The State of Penguins; Projections & How Rivals View Offseason

It’s the division. According to Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas, the first measuring stick is comparing his team to its division rivals because that’s where playoff berths and success begin.

And that is how we’ll judge the current state of the Penguins.

It seems simple enough. A team must beat its divisional rivals to make the playoffs, and it must beat them in the playoffs. So, taking stock of the Penguins’ offseason necessarily must be put into the Metro Division context and against the presumed wild-card contenders, such as the Detroit Red Wings.

Skipping the top two teams in the division (New York Rangers, Carolina Hurricanes), the primary competition has been busy.

• The New Jersey Devils‘ big adds include new coach Sheldon Keefe, goalie Jacob Markstrom, as well as top-four defenseman Brett Presce.
• The Philadelphia Flyers are still in the midst of a rebuild, but they pried extremely talented 2023 seventh overall draft pick Matvei Michkov out of Russia and cleared cap space by buying out Cam Atkinson.
• The young and improving Ottawa Senators fixed their biggest flaw by adding former Vezina-winning goalie Linus Ullmark and stable defenseman Nick Jensen but dealt away defenseman Jakob Chychrun.
• The Washington Capitals added Chychrun, goalie Logan Thompson, struggling but former 35-goal scorer Andrew Mangiapane, and embattled center Pierre-Luc Dubois, whose addition may be a positive or negative. However, the other additions are a significant cut above anything the Penguins added.
• The just-about-ready Detroit Red Wings retained Patrick Kane, signed Stanley Cup winner and consistent scorer Vladimir Tarasenko, as well as offensive third-pair defenseman Erik Gustafsson. Detroit also signed goalies Cam Talbot to be a starter and Jack Campbell to a bargain, reclamation deal.

Penguins Perspective

The Penguins have Sidney Crosby, Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, and Bryan Rust. They are four players still at the top of their game and producing at levels largely befitting the best in the league. The core is superior to the competition, but it’s the supporting casts that make the difference, and there the Penguins seem to be in the most trouble.

OK, Karlsson didn’t have a great first season with the Penguins, but his year seemed emblematic of the team’s confusion and frustration; what should have been was decidedly not. It seemed that the more the team talked about doing the right things, such as…