With the NHL trade deadline less than two months away, Pittsburgh Penguins’ general manager Kyle Dubas has a few decisions to make when it comes to his roster. Nine players are set to have their contracts expire at the end of the season, including six unrestricted free agents (UFA) and three restricted free agents (RFA). With the direction Dubas wants to take with the Penguins, not every one of them will be with the team come next season.
Related: Pittsburgh Penguins Mid-Season Top-15 Prospect Rankings
Marcus Pettersson, Cody Glass, Philip Tomasino, and Pierre-Oliver Joseph are just some of the names with contracts expiring. Some have earned new contracts and are a fit for the plan Dubas has for this team while others will be used to bring in draft picks or young prospects. Of the nine, Glass, Tomasino, and Drew O’Connor are the three players that are most likely to be offered new contracts.
Cody Glass
Cody Glass came over to the Penguins from the Nashville Predators on Aug. 13 in a trade that saw Jordan Frasca go the other way. With the move, Dubas showed a glimpse of what he wants to do with this team – get younger. With this being Glass’ final season on his current contract, he needed a change of scenery and a new place to try and earn an extension. Missing time due to injuries and illnesses this season, he has not been able to find his footing on the scoresheet. In 37 games, he has three goals and nine assists. Considering what he has gone through with a concussion, those are not terrible stats.
Set to be an RFA, Glass is a young guy Dubas will want to keep around, even with it not being an easy season for him. According to AFP Analytics on X, they project Glass to go to arbitration with a two-year contract being awarded to him worth just under $1.7 million a season. Depending on what he can do the rest of the season, that could be a steal for the Penguins in the end.
Philip Tomasino
Another player acquired by the Penguins from the Predators was Tomasino. For a fourth-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft that originally belonged to the New York Rangers, he has been playing incredibly well. Despite just 11 points on five goals and six assists, he has been noticeable all over the ice. He is the type of player that can play anywhere from first-line to fourth-line minutes and has done so this season.
Spending most of his time on ice with Michael Bunting and Evgeni Malkin on the second line, Tomasino has given that line a spark with the energy he brings. He was noticeably all over the ice in their 5-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Jan. 23. His hockey IQ and fast skating can and will play a big factor in the team Dubas is trying to assemble. With an aging team, they need speed wherever they can get it. If the Penguins can get him re-signed, AFP Analytics expects his contract to be two years at an average annual value (AAV) of $1.5 million. If they can make that work, Tomasino may be a steal in the end.
Drew O’Connor
Of the three that are most likely to be re-signed before or over the summer, O’Connor is last on the list. In fact, he may be a piece Dubas moves at the deadline to bring in assets as mentioned before. However, there is a world where he is still a Penguin come next season. O’Connor signed a two-year contract worth $1.85 million on Aug. 2, 2023. In his first season, he was tremendous as he tallied career highs in goals (16), assists (17), points (33), and plus/minus (plus-14). Playing alongside Sidney Crosby a good amount of the time had fans believing he could be something special.
Fast forward to this season and he has struggled. In a contract season, he has managed just six goals and 16 points in 50 games played. At the pace he is going, O’Connor will hit just 26 points in 82 games. Set to be a UFA, AFP Analytics on X projects O’Connor’s extension to be two years with a $2 million AAV, should the Penguins choose to keep him. For the output he has provided this season, that projection seems relatively high, especially with the decline in his play from just a season ago.
With the Penguins looking ahead to their future, Tomasino, Glass, and O’Connor will be their best bets to get re-signed to begin shaping their rebuild. While Glass and Tomasino have yet to boost their point contributions, there are small glimpses of them bound to break through. O’Connor will need to show more by the end of the season if he wants to boost his odds of getting a new contract in Pittsburgh.
