Andrei Kuzmenko is joining the Pittsburgh Penguins on a one-year, $5.0 million contract, the club’s biggest free-agency move so far. The 30-year-old winger arrives with a scorer’s track record and a roster fit that points directly to a top-six role.
Pittsburgh Penguins add Kuzmenko
The Penguins moved on a player who posted 39 goals and 74 points in his NHL rookie campaign for Vancouver in 2022-23. That production is the reason the contract lands above a simple depth bet; Pittsburgh is paying for finishing touch, not just another body on the wing.
Kuzmenko has also played for three different teams since the start of the 2024-25 season, so the signing gives the Penguins a short-term read on whether his scoring can stabilize in one place. The one-year term keeps the commitment limited while still giving him a clear runway to earn a larger role.
Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust
The salary line also puts Kuzmenko in a useful frame inside the Penguins’ lineup planning. The source places his range alongside Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust, which suggests Pittsburgh is not treating this as a bargain-bin flyer. It is buying a winger with enough offensive upside to matter in the same financial neighborhood as established scorers.
That is the practical backdrop for the move: the Penguins are adding another scorer while preserving flexibility. CapWages shows Pittsburgh with more than $33 million in space under the salary cap, so the contract does not force the club into a tight squeeze.
Anthony Mantha role
The clearest on-ice question is whether Kuzmenko can fill the kind of role Anthony Mantha handled last season. The fit is obvious on paper because the Penguins are looking for offense from the wing, but Kuzmenko’s profile comes with friction: the source describes him as one of the NHL’s slowest skaters even as Pittsburgh gave him $5.0 million.
That combination makes the signing less about speed and more about whether his hands and shot travel well enough to survive that limitation. If they do, the Penguins have bought a useful scorer for one season at a price that still leaves them room to keep building.
