The Penguins are heading into the summer with nine potential free agents and a projected $24.5 million in cap space.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are projected to rank top ten in cap space among NHL teams when free agency opens in three weeks.
Here’s a look at the Penguins’ cap situation ahead of the June 27-28 NHL draft and July 1 beginning of unrestricted free agent signings.
Like the rest of the league, the Pens will benefit from the upcoming rise of the salary cap, which is projected to increase by $7.5 million to an upper limit of $95.5 million next season.
The Penguins currently have five restricted free agents in Connor Dewar, Philip Tomasino, Vasiliy Ponomarev, Pierre-Olivier Joseph and Conor Timmins.
The Pens will also have four players hitting unrestricted free agents in Matt Nieto, Boko Imama, Joona Koppanen and Matt Grzelcyk.
Without any of those players re-signed, the Penguins are heading into the 2025-26 campaign with 18 active roster players signed and what PuckPedia projects as $24.5 million in cap space.
That’s good for the 10th-most cap space in the NHL, according to PuckPedia.
puckpedia.com
puckpedia.com
Dubas hasn’t committed to wanting to bring any RFAs back. He told DK Pittsburgh Sports’ Taylor Haase on June 7 that the Penguins still needed to “stack those guys up versus what’s going be available on the market, and for how much, and make the best decisions for the club.”
The Penguins GM also didn’t commit to pursuing Grzelcyk, but said the team “has made it clear” to Imama they want him to return, per Haase. Imama played last season on a one-year, $775,000 deal.
Cap space available could also change before the 2025-26 season if players like Kris Letang, who underwent heart surgery in April, or Imama, who underwent bicep surgery with a four-to-six month recovery timeline in late March, start the season on LTIR.
After July 1 signings like Ryan Graves and Tristan Jarry went wrong for the Penguins, it sounds like Kyle Dubas will be more cautious about using this space to make a splash when free agency opens next month.
Kyle Dubas indicated when speaking with The Athletic’s Josh Yohe earlier this week that he plans to use that space on extending trade acquisitions rather than signing free agents. As Yohe wrote about Dubas’ plans:
Dubas and the Penguins have a bushel of draft picks and several veterans they’re willing to trade. In return, they hope to acquire young, talented players who, for whatever reason, are no longer proper fits on their teams.
If the Penguins are aggressive in the next month, it’s likely to be on the trade market more than in free agency.
“Yeah,” Dubas said, confirming that he’ll potentially be busy on the trade market. “Trade, (then) sign guys for longer range (after they’ve been acquired). UFA isn’t a good place to find good value.”
Dubas can consider longer-term contracts given the upcoming expiration of several contracts currently restricting the team’s salary cap.
Eight current contracts (notably including Evgeni Malkin’s) are set to expire ahead of the 2026-27 season, leaving the franchise with a projected $53.8 million in cap space, per PuckPedia.
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It is not yet clear if Malkin will be back for the 2026-27 campaign. He did tell The Athletic’s Rob Rossi in February that he would be back for another season after 2024-25, and that when he eventually retired it would be with Pittsburgh.
PuckPedia’s numbers reflect the projected rise of the salary cap over the next few seasons, which is estimated to jump to $104 million in 2026-27 and $113.5 million in 2027-28, according to a January NHL Players’ Association memo obtained by ESPN.
Those numbers could change based on outside factors, ranging from tariffs impacting exchange rate between the U.S. and Canada and the collective bargaining agreement currently being negotiated by the NHL and NHLPA ahead of the current CBA’s September 2026 expiration.
But the current expectation is for the cap to continue rising, giving Dubas the projected space to continue an almost complete rebuild of this roster over the next few seasons.