June 19, 2025 | 3:21pm ET
TheFourthPeriod.com

PENGUINS TAKING CALLS ON SEVERAL PLAYERS

Bryan Rust, forward

The Pittsburgh Penguins are expected to be very active this summer and appear to be willing to move multiple players as they enter their rebuild – outside of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.

Penguins GM Kyle Dubas has been actively exploring the market on defenceman Erik Karlsson, who comes with a $10 million cap hit and has two years left on his contract.

Karlsson owns a full no-movement clause, but is willing to waive it for the right contending team, and the Penguins may be willing to retain a portion of his salary to help facilitate a trade. The club has all three retention slots available for this upcoming season.

With a shallow free agent pool this summer, teams may be zeroing in on some of Pittsburgh’s assets, knowing the team is willing to sell off pieces.

In addition to Karlsson, the Penguins are open to taking calls on star forwards Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust, among others, and there appears to be serious interest in both.

Rakell, 32, owns an eight-team no-trade list as part of his contract, which has three years left on it at a $5 million salary cap hit.

Rust, 33, also has three years left on his deal, which comes with a $5.125 million cap hit. His no-movement clause expires end of day on June 30, upon which he no longer has any no-trade protection for the three years on his contract.

Several teams poked around on both Rakell and Rust during the season, ahead of the trade deadline, including the Los Angeles Kings. It is unclear if the Kings, now led by new GM Ken Holland, will engage in talks with Dubas about either player.

Dubas may also be willing to weaponize his cap space and take on a contract for a cap-strapped team, if incentivized to do so. The Penguins have more than $22 million in cap space going into the 2025-26 season.