PHILADELPHIA — Sidney Crosby regurgitated the notion almost immediately.
During a season ticket holder event in Sewickley this past September, the Pittsburgh Penguins captain was asked about the idea of his team not being competitive — intentionally — for the 2025-26 season for the greater good of the franchise.
In other words, would it be better for them to be bad so that they could get a better draft pick?
After all, that tactic has worked marvelously for the franchise on two occasions in 1984 and in 2005.
Crosby, whom the Penguins selected with the top overall pick in the 2005 NHL Draft (a little more than two decades after Mario Lemieux arrived through similar circumstances), didn’t leave much room for interpretation with his response.
“It’s professional sports,” Crosby said during one of the final days of summer. “You play to win. That’s how I view it. You’re not going to convince me otherwise. If you’re one of those people that believes that, then you’re entitled to believe in that. But that’s not why I signed up to play the game. That’s not the game that I know.
“If you want to look at it that way, I guess you can. That’s one perspective. But that’s not really one that resonates with me. So, it’s kind of hard to understand that.”
It might be apropos to suggest it’s hard to understand what exactly did the Penguins accomplish in 2025-26.
Sure, their 41-25-16 regular season mark and an appearance in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2022 are firm, tangible accomplishments.
But in terms of the overall long-term direction of the club, what was really gained?
Starting with the unpopular but necessary trade of All-Star forward Jake Guentzel in March of 2024, Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas has largely charted a course for the franchise that has a greater focus on a long-term trajectory.
A mere appearance in the playoffs with a quick exit via a 4-2 series loss in the first-round to the Philadelphia Flyers doesn’t exactly disrupt the trail Dubas has mapped out. But it doesn’t aid it to a significant degree either.
To be certain, the 2025-26 Penguins had a marvelous regular season. Buoyed by mainstays such as Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and supplemented by newcomers like Egor Chiankhov and Anthony Mantha, the Penguins were a triumph within the scope of the first 82 games they played.
Dan Muse, in his first season as a head coach, installed a system — and perhaps most profoundly, a level of confidence — that allowed so many players to play the best hockey they’ve ever offered as professionals.
Along with Chinakhov and Mantha, forwards Justin Brazeau and Connor Dewar, as well as defensemen Parker Wotherspoon and Ryan Shea, all set career highs.
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Forward Ben Kindel also established career-best figures. But then again, he is a rookie who was a revelation as an 18-year-old (before turning 19 on April 19) while predominantly operating as a third-line center.
Muse’s guidance provided so much for so many players, regardless of what stage their careers were in.
“First, I think (Muse) brings out the confidence in everyone,” Shea said April 11. “His positivity is through the roof (and) the whole coaching staff. There’s plenty of games that we have fought back because we never believe we’re out. And he’s a huge part of that.
“He allows players to play to their strengths. We’ve got a lot of guys, whether they came in from a trade or came in new, that he obviously saw something in them and allows them to play to their strengths. I think that’s one of the biggest parts of us being in the playoffs again.”
That didn’t just apply to players who were overlooked by their previous teams. Established stars enjoyed rebounds under Muse as well.
Malkin, one of the NHL’s oldest players at 39, enjoyed a resurgent winter to his career, while Erik Karlsson, after two frustrating seasons with the Penguins, largely carried the Penguins throughout much of the season, earning the team’s MVP award and propelling them into the playoffs.
But getting to the playoffs isn’t the ultimate pursuit here.
Dubas said as much during his season-closing availability for the 2024-25 campaign April 21, 2025.
“Our goal is to build the team back to being a contender for the Stanley Cup,” Dubas said. “It’s not trying to find a way just to sneak into the playoffs.”
Having been ejected so quickly from the ongoing playoffs, what will the Penguins’ offseason look like?
With the exception of finalizing the pending sale of franchise between Fenway Sports Group and the Hoffman Family of Companies, there aren’t any major off-ice items the franchise needs to address. Unlike in recent years, they don’t need to find a new coach or a new general manager.
But it will certainly be a busy summer.
Most notably, the future of Malkin must be determined.
Malkin has openly campaigned for a new contract throughout the season and all parties concerned have agreed to table that discussion to this upcoming offseason.
But how would potentially signing a player who turns 40 in July and has labored with all kinds of ailments, including a chronically injured left shoulder, be congruent with an organization that has been looking to the future for at least the past two years?
Malkin has been steadfast in his desire to remain in the only place he has called home during his NHL existence.
“I want to be here,” Malkin said April 24. “I want to be part of the team next year too. I want to be retired in Pittsburgh. But it’s not my choice. It’s Kyle’s decision. It’s (the) new owners probably too.”
Beyond Malkin, more short-term considerations must be made for pending unrestricted free agents such as Mantha, Dewar and forward Noel Acciari, along with defensemen Connor Clifton, Ryan Shea and Ilya Solovyov.
