While some head coaching searches may soon be wrapping up, don’t expect that to be the case for the Penguins. Speaking with The Athletic’s Josh Yohe (subscription link), GM Kyle Dubas indicated that he plans to do a second interview in-person with the final few candidates for the role in the final week of May when he returns from Sweden where he’s in charge of Canada’s entry at the Worlds. From there, the hope is to have the new hire in place by June 1st before Dubas leaves for the Draft Combine a few days later. The new coach will be taking over for Mike Sullivan, who was one of the longest-tenured bench bosses in the league before parting ways with him earlier this month.
Penguins Rumors
Goaltending Questions Loom For The Penguins
Despite a difficult season that included two demotions to the AHL, Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry has done enough to retain the starting job heading into next year, Seth Rorabaugh of triblive.com believes.
As Rorabaugh notes, the 30-year-old Jarry posted less-than-stellar numbers on the season but showed improvement after returning from being waived and then demoted to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. All told, Jarry appeared in 36 NHL games, with a 16-12-6 record, 3.12 goals against average, and .893 save percentage. However, in his final 14 games, Jarry had an 8-4-2 record, .904 save percentage, and two shutouts. It’s also important to note that much of the criticism surrounding the Penguins has focused on their defensive play in front of their goaltenders, including the play of big contract players like Erik Karlsson and Ryan Graves.
Still, Jarry’s performance over the past few seasons has been deeply disappointing for a Penguins team caught between trying to stay competitive and facing the growing need to begin a rebuild. His late-season improvements were likely enough to justify keeping him as the starter next season, but not enough for GM Kyle Dubas to generate trade interest from teams in need of goaltending who believe that Jarry is back to his all-star form.
And as Rorabaugh points out, Dubas indicated in his year-end press conference that he expects Jarry to be in an open competition with the club’s other goaltenders coming into training camp, making a potential buyout sound unlikely. Also under contract is Alex Nedeljkovic, whom the team views as a reliable NHL backup, but not a viable starting option. Like Jarry, Nedeljkovic struggled last season behind an inconsistent defense, finishing with a 14-15-5 record and a .894 save percentage.
The Penguins’ system is stocked with polished prospects, but it remains unclear whether any have the experience to handle a significant NHL workload. That group includes Sergei Murashov, who performed well in both the ECHL and AHL this past season, though it was his first year playing in North America. Joel Blomqvist also impressed at the AHL level but struggled during his first taste of NHL action. Murashov, 21, the Penguins’ fourth-round selection in the 2022 draft, posted a .913 save percentage in 16 games in the AHL after posting even better numbers in the ECHL. He also broke a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins record by winning his first 10 games. While his continued development is something to closely monitor, the Russian is unlikely to push Jarry or Nedeljkovic for playing time to start the season.
All things considered, Jarry appears to have a path to retaining the starting job next season, even if it may not be the team’s ideal scenario.
Penguins Have Interviewed Jay Leach, David Quinn, Jay Woodcroft For Head Coaching Vacancy
The Penguins have obtained permission to and completed an interview with Bruins assistant Jay Leach for their vacant head coaching job, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said on Friday’s 32 Thoughts podcast. Friedman added that they’ve also considered promoting assistant David Quinn to the head job and talked to former Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft.
Those names get added to a list that includes former Blues bench boss Drew Bannister, Capitals assistant Mitch Love, and Kings assistant D.J. Smith. Out of the six, Bannister is the only one who hasn’t been confirmed to have an interview.
David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported back in April that the Bruins were receiving calls on Leach for teams interested in interviewing him for head coaching roles, but it’s been quiet since on who’s talked to him. He’s not a complete newcomer to the organization. His first coaching job in North America was as an assistant with the Pens’ AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the 2015-16 season. The Bruins plucked him the following year for their AHL squad, and he’s remained in the Boston organization since, aside from a two-year stint with the Kraken as an assistant in their first two seasons in the league.
