Penguins Today: Ownership, injury and lottery odds — oh my!

New York Times

28-01-2025

It's been a busy week for the Penguins, and it's only Tuesday.
Yesterday brought a bunch of news, and we're going to get into Evgeni Malkin's injury status and Fewnway Sports Group's search for investors. But first, games are being played, and the Penguins lost another one last night — 1-0 to the Sharks in San Jose.
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Josh Yohe summarized the snoozefest in his observations. I'm going in a slightly different — but not any less pessimistic — direction.
Take a look at the bottom of the NHL standings on the morning of Nov. 27:
From that point, the Penguins went on a 9-3-1 run that elevated their record to 16-15-5, their point total to 37, and moved them within a point of the Eastern Conference's second wild-card slot.
These are the bottom of the NHL standings since the league returned from its holiday break in late December:
Not much commentary is required. Aside from a stretch of 13 games, the Penguins have been among the five worst NHL teams this season. Perhaps it's time to believe these Penguins are what they've mostly shown — a bottom-five team poised to pick high in this summer's draft.
The website Tankathon.com, which monitors NHL Draft Lottery odds daily, has the Penguins with a 7.5 percent chance of getting the first pick and a 7.7 percent chance of the second pick.
That's not great. That's also not terrible. And it's likely to increase if this current slide becomes a freefall (if it hasn't already).
Ownership groups seeking investors are nothing new. The Penguins have gone through the process multiple times in their history, including late last decade, when the Mario Lemieux/Ron Burkle group looked for minority partners.
It would be dangerous to read too much into Fenway Sports Group wanting to add minority investors and the cash they'd bring.
Still, it's not alarmist to be jarred by this development. FSG hasn't even owned the franchise for a half-decade. It's fairly early to seek new investors.
I've long argued nobody cares about a franchise's ownership as long as the team wins.
Well, the Penguins aren't winning and haven't made the playoffs during FSG's tenure — so, this story is going to be a bigger deal than FSG or the Penguins want it to be.
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That doesn't mean FSG is looking to give up control of the Penguins. As of now, it's not.
Coach Mike Sullivan said before the loss in San Jose yesterday that Malkin is week-to-week with a lower-body injury. He's been placed on injured reserve, which aligns with our reporting from yesterday that Malkin will miss a few weeks.
The Penguins have scored only one goal in four of their last five games. Playing without their No. 2 center doesn't help that cause.
'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall'
Music and lyrics: Bob Dylan
Do I need to connect the dots on this one? Didn't think so.
Also … yes, 'A Complete Unknown' is worth the price of a movie ticket. I caught it on Sunday afternoon, and it was captivating.
• I touched on this yesterday, but Yohe went into more depth about the latest nonsense regarding Sidney Crosby's future. It's partly a forensic breakdown of how the current rumor started, which makes me want to watch a 'CSI: NHL Rumors' TV show.
• Josh Getzoff took ill yesterday, pushing Phil Bourque into the play-by-play chair for the radio call of Penguins-Sharks because normal radio guy Joe Brand had to fill in on TV. That shuffle makes it easier to plug my story on Pittsburgh's Aaron Cooney, who made his NHL debut last week calling an Anaheim Ducks game against his hometown Penguins.
• Midseason draft prospect rankings have dropped. Go back and look at the draft lottery odds and then this story. Might as well end on a positive note, right?