Training camp preview: The Penguins' right-handed defensemen are good. Can they be better?
With the Pittsburgh Penguins scheduled to open training camp Wednesday, here is a position-by-position look at their roster. Today, a glance at their right-side defensemen.
For reasons no one can really seem to figure out, finding right-handed defensemen is always a little harder than finding their southpaw counterparts. There’s just a greater supply of left-handers.
Yet, the Penguins seemed to corner the market on All-Star starboard blueliners when they acquired superstar Erik Karlsson via trade in August of 2023 and added to a nest that already harbored six-time All-Star Kris Letang.
Having a pair of right-handed luminaries on defense should have fixed everything that haggled the Penguins, or so it was theorized.
But in practice (or games), the addition of Karlsson wasn’t a universal remedy, particularly on an obscenely defective power-play unit.
To be clear, Karlsson was good as he finished fourth on the team in scoring with 56 points (11 goals, 45 assists) in 82 games. But the expectations for a future member of the Hockey Hall of Fame are much higher than good.
It’s fair to suggest Karlsson needs to offer so much more in his second season with the Penguins.
As for Letang, he offered a mostly steady performance in 2023-24 even as his ice time — particularly on the power play — declined slightly because of Karlsson’s presence.
Posting 51 points (10 goals, 41 assists), Letang appeared in 82 games — no small accomplishment given his age (37) and history of health woes — but was staggered in the late stages of the season because of a finger injury that required surgery in May.
Karlsson and Letang largely will command the same roles they occupied in 2023-24 on the Penguins’ top two defensive pairings. The main question for each of them will be their partners. Left-handers Ryan Graves, Marcus Pettersson and Matt Grzelcyk are the leading candidates for those assignments.
On the third pairing, Jack St. Ivany impressed as a rookie after being summoned to the NHL roster in the late stages of last season. Blessed with some size (6-foot-3, 198 pounds) as well as a bit of physicality, St. Ivany made safe, reliable plays and earned the confidence of the coaching staff in March and April, as well as a three-year contract extension in May.
The Penguins also signed unrestricted free agent Sebastien Aho in July. A left-handed defenseman, Aho predominantly played on the right side as a member of the New York Islanders last season. His versatility and slick skating make him a prime candidate to serve as the team’s seventh defensemen.
Left-handers Ryan Shea and John Ludvig made their NHL debuts last season and were pressed into service on occasion as starboarders. While they are capable of skating on the right side, it would be charitable to suggest they were overly impressive there.
Reserves Nate Clurman and Mac Hollowell were signed to one-year, two-way contracts in July and will provide veteran stability to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the American Hockey League. But if they see substantial time at the NHL level, things really will have gone wrong for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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