New Penguins D Caleb Jones eyes earning everyday NHL role

When Caleb Jones reports to preseason training camp in September, he’ll be getting underway with the Pittsburgh Penguins at a time of considerable organizational change.

With Dan Muse — a first-time head coach in the NHL — and a new staff replacing Mike Sullivan and his assistants for 2025-26 and beyond, external questions abound as to the kind of style of play Muse will look to implement.

Jones, a 28-year-old defenseman who signed a two-year, $1.8 million deal worth $900,000 annually in early July, has gotten some sense of what to expect since inking his contract.

“I didn’t know much about Dan before I talked to him on the phone a couple weeks ago,” Jones said via video conference Thursday. “He seemed like a really smart guy. We had about a 45-minute conversation, and he took me through what they’re thinking with systems and how we’re going to play different things. He definitely knows what he’s talking about when it comes to hockey.”

The 6-foot-1, left-shooting blue liner joins the Penguins after one season in the Los Angeles Kings organization.

Appearing in six NHL contests last year, Jones spent the majority of his 2024-25 campaign with the Ontario Reign of the American Hockey League.

For Ontario, he skated in 44 games, scoring two goals with 19 assists. He appeared in six games with the Kings.

Originally a fourth-round (No. 117 overall) pick by the Edmonton Oilers in 2015, Jones is a veteran of 248 NHL contests with the Oilers (2019-21), Chicago Blackhawks (2021-23), Colorado Avalanche (2023-24) and Kings.

Looking ahead to September, Jones will join fellow left-handed defensemen Ryan Graves, Parker Wotherspoon, Ryan Shea and Alexander Alexeyev in hunting for an NHL spot out of camp.

Additionally, promising 21-year-old Owen Pickering will be looking to further establish himself at the NHL level. Sebastian Aho, who’s skated in 190 career games, is also under contract for this upcoming season.

When he signed with the Penguins, Jones did so with the intention of securing a role with the NHL club.

“I just felt like the opportunity to come to Pittsburgh and kind of be a regular guy every night and really fully be established was something too good to pass up,” he said. “I had a lot of communication with management and the coaches, and I just felt really good about the opportunity I was going to have. I’m really excited.

“I think we’ll have a good team, and I think it’s going to be a great chance for me to come in, show what I can do and really earn a spot.”

Jones has 14 goals and 41 assists in 248 career NHL games.

His most productive NHL campaign came with the Blackhawks in 2022-23, setting career highs in games (73), ice time per night (19 minutes, 13 seconds) points (16) and assists (12).

His Chicago days also put him on the same roster as his older brother, Seth, a fellow defenseman who captured a Stanley Cup championship after the Blackhawks traded him to the Florida Panthers last March.

Chicago proved to be the club with which Caleb Jones got the most runway as an NHLer as in 2021-22, he saw action in a further 51 games, finishing with 15 points.

Jones remembers the confidence that came with establishing a bit of stability and being an every-night player for the Blackhawks.

In the Penguins, Jones sees a chance to get back to a level of individual play he’s confident he can recreate.

“Definitely the end of that second year, I remember being paired with Seth there in Chicago and getting to play a lot more after there were a few trades,” Jones said. “I was a little younger back then, but I think that was a big time for me because I was able to show myself, prove to myself, that I could do some really good things in the league.

“I’m really looking forward to trying to just get out of my head, play my game in Pittsburgh and show what I can do. Just have that confidence to go out there every night and do it.”