An unexpected last day of early morning July extension comes with the news of Tommy Novak re-upping with the Penguins for three more years.
Novak is now under contract for four total years, one more on his current contract and the three that comes with this three year extension at an AAV of $4.65M.
This comes as a surprise to many as Novak showed in the playoffs that he is not capable of eating the role of being a second line centre with just two points. This also says that the search for a second line centre is done for the rest of the off-season, signalling that this will be Novak's role going forward.
Novak was expected to be moved this off-season after his disappointing playoffs and flippy floppy regular season where he had moments of brilliance and long ongoing dry streaks of little to no production.
Tommy Novak, 29, just had a near career high in points this season and finally broke out technically after being acquired from Nashville back in 2024-25.
The signing itself is very questionable and makes no sense but the Penguins organization clearly views Tommy Novak very highly and believe in the player going forward. He will be back most likely with Evgeni Malkin this season and Egor Chinakhov. The cap hit will age well if he continues to improve as the contract progresses, the term fits with what Kyle Dubas envisions for his supposed plan so no surprise there at all with three years.
Novak has that creative offensive forward capability who can control the puck well in the transition game and can become a dual threat when he wants to. His game at the face-off dot is low and his physical game holds him back a lot but he likes to work without the puck as well to try and make up for his not physical style of game. He found more success at the centre spot then he did winger slot.
Going forward all the pressure will be on Novak to see if he can continue to carry the 2C role.
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