nedeljkovic.

Frank's first shorthanded goal, nbd pic.twitter.com/G4F0jQRKrk

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) April 6, 2025​

Pittsburgh gets another power play late but neither team can score.

That does it for the second period and we have a goal but it’s by the Blackhawks.

Third period​

The Pens don’t do much with their carryover power play time, besides Matt Grzelcyk charging in and slashing a guy for no reason to send himself to the penalty box. Pittsburgh kills that off.

Bryan Rust almost stuffs one in from the side of the net but no dice.

Chicago extends their lead with 10:20 to play. Ilya Mikheyev leaves Conor Timmins in the dust and Conor Bedard hits him with a pass. Mikheyev finishes the breakaway. 2-0.

Ilya goal Sam Rinzel's first point pic.twitter.com/kHLVdGsBci

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) April 7, 2025​

Mike Sullivan was going nuts on the bench after the goal to the refs, giving the refs a very angry version of the Logan Roy from Succession (extremely NSFW!) over an uncalled slash in the buildup to the play. The players on the team didn’t have a lot of juice tonight but the coach was still very invested.

Evgeni Malkin gets taken down and slides hard into the boards to send Pittsburgh to one more power play with 5:40 to go. The Pens quickly get on the board just 16 seconds into the power play. Ville Koivunen starts the play off the wall to pass down to Rust on the goal line. Rust one-touches a pass to the bumper for Rickard Rakell to smack into the net for his 34th goal of the season. 2-1 game with 5:24 to go.

Ilya goal Sam Rinzel's first point pic.twitter.com/kHLVdGsBci

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) April 7, 2025​

Rust loses the puck in the neutral zone and the play goes the other way. Bedard leads a 2-on-1 and calls his own number with a shot. Big stop by Nedeljkovic to keep the game alive.

Nedeljkovic gets pulled with 1:50 remaining. No heroics this time, Rust has a chance low but the Pens lose the puck and Chicago works the puck up the ice to Mikheyev for an empty net goal to cap this one off with 56 seconds to go. 3-1.

Some thoughts​

• It wasn’t the loudest game but it’s fun to zero in on Rutger McGroarty. He put a cross-ice lead pass right on Bryan Rust’s tape in the second period. Rust had some open net looking at him but his aim on the shot went wide. Later in the second, McGroarty showed his hockey IQ and hung back towards the right point when Erik Karlsson gained a zone entry. Karlsson ended up looking back high and hit the pass to McGroarty that led to a nice shot and chance after McGroarty stepped inside a defender. Little things but encouraging to see the rookie putting it together piece by piece as the days and games go by.
• Similarly, they didn’t score but it was a nice little game from the newly connected second line of Rakell-Malkin-Koivunen. They were the best offensive line of the night for generating some chances, with Koivunen featuring in the middle of a lot of it. Malkin had a team-high 5 shots before getting tripped and tumbling hard into the boards late in the game. Hopefully nothing of consequence happened there beyond the uncomfortable moment.
• When I say the game moved quickly in the early part, that was illustrated by the faceoff total. Usually in NHL hockey there’s about a faceoff per minute. Through 40 minutes there were only 28 total faceoffs. Add in period starts, the penalty and the goal and that left only 24 other stoppages in 40 minutes. Might as well zoom through a game like this as quickly as possible.
• For better or worse, Karlsson is always authentically himself in trying to play the puck. It’s a good thing to have a short memory and get after it the next time but he’s got no qualms about attempting low percentage keeps near the blueline. Too often it burns him and the team.
• Whether it’s sometimes being on the left side or in too big of a role, the arrow is pointing down on Timmins in these last few games. He had a really good start with the Pens in his first handful of games and earned a shot for more ice and a bigger role but it hasn’t gone well. Granted, every single defenseman on the team is having his own struggles at times too, might just have to ride it out and see what happens.
• The Penguins looked very much like a team in their third city in four days, especially considering they emptied the tank with a huge effort yesterday against a good Stars team. Sometimes that catches up.
• This loss officially mathematically eliminates the Pens from the playoffs. Not that it was a big surprise.

These same Blackhawks come to Pittsburgh for a rematch on Tuesday night.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/2025/4/6/...ap-mostly-lifeless-pens-tripped-up-in-chicago

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Monday Standings: Jockeying for draft pick positioning in the last 10 days of the season

Photo by Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images

The Penguins may have one or two first round picks in June, depending on how the Rangers do

The Penguins were officially eliminated from the playoffs yesterday, a mere formality since they have been outside of the hunt for much of the season and there are now only 10 days and four games left in their 2024-25 season. With that piece of business wrapped up, focus can now shift to the 2025 first round.

