2020–21 Pittsburgh Penguins season

The 2020–21 Pittsburgh Penguins season is the 54th season for the National Hockey League team that was established on June 5, 1967.[2] The Penguins will attempt to extend their playoff streak to 15 seasons. On December 20, 2020, the league temporarily realigned into four divisions with no conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing closure of the Canada-United States border. As a result of this realignment the Penguins will play this season in the East Division and will only play games against the other teams in their new division during the regular season and potentially the first two rounds of the playoffs.

2020–21 Pittsburgh Penguins
2020–21 record	5–5–1
Home record	4–0–0
Road record	1–5–1
Goals for	33
Goals against	41
Team information
General manager	Jim Rutherford (Jan. 13 – Jan. 27) Patrik Allvin[1] (interim) (Jan. 27 – present)
Coach	Mike Sullivan
Captain	Sidney Crosby
Alternate captains	Kris Letang Evgeni Malkin
Arena	PPG Paints Arena
Minor league affiliate(s)	Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL) Wheeling Nailers (ECHL)
Team leaders
Goals	Sidney Crosby Jake Guentzel (4)
Assists	Bryan Rust (6)
Points	Sidney Crosby (9)
Penalty minutes	Chad Ruhwedel (12)
Plus/minus	Pierre-Olivier Joseph (+5)
Wins	Casey DeSmith (3)
Goals against average	Casey DeSmith (2.85)

Standings

Divisional standings

East Division

Pos	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	RW	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Boston Bruins	11	8	1	2	4	36	24	+12	18
2	Philadelphia Flyers	12	7	3	2	5	39	37	+2	16
3	Washington Capitals	11	6	2	3	4	40	38	+2	15
4	Pittsburgh Penguins	11	5	5	1	1	33	41	−8	11
5	New Jersey Devils	9	4	3	2	3	23	26	−3	10
6	New York Islanders	10	4	4	2	4	23	27	−4	10
7	New York Rangers	10	4	4	2	3	29	28	+1	10
8	Buffalo Sabres	10	4	4	2	2	30	32	−2	10

Updated to game(s) played on February 6, 2021. Source: National Hockey League[3]
Rules for classification: 1) Fewer number of games played (GP, only during regular season); 2) Greater number of regulation wins (RW); 3) Greater amount of wins in regulation and overtime, excluding shootout wins (ROW); 4) Greater amount of total wins, including shootouts (W); 5) Greater number of points earned in head-to-head play; if teams played an uneven number of head-to-head games, the result of the first game on the home ice of the team with the extra home game is discarded; 6) Greater goal differential (GD); 7) Greater amount of goals scored (GF)

Schedule and results

Regular season

The regular season schedule was published on December 23, 2020.[4]

