Vitals
Player: Kris Letang
Born: April 24, 1987 (age 38 season)
Height: 6’0
Weight: 193 pounds
Hometown: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Shoots: Right
Draft: Third-round, 2005 NHL Draft, by the Pittsburgh Penguins
Acquired: Via draft
2024-25 Statistics: 74 games played, nine goals, 21 assists, 30 total points
Contract Status: Letang has three years remaining on a six-year, $36.6 million contract he signed prior to the 2022-23 season.
Monthly Splits
The season started off okay, at least from an offensive standpoint, as Letang had seven goals and 16 total points in his first 34 games. And then things just progressively got worse each month after that, finishing with only 14 points (and only two goals) over the remaining 40 games.
Story of the Season
Up until this season Letang seemed to be aging fairly gracefully. Was he as good as he was at his peak? Absolutely not. But he was still a top-level offensive player and was still doing his part to drive possession and help control the pace of the game. He was still very much worth his $6 million salary cap number and still looking like a strong investment.
This season a lot of that went away.
Rapidly.
It only got worse as the season went on. His offense started to decline and his defensive play became a huge liability. He started to show his age more than any other member of the core, and it really did not matter who his defense partner was.
Regular season 5v5 advanced stats
Data via Natural Stat Trick. Ranking is out of 11 defensemen on the team who qualified by playing a minimum of 150 minutes.
Corsi For%: 49.1 (9th)
Goals For%: 45.1 (5th)
xGF%: 46.9 (9th)
Scoring Chance%: 47.8 (9th)
High Danger Scoring Chance%: 48.2 (8th)
5v5 on-ice shooting%: 8.23 (5th)
On-ice save%: .905 (5th)
Goals/60: 0.18 (5th)
Assist/60: 0.44 (6th)
Points/60: 0.61 (6th)
At his peak, Letang was an advanced stats monster that was always pushing the pace of play and helping the Penguins significantly outchance — and outscore — their opponents when he was on the ice. He was usually one of the best on the roster, and also one of the best in the entire NHL.
But along with his drop in offense this season, there was also a drop in his advanced metrics as he became one of the least efficient defenders on an already bad defensive team.
Highlights
Questions to ponder
The questions for Letang are mostly about his future.
Not only with the Penguins, but as an NHL player in general. He underwent heart surgery after the season, which had a four-to-six week recovery time. Even though that obviously puts him in line to return for next season, that is still a scary situation for a 38-year-old player.
But assuming he is back on the ice at the start of the season, it is worth pondering how much longer he will want to be a part of the rebuild.
Of the three core players — Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Letang — seems to be the one that would be most likely to okay a trade and end up playing somewhere else, whether it be his hometown of Montreal, or a Stanley Cup contender.
If he is back with the Penguins, the main question then becomes — does he still have anything left in the tank, or was the 2024-25 season the beginning of the end for him as a top-four defenseman and positive contributor?
Ideal 2025-26
Letang is probably never going to be the No. 1 defenseman that he was at his peak ever again, and his days as a top-pairing defender are probably over as well. He’s lost a step, he no longer has a regular partner that he and the Penguins can rely on and his defensive game has taken a huge step backwards. We need to go into next season with some reasonable expectations. If the Penguins can get something in the neighborhood of 40-45 points out of him and shelter him enough that his current defensive shortcomings are not as exposed they might still be able to get something of value out of him.
Bottom line
No matter what happens this season or in future seasons, Letang is one of the giants of the Penguins franchise. Arguably the best defenseman the franchise has ever had (when you take into account longevity with the team) and a part of three Stanley Cup winning teams, while scoring a Stanley Cup clinching goal. He will forever deserve respect for his contributions. Nobody should want to see him go out struggling. So here is hoping Letang and the Penguins can figure out a way to get more out of him during the 2025-26 season.
Poll
How would you grade Kris Letang’s 2024-25 season?