Quinn hasn’t been linked to coaching vacancies outside the Pittsburgh organization in this hiring cycle. Of the six candidates mentioned, he has the most experience as an NHL head coach. The 58-year-old took an assistant role in Pittsburgh last summer after being fired by the Sharks. Also, he served on the United States’ bench at the 4 Nations Face-Off as an assistant under Mike Sullivan, whom he’s now considered a potential replacement for with the Pens. The Rhode Island native has a 137-185-50 (.435) record in 372 regular-season games as a head coach with San Jose and the Rangers since 2018. His only playoff appearance was in the 2020 qualifying round, and the Hurricanes swept his New York club.
This is the first mention of Woodcroft in connection with the Pens’ vacancy. He’s been considered for two other jobs this summer – the Ducks and the Bruins. While the former opted to hire Joel Quenneville instead, he’s still a legitimate possibility in Boston and likely has a better chance of landing that gig with a smaller field of known candidates. The 48-year-old had a 79-41-13 (.643) record over three seasons as bench boss in Edmonton. His Pittsburgh connection is fragile – he helped defeat the Pens in the 2008 Stanley Cup Final as a video coach with the Red Wings.
Don’t expect news on a hiring until later this month, with general manager Kyle Dubas out of the country, Josh Yohe of The Athletic said yesterday. He’s GMing Canada at the World Championship.
Offseason Checklist: Pittsburgh Penguins
The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs plus those eliminated in the first round. Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Pittsburgh.
The Penguins missed the playoffs for the third straight year, and the team has pivoted from being a perennial playoff participant to a below-average squad with an old and expensive roster. The question in Pittsburgh has now become, are they in a rebuild or a retool? General manager Kyle Dubas spoke about wanting to get back into contention quickly earlier in the year, but has spoken more recently about finding sustained success. Still, the Penguins’ recent split with head coach Mike Sullivan suggests that they may not be planning to compete anytime soon. Josh Yohe of The Athletic has speculated that the Penguins will try to make a big splash in the summer of 2026, which means this upcoming season could be rough in the Steel City. The Penguins hired Dubas nearly two years ago. They paid him very handsomely to navigate a complicated situation in Pittsburgh, and this could be the summer when Dubas has to earn his hazard pay. The Penguins are about to enter what can best be described as a transitional summer as they continue to shed older, more expensive players in favor of younger, controllable ones who will be part of the franchise’s future.
Hire A New Head Coach
Sullivan coached the Penguins for nearly a decade and is the most successful coach in franchise history. His presence always gave the Penguins a confident swagger, even when they shouldn’t have had one. While Sullivan didn’t have much success in recent years, they probably overachieved given the poor roster construction and inconsistent goaltending.
Now, with Sullivan in New York, Pittsburgh must pivot and hire a coach for a job that is as undesirable as an NHL coaching job can be. The Penguins aren’t close to competing, and don’t have any truly upper-echelon prospects that will be gracing the ice at PPG Paints Arena anytime soon. However, the Penguins remain a prestigious franchise and still boast one of the game’s greatest players in Sidney Crosby.
Whoever is the Penguins’ next coach will likely be the last head coach of Crosby’s career and will need to be okay with taking on a team that will underwhelm next season. This could force the Penguins to look outside the regular NHL coaching carousel, which might be a positive, given the rate at which NHL coaches are recycled. Pittsburgh will probably be looking for a coach who preaches defense first, which would be a significant pivot for a franchise that has made offensive firepower its calling card. But the Penguins barely have any outside their top line (Crosby, Bryan Rust, and Rickard Rakell), and their top prospects won’t exactly fill the scoresheet.
If the Penguins can find a head coach who can scheme a solid defensive structure and Pittsburgh can get some goaltending, they could surprise people next season. But even then, it’s hard to imagine them being anything more than a middle-of-the-pack team.
Trade Erik Karlsson
The Erik Karlsson experiment has been a trip. It was worth trying, and Dubas did well to acquire the three-time Norris Trophy winner using multiple veterans on bad contracts and several premium draft picks. The first-round pick they traded for Karlsson is a loss that stings, but the move made sense at the time, as the Penguins were hopeful that their veteran group had one more run in them, and the belief was that Karlsson could elevate the older stars. 
