It’s understandable to take these predictions with a grain of salt considering the ol’ crystal ball hasn’t been operating with 100% accuracy lately. The future is always uncertain and difficult to project. The year of 2025 saw the Penguins begin another ownership change, the exit of Mike Sullivan, struggles on the ice, Sidney Crosby continue his climb up the record books among the usual ups and downs that accompany a team.
Evgeni Malkin gets a contract extension
It was widely reported that the Penguins had little to no interest in extending Evgeni Malkin entering this season. Malkin has put up 29 points in 26 games and made little secret that if it were up to him that 2025-26 would not be his last year playing in Pittsburgh. It won’t. It’s also been said GM Kyle Dubas will reach out to Malkin’s camp during the Olympic break to touch base and discuss what the future might hold. Given that the Penguins have no salary cap issues at all (they only have about $51 million on the books for 2026-27, and just $22.5 for 2027-28) and little in the way of center depth, it wouldn’t hurt at all to keep Malkin around in his age-40 season for 2026-27. In fact, keeping Malkin will be a very beneficial strategy for the team because…
External Sidney Crosby trade ‘rumors’ will go even crazier
It’s a cottage industry for outside media members, many north of the border, to wish away Sidney Crosby from the Penguins “for his own good” to have a chance to win with Colorado or even Montreal. Crosby’s own agent has done nothing to tamp down the desires for his client to have a meaningful conclusion to his playing days. Alas, though it will result in much sound and fury in the interests of gaining attention and clicks, Crosby has remained loyal to the organization and that won’t change (especially if his long-time friend Malkin is sticking around). The Pens will have to weather the storm but with their upcoming cap flexibility and the trickle of young talent like Ben Kindel, Rutger McGroarty, Harrison Brunicke, Sergei Murashov (and maybe even Will Horcoff) keep becoming bigger pieces of the puzzle, the team could position themselves on an upward trajectory from the ones that finished 13th in the East in 2024-25 and hold onto Crosby at least through the end of his contract that runs through 2026-27 .
Most, if not all of the major veteran pieces stick around
If Crosby and Malkin are in place, it makes some level of sense to stave off desires to trade the Bryan Rust, Erik Karlsson, Rickard Rakell contingent of veterans around them. All have contracts that last at least through all of 2026, and in the order listed above are most likely to stick around. With prorated cap hits disappearing and multiple-team retention abilities limited, in-season trades of players with major salaries will be difficult for contenders to pull off. Dubas has never been in a major hurry to trade any viable player whose contract wasn’t expiring, a trend that we see continuing throughout 2026. That could change in an instant, especially if this summer a 36-year old Karlsson makes desires known to move to a contender in the final year of his contract.
No playoffs in 2026, but no huge collapse
The Penguins are currently clustered within a 10-team group in the Eastern Conference that has between 40-45 points, with playoff spots for the top three of those teams. They will not get one of them (Washington, New Jersey and Florida will), but Pittsburgh will also not have the bottom drop out and go all the way to the bottom of the conference like some others inevitably will. As a result, Pittsburgh will improve on the 80 points that they got to in 2024-25, yet remain below the playoff line.
Trades will result in more change than free agency
Kyle Dubas is a known flipper and will continue to swing assets around. Names like Tommy Novak, Connor Clifton, Blake Lizotte, Connor Dewar, Anthony Mantha and Ryan Shea could be involved in the next round of 2026 players that get shuttled around. Dubas also has three 2026 second round picks that he will be active in using to either move around in the draft or bring in more NHL-caliber talent. As mentioned above with the very favorable cap situation, the runway is also wide open to bring in more ‘dead’ hits in the Kevin Hayes/Matt Dumba range to collect even more future assets for the team. Pittsburgh won’t be going out and paying Alex Tuch or Artemi Panarin $11+ million contracts on multi-year deals and again look to focus on the Parker Wotherspoon/Justin Brazeau B-level free agents that could use a bigger opportunity to showcase their talents.
Sergei Murashov will chase two different types of Calders in 2026
In the spring of 2026, Murashov and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton will make a serious run at the AHL Championship, the Calder Cup. That will only be a precursor for Murashov, who by the end of 2026 will become the primary goalie in Pittsburgh and have his name firmly in the mix for the 2026-27 Calder trophy as NHL rookie of the year with his continued emergence as one of the top young netminders.
Only 2 of the 12 impending unrestricted free agents are retained
Some of the names (Dumba, Hayes, Clifton, Danton Heinen) are easy clears for the Pens to let slide away when their contracts expire. Malkin, as mentioned, will be one of the few to stick around. Perhaps Ryan Shea as well, if a trade offer doesn’t present itself as more tempting. Ancillary pieces (Dewar, Blake Lizotte, Noel Acciari, Brett Kulak) will all move on from Pittsburgh as they look to get younger with the next wave of AHL players moving up, same goes for Stuart Skinner. Mantha’s history as a deadline flop in 2024 with Vegas will lead to a modest trade return, despite the nice season he is having. It’s possible a select handful from the Dewar, Lizotte, Skinner, Shea group will be back, but overall owing to the Dubas as a flipper philosophy there will be continued churn in the lineup with many veterans heading for the exits and younger players like Tristan Broz, Avery Hayes, Owen Pickering and Murashov stepping in, bolstered by the next batch of the Wotherspoon/Brazeau/Mantha types of signings in the summer.