The Penguins have some decisions to make this summer when it comes to re-signing their own pending free agents.
Some of those decisions, like when it comes to what to do with Tristan Jarry and Jason Zucker, are pretty monumental for the direction of the team next season. Danny Shirey already took a look at the pending free agents from the NHL roster when the season ended and gave his thoughts on what the Penguins should do with each player.
The Penguins have an additional 10 pending free agents who finished the season in the minors, and not all of them will get contracts for next season.
Here's a look at who those free agents are, and what seems like a likely outcome for them this summer.
FORWARDS
Jonathan Gruden
Position: Center/left wing
Size: 6-0/190
Shoots: Left
Age: 23
Team: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL), Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL)
Season totals: 54 games, 16 goals, 15 assists (AHL), 3 games (NHL)
Expiry status: RFA
Gruden was in the third year of his entry-level contract this season, having made his professional debut with Wilkes-Barre in 2020 after being acquired in the Matt Murray trade. He finally cracked the NHL this season, a brief stint in which he centered the Penguins' fourth line. His 16 goals and 31 points were both career highs for him at the AHL level, though his production isn't his biggest strength at that level. His strengths -- and what earned him this opportunity in the NHL -- are his defensive play and his penalty-killing abilities. He's the best forward Wilkes-Barre has in either regard.
If Wilkes-Barre needs to protect a lead late in a game, it's Gruden that head coach J.D. Forrest sends onto the ice first and foremost. If you're looking for a player comparison, he's closest to Teddy Blueger, perhaps with more of an edge. He's a little more physical, and he doesn't shy away from stepping up to protect his teammates.
Gruden isn't going to crack anyone's top prospect list, but with the prospect pool being as shallow as it is, I'd think that bringing him back is an easy decision. It would be for league-minimum salary, and he'd surely start the year in Wilkes-Barre. Even if he doesn't improve upon his three NHL games from last season, he's still a good piece for Wilkes-Barre to have. He's only just turned 23 this summer, there's still a lot of room for him to grow, too.
Filip Hallander
Position: Center/wing
Size: 6-1/196
Shoots: Left
Age: 22
Team: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL), Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL)
Season totals: 43 games, 11 goals, 22 assists (AHL), 2 games (NHL)
Expiry status: RFA
Hallander, of course, is already gone. He signed a five-year deal to return to his hometown club Timra IK in Sweden back in April.
Teams can still make qualifying offers to pending restricted free agents who have signed deals in Europe and retain their North American signing rights until the player turns 27 years old. There is no downside to doing so, and it is done in case the player decides to return to North America in the future. But since Hallander turns 23 this summer and signed a five-year deal in Sweden, there would be little point in extending a qualifying offer. His North American rights with the Penguins would expire while still under contract in Sweden.
Valtteri Puustinen
Position: Wing
Size: 5-9, 183
Shoots: Right
Age: 24
Team: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL)
Season totals: 72 games, 24 goals, 35 assists (AHL)
Expiry status: RFA
This one should be easy. Puustinen is one of the top forward prospects the Penguins have right now. He's one of the few that project as more of a top-six player, given his skillset.
The Penguins were cash-strapped for much of the season, and there were limited opportunities at right wing. Still, it's surprising we didn't see Puustinen up in Pittsburgh at all this season. Puustinen set career highs in goals, assists and points, and his .82 points per game ranked second on the team behind only Alex Nylander's .91. The forwards with the next three best points per game this season -- Drake Caggiula (.82), Hallander (.77), and Gruden (.57) all got brief stints in the NHL during the year, although they all bring more of a two-way presence than Puustinen does.
Puustinen went through the first real cold streak of his two seasons in North America in the second half of the season -- from Feb. 25 through March 26 he played 12 games and recorded just five assists, no goals. He broke that goalless streak on March 29, and had three goals and seven assists in his last nine games of the season.
It's understandable why Puustinen didn't get a shot up in Pittsburgh later in the season, given the cold streak he went on for a full month. Still, you would have liked to have seen him get some time in the NHL earlier in the year, especially since he looked pretty decent in his one-game debut in the 2021-22 season.
