Charles Dickens opened his literary classic A Tale of Two Cities with the famous line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” While Dickens compared the turbulent French Revolution and Victorian Era London in his masterpiece, this quote also encapsulates the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2024-2025 season.
On the surface, many Penguins fans and NHL observers will consider this campaign a total failure for the men in black and gold. They are not entirely wrong. The Penguins missed the playoffs for a third year in a row, which is disappointing considering that when a team has a top-five all-time player on its roster, you expect that team to make the playoffs at the very least, if not contend for a Stanley Cup.
It is also disappointing for hockey fans, as they will not get to see Sidney Crosby compete in the playoffs, and as the years tick by, many will ask if they will ever get to see Sid get another chance to lift Lord Stanley. However, there are reasons to be optimistic for the future of the Penguins despite missing the playoffs.
Unlike previous seasons, the Penguins were not expected by fans or the NHL community to make the playoffs, much less compete for a championship. President of Hockey Operations and General Manager, Kyle Dubas, did not sign any high-priced free agents or make any earth-shattering trades like the 2023 Erik Karlsson deal with the San Jose Sharks. The only free agent signed for more than $2 million was defenseman Matt Grzelcyk at an average annual value of $2.75 million.
Two moves Dubas made during the offseason have established a plan for the future. First, the Pens signed forward Anthony Beauvillier to a one-year, $1.25 million contract. Beauvillier was traded at the deadline to the Washington Capitals for a 2025 second-round pick, an excellent return for a bottom-six forward.
Second, on August 22nd, the Pens traded 2023 first-round pick Brayden Yager for Rutger McGroarty, a 2022 first-round pick of the Winnipeg Jets. If you polled 100 NHL scouts, at least 70 would choose McGroarty as a prospect over Yager. Furthermore, McGroarty is ready to see significant NHL time next season while Yager is at least two-years away, the Penguins are finally beginning to look to the future and injecting youth into the lineup.
When the season finally began, the Penguins got off to a slow start, winning only three of their first ten games, including losing all four of their games on the Western Canada road trip. The Penguins never recovered, mainly due to the struggles in the net. Tristan Jarry was sent down to AHL Wilkes-Barre Scranton early in the season for a conditioning stint and later spent two months with the minor league club.
While Jarry received the brunt of the goaltending criticism, partly because he still has three years left on a five-year deal with an AAV of $5.375 million, the Penguins' netminding as a whole was suboptimal, to put it nicely. For example, Alex Nedelkovic, who started the year as the backup, led the team in starts with thirty-eight, ranked sixth-fourth in goals saved above expected at -1.6 goals for the year.
For a frame of reference, Winnipeg goaltender Connor Hellebuyck had a goals saved above expected of +39.6. The other two Pens goalies, Jarry and Joel Blomqvist, both boasted -4.7 goals saved above expected ranking seventy-eighth and seventy-ninth, respectively. It is hard to win games when you do not get average goaltending at least. If the Penguins want to contend in the near future as Kyle Dubas has said his goal is, they will need to address the goalie position.
When it came to the trade deadline, the Penguins were on the fringe of contention, but decided to sell, which was the smart move. It was mentioned earlier that Beauvillier was traded for a second-round pick in this years draft, but the Penguins also traded forward Michael Bunting and a 2026 fourth-round pick to the Nashville Predators for defenseman Luke Schenn and forward Tommy Novak.
Schenn was then traded to the Jets for a 2026 second-round pick and a 2027 fourth-round selection before playing a game for the Penguins. While these trades make the Penguins immediately worse, they were able to accumulate several higher picks and got more value than expected.
However, the best trade the Penguins made was on January 31st when they trade defenseman Marcus Petterson and forward Drew O’Connor to the Vancouver for forward Danton Heinen, defenseman Vincent Desharnais and a conditional 2025 first-round pick, a pick the Canucks acquired from the New York Rangers in the JT Miller trade.
While the Rangers missed the playoffs as the tenth-worst team, they keep the pick for this draft, and the Penguins will instead have the Rangers unprotected 2026 first-round selection. This is an absolute win for the Penguins for two reasons. First, the 2026 draft is widely considered considerably more talented and deeper than the 2025 draft so the Penguins will have two first-round picks in a deep draft.
Second, it was reported on April 17th that Rangers star forward Artemi Panarin was accused of sexual assault by a female Rangers employee. While it is unclear if Panarin will face discipline from the league, it is a possibility that the Rangers best player will face a significant suspension.
The Rangers were bad this year, and unless they make significant changes this offseason, they will struggle to make the playoffs again and thus be in lottery contention. There is a real possibility that the Penguins have two top-ten picks in the 2026 draft.
The Penguins now have thirty picks in the next three drafts, with eighteen coming in the first three rounds, both the most of any team in the league. This gives the Penguins flexibility regarding their future. It is unlikely they will use all thirty selections and instead use those picks for trades or offer sheets.
If Dubas is wise, he will use these picks to acquire younger talent that can contribute to the team in the immediate or near future. A good target would be Michigan State winger and Hobey Baker award winner Isaac Howard, a former 2022 first-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Howard did not sign his entry-level contract and will be a free agent after next season. The Penguins should offer a package of second and third-round picks for Howard. He is only twenty-one years old, and if acquired, would immediately slot into the Penguins middle-six and have an opportunity to play with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
While this was the worst season for the Penguins since Sidney Crosby’s rookie year in 2005-06, they seem to finally be on a trajectory where they will not be tempted to sell the farm during the offseason to chase a championship. For example, the Penguins will not be enticed to swing for the fences with a Karlsson-type trade the season after missing the playoffs.
While this undoubtedly will mean short-term pain, it seems that Dubas and the organization as a whole have finally recognized that the team needs a roster overhaul and embrace the future. While it has been a joy to watch Crosby and Malkin for twenty years, they are not immortal, and they are both on the back nine of their careers.
The Penguins need to get younger quickly, but also need to tread carefully. The Penguins of 2025 closely resemble the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings of the late 2010s, a rapidly aging core that won multiple championships but also went over a decade of not having a top ten pick.
The result for both teams was that they completely blew it up, and both fan bases have suffered through painful rebuilds.
Ken Holland said it takes at least ten years for a franchise to complete a rebuild and become successful again. Unlike the Red Wings and Blackhawks, the Penguins have a treasure trove of draft capital that they can use to their advantage and hopefully avoid a lengthy rebuild.