Penguins Roster Reset: Projected Depth Chart After 2025 NHL Trade Deadline

Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas made a series of future-based moves before Friday’s NHL trade deadline.

The Penguins dealt forwards Michael Bunting, Anthony Beauvillier, Cody Gruden and defenseman Vincent Deshanais. The returns were heavily based in draft capital to help rebuild the franchise for the future.

At this point, no other NHL team has more draft picks or selections in the first three rounds over the next three NHL drafts than the Penguins.

Now that the trade deadline has passed and all the moves have been completed, here’s what the Penguins’ roster looks like:

FORWARDS
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust are the three key forwards Pittsburgh will continue to build around, along with Rickard Rakell. Blake Lizotte, Emil Bemstrom, Noel Accari, Kevin Hayes, Philip Tomasino, Danton Heinen and Bokondji Imama round out the rest of the forward group. Connor Dewar was added at the deadline from the Leafs.

Although Rakell’s name was circulated throughout the trade deadline, Dubas was not ready to move the 31-year-old right wing.

“He is a big part of our program,” Dubas said in a press conference following the trade deadline. “… Everyone has seen this year, he’s got a long history of the type of player he is, but we see him every day, the type of person he is as well.

“… And for us, having Rickard Rakell as part of the Pittsburgh Penguins was definitely the right thing to do as we measured it up against everything else. We’re happy to have him, he’s a big part of what we do and I know he really wants to be here.”

DEFENSEMEN
Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson are staples on the blue line, along with Ryan Shea, Matt Grzelcyk, Ryan Graves, Vladislav Kolyachonok, and Jack St. Ivany. At the deadline, the Penguins added Conor Timmins from the Leafs to round out the defense corps.

Like Rakell, Grzelcyk was the subject of various rumors for the past couple of months.

“There was interest, teams kicking tires, but in the end, we got through the deadline and he remains a member of our team,” Dubas said. “We expect him to continue to have a strong season and when we brought him in, I pledged that we would give him the opportunity to get things back rolling. He’s taken advantage of that. We’ll continue to push him to do so here through the last stretch of the year.”

GOALTENDERS
Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedejkovic remain between the pipes for the Penguins.

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