With the Penguins’ season concluded and a paucity of fresh ideas in the ol’ brain pan, I thought I’d post a long overdue Ex-Penguins Update for the 2025-26 season.
Topping the list of expatriates? To no surprise, Tampa Bay’s Jake Guentzel, the runaway leader in goals (38), assists (50) and points (88). Not to be Cap’n Obvious, but it goes without saying the deal that sent Jake away isn’t aging too well. Not with Ville Koivunen falling short of expectations and Vasily Ponomarev back in the KHL. (Fingers crossed for Harrison Brunicke.)
Other performers of note include the No. 2 scorer on totem pole, Jason Zucker of the Sabres. The 34-year-old sparkplug totaled 24 goals in 62 games, roughly a 32-goal pace over a full campaign.
At age 37, ‘Canes captain Jordan Staal reached the 20-goal mark for the first time, astonishingly enough, in a decade! Seattle’s Jared McCann battled through an injury-marred season to notch 20 goals for the fifth season in a row.
Fellow castoffs Mikael Granlund (Ducks) and Cody Glass (Devils) fell one short with 19 apiece, a career-high for the latter. The Canucks’ Drew O’Connor likewise established a new career-best with 17 goals.
Anthony Beauvillier (15 goals) was solid for the Caps. Ryan Poehling of the Ducks (36 points) and Kasperi Kapanen (Oilers) enjoyed decent seasons as well.
Among the fish that got away? Mike Matheson (37 points) continues to be a productive, mobile defender for the Habs, while trade-mate Jeff Petry played out the string with the Panthers and Wild. Utah’s John Marino tallied 36 points and registered a sterling plus-42, fifth-best in the league. As for Ty Smith? He was last seen skating for the Moscow Dynamo of the KHL.
Former GM Ron Hextall’s botched attempt to revamp our defensive corps back in the summer of 2022 never looked so bad.
Among the disappointments? Human torpedo Brandon Tanev, once a special player, tallied a meager three assists in 56 games for the Mammoth. Perhaps a victim of his own hell-for-leather style.
Speaking of aggression, at the ripe old age of 39, “Sherrif” Ryan Reaves potted three goals while engaging in the odd scrap for the Sharks, including a rousing slugfest with Mathieu Olivier of the CBJ, his successor as NHL heavyweight champ. Sharks teammate Alex Nedeljkovic likewise engaged in a much-publicized punch-up with Panthers icon, Sergei Bobrovsky.
Ned finished fourth among ex-Pens goalies in goals against average and save percentage, behind Matt Murray (Kraken), Casey DeSmith (Stars) and Filip Gustavsson (Wild) but ahead of Tristan Jarry (Oilers).
Oh, and former first-pick Brayden Yager made a rather innocuous debut with the Jets (three games, no points).
