2024-25 Penguins’ Lineup Project: First Pairing, Left defenseman

Choosing who gets a spot on the top pairing with Erik Karlsson.

With Jesse Puljujarvi beating out Sam Poulin for the depth spot, our 2024-25 Penguins lineup is now set at forward. Nothing in the top-six came as a surprise with those lines being built from players who were in Pittsburgh last year.

The big change comes in the bottom-six where a slew of new faces brought in this offseason will drastically alter the makeup of the third and fourth lines heading into next season and will hopefully produce better results than last season.

Drew O’Connor - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Anthony Beauvillier - Kevin Hayes - Valtteri Puustinen
Blake Lizotte - Lars Eller - Noel Acciari
Jesse Puljujarvi

LD1 / Erik Karlsson
LD2 / Kris Letang
LD3 / RD3
Depth defender

Goalie 1
Goalie 2

Now the focus will shift to the blue line where we will piece together the three defensive pairings along with an additional depth defenseman, giving up seven blue liners in total. Like the forward lines, two places have already been filled in, with Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang taking the right side on the top two pairings.

Starting with the first pairing, Karlsson will be on his typical right side, but he will need a reliable defensive-minded partner to play on his left, given Karlsson’s deference to the offensive side of his game.

Last year, that person was Marcus Pettersson and he enters this season as the odds on favorite to be positioned alongside Karlsson once again. There was a brief stretch in the middle of the season where Pettersson was pulled away from Karlsson in a lineup shakeup, but for the most part, the countrymen were paired together.

Another option for the top pairing with Karlsson is the much maligned Ryan Graves, who had a spell with Karlsson last season but disastrous results ended that experiment quickly. There is a ton of pressure on Graves to perform this season after a poor 2023-24, and a strong showing with Karlsson could rehabilitate his image in Pittsburgh.

That leaves a handful of other options that could pair up with Karlsson on the blue line though they are all longshots and if they are ever getting an extended run of play on the top unit it likely means trouble.

Those three are returning blue liners John Ludvig and Ryan Shea along with the newly acquired Matt Grzelcyk. Ludvig and Shea both took shifts with Karlsson in 2023-24 but nothing on a consistent basis. The Penguins plans for Grzelcyk are unknown at this time but he seems like the third most logical option when looking at the roster.