PHN Debate: Matt Grzelcyk’s Future, Sign or Skip?

Welcome to the first of the offseason series: PHN Debate, in which writers from Pittsburgh Hockey Now debate each other or guest columnists on the pressing or sometimes frivolous matters surrounding the Pittsburgh Penguins. Today, Dave Molinari makes the case for Matt Grzelcyk. Dan Kingerski makes the case against re-signing the defenseman.

Re-Sign Grzelcyk

–From Dave Molinari:

The Penguins will not be a Stanley Cup contender in 2025-26 if Matt Grzelcyk is on their roster.

The Penguins will not be a Stanley Cup contender in 2025-26 if Grzelcyk is not on their roster, either.

Simply put, Grzelcyk is not a difference-maker. Especially not on a team with championship aspirations.

What he is is a capable second- or third-pairing defenseman, a fairly reliable presence on a defense corps that managed to fall hopelessly short of even the most modest of expectations during the just-concluded season.

Consider:

*** The best chance Ryan Graves or Erik Karlsson has of seeing a +1 is to receive a wedding invitation.

*** Kris Letang is one of the most valuable and important defensemen ever to pull on a Penguins sweater. He also turns 38 Thursday, and his age is showing.

*** Guys like Ryan Shea, P.O Joseph, and Vladislav Kolyachonok might – repeat, might – by adequate on a third-pairing, but that’s not a terribly high ceiling. Especially considering who’s above them on the depth chart.

*** Although Conor Timmins earned mixed reviews (more positive than negative) after being acquired from Toronto at the trade deadline, it’s far from certain he can handle a top-four role on a playoff-caliber team.

Put Grzelcyk alongside that group – even if Owen Pickering is added to it, as he should be in the fall – and the merits of keeping him around become evident.

Now, president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas is expected to move aggressively to remake that unit during the offseason, which is imperative unless he’s intent on getting in the lottery to draft super-prospect Gavin McKenna next spring.

But regardless of how extensive an overhaul Dubas is able to pull off in coming months, it’s unlikely that the Penguins will have an all-new defense corps next season.

Which is why Dubas should try to re-sign Grzelcyk, who accepted a one-year deal worth $2.75 million with the Penguins last summer in the hopes of rebounding from a disappointing season in Boston. And actually did it.

Grzelcyk is poised to go on the market as an unrestricted free agent again and has yet to have meaningful contract talks with the Penguins, although Dubas sounds as if he will be interested in bringing him back.

“He did have a very good year for us,” Dubas said at his season-ending press conference. “Zero-maintenance person for us. Just comes to work, does his job. Quietly effective. … We’ll have conversations and look to see how he fits our overall needs and determine whether we can offer him that same opportunity again.”

While Grzelcyk is undersized (5-foot-10, 180 pounds), he is durable. He and Karlsson were the only Penguins players to appear in all 82 games in 2024-25, even though Grzelcyk blocked a team-high 101 shots.

Oh, he also tied Karlsson, whose offensive abilities will get him into the Hockey Hall of Fame someday, for the lead in power-play points among Penguins defensemen with 15.

That probably is an indictment of Karlsson, but also reflects Grzelcyk’s role in upgrading the Penguins’ conversion rate with the man-advantage to 25.8 percent from 15.3 in 2023-24.

Dubas should not try to keep Grzelcyk because he can singlehandedly hoist the Penguins back into playoff contention, but because he can be a piece in the puzzle of constructing a postseason-worthy roster.

Which is more than can be said for most of the guys with whom he shared their blue line in 2024-25.

Counterpoint: Nope, Skip Re-Signing

From Dan Kingerski:

The Penguins’ defense wasn’t just bad, it so thoroughly performed below its talent level and expectations that the locker room might need to be steamcleaned. Some sage or an exorcist wouldn’t hurt, either.

The right side of the Penguins’ defense is problematic. Karlsson struggled mightily at the beginning of the year, had a resurgence, then receded to a mediocre version of himself, especially after the Four Nations Face-Off. Letang’s struggles this season were only part of the overall blue line letdown.

In addition to poor defending techniques, mistakes, and turnovers, the room of defensemen also played soft. Extremely soft.

The left side was supposed to be anchored by Ryan Graves. However, Graves said good things off the ice, but his slow puck movement, flat-footed mistakes, and often soft defense were glaring. He probably shouldn’t be in the NHL next season.

The only other lefty under contract for next season is Ryan Shea, who is a capable third-pairing defenseman, which leaves two spots that should be filled by more defensive defensemen. Someone needs to be able to clean up the mistakes and the defensive zone.

A little sandpaper or muscle would go a long way, too.

It is precisely because the Penguins are likely to return both Letang and Karlsson that Grzelcyk cannot. The Penguins badly need defensive defensemen to anchor both of their risky right-side defenders; steady, trustworthy, reliable defenders who can adequately take care of the dirty work in the D-zone, as well as suffer the bruises of killing penalties.

Grzelcyk just isn’t that defenseman. He took on the role, but it obviously isn’t his natural spot.

The Penguins badly need some size, weight, and even some snarl on their blue line. Grzelcyk is listed at 5-foot-10, 181 pounds.

Rookie Owen Pickering is most likely to take a spot. He’s a towering 6-foot-5 (at least) D-man who performed well in his 25-game stint this season. He’s positionally sound and skates well enough to take one of the top left-side spots. Still, it’s always dangerous putting a rookie in a high-leverage spot, especially a rookie who is still developing.

Grzelcyk had a solid season. On a bad unit, he was acceptable. Adequate even. And on the power play, he surprisingly rescued a unit that was again drowning under the weight of Hall of Fame talent that was playing robotically. He deserves quite a bit of credit for the latter, especially.

He has strengths: puck-moving, skating, and can make some offensive contributions. But he just isn’t a good fit for the existing framework. Quite frankly, Dubas should have known this last summer.

Grzelcyk deserves a healthy new contract somewhere, just not Pittsburgh.