The Penguins move on from defenseman Ryan Graves (for now)

Ryan Graves was genuinely optimistic entering his third training camp as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Even after his first two campaigns with the club were underwhelming, the left-handed defenseman was buoyant about the 2025-26 season because of the benefit of strenuous offseason training and the opportunity to impress a new coaching staff.

“There’s more that I feel like I’m capable of than I’ve had the last couple of years here,” Graves said Sept. 19. “That’s not lost on me. I’m genuinely excited for the year coming in. I’ve carried it throughout the whole summer. I’m in really good shape coming in.

“There is improvement needed. I think that my game has been better (in previous years). I can be there again, and I’m going to be there again. … I’ve had a lot of conversations with (new coach Dan Muse on) what he’s looking for. I’m looking to put on that ice and be hard and be the best version of myself.”

Whatever version the 30-year-old Graves has to offer at the dawn of the regular season will be on display somewhere else.

On Saturday, the Penguins placed Graves, along with forwards Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Boko Imama and Sam Poulin as well as defenseman Alex Alexeyev, on waivers.

Should the NHL’s other 31 member clubs not claim any of them by 2 p.m. on Sunday, they will be assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.

Graves (6-foot-5, 225 pounds) was the most prominent member of the quintet, given the ample investment the Penguins made in him as an unrestricted free agent in the 2023 offseason.

In his first summer overseeing the Penguins, president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas was aggressive on the free agent market, particularly with Graves, as the parties agreed to a six-year contract with a salary cap hit of $4.5 million and a modified no-trade clause.

It was the largest contract — by length — the team had ever signed with an incoming free agent.

The hopes were Graves could replace franchise stalwart Brian Dumoulin as the team’s top defensive blueliner and be a companion to All-Star Kris Letang.

Those aspirations never materialized as Graves struggled to adapt to the system employed by former coach Mike Sullivan while largely being deployed on the top two pairings.

Last season, Graves mostly was submerged on the third pairing, at least when he wasn’t a healthy scratch, as was the case for 21 games.

Any hopes of a new start under Muse weren’t to be. This preseason, Graves appeared in four games and did not record a point on eight shots. In his final exhibition contest, a 5-3 road win against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday, Graves was defending during two of the Sabres’ goals, including a garish coast-to-coast power-play score by defenseman Rasmus Dahlin when he skated around all four of the Penguins’ penalty killers, including Graves.

I know its only preseason, but sheesh...Dahlin goes end to end, 4-3 PPG #LetsGoBuffalo #LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/mZ6jjurcUe

— Buffalo Hockey Moments (@SabresPlays) October 2, 2025

Potentially sending Graves to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton won’t be convenient. Per NHL rules, only $1.15 million of his salary cap hit can be relieved if he is in the AHL.

But management professed a desire to keep the eight defensemen who performed best in camp and the preseason in its estimation.

Graves was not part of that group.

“There was plenty of good moments in (Graves),” Muse said Saturday. “It was a competitive camp. You had a lot of defensemen. We knew this coming in that there was going to be some really hard decisions in all spots. You look at the training camp roster, you knew that the defense was going to be extremely difficult and it was.

“For him, we’ll see where things go here over the next day in terms of if he gets claimed or if it’s a situation where he is going to (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) and to go down there and play and get his game in the best place possible. And see where it goes from there.

“It was competitive, and we just felt that the eight (defensemen) that are with us as of today, this was the group that we felt best suited moving forward.”