Who have the Penguins signed during 2026 NHL free agency? Here's the list of signings
July 1 is the opening of free agency in the NHL, when teams are free to offer contracts to unsigned players.
For the Penguins, this free agency period isn't expected to be very active, as President of Hockey Operations Kyle Dubas has called spending too much on free agents a potential "expensive mistake."
"We'll try to steer clear of that. If it's not a significant move in the short run, rather than do something for the sake of doing it, I'd rather say we aspired to do it, but the options weren't there," Dubas said. "We've had to check down and continue to build it up the way that we have."
Who are the Penguins' free agents?
Heading into today, the Penguins have six NHL unrestricted free agents and eight restricted free agents.
The unrestricted free agents, as of July 1, are free to sign with any team they choose, while the restricted free agents must receive qualifying offers. For the restricted free agents, a qualifying offer keeps their rights with the team; if they do not receive a qualifying offer, the player becomes an unrestricted free agent.
The Penguins' six unrestricted free agents include forwards Kevin Hayes, Anthony Mantha, and Noel Acciari, as well as defensemen Ryan Shea and Connor Clifton, and goaltender Stuart Skinner.
It's believed that the Penguins will not re-sign any of them.
As for restricted free agents, the Penguins extended qualifying offers to the following players earlier this week: Egor Chinakhov, David Gustafsson, Villie Koivunen, Hendrix Lapierre, Alex Alexeyev, Joel Blomqvist, and Arturs Silovs.
The only restricted free agent the Penguins have not extended a qualifying offer to is Vasily Ponomarev, who is currently playing in Russia.
Penguins pre-free agency re-signings
The biggest pending unrestricted free agent for the Penguins going into this offseason was center and assistant captain Evgeni Malkin.
On May 26, the Penguins announced Geno had been signed to a 1-year extension worth $5.5 million.
"Best city, best fans, I stay one more year," Malkin said in a video when he signed his new deal.
Earlier this offseason, the Penguins re-signed forward Connor Dewar to a two-year, $2.25 million per year contract and defenseman Ilya Solovyov to a one-year, $850,000 deal.
Who the Penguins signed in free agency
Free agency opens officially at noon on July 1.