The Pittsburgh Penguins have had an up-and-down start to the 2025-26 NHL season.
They won their first two games against the New York Rangers and New York Islanders in impressive fashion before losing to the Rangers and the Anaheim Ducks to start the annual California road trip. They had a chance to start the season with a 3-1 record, but blew a lead to the Ducks on Tuesday night.
Some players, including forwards Justin Brazeau and Evgeni Malkin, have had great starts to the season, while others are struggling to get going. Here’s a look at a few players whom the Penguins need more from right now.
Tommy Novak
Novak was limited to only two games with the Penguins last year after they acquired him from the Nashville Predators before the trade deadline. He got banged up against the Vegas Golden Knights and wasn’t able to return before the season ended in mid-April.
He has played in all four games to start the 2025-26 season, but hasn’t looked comfortable yet. He’s been on a third line with 2025 first-round pick Benjamin Kindel, but he has only one point in four games. The point came during the Penguins’ home-opener against the Islanders when he poked a puck ahead to forward Filip Hallander before Hallander delivered a nice pass to rookie defenseman Harrison Brunicke, who beat goaltender Ilya Sorokin with a nice shot for his first NHL goal.
Yes, it’s a super small sample, but he has still looked a step slow during a lot of his shifts. This is a player who is usually a really strong playmaker and has an underrated release, but the Penguins have yet to see much of either quality so far. When he’s on, he can be a true difference-maker in the top nine.
Philip Tomasino
Tomasino has played in only two games this year, opening night against the Rangers and Tuesday against the Ducks. He was fine against the Rangers and got a couple of scoring opportunities, but wasn’t able to cash in. However, he was mostly invisible against the Ducks.
There was one sequence during Tuesday’s game when he came in on an odd-man rush and looked to have a good goal-scoring opportunity, but fired the puck well over the net. It was his first game back in the lineup after he was scratched for the previous two games.
He was acquired by the Penguins during the 2024-25 season and finished with 11 goals and 24 points in 61 games. There were stretches during last year when it looked like he was starting to turn a corner until inconsistency plagued him. He’d put up some points in bunches before going pointless for several games at a time.
If he doesn’t start getting more consistent, he could find himself out of the lineup for even more games going forward.
Kris Letang
Letang had a great opening-night game against the Rangers, but has been a bit lackluster in the three games that have followed that one. He was especially poor against the Ducks and made some brutal decisions, including one that led directly to a goal against.
The Penguins were up 2-1 late in the first period when Letang turned the puck over in his own zone, which led directly to the game-tying goal from forward Cutter Gauthier. His skating never looked up to par, either, which was also an issue last year.
Letang was questionable heading into the game after suffering an injury against the Rangers last Saturday, and never looked healthy during Tuesday’s contest.
Letang will obviously go down as one of the greatest players (and the best franchise defenseman) to ever play for the team, but the Penguins need more from him in a second-pairing role, especially when he gets healthy.
The Penguins will play their second game of their annual California trip on Thursday in Los Angeles against the Kings. They’ll conclude their three-game trip against Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks on Saturday before coming home for a date with the Vancouver Canucks on October 21.
Puck drop for Thursday’s game is set for 10 p.m. ET on SportsNet Pittsburgh.
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