Vitals
Player: Kris Letang
Born: April 27, 1987 (Age 39 season)
Height: 6’ 0”
Weight: 199 pounds
Hometown: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Shoots: Right
Draft: Third round, 2005 NHL Draft, No. 62 overall, by the Pittsburgh Penguins
2025-26 Statistics: 74 games played, three goals, 31 assists, 34 total points, minus-4
Contract Status: Two years remaining on a six-year. $36.6 million contract with $6.1 million salary cap number
Story of the Season
Letang is the one member of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ big three that has really started
to show signs of age and slowing down.
While Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were still big-time contributors in 2025-26 and providing the Penguins with great value with their contracts, Letang simply did not. He has lost a step in his game and has not yet really adjusted to that, still having moments where he tries to play the way he did at his peak. It is not a good combination. While there were still some moments and individual games where Letang could put everything together and play like Kris Letang, those moments were few and far between.
The good news: Some of those moments came in extremely clutch situations, scoring overtime game-winning goals against both the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets to help give the Penguins key points in their push for a playoff spot against teams they were competing with in the playoff race. The game-winning goal against Columbus in late November capped off a two-goal third period comeback win for the Penguins that was one of their best wins of the season (and also one of their two multiple goal come-from-behind wins in Columbus this season).
Monthly Splits
Letang had a solid start to the season in October, recording six points with a plus-8 rating in his first 12 games of the season. He also had a solid December with nine points in 14 games. But his November and March were both especially bad, both offensively and in terms of giving up goals, and played a big role in his overall down numbers for the season.
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%: 48.8 (6th)
Goals For%: 49.1 (9th)
xGF%: 50.0 (9th)
Scoring Chance%: 48.6 (9th)
High Danger Scoring Chance%: 49.6 (9th)
5v5 on-ice shooting%: 9.8 (9th)
On-ice save%: .904 (5th)
Goals/60: 0.00 (11th)
Assists/60: 0.83 (7th)
Points/60: 0.83 (7th)
There is not a lot to love here about Letang’s perfomrance.
He did not score a single goal during 5-on-5 play, saw a serious drop in his playmaking with the assists, and was no longer an overly effective player in terms of driving position.
Making things even worse, he seemed to be the common denominator for a lot of his partner’s struggles.
Sam Girard was significantly better and more productive when he was not paired with Letang.
Ryan Shea was significantly better and more productive when he was not paired with Letang.
The only defenseman that seemed to have any meaningful success with Letang this season was Brett Kulak in their 278 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey together.
In other words, the 2025-26 season was finally the season that Kris Letang played like the player that his harshest critics always thought that he was. It only took 18 years, but it happened.
Highlights
Questions to Ponder
The two biggest questions regarding Letang are whether or not he can rebound in any way this season and find a way to be productive in a smaller role, and whether or not he will actually be on the team next season?
Letang has always seemed like the most likely of the big three to play elsewhere, and the Penguins might be open to moving him and his contract if the opportunity presents itself. That does not seem likely for a variety of reasons, ranging from Letang having a full no-movement clause and having the ability to veto any trade he does not want, as well as the fact there simply may not be a huge market for a 39-year-old defenseman counting more than $6 million per season against the salary cap and coming off arguably the worst season of his career.
Ideal 2026-27
It still seems likely that Letang will be a Penguin, but he is going to need to adjust his style of play and his role is going to need to change. He does not need to be the focal point of the defense or be the player pushing the pace of play, mostly because he does not really possess the skating or skills to do that anymore. If he can play an 18-minute per night role in more sheltered situations, while chipping in the occasional 5-on-5 goal, there might still be something here that they can use. He just needs to know his limitations. The Penguins also need to know his limitations.
Bottom line
Letang is a giant in Penguins history and one of the best, most important players to play for the franchise. There may have been a handful of better defensemen to briefly play for the Penguins (Paul Coffey, for example), but Letang has had the greatest career of any Penguins defensemen with the Penguins. He has won three Stanley Cups here, scoring a game-winning goal in a Stanley Cup clinching game, and consistently been one of the best overall defensemen in the NHL. He is a borderline Hall of Famer. All of that will always be important, even if he is not that version of himself at this stage of his career.
Pensburgh Grade: D+
