Penguins A to Z: What went wrong for Ryan Graves?
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With the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2023-24 season coming to an end without any postseason action, TribLive will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 51 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until next season — with the organization, from fourth-line center Noel Acciari to reserve winger Radim Zohorna.
This series is scheduled to be published every weekday leading into the second day of the NHL Draft on June 29.
(Note: All contract information courtesy of Cap Friendly.)
Ryan Graves
Position: Defenseman
Shoots: Left
Age: 28
Height: 6-foot-5
Weight: 220 pounds
2023-24 NHL statistics: 70 games, 14 points (three goals, 11 assists), 18:23 of ice time per game
Contract: In the first year of a six-year contract with a salary cap hit of $4.5 million. Pending unrestricted free agent in 2029.
(Note: The first three years of Graves’ contract contain a no-trade clause that allows him to submit a list of 12 teams he would not accept a trade to. The final three years contain an eight-team list.)
Acquired: Unrestricted free agent signing, July 1, 2023
This season: Going into his first offseason as president of hockey operations for the Penguins, Kyle Dubas didn’t dip his toes into the water.
He did a reverse triple-Lindy cannonball from the 10-meter platform.
His first major move was to trade for forward Reilly Smith in late June of 2023. And late during the offseason in early August, he orchestrated one of the biggest trades in NHL history to acquire defenseman Erik Karlsson.
In between, there was a highly-scrutinized decision to re-sign talented but flawed starting goaltender Tristan Jarry and a sprinkling of several supplemental free agent additions such as forwards Noel Acciari, Lars Eller and Matt Nieto.
But the transaction that might ultimately have the most significant impact on Dubas’ tenure with the Penguins was the ample contract he extended to Ryan Graves on the first day of free agency.
(Note: Graves’ contract matched the six-year deal the Penguins extended to forward Brandon Tanev in 2019 as the longest contract given to an unrestricted free agent in franchise history.)
So far, that impact has not been positive.
The motivation for adding Graves was sound. With an aging Brian Dumoulin departing, Graves was expected to serve as a sound defensive-first countermeasure to the likes of offensively-aggressive Kris Letang. And to enter the season, Graves was paired with Letang on the blue line.
Those aspirations just never materialized, however.
Even on opening night, things went awry for Graves. During a 4-2 home loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, Graves got lost in no-man’s land, allowing forward Jason Dickinson to score the eventual game-winning goal.
— EN Videos (@ENVideos19) May 13, 2024
While Graves wasn’t brought in for his offensive acumen, the high point of his season arguably came during a 3-0 home win against the Vegas Golden Knights when he scored the game-winning goal.
Pittsburgh goal!
Scored by Ryan Graves with 17:47 remaining in the 1st period.
Assisted by Radim Zohorna and Drew O'Connor.
Pittsburgh: 1
Vegas: 0#VGKvsPIT #LetsGoPens #VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/Lv6Oju3gXk— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) November 19, 2023
With Graves and Letang largely stuck in neutral as a pairing, coaches swapped Graves with Marcus Pettersson, sticking him with Erik Karlsson by Dec. 18.
That pairing did not last very long as things really bottomed out during a 4-3 home loss to the rival Washington Capitals on Jan. 2 when Graves was directly involved in three of the opposing scores (including one during a power-play sequence).
Washington goal!
Scored by Tom Wilson with 19:05 remaining in the 1st period.
Assisted by Rasmus Sandin and Ethan Bear.
Pittsburgh: 0
Washington: 1#WSHvsPIT #LetsGoPens #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/xpZnWm0RIu— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) January 3, 2024
Later in that game, Graves was swapped with P.O Joseph and demoted to the third pairing with Chad Ruhwedel.
Graves was back with Karlsson by Jan. 11 and those two largely struggled to find much in the way of chemistry before Graved was relegated back to the third pairing with Ruhwedel by Feb. 20.
After being reunited with Karlsson for a five-game stretch between March 10 and 17, Graves was paired with Letang again by March 19 and that experiment did not bear fruit as Graves was on the ice for four goals against (including one power-play score) during a 5-2 road loss to the New Jersey Devils.
— EN Videos (@ENVideos19) March 20, 2024
Graves missed two games to attend to personal matters in mid-March and upon returning to the lineup, he was in the lineup for two more games — deployed on the third pairing with rookie Jack St. Ivany each time — before suffering a concussion early in a 3-2 home win against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Graves missed the final 10 games of the season due to his injury and wound up on long-term injured reserve.
The future: During his season-ending press conference, Dubas was frank in critiquing Graves.
“I think part of that is on us as an organization and it’s as much on Ryan to push and find his way through the summer,” Dubas said April 19. “It’s a massive summer for him.”
“He’s going to have to really push.”
There’s still plenty of reason to be intrigued by Graves. He was an effective defensive presence skating alongside dynamic defensemen such as Cale Makar and Dougie Hamilton in Colorado and New Jersey, respectively.
He had considerable opportunities to do that in his first season with the Penguins while paired with Letang and Karlsson.
Graves’ struggles could have been salved by some measure of physical play, but despite his considerable frame, Graves has never been inclined to mix it up with the opposition with any regularity.
While Graves isn’t a big hitter, he does have a big cap hit and a big contract. Add in his no-trade clause and his lackluster play, it’s difficult to see the Penguins being in a position to unload him on some other team.
Perhaps the benefit of a full season in his new surroundings along with a new set of eyes handling the defensemen — associate coach Todd Reirden, who oversaw the blue line, was fired May 3 and a replacement has yet to be hired — could benefit Graves, who turns 29 on May 21.
But all of that will have to play out in the fall. In the meantime, there’s plenty of confusion over what went wrong for one of the biggest free-agent signings in Penguins history.