But it didn’t work out that way, and Karlsson has been just okay offensively, and downright dreadful defensively. Karlsson was never a master class in defense, but this past season, his shortcomings were undeniable, so much so that Kyle Dubas had some harsh words about Karlsson’s game at the end of the season (as per Pittsburgh Hockey Now).
Karlsson isn’t impossible to move, but the last time he was available two years ago, he was two years younger and coming off a 100-point Norris Trophy-winning season. He’s older, slower, and has significantly less trade value this time. The Penguins might have to take a bath on this one if they want to move on from the soon-to-be 35-year-old. The other issue they will face is that Karlsson controls his fate through a no-movement clause.
While it will undoubtedly be more challenging to trade Karlsson this year from a performance perspective, it should be easier to facilitate contractually. Karlsson has two years left on his deal with a $10MM cap hit thanks to $1.5MM of retention by the Sharks. Karlsson has $16.5MM left on his contract in hard cash, but after his bonus for next season is paid out on July 1, he will be owed just $11.5MM in absolute dollars for the final two seasons. That could interest a team more concerned with actual dollars than cap space, such as one of Karlsson’s previous teams, the Ottawa Senators.
So, what kind of trade can Penguins fans expect? It’ll be something similar to what he was traded for previously, minus a first-round pick. There won’t be many teams willing or able to take on Karlsson’s full cap hit, so the Penguins will either need to retain a significant portion of Karlsson’s salary for the next two seasons or take back another team’s undesirables to allow the money to match.
Suppose the Penguins opt to retain significant money. In that case, they will allow themselves the best potential return, as teams would probably line up if Karlsson’s cap hit were reduced to something closer to half of the $10MM he is currently costing. It’s hard to speculate what that kind of return would be, but it would probably not be insignificant given that Karlsson can still put up points and play in a team’s top four.
Now, if the Penguins opt for the route where they retain no money or very little, it will require them to take back contracts of underperforming players. There wouldn’t be much of a market for this type of trade, but Detroit would certainly have interest, and they have several players on low-value contracts and would be happy to ship them out to bring in Karlsson.
In any event, Karlsson is among several Penguins players who need fresh starts, and he is the most impactful Pittsburgh player who could be on the trading block.
Acquire Younger Roster Players
Many people panned the Jake Guentzel trade in March of 2024, as Dubas elected to go for quantity over quality regarding the Penguins’ best trade chip. Guentzel was dealt to Carolina for forward prospects Vasily Ponomarev and Ville Koivunen, Cruz Lucius, a conditional first-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft and a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2024 draft. Now, the first-round pick ended up falling back to a second pick, and Dubas was heavily criticized for not obtaining a first-round pick, but the trade has been a massive win for the Penguins just a year later. Pittsburgh drafted defenseman Harrison Brunicke with the second-round pick, and he appears to be developing into a long-term fixture in the Penguins’ top four. Koivunen looks like he will start next season in the top six for the Penguins, and Ponomarev may be playing on the third line.
Now that Dubas has started building some depth in the Penguins’ pipeline, they must find higher-end young players to lead their newly acquired prospects. Pittsburgh has a handful of nice forward prospects, but they do not have any high-end prospects they can build around. Those players are the most difficult to acquire, but that is the project that Dubas will need to figure out to get the Penguins back into contention.
The Penguins have a couple of solid veterans on value contracts that they could flip out for picks and prospects, but with so many draft picks in the subsequent three drafts, Pittsburgh might be best served to try to move those players out for young NHL roster players. It’s easier said than done, though, as teams are more forward-thinking these days and better understand the importance of young controllable roster players in a salary cap league.
Dubas might not be able to accomplish this goal without some draft lottery luck next year. Still, he he’ll have plenty of draft picks over the coming years to try and catch some value in the Entry Draft, or use those picks to make trades to a team that is up against the salary cap and has to move out an RFA who has priced himself out of a cap strapped organization.
Move Out Rickard Rakell
Rakell had a career year playing alongside Crosby on the Penguins’ top line, posting 35 goals and 35 assists in 81 games. For Rakell, it was the third time he had topped 30 goals and the first time since 2017-18. Rakell can play, there is no doubt about that, but he is just a year removed from arguably the worst season of his career and at 32 years of age, his value isn’t going to be higher. Rakell will likely be 33-35 years old by the time the Penguins are set to contend, and while trading him might upset Crosby, Rakell isn’t helping this team when they are ready to win unless he is traded for future help.