Mantha came in on a “prove-it” deal and proved quite a bit by having a career year. Dewar and Acciari combined with Blake Lizotte to create a vital fourth line but fourth liners are rarely vital to any team.
On the blue line, Shea offered value primarily on the third pairing and could be in line to command life-changing money as a free agent for the only time in his career. Clifton and Solovyov are largely disposable.
Other than Malkin, the biggest question for the Penguins rests in net as Stuart Skinner is a pending unrestricted free agent, while Arturs Silovs is slated to be a restricted free agent.
Both offered intriguing but inconsistent results as they often platooned in net. And while each is on the right side of 30, Skinner (27) and Silovs (25) do not offer the long-term upside of promising prospects Sergei Murashov (22) or Joel Blomqvist (24), each of whom are still on their entry-level contracts. Blomqvist is a pending restricted free agent this upcoming offseason.
Even beyond the Penguins’ pending free agents, questions will always persist on the statuses of players such as Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust and Karlsson, all of whom remain under contract. A team looking to rebuild for the future could presumably get assets congruent with that pursuit by trading those types of veterans.
Dubas has often cited the value of retaining those three players for the benefit of the organization’s overall culture and by any measure, every member of that trio is a leading citizen within the organization.
But Dubas has never completely ruled out considering a trade if the return was ample.
“We value (Rakell and Rust) very highly,” Dubas said in April of 2025. “But if there are moves that are going to make our team significantly better in the short and long run, we’ll look at anything with anyone. That’s just where we’re at.”
Elsewhere on the blue line, the Penguins have a considerable task of figuring out what to do with their scrutinized second pairing of Sam Girard and Kris Letang.
The Penguins acquired Girard in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche on Feb. 24 as management viewed the 27-year-old left-hander as someone who could be an immediate part of the franchise’s future, especially since an additional year remains on his current contract. But the results have been mixed for Girard, particularly with the right-handed Letang.
Having dealt with all sorts of maladies over his 20-year career, including a few that aren’t typically related to the rigors of his vocation, Letang often looks exactly like a 39-year-old who has powered through medical calamities in his two decades as a professional hockey player.
Letang is under contract for an additional two seasons and starting this upcoming offseason, his deal will have a modified no-trade clause that allows him to submit a list of 10 teams where he would accept a trade.
In reality, there might not be a decision to be made with Letang simply because of the confines of his contract’s structure and the presumed limits on him being a highly-sought commodity by the NHL’s other 31 clubs as a 39-year-old defenseman with declining skills and a $6.1 million salary cap hit.
Crosby, who is eligible to sign a contract extension as of July 1 and turns 39 on Aug. 7, is not ambiguous over Letang or Malkin, his teammates for 20 seasons.
“They’re like family,” Crosby said after his team’s season-ending 1-0 overtime road loss to the Flyers on Wednesday. “That’s the best way to describe it. We’ve had some great wins, some tough losses like this. Ultimately though, that’s a long time that we’ve played together.
“Just so appreciative for the opportunity to be able to play with them just as long as we have. Hopefully, we keep going.”
Retaining veterans might keep the team in the black as far as wins go in the 2026-27 regular season, but that approach would theoretically impede the avenues to the NHL for prospects such as Rutger McGroarty, Ville Koivunen, Avery Hayes or Harrison Brunicke.
Even if there were mixed results in the opportunities those players enjoyed during the 2025-26 season, a franchise supposedly turning to the future would ideally utilize 20-somethings instead of 30-somethings (to say nothing of almost 40-somethings).
One matter that is certain is that the Penguins will have a Fort Knox-worth of salary cap space to operate with this upcoming offseason. With the NHL’s salary cap projected to go up to $104 million this upcoming offseason, the Penguins are slated to have approximately $45 million of salary cap space to work with (per Puckpedia), giving them ample freedom to steer the 2025-26 club in any direction they want.
Whether they pursue pending restricted free agents on other teams, opt to re-sign their own aging players or continue to take on unwanted contracts in the name of acquiring fairly high draft picks, they will have few limits from a financial sense as to what course they map out this offseason.
It is fair to wonder how competitive — truly competitive — they will be in 2026-27.
But what is certain is that the Penguins won’t be bad — not in any meaningful way — next season, regardless of what that may mean for the organization’s long-term aspirations.
Sidney Crosby simply won’t allow it.
“I would say the expectations from the outside are pretty low,” Crosby said, entering this season. “But that doesn’t change my approach or our approach as far as trying to go out there every night and win games. That’s how I look at it. We’ve had years where the expectations have been through the roof and you have to manage them. When they’re maybe a little bit lower than you’d expect, you’ve got to find a way to manage that too.
“Ultimately, you’ve got to go out there and play the game, whether there’s projections of your team on paper. That’s something that you can’t control. You’ve got to go out there and play.”