3 Perplexing Penguins Storylines to Watch

If life were simple and clean, it wouldn’t be much fun, would it? As the Pittsburgh Penguins and president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas push forward what they hope will be a swift retool while Sidney Crosby remains the organization’s standard bearer, there remain some loose ends and unanswered questions.

If it were simple, every team would do it within a few years, and all teams would quickly return to competitiveness. Organizations such as the Buffalo Sabres and Columbus Blue Jackets, which have endured lengthy playoff droughts throughout their franchise history, wouldn’t be hockey’s version of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Barreling toward the 2024-25 NHL season, there remain a few unsolved or unresolved Penguins storylines that don’t jibe with Dubas’s stated goal to get younger and hungrier and turnover a stale roster that lacked energy and enthusiasm going back to a late-season collapse that cost them a playoff berth in 2022-23 and carried over for the first 65 games of 2023-24.

The Penguins own the St. Louis Blues 2025 second-round pick by taking on Kevin Hayes’s $3.5 million salary for two more years. The Penguins also own the New York Rangers’ second and fourth-round picks in 2027 by sending them Reilly Smith at the NHL Draft and Chad Ruhwedel at the NHL trade deadline, respectively.

But that’s been the extent of the roster flip.

Unresolved Penguins Storylines

1. Space for Penguins Prospects

It will be hard to get younger when there isn’t lineup space for younger players. While the free agent signings of Anthony Beauvillier and Blake Lizotte provide some measure of stability, they also plugged holes that Penguins prospects, including Vasily Ponomarev and 2023 first-round pick Brayden Yager, could have filled.

Penguins lines currently look like this:

O’Connor-Crosby-Rust
Bunting-Malkin-Rakell
Beauvillier-Hayes-Puustinen
Lizotte-Eller-Acciari

Lizotte and Beauvillier are 26 years old, but Hayes is 32, and the lineup isn’t much younger than it was a year ago. Hayes and Beuvillier are true reclamation projects, while Lizotte is a bit of a steal because his paltry offensive output (seven goals, 15 points) wasn’t worth what the LA Kings needed to offer to retain his rights, so the Penguins got him on a two-year, $3.7 million deal.

The result is a couple of gambles but no space, except as a 13th forward.

2. Lars Eller?

The Penguins have just south of $6 million tied up in their bottom six centers. Lars Eller is a rock-ribbed part of the team, as well as a locker room and defensive conscience. However, it would seem he’s expendable, especially given the ability of Acciari and Lizotte to center the fourth line. Further, Ponomarev is a natural center, as are prospects, Tristan Broz and Yager.

Trading Eller, or even Kevin Hayes, would create space for the newbies and add that youthful, desperate energy. It would also further Dubas’s desire to stockpile future draft picks. The Washington Capitals got a second-round pick for Eller, who was a pending free agent, at the 2022 NHL trade deadline.

There’s no reason to think Eller would command much less on the trade block now.

The surprising part of this situation is that Eller is still a Penguin, and there’s been almost no trade chatter.

3. Marcus Pettersson/Left Side

According to sources, the Penguins are waiting to sign Crosby before getting to Marcus Pettersson, who is also a pending UFA. With Matt Grzelcyk also on a one-year deal, Ryan Graves is the only established NHL defenseman with a left-handed stick currently scheduled to be with the Penguins past July 1, 2025.

Will the Penguins have a defenseman sell-off? Can Dubas afford to trade any defensemen even if the team is out of playoff contention?

The perplexing part of the situation is the long-term play. The team has a pair of Hall of Fame defensemen on the right side, but the future could be chaotic with depth defensemen masquerading as top-four worthy playing heavy minutes.

The Penguins probably don’t have a more valuable trade chip than Pettersson, who is easily a top-four d-man who is steady, reliable, and mobile. Based on historical data, he would likely bring multiple draft picks in return.

If the team isn’t going through a bulldozing rebuild, how will Dubas establish an adequate blueline?

More questions than answers. Have your say below.