Dubas talked about the need to maintain a winning culture in Pittsburgh, but to be perfectly honest, the Penguins haven’t had a winning culture since Rakell arrived, missing the playoffs in three of the four years he has been there. So, moving on from him isn’t exactly going to wipe the slate clean, as Rakell was never in Pittsburgh when the Penguins were contenders. The best course of action with Rakell is to move him this summer and add to the prospect pool to turn things around quickly.
Rakell has three years left on his contract at $5MM annually and should be able to fetch the Penguins a first-round pick, if not more.
He will not be the easiest player to trade, but with an increasing salary cap and teams always desperate for offence, Rakell could be a solid depth addition for a team that views itself as a Stanley Cup contender. He has a modified eight-team no-trade clause, which shouldn’t be prohibitive but might block the Penguins from trading to some potentially interested parties, depending on how strategic Rakell plans to be with his contractual right.
Some folks might make a case for trading veteran forward Rust, and there is an excellent case for it, given his play last season. But, if the Penguins do genuinely care about maintaining a winning culture, Rust is one of a handful of remaining carryovers from the Penguins’ Stanley Cup Championships in 2016 & 2017 and has a deep connection with Crosby and the Penguins organization. Many people make the case that Rust should be the next captain of the Penguins, but given Crosby’s play in his late 30s, Rust and Crosby may retire simultaneously.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Latest On Penguins’ Head Coaching Search
In addition to considering Kings assistant D.J. Smith in their search for a new head coach, the Penguins are also interested in Capitals assistant Mitch Love and former Blues coach Drew Bannister as they look to fill their head coaching job, according to Josh Yohe of The Athletic (article link).
It seems clear Washington anticipates Love drawing interest for multiple of the remaining vacancies this offseason and isn’t expecting him back. While the team is still active in the postseason, they’ve granted Pittsburgh permission to interview Love – something that’s already happened and has vaulted him onto the “short list of favorites for the job,” Yohe writes.
There haven’t been many other candidates firmly linked to the Penguins’ open position outside of Rick Tocchet, who signed a reported five-year contract with the Flyers yesterday. Talks didn’t progress past a casual stage between Tocchet and general manager Kyle Dubas regarding the Pittsburgh vacancy, according to Yohe.
“Tocchet wants to win, and he wants to win now,” Yohe added. “You can argue about how close the Flyers are to winning. But the Flyers are further along in their rebuild than the Penguins are. Tocchet didn’t want to find himself in a situation where struggling in the first couple of seasons was OK because the franchise is building. He wants to win now and wasn’t certain that the Penguins are ready for that.”
As for the three named candidates, the writing on the wall indicates Love is Pittsburgh’s preferred name. He’s spent the last two seasons with the Capitals as an assistant under Spencer Carbery and drew interest for head coaching jobs. He was a head coaching candidate in the 2023 hiring cycle after winning back-to-back Coach of the Year awards with the AHL’s Stockton Heat/Calgary Wranglers, but lost out. Now 40, the British Columbia native has had the chance to acclimate to an NHL bench under a Jack Adams Award finalist and presents himself as a more attractive candidate this time.
Regarding Bannister, the former NHL defenseman finished 2023-24 as the Blues’ interim head coach and was given the permanent job last summer along with a two-year contract. His early-season departure was less to do with St. Louis’ 9-12-1 record out of the gate and more with Jim Montgomery unexpectedly becoming available for hire when the Bruins canned him in November. Like Love, the last two seasons were Bannister’s only ones behind an NHL bench in any capacity. His previous coaching experience came with the Blues’ AHL affiliate and the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack and Soo Greyhounds.
With Dubas in Sweden as Canada’s general manager for the World Championship and his open-minded approach to the search, there’s an expectation the Penguins’ search stretches into the latter days of May, Yohe adds.
