The Pittsburgh Penguins will be watching the postseason from their living rooms for the second year in a row. Pittsburgh came closer to the playoffs then anybody thought they would, but the issues that plagued them all year turned out to be too much to overcome. Now, the Penguins are staring down the barrel of a long summer with many of the same questions they had last summer. With one year under his belt, general manager Kyle Dubas seems to know the direction he wants to go in and it doesn’t look like he plans to waste any time.
Who Will the Penguins Bring Back?
Ryan Graves was just one of the many sore spots for the Penguins this season and everyone, including Dubas, knows it. Graves signed a six-year contract worth $27 million last summer and did not live up to the hype. He was supposed to be the counterweight to either Erik Karlsson or Kris Letang. Pittsburgh had every reason to be hopeful as he was a good player for the Colorado Avalanche and the New Jersey Devils, but he never quite found his footing this season.
At 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, Graves is one of the biggest players on the ice. One of the most frustrating things about his game this season is that he simply did not use his size. He played way too soft in his own zone every time he was on the ice. He needs to be better at making stops in the defensive zone. He also needs to work on his net front presence and getting the opposition out of the way. There is no doubt he has the size to do it, but he needs to work on his strength this summer which will improve his physical game.
Another thing that seemed to disappear from Graves’ play this season is his shoot first mentality. In Colorado and New Jersey he used to fire everything from the blue line, but he seemed to lose that this season. With five more years left on his contract, there isn’t much of a chance the Penguins will find any interested takers so all they can really do is hope he gets better.
Reilly Smith joined the Penguins last summer via a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a 2024 third-round draft pick. Last season, he scored a total of 26 goals for the Knights and helped them win their first Stanley Cup championship. Pittsburgh needed more help on the top two lines and initially it looked like Smith was more than capable of providing that.
Smith started out the season on the second line with Evgeni Malkin and Rickard Rakell and scored six goals…
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