Over/under for the Pittsburgh Penguins core players in 2024-25 season
Checking in with another round of over/under for the 2024-25 Pittsburgh Penguins season.
We have one more round of over/under for the 2024-25 Pittsburgh Penguins, and this one features their core group of big-money players and future Hall of Famers: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson.
Here are the previous over/under’s for the season.
Over/under: Penguins secondary players
Sidney Crosby: Over/under 90.5 points
Now that the captain has his new contract and is set to play for the Penguins for at least the next three seasons, we can turn our focus to what he is going to do on the ice.
Based on what we have seen the past few years, there is little indication that he is going to slow down much even as he is prepared to enter his age 37 season.
Perhaps the craziest thing about Crosby’s career at this point — beyond the fact he is ignoring normal NHL aging curves — is that the past two years have been some of his healthiest in the NHL. He has appeared in all 82 games two years in a row, something he had accomplished just twice over the first 17 years of his career.
He is also still scoring at an incredible rate with 93 and 94 points respectively.
Does he have another 90-point season in him?
If he does, he would join a pretty exclusive list of players.
In the history of the NHL there have only been five 90-point seasons for a player age 37 or older, a list that includes only Gordie Howe, Joe Sakic, Johnny Bucyk. Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky.
While that seems like a small list, it was also pretty unheard for a player to top 90 points as a 36-year-older. Crosby managed it.
If the Penguins can get their power play fixed it only increases his opportunity, but it still seems like something that is within reach for Crosby given the way he is still producing and preparing himself.
Evgeni Malkin: Over/Under 75.5 points
Like Crosby, Malkin has managed to do something he has rarely done throughout his career by appearing in all 82 games the past two seasons.
That is what makes the past two seasons so frustrating. Crosby and Malkin have missed exactly zero games over that stretch, they have still largely produced, and the Penguins have still missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs both times.
That is not supposed to be the case.
While Malkin is still productive, his career has slowed down a little more than Crosby with slightly lower production.
He has scored 27 goals each year, while producing 83 and 67 points respectively.
He is also a year older than Crosby.
Also like Crosby a lot of his production and ability to produce big point totals will depend largely on the team’s ability to score on the power play.
His 67 points were a little disappointing and the lowest scoring rate of his career, but it still feels like there is a little more in there. Especially if they can get him some consistent wingers that can finish.
Kris Letang: Over/Under 50.5 Points
Letang also appeared in all 82 games for the Penguins a year ago, and probably had a better offensive season than he got credit for having.
He topped the 50-point mark as a 36-year-old, something that had been done only 20 other times in NHL history for a defenseman.
He did that despite seeing a big drop in his power play minutes early in the season and an increase in his penalty killing minutes. He had only five points (and zero goals) on the power play and produced almost all of his offense at even-strength.
His 10 even-strength goals were 12th among NHL defenders, while his 45 even-strength total points were the sixth-most behind only Quinn Hughes, Roman Josi, Josh Morriseey, Cale Makar and Evan Bouchard.
The man can still produce like a top-tier defender at even-strength.
Again, if the Penguins can generate anything off of their power play (and the core players need to take responsibility for that) it seems like another 50-point season could be in the cards for him.
Erik Karlsson: Over/Under 60.5 points
Karlsson was good in his debut season with the Penguins during the 2023-24 season.
He was not great.
He was not franchise-changing.
He may not have reached expectations.
But he was good.
The biggest problem might have been the simple fact expectations were through the roof given that he was coming off of a 100-point season that saw him win his third career Norris Trophy. It was an all-time great season and he was unlikely to repeat that. He did not repeat it.
The biggest problem, again, was on the power play where I think Karlsson has to actually take a lot of blame for the struggles. He was simply not good on that unit and struggled to make an impact as the point man. Maybe he needed a year to adjust? Maybe the whole unit just needs a new voice and vision, which it could (and probably should) get with David Quinn, who was Karlsson’s head coach when he had his 100-point season in San Jose. Quinn has also coached two of the past four Norris Trophy winners in Karlsson and Adam Fox with the New York Rangers.
Maybe that connection can help get even more production out of Karlsson. It certainly can not hurt to try.