The Pittsburgh Penguins made the right moves this offseason
We are officially in August and that means we are inching even closer to the start of the 2022-23 NHL season. For some teams, we already have a good idea what their lineup could look like in a month, one example of that is the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Pittsburgh Penguins made the right moves this offseason.
The Chicago Blackhawks are rebuilding, the Boston Bruins are on the decline and so are the Washington Capitals, yet the Pittsburgh Penguins continue to push forward as a contending team.
The Penguins have the longest active playoff streak in the NHL, and their lead is pretty remarkable. The Penguins have made the playoffs every year since 2007 giving them a 16-season playoff streak, the next best teams belong to the Washington Capitals and Nashville Predators who both have eight-season playoff streaks on their resumes.
During the Penguins’ current playoff streak they have won the Stanley Cup three times and they have been competitive with their core three players of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, all three of whom will be hall of famers when they call it a career.
The General Manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Ron Hextall, made the right call this offseason when he did his best to beef his lineup up to succeed in 2023. While it might have made more sense to let stars walk and start rebuilding the roster after being so good for so long, that just does not make sense when you still have Sidney Crosby in the organization.
The Penguins have committed to doing everything they can to win while Crosby is still in the organization and that can be shown through the moves the team made this offseason.
Notable moves by the Pittsburgh Penguins:
- Casey DeSmith re-signs on a two-year contract.
- Kris Letang re-signs on a six-year contract.
- Richard Rakell re-signs on a six-year contract.
- Bryan Rust signed a six-year contract.
- Evgeni Malkin re-signs on a four-year contract.
- Josh Archibald signs one year contract.
- Jan Rutta signs a three-year contract.
- Drake Caggiula signs a one-year contract
- Jeff Petry and Ryan Poehling were acquired from Montreal Canadiens in a trade.
These are just some of the names the Penguins added or kept this offseason. The moves the team made all give a pretty convincing argument that this roster is doing their best to continue to contend while Crosby is around. The team did their best and probably gave a bit more than they would have liked to Malkin and Letang to keep them around because that is what you do when star players like that win championships together over the course of ten years.
The Penguins might not be the favorite to win the Stanley Cup in 2023, but they will be part of the conversation and they definitely cannot be counted out to win another championship with Crosby, Malkin and Letang before they call it a career.
A lot of teams had good offseasons for different reasons. Some teams went out of their way to make big trades or sign free agents. In the case of the Pittsburgh Penguins, a successful offseason was shown by keeping the group intact and pushing for another championship.