The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed Andrei Kuzmenko to a one-year contract worth $5.0 million, making the 30-year-old winger their biggest move of the free-agency period so far.
The deal gives Pittsburgh a player who has already changed teams three times since the start of the 2024-25 season, and it arrives at a moment when the club is still looking to shape the rest of its roster. Kuzmenko’s salary puts him in the same price range as Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust, which tells you how much the Penguins are paying for the idea that his offense can matter more than his limitations.
That belief is not hard to understand. Kuzmenko scored 39 goals and finished with 74 points in his rookie NHL season with Vancouver in 2022-23, production that showed how dangerous he can be when he has room to work. He has been described as one of the NHL’s slowest skaters, but his hands and scoring touch can cover for that weakness when the puck is on his stick and not in transition.
That tradeoff is what makes the signing interesting for Pittsburgh. The Penguins are not paying for pace. They are paying for finishing ability and hoping the rest of the game can be managed around it. The contract is also affordable in the larger sense: CapWages shows Pittsburgh with over $33 million in room under the salary cap even after the signing, enough flexibility to keep moving if the front office wants to add again.
The open question is whether Kuzmenko is the last step in a wider plan or the first one. The Penguins could still use the space they have left, and the mention of Egor Chinakhov and Arturs Silovs as restricted free agents underlines that the roster picture is not settled. For now, the move gives Pittsburgh a scorer on a short deal and puts the burden on Kuzmenko to prove that the numbers from his best season were not a one-off.
