We’re just under a month away from the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2025-26 season getting underway inside Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers on October 7.
The Penguins will get to see their old head coach, Mike Sullivan, right away after he accepted the Rangers’ head-coaching position right after the regular season ended. As a matter of fact, the Penguins will play the Rangers in two of their first three games since the Rangers will come to PPG Paints Arena on October 11.
Sullivan will get a big video tribute from the Penguins after he guided the franchise to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017, and is arguably the best coach in franchise history.
Expectations aren’t exactly high for the Penguins heading into this season since they’re rebuilding, but that doesn’t mean the year is going to be full of negatives. In honor of hockey being around the corner, let’s make some bold predictions for this Penguins’ season.
Tommy Novak will score 20+ goals.
I am all aboard the Tommy Novak train entering the 2025-26 season and think a lot of Penguins fans are sleeping on him. He only got to play in two games before he got hurt and had to miss the rest of the season. Novak came over from the Nashville Predators in the Michael Bunting trade before the 2025 NHL trade deadline.
The Penguins got younger in that deal and think Novak can be a good fit in their top nine for this season. He’s an underrated goal scorer and has a release that people don’t talk about enough. He finished last season with 13 goals and 22 points in 54 games while rocking a 14% shooting percentage.
For his career, Novak is a 15.2% shooter, with a career-high shooting percentage of 18.3%. He can score from anywhere and will have the opportunity to play second and third-line minutes this year. He’s flexible and can play both center and wing, meaning head coach Dan Muse may put him on Malkin’s wing at times. On paper, it is a strong fit since Novak can score and has some slick vision.
Novak’s career high in goals is 18, but he will break that this season and get his first 20-goal season.
Erik Karlsson will score 70+ points (if he’s not traded).
This one may seem a bit crazy since Karlsson hasn’t even gotten over the 60-point plateau during his Penguins tenure. However, he has more to give and is going to come into this season motivated to prove his detractors wrong after his first two seasons with the team.
He was banged up heading into last season after suffering an injury during training camp, and it took him a bit to find his game. His first month was especially rough, but after that, he settled in a bit more and was one of the top 5v5 offensive play drivers among all defensemen in the NHL. He was also great at the 4 Nations Face-Off since the Swedish coaching staff had a plan for him, and he executed it to perfection.
Karlsson will have the opportunity to get top-pairing minutes this season since he’s the Penguins’ best defenseman, which means he will spend a ton of time with the Sidney Crosby line. He’ll also likely be the power play quarterback after the Penguins let Matt Grzelcyk walk to free agency. The power play isn’t Karlsson’s strong suit, but he’ll still get points from it.
If this prediction comes to fruition, there will be teams calling the Penguins for his services after a slow summer in terms of trade rumors.
4 Penguins Who Could Surprise In 2025-26
It’s no secret that the expectations for the Pittsburgh Penguins aren’t exactly sky-high this season. The team is somewhere in the midst of a rebuild, and there is uncertainty regarding the futures of several players on the roster.
Arturs Silovs will steal starts from Tristan Jarry.
The Penguins acquired Silovs from the Vancouver Canucks on July 13 to bolster their goaltending depth heading into the season. Silovs is bringing a lot of momentum into this year after helping the Abbotsford Canucks win the Calder Cup last season. He was the best player on the team and was named the MVP of the Calder Cup Playoffs after finishing with 16 wins, a 2.01 goals-against average, and a .931 save percentage.
Silovs is the favorite to win the backup spot to Tristan Jarry, who still has a lot of question marks heading into the season. He was sent down to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton multiple times last season due to poor play before coming up for the last month of the season. To his credit, he played well to end the year, but it still shouldn’t inspire a lot of confidence heading into this season.
Jarry is what he is at this point in his career, and with that in mind, Silovs will steal some starts from him since he will be the more consistent goaltender. Consistency in the NHL has been an issue for Silovs, but this will be the season where he starts to solve that problem.
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