Penguins Need To Upgrade The Left Side Of Their Defense

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ defense was hardly anything to write home about this year, but it was good enough to help them reach the playoffs. It became clear in the postseason that upgrades were needed. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reported this week that pending UFA defenseman Ryan Shea is expected to test the market, which likely means the already thin left side will lose a key contributor this summer. The Penguins still have Parker Wotherspoon and Samuel Girard as options, and they appear to like Ilya Solovyov as well, but that simply isn’t a good enough left side if the Penguins hope to compete for a playoff spot. Upgrades are in order, and Pittsburgh does have some options.

It should be noted that Shea can play both sides and did so for the Penguins this past year. However, with Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang likely in the top four on the right side and rookie Harrison Brunicke most likely ready for NHL duty, Shea would presumably have landed on the left side.

One other note before getting into the Penguins’ options is that they have another left-shot defenseman on the roster, veteran Ryan Graves, whose play has fallen off a cliff since signing a six-year deal when free agency opened in 2023. Graves has three years left on his deal at $4.5MM per season, but he is unlikely to be an option next season given how far his play has fallen. It’s fair to say that Graves has been a bust in Pittsburgh, and his contract is buyout-proof and likely trade-proof as well. However, it’s possible he could be traded for another player on an inflated contract who has underperformed.

Reports have linked Edmonton Oilers veteran Darnell Nurse to the Penguins, but it’s hard to understand why Pittsburgh would show interest in a 31-year-old who is grossly overpaid at $9.25MM per season, especially when the general manager has expressed a desire to get younger this summer. That said, Dubas has had success trading with Edmonton, and if he could grab additional assets or unload a bad contract, he would likely welcome the opportunity to pick up a discounted Nurse and perhaps more assets.

At this point, trading for undesirable contracts has become an art form for Dubas as he retools Pittsburgh. He has been down this road before, acquiring the likes of Kevin Hayes, Matt Dumba, Cody Glass, and Connor Clifton in exchange for a slew of second-round draft picks, as well as a third- and fifth-round pick. Those contracts are now all off the Penguins’ books, and they still have many of the picks in their catalogue, which they could use to acquire roster players. Given all of that, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Dubas go back to the well again for Nurse and perhaps try to find value in the trade by taking on his bloated cap hit. Nurse is still an NHL defenseman and would likely be a top-four defender for the Penguins, which really shows how weak their defense core is.

That leads us into some of the other options available on the trade market for left-handed defensemen. Bowen Byram of the Sabres is an option given the Sabres’ cap constraints. Byram is blessed with excellent skating. He’s a very good puck carrier and can create opportunities for his teammates. He had his best year last season in terms of overall play, yet his underlying numbers still aren’t great. That said, his skating and creativity would mesh well with the skilled Penguins, and Dubas is always on the lookout for speed, which Byram has in his toolbelt. The cost to acquire Byram would be quite high, and he is just a year away from being a UFA, but if the Penguins could orchestrate a sign-and-trade deal, they might be willing to push in for him, even though there are warts to his game.

Another option for the Penguins is Mason Lohrei of the Boston Bruins. At 25, he would fit well with what Pittsburgh is trying to do in its retool. However, like Byram, there are issues with his game. Lohrei is often guilty of missing assignments in the defensive zone and stickhandling himself into trouble, which leads to many turnovers. Like many defensemen currently on the Penguins, Lohrei’s game is high risk and high reward. If the Penguins were to acquire Lohrei, he wouldn’t be a great fit alongside Kris Letang, as the veteran Letang is often guilty of similar gaffes and doesn’t have the physical tools to make up for those costly mistakes anymore. A combo of Lohrei and Letang would be fun, but they would likely leave Penguins fans in a constant state of panic, similar to the Girard/Letang experience from this past season. Despite all of that, Lohrei has great size at 6’5” and is a fantastic skater who handles the puck well and has good vision. All traits that the Penguins love.

Finally, among the trade boards, the name that stands out with a deep connection to Dubas is Morgan Rielly of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Rielly has fallen on hard times in Toronto as his offense has dried up and his mistakes have been magnified, and he no longer outpaces his problems. Rielly would be a pickup that makes little sense for the Penguins unless they are grabbing additional assets in a trade along the lines of a potential Nurse deal. Rielly is old, isn’t a good defender, and would effectively add to the Penguins’ woes in their own end. He would put up points in Pittsburgh, but the cost to their defensive game would be so great that it wouldn’t be worth having him in the lineup. Rielly can still play at an NHL level, but he needs to be sheltered with offensive-zone starts, and Pittsburgh already has enough of those problems in its defensive core.

There is potential for Pittsburgh to acquire one of the names from the trade boards to address their defensive issues, but the likeliest outcome is that Dubas goes off the board and tries to acquire a younger defenseman who has fallen out of favor with his current organization, similar to what he did with Egor Chinakhov and the Columbus Blue Jackets. Dubas’ trading methodology over the past 24 months has been to find value in places others don’t look, and that’s how he’s been able to take one of the worst prospect systems in the league and build it into an above-average one. It’s also how he took an old roster that couldn’t make the playoffs and turned it into an old roster that could make the playoffs, with a few promising young players sprinkled in. Dubas will be active this summer, and the Penguins will surely be one of the most interesting teams to watch as they try to build on last season’s success while continuing to get younger.