Drake Caggiula
Position: Left wing
Size: 5-10, 176
Shoots: Left
Age: 28
Team: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL), Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL)
Season totals: 65 games, 22 goals, 31 assists (AHL), 4 games (NHL)
Expiry status: UFA
Caggiula was a fine signing last summer. He had six NHL seasons under his belt, had never played in the AHL at all in his career, and was coming off of a neck injury that forced him to miss most of the 2021-22 season.
Caggiula proved to be good addition for Wilkes-Barre. He didn't show much in his four games when he was called up to Pittsburgh, but his 6:36 average ice time in those games might have something to do with that.
Regardless, this will probably be a mutual parting of ways. If getting back to the NHL is the goal for Caggiula, surely there is a non-playoff team out there that could give him that. And on the Penguins' end, they can easily find another veteran forward presence for Wilkes-Barre in free agency if one is wanted.
DEFENSE
Peter Diliberatore
Size: 6-0, 185
Shoots: Right
Age: 23
Team: Savannah Ghost Pirates (ECHL), Hendeson Silver Knights (AHL), Wheeling Nailers (ECHL), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL)
Season totals: 18 games, 3 assists, 16 PIM (ECHL Savannah), 22 games, 3 assists (AHL Henderson), 5 games, 1 assist (ECHL Wheeling) 8 games, 2 goals, 8 PIM (AHL WIlkes-Barre)
Expiry status: RFA
Diliberatore was the contract the Golden Knights sent back in the cap-dump of a Blueger trade the Penguins made ahead of the trade deadline.
Aside from a pair of goals -- including in his debut for Wilkes-Barre in the AHL Outdoor Classic -- Diliberatore didn't show much in his time in Wilkes-Barre. He finished the year in Wheeling.
I'd imagine the Penguins just let Diliberatore walk in free agency. There are much better uses of contract slots out there.
Josh Maniscalco
Size: 6-2, 205
Shoots: Right
Age: 24
Team: Wheeling Nailers (ECHL) Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL)
Season totals: 31 games, 8 goals, 20 assists (ECHL), 27 games, 2 goals, 2 assists (AHL)
Expiry status: RFA
Yeah, this is another one to move on from.
Maniscalco was an intriguing signing back in 2020 when the Penguins signed him as a sophomore out of Arizona State. Mario Lemieux even personally called Maniscalco to make his pitch for why Maniscalco should sign with the Penguins, with Lemieux having seen Maniscalco play often while watching his son Austin play at Arizona State.
It just didn't work out. Maniscalco spent that entire shortened 2020-21 season in Wilkes-Barre but only played eight games. He was a healthy scratch most of the year, with the development staff seeing him as a really raw project that needed to work on a lot of things in practice before he could get into games.
Maniscalco actually got to play in 2021-22, albeit in Wheeling. He finished No. 3 on the Nailers in scoring that year with 17 goals and 36 assists in 64 games. The offense was never the concern with his game, though, it was his defensive game. He played two games in Wilkes-Barre that year.
Maniscalco got more time in the AHL this season, thanks in part to a blue line depleted by recalls and injuries. He played several games at forward too, out of necessity due to injuries. In conversations with Nailers coach Derek Army, he thought Maniscalco's game "drastically increased" during this season and was great on the penalty kill.
It might be too little, too late for Maniscalco, though.
Ty Smith
Size: 5-11/180
Shoots: Left
Age: 23
Team: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL), Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL)
Season totals: 39 games, 7 goals, 17 assists (AHL), 9 games, 1 goal, 3 assists (NHL)
Expiry status: RFA
We surely would have seen Smith more in Pittsburgh this season if he didn't miss so much time late in the year from two longer-term injures suffered back-to-back. He missed a month after getting tripped up and going back-first into the boards at a high speed. He promptly had his jaw broken by a puck after returning from the initial injury. Even when Smith was back in Wilkes-Barre's lineup he wasn't fully "back," and needed some time to build up his strength after losing a significant amount of weight from the all-liquid diet necessitated by his jaw being wired shut. It just wasn't feasible to bring him up to Pittsburgh for much of the season.
When Smith did get called up earlier in the season, he looked alright. He's still somewhat of a work in progress, but there's obvious high-end potential in him.
