Penguins Have Put Themselves in a Good Position to Have a Bright Future

The Pittsburgh Penguins are currently in unfamiliar territory. They will more than likely miss the playoffs for the third year in a row, and with the core inching closer to retirement, the rebuild is almost in full swing. President of hockey operations and general manager Kyle Dubas has done a good job of stockpiling draft picks and setting the team up for a successful future. He has put the team in a good position to have a productive offseason. 

Penguins Have Options This Summer 

Pittsburgh’s current outlook is pretty bleak. They are six points out of a wild card spot, and their chances of making the postseason are pretty slim. However, their future is starting to look brighter and brighter. They have 29 draft picks over the next three drafts and a good amount of prospects coming up the ranks. Combine that with the NHL salary cap going up this summer, and suddenly the Penguins’ predicament does not look so bad. 

The Penguins have a few different options this summer, including one that they have rarely utilized. They will have the cap space available to send out an offer sheet, and Dubas may very well take this route. An offer sheet is a contract offered by one team to a restricted free agent on a different team. If the player chooses to sign the offer sheet and their original team does not match it, they become a member of the new team.

There are also several qualifications to be eligible for an offer sheet. One of them is that the player must be younger than 27 on July 1 of that year. Dubas has been very vocal about adding young players to his roster. He has the means to send out offer sheets this summer and add some young talent to the team.