Vitals
Player: Sam Girard
Born: May 12, 1998 (28 years old)
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 170 pounds
Hometown: Roberval, Quebec, Canada
Shoots: Left
Draft: Second-round, 2016, No. 47 overall by the Nashville Predators
2025-26 Statistics: 60 games played, 3 goals, 16 assists, 19 points (20 games, 0 goals, 7 assists with Pittsburgh)
Contract Status: In the final year of a seven-year, $35 million contract ($5 million salary cap)
Story of the Season
Girard’s 2025-26 season began with him as a member of the Colorado Avalanche, only to see
him get traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, along with a future second-round draft pick, in exchange for veteran defenseman and pending unrestricted free agent Brett Kulak. After being a key part of the Avalanche blue line for years, including during the 2022 Stanley Cup season, his play had regressed a bit and with the Avalanche looking to add more pieces at the trade deadline and shed salary, they made a deal with the Penguins to do exactly that. His season produced some mixed results with both teams. He really struggled in his initial games with the Penguins, especially when he was paired with Kris Letang, but also added in some strong games to at least offer some hope for the 2026-27 season.
Monthly Splits
He had a really strong December offensively, but the rest of the season on a month-by-month basis did not provide much in the way of offense that showed itself on the scoreboard or stat sheet for himself individually.
Regular season 5v5 advanced stats
Data via Natural Stat Trick. Ranking is out of 11 defensemen on the team who qualified by playing a minimum of 150 minutes.
Corsi For%: 48.3% (11th)
Goals For%: 61.2% (1st)
xGF%: 53.9% (3rd)
Scoring Chance%: 49.2% (8th)
High Danger Scoring Chance%: 51.0 (7th)
5v5 on-ice shooting%: 13.4% (2nd)
On-ice save%: .913 (2nd)
Goals/60: 0.00 (11th)
Assists/60: 1.20 (4th)
Points/60: 1.20 (5th)
Some good, some bad and some potentially concerning. On the bad sign, the shot attempt share, scoring chance share and high-danger scoring chance share were only middle of the pack on this Penguins team. Not awful. Not particularly great. On the positive side, for as hectic as his shifts seemed to look at times he rated extremely favorably terms of actual goals for and against. The Penguins outscored their opponents by a fairly significant margin with Girard on the ice during 5-on-5 play, which is ultimately what you want to see. The potentially concerning? That was almost certainly driven to some extent by the fact the Penguins on-ice shooting percentage and save percentage were outstanding with him on the ice. There is some potential PDO voodoo going on there.
Charts n’at
WAR metrics have a lot of time for Girard and paint his game in an extremely favorable light. He’s been a player who can do well to boost offensive impact, and his defensive numbers popped this season too.
The microstats show Girard’s strengths and weaknesses. When the puck is on his stick, he is very good with it. Whether that means entering the offensive zone or exiting the defensive zone, he is often effective carrying the puck with his legs or using his hands to move it with a pass. All good stuff. The microstats also show Girard’s weakness, which tend to be when he doesn’t have control of the puck – physical play and trying to deny entries can be a challenge for one of the league’s smallest and lightest defenders.
Girard is a very active player, it doesn’t always results in shots for himself but he’ll put in games with a lot of miles covered. The bottom right chart shows why he can be effective, spending less time in the defensive zone and more time in the offensive zone than the average player.
Girard’s high-end speed and burst is good, though not absolutely outstanding. He is a strong skater that can gain separation with his legs but doesn’t have the data of a truly elite fast skater.
Highlights
There are not many Penguins highlights for Girard, but this is a glimpse of the skill and talent he has with the puck.
Questions to ponder
Can Girard shake off some of the early inconsistencies he showed in Pittsburgh and get back to being a solid top-four defender? How much of his struggles were related to being paired with Kris Letang and simply not forming a solid chemistry with him?
When Letang and Girard were paired together the Penguins outscored their opponents by a 13-9 margin with a 52 percent expected goal share and a 46 percent shot attempt share.
In his 84 minutes when he was away from Letang, the Penguins outscored their opponents by a 6-3 margin with a 58.4 percent expected goals share and a 54 percent shot attempt share.
It was a significant difference in terms of process along with results.
Ideal 2026-27
Whether it happens while playing with Letang or somebody else, the Penguins need a more consistent performance from Girard than what they saw in his first set of games with the team. He doesn’t need to be Erik Karlsson, but he needs to give them a puck-moving presence that can move play up the ice. If he can give them 18-20 minutes per game and something in the neighborhood of 25 points and strong possession numbers, you’ve got a useful player. That presents a lot of options for the Penguins. It either gives them somebody that can make a big impact for 2025-26, or a potential option to re-sign as a long-term piece, or a significant trade chip if it comes to that.
Bottom line
Even though it was rocky at times, I am not ready to give up on Girard as a potentially important player next season, and I am not closing the book on him being here beyond this season. He will still only be 28 years old next season, he has a track record of success in the NHL and it is not unheard of for a defenseman to struggle on a new team initially and then come back strong the next season. It has happened enough times in Pittsburgh alone that we should at least be open to the possibility of it. A player that can skate like him on the back end is an extremely valuable asset if you can put everything together. He has done that enough times in his career that we should not rule it out again.
PensBurgh Grade: C-
Some brief moments of potential. Some brief moments of frustration. Not totally awful. Not always great.