I'd expect Smith to be back, but I couldn't imagine what kind of deal he gets. He's coming off of his entry-level deal, and the first two years of that contract were spent entirely in the NHL with New Jersey. His limited NHL time this season definitely hurt his case in contract talks, but he has that experience behind him. Maybe a cheaper, one-year, prove-it kind of deal is reasonable, especially with a new general manager coming in and assessing the group.
As far as where Smith might fit, it's hard to say. Sure, there's likely an opening on the left side of the Penguins' defense with Brian Dumoulin most likely hitting free agency. But do the Penguins want to go into the season with Marcus Pettersson, P.O Joseph and Smith down the left side? They need to address the position in free agency or via a trade this summer, for sure. It's hard to imagine where Smith would fit into the six-man group.
Colin Swoyer
Size: 6-0/180
Shoots: Right
Age: 25
Team: Wheeling Nailers (ECHL), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL)
Season totals: 6 games, 1 assist (ECHL), 36 games, 1 goal, 10 assists (AHL)
Expiry status: RFA
Swoyer was one of the six free agent prospects the Penguins signed last summer. Because he was 24 when he signed, his entry-level contract was only for a year. Lengths of entry-level contracts are always pre-determined by age.
Swoyer was a healthy scratch in Wilkes-Barre for much of the year. When he was in the lineup, he was primarily a third-pairing defensemen.
Swoyer had a pretty good senior season at Michigan Tech, that's what drew the Penguins to him. He was also on the older side for a college player at 24, and that's likely one of the reasons why he wasn't a coveted free agent. The Penguins took a gamble, and it didn't really go anywhere. Another situation where there are just better uses for contract slots.
GOALTENDERS
Filip Lindberg
Size: 6-1/194
Catches: Left
Age: 23
Team: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL)
Season totals: 19 games, 3.13 GAA, .896 SV%
Expiry status: RFA
Lindberg, like Hallander, is already gone. Lindberg signed a two-year contract with the club TPS in the Finnish Liiga last month.
Lindberg just couldn't stay healthy with the Penguins. His professional career with Wilkes-Barre got off to a hot start in his rookie 2021-22 season with a .915 save percentage and a 2.76 goals-against average in seven games. It was midway through that seventh game that he suffered an ankle injury that required surgery and proved to be season-ending.
Lindberg was in and out of Wilkes-Barre's lineup with various ailments this season, two of which were substantial. He suffered a lower-body injury on Dec. 21 that had him sidelined until Jan. 14, and then he suffered an upper-body on Feb. 11 that caused him to miss the last two months of the season.
The Penguins could still make a qualifying offer and retain Lindberg's North American rights, but that would only be until he is age 27. Given that he is 24 years old now and signed a two-year deal, it would be unlikely that retaining his rights would amount to anything.
Dustin Tokarski
Size: 6-0/198
Catches: Left
Age: 33
Team: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL), Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL)
Season totals: 35 games, 2.69 GAA, .91- SV%, 1 shutout (AHL), 4 games, 3.44 GAA, .897 SV% (NHL)
The third goalie market seems to be like musical chairs every year. Whether it's someone like a Tokarski or a Louis Domingue or a Max Lagace, there's little difference between these guys, and they just tend to rotate teams every year or so. They're usually veterans with limited NHL experience. If they were any better, they wouldn't be third goaltenders.
Tokarski was a fine signing as far as veteran No. 3s go. He came in after spending the entire previous season in the NHL with Buffalo. If a veteran was what the Penguins wanted in that role, they couldn't have found much better.
The goalie situation from top to bottom in the organization is up in the air right now, so it's hard to say what happens with Tokarski. The Penguins have Taylor Gauthier still under contract, and he had a pretty good rookie year in the AHL this past season. Joel Blomqvist signed his entry-level deal, but it's not a given he comes over to North America yet. He could still go back to Finland for another year. If Blomqvist comes over, and the Penguins feel comfortable with a Blomqvist-Gauthier tandem in Wilkes-Barre, then there might not be a third goaltender signed. But if Blomqvist does go back to Finland, someone would need to share the net with Gauthier, and it's nice to have someone like Tokarski with experience, especially given that he could take on the additional role as a mentor to the young Gauthier.