There’s been an interesting development at the bottom of the NHL standings lately, the Buffalo Sabres have been heating up. They’re on a four-game winning streak that has moved them up the board recently. Here’s the current look at the draft lottery odds via Tankathon.

The Pens are likely settling in a range between the 6th and 9th pick prior to the draft lottery that will set the first round, depending on how they and the other teams perform in these final few games. That’s a pretty good place to be since most draft observers tend to see four very good prospects then a drop and then a second high level of four more players. Teams that end up in the top-8 are well-positioned to add a quality prospect and Pittsburgh finds themselves right in that range with 10 days to go.

There’s another angle to draft pick watching this year, courtesy of the first round pick of the New York Rangers. The Rangers made the pick top-13 protected when they traded it to Vancouver and the Canucks traded that pick for Marcus Pettersson to have it end up in Pittsburgh.

The Rangers have stumbled every chance along the way and they are running out of runway. In fact, at this point, their playoff chances are about cooked following another loss yesterday. Montreal currently sits in the final playoff position a commanding six points ahead of NYR, courtesy of a very timely five-game winning streak that the Canadiens are riding (NYR does have one game in hand). With only a few games left, by all likelihood the Rangers are not going to make the playoffs barring a very dramatic and low-percentage reversal of fortunes for themselves and a collapse by MTL. Montreal’s current “magic number” is down to just four points — any combination of those points gained by the Habs or lost by the Rangers will cinch up their playoff spot, which could happen as soon as tomorrow night.

That adds up to make these last couple days of the season very interesting for how NYR handles the last few games, particularly when they are officially eliminated and find themselves with a few meaningless games to play out. The Rangers have been far from stable this season, it wouldn’t be that surprising if they slump away in the final few games. Mathematically it’s not a stretch to envision them ending up as low as the 10th-12th range of draft spots if disappointment from failing to make the playoffs leads to a malaise.

Another interesting angle is the conditions on the trade the Rangers made. Kyle Dubas confirmed at his post-trade deadline press conference that NYR gets to decide if they have a top-13 pick if they want to transfer that pick or keep it. They would then have to give up their 2026 first round pick with no ability for protecting it, should they decide to keep their pick this year.

That, of course, puts Pittsburgh in an intriguing spot. While it’s possible that if the Rangers get the 12th or 13th pick that they may voluntarily select to send it away this year, let’s also remember that they negotiated top-13 protection seemingly for a reason. There’s also the fact that by operational nature that teams don’t tend to give up a pick if they don’t have to. All logic points to a team with the ability to keep a pick deciding to do just that.

Should the Pens expect NYR to transfer them the pick if the Rangers don’t have to? Probably not. But it is not an absolute known fact at this point either. Further, per Dubas, the Rangers don’t have to make their announcement of what course they are going to take until 48 hours before the draft, even though one would think that NYR GM Chris Drury will probably tip his hand and indicate his plans prior to that point. Surely the Rangers would be waiting for May’s lottery draft to see what happens so if in the low percentage chance that a top-13 NYR pick wins the lottery and moves up 10 places it would be an obvious end result for the Rangers to keep what would be a top-3 pick this year.

This all creates a situation where a lot is still up for grabs in terms of first round jockeying at this point. It’s possible the Rangers don’t punt at the season and end up fitting into the 14th or 15th pick, which would transfer to the Penguins automatically. It’s possible (perhaps likely) the Rangers slide end up in the 10-13 range and keep it for themselves. It’s possible, though logically unlikely that NYR ends up in that zone and takes their medicine early to retain their 2026 pick. Plenty of options remain on the table.

Either way, it’s a favorable position for Pittsburgh. They will at least have one top-10 pick in the upcoming draft and very possibly could have two in the top-15, depending on how things shake out.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/2025/4/7/...positioning-in-the-last-10-days-of-the-season

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

How long will the Penguins playoff drought continue?

Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images

It could be another year or two at least, but it should not be more than that.

Having officially missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season, we can now say that the Pittsburgh Penguins are in a postseason drought. This is relatively uncharted territory for the organization, as this season is just the eighth time since 1990 that it has missed the playoffs.

It has been a pretty great run.

It is also only the second time over that stretch they have missed three seasons in a row, joining also the period between the 2002 and 2006 seasons.

Not all of those seasons are created equal.

