The Pittsburgh Penguins are going into the Holiday and nearing the halfway point of the 2025-26 NHL regular season. They are probably where everybody expected them to be in the standings, but have reached it in a very unexpected manner. So it might be a good time to just check in and look at who has been their best player (no surprise), their biggest disappointment, their biggest surprise and their best offseason addition.
Let’s get to it.
Best player: Sidney Crosby
There are some legitimate concerns with the way the top line
has played defensively, and that applies to both Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust. But the offense is still there, and it is still there at a very high level. Scoring 20 goals and averaging more than a point-per-game through 36 games at the age of 38 is wild stuff.
It is the sort of thing that just does not happen in the NHL. Crosby is on pace for 43 goals this season which would be the third-highest total of his career. He is, again, 38 years old. Players are not supposed to still be this productive at this age. He is obviously not most players. It has been a milestone year for him in becoming the Penguins’ all-time leading scorer, and he is still playing like one of the top offensive players in the NHL.
Biggest Surprise: Ben Kindel
When the Penguins selected Kindel with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft it was greeted with a polarizing reception. Some saw the production and talent and knew there was a lot of upside. Others looked at some of the other familiar names that had been talked about pre-draft, and were still available, and saw it as a missed opportunity. Almost nobody saw him making the NHL team right out of training camp. Nobody could have imagined he would not only make the team, but also make it through the nine-game trial period and be here to stay. Not only is he here to stay, he has also been a major contributor and already displaying an advanced two-way game for an 18-year-old. He might not be a franchise-changing player, but he certainly has the ability to be a top-line player and perhaps even an All-Star level player. He has been a major bright spot.
With eight goals in 33 games he is on a 20-goal pace over 82 games while consistently posting some of the best underlying and possession numbers on the team. His line has also consistently been one of the Penguins’ most effective in most games. That is all extremely impressive play for an 18-year-old. He is not going to win the Calder Trophy, but he has a significant future in the NHL and with the Penguins.
Biggest Disappointment: Kris Letang
There was always going to come a point in time where the big-three (Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Letang) would begin to slow down. To varying degrees, all of them have.
At least compared to what they were in their peak. But none of them have declined faster and more aggressively than Letang. He has been a difficult watch at times this season and is playing some of the worst hockey of his career. There are not many positives on the Penguins defense this season, but that was to be expected with most of the players that were assembled on that unit. There was still some hope that Letang might be able to provide something of value. Those moments have been few and far between.
Player the Penguins need more from: Ville Koivunen
I had high expectations for Ville Koivunen coming into this season, and I think a lot of other people did as well. He has been outstanding in the American Hockey League. He had a strong debut late in the 2024-25 season with the Penguins.
He opened this season on a dominant run in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It just has not all translated into results this season at the NHL level. I would not say he has been bad, because that would be a little unfair. He doesn’t make a lot of obvious mistakes, and his underlying numbers, whether he is a part of The Kid Line or another line, have consistently been good. He is just not producing anything offensively, and that is what the Penguins want and need from him. He finds himself in good positions a lot, he has created chances, but the puck has not consistently gone in the net for him, or as a result of his plays. Only three points in 24 games is just a little underwhelming. Not every young player develops at the same pace.
There are going to be growing pains that come for a lot of them. If you want to see the Penguins rebuild and get younger and play different players you have to accept the reality that struggles are going to be a part of that. I am certainly not giving up on Koivunen, and the Penguins should not either, but they probably do need to see more production from him in the second half of the season.
Worst offseason addition: Connor Clifton and Matt Dumba
They get to share this. Expectations for both players were low coming into the season, and they were mostly here as part of salary dump trades or to get future assets. Nobody was counting on them being major contributors. Even so, the Penguins’ defense has become a major liability with this team and played a significant role in the poor play over the past 10 games.
Clifton and Dumba have not been regulars, and Dumba is now in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but they have not been good when called on. I understand the purpose of their additions was not necessarily for their play. There is more going on there with salaries, contracts and future draft picks, which changes the way the trades themselves are analyzed from a big picture perspective. But from an on-ice perspective and how they have impacted this team, this season, they have not been useful additions.
Best offseason addition: Anthony Mantha
Mantha was this year’s Anthony Beauvillier, a low-budget, reclamation project free agent signing that could be inserted into the top-six, put in positions to score, and then be flipped at the trade deadline, probably for another future second-round pick.
So far, it has gone to plan.
With 11 goals and 23 total points he is on a 25-goal, 52-point pace and carries a relatively cheap salary cap number that should make him an attractive option for a team in need of some size and depth scoring for the playoffs.
Depending on the shift he can either look like an All-Star or one of the worst players you have ever seen. Overall he has accomplished what the Penguins had hoped.