| SCORING | ||||||||
| Player | Team | Pos | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM | +/- |
| Guentzel | TBL | LW | 81 | 38 | 50 | 88 | 61 | 13 |
| Zucker | BUF | LW | 62 | 24 | 21 | 45 | 23 | -5 |
| Granlund | ANA | C | 58 | 19 | 22 | 41 | 18 | -9 |
| McCann | SEA | C | 52 | 20 | 20 | 40 | 11 | -7 |
| Matheson | MTL | D | 78 | 7 | 30 | 37 | 34 | 9 |
| Staal | CAR | C | 75 | 20 | 16 | 36 | 29 | 5 |
| Poehling | ANA | C | 75 | 11 | 25 | 36 | 12 | 8 |
| Marino | UTA | D | 80 | 4 | 32 | 36 | 16 | 42 |
| Bunting | NSH-DAL | LW | 74 | 14 | 19 | 33 | 20 | -24 |
| Rodrigues | FLA | C | 69 | 11 | 20 | 31 | 38 | -16 |
| O’Connor | VAN | LW | 82 | 17 | 12 | 29 | 47 | -12 |
| Beauvillier | WSH | LW | 82 | 15 | 13 | 28 | 30 | 7 |
| Perron | OTT-DET | LW | 65 | 13 | 15 | 28 | 40 | -7 |
| Glass | NJD | C | 70 | 19 | 7 | 26 | 39 | 3 |
| Smith, R. | VEG | RW | 69 | 16 | 10 | 26 | 4 | -9 |
| Gaudreau | SEA | C | 68 | 7 | 17 | 24 | 11 | -1 |
| Cole | UTA | D | 82 | 3 | 20 | 23 | 50 | 16 |
| Jankowski | CAR | C | 68 | 11 | 10 | 21 | 16 | 7 |
| Sheary | NYR | LW | 62 | 7 | 11 | 18 | 14 | 1 |
| Hinostroza | MIN-FLA | C | 65 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 31 | -12 |
| Pettersson | VAN | D | 82 | 3 | 15 | 18 | 60 | -19 |
| Blueger | VAN | C | 35 | 9 | 8 | 17 | 22 | -12 |
| Kapanen | EDM | RW | 41 | 8 | 9 | 17 | 14 | 5 |
| Sundqvist | STL | C | 52 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 26 | -18 |
| Dumoulin | LAK | D | 82 | 2 | 15 | 17 | 22 | -1 |
| Pearson | WPG-BUF | LW | 56 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 27 | 9 |
| Eller | OTT | C | 68 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 12 | 5 |
| Oleksiak | SEA | D | 78 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 36 | 9 |
| Määttä | UTA-CGY | D | 43 | 2 | 13 | 15 | 4 | -6 |
| Heinen | PIT-CBJ | LW | 46 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 16 | 7 |
| Kulak | EDM-PIT-COL | D | 83 | 1 | 11 | 12 | 38 | -4 |
| Grzelcyk | CHI | D | 69 | 0 | 12 | 12 | 32 | -9 |
| Bjugstad | STL-NJD | C | 61 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 33 | -11 |
| Ceci | LAK | D | 82 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 16 | -10 |
| Petry | FLA-MIN | D | 67 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 24 | -15 |
| Harkins | ANA | C | 44 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 28 | -6 |
| Timmins | BUF | D | 39 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 18 | -8 |
| Noesen | NJD | RW | 38 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 33 | -12 |
| Desharnais | SJS | D | 53 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 68 | 7 |
| Joseph | VAN | D | 31 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 8 | -16 |
| Aston-Reese | CBJ | RW | 27 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 12 | -1 |
| Reaves | SJS | RW | 50 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 37 | -12 |
| Gudbranson | CBJ | D | 37 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 19 | 6 |
| Kolyachonok | DAL-BOS | D | 13 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Tanev | UTA | LW | 56 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 50 | -15 |
| Lafferty | CHI | C | 29 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 14 | -2 |
| Gustavsson | MIN | G | 50 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | |
| Jarry | PIT-EDM | G | 33 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Nedeljkovic | SJS | G | 40 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |
| Agozzino | UTA | LW | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DeSmith | DAL | G | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| Kulikov | FLA | D | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | -5 |
| Légaré | NJD | RW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Murray | SEA | G | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Yager | WPG | C | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| GOALTENDING | ||||||||
| Players | Team | Pos | GP | GA | SH | GAA | SV% | W-L-OT |
| Murray | SEA | G | 5 | 8 | 0 | 2.21 | .922 | 0-2-1 |
| DeSmith | DAL | G | 30 | 71 | 1 | 2.43 | .907 | 15-8-6 |
| Gustavsson | MIN | G | 50 | 133 | 4 | 2.69 | .903 | 28-15-6 |
| Nedeljkovic | SJS | G | 40 | 109 | 0 | 2.87 | .896 | 18-14-4 |
| Jarry | PIT-EDM | G | 33 | 98 | 2 | 3.32 | .882 | 18-9-3 |
| Italics indicates a Penguins draft pick or a free agent who began his career with the Penguins. | ||||||||