Preseason games are officially booked, and the next time we’ll see the 2024-25 Pittsburgh Penguins will be at the start of the regular season.
While some players have been able to perform particularly well in the preseason, others may have more questions about them based on what we saw. Or maybe you couldn’t see it.
So let’s take a quick look at the roster with a preseason inventory increase and inventory decrease outlook.
stock up
Jesse Puljujuarvi. I’m trying not to overreact to some of the preseason games. This is because these results and numbers may contain a lot of noise. You don’t always get the role you get in the regular season, you don’t always play against the other team’s top players, you don’t always get the best effort or quality of competition.
Don’t overreact, especially if you have a player with seven years and 356 games in the NHL on his resume.
That being said, Puljujarvi had a really great preseason. He scored goals, produced points and was one of the best players on the ice on many nights. I always liked him as a player and thought he could and probably should be on a good NHL team, but at the same time his opportunities were starting to run out. Above all, he gave himself a chance to make the roster and become a regular at the beginning of the season in order to continue to prove himself.
Rutger McGroarty. He has to be the top prospect in the organization at this point, and he presented himself like an NHLer in camp and in the preseason, and seemed to get stronger as the preseason progressed. Ultimately, the individual work was there, and he also left behind sensational underlying numbers. The Penguins outscored teams 8-2 in 5-on-5 play with him on the ice, with an expected goal share of 70.7 percent, while he only had a 34 percent start share in the offensive zone. Achieved everything. Will that be enough for him to be on the Opening Day roster? That remains to be seen. He may still be able to get a start in the American Hockey League, simply because he has never played professional hockey before. However, he did nothing to be taken off the roster. Honestly, I wouldn’t hate it if they started the season with the same third line they finished preseason with: McGroarty, Puljujarvi, and Lars Eller.
Speaking of which…
Lars Eller. Eller was the only player in the bottom six a year ago who didn’t irritate me to no end. He did what Kyle Dubas wanted in his deep forwards, and also had enough offensive power in his game to be more than just a shutdown grinder who could only play until a 0-0 tie. I don’t expect him to keep scoring like he did in preseason (he’s not that type of player), but I thought he looked strong. At the very least, a big year from him would make him an outstanding trade chip if they have to go back to seller mode again.
Harrison Brunike. Whether the Penguins are looking to rebuild, compete, or something in between, they really need some young players to start building their structure. McGrawarty is clearly an exciting prospect. It was also exciting to see how Brunike actually handled himself during the preseason forcing the Penguins to make tough decisions about where he would play this season. That’s probably more than anyone could have reasonably anticipated and hoped for when training camp started. Including Brunike himself.
Out of stock
Ryan Graves. The optimistic view here is that it may take defense personnel a year or so to adapt to the new system (not always true, but in some cases it could be) (also available). Or maybe he wasn’t supposed to do as badly as he did in his debut season with the Penguins.
The realistic view is that he probably wasn’t as good as the Penguins thought when they signed him, and that much of his play in previous games was due to the elite partner he always played next to. This is said to have been improved by. When you have a defenseman in his mid-20s that multiple teams haven’t made much effort to re-sign, that should be a pretty big hint that something might be missing.
Second-year Graves’ early preseason return looked very similar to the first-year version of Graves. That’s not enough.
Erik Karlsson’s health. I don’t want to be overly negative or pessimistic here, but for a defenseman in his mid-30s who missed all of training camp and the preseason, did very little full-contact work, and was just going to jump right. Feeling some doom and gloom here. He will return to the starting lineup for the opening game. Karlsson is better than people thought he was a year ago, and he remains a very important player if this team is going to compete this season or have any chance of making the playoffs. They need him to be good, and they need him to be healthy. You’ll have to see it before you believe it now.
Goalie depth. Tristan Jarry played well in the preseason. He always plays well early in the season. However, I am a little concerned about Alex Nedeljkovic’s injury and Joel Blomqvist potentially having to sit out some games early in the season. Goaltending is always the biggest X-factor for any team. It will always determine your success. That’s especially true here, where things haven’t gone the Penguins’ way in recent years.