Filip Hallander Named SHL Forward Of The Year
- Penguins forward prospect Filip Hallander was named the SHL’s Forward of the Year this season, the league announced on Thursday. He scored a career-high 26 goals and 53 points in 51 games this season, good for second in the league in total points behind David Tomasek’s 57 points in 47 games. Hallander signed a two-year contract with Pittsburgh at the tail-end of the SHL season, cementing his return to North America after spending the last two seasons in Sweden. He scored 61 points in 104 AHL games between 2021 and 2023, and added three scoreless NHL appearances. Hallander can now use the momentum from this award-winning season to notch his first NHL points next season.
Penguins Are Interested In D.J. Smith For Head Coaching Vacancy
David Pagnotta from The Fourth Period reports that the Pittsburgh Penguins have contacted coach D.J. Smith regarding their head coaching vacancy. Smith, an associate coach with the Los Angeles Kings, has reportedly interviewed for multiple head coaching vacancies around the league.
According to Josh Yohe of The Athletic, it doesn’t sound like captain Sidney Crosby will have much say in the Penguins’ next choice for head coach, but that’s by choice. When pressed on why he didn’t want a say in the process, Crosby replied, “Because, ultimately, I’m a hockey player. I’m not out there coaching games. I am not a manager.” The 20-year veteran clarified his statement further, saying, “If he wants my opinion on someone who’s out there, and someone who is out there that I might have had as a coach before or someone I’ve heard about, then sure, then I’ll share my opinion.”
Examining The Penguins’ Options For Ryan Graves
When Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas took over the organization just before the draft in 2023, he had little time to do an organizational assessment. But one glaring hole was on the Penguins’ top defensive pairing next to Kris Letang, where long-time fixture Brian Dumoulin was set to depart after a rocky final season in Pittsburgh. Dubas recognized the gaping hole and swiftly signed defensive defenseman Ryan Graves to a six-year contract in free agency worth $4.5MM per season.
The contract immediately became an albatross for Pittsburgh as Graves struggled on the top pairing, fell down the hierarchy to the bottom pair, and was eventually a healthy scratch on many occasions this season. The deal has been a disaster for the Penguins and will be challenging to navigate going forward.
There’s not much Dubas can realistically do to get out from under the Graves deal. Thanks to the signing bonus structure of the contract, it is essentially buyout-proof (per PuckPedia) and would offer the Penguins very little salary cap relief. The only significant reduction would come next season, a year when the Penguins probably need it the least out of the next few years, and it would tack on additional years in which the Penguins would be paying for the buyout.
The next option is probably the likeliest: to bury Graves in the minors and have him play for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL. This situation wouldn’t be unprecedented, as plenty of NHLers on big-money deals have gone to the AHL before. There’s even a recent example in Pittsburgh, where netminder Tristan Jarry had two stints in the AHL this past season. Graves is no stranger to the AHL, having played four seasons in the league before beginning his NHL career with the Colorado Avalanche, but has not played there since the 2018-19 season. This option would allow Pittsburgh to save the league minimum salary plus another $375K, equaling $1.15MM in cap savings for the Penguins.
An option that is less likely to happen, but probably the most interesting, is that the Penguins could try to trade Graves and his brutal contract. That option is sure to generate an audible snicker from readers. Still, bigger contracts to lesser players have been traded before, so it is not impossible. What better time to do it than the summer? The NHL is ripe with bad contracts, and it is very possible that the Penguins could find someone to swap another undesirable contract for a player that hasn’t worked out.
After signing a massive eight-year deal, Damon Severson in Columbus has also been a bust. Pittsburgh isn’t likely to take on two extra years on a player whose numbers have fallen off recently, but this is the type of player the Penguins will have to target if they want to do a one-for-one change-of-scenery trade. There are plenty of players on much bigger cap hits that Pittsburgh could target, but those contracts are mostly more extended than the four years Graves has remaining. The risk would probably be greater for the Penguins, especially given that they could be turning the corner on their retool and still owe on massive deals. Given that Severson is a right-shot, it’s only a realistic scenario if Erik Karlsson is also moved this summer.