Back in the 2002-2006 era, that was a team dealing with devastating financial hardships, going through a massive teardown rebuild, and waiting for the league to implement a salary cap. It was a grim time, but with each top pick in the draft the optimism gradually started to grow.

During the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons the Penguins were clearly still in a win-now mode, but simply constructed flawed rosters with serious Achilles heels that held them back.

This season seemed to be something else entirely, and we should have seen the signs coming in the offseason when the only moves were signing players like Anthony Beauvillier and Matt Grzelyck to one-year deals, and taking on contracts (Kevin Hayes, Cody Glass) to start accumulating future draft picks.

Pretty much every move made since the 2024 trade deadline has been centered around the future.

As a whole, they have added a lot of young talent and future assets into the organization.

Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen look like legit prospects and are making a strong first impression in the NHL. They should be fixtures in the lineup starting next season. Their presence has significantly boosted the state of the farm system.

Sergei Murashov, Harrison Brunicke and Owen Pickering are all intriguing prospects to some degree, with Murashov being the one guy out of everybody mentioned here that could rapidly change the team’s short-term outlook if everything breaks right with him and his development.

Nothing changes a team quite like a goalie can.

They have (as of now) 30 draft picks over the next three years, including several within the first two rounds of those classes. Along with their own first-round picks, they also have a wildly intriguing New York Rangers pick in one of the next two years.

There are some things to be hopeful and encouraged about.

But the team itself, as currently constructed, has a lot of flaws and is very bad.

You also have to accept the reality that not every prospect you have is going to pan out. You hope McGroarty and Koivunen become consistent top-six scorers. Maybe only one of them does. If even five or six of those 30 draft picks (assuming they make them all and do not trade any) turn into productive NHL players, you’ve probably done well for yourself. Those are just simply the odds with draft picks.

Whether you want to label this a full-scale rebuild, a re-tool, or something else in between those two labels, it is probably not going to be an immediate turnaround. At least not next season. Maybe not even the season after that.

I took a quick look around the NHL and looked at the longest playoff drought for every NHL team in the salary cap era (starting with the 2005-06 season).

Excluding Vegas and Seattle (just because they are so new), 23 of the other 30 NHL teams have had at least one playoff drought of four years or more.

The only teams that have avoided that to this point are Colorado, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Boston, Nashville, New York Rangers and Washington.

In the Lightning and Rangers cases, Tampa Bay had one playoff appearance after a three-year drought, then followed it with a two-year drought before going on its current run of extended dominance.

The Rangers made the extended playoff field in 2019-20 after missing the playoffs two years in a row, then missed the playoffs again in 2020-21. Under normal circumstances they probably would have had a four-year drought of their own.

Boston, Nashville (?!) and Washington are the only non-expansion teams that have mostly avoided extended down periods with playoff droughts of two years or less. Though, I do anticipate that Boston’s time has arrived. That team STINKS.

Here are the longest playoff droughts in this time period, with teams listed in bold currently dealing with active playoff droughts.

A couple of things to keep in mind here:

1. At some point, pretty much everybody goes through this. After nearly two decades of success and being the best organization in hockey, the Penguins were eventually going to have to deal with it. That time is now.
2. A playoff drought does not mean a team was rebuilding that entire time. We are seeing that with the Penguins right now. Even though they have missed the playoffs three years in a row, you could make the argument this is only the first year of a rebuild. Chicago’s playoff drought is at five years, but for two of those years they were very clearly still trying — and failing — to win. Buffalo thought it had come out of a rebuild at least once during its drought before scrapping it all and starting over.
3. A lot of the longest, most extended droughts came from teams that tore it down to the studs (Buffalo, Ottawa, Detroit, Anaheim .... I would imagine San Jose joins that group relatively quickly over the next two years), while also having poor roster construction and asset management along the way.

At this point we still do not truly know what the Penguins are planning on here, beyond the reality that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are going to play out their careers with the Penguins.

It seems likely that Erik Karlsson gets traded at some point over the next two years. Maybe even the next few months.

Kris Letang might?

Bryan Rust and/or Rickard Rakell could.

I still look at the relatively quick turnarounds of the Kings, Rangers and to a lesser extent the Capitals (who did not even actually rebuild) as examples the Penguins could reasonably follow. Though, in the Rangers case you want to simply do it better and not be totally dependent on one guy to lift your franchise.

While they do have some bad contracts on the roster, one of them (Karlsson) is still fairly tradable, while they also have the benefit of a rapidly rising salary cap situation.

