As the national folks continue chattering about the summer of Pittsburgh Penguins contracts, including to players whose names they couldn’t necessarily pronounce, the salary-cap-era Penguins have splashed on a few bargains but also lost millions on predictable whoopsies decried by the fanbase.

An era spanning four general managers, from Ray Shero to Kyle Dubas, has kept Penguins interwebs busy. Oh, there have been some doosies, and whether or not Ville Koivunen is remembered fondly as a steal or regretted as a reach won’t be known for a couple of years.

For context and retrospect, we’ll begin with the best contracts and salary cap hits in Penguins history.

We’ve got two lists. One is a hard-and-fast objective list based on cost per point, which uncovered some surprising names, though that list excludes defensemen and goalies. We’ve also offset the mathematical top 10 with a more expansive subjective list that included everyone. The subjective listed weighted expected impact, stats, comparison to peers, and performance.

Later this week, we’ll also reveal the 10 worst, most horrendous, most awful Penguins contracts in the salary cap era.

As the lists unfold, you may notice a couple of telling trends. As the Penguins were successful, they had value contracts that paid big dividends, but in disappointing years, some bigger contracts were duds.

Best Penguins Salary Cap History, Subjective

The Subjective List:

10. 2013-14 Matt Niskanen, $2.3 million (3.83% of cap).

The defenseman was terribly underpaid as he became a primary part of the Penguins’ blue line. He not only lugged the puck up the ice and distributed it well, but he also notched 46 points (10-36-46) in 81 games. He did for a cap hit more befitting of a third-pairing defenseman.

9. 2025-26 Anthony Mantha, $4.5 million (4.57%)

Mantha shattered his previous career highs with 33 goals and 64 points. Further, he played the best hockey of his career in March, carrying an injury-decimated Penguins lineup toward a playoff berth. We’ll skip over an absent playoff performance, but his regular-season production far exceeded his paycheck.

8. 2019-20 and onward, Jake Guentzel, five years $30 million (7.36%)

An elite goal scorer and playmaker who made linemate Sidney Crosby better for only $6 million annually. In 2019, GM Jim Rutherford gambled, just a bit, by paying upfront for top-line production. However, Guentzel far exceeded expectations. In 2021-22, Guentzel potted his first 40-goal season and totaled 84 points. He followed that season with a 36-goal, 73-point campaign.

7. 2021-22 Evan Rodrigues, $1 million (1.23%)

“E-Rod” resurrected his career with the Penguins. In a twist, near the 2020 NHL trade deadline, he was a throw-in as the Penguins acquired Conor Sheary for Dominik Kahun. Rodrigues was a depth forward who was getting a steady diet of press box nachos, but a few games after the trade, former coach Mike Sullivan put Rodrigues in the lineup, and his career began to turn around.

A pair of injuries limited him to only 35 of the 56 games in the COVID-shortened season, but 2021-22 is when it clicked. Sullivan shuffled Rodrigues around the lineup, from second-line center to fourth-line winger, and the player rewarded the team with career highs that still stand: 19 goals and 43 points in 82 games.

Then former GM Ron Hextall made one of many mistakes by lowballing Rodrigues, who signed a bargain-free-agent deal with Colorado for one season at $2 million.

6. 2010-11 Tyler Kennedy, $750,000 (1.2%)

Kennedy was an unheralded part of the Penguins’ 2009 Stanley Cup championship, providing some offensive pop on a unique line with Jordan Staal at center and Matt Cooke on the other wing. Kennedy signed a two-year extension in Sept. 2008, covering the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.

He continued to add a good amount of offense from a third-line role, scoring 21 goals with 45 points for less than a million bucks.

5. 2021-22 Jeff Carter $2.636 million, (3.25%)

Hextall gambled and won (before later losing). Carter was considering retirement as his spot in the LA Kings lineup withered. At the 2021 NHL trade deadline, the Penguins acquired Carter for only a third-round pick because the fading star had one more year left on his increasingly onerous 11-year contract originally signed with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2011.

LA ate 50% of Carter’s salary, reducing the Penguins’ cap hit to just $2.636 million. Instead of being sent off to pasture, Carter was revitalized with the Penguins and (for a short time) was a fan favorite as “Big” Jeff Carter. The then-36-year-old scored nine goals in 14 games after the deadline acquisition and followed up with a solid 2021-22 season in which he potted 19 goals and 45 points in 76 games while playing middle-six roles both on the wing and center.

