The fourth straight gameday concludes tonight in a clash with the Pittsburgh Penguins for the first time of the preseason.
The Penguins have continued their downward trend of missing the postseason for consecutive years, and it looks like things will continue to worsen before they get better.
All summer, they were the main team advertising themselves as sellers, floating wingers Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell for trade bait.
Out
- Cooper Foster
- Chase Yoder
- Mac Hollowell
- Vasily Ponomarev
- Taylor Gauthier
- Raivis Ansons
- Pierre-Olivier Joseph
- Filip Lindberg
- Emil Bemstrom
- Issac Belliveau
- Connor Timmins
- Alex Nedjelkovic
- Vladislav Kolyachonok
- Chase Stillman
In
- Connor Clifton
- Matt Dumba
- Anthony Mantha
- Arturs Silovs
- Alex Alexeyev
- Rafael Harvey-Pinard
- Caleb Jones
- Justin Brazeau
- Parker Wotherspoon
- Philip Kemp
- Ben Kindel
- Jonna Koppanen
- Melvin Fernstrom
PTO
- Marc-Andre Fleury is scheduled to play parts of the Saturday game
- Brett Murray
- Robby Fabbri
- Jake Livingstone
- Callahan Burke
The Penguins are also riding what is Evgeni Malkin’s final season with the organization. It may also be a deeper tear down with the speculation of Sidney Crosby welcoming a trade, and the criticism of Erik Karlsson.
Pittsburgh had a decade and a half in the spotlight, with Cup wins in 2009, 2016, and 2017 led by Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and Fleury. Dubas taking over for Hextall and Burke has set himself up with the worst job in hockey being the tear down of Pittsburgh. There has been some excellent asset management with the Guentzel move spreading over years of picks and prospects and flipping depth pieces for bad contracts and future draft picks.
Good thing the prophecy will continue and McKenna will be theirs in June 2026.
Projected Lineups
Pittsburgh Penguins
Connor Dewar—Justin Brazeau—Phillip Tomasino
Fillip Hallander—Blake Lizotte—Ben Kindel
Aidan McDonough—Aaron Huglen—Nolan Renwick
Tristan Broz—Ville Koivunen—Atley Calvert
Caleb Jones—Connor Clifton
Sebastian Aho—Alex Alexeyev
Jack St. Ivany—Phillip Kemp
Artus Silovs
Filip Larsson
Columbus Blue Jackets
Dmitry Voronkov—Sean Monahan—Kirill Marchenko
Boone Jenner—Adam Fantilli—Yegor Chinakov
Kent Johnson—Charlie Coyle—Mikael Pyyhita
James Malatesta—Hunter McKown—Luca Pinelli
Zach Werenski—Dante Fabbro
Jake Christiansen—Brendan Smith
Daemon Hunt—Ole Holm
Jet Greaves
Nolan Lalonde
Players to Watch
Pittsburgh — Ben Kindel — most recent first round pick looking to prove himself.
Columbus — Daemon Hunt — the only active piece of the Jiricek trade on the roster.
Predicted Final Score
PIT — 2
CBJ — 4