Top-5 Moves That Shaped Penguins’ Successful 2025-26 Season

The 2025-26 regular season was a magical one for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who concluded their 82-game schedule on Tuesday in St. Louis and are now fully focused on the task of facing the Philadelphia Flyers in Round One of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

And, man, it’s crazy how they got here.

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Seven months ago, no one on the outside was talking about the Penguins securing the second seed in the Metropolitan Division four games prior to the conclusion of the NHL regular season. Many had them as a bottom-five lottery team, and even if folks didn’t have them finishing that low – including us here at THN – Pittsburgh Penguins – outside expectations were overwhelmingly predicting that this wasn’t a playoff team.

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Well, as the Penguins have been marketing since they clinched against the New Jersey Devils on Apr. 9, this team “flipped the script.” They were not only one of the league’s deepest and highest-scoring teams – they had 12 players finish with 13 or more goals and 10 players finish with 15 or more, both league-highs – they were a legitimately good five-on-five team with top-10 special teams units on both ends, and they won more in regulation than all but seven teams and lost less in regulation than all but six teams.

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The belief in the Penguins’ locker room was contagious and genuine, and the family-like, tight-knit atmosphere of that locker room has been palpable as ever all season long.

And it all started with a few savvy moves from general manager and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas over the summer as well as during the season.

While there were a whole lot of moves that defined the 2025-26 season, some made a pretty sizable impact on the team – and some outright fueled their turnaround and led to their first postseason…