Yeah, I went there. Despite not being the self-described weeb of the core contributors (that’s Christian’s schtick), I made the End of Evangelion reference in the subtitle. But it’s true: This is very likely a last hurrah for a group that has made its mark on professional hockey. The Pittsburgh Penguins, for the first time since Sidney Crosby’s rookie season, missed the NHL postseason in 2022-23. The five-time Stanley Cup champions not being around to play more than 82 games felt like an alien sight, and the question had to be raised: What will new GM and president of hockey ops Kyle Dubas do as the main core of Crosby, Kris Letang, and Evgeni Malkin approaches the end of their respective careers, and a significant quagmire is presented to him due to the poor performance by former GM Ron Hextall? Will he begin the rebuild, or will he be aggressive and give a group that can still be viable competitors one more shot at a long playoff run? Based off of the aggressiveness shown by Dubas, he is shooting for the latter route, which has created an electric buzz around the league and in the media and yielded a considerable amount of excitement from the Penguins’ fanbase. But how well has he been doing so and how does it position the team for the coming season? Let us take a close look and make some assessments.

One major sign of going all-in that the Penguins showed was the signing of D Ryan Graves to a six-year, $27 million contract. Graves is coming off a solid year with the Devils wherein he posted 8 goals and 18 assists for 26 points, alongside 83 hits and 152 blocked shots (source: https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/hockey/news/penguins-ryan-graves-inks-six-year-deal-with-penguins/). A bit of a lengthy deal, but very likely a valuable move for strengthening their top four in the short-term, and we know this team is thinking about quick success and a deep playoff run first and foremost. That almost feels like an afterthought in contrast with their biggest move of the offseason and the biggest trade made by any team this summer. In a three-team deal that also included the Montreal Canadiens, the Penguins acquired D Erik Karlsson from the rebuilding San Jose Sharks (with Rem Pitlick, Dillon Mamaliuk, and third-round pick in 2026 as complementary pieces). This is an immediate upgrade to the team, as they are adding the defending Norris Trophy winner who just posted a 101 point season. It is likely that this will add more offensive value than anything, as you can expect Karlsson and Letang to be spending a lot on the attack, but it will cause headaches for their Metropolitan Division opponents, and could level the playing field a bit in a division wherein the Rangers and Hurricanes have PHENOMENAL top two pairings. Damien further breaks down these acquisitions in his “Damien’s Deliberations” series on his favorite roster moves of the summer. Additionally, the team has traded Las Vegas’ third round pick in 2024 back to the defending Stanley Cup champions in exchange for RW Reilly Smith. Pretty good scoring depth move for their top six, as the 32-year-old Smith is coming off a season wherein he scored 26 goals and 30 assists for 56 points in 78 games for VGK. To shore up the defensive game of their forward group, the team also picked up C Noel Acciari, C Lars Eller, and LW Matt Nieto on three-, two-, and two-year deals, respectively. Pretty solid series of moves made by Dubas this summer.

One question mark perhaps surrounds the 5-year, $26.8M extension of G Tristan Jarry. On the high end, the 28-year-old British Columbia native’s numbers when health has not been a detriment have been excellent, of course. Look at his GSAA in 2021-22 for an excellent example. But availability from him is hard to fully anticipate, his playoff numbers are not excellent, and he is coming off a year where he played with a tweaked back that flared up on several occasions. The Pens were a bit handcuffed by the goalie market not presenting an option that made sense, but five years for a goaltender with these issues raises some eyebrows. Maybe (emphasized) Jarry can get the job done with this group in the short term, but even that is not a lock. Remaining, smaller deals for the Penguins can be found here.

The Penguins started their draft efforts by drafting C Brayden Yager at 14th overall. Since having entered the WHL, being drafted by the Moose Jaw Warriors at age 15 (with the usual age restrictions being temporarily lifted due to the COVID-19 pandemic limiting players’ available options), the Saskatoon native has averaged just over a point-per-game with Moosejaw, scoring 155 points in 154 regular season games. Yager brings a considerable amount of offensive all-around talent and skill to the table. The Penguins only had an additional five picks after their round one selection, and FloHockey seems to think there is some value to some of those picks although they weren’t particularly Earth-shattering. Overall, kind of a quiet day two, but it is worth noting that Yager is a very good round one selection. According to Byron Bader’s HockeyProspecting, his draft year comps include Ron Francis; Jake Guentzel (who will be covered more momentarily); Luc Robitaille; and star producers including the likes of Jeremy Roenick, Saku Koivu, and T.J. Oshie. He may not end up being in the generational talent crop, but could make a pretty darn good NHL-level playmaker somewhere down the line. Additionally, seventh round pick F Emil Järventie put up some solid numbers for Finland’s U18 team, posting 19 points in 21 games last year. That said, it is a bit unfortunate for the Penguins they were not positioned better to fill some gaps in their prospect pool this year on the whole, though their first and last selections were good enough to balance it out a bit. Currently, the Pens have one pick in all seven rounds in 2024 (though of course that is subject to change), so we will see what happens next year.

Overall, the Penguins are going for it, and doing a more than respectable job in the transactions revolving around those efforts. For what they’re going for, I would say the team deserves an A-. That said, some of the moves, such as the Jarry extension, raise some questions and they had an okay-to-pretty good draft that had a couple of satisfying picks but was not a grand slam of a couple of days, so the long-term picture is so-so. However, the balance between these short-term efforts and the medium-term picture are pretty good, though of course, the grander scale will be something to think about with Crosby, Letang, and Malkin getting closer to retirement. The team should have just under $19 million in cap space in the summer of 2024 (a number that could rise in tandem with the cap increase), most likely enough to re-sign Jake Guentzel as he becomes a UFA and keep a solid group together. All things considered, I will be giving the Penguins a B+ overall grade for this offseason. The team might not be a Cup contender and have plenty of competition in the Eastern Conference to keep them on their toes, but they will make a bigger impact and postseason than previously expected, and there is some room for optimism down the line as the murkiness of the post-#87 era approaches.