Don't expect the Penguins to go after big free agents

LAS VEGAS — Like a lot of visitors to this city full of one-armed bandits and neon lights, the Penguins went home from the NHL Draft with a lot less spending money.

To be precise, $3,571,429.

That’s the salary cap hit they incurred when they took on forward Kevin Hayes from the St. Louis Blues as part of a trade that also fetched a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft on Saturday.

They weren’t blessed with an outrageous amount of salary cap space going into the weekend, and the addition of Hayes drops their projected space to $7,174,229 (according to Cap Friendly) as the NHL’s free agent signing period opens at noon Monday.

Friday at the Sphere entertainment venue, Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas indicated the team is trying to reach agreements on new contracts for pending restricted free agent defenseman P.O Joseph and Emil Bemstrom. Presuming those players add their signatures to contracts, that salary cap flexibility will dwindle even further.

(Note: Qualifying offers to pending restricted free agents were due at 5 p.m. Sunday. Players who did not receive such offers became unrestricted free agents.)

Unlike the 2023 offseason when he spent lavishly on the likes of defenseman Ryan Graves (six years, $4.5 million salary cap hit), forward Lars Eller (two years, $2.45 million) and others, Dubas stated he intends to seek out free agent signings with relatively brief commitments.

“The free agents, it’ll be guys on shorter-term,” Dubas said. “With where we’re at, bringing in one guy on a long-term deal or two guys on long-term deals, it’s not really what we need. We need to make sure that we have the flexibility and the options to bring in younger, hungrier players that can help us to get back to where everyone wants the team to be as quickly as we can.”

In other words, don’t expect a triumphant return by former Penguins forward Jake Guentzel or a celebrated arrival by Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos.

Dubas suggested he is comfortable with his goaltending depth, noting he has players at that position in the “barn” and isn’t eager to be chasing any netminders Monday.

And the arrival of Hayes, 32, doesn’t necessarily fortify the depth at center as much as it creates a clot at the position given the incumbent presences of fellow 30-somethings Noel Acciari, Sidney Crosby, Lars Eller and Evgeni Malkin.

That leaves the wings and defensemen to patch up with what limited funds the Penguins are scheduled to have at their disposal.

Given those financial constraints, the Penguins might just predominantly seek out “tweener” signees with one-year or two-way contracts similar to how they flooded the zone in 2023 with the likes of forwards Vinnie Hinostroza, Andreas Johansson and Radim Zohorna as well as defensemen Ryan Shea.

All of this just means it doesn’t look like it will be an exciting day in terms of potential free agent additions for the Penguins. A pragmatic one, for sure, but not captivating.

Other matters that relate to contracts could catch some major attention, however.

Franchise pillar Crosby and sturdy defenseman Marcus Pettersson are eligible to sign contract extensions as they formally enter the final year of their current deals Monday. But all parties involved are maintaining a vow of silence as to any discussions on those fronts.

Dubas generally has shed little light on his designs on most matters.

But he is clear on one topic.

His expectations of what this team should be.

“I wouldn’t deem it a success if we got into the playoffs next year by a point,” Dubas said. “We want to get back to being a contender. The coaches and the players have to look at it day to day, they’re trying to win every day. I have to look at it with a much broader lens of, in Pittsburgh, to be a team that just squeaks in — I understand that it would be nice to be in — but we want to be a contender.”