As the Stanley Cup Playoffs move on to the second round, the Pittsburgh Penguins are looking towards the offseason. Though the Penguins made the postseason for the first time in four years, they were eliminated in the first round by their cross-state rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers.

For an organization under general manager Kyle Dubas, one that still seems to be rebuilding on the fly the best they can while Sidney Crosby is still playing at an exceptionally high level, a season like this leaves a lot of questions for Dubas and the front office.

No one expected them to have a second-place finish in the Metropolitan Division, and now the Penguins must decide whether they want to lean more towards the short-term or long-term needs of the franchise.

As that offseason talk builds, one thing that has been brought up here and there is buyouts. It’s no secret that the Penguins have some unfavorable contracts on their books, ones that still have several years left. Truthfully, however, buying anyone out of their deal just doesn’t make sense for the Penguins. Here’s why.

For starters, the Penguins are slated to have just under $46 million in cap space heading into the offseason. Of course, that figure is a little misleading, as it doesn’t account for the possible contract extensions of players like: Egor Chinakov, Arturs Silovs, Evgeni Malkin, or any other player the team might want to extend.

But even if the Penguins come to terms with a decent number of those pending free agents, they will still have more than enough cap space to maneuver in whatever way they choose.

In addition to that, the top targets for a contract buyout in Pittsburgh would bring very little, if any, cap relief.

Let’s start with Kris Letang. The lifetime Penguins defenseman, who turned 39 less than two weeks ago, had a real rollercoaster of a season. His three goals this season from the blue line was his lowest amount since the 2009-10 season, and his 34 points were his lowest since a 37-game campaign in 2013-14, which saw him register 22.

His defensive lapses were a frequent topic of discussion within the fan base, and Letang had an absolutely brutal start to the playoffs against Philadelphia. In the first three games especially as the Penguins fell down 3-0, Letang turned the puck over far too often and struggled to keep pace with the Flyers.

He rebounded in the fourth and fifth game, two Penguin wins that saw him score a goal in each contest. Even if he got some lucky bounces along the way, he did look a lot better. But, as with the rest of the team, it was too little, too late.

Letang has two more years left on a six-year extension he signed back in 2022, accounting for $6.1 million against the salary cap. That’s certainly not an ideal contract, but buying him out does more than put a somber ending on the career of a legendary Penguin, it also provides the Penguins with literally no relief.

Letang’s deal is a 35+ contract, which are essentially buyout-proof deals. Per PuckPedia’s buyout calculator, buying Letang out of his deal would saddle the Penguins with his exact same $6.1 million cap hit for the next two years.

The only thing buying Letang out does is free up a contract slot for the Penguins.

But Letang is not the only blueliner for the Penguins who might be a popular buyout name. Ryan Graves, a defenseman who played far less this season for the team, is also on a rather tough deal. Graves, one of the first free agents Dubas signed upon taking the job in Pittsburgh, has three more years left on a deal paying him $4.5 million against the year.

Graves played a career-low 22 NHL games this past season, only three of them occurring after January 21st. He scored just one goal and didn’t record an assist, while posting a -3 rating in Pittsburgh. He played 15 games with the team’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, where he registered three goals and seven assists (ten points).

Given his ineffectiveness for the Penguins since he signed that deal, getting out from under that contract would be a massive win for Dubas. Unfortunately, buying Graves out doesn’t help out much.

Using PuckPedia’s buyout calculator again, the Penguins would take on a $3,305,556 cap hit for the first two years, only a little over a million in savings. That price jumps to $3,555,556 in the third year (which would originally be the final year of his deal), before settling in at a much more modest $555,556 until the end of the 2031-22 season.

If the Penguins were in a severe cap crunch, maybe salvaging that extra million or so could help them sign an extra depth piece or add that extra little bit to secure a free agent deal, but for a team with so much cap space, there’s really no need to double the amount of time any Graves money is on the books.

So while the Penguins do have some lopsided contracts on their payroll for the next few years, none of the major candidates for a potential contract buyout make much sense for the Penguins.