There’s a hockey adage that goes as follows: Old teams don’t win the Stanley Cup.

It’s not a steadfast rule, though. There can be exceptions.

The Penguins will try to prove they’re one of the exceptions this season, which they’ll enter as the only NHL club with its players’ average age at or above 30 years old.

Based on current 20-man projected rosters these are the oldest teams in the NHL (using average age).

1. Pittsburgh – 30.0
2. Washington – 29.7
3. Tampa Bay – 29.1
4. St. Louis – 28.8
5. NY Islanders – 28.6
6. Toronto – 28.1
7. Vegas – 28.0
8. Dallas – 27.7
9. San Jose – 27.6

— CapFriendly Depth Charts (@CF_DepthCharts) July 19, 2022

Age, of course, can merely be a number. However, the Penguins do have a lot of crucial players who are in their 30s, and that number won’t shrink in coming seasons.

Advertisement

General manager Ron Hextall showed he’s not afraid of relying on older players when he re-signed Evgeni Malkin, soon to turn 36; Kris Letang, 35; and Bryan Rust, 30; and acquired Jeff Petry, 34, since the end of last season. Hextall also inked Jeff Carter, 37, to a two-year extension last season.

Can the Penguins contend for the Cup with the league’s oldest roster? We’ll start to find out in October.

But today we’ll focus on September. That’s when coach Mike Sullivan will begin his seventh training camp as Penguins coach. Even though it’s early — and acknowledging another adage, things can change at any moment — The Athletic offers its first depth chart projection for the Penguins.

Forwards

Left wing	Center	Right wing
First line	Jake Guentzel	Sidney Crosby	Rickard Rakell
Second line	Jason Zucker	Evgeni Malkin	Bryan Rust
Third line	Ryan Poehling	Jeff Carter	Kasperi Kapanen
Fourth line	Brock McGinn	Teddy Blueger	Josh Archibald
Extras	Radim Zohorna	Drew O'Connor	Nathan Legare

Also in the mix: Corey Andonovski, Drake Caggiula, Ty Glover, Jonathan Gruden, Filip Hallander, Alexander Nylander, Samuel Poulin.

Sullivan said at the NHL Draft in Montreal that the Penguins’ younger players — call them prospects if you want to — should show at camp ready to win spots. That’s generally good advice, but there doesn’t appear to be too many jobs available for younger forwards.

The last part of that sentence is sobering because the Penguins’ bottom six probably isn’t striking fear into most opponents.

Hextall said he’s comfortable with the bottom six. What else would he say? He’s not going to publicly beg better players to try out for the team in training camp. That’s not to suggest the Penguins aren’t looking for their next Brian Boyle.

On to better news.

The two top lines are formidable, and possibly dominant if the likes of Malkin and Jason Zucker stay healthy.

Still, if the Penguins could find a left winger to play with Malkin and Rust — or a way to get Rickard Rakell, a natural left wing, into that spot — it would go a long way toward turning the forwards into a team strength. Instead, Rakell gets the prized slot on the right wing on a line with Jake Guentzel and captain Sidney Crosby.

Advertisement

The Penguins signed winger Kasperi Kapanen on Thursday and avoided arbitration. He scored 11 goals last season and will need to at least double that total next season, and probably from a bottom-six role. However, if he can play closer to how he did two seasons ago, the Penguins’ depth issues up front won’t look quite as bleak.

There will be clamoring for Drew O’Connor to have a spot in the top 12, and not without reason. He has improved steadily over the past two seasons and added size, and his skill is noticeable. He doesn’t look like a fourth-line player, so unless he shows he’s ready to contribute consistently as a third-line winger, the Penguins probably have players in their system better suited to play at the bottom.

Defensemen

Left	Right
First pair	Brian Dumoulin	Kris Letang
Second pair	Marcus Pettersson	Jeff Petry
Third pair	P.O Joseph	Jan Rutta
Extras	Ty Smith	Chad Ruhwedel
Mark Friedman

Also in the mix: Taylor Fedun, Joshua Maniscalco, Xavier Ouellet.

Those “in the mix” are only a possibility if the Penguins experience a rash of injuries. And, like, when does that ever happen?

OK, maybe it’s too soon to joke about injuries. But with all due respect to a mix of veterans and prospects in the system, the Penguins’ defense outlook is fairly bleak outside of first-round pick Owen Pickering — and he isn’t likely to reach Pittsburgh for at least a few seasons.

The most intriguing battle will be between P.O Joseph and Ty Smith for the left-side opening on the third pairing. Joseph is the incumbent, but if the Penguins were truly sold on him they probably wouldn’t have acquired Smith, who is notably a year younger. The opening is probably Joseph’s to lose, but Smith should not be discounted, especially if he outperforms Joseph in training camp.

The Penguins’ left side would look a lot better if the best versions of Brian Dumoulin and Marcus Pettersson showed up for a full season. We saw the peak for each player only sporadically last season, and Dumoulin at times looked nothing like the steadying presence he had been before his ankle and foot surgeries.

Advertisement

The right side of the defense is stacked. It was almost as if Hextall looked at the quantity of quality left wingers in the Metropolitan Division and figured it’d be smart to guard against that with three proven commodities on the right side.

Goalies

First	Tristan Jarry
Second	Casey DeSmith
Third	Dustin Tokarski

Also in the mix: Taylor Gauthier, Filip Lindberg.

The signing of Dustin Tokarski was sneaky shrewd. The Penguins have been done in by goaltending each of the last three postseasons, when their team save percentage in the series was below .900. It doesn’t matter how many goals you score if your goalie, whoever it is, makes the habit of fishing pucks out of his net.

Injuries to backup goalie Casey DeSmith arguably cost the Penguins each of the last two postseasons. He’s back, but Hextall isn’t about to turn over this roster to another iffy third goalie, as was the case this past postseason when Louis Domingue took the crease in six of seven games against the Rangers.

Tokarski is a strong No. 3 goalie. He isn’t as likely to let in soft goals as Domingue did against the Rangers.

(Photo of Jan Rutta: Kim Klement / USA Today)