Armchair GMing the Penguins 2025-2026 Part 3: Free Agents

In part three of my armchair GMing let’s start talking about Free Agents (FA). The market officially opens on Tuesday July 1.

For eight seasons, GM after GM have brought in hired guns from other teams with little to no success. Perhaps, outside of Lars Eller every other Kyle Dubas signing has been an oxygen thief blocking any real development of home-grown prospects. Several of Dubas’ signings have been downright abysmal (e.g. Tristan Jarry and Ryan Graves). In other cases, Dubas got exactly what he paid for (e.g. Matt Nieto and the wrong Sebastien Aho); he signed the UFA for league minimum and got league minimum performance.

Perhaps the best place to start would be for me to look at the pending UFAs and RFAs on our Pittsburgh Penguins‘ roster, which players I would extend offers and which players I would let walk. (Remember it has nothing to do with what Dubas would do; we are just playing armchair GM here). After setting my roster from within, I will be able to better scan the rest of the league’s FA pool.

Penguin UFAs

Our Penguins have five players who will go to UFA come Tuesday the 1^st, Nathan Clurman, Matt Grzelcyk, Marc Johnstone, Nieto, and Colton Poolman. The quick and dirty answer here is no to all five.

Clurman, Johnstone, and Poolman are AHL roster fillers. If the Wilkes Barre – Scranton Penguins want to sign them to minor league contracts, fine, but I would not waste one of my contracts on the.

Nieto may be a nice guy, but he added nothing to the Penguins’ roster but a roadblock for true prospect development.

Grzelcyk may have put up good offensive numbers, but it came at the expense of Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson. Much of the scoring that Grzelcyk enjoyed last season came at the expense of Letang and Karlsson, and the swelling of team Goals Against (GA) can also be laid at the former Bruin’s feet. Both Grzelcyk’s offensive skill and defensive prowess are less that the Penguins two star Right-Handed Defensemen.

Penguins’ UFA group 6

The Penguins have 4 players who qualify as UFA group 6 free agents, Mac Hollowell, Jimmy Huntington, Filip Kral, and Mathais Laferriere. UFA group 6 free agents are players that are 25 years of age or older when their contract expires, played three professional seasons but less than 80 games.

Several times it was said last season that Dubas thought highly of Kral. Why? I don’t know. He had the worst +/- of any player on the roster, -16. So, my guess is that Dubas may offer him a contract, but I wouldn’t. The only two players here that I would consider offering contracts would be Huntington and Laferriere, and then really only to be roster fillers for the Baby Penguins.

Penguins’ RFAs

Our Penguins have nine pending RFAs this offseason, Raivis Ansons, Emil Bemstrom, Connor Dewar, Taylor Gauthier, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Filip Lindberg, Vasiliy Ponomarev, Conor Timmins, Philip Tomasino.

Ponomarev has already signed to go back to the KHL and play but our Penguins still retain his rights until the 2029-2030 season. Lindberg is playing over in Europe too. The Penguins retain his rights until next season 2026-2027. Of the remaining seven, the only one I don’t re-sign is Joseph.

UFAs from around the League.

Sorry folks, but there really aren’t any UFAs out there on the open market that I would either want or could afford. The only two that I would have interest in are Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad and I honestly don’t see anyway of getting either. I would think that in either case, if they do not re-sign with the Florida Panthers, they will be priced in either salary or term, beyond what I would be willing to pay.

RFAs from around the League

The only RFA that piques my interest is Nicolas Hague. For any long-time reader, you will remember I wanted the Penguins to draft him in 2018 rather than flip that pick to the St. Louis Blues for a player anyone with half a brain knew Sullivan would never use, Ryan Reaves. If our Penguins were still viable Cup contenders, I would seriously go after Hague. I wouldn’t sign him out from under the Vegas Golden Knights but trade for his rights and then sign him. Even though Hague is still young, he is only now entering his prime as a Defenseman, where this team is in terms of contender status, he is a luxury the team doesn’t need.

Other Free Agents, Plus

A lot of people might stop after looking at players in the NHL, when it comes to FAs. However, I like to look everywhere I can. What I found was two college players who turned FA and one European player who just signed a one-year contract to play in the KHL that I would start now with talks to bring him to the NHL. The two College FAs I would sign are Riley Thompson and Jack Stockfish and the Russian kid I would start talking trying to ink for the future is Danill Gutik.

Riley Thompson

Thompson is a 22-year-old, 6’-4”, 216lbs Left-Handed Center, who played for Ohio State University (OSU) last season and the University of Alaska-Anchorage (U of A-A) the season before that. Sylvie McCarthy of the Hockey Writers (tHW) wrote of Thompson “He has a good two-way game and he plays well off the puck. He is a dynamic player who will definitely add value to an NHL roster one day.”

Season	Team	League	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	+/-
2023-24	U of A-A	NCAA	34	9	15	24	32	12
2024-25	OSU	NCAA	40	17	16	33	32	12
Total		NCAA	74	26	31	57	64	25

Jack Stockfish

Stockfish is another 22-year-old, 6’-4”, 216lbs Center. The only difference here is that Stockfish is Right-Handed (RH) and he played his college career at Holy Cross (HC).

Season	Team	League	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	+/-
2023-24	HC	NCAA	32	9	16	25	10	2
2024-25	HC	NCAA	36	15	12	27	30	0
Total		NCAA	68	24	28	52	40	2

Stockfish also blocked 24 shots in his 36 Games Played GP, last season and had a 56.7% Faceoff Win Percentage (FO%)

Daniil Gutik

Gutik is a 23-year-old, RH Left Wing from Khabarovsk, Russia. He is 6’-3”, 190lbs. He has played his entire KHL career with Admiral Vladivostok (AV)

Elite Prospects wrote of him “He’s a very confident forward, consistently looking to play inside the stick range of defenders, or barely at the edge of it. His rapid-fire stickhandling, upright posture, head up makes the defence hesitate to rush him. Gutik opens passing lanes and sees plays develop better than most. He has the best hands and vision on the team.”

McKeen’s Hockey wrote of him, “His top offensive capability is creating for others

Hockeyprospects.com wrote of him “He can beat two opponents simultaneously with his hands when attempting to guard the puck”

And Future Considerations wrote of him “He’s an elite puck handler and he completely dictates the play with possession”

Season	Team	League	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	+/-
2021-22	AV	KHL	6	2	0	2	0	3
2022-23	AV	KHL	15	1	3	4	14	1
2023-24	AV	KHL	68	12	24	36	30	-18
2024-25	AV	KHL	68	26	27	53	34	3
Total		KHL	157	41	54	95	78	-11

Next Up

The NHL Entry Draft starts in less than an hour. Go Pens!