Saturday will mark the start of the best time of year on the sports calendar: the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Sadly, for us here in Pittsburgh, the Penguins will be watching alongside us on the couch for the third straight year. But many former Penguins players will embark on the quest for Lord Stanley’s prized trophy, and so I wanted to create a team of ex-Penguins in this year’s postseason.

I did a similar thing last year as well, if you want to see how last year‘s team stacks up against this year’s squad.

Though it’s definitely possible I’ve missed a player or two, our lineup is pretty scarce on the defensive end, meaning a few of our forwards would have to moonlight as defensemen if these team were to actually exist.

Let’s meet the team:

Forwards

Anthony Beauvllier (Washington)

Beauvillier signed a one year deal with the Penguins in the offseason this year, a contract that was glaringly designed to be easy to trade at the deadline if the Penguins weren’t players in the playoff race.

To the luck of Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas, this deadline was quite the seller’s market, which allowed the team to net a second round pick for a rental forward who had 20 points in 63 games before the trade.

Beauvillier’s points per game actually dropped after suiting up for the Capitals, falling from 0.32 in Pittsburgh to 0.27 in Washington. The Capitals are Beauvllier’s fifth team in the last two seasons.

Lars Eller (Washington)

Oddly enough, there are two players on this team that were traded from Pittsburgh to Washington during the 2024-25 season.

Eller, a longtime Capital from 2016 to 2023, signed with the Penguins after a brief stint in Colorado in the summer of 2023. His first full season saw him provide the team with very reliable third line center production. He put up 31 points in 82 games his first year in Pittsburgh, and recorded seven in 17 to open this season before he was dealt in November back to Washington.

Had Dubas waited until the deadline, he likely could have gotten more than a third round pick in 2027 and a fifth round draft pick 2025 (see Beauvillier’s price for less production).

Mikael Granlund (Dallas)

A past trade deadline acquisition by the Penguins (and another one of the ill-fated deals by former general manager Ron Hextall), Granlund was a Penguin for just 21 games as the Penguins fell short of a playoff bid in 2022-23.

Hextall brought Granlund in for a second round pick, and while the Finnish forward has had a solid and lengthy NHL career, he was just never a fit in Pittsburgh. He averages 55.5 points a season, but Granlund put up just five in a Penguins uniform. His lone goal came in the tail end of a blowout win.

In Dubas’ first offseason, Granlund was one of several hefty contracts the Penguins were able to offload in the Erik Karlsson deal. Granlund rebounded nicely with a rebuilding San Jose team, putting up 45 points in 52 games. At the deadline he was moved to Dallas for a first and fourth round pick in 2025.

That’s some pretty nifty asset management by the Sharks.