Even with Karlsson, Tristan Jarry and Ryan Graves under contract they still have over $25 million in salary cap space this offseason, $54 million in 2026-27 and $87 million in 2027-28. That is a lot of flexibility.

Having too many bad contracts and too much dead money was a huge issue for a team like Detroit in its attempt to dig out of its mess. The Penguins, for the most part, do not really have much of that.

A lot of it, however, depends on what kind of luck they get with the development of their top prospects and what sort of luck they get in the draft lottery.

If Murashov is as good as he has looked so far in North America, that can immediately raise your floor.

If the lottery balls go your way this year and/or next year and bring you a top-tier talent, that also certainly helps the timeline (the Rangers and Kings had that happen for them without every truly bottoming out in the standings).

They need some things to go their way. But they seem to have a good management team in place, they have some legitimate prospects, and they have flexibility under the salary cap to add and add quickly in the coming seasons (even if it is not this summer). You should still probably anticipate at least one more, and maybe two more, years like this. If it goes beyond that, however, things have probably gone very wrong somewhere along the line.

I do have some questions about the NHL-level scouting, but Dubas and Co. have mostly managed resources and assets extraordinarily well from a big-picture outlook. That is important. Now we get to see how they can actually build this out.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/2025/4/7/24403009/how-long-will-the-penguins-playoff-drought-continue

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Wilkes Weekly: A very bad weekend in Cleveland

@wbspenguins

The AHL Penguins lose two crucial games on the road

The Wilkes-Barre Penguins had a big opportunity with two important road games in Cleveland and it ended up not going well, to put it mildly. WBS was out-scored 10-1 in the aggregate of what ended up being two resounding losses. As such, they’ve fallen behind in the race for second place in the AHL’s Atlantic Division.

Finishing in second place is so important due to the wacky playoff format the AHL uses. The top two teams in the division earn a bye in the opening round and then No. 3 from the division plays No 6 while No. 4 faces No. 5 in just a three-game series. It was and is a tight race between Wilkes, Charlotte and Providence to earn that second spot and now the Penguins have given up valuable positioning with little time remaining in the AHL’s 72-game regular season to get back into it. They’re not out of it yet but this weekend was a serious blow.

Below are the lines from their last game. Wilkes is missing two of their top players all season long in Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen, but young players growing and graduating to the NHL is a challenge that minor league teams inherently face. WBS has gotten Emil Bemstrom back and their defense/goalie personnel shouldn’t be losing a 7-1 game at this time of year no matter who has departed the lineup.

Everybody say welcome to the AHL, Nolan Renwick!

Catch the action on AHLTV on FloHockey: https://t.co/CrNDVVHuPj pic.twitter.com/K0tWky6Hg5

— x - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) April 5, 2025​

Beyond the obvious absences of McGroarty and Koivunen, the AHL Penguins have been thinned out further on the illness and injury front. The team was without Sam Poulin (illness), Joel Blomqvist, Marc Johnstone and Mathias Laferriere over the weekend. The multiple absences in the forward group led to the AHL debut of 21-year old Jack Beck over the weekend. Beck earned it by being one of Wheeling’s top players this season by producing 36 points (8G+28A) in 36 games this season down in the ECHL.

The AHL Pens stopped in Cranberry for a practice at the NHL team’s facility while making the motorized trip across the state and over to Ohio. That gave some of the local media a chance to catch up with the minor leaguers, including the rising prospect Avery Hayes getting some camera time with SportsNet Pittsburgh.

Avery Hayes on signing an NHL contract last month, and why he feels the Pens organization is a good fit for him. @SNPittsburgh pic.twitter.com/MF2fBkz5oH

— Dan Potash (@DanPotashTV) April 4, 2025​

WBS head coach Kirk MacDonald spoke briefly about 18-year old prospect Harrison Brunicke getting his first taste of AHL action. Brunicke has one assist and eight penalty minutes in four games so far as a lineup regular on the third pair since his junior season ended.

What does WBS head coach Kirk MacDonald like about Harrison Brunicke, who joined the Pens from the Kamloops Blazers last week. @SNPittsburgh pic.twitter.com/ZO5Hml71FG

— Dan Potash (@DanPotashTV) April 4, 2025​

The Penguins remain active in signing players to AHL contracts, adding three more former NCAA players to the ranks in moves to help add depth within the organization.

The Penguins have signed defenseman David Breazeale as well as forwards Aaron Huglen and Zach Urdahl to contracts starting in the 2025-26 season.

