With the Pittsburgh Penguins entering the offseason for a third consecutive year without a playoff appearance, TribLive will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 56 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until future seasons — with the organization.

Starting with Noel Acciari and going on through to Philip Tomasino (regrettably, there is no Z on the payroll), every player will be profiled in alphabetical order.

This series is scheduled to be published Mondays through Saturdays leading up until June 24, four days before the start of the NHL Draft. In the event of a transaction, that schedule will be altered as necessary.

(Note: All contract information courtesy of Puckpedia.)

Ryan Graves

Position: Defenseman

Shoots: Left

Age: 29

Height: 6-foot-5

Weight: 222 pounds

2024-25 NHL statistics: 61 games, four points (one goal, three assists), 14:59 of average ice time per contest

Contract: In the second year of a six-year contract with a salary cap hit of $4.5 million. Penguins unrestricted free agent in 2029.

(This contract contains a modified no-trade clause. The first three years have a 12-team no-trade list. The final three years have an eight-team no-trade list.)

Acquired: Unrestricted free agent signing, July 1, 2023

This season: After a messy 2023-24 campaign, expectations were low for Ryan Graves going into 2024-25.

And in some ways, he met them.

He was deployed in a sheltered (i.e. lesser) role in the lineup for most of the season and often put in situations where he would not hurt (or help) the team.

He was even a healthy scratch for 21 games.

Of course, considering he is signed to one of the longest contracts ever offered to a free agent in franchise history, the burden of elevated expectations will always be on Graves and it would be charitable to suggest he has even approached meeting them.

Opening the season on the third pairing with rookie defenseman Jack St. Ivany, Graves was a mostly inert presence in the lineup until a mess of a 6-2 road loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Nov. 15 when he was on the ice for three goals against, including a deflection goal where Blue Jackets forward Zach Aston-Reese (6-foot-1, 200 pounds) outmuscled him for position above the crease.

Graves wound up being a healthy scratch for eight of the next nine games for a team that seemingly had all kinds of shortcomings on the blue line all season long.

In and out of the lineup until just after the trade deadline March 7, Graves wound up appearing in 16 consecutive games to close out the season and even scored his lone goal of 2024-25 during that stretch (in a 5-3 home win against the St. Louis Blues on March 13).

The future: Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas has a big list of things to figure out this offseason, and Graves is within the gravitational pull of the top.

A trade would likely require some form of salary retention as well as a future asset to convince another team to take on Graves’ contract. And a buyout would keep Graves on the books until 2033.

Just simply keeping Graves and hoping he plays better might be a tad more viable given last week’s departure of coach Mike Sullivan who never seemed to be particularly fond of Graves, at least this past season.

A new coach with a different set of eyes and a different system might do Graves some good. He is clearly capable of performing better than he has as a member of the Penguins as evidenced by his mostly successful tenure with the New Jersey Devils.

Regardless of who is behind the bench, if Graves is to remain a member of this team, he needs to offer so much more.

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