Team: 2024-25 Pittsburgh Penguins

Initial Creation Date: Mar. 13, 2024

Published: Mar. 14, 2024

LTIR Enabled: Yes

Season Days: 192

Days Remaining: 192

Season Remaining: 100%

Projected Cap Hit Prior To Days Remaining : $74,754,342

I think Sully is gonna go next. It almost feels more and more inevitable by the day with each game we lose. I love Sully. I love the success his work brought the team. The days of 2021 and 2022 I’d say was our closest times there was to really bringing back the cup. Unfortunately that was ended by a poor run from Jarry in 2021, big injury to Sid that flipped the series for the Rangers in 2022 and then Hextall doing his magic and ruining another Pennsylvania team. Anyways, a fall of the team was gonna happen in the coming years but I don’t think any of us wanted it to happen until Sid, Geno, and Letang all retired.
I still think it’ll be possible to turn this around for one last cup but it just may be another two years at least until we get real results again.
Off season plans would be to cleaning house on the bench. There are some good coaching candidates. Top three to name is Jay Woodcroft, Dean Evason, and Craig Berube.
I think roster moves to make is if there’s no plan to bring back Guentzel(yes I think there’s a chance he comes back to Pittsburgh) is to find a short term solution and buy low till we see just how much Yager and Poulin can truely bring to the league after seeing how much O’Connor and Puustinen has brought. Not to mention on the blueline we have Pickering(he’s been working on gaining some muscle and said he’s 195), and Pieniniemi although Yager and Pickering I think would need another year and Pieniniemi would need a few more. As for a Ryan Graves situation, I think because of how much struggle there has been for him. I think he should be played as a third pairing penalty killing role. I think he still has the tools to be that top 4 defencemen we signed last offseason. Play him on the third pair until he can be trusted to play top 4 minutes again. That’s pretty much what was done with Pettersson and now he’s pretty much been a top pairing defencemen. He’s been awesome. Another move that I think should be made is Karlsson is made the number 1 d-man. I think his offence can really be game changing and with the more ice time he can get the more damage he can do to other teams.
Perhaps this team can compete next season if the right moves are made. I trust Dubas more than anything. His first season may have turned out disastrous but I think he will do whatever he can to get Pittsburgh back in to the playoffs. It’s hard to make these type of moves when you want to keep as much draft capital as possible for a future after Sid, Geno, Letang.
The goaltending thing is just fun thinking for me. It’d be nice to see some old familiar faces back in the Black and Gold. Uplift the locker room a bit after a tough season.