After last week’s look at our 2024 outlook about predicting the 2026 Penguins, let’s take the impossible stab at looking at what the 2028 Penguins could be working with.
This task is tough, since barely any players are under contract for the future. Pittsburgh only has six players under contract for 2028-29 as of right now. There’s a decent enough chance that two of them (Ryan Graves and Ville Koivunen) could be bought out or otherwise removed from the roster despite the current contractual status.
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That roster buildup is by design by Kyle Dubas and the front office. The current version of the Pens is built to finish out the Crosby/Malkin era, as soon as its over the plug could get pulled in a major way to lean into a full franchise restart. Dubas has often said his goal is to continue to build in order to be strong in the short and long term, but there’s little doubt his talent pipeline lacks a lot of high-end, elite options. That could be coming and the 2028-29 Penguins might be a reason why.
The big question with this is whether or not Sidney Crosby will still be playing hockey in 2028-29. He’ll be 41-years old at that point and it would be a 24th season if he does come back. Crosby appears to still have the drive and desire to play now as much as ever, but sooner or later age and Father Time are going to end his playing career. Does he have three (or more) seasons left in him? At this point, it would be nothing more than a guess either way. There’s a good chance Crosby is still playing in 2028-29, realistically there’s also a good chance he hangs up the skates by that point. Clarity could come with Crosby’s expected upcoming contract extension – two years would commit him to playing 2028-29 and answer the question early. It sounds more likely it could be only a one-year extension.
Onto the roster projection, for now we will include Crosby (because it’s not like the team has a lot to the point of excluding him).
Top-six forwards: Sidney Crosby, Yegor Chinakhov, Ben Kindel, Tommy Novak, ?, ?
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-Would love to include Koivunen here, but we haven’t seen it yet from him at the NHL level. If bought out, Koivunen would only carry a $479k cap penalty for the 2028-29 season. Ideally the Pens’ bet on him pays off, if not, then he becomes the footnote.
This listing shows the progress, yet continued challenges for Dubas. The good news: within about the last 12-15 months he has found both Kindel through the draft and Chinakhov through a trade. The bad news: Dubas needs to find another few key players in the coming years, ideally both young like he did before. Still a lot of work to do, maybe it means developing Mikhail Ilyin hoping for a big jump by Will Horcoff or Bill Zonnon, more than likely it’s going to have to be external adds.
Bottom-six forwards: Blake Lizotte, Elmer Soderblom, Rutger McGroarty, Bill Zonnon, ?, ?
-The Pens love to churn through a ton of options at the bottom of the lineup, which is almost certain to continue in the near future with various players getting looks and opportunities. Surely there will be unexpected additions from the trade and free agent market joining up. For best results and a healthy organization, it would be great to see as many internal development wins go up the ladder – even for players we didn’t project like Tanner Howe, Atley Calvert or Avery Hayes that certainly have some realisitic chance of being in the NHL picture two years from now.
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Left Defense: ?, ?, ?
-The picture looks bleak here. 2028 is a little too early to project someone like Tomas Galvas going from Czech league to NHL in two seasons in his early 20’s. Perhaps Jake Livanavage is in the picture. Maybe somehow it’s Owen Pickering. More than likely, we’ll just project the team needing completely new options on the left side. We’ll say there’s no Ryan Graves (who actually is under contract in 2028-29 for the final year). We said that in 2024 that he’d be gone by 2026, one of these times it’ll be right.
Right defense: Harrison Brunicke, Kaeden Korczak, ?
-The right side looks more projectable than the left at this point. Ideally a younger option like Chase Pietila or Finn Harding can even matriculate up and round out the group. That’s tough to call out of no where, so for now it’s too hazy to feel confident about projecting.
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Goalie: Sergei Murashov, ?
-The Pens will surely be hoping Murashov works his way into being a longterm option in net. What the situation looks like beside him two years from now is up to interpretation. Dubas tends to flip and mix up goalies with some regularity, it stands to figure in a few years’ time there will be a fresh face involved with Murashov.
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