Penguins Must Revamp Defense
Defense is one of several areas the Pittsburgh Penguins must address before next season.
The Pittsburgh Penguins playoff hopes are nearly extinguished following an abysmal road trip to the Pacific Northwest. With the trade deadline three days from now, Kyle Dubas is likely selling and looking toward building for next season.
Part of that build must be the Penguins blue line, again.
Each of the last two offseason's featured a restructure on defense. In 2022, Ron Hextall inexplicably tore apart a defense core that finished sixth in expected goals allowed per 60 minutes, per MoneyPuck.com. He traded away young defensemen John Marino and Mike Matheson while picking up veterans Jeff Petry and Jan Rutta.
The Penguins proceeded to drop in 2023 to 21st in the same category and were a large part of why they missed out on the postseason for the first time since 2006.
As a result, one of Kyle Dubas' priorities in his first summer was to, once again, restructure the defense. He pulled the plug on Petry and Rutta, let Brian Dumoulin walk in free agency, gave $27 million to Ryan Graves, and made headlines acquiring Erik Karlsson.
For the second consecutive season, the Penguins defense has struggled to protect their net front and limit opposing scoring chances. They are ranked 26th in the NHL in expected goals against per 60 minutes and have been kept afloat by consistent goaltending.
Graves has struggled and finds himself on the Penguins third pair. P.O. Joseph is playing on the top pair with Kris Letang despite suffering a significant sophomore slump, and the coaching staff has admittedly struggled to unlock Erik Karlsson's full potential in his first season with the Penguins.
It's no simple task, but the Penguins cannot and will not get back into contention (playoffs or otherwise) without better play from their defense next season. Dubas has the unenviable challenge of reversing the Penguins fortunes after years of steady decline from back-to-back Champions into back-to-back missed postseasons.
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