The Pittsburgh Penguins are in a strange place as a franchise.
General manager Kyle Dubas is attempting to retool his roster and get younger while the veteran core members of the team continue to age. His goal is to have the Penguins return to contention as soon as possible, but as of right now, it’s hard to see that coming to fruition.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang have all reiterated their desire to retire in Pittsburgh. While Crosby is still playing at a superstar level, Malkin has dealt with injuries and a dip in production, and Letang has really started to struggle.
On Tuesday, reporter Josh Yohe wrote an article for The Athletic and shared some interesting details about Letang’s future with the team. He posted the link to the piece on X (formerly Twitter).
“Several team sources, who were granted anonymity to protect personal relationships, said Letang and his play were the source of incredible frustration for head coach Mike Sullivan and assistant coach David Quinn this past season… First off, Letang has a full no-trade clause. It’s not entirely clear if Letang would be willing to waive his clause to play for another team. Penguins president and general manager Kyle Dubas probably couldn’t trade him even if he wanted to. Team sources said Letang is “unmovable,” Yohe wrote.
Letang has three years remaining on the six-year, $36,600,000 contract extension he signed with the Pens in 2022.
The Penguins would like to lessen the burden on Kris Letang next season
The 2024-25 campaign was one of the worst of Kris Letang’s illustrious career.
The 38-year-old posted 30 points (nine goals, 21 assists) in 74 games and had a -15 rating. Those 30 points were his lowest mark since the 2013-14 season, where he played only 37 games.
His struggles were painful to watch at times, and according to Yohe’s article, the Penguins believe reducing Letang’s minutes and potentially placing him in a third pairing role would improve his play. Whether the future Hall-of-Famer would be willing to cooperate is the big question and problem in that scenario.
Kris Letang will almost certainly remain a Pittsburgh Penguin heading into next season. But if he does, there may need to be some difficult conversations between him and the organization moving forward.