Building on Belief

The Penguins open the 2026.27 campaign where last season ended: Philadelphia.

“Coming off last year, and starting in Philly, is something that I think both sides were kind of hoping for. It's fun,” forward Blake Lizotte said with a smile. “Definitely some sour feelings after last year, but it's a new year, and we look at it as a chance internally to start that first building block, if you will, to build towards the end of the year.”

The Penguins already have a strong foundation to work with, laid down by Jack Adams Award finalist Dan Muse and his staff, the future Hall of Famers, the exciting young players, and all the pieces in between.

Despite low external expectations, the Penguins flipped the script and returned to the playoffs, falling Flyers in six games after falling into a 3-0 series deficit.

“They had an awesome year,” said new addition Trevor van Riemsdyk. “I think everyone was waiting for it to kind of fall off and come down to earth. They had a bunch of young guys, and obviously the superstars did what the superstars always do, and the young guys did a great job of contributing.”

While there were a lot of positives to take from the season as a whole, the biggest takeaway for Pittsburgh’s management, hockey operations, and coaching staff is that the team still has a long way to go to return to legitimate contention. They all worked tirelessly this summer to try and improve the Penguins.

President of Hockey Operations and GM Kyle Dubas acquired a handful of pieces that should fit well into the mix, and Muse and his assistants dug deep into how they can maintain their strong offensive play while becoming an average-or-above team defensively.

Now, it’s up to the guys in that dressing room each game to attack each day.

“I’m most looking forward to the unknown, I think,” defenseman Erik Karlsson said. “What are the things that we're going to identify early that we need to work on, and what are the things that we're doing well and need to build on, and hopefully get off to a good start where we can do that as early on as possible and start growing right away, like we did last year.

“And what those things are going to be, that's the unknown. I don't know, but that's also the exciting part. I think you try and figure out what you have to do today to be successful tomorrow.”

Sidney Crosby said hopefully, that will ultimately result in the Penguins going further than they did last year.

“Last year was probably exceeding a lot of people's expectations,” the captain said. “For the guys that were here last year and went through last season, there should be a lot of belief. And for new guys coming in with opportunities that they have here, I think as a group, we've got to aim for that.”

Regarding the opening-night roster, Penguins Assistant GM Jason Spezza said he understands that people want some sort of finality at the end of training camp in terms of what the team is going to look like all year. But that’s not the case, as plenty of younger players are pushing for time, whether now or later.

“I think there's going to be plenty of opportunities for young guys to establish themselves as NHL players as the year goes on,” Spezza said. “But we know we want to inject youth into the lineup. We have to. We have to make sure we do it when guys are ready, and when they're going to help the team.”

That said, here’s a look at how the Penguins have been lining up with the personnel they currently have at each position.

FORWARDS

Nick Robertson-Sidney Crosby-Rickard Rakell

Egor Chinakhov-Tommy Novak-Evgeni Malkin

Filip Hallander-Hendrix Lapierre-Ville Koivunen

Connor Dewar-Blake Lizotte-Elmer Soderblom

Extras: Rutger McGroarty, David Gustafsson

Injured: Bryan Rust, Ben Kindel, Justin Brazeau

Non-Roster: Andrei Kuzmenko

Thoughts on the group as a whole, provided by Lizotte:

“We got some new guys in here with some skill, some young guys with some skill. I think that will kind of give us a boost with secondary scoring. Also, we kind of built an identity last year, and I don't think we want to stray too far from that. I thought it was something that was really good to build off of going forward. There are things you need to add each and every year, like getting better in those little moments each day. I don't know if I'd say it's one thing, but it's an accumulation of a lot of little things that will hopefully drive us to be better this year.”

Defense

Declan Carlile-Erik Karlsson

Trevor van Riemsdyk-Kris Letang

Sam Girard-Kaedan Korczak

Extra: Ilya Solovyov

Injured: Ryan Graves

Thoughts on the group as a whole, provided by van Riemsdyk:

“I think you look up and down our D and even past the six, seven that are here, there's guys in Wilkes that are all great players. I think the strength of our unit is everyone can skate. You got obviously the high-end skills of Karl and Tanger and Sammy, they are all really special in that way. But they're also great defenders, too. I think they probably don't get enough credit for that because they always have the puck, so they're not defending as much. ... Guys have different strengths out there. Carly's tough to play against and makes things miserable for the other team. I think we have a good group, and I think we're capable of a lot. And hopefully, we can get off on a good foot.”

Goaltending

Arturs Silovs

Sergei Murashov

It’s a young tandem with plenty of potential.

“I thought both guys had really good camps. I think they put in a lot of work in the practices, and I think they’re ready to go to start the season,” Dan Muse said.

Silovs, 25, is coming off of what was technically his rookie season in the NHL, and his first with the Penguins. Silovs played in a career-high 39 games, deepening his knowledge about the League, its teams and its players. He dealt with ups and downs but finished strong, making big saves in big moments to help Pittsburgh try to claw back from a 3-0 series deficit.

“I think he continues to show when the lights are bright and the moments are big, that he’s able to step up and provide very strong goaltending,” Dubas said. “I thought that was a real positive for him.”

Silovs had to rehab a knee injury this summer, but feels good after getting two preseason games. The first one was nothing to write home about as Silovs got his timing back, and he was outstanding in the second one.

READ: Silovs Seized the Moment, Wants to Keep Building

Murashov made the opening-night roster for the first time in his young career after two excellent seasons spent mostly in the American Hockey League.

“I think we all know he's a talented young kid that has all the potential in the world,” Karlsson said.

READ: Murashov Takes Another Step