There are three potential options here for this season.
The people spoke yesterday, and you want to see free agent addition Anthony Beauvillier as the Penguins’ third-line left winger.
Now we move on to third-line center, which is actually the first center spot on the team that should be up for grabs.
We know Sidney Crosby is the first-line center. We know Evgeni Malkin is the second-line center. Now we have some actual competition that should include one returning player, one newcomer, and perhaps somebody from the prospect pool.
Here is what the roster looks like so far.
Drew O’Connor - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Anthony Beauvillier - C3 - RW3
LW4 - C4 - RW4
Depth forward
LD1 / Erik Karlsson
LD2 / Kris Letang
LD3 / RD3
Depth defender
Goalie 1
Goalie 2
When it comes to filling the third-line center spot, Lars Eller is the returning option as he spent most of the 2023-24 season in that role. Of all the free agent signings the Penguins made last summer, he was probably the one that wasn’t a huge disappointment or a drain on the bottom-six.
He was his usual strong self defensively, he scored 15 goals and 31 points offensively, and he was a pretty good value against the salary cap. At his peak, he would have been one of the best third-line centers at hockey. At this current stage of his career he is probably best served as a fourth-line center (and a damn good one) on a serious Stanley Cup contender.
There is also good chance that he does not spend the full season in Pittsburgh as he would seem to be a very logical trade chip at the trade deadline if the Penguins find themselves as sellers again,
Along with Eller, Kevin Hayes is also going to be a potential factor here after he was acquired — along with a 2025 second-round pick — from the St. Louis Blues.
The Penguins are getting Hayes at a very reduced rate and he is three years younger than Eller, but he is still costing them more than $1 million more against the salary cap and is signed for an additional year. He was virtually identical to Eller a year ago offensively, but Eller is probably a little better defensively.
In the end, they are both similar in the sense that they should be fourth-line options instead of third-line options.
Assuming one of these two occupies this spot, the Penguins basically have one great first-line center, one pretty good second-line center, and two fourth-line centers.
Blake Lizotte also has center experience and can play down the middle, but he probably profiles more as a center on this roster given the options that are available.
The wild card option here, and the one you might want to be rooting for if you are looking for the Penguins to start thinking big picture and long-term, might be Vasily Ponomarev, one of the prospects that was acquired in the Jake Guentzel trade with the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Penguins wanted to get a look at him late last season at the NHL level, but a high-ankle sprain ended his season early.
He only has two NHL games on his resume to this point, but he did score a goal and add an assist in those games. He has also been a very effective offensive player in the American Hockey League the past couple of years.
His potential offense is very intriguing for a team that desperately needs some youth and more scoring from its bottom-six, but his defensive game still has some areas that need improvement. Should the Penguins be willing to live with those growing pains in an effort to look toward the future and try to find more offense? It might be worth it for a lot of different reasons.
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