Envisioning the future in a post-Malkin world
The Penguins are already in a period of thinking about the future as they start the very beginning stages of shedding older players, prioritizing the accumulation of draft picks and paying more than just lip service to stocking up on assets that will help down the line.
The next major sea change for Pittsburgh figures to be in the 2026-27 season. Evgeni Malkin’s contract will be done, he will turn 40 and presumably not be playing in the NHL. And just like that the 20 years of the Crosby/Malkin era will be over and done.
We were stringing this project out to wait and see how long Crosby’s expected contract extension will be, but it looks like he’s either planning an announcement in conjunction with his birthday next week or a deep summer surprise, so with nothing going on we can wait no longer and will make the safe assumption Crosby is around for 2026-27. But who else will be?
Top six forward pot: Crosby, Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell, Brayden Yager, and longer shots like Ville Koivunen, Tristan Broz
—Imagining top lines without Malkin is a peculiar process. Two years from now, ideally Yager should be able to play on the second line, possibly at center. Rust and Rakell will still be under contract, though they could be moved by then. We’ll have to see what comes from the development of players like Koivunen and Broz as they begin their journeys. Odds are high that at least one, if not two players not currently in the organization will be in key roles for the Pens for 2026-27 as the team turnover rates increase and more talent is sought out.
Bottom six forward pot: Who knows! But perhaps and ideally: Vasily Ponomarev, maybe Sam Poulin, maybe even longer-shot of Tanner Howe, other cheap and new players
—As of this moment, Pittsburgh only has two forwards under contract for 2026-27 (Rust and Rakell). That builds in a great deal of flexibility for Kyle Dubas, who will be able to stake out in any number of directions by 24 months from now to construct his team as he sees fit. The Pens’ system isn’t that stocked at the moment with young players who could stick or have long-term futures in the organization. Could Drew O’Connor be extended and figure in here? Sure! Is O’Connor likely to be on the team 24 months from now? Well...probably not.
There is normally lots of movement at the bottom of the roster in the first place, and Dubas loves to swirl players at this level in and out of the team. The only thing to expect is that the future bottom of the lineup is completely unpredictable at this point.
Top four defense: Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang (?), Ryan Graves
—Will Letang (39 for the start of the 2026-27 season) still be playing? He reportedly had some injuries at the end of this season. Obviously he’ll want to keep the wheels on as long as possible, but old players tend to fall out and unofficially retire with regularity. Letang’s contractual status doesn’t guarantee inclusion in the roster two years from now (and there are only two 39+ defensemen under contract for this upcoming season: Brent Burns and Ryan Suter). Graves we’ll still include here, since he’s under contract and if he’s NOT playing on at least the second pair after three years in Pittsburgh by the start of 2026-27, one would think he would be traded for another bad contract by this point.
Given the question marks here, the Pens have a lot of building to do on the blueline in the next 24 months. It could also really use Owen Pickering getting his development into high gear and finding a big hit there, unless the team makes a move to re-sign Marcus Pettersson the defense looks lacking or at least in need of some real attention and talent infusions in the very near future.
Bottom end defense: Pickering, Jack St. Ivany
St. Ivany will still be under contract at this point but who knows how much of a hold he will keep on that position over the next two seasons to sink or swim. Defensive depth is another thing that tends to swirl around (no one could have foreseen 24 months ago that St. Ivany, John Ludvig, Sebastian Aho and Ryan Shea would be currently around) and isn’t that big of a concern to have as a hazy question mark at this point.
Goaltending: Tristan Jarry, Joel Blomqvist
—Alex Nedeljkovic has a contract through 2025-26, but by this year Blomqvist will surely be up in the big league, and possibly not for the first time. Jarry remains a wild card and will still have two years remaining on his contract in 2026-27. Jarry’s future, on or off the Penguins, might be one of the more interesting storylines over then next couple months/years for how that ends up going for him and the team.
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The Penguins envision a utopia where a grizzled Sidney Crosby leads the next generation of young talent back to glory. That’s a fun dream, but as of now the stark reality is that prospect pipelines take a long time to get setup and eventually start cranking out talent (see Ray Shero committing a lot to stockpiling young talent around 2012, only to be fired by 2016 when a lot of it really started paying off). Dubas doesn’t have the pressure to win or lose his job, but as a builder he will have to face the facts that in the next season or two the Pens don’t have a lot of blue chip talent in their pipelines. They will need Yager and Pickering to hit big and hope some others can come along to fortify things.
