In the aftermath of his debut campaign with the Pittsburgh Penguins, during which he established several new career-bests, Matt Grzelcyk successfully resuscitated his NHL career.

But moving forward, whether or not his next chapter will be in Pittsburgh remains to be seen.

The ball is now in the court of president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas, but Grzelcyk made it known he is open to renewing last season’s successful partnership.

“We haven’t really talked contract or anything,” Grzelcyk said of his future on April 18 during the Penguins’ end-of-season interviews. “Through the trade deadline, (I was) seeing what was going to happen there. At that point, there was obviously no movement, so I think both sides are interested in rejoining, but there’s no concrete thing so far.

“I know they have some tough decisions to make, but I’ve expressed to them that I’m definitely open to that.”

Grzelcyk joined the Penguins on a one-year, $2.75 million contract this past season, and it’d be hard to argue anything other than the 31-year-old left-shooting defenseman significantly exceeded expectations.

For the first time in his career, he played all 82 games.

Grzelcyk also set career-bests in points (40), assists (39), power-play points (15) and nightly time on ice (20 minutes, 37 seconds).

Pushing through a slow start in which he posted a minus-14 rating over his first 23 games, Grzelcyk went on to enjoy a top-four deployment, skating next to both Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson at different junctures of the season.

Granted, the Penguins as a team were poor defensively and Grzelcyk shares some collective blame along with Karlsson, Letang and the rest of the club’s blue-liners.

Analytically, per MoneyPuck, Grzelcyk owned a team-worst minus-8.2 expected on-ice goals differential at five-on-five.

For comparison, Letang was minus-8.1 while Karlsson broke even at zero.

Following parts of eight seasons with the Boston, the Bruins declined to re-sign Grzelcyk following the expiration of a four-year, $14.75 million contract at the conclusion of 2023-24.

But a year later, Grzelcyk can say he got what he wanted out of his prove-it season with the Penguins.

“Coming into this year, I wanted to be open-minded and just regain confidence,” Grzelcyk said. “I think the year before was a tough one for me. I was looking forward to a new opportunity, and I got a great opportunity here with the coaching staff and management (who had) a lot of trust in me right from the beginning, so I’m really grateful for that and just to come in here and learn from these guys.”

Grzelcyk’s final campaign in Boston saw him manage 11 points (two goals, nine assists) over 63 games while serving as a healthy scratch for the majority of the postseason.

When Dubas came calling last July with a one-year contract offer (featuring a pay cut of close to $950,000) Grzelcyk accepted.

Before long, as his first season in Pittsburgh got underway, Grzelcyk began making a noticeable impact on the Penguins’ power play, which, under the direction of first-year assistant David Quinn, rebounded to finish sixth in the NHL (25.8%) after ending 2023-24 30th (15.3%).

In early November, the Penguins promoted Grzelcyk to the top power-play unit featuring Sidney Crosby.

Throughout the season, Grzelcyk’s quarterbacking on the power play paid dividends.

“That was one thing they were looking for, more production on the power play and obviously with the caliber of players here, not something I was expecting to jump into right away,” Grzelcyk said. “I knew that they were open to making things work whichever way they needed to.

“I think production-wise, (I was) playing in more situations and with some really great players. A lot of credit goes to them for sure. My job is just to make a clean first pass coming out of the zone and allow them to get going the other way. They make the rest of the magic work.”

Time will tell if Grzelcyk is deemed to be a good fit with the Penguins, who, as he acknowledged, continue to transition organizationally from Stanley Cup contender to retooling for the future.

Not to mention, the Penguins, who parted ways with Mike Sullivan on April 28, are currently without a head coach.

Filling that vacancy will be more pressing on Dubas’ to-do list than matters the upcoming free agency market, which commences July 1.

If Grzelcyk’s time with the Penguins is destined to come to a close after only a year, both he and the organization can feel as if things worked out fine.

Based on what he did with the Penguins, other opportunties are likely to fall in his lap should he hit free agency.

While far from guaranteeing he’ll be offered a new contract, Dubas said he’ll be keeping Grzelcyk under consideration for future employment.

“Did a very good job (and) produced well,” Dubas said. “So, I know what his intentions are. He’s an awesome, zero maintenance person for us. Just comes, works, does his job, quietly and effectively. I think the goal of the year for him … he wanted to use this to get everything back on track with his (play, which) fell off last year in Boston.

“We thought we had an opportunity to give him, and I think it was a situation in free agency that really worked out on a one-term, one-year deal for him to jump into the mix. So, we’ll have conversations with him, and we’ll look and see what’s available and how it fits our overall needs, and determine whether we can offer him that same opportunity again.”