The Pittsburgh Penguins were once an established playoff contender in the NHL. Now it looks like they could miss the playoffs for the third straight season. And while people want to point the finger at general manager Kyle Dubas, the construction of this roster started before he got there.
While you could argue that the Penguins rebuild should have started after losing to the Washington Capitals in 2018 in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Penguins made the playoffs in subsequent seasons from 2019-2022 after losing in the first round. In the 2020 issue, the Penguins “didn’t make the playoffs” losing to the Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs.
But there were signs that this was an aging team. The Penguins were defeated by the New York Islanders in 2019 and 2021, and by the Canadiens in 2020. In 2022, the Penguins were up 3-1 in the series, Sidney Crosby got hurt and the series changed. The Penguins were unable to defend or hold a seven-game losing streak against the New York Rangers.
Kyle Dubas Has Made Two of Eleven Million Mistakes in His Career
The summer of 2022 was important. That summer, the Penguins had to make a decision on either Kris Letang or Evgeni Malkin, not both. Not to mention Rickard Rakell was a free agent as well. When Letang signed his six-year, $6.1 million deal and Rakell signed his five-year, $5 million deal, many thought Malkin was gone.
At the time, President of Hockey Operations Brian Burke and General Manager wanted to move on from Malkin and begin a rebuild. Ownership had other ideas. They wanted to keep Letang, Malkin, and Sidney Crosby together. Malkin is getting a four-year deal for $6.1 million. The older group just got older.
The Pittsburgh Penguins missed the playoffs in 2023 because they can’t beat teams with losing records. This allowed the Florida Panthers to sign and the Chicago Blackhawks to draft Connor Bedard. But changes were needed.
NHL Rumors: Are Pittsburgh Penguins Considering Trading Tristan Jarry?
Along with Malkin, goaltender Tristan Jarry was seen leaving Pittsburgh. At least that was the report. Then new GM Kyle Dubas signed Jarry to a five-year extension worth $5.375 million. Now Jarry is in the AHL in a position to make things easier.
Jarry didn’t play well in 2023 as Casey DeSmith took over as the starter. In 2024 it was Alex Nedeljkovic. This season it’s Joel Blomqvist.
In addition to Jarry’s signing, Dubas signed Ryan Graves to a six-year, $4.5 million per season deal. He also traded for Erik Karlsson. This was another eleven million dollar a year player that the Dubas team didn’t need (Penguins stand to win $10 million of Karlsson’s $11.5 million cap hit). In 2022-23 Karlsson had over 100 points on a bad San Jose Sharks team. But Dubas and ownership thought this was the episode to put the Penguins on top. It wasn’t like that.
Last season he traded for Kevin Hayes and signed Matt Grzelcyk. Again, this was after the trade of Jake Guentzel at last year’s trade deadline that didn’t bring him much back.
Chemistry is closed in an older group that lacks interest and attention to detail. Crosby, who recently signed a new two-year contract, sat out his first game of the season. It sounds like Guentzel is missing from his wing. Now Crosby will never say this, but you have to think he wasn’t happy about the trade.
NHL Rumors: Pittsburgh Penguins and Marcus Pettersson
It looks like head coach Mike Sullivan could be the first coach to lose his job if things don’t turn around. And it may have happened this past season, but his extension only came in, so how much does ownership want to pay him?
That includes the decision not to fire the coach. But Sullivan may be taken too soon. But something has to change and the Penguins have a lot of fixed contracts. Most of these players have changed or filled no-trade clauses. Therefore, this group must decide what they want to do before it’s too late.
But the Pittsburgh Penguins are a price to pay for more than a decade of being a consistent playoff team in the NHL. Eventually, their reign had to end. If only they were going after their rival Washington Capitals, it might be a little bearable.
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