Penguins stock report following 2024-25 preseason
Taking a quick look at some stock up and stock down for the 2024-25 Pittsburgh Penguins after the preseason.
The preseason games are officially in the books and the next time we see the 2024-25 Pittsburgh Penguins it will be when they open their regular season.
Some players managed to really stand out in the preseason, and others might have some more questions about them based on what we saw. Or, in some cases, did not see.
So let us take a quick look around the roster with a preseason stock up, stock down outlook.
Stock Up
Jesse Puljujuarvi. I am trying not to overreact to a handful of preseason games, because there can be a lot of noise in those results and numbers. You are not always playing the role you would get in the regular season, you are not always going against the other team’s top players, you are not always getting the best efforts or quality of competition.
You especially do not want to overreact when it is a player that has parts of seven years and 356 games in the NHL on their resume.
Having said that, Puljujarvi really did have a great preseason, didn’t he? He scored goals, he produced points, he was, on a lot of nights, one of the best players on the ice. I have always liked him as a player and thought he could — and perhaps should — have a spot on a good NHL team, but he was also starting to run out of opportunities. If nothing else he has given himself a chance to make the roster and be a regular at the start of the season to keep proving himself.
Rutger McGroarty. He has to be the top prospect in the organization right now, and he represented himself like an NHLer in camp and the preseason and seemed to get stronger as the preseason went on. The individual production ended up being there, and he also had sensational underlying numbers. The Penguins outscored teams 8-2 during 5-on-5 play with him on the ice, had a 70.7 percent expected goal share and they did all of that while he only had a 34 percent offensive zone start share. Will that be enough to earn him a spot on the opening night roster? That remains to be seen. He still might get a start in the American Hockey League just because he has never played pro hockey before. But he did not do anything to play his way off the roster. Honestly, I would not hate it if they opened the season with the third line they closed the preseason with — McGroarty, Puljujarvi and Lars Eller.
Speaking of....
Lars Eller. Eller was the one player in the bottom-six from a year ago that did not endlessly frustrate me. He did what Kyle Dubas wants from his depth forwards, and also has enough offense to his game that he is not just just a shutdown grinder that can only play to a 0-0 tie. I do not expect him to keep scoring the way he did in the preseason (he is not that type of player) but I thought he looked strong. If nothing else, a big year from him would make him an outstanding trade chip if they have to go into seller mode again.
Harrison Brunicke. Whether the Penguins are trying to rebuild, contend or something in between, they really need some young players to start coming through the system. McGroarty is obviously an exciting prospect. It has also been exciting to see the way Brunicke has handled himself in the preseason by actually giving the Penguins a tough decision to make regarding where he plays this season. That is probably more than anybody could have reasonably expected or hoped for when training camp started. Including Brunicke himself.
Stock Down
Ryan Graves. The optimistic viewpoint here is that it can sometimes take defensemen a year or so to fit into their new system (not always true; but sometimes it can be). Or that perhaps there was no way he could possibly be as bad as he was in his debut season with the Penguins.
The realistic viewpoint is that he probably was not good as good as the Penguins thought when they signed him, and that a lot of his play in previous stops was elevated by the elite partners he consistently played next to. When you have a mid-20s defenseman that multiple teams did not make much of an effort to re-sign, that should be a pretty big tip that maybe something is missing.
The early preseason returns from Graves in year two have looked very much like the year one version of Graves. That is not good enough.
Erik Karlsson’s health. Not trying to be overly negative or pessimistic here, but I just have some doom-and-gloom here about a mid-30s defenseman that missed all of training camp and preseason, did very little full contact work, and is going to just jump right back into the starting lineup for the season opener. Karlsson was better than he was given credit for being a year ago, and he is still a very important player if this team is going to compete this season or have any sort of chance to make the playoffs. They need him to be good, and they need him to be healthy for him to be that. I will need to see it before I believe it right now.
Goalie depth. Tristan Jarry played well in the preseason. He always plays well early in the season. But I am a little concerned about Alex Nedeljkovic’s injury and Joel Blomqvist potentially having to play some games early in the season. Goaltending will always be the biggest X-factor every team. It will always make-or-break your success. That is especially true here, and for a few years now the Penguins have not had it go their way.