The draft, free agency, and the craziness of summertime in the National Hockey League is quickly upon us.

For the Penguins, they find themselves in a very similar spot to last year: out of the Stanley Cup playoffs by the thinnest of margins, and now facing the predicament of looking towards a bleak future, while the current core lacks the supporting staff to get them one last Cup.

With Kyle Dubas’ repeated mission statement of getting younger while maintaining to be consistently competitive, it poses a very unique challenge for the front office here in Pittsburgh.

But in that light, I decided to try and find some interesting free agent ideas for the Penguins. Free agency is a tricky path if you are aiming to get younger, but it is the cheapest way (asset wise) to acquire somebody who is perhaps a little bit younger than the core guys on this team.

This list contains a little bit of everything: some familiar names, some buy low-type players, some coming off career years. I tried to get a wide range of options for these new potential Penguins, all with the caveat that the player has to be 30 years of age or under. With that being said, let’s get into it.

Anthony Duclair, LW/RW, 28

I have long been a fan of Anthony Duclair’s game. Back in January, I wrote that if the Penguins were going to be buyers at the deadline, I would advocate for prying Duclair out of San Jose.

As we all know, the Penguins ended up being sellers, and Duclair instead was traded to Tampa Bay along with a seventh round pick in 2025, where he fetched 22-year old Jack Thompson (a third round pick in 2020) and a third round pick in 2024.

After a bit of a subpar season in San Jose (27 points in 56 games), he stormed back once he arrived in Tampa Bay, racking up 15 points in 17 games down the stretch for the Lightning. He had 2 assists in 5 playoff games during Tampa Bay’s quick dispatching at the hands of the Florida Panthers.

Despite only being 28 years old, Duclair has already played for eight NHL teams (1/4 of the entire league), and assuming he reaches free agency, he could very well add a ninth. He’s been in involved in five different trades, including two in the last calendar year.

That is not an indicator of his value, however. Duclair would be an incredibly solid middle six forward for the Penguins, and he could play a variety of roles for this team up and down the lineup.

He is coming off a contract that paid him $3 million a year against the cap. It’s the highest amount he’s ever been paid in his NHL career, and with that stellar run with the Lightning, I think he can parlay his play into a bit of a raise with his next team.