Team: 2023-24 Pittsburgh Penguins

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 2, 2023

Published: Jul. 2, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

There is still a lot left to happen in Free Agency as a whole. We've hardly seen any trades yet and leading into the Draft/FA period it seemed everyone was talking about trades from various teams. This also just wasn't a great UFA class in general. A lot of agents said they were anticipating guys taking lots of 1 yr deals given the potential for the cap to go up $4M next year and we definitely saw a lot of that today, or other end of the spectrum and guys like Engvall and Mayfield take 7 year deals to lock up their earnings.

I don't think the Pens ever had a chance on Duchene, he wanted to pick a team he felt was a contender given the fact he's still getting $$ from NSH. Killorn and Compher got overpaid, Pens wouldn't do that. Younger guys like Class/Jost/McLeod all wanted to stay with their current teams.

Could look at missing out on Donato and Geekie, but after that I think it was a tough market.


I'm not saying the penguins are a cup contender by any means, I do believe Dubas wants to try and put the team in the best possible position to win while also not totally leveraging their future. He's got a tight rope to walk after the mess Hextall made.

Eller is the one signing so far that confused me. He's solid defensively, and on the PK, but his legs have slowed down. If he slots in at 4C that's fine. Fine with the rest. Regardless of everyone's thoughts, the team absolutely improved it's overall defense which was a large issue last year. I also think adding guys like Acciari, Eller, Graves provides Mike Sullivan with more confidence to close out games. Last year he was sending Carter and Dumolin out there because at the end of the day Carter was the most proven/experienced bottom 6 player they had. Eller and Acciari should easily take over that role from here.

Think the EK talk is overinflated, just not realistic for this team. The top four of Graves, Pettersson, Letang and Petry is just fine. Pettersson played very well with both Letang and Petry last year and I imagine Graves will be able to do the same with either or.

I think they trade Granlund, if they were planning to go into the season with him I think the plan would've been to sign pure shooting wingers to let him distribute the puck to, that hasn't happened so they're going to try and move him.

3 goalies on the roster as of today, DeSmith seems the likely man out. People can say Dubas ran 3 goalies in the past or whatever they want, don't see that happening.

Chad Ruhwedel can do what Jan Rutta does at a cheaper value, I think they look to move Rutta.

We also still don't know about the QO's the pens sent, Smith and DOC would be the only two of the Five that would (I assume) stay up in the NHL, which further pushes the team over the cap.

What do we think happens? is there a surprise trade? (Bryan Rust or Jeff Petry).

If they move those three players (Granlund, Rutta, DeSmith) and if Ty Smith and DOC sign their offers, I imagine the below roster looks something like this, leaving room to sign a 3LW and 3C.

Curious to hear some genuine thoughts on what happens next, don't want to hear about what could've been as we are where we are.