Assessing The Parker Wotherspoon Extension Possibilities

The Pittsburgh Penguins had a surprising 2025-26 season, making the playoffs in the Metropolitan Division and defying expectations. One player who really excelled was defenseman Parker Wotherspoon, who was signed last summer to a two-year, $2MM ($1MM AAV) contract and was expected to be a spare part on the Penguins’ defensive core. However, the 28-year-old had other ideas, rewarding Pittsburgh with steady play alongside Erik Karlsson and becoming the Penguins’ de facto top pairing. Wotherspoon also did something for the Penguins that hadn’t happened in the two seasons prior, giving Karlsson room to be Karlsson again. The 36-year-old had his best season as a Penguin and perhaps his best overall since leaving the Ottawa Senators in 2018. Wotherspoon has one year left on his deal, and with the Penguins’ left side looking lean going forward, locking up the extension-eligible rearguard should be a big priority for general manager Kyle Dubas this summer.

Wotherspoon had played just 108 NHL games prior to last year (96 with Boston and 12 with the NYI) and had never played more than 55 games in any NHL season. He had been ramping up over the two years leading into last season, but there were few statistical signs he was due for a breakout. That said, Penguins management clearly saw something in the Surrey, British Columbia, native that pushed them to him. Wotherspoon dressed in 80 games last season, posting three goals and 27 assists while averaging 20:10 per game. His 30 points were especially impressive given that he recorded none on the power play, logging less than four minutes all season with the man advantage. In fact, Wotherspoon had more shorthanded points (two assists) than power-play points last year.

In his small NHL sample prior to last year, he wasn’t what you would call an analytical darling, but his CF% at even strength in his first year in Pittsburgh was a solid 51.5%, despite starting more of his shifts in the defensive zone. His 162 hits ranked him second on the Penguins behind Connor Clifton, and he led the team in blocked shots with 112. It wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine for Wotherspoon, as he did bleed turnovers throughout the year, committing a team-high 118. The playoffs were also rather forgettable for Wotherspoon, although he was hardly the reason Pittsburgh was bounced in the first round in just six games.

The contract negotiations between the Penguins and Wotherspoon will be particularly interesting, assuming they take place at all this summer. But, as stated earlier, the Penguins should be eager to lock down Wotherspoon given their lack of depth on the left side of the defense. The other thing that might make Pittsburgh hesitant is what just developed between the team and Ryan Shea. The Penguins are likely to lose Shea in free agency after he had a breakout campaign this past year. The 29-year-old Shea was terrific this season, posting six goals and 29 assists in 80 games while playing nearly 19 minutes a night. Like Wotherspoon, it was Shea’s first solid NHL season, and it’s tough to gauge what kind of contract is fair, much like the Wotherspoon negotiations. The difference with Shea is that he is a year ahead of Wotherspoon in his pursuit of free agency, and he will ultimately get paid the big money first.

The advantage for Wotherspoon, if he goes into the season without an extension, is that if he has another terrific year, he will likely fetch more term and money than Shea should this summer, which has to be appealing for a player who has never made more than $1MM in any one NHL season. The flip side for Wotherspoon is that if he falters, teams might see his breakout this year as a mirage and wonder whether he is closer to a third-pairing defenseman than a top-pairing defenseman.

While Wotherspoon is weighing the option of securing long-term money or rolling the dice for big money and a long-term deal, the Penguins are on the opposite side of the coin. Locking up Wotherspoon after one great season would be a big gamble, one most teams might have been hesitant to absorb in years past. But with Pittsburgh’s cap situation and the salary cap rising, the Penguins might be in a great spot to gamble on a Wotherspoon extension to try to lock him up cheaply, that is, if they believe he is the real deal top-four defenseman.

The one caveat for Pittsburgh, and the thing that might make them pause when it comes to signing Wotherspoon long term, is that they currently have an albatross contract in Ryan Graves on their left side. You have to wonder whether GM Dubas thinks long and hard before offering big money to a left-handed defenseman with such a small sample size of success.

Time will tell us what the Penguins do, but one thing is for sure. The Penguins will talk to Wotherspoon’s representation this summer to do their due diligence before deciding how to proceed, and those talks will ultimately dictate the direction of negotiations.