Penguins Blog: Rivals Make Big Moves, More Trouble for Pens

The buzz is growing around the several teams that finished behind the Pittsburgh Penguins, whose playoff aspirations now seem like a bit of a long shot after a weak start to the offseason and free agency.

Another problem facing the Penguins is that even if they are slightly improved, they might be worse off after bold offseasons by teams with whom they are in direct competition not only in the Metro Division but for an Eastern Conference wild card.

In 2023-24, the Penguins didn’t make the playoffs for the second consecutive year but watched their rivals, the Washington Capitals and New York Islanders, stave off the tumbling tumult of advancing age and middling irrelevance for postseason appearances. The “jumpstart,” as Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas termed his acquisition of defenseman Erik Karlsson, admittedly didn’t do enough.

The Penguins are done trying to squeak into the playoffs, at least at the managerial level. Coach Mike Sullivan and the players will certainly strive for a spot on Lord Stanley’s dance floor, but Dubas has pivoted his pursuit to the future. At last week’s 2024 NHL Draft, he blew right past a question from Pittsburgh Hockey Now about his confidence the team could improve for 2024-25.

His focus is on the future, not the coming season.

“The coaches and the players have to look at it day to day. They’re trying to win every day. I have to look at it with a much broader lens — if Pittsburgh is to be a team that just squeaks in, I understand that would be nice to be in (the playoffs) — but we want to be a contender,” Dubas said at the draft. “And so we have to put the work in and improve the assets that are going to allow us to get there and do that, and that’s going to be our focus.”

The words are a wee bit nebulous, but the intent and direction are not. The word missing from Dubas’s quote is future, as in “future assets.” The team and players can try to win now, but Dubas has a long-range plan that precluded trades and signings now that would hinder the future.

No long-term deals. No trading draft picks for help.

However, while Dubas nibbled at the start of free agency on July 1 with spare parts, the teams chasing the Penguins and their direct rivals took big swings. The Ottawa Senators acquired former Vezina Trophy-winning goalie Linus Ullmark. Washington not only pulled off the shocking salary swap of fading goalie Darcy Kuemper for embattled but talented center Pierre-Luc Dubois but upgraded in goal by acquiring Logan Thompson from Vegas, former 30-goal scorer Andrew Mangiapane from Calgary for a second-rounder, and the coup de gras, acquiring widely sought defenseman Jakob Chychrun from Ottawa.

Washington even bolstered its fourth line by signing Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh.

In the span of a little more than a week, Washington GM Brian McClellan retooled the roster, revamping a team that was inferior to the Penguins. Washington missed the playoffs in 2022-23 and made the big dance only because of the Penguins’ malaise last season.

Like the Penguins, the Capitals haven’t won a playoff series since 2018 and a playoff game since 2022. Despite still being built around 38-year-old Alex Ovechkin, Washington is probably better. They’ve integrated draft picks such as Connor McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre into their top nine, too.

They should be considered a favorite for an Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Ottawa will benefit from a first-rate goalie in net, the defensively reliable Nick Jensen on the blue line, and third-line scorers David Perron and Michael Amadio.

The Detroit Red Wings are significantly improved not only with an additional year of maturity and growth with their burgeoning young stars Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider. GM Steve Yzerman not only kept Patrick Kane, who improved deeper into the season following his hip surgery, but signed solid middle-six scorer Vladimir Tarasenko, too.

Detroit’s weakness remains in goal where Yzerman’s big acquisition was the leaky Cam Talbot.

The Penguins? Matt Grzelcyk, Blake Lizotte, and Anthony Beauvillier were the notable adds on Day 1. Fourth liner Blake Lizotte is the other. Kevin Hayes will be a Penguins forward next season after Dubas took on Hayes’s contract to get the St. Louis Blues second-round pick.

PHN can confirm the Penguins were interested in Tarasenko but lost that bidding war.

The New Jersey Devils, who had a breakout 2022-23 season, also filled their largest need when president of hockey operations/GM Tom Fitzgerald waited out the competition and landed goalie Jacob Markstrom from the Calgary Flames.

New Jersey also added depth scoring with Stefan Noesen, who had 14 goals last season with the Carolina Hurricanes, and top-four defenseman Brett Pesce, also from Carolina. For good measure, New Jersey signed stay-home defenseman Brenden Dillon and middle-six winger Tomas Tatar.

Injuries to center Jack Hughes and a lack of goaltending submarined New Jersey last season, and the team finished behind the Penguins. However, getting healthy, Markstrom and the shrewd signings should vault New Jersey past the Penguins, too.

Even the Philadelphia Flyers got some good fortune this offseason when the second most talented player in the 2023 draft, the Flyers’ Matvei Michkov, left Russia two years early to join the team.

Until a late-season collapse, the Flyers lead the Penguins in the standings.

It’s becoming a very real possibility, as the Penguins currently stand, they finish seventh in the Metro Division. Their rivals have gotten stronger, and in a few cases, significantly so. Their playoff rivals in Detroit and Ottawa were able to get stronger, as well.

Detroit also has about $20 million in salary cap space remaining. The world is their oyster.

Of course, the one thing none of the above have is Sidney Crosby. The Penguins have been one of the worst teams in the league, with a lead two years running, and last season, their power play was the stuff of epic failure. If they can improve on both of those shortcomings, they will be competitive.

But after a summer of strong moves by their rivals, one begins to wonder if even holding a few more leads and scoring a few more power play goals will matter enough to improve their position.