Deadline Buzz: Penguins mull rental goaltending target on trial run?

Draft Capital Entering the Week

2025 Draft (11): Round 1 (2), Round 2 (0), Round 3 (3), Round 4 (1), Round 5 (3), Round 6 (1), Round 7 (1)

2026 Draft (9): Round 1 (1), Round 2 (2), Round 3 (2), Round 4 (1), Round 5 (0), Round 6 (1), Round 7 (2)

2027 Draft (9): Round 1 (1), Round 2 (2), Round 3 (2), Round 4 (1), Round 5 (1), Round 6 (1), Round 7 (1)

Where will that sit by Friday Afternoon?

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Deadline Buzz

Deadline Buzz: Multiple team sources say it is not set in stone the Penguins will end the season with the Tristan Jarry/Alex Nedeljkovic tandem in goal, let alone through the weekend.

Adding a goaltender at the To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

— A constant for months now surrounding the Penguins willingness to move draft capital for true young impact players is a lot of their targets are teams eyeing hockey deals not futures.

— Penguins/Preds to connect again on a deal? Predators To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

— Pittsburgh dodged a bullet in not going forward on a deal for To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

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— Sunday’s game was another game where Ryan Graves is everything of being unplayable but what are you going really going to do with him in the future? The Penguins are not close to winning so it makes absolutely no sense to pay a team for him to go away or retain money.

Other than saving about $8 million in actual cash over the next season, a buyout would see cap hits of $2.40 million (25-26), $3.40 million (26-27), $3.40 million (27-28), $3.65 million (28-29) over the next four seasons before the cap hit would dip to $646,000 from 2029-2030 through 2032-2033.

Players with terrible contracts are almost always tradeable in some way so never say never; maybe the rising cap sees a team desperate to get to the cap floor and you get lucky but not many owners are going to sign off on adding $15.75 million in total money to their books without an asset coming. Another wrinkle to Graves:

Of the $15.75 million Graves is owed over the next four seasons, $8 million of that is owed in signing bonuses as Kyle Dubas went signing bonus happy in July 2023. Graves is due a To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

Do the Penguins potentially have another unplayable defenseman on their roster for next season?

The noise is already loud Vincent Desharnais is not Mike Sullivan’s cup of tea To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!