The offseason is here a little earlier than the Penguins wanted it to be. As they shift into that mode, here’s what to watch for in the upcoming weeks for the early portion of decisions that will need to be made and events to unfold prior to the busy period around the draft and free agency.
Step 1: The Wilkes-Barre playoff run
Pittsburgh’s season is over but there’s still important information to glean for the organization within their AHL team. There are several players in Wilkes-Barre now, from Sergei Murashov to Rutger McGroarty, Ville Koivunen, Avery Hayes and Harrison Brunicke that will have very good chances to graduate to the NHL as soon as the start of next season. The organization would love to see a deep run by WBS to see which young players rise to the occasion and pique their interest when it comes to sorting out their squad for next season and which holes they might still want to fill via trades and free agents over the summer. The Pens probably wouldn’t have traded for Arturs Silovs without his 2025 Calder Cup run, this year their targets could well be internal for projecting to the NHL club.
Step 2: Find out draft position
Pittsburgh’s draft spot is currently 22nd, with draft position being set by regular season performance and not playoff results (until Conference Finals and Stanley Cup teams getting bumped to the end of the order, anyways). The Pens’ slot could move up to 20th if both the Flyers beat Carolina next round AND Vegas doesn’t advance to the Western Conference Final. If one of those items occur then the Pittsburgh pick moves to 21st. If neither of them happen, the pick remains 22nd. Vegas is up 3-2 in their series on Utah to move onto the next round and Carolina is a heavy favorite, so for draft positioning there might not be a move up from 22nd, but it’s one of those things to sit back and wait and see how it goes.
Step 3: Sort out Evgeni Malkin
This could take hours, days, weeks or even months to reach a conclusion. Malkin has made no secret his desire to return in 2026-27 with the Penguins. Kyle Dubas, on the other hand, has been in no rush to extend the star forward. Malkin will turn 40 this summer and the Penguins want to get younger, but he did produce 61 points in 56 games this season. Objectively, there shouldn’t be much to think about here to give the franchise icon a one-year extension. He’s still a productive player that could and should help the team next season and likely even come at a discounted rate. (It also doesn’t hurt that Malkin will help sell tickets and merch while keeping Sidney Crosby happier).
Step 4: Ownership transition
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman recently said the sale of the Penguins from FSG to the Hoffmann announced in December is ‘on track’ but didn’t give a timetable of when it would be completed. That requires Board of Governors approval and they haven’t had a meeting recently to get to that business. Immediate reactions might be for some sort of drastic change or shifts but it usually doesn’t pan out like that from the very start. It’s still an important item to check off the list, even if it likely won’t alter the offseason or team direction.
Step 5: Other free agents
The unrestricted free agents on the NHL roster, along with Malkin, are Kevin Hayes, Anthony Mantha, Noel Acciari, Connor Dewar, Connor Clifton, Ryan Shea, Ilya Solovyov and Stuart Skinner. In an effort to get younger, most of these names have likely played their final game as a Penguin. To varying levels, a few (most likely Dewar, Shea and Solovyov) will at least be approached for a possible return, if not get outright efforts to keep for next season. Maybe that applies to some of Acciari, Mantha and Skinner too, though I’d personally put those three names in a much less likely to return category at this point.
For restricted free agents, the Pens have Egor Chinakhov and Arturs Silovs to deal with (plus Koivunen and Joel Blomqvist down in the AHL). In this day and age it’s not uncommon to not tender an RFA and try to get a better deal for the team – that happened with Dewar and Phil Tomasino last year, but it’s a no-brainer that everyone mentioned in this category will get a qualifying offer and have their rights retained by the Pens.
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There are certainly other items to consider and items to get to as well, depending on how aggressive the team might feel about what to do with someone like Ryan Graves or whatever might happen with the Kris Letang situation, whose no movement contract turns to a 10-team no trade on July 1st. Items like that are not as pressing or immediate for this early look at the offseason items and decisions that will unfold first.
