The biggest Penguin killers in the NHL for 2024-25

This is one of my more fun to write summer pieces: which opponents feast on the Penguins? It’s a good blend of memory, confirmation bias and also some surprises along the way. Here’s some prior year works if you want to check on it from over the years:

Penguin killers 2019
Penguin killers 2022
Penguin killers 2023
Penguin killers 2024

For 2023-24, it was a couple of superstars in David Pastrnak and Nikita Kucherov that took the overall title by each scoring seven points in just three games a piece against Pittsburgh. That isn’t a huge shocker, Kucherov won the Art Ross trophy that season with 144 points. Pasta wasn’t too far behind in fifth place (though at 110 points, he was fairly far behind by that metric). The worst line for the Pens to see that year was when Detroit used Alex Debrincat, Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond; each Red Wing recorded six points a piece in three games against the Pens. One of the biggest surprises or players that didn’t really fit was Philadelphia’s Tyson Foerster. Foerster scored 20 goals in 2023-24, fattening his season with four goals in as many games against Pittsburgh (he’d score only 16 in the other 73 games of the season).

Who are the main offenders in the 2024-25 season? Let’s check nhl.com and see!

Surprise, surprise, it was another year of Kucherov showing well against the Pens this season by producing six points in three meetings. But Kucherov was dethroned this year by Vincent Trocheck and Nathan MacKinnon’s performances of seven points versus the Pens. MacKinnon wins the tiebreaker since as an out-of-conference opponent he only got two cracks at the Pens, compared to division-rival Trocheck getting four games.

MacKinnon was at his most dominant with a five-point game (1G+4A) in a Colorado 6-2 win over the Pens in December. In recent prior seasons the Avalanche were always shockingly a good matchup for Pittsburgh, who found a way to dig deep and compete against a strong Colorado team. That trend went completely out the window in 2024-25, Colorado swept the season series against the Pens, outscoring them 10-3 in the aggregate.

Trocheck always seems to have a little fire in the belly against his hometown team, it was a down year for him with 59 points this year, but he recorded seven of them against the Pens.

Philadelphia’s Bobby Brink was the “one of these names in the top-10 don’t quite look like the others” type of performance out of no where with five points in four games against the Pens this season. Brink did have a pretty good first full season in the NHL with 41 points in 79 games, the best night of the season coming with a four-point game in February for the Flyers against the Pens. Teammate Noah Cates took over in Foerster’s stead for the surprise goal-scorer lead of four goals in four games against Pittsburgh (Cates only scored 12 goals in the other 74 non-Pittsburgh games this season).

If the Pens are scouting Bowen Byram as a potential addition this summer, they won’t have far to go to find good tape on him. Just look at the games against Pittsburgh, no NHL defender produced more points (5) than Byram against the Pens in 2024-25.

The old Red Wing line still found plenty of space against the Pens this season for the second year in a row. Larkin (three points in three games) was good, his frequent partners in Debrincat and Raymond (five points a piece) still lit Pittsburgh up. Playing young, fast, skilled teams has been a major challenge for the Pens and the stats of the top Detroit players illustrates that.

Here’s the scoring list from 2021-22 to current in the recent post-COVID seasons.

It’s a great thing the Pens only have to see Connor McDavid twice a year. McDavid “only” managed to put up 0G+3A in his two matchups against Pittsburgh this season but remains the leading recent scorer against Pittsburgh over the past few years.

Penguin goalies, defenders and coaches alike can rejoice that Chris Kreider was sent to the Western Conference in a trade to Anaheim. Kreider put up 2G+1A in three contests against the Pens this season and has been darn near worth a goal per game when he plays Pittsburgh. Surprisingly only one of his 12 goals coming while on the power play at that. Similarly, the Pens won’t have minded seeing Brock Nelson ink a contract extension with Colorado considering how much damage he’s done to the black and gold over the years.

New Jersey’s Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt are among the scoring leaders too, they get a boost from frequently playing the Pens but have been a big reason that Pittsburgh has seemingly had so many problems with the Devils lately. You don’t have to go far to see why, some of their top players are showing up consistently on the scoreboard.