Breazeale, two-year captain at the University of Maine, has joined the Penguins on an ATO.https://t.co/kuftGRC7p9 pic.twitter.com/RwXNoKzecz

— x - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) April 7, 2025​

As mentioned in the tweet, Breazeale headlines these signings as the only player in this group ramping up this spring. Breazeale, 24, went undrafted but is listed by the University of Maine as a 6’3” 215 pound left shot defender. His point totals weren’t high, he recorded 3G+10A in 38 games as a senior in 2024-25, but he seems to be a player who takes care of his own end with blocked shots and responsible defensive play.

Huglen, 24, is notable from being a fourth round draft pick of Buffalo’s back in 2019. His collegiate career didn’t take off over four years at the University of Minnesota but he was able to find an AHL contract to turn pro.

Urdahl, 23, finished up his senior season at Nebraska-Omaha after starting his career with his native Wisconsin Badgers. The 6’1, 193 pound forward is said to have good wheels and recorded 22 points (12G+10A) in 33 games this season.

—

Up next is another huge weekend for Wilkes that features the daunting three games in three days schedule. The team is at home to meet division leader Hershey on Friday and potential first round foe Springfield on Saturday before Wilkes makes a visit to last place Bridgeport on Sunday.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/2025/4/8/24403338/wilkes-weekly-a-very-bad-weekend-in-cleveland

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins/Blackhawks Recap: Pens cruise to 5-0 win over hapless Chicago

Photo by Jeanine Leech/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Penguins score a bunch and take an easy win over the Blackhawks

Pregame​

The Penguins make a change in their lineup Blake Lizotte (lower body injury) is out for tonight which opens the door for Matt Nieto to play his first NHL game since late Febraury. Tristan Jarry gets back in the net.

Tonight's lineup vs. Chicago pic.twitter.com/SstEV5bprC

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 8, 2025​

First period​

Fairly boring start to the game. Chicago’s Sam Rinzel puts a shot off the cross-bar that just barely stays out of the net, the Blackhawks start out as the better of the two teams - but that’s not saying much.

Out of no where the Penguins get the first power play of the game, not much happens with it.

Pittsburgh is the better team towards the end of the period. Ryan Graves hits the post.

Nieto drives hard to the net and gets impeded with 22 seconds to go to send the Pens to a second power play. Sidney Crosby wins the o-zone faceoff and the Pens sneak in a goal before intermission. It looks like Rickard Rakell passes out from the corner in a hurried manner and not the best positioned offering. But Crosby is able to hack at the puck while turning toward it just the same, and hey, it works to jump up high and beat the goaltender Spencer Knight. 1-0 with 15 seconds left.

My goodness...

Sid makes it look so effortless ‍ pic.twitter.com/N8ARFdH8iX

— NHL (@NHL) April 8, 2025​

Shots are 11-7 PIT. They’re lucky Rinzel didn’t score on them early, but otherwise it’s a deserved score based on the action so far.

Second period​

Very interesting little changes in the lines, Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty have traded spots. The immediate result is Koivunen sends Crosby in for a mini-breakaway 15 seconds into the second period with a great saucer pass. Knight makes the save on Crosby but it’s a cheeky start and new look.

It takes until the second shift for that new first line to score. Bryan Rust does a great job on the back pressure to pop up the stick of rookie Frank Nazar (gotta be hard on the puck, rook!) and win it back. Rust feeds Koivunen, who makes another great cross-ice pass, this time to Erik Karlsson. Karlsson wires in a shot for his 200th career goal and increase the score to 2-0 Pens.

NHL GOALS!

Take a bow, EK65! pic.twitter.com/mQuDjeglaD

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 9, 2025​

Koivunen nearly records his first NHL goal with a baseball swing on a puck out of mid-air that had a lot of pepper on it. Great chance.

Everything is mostly going the Pens’ way but then Ryan Graves telegraphs a partner pass back around his own net that Tyler Bertuzzi easily intercepts, being as he’s right there and Graves didn’t have the pass open. Ryan Shea has to reach out and cross-check Bertuzzi down, leading to Chicago’s first power play of the night.

Jarry makes a few saves and Pittsburgh gets out of danger and into the break. Perhaps not so lucky was Rutger McGroarty, felled in the foot area by blocking a shot and leaving under duress.

Shots 21-14 overall, 2-0 lead. Not much but it’s something.

Third period​

Connor Murphy relieves the pressure by knocking a puck out of mid-air and into the stands, drawing the automatic penalty for puck over glass in his d-zone. Pens power play does little with it but shortly after the penalty ends Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin work a give-and-go and Letang makes a vintage move to find the space upstairs on Knight and snipe it in. 3-0 Pittsburgh.

