The Pittsburgh Penguins' potent offense vanished in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Now, Penguins GM Kyle Dubas faces important decisions with pending UFAs and the path forward.
The Pittsburgh Penguins knew time was running short on the Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang Era entering this season.
Even if their three future Hockey Hall of Famers met their lofty expectations, this was a clearly flawed Pens team.
Despite the doubts about Pittsburgh being a playoff team, they were in a top-three spot in the Metropolitan Division for most of the season, with Crosby continuing to play elite hockey, Malkin having a strong throwback year and Erik Karlsson exceeding expectations.
By the time the playoffs arrived, however, the Philadelphia Flyers showed the Penguins just didn't have what it took to compete frequently enough. Despite trying to pull off a reverse sweep, the Penguins were eliminated in Game 6 Wednesday night.
Pittsburgh's off-season will be compelling as it tries to squeeze the most out of its position in its competitive cycle.
Penguins GM Kyle Dubas shows signs of building for the future, but so long as Crosby, Malkin and Letang are Penguins, Dubas will cater to getting them in the playoffs.
The clock ticks with a deafening noise for the current era, and it may detonate before Penguins fans want to bid it goodbye. Here's what went wrong and what comes next for the Penguins.
What Went Wrong For The Penguins?
The Penguins' primary problem in the playoffs was their baffling inability to score goals.
Of the 16 playoff teams this year, the Penguins have averaged the third fewest goals, at 1.83.
They scored only 11 goals on the Flyers – and one of them was an empty-netter. The only teams worse than them in the goal department were the Ottawa Senators (five goals) and Los Angeles Kings (five goals) – and they were swept.
The power play was one of the most frustrating parts of the Penguins' struggling offense against the Flyers.
They only scored on the power play in two of the six games. They went 2-for-5 in Game 3 and 1-for-3 in Game 4. In Game 2, however, the Pens went 0-for-5 and allowed a shorthanded goal. Overall, Pittsburgh was 3-for-19 on the man advantage.
During the season, the Penguins actually had the seventh-best power play and scored the third-most goals in the NHL.
But the offense vanished against a team with breakout goalie Dan Vladar, who recorded a .937 save percentage and 1.61 goals-against average.
Meanwhile, the Penguins used two goalies in the series.
Veteran Stuart Skinner started the first three games and had a .873 save percentage and 3.08 goals-against average.
Coach Dan Muse turned to Arturs Silovs in a do-or-die Game 4, and he helped the team make a reverse sweep attempt. He won two games before losing Game 6, and his .939 save percentage and 1.52 goals-against average were significantly better than what Skinner had.
But by the time the goalie issue resolved itself, the Penguins had dug a hole too big to climb out of, and the power-play drought returned.
What's Next For The Penguins?
Silovs wasn't that hot in the regular season, with a .888 save percentage and 3.07 GAA.
That said, Skinner had a 2.99 GAA and .885 SP in 27 games with the Penguins and struggled in the playoffs.
Dubas must decide whether to re-sign Skinner, who's a pending UFA. It seems more likely that Skinner leaves so that Silovs becomes the starting goalie.
That would mean Dubas needs to either trade for a different veteran tandem-mate for Silovs, or call up Joel Blomqvist or Sergei Murashov from the AHL full-time.
But goaltending isn't Pittsburgh's most pressing need.
Pittsburgh can't keep relying on 38-year-old Crosby, 35-year-old Karlsson, 33-year-old Bryan Rust and 39-year-old Malkin to do most of the heavy lifting on offense for the long term. They need more help from younger players, whether it's from those already on the team or trade and UFA targets.
When including 31-year-old Anthony Mantha, the Penguins' top five scorers in the regular season are all over 30.
Some of their offense was lost in the wake of trading star winger Jake Guentzel two years ago. And some of that has happened due to the corrosive efforts of Father Time.
Letang, for example, posted 34 points in 74 games this season, slightly better than his 30 points in 74 games in 2025-26 but a far cry from the 51 points he had in 2023-24. The 39-year-old is under contract for another two seasons.
Combine Letang's drop-off in production with uncertainty about Malkin's future, and you'll see that scoring goals will be an even bigger issue for Pittsburgh in 2026-27.
Malkin is a pending UFA, and not only does he want to play for Pittsburgh next season, but he wants to retire as a Penguin, not as anything else. Dubas must decide whether he wants Malkin back or whether he wants to keep his rebuild on the fly going by replacing Malkin with a younger player.
We think Malkin deserves a contract extension if he wants to return, as he had 42 assists and 61 points in 56 games.
It's not like there are many star players available in this summer's free agency, either.
The Penguins have a whopping $45.8 million in salary cap space this summer, but the most enticing pending UFA is Buffalo Sabres right winger Alex Tuch, who will be heavily pursued if he doesn't resign in Western New York. Paying him a ton of money may sound good to a Penguins fan, but the 29-year-old is already on a more competitive team as it stands.
No, this isn't going to be an easy fix for Dubas, who must be as crafty and creative as he was this past year to get the Penguins back into the playoffs next season.
His acquisitions of Anthony Mantha, Egor Chinakhov and Thomas Novak paid off. Mantha had a career-high 64 points, and Novak put up 42 points. Chinakhov, meanwhile recorded 36 points in 43 games after arriving to Pittsburgh in a mid-season trade.
Dubas will almost assuredly have to use the trade market to improve his team next year. But he's also got to protect his draft picks and not be tempted to spend any of them to acquire a proven veteran scorer. He has all three of his first-rounders in the next three drafts, and he's got seven second-rounders in the next three years.
Ideally, you want to see Dubas acquire more first-rounders and fully commit to the rebuild many believe the Penguins are in desperate need of. But the balancing act between the needs of the moment and the needs of days far away is extremely difficult for any and every NHL GM to master.
The Penguins showed in the 2026 post-season that, eventually, time becomes a meddling, nasty influence on a team's competitiveness. The Penguins no longer intimidate opponents, but Dubas is under immense pressure to get Crosby, Malkin and Letang on one more playoff run next year.
Pittsburgh is very much in transition, but the nostalgia for a fading golden era will keep them fighting for a playoff spot, let alone the Stanley Cup.
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