The Pittsburgh Penguins road trip is not going well. It started with an underwhelming defeat against the Chicago Blackhawks and then saw them get mopped by the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights.
It might not feel like it, but the Penguins are only two standings points better than the Philadelphia Flyers, who have been a dumpster fire to start the year. The schedule for Pittsburgh is going to continue to be unrelenting. Things have the potential to go off the rails early in the 2026-27 season for them.
If Pittsburgh is unable to start banking standings points I don’t believe Kyle Dubas will be sitting idle.
Roster changes on the horizon for Penguins
Pittsburgh currently sits in the upper third among teams with available cap space. Erik Karlsson is a pending UFA. Technically, Sidney Crosby is also a pending UFA, even if I still believe he will sign a one-year extension at some point.. Evgeni Malkin may want to play another year, but in all likelihood he is playing his last year in Pittsburgh.
Basically, I don’t think it will take much for Dubas to publicly take the mask off and be more open about the Penguins rebuilding. Make no mistake, they have been rebuilding. They’ve just done so with some high-profile veterans. While Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang are untouchable due to their desire to stay in Pittsburgh, the other aging veterans are definitely not.
This quote is from Elliotte Friedman during Saturday’s Sportsnet broadcast:
“The other team that is interested in opening up spots for youth is Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has made it clear that they would move a veteran forward for draft picks or prospects to give their younger players more opportunity as they continue to transition to a younger roster.”
We are on the cusp of some pretty big changes.
Who could be on the move?
The first two players that come to my mind, and most other people, are Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell. They are aging wingers with a history of quality production. They each have this year and next on their contracts, and both make right around ~5M per season. Considering the new salary cap landscape, they could both be considered solid value even if the aging curve is starting to take a bite out of them.
Erik Karlsson will almost certainly be traded if Dubas is willing to start the youth movement. I have really enjoyed having him on the team and watching him on a nightly basis, so selfishly, this one would hurt the most for me. Intellectually, I completely understand moving an asset like Karlsson who has an expiring contract. The trick here will be getting Karlsson’s blessing on the destination.
I do think with him having an expiring contract it will open up more destinations for him because it isn’t a long term commitment. This is assuming any potential team is a legit contender.
Sam Girard has been great so far this year. He is also 28 years old and a pending unrestricted free agent. I think he is a prime candidate to be traded to a contender. I would start giving him power-play minutes and putting him out with the goalie pulled to juice his point total up.
Even though he is recently signed, I don’t think Tommy Novak is immune from being traded away. If they truly want to make room for younger players it wouldn’t be hard to bump Ben Kindel into a second-line center role while trying out other options for the third line.
I think any of Blake Lizotte, Connor Dewar, Justin Brazeau, and Trevor van Riemsdyk are fair game to be moved. They are all older and non-essential roster players. That isn’t to suggest that they aren’t useful pieces to an NHL team, just that their ages and low end contracts would be enticing to move for Dubas.
Temper expectations
If Dubas does start to trade away veterans to make room for the younger players who were being “blocked,” temper your expectations. These players were “blocked” for a reason. If they were bona fide difference makers at the NHL level, Dubas would have found a way to make room for them on the Penguins roster. The fact of the matter is that while they may be NHL players, it is very likely the ceiling is that of a depth player.
I am talking about players like Rutger McGroarty, Avery Hayes, Tristan Broz, Mikhail Ilyin, and Owen Pickering. (I do not consider Harrison Brunicke and Bill Zonnon to be in this group as I think their ceilings are higher)
There are people high on both McGroarty and Hayes, but they haven’t really shown the consistency necessary to take NHL roster spots by force. Perhaps they find that consistency when the path is artificially cleared for them via trades. I just don’t buy into the narrative that they’ve somehow been wronged and are ready to bust out in the NHL.
Depending on how many veterans get traded away, it will also make the life of any called-up player more difficult as they won’t have dependable support with them. This could make for a real sink-or-swim environment, and that doesn’t always go smoothly for these types of tweener players.
If the Penguins lose again tonight in Utah, that would make it seven losses in the last eight games. I don’t think Kyle Dubas is going to have patience losing with a roster that has aging veterans. We will very likely start to see the youth movement pick up speed.
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