Of course, Hextall overplayed his hand and re-signed Carter to an ill-fated three-year deal, but the initial acquisition was quite the bargain.

4. 2011-12 Pascal Dupuis, $1.5 million (2.33%)

Dupuis had something to prove. A career depth player became the surprise of the Marian Hossa trade.

As the young Penguins charged toward the 2008 Stanley Cup Final, Shero acquired Hossa for the Cup run, and Dupuis was a throw-in from the Atlanta Thrashers. Within a year, Hossa had bolted via free agency, but Dupuis had earned his keep at the bottom of the Penguins’ lineup, signing a pair of two-year extensions. In 2010, he signed the second of those contracts, a two-year, $3 million extension.

In the second year of the contract, 2011-12, it all came together for Dupuis on a line with Sidney Crosby, where Hossa could have been. Dupuis played all 82 games and posted a career high of 25 goals and 59 points, all for the price of a fourth-liner.

3. 2015-2016 Matt Cullen, $800,000 (1.12%)

Then 38-year-old Matt Cullen contemplated retirement until former Carolina Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford talked him into one more year with the Penguins. Cullen’s speed and locker-room accountability were a perfect fit with the rebounding Penguins under new coach Mike Sullivan.

Cullen wasn’t shy on the scoresheet or in the room. On the ice, he posted 16 goals with 32 points from the fourth-line center position. Off the ice, he became known as “Dad” for his ability to give tough love to the Penguins’ star players. Sullivan called him an extension of the coaching staff.

Cullen didn’t retire after the ’16 season, and his 2016-17 contract for only $1 million was also an extreme bargain as he helped the Penguins become back-to-back Stanley Cup champions.

2. 2016-17 Justin Schultz $1.4 million (1.92%)

Called the worst defenseman in the NHL by the internet, the Penguins acquired Schultz near the 2016 NHL trade deadline for a third-round pick from the Edmonton Oilers. Schultz’s confidence and career path were red arrows pointing straight down.

Unlike his tenure with the Oilers, with the Penguins, Schultz wasn’t asked to do too much, and he became a complementary third-pairing defenseman on the Stanley Cup run.

However, for 2016-17, Schultz signed a one-year deal to remain with the Penguins, and he finally flashed his full potential, posting 51 points (12-39-51) and having an extraordinary season. The Penguins’ blue line was decimated by injury in the playoffs, and Schultz became the de facto No. 1 d-man on the run to the second of back-to-back Cups.

It was vindication for a blue liner no longer derided by pundits and angry fans, and Schultz cashed in that summer for a more expensive two-year deal.

1. Rob Scuderi, 2007-09, $712,500 (1.3%)

Scuderi paid his dues with a few seasons in the AHL before becoming the backbone of the Penguins’ defense corps. “The Piece” was a dependable stay-at-home defenseman who had just graduated from his rookie contract to his second deal and moved up the lineup from a depth defenseman to a necessary cog.

Scuderi’s fastidiously responsible work covered the high-flying Penguins stars.

And never was his work more needed than in Game 6 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final, when he made a few game-saving saves in the final seconds while goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was out of the crease. Scuderi was on his way to a big payday with the LA Kings, but while he played out his bare-minimum deal, he became a defensive star highlighted by a few plays that became part of Penguins history.

Best Cost Per Point Players in Cap Era

There are a few surprises on the list. In full disclosure, researching contracts prior to 2011 was difficult, as most of the websites that listed contract data in the early salary cap years are now defunct. And the manual work to cross-reference stats and cap tables took considerable effort, including uncovering that Michel Ouellet was eligible after initially believing he was on his entry-level contract when he posted 50 points in 2005-06. However, news stories of the day indicated his $500,000 deal was his second deal after he spent most of his ELC in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

1Michel Ouellet2006-0773 GP48 points$500,000$10,417 CPP2Michel Ouellet2005-065032$500,000$15,6253Tyler Kennedy2010-118045$725,000$16,1114Bryan Rust2017-186938$640,000$16,8425Mark Letestu2010-116427$500,000$18,5196Blake Comeau2014-156131$700,000$22,5817Bryan Rust2016-175728$640,000$22,8578Evan Rodrigues2021-228243$1,000,000$23,2569Scott Wilson2016-177826$625,000$24,03810Matt Cullen2015-168232$800,000$25,000
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