Penguins Have to Make a Decision on Matt Grzelcyk’s Future With the Team

The Pittsburgh Penguins have a lot of decisions to make this summer .

Aside from finding a new head coach , general manager Kyle Dubas also needs to make some decisions regarding the roster and his current unrestricted free agents (UFAs).

For the most part, who Dubas should and shouldnt bring back seems like a no-brainer.

However, there is one UFA who may still be able to help the team.

Should Penguins Bring Grzelcyk Back? The Penguins signed Matt Grzelcyk last summer for $2.75 million.

He was coming off a pretty bad season with the Boston Bruins, where he had scored two goals for 11 points.

At the beginning of this season, he didnt look much better.

Through the first couple of months of the season, he couldnt defend at all, and he looked lost in his own zone.

However, once he found his footing within Pittsburghs system, he became a solid contributor.

Throughout the season, Grzelcyks defensive game left a little to be desired.

He turned out to be a huge difference maker on the power play, which finished sixth in the NHL in the regular season.

He quarterbacked the first unit all season and had a good ability to distribute the puck and make clean, short passes.

Grzelcyk played in all 82 games this season and scored a career high 40 points.

Fifteen of those points came on the power play.

He was a solid player this season, who is a good depth asset.

The big question is whether or not Dubas will choose to re-sign him.

The Penguins are very much in a rebuilding phase, and they are not going to be extremely competitive next season.

If he can continue to be a power-play contributor, signing him to an affordable one-year deal might not be the worst idea.

They might even be able to trade him at next seasons deadline if his play remains decent.

There is no doubt that Grzelcyk does a few things very well, but his game is severely limited everywhere else.

He has not been good at 5-on-5 for a while now, and he simply isnt good playing against tough competition.

He definitely made a huge difference on the power play, but should the Penguins just replace him with someone younger who is good on both the power play and 5-on-5? Penguins Should Part Ways With Grzelcyk There are definitely pros and cons to keeping Grzelcyk, but the cons far outweigh the pros.

He is not good at retrieving the puck, and he struggles to create chances.

He also struggles with zone exits, and hes not as fast as he was in his younger days.

Grzelcyk is, however, good at moving the puck once he is in the offensive zone, and hes pretty good with his gap control.

Keeping Grzelcyk could also limit playing time of younger players like Owen Pickering and Vladislav Kolyachonok, and Ryan Graves and Ryan Shea are already on the left side.

The fact that he played in all 82 games speaks to his toughness, as he took some nasty hits this season.

If Dubas decides to bring him back, he could probably get a good return for him in a trade with the salary cap rising.

Grzelcyk spent time this season playing with Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson.

If the Penguins bring him back, he should not be on a pairing with Karlsson, as their playing styles do not complement each other in the least.

Pittsburgh would also need him to play second-pairing minutes if he were back next season, which may prove to be difficult.

He did have a career-high season, but will he be able to repeat that in 2025-26? The team would probably be better off looking for someone younger to fill his spot.

This article first appeared on The Hockey Writers and was syndicated with permission..

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