For the first time since bowing out in the first round against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Pittsburgh Penguins will be icing a roster to play hockey. Tonight, they host the visiting Buffalo Sabres. Training camps are shorter, and the amount of time fringe roster players have to make themselves seen has shrunk. These games are the best opportunity for these players to show out and shape the opinions of the front office and coaching staff.
Here is tonight’s roster for Pittsburgh:
This roster is full of players who are not guaranteed anything. Outside of Bryan Rust, Ben Kindel, and Kris Letang there aren’t a ton of players in tonight’s lineup who should be somewhat comfortable in their standing with the team.
So many forwards, so few spots
There are currently way more NHL-caliber forwards than there are roster spots for the Penguins. Since the playoffs, Dubas has gone out and acquired Andrei Kuzmenko, Nick Robertson, and Hendrix Lapierre. These three join a crowded forward group that already had players on the outside looking in. Nick Robertson and Hendrix Lapierre both have another year on their contracts after this one.
In-house Dubas has recently handed out extensions to Ville Koivunen (8 years), Egor Chinkakhov (3 years), Tommy Novak (3 years), and Blake Lizotte (3 years). Sidney Crosby is likely to be extended but I consider that a completely different conversation that has no bearing on this conversation.
If I were a player without term or was waiver-eligible, I would be treating these preseason games a lot closer to a playoff game than a whatever game in September. Tonight’s roster has quite a number of players who fall into this category and include: Filip Hallander, Justin Brazeau, Elmer Soderblom, Tristan Broz, and Avery Hayes.
Players who don’t have a clear path forward
Competition is good for an organization, but there are going to be unhappy players, and the front office and the coaching staff is going to have to be prepared for it. Given where the roster was just a couple of years ago this situation felt unfathomable when replacements for injury were Sam Poulin, Jon Gruden, Joona Koppanen, Alex Nylander, and Colin White.
The only thing I am sure of is that there will be no consensus feeling on who should be on the roster versus who shouldn’t be. I guarantee there will be some waiver-eligible players who might be better than some of the players they actually keep in Pittsburgh. This potentially includes Rutger McGroarty, Avery Hayes, and Tristan Broz. I think all three will start the year in the AHL. For McGroarty, even if he shows to be deserving it will be for contractual reasons. That’s a tough thing for a player.
Here is an opening night lineup if you went by players with term and who are not waiver exempt.
Rakell-Crosby-Rust
Malkin-Novak-Chinakhov
Kuzmenko-Kindel-Koivunen
Robertson-Lizotte-Lapierre
Dewar-Soderblom
This assumes the team is only carrying seven defensemen so there is likely not enough room for both Dewar and Soderblom in this hypothetical.
I don’t see a path forward for Justin Brazeau. He had a nice hot streak to start last season, but there is just too much competition and better skaters now.
I don’t think Avery Hayes or Tristan Broz are going to be among the top 13 forwards in the current landscape.
Rutger McGroarty is someone who could find his way into this conversation. His waiver-exempt status is likely going to cost him, and he is the player I think will be hurt the most by the Penguins roster situation. If it does play out this way, I hope the front office and coaching staff is proactive and communicating appropriately. It is the kind of thing that can sour someone who feels like they belong, and rightfully so.
For McGroarty, he is going to have to play at a level where Dubas starts to think about moving a player like Connor Dewar off the roster, which isn’t an outlandish outcome.
I don’t have a big appetite for a player like Hendrix Lapierre, but Dubas spent a 3rd and a 5th for him. He’s going to get a look.
Filip Hallander is a player I want to keep an eye on. His point-per-game pace in the Swedish Hockey League saw him finish second overall in scoring with 53 points in 51 games. Last year, the blood clot issues robbed him of his return to North American hockey. While the blood clot had a three month projected timeline to recover, an additional lung issue was found in February. This ended his 2025-26 season.
He has fully recovered and will be looking to bounce back in a big way from what had to be a nightmare situation. I find myself rooting for him given the health scare. Even with the offensive production in Sweden and the clean bill of health, he is up against it in the current situation.
I fully expect to see some intensity that you normally do not see in the preseason given the roster situation.
UPDATE 12:53PM
Bad news for Lizotte and good news for these forwards trying to carve out a roster spot. I think this benefits Filip Hallander the most being a center who isn’t waiver exempt.
Defensemen looking to join the Penguins ranks
While the competition among defensemen isn’t quite as fierce as the forwards, there are some players who are looking to break through and leave the lower levels of hockey behind.
Harrison Brunicke probably leads the way in this regard. He has two successful training camps with the Penguins to his name. In those camps, he put his name squarely in the “will be in the NHL soon” conversation. He stayed for nine NHL games last year. The games were strategically chosen to keep him with the NHL club as long as possible instead of sending him back to juniors.
Ultimately, he played 28 games in Kamloops before joining the Baby Penguins to finish the year.
He played well in WB/S and is now looking to stay with the big club. The issue for him is that the team will likely send him back to the AHL because of his waiver status if he isn’t going to see a lot of minutes. Right now, Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, Kaeden Korczak, and Trevor van Riemsdyk are all right-shot defensemen signed to the roster. He may be a victim of his contract like McGroarty might be.
Owen Pickering is the Penguins former 21st overall pick in 2022. He hasn’t gained any traction to this point and did not look good in his limited NHL action last year. The good news is that he is still only 22 years old. If he wants to project as an NHL regular he is going to take a step forward this year. There will likely never be a clearer path to do so. Currently, the depth on the Penguins’ left side is what I would call… not great.
You have Sam Girard, Declan Carlile, Ilya Solovyov, and Ryan Graves as the left-shot defensemen at the moment. You may also see someone like Trevor van Riemsdyk as someone who slides over to the left side despite being right-handed. Pickering had 28 points in 68 regular season games for WB/S last year. I don’t consider him an offensive defenseman, but you do want to see an offensive pulse at lower levels even if their future role won’t be offensively centric. Way back a decade ago Josh Weissbock did some studies on AHL production on prospects and the likelihood of them graduating to the NHL. The notable part as it pertains to Pickering:
“Past 22, AHL defence men need to score ~0.7 ppg or higher; otherwise, their odds of a long NHL career diminish”
If Pickering does not make the Penguins out of camp, we are going to need to see his AHL point production boost up as evidence he is continuing to work towards an NHL career. As Josh always said, these are probabilities, not destinies. Just a rule of thumb to go by.
Lastly, we have Tomas Galvas, who I am very intrigued by. I will always be more drawn to the players who can do more on the offensive side, and Galvas is that. He had a great rookie tournament and was able to showcase his skating and ability to generate offense. Given that he is already playing professional hockey in Czechia, I wasn’t surprised to see him do that against other prospects.
would love it if he was able to keep pace and look the part in these preseason games. He has a skill set that can really help unlock the ability for the forwards to do the things they do. Creating time and space and facilitating controlled plays is so helpful for everything that happens out on the ice.
This is going to be a situation where Galvas is going to make the big club or be sent back to Europe. Jason Spezza already said WB/S is not an option they are going to use with Galvas.
Tonight won’t be the night to see NHL competition, though. The Sabres are leaning heavily into a younger lineup
Let the roster battles commence.
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