What will the Pens look like in two years?
It’s fun but ultimately impossible summer task to look at future NHL lineups. This exercise could (and will) be dashed with a single phone call to make a big trade within the next 24 months, but what the heck – you’re here, we’re here, let’s take a stab at what the Penguins could look like two years from now.
A lot will be different by then, and the only thing known for sure is that the future will be unknowable. There are only five players under contract for 2027-28, with ironically a couple of them the team will probably move soon (Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell) and others that they would love to move if possible (Ryan Graves, Tristan Jarry) in addition to the omnipresent Kris Letang.
Conspicuous open space LW – Sidney Crosby – Rutger McGroarty
It seems kismet that the Penguins will add their next franchise piece 21 years after Sidney Crosby in the way they got Crosby 21 years after drafting Mario Lemieux. Maybe that works, maybe it requires signing a free agent, but we’ll leave a wink and nod to let you figure out who it is. Oh, and we’re also assuming that the 40-year old Crosby signs on to play for the Pens again.
Ville Koivunen – Free agent/trade center – Ben Kindel
It would be a big leap to pencil Kindel into a top-six role in what will be his draft+3 season, but let’s hope for a developmental win and quick turn here. Kindel’s played center and wing, it should be easier as a rookie to stick as a winger and then perhaps grow into a center down the line. Pittsburgh will need to externally add some talent down the middle, since they don’t have much coming from the center spot.
Free agent – Free agent – Avery Hayes
It would be nice to see Mikhail Ilyin or Melvin Fernstrom here, but even two years from now they will still be on the younger side. Something about Hayes says he’s going to make it as a small bottom-six winger with a bit of scoring touch. Will Horcoff and Bill Zonnon could also be knocking on the door to eventually figure into this area during the season, but we’ll stash them hypothetically in WBS to start the year.
Tanner Howe – An old player no one likes – Another replacement level Dubas pet project
Howe will have put his ACL surgery well in the past by now and should be getting towards NHL usefulness. As usual, it won’t be an exciting fourth line with some random veterans acquired in the future filling the gaps.
Owen Pickering / Harrison Brunicke
Let’s hope Pickering takes a big leap and is able to slot in here. Brunicke’s ascent might not reach the levels of dominant first pair player, but the sky looks like the limit for him as a quality player.
Random defender / veteran player
The Pens need to add a lot of blueliners in the near future. Someone is coming, who is it? To be determined.
Daniel Laatsch / Kris Letang
This might be the surprise pair of the future that probably has a 1% chance of really coming to fruition. Laatsch is like a strange fusion of Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill, he’s all defense but has the size, positional awareness and reach to go a little further than might be realized. It’s no sure thing he makes it to the NHL or stays there a long time but this is my vision. Speaking of lasting a long time, Letang could very well be involuntarily retired by a medical team by this point, but what’s the fun in that? He still has a contract and I assume no team will want to trade for an ancient, somewhat expensive player so here he stays.
Goalies: A veteran and Sergei Murashov
By 2027-28, the Pens will know what they have in Murashov. Goalies can be unpredictable but his athleticism is worth banking on.
—
Overall for the Pens, two years from now they should be a mostly new team from what is on hand even today. There’s a chance players like Koivunen, McGroarty and Brunicke should be staples but at this time last year that would have been Brayden Yager in the picture and he was removed before he even started his pro career. A lot can change and in a hurry.
One thing about the timeframe is that two years isn’t much time. In some ways it’ll be more interesting to see where the team is five years from now when even Crosby and Letang will certainly be gone and much of the 2025 draft class will be established (..or not) to see what that next wave of bodies looks like. The Pens remain in a period of transition and it will take a long time until the prospects they are building up will make their way to NHL impacts.