Penguins sign former Kings forward to a $5 million contract

The coverage on Andrei Kuzmenko's one-year, $5 million deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins is exactly what you'd expect: another bounce-back narrative, another team betting on the 39-goal winger who arrived from the KHL undrafted in 2022.

Pittsburgh's power play ranked first in the NHL at 33.3 percent last season.

They didn't need Kuzmenko to fix anything.

Pierre LeBrun reported this move today, and the surface read is that Kyle Dubas found a cheap replacement for Anthony Mantha.

The deeper read is different.

Kuzmenko's contract slots in at the same salary range as Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust - two wingers who have been in Pittsburgh's trade rumor mill for the better part of two years.

Kuzmenko - who posted eight power-play goals in just 52 games for the Los Angeles Kings last season, leading his team - gives Pittsburgh redundancy at a position they already staff well.

Redundancy, in the Dubas trade model, is inventory.

He's built his teams this way before: accumulate short-term, one-year contracts until the deadline, then convert the surplus into picks or prospects.

Rakell and Rust each carry cap hits near $5 million, each has demonstrated top-six production, and each becomes significantly more moveable when Pittsburgh has a credible replacement already in the building.

Kuzmenko could bounce back. He could struggle.

The Penguins' power play may or may not need him. None of that is the point.

The point is that Dubas just quietly handed himself a lever: either Kuzmenko performs and earns his money, or Pittsburgh has enough wing depth to finally execute the roster move they've been telegraphing all summer.

At $5 million on one year, the risk is minimal. The optionality is real.

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