KRIS LETANG GOES UPSTAIRS! pic.twitter.com/SuiXEOSKTr

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 9, 2025​

Chicago has about folded in their tents and go down 4-0. Kevin Hayes puts a shot off Spencer Knight that clicks off his glove and then he can’t do anything about it.

WATCH OUT.

It's big Hayesy on a big break pic.twitter.com/NPcFw8xK2I

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 9, 2025​

Hayes adds one more for the road, faking and feinting if he’s going to go inside or outside of rookie Kevin Korchinski (gotta be tough on the body, rook!). The young defender gets out-wiled by the wily veteran and Danton Heinen makes a nice incoming pass for Hayes to pickle stab into the net for his second goal of the night. 5-0 Pens.

And that’s it for that, second shutout of the season for Tristan Jarry who might not have broken much of a sweat in this one.

Some thoughts​

• Since the Pens have worn their alternate jerseys every Tuesday and exclusively on that date this season, this might be it for the ol’ Snoop Dogg jersey on the ice for a while, being as the team is hinting at new alternates for next season.
• Pretty nuts that Crosby has registered at least a point in 17 of his last 19 games, and 24 of the last 27.
• For the Bob Grove tweet o’ the night: this marks Crosby’s 120th first goal of a game, passing Teemu Selanne for fifth all time. You might have heard of the first four on the list: Ovechkin, Jagr, Howe and Brett Hull.
• While sticking with twitter, we saw today is the 2-year anniversary of Crosby hitting 1,500 points. Fast forward to today and he’s up to 1,683 after tonight. We all always try to bask in it and never lose sight of how amazing of a player he is, but my goodness, what a career.
• Great game for Koivunen. He’s had his moments over the previous four games to stand out in little flashes here and there but tonight was one where he looked comfortable and was able to make plays all over the ice a lot more consistently. The level of competition wasn’t sky high but it’s great to see him be able to settle in right before our eyes and figure out how to operate on an NHL rink. He’s proven to be a quick study, the progress he’s made has been visible and very impressive.
• A+++ idea to put Koivunen and Crosby together, by the way. Even though the internet is mainly for bemoaning perceived coaching incompetencies that lever was pulled at the right time.
• Speaking of internet bitching sessions, happy 200 goals to Erik Karlsson! He could well finish in the top-10 of defenders in scoring in the league this season. Stylistically he drives many crazy and his mistakes are unavoidable but that’s a big time number of goals for a blueliner.
• The NHL seems to love to have late-season PIT/CHI games, but we’re begging you: find a way to get one, if not both, of these games over with by January next season. Too much of a slog when both teams are buried.
• McGroarty did not play in the third period after leaving from blocking the shot in the foot area, so that stinks. Hate to see top players risk injury on the PK blocking shots but it’s sometimes unavoidable but never not annoying to see an important player get hurt on the PK from getting struck by a puck.

The Pens made that one look easy. Next up is a couple of days off and a trip to New Jersey for the final road game of the season on Friday night.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/2025/4/8/...p-pens-cruise-to-5-0-win-over-hapless-chicago

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Former Pens GM Ray Shero dead at 62

Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Shero served as General Manager for the Penguins from 2006 to 2014.

Former Penguins General Manager Ray Shero has died.

The Minnesota Wild organization, where Shero had been serving as Senior Advisor to General Manager Bill Guerin, announced his passing Wednesday afternoon.

“Our hearts go out to his family and friends and the countless people he impacted in the hockey community throughout his successful career,” the Wild said in a statement. “Ray was the best. He will be greatly missed by all of us.”

The Minnesota Wild is deeply saddened to announce the passing of Ray Shero. pic.twitter.com/9mqkjaR5ms

— Minnesota Wild PR (@mnwildPR) April 9, 2025​

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman also released a statement, saying in part that “Ray Shero’s smile and personality lit up every room he walked into and brightened the day of everyone he met.”

Shero served as General Manager for the Penguins from 2006 to 2014 and was responsible for assembling the Pittsburgh team that won the Stanley Cup in 2009.

Photo by Gregory Shamus/NHLI via Getty Images

Along with his years spent in Pittsburgh, Shero spent more than 30 years working in the NHL in roles with the Nashville Predators, New Jersey Devils, and Minnesota Wild.

Shero was also heavily involved with USA Hockey outside of his roles in the NHL.

Ray Shero was 62 years old.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/2025/4/9/24404750/former-pens-gm-ray-shero-dead-at-62