If the Penguins want to move Graves’ contract using a sweetener, that could get ugly. Pittsburgh received a second-round pick in exchange for taking on two years of Kevin Hayes’ contract just last summer, and his cap hit was just $3.57MM, nearly a full million dollars less than Graves’ cap hit. Using that as a comparison, there is no doubt that the Penguins would need to use at least a first-round pick to shed Graves’ contract, which is something they simply won’t do at this time.
The Penguins could also keep Graves on their roster and hope he finds his game. It’s not impossible if Pittsburgh hires a more defensive coach who can utilize some of Graves’ strengths, as the Devils did in New Jersey before Graves joined the Penguins. The issue with that is that Graves played on a talented Devils team and was insulated from some of his shortcomings; in Pittsburgh, that is not the case, nor will it be for the foreseeable future. Graves does have a skill set, and although Penguins fans might disagree, he could be sheltered and used in situations that better suit those skills. He can shoot the puck, has good size and reach, and his transition game isn’t horrible. If the Penguins can find the strengths in his game and exploit them, they could build his trade stock up to the point that they could move him without having to retain any of his contract.
The flip side of that coin is that Graves plays poorly next season and is part of a team that falls to the bottom of the standings, something that is very possible. The Penguins could re-evaluate a year from now and look at their options again if they want to get out of under Graves’ contract.
Misses on depth players are what tank roster construction and unfortunately for the Penguins, the Graves deal has been a massive miss. It’s far from the only miss as their roster has been littered with poor depth contracts since Ron Hextall took over GM duties from Jim Rutherford back in the 2020-21 season. The Penguins have missed on almost every mid-range contract since 2021, but they do have options going forward, and while none of them are perfect, there is a choice that exists. The Penguins will have to make the one they feel best serves the organization as they try to turn the corner and compete again.
Penguins Unlikely To Retain Mac Hollowell
- In his recurring segment analyzing players within the Pittsburgh Penguins organization, Seth Rorabaugh of the Tribune-Review recently looked at defenseman Mac Hollowell of the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Hollowell led all WBS defensemen in scoring this year with one goal and 31 points, but injuries limited him to only 56 games. Despite his offensive maturity in the AHL, there’s Rorabaugh doesn’t believe the Penguins will retain him, given they never recalled him this season.
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Evgeni Malkin Considering Retirement In 2026
Penguins great Evgeni Malkin squashed any retirement rumors earlier this season, at least as it relates to this summer. With one year left on his contract, though, the tide is shifting toward Malkin ending his NHL career when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2026, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period wrote Monday.
If he does end up retiring, at least from the NHL, it shouldn’t be a drastic surprise. The 38-year-old center remains a surefire Hall-of-Famer whenever he’s up for election, but his point pace has steadily declined over the past four years. This season saw Malkin average just 1.84 shots on goal per game, down 41% from his career average.
Malkin’s 0.82 points per game in 2023-24 and his 0.74 mark in 2024-25 rank as the two lowest figures of his 19-year career. Nonetheless, that’s still a good clip for a player with a rather reasonable $6.1MM cap hit stemming from the four-year, $24.4MM extension he signed in 2022 to secure the end of his career in Pittsburgh after nearly reaching the open market.
As the team around him continues to enter aggressive retool mode, Malkin remained less of a second-line fixture than he has in years past – perhaps intentionally as the team prepares for life without him in the 2C role. He spent significant portions of the season at left wing with Sidney Crosby and finished fifth on the team in scoring with 16-34–50 in 68 games.
A three-time MVP finalist and one-time winner, Malkin remained steadfast earlier this year that he doesn’t plan on finishing his NHL career anywhere other than Pittsburgh. Depending on how strongly he still feels about that statement, the Penguins’ wish to accelerate their roster turnover next summer by not offering him an extension could play a significant factor in his decision to retire.
As for Malkin’s impact on the Penguins franchise and the league in general, it can’t be overstated. His 1,346 points in 1,213 regular-season games rank 31st in NHL history. Another 50-point year in 2025-26 could push him all the way up to 24th. Only Crosby and Mario Lemieux have tallied more points than him in a Penguins uniform. The 6’5″, 210-lb Russian also ranks first in franchise history with 1,202 PIMs.
Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.