2020–21 game log
January: 5–3–1 (Home: 4–0–0 ; Road: 1–3–1) # Date Visitor Score Home Decision Attendance Record Points 1 January 13 Pittsburgh 3–6 Philadelphia Jarry 0 0–1–0 0 2 January 15 Pittsburgh 2–5 Philadelphia Jarry 0 0–2–0 0 3 January 17 Washington 3–4 SO Pittsburgh DeSmith 0 1–2–0 2 4 January 19 Washington 4–5 OT Pittsburgh DeSmith 0 2–2–0 4 5 January 22 NY Rangers 3–4 SO Pittsburgh Jarry 0 3–2–0 6 6 January 24 NY Rangers 2–3 Pittsburgh Jarry 0 4–2–0 8 7 January 26 Pittsburgh 2–3 OT Boston Jarry 0 4–2–1 9 8 January 28 Pittsburgh 1–4 Boston Jarry 0 4–3–1 9 9 January 30 Pittsburgh 5–4 OT NY Rangers DeSmith 0 5–3–1 11
February: 0–2–0 (Home: 0–0–0 ; Road: 0–2–0) # Date Visitor Score Home Decision Attendance Record Points 10 February 1 Pittsburgh 1–3 NY Rangers DeSmith 0 5–4–1 11 — February 2 New Jersey – Pittsburgh Postponed due to COVID-19.[5] Rescheduled for March 21. — February 4 New Jersey – Pittsburgh Postponed due to COVID-19. Rescheduled for April 20. 11 February 6 Pittsburgh 3–4 NY Islanders Jarry 0 5–5–1 11 12 February 11 Pittsburgh – NY Islanders 13 February 14 Washington – Pittsburgh 14 February 16 Washington – Pittsburgh 15 February 18 NY Islanders – Pittsburgh 16 February 20 NY Islanders – Pittsburgh 17 February 23 Pittsburgh – Washington 18 February 25 Pittsburgh – Washington 19 February 27 Pittsburgh – NY Islanders 20 February 28 Pittsburgh – NY Islanders
March: 0–0–0 (Home: 0–0–0 ; Road: 0–0–0) # Date Visitor Score Home Decision Attendance Record Points 21 March 2 Philadelphia – Pittsburgh 22 March 4 Philadelphia – Pittsburgh 23 March 7 NY Rangers – Pittsburgh 24 March 9 NY Rangers – Pittsburgh 25 March 11 Pittsburgh – Buffalo 26 March 13 Pittsburgh – Buffalo 27 March 15 Boston – Pittsburgh 28 March 16 Boston – Pittsburgh 29 March 18 Pittsburgh – New Jersey 30 March 20 Pittsburgh – New Jersey 31 March 21 Pittsburgh – New Jersey 32 March 24 Buffalo – Pittsburgh 33 March 25 Buffalo – Pittsburgh 34 March 27 NY Islanders – Pittsburgh 35 March 29 NY Islanders – Pittsburgh
April: 0–0–0 (Home: 0–0–0 ; Road: 0–0–0) # Date Visitor Score Home Decision Attendance Record Points 36 April 1 Pittsburgh – Boston 37 April 3 Pittsburgh – Boston 38 April 6 Pittsburgh – NY Rangers 39 April 8 Pittsburgh – NY Rangers 40 April 9 Pittsburgh – New Jersey 41 April 11 Pittsburgh – New Jersey 42 April 13 Philadelphia – Pittsburgh 43 April 15 Philadelphia – Pittsburgh 44 April 17 Pittsburgh – Buffalo 45 April 18 Pittsburgh – Buffalo 46 April 20 New Jersey – Pittsburgh 47 April 22 New Jersey – Pittsburgh 48 April 24 New Jersey – Pittsburgh 49 April 25 Boston – Pittsburgh 50 April 27 Boston – Pittsburgh 51 April 29 Pittsburgh – Washington
May: 0–0–0 (Home: 0–0–0 ; Road: 0–0–0) # Date Visitor Score Home Decision Attendance Record Points 52 May 1 Pittsburgh – Washington 53 May 3 Pittsburgh – Philadelphia 54 May 4 Pittsburgh – Philadelphia 55 May 6 Buffalo – Pittsburgh 56 May 8 Buffalo – Pittsburgh
Legend:        = Win        = Loss        = OT/SO Loss        = Postponement

Player statistics

As of January 28, 2021

Skaters

Regular season[6]

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	+/−	PIM
Sidney Crosby	8	3	4	7	−4	4
Bryan Rust	8	2	4	6	−1	0
Teddy Blueger	8	2	3	5	0	0
Jake Guentzel	8	2	3	5	−6	6
Jared McCann	8	2	3	5	+2	2
Brandon Tanev	8	2	1	3	−1	2
Evgeni Malkin	8	1	2	3	−3	0
Mark Jankowski	8	1	2	3	−1	0
Kasperi Kapanen	5	1	2	3	+2	0
Jason Zucker	8	1	2	3	−2	4
Kris Letang	8	0	3	3	−2	6
Colton Sceviour	8	2	0	2	−2	0
Cody Ceci	5	1	1	2	−1	4
Evan Rodrigues	6	1	0	1	−4	0
Marcus Pettersson	4	1	0	1	−2	0
Pierre-Olivier Joseph	4	0	1	1	+1	0
Drew O'Connor	2	0	1	1	+1	0
Brian Dumoulin	7	0	1	1	−1	2
Mike Matheson	2	0	0	0	−1	4
Chad Ruhwedel	7	0	0	0	+1	8
Sam Lafferty	3	0	0	0	−2	0
John Marino	8	0	0	0	−5	2
Juuso Riikola	2	0	0	0	0	0
Kevin Czuczman	1	0	0	0	−2	0

Goaltenders

Regular season[7]

Player	GP	GS	TOI	W	L	OT	GA	GAA	SA	SV%	SO	G	A	PIM
Casey DeSmith	3	2	173:56	2	2	0	8	2.76	62	.871	0	0	1	0
Tristan Jarry	6	6	321:07	2	3	1	21	3.92	149	.859	0	0	0	2

Current roster

Updated February 2, 2021[8][9]

#	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
57		Anthony Angello	RW	R	24	2014	Manlius, New York
12		Zach Aston-Reese	C	L	26	2017	Staten Island, New York
53		Teddy Blueger	C	L	26	2012	Riga, Latvia
4		Cody Ceci	D	R	27	2020	Ottawa, Ontario
87		Sidney Crosby (C)	C	L	33	2005	Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia
27		Kevin Czuczman	D	L	30	2017	Port Elgin, Ontario
33		Alex D'Orio	G	R	21	2017	Sherbrooke, Quebec
1		Casey DeSmith	G	L	29	2017	Rochester, New Hampshire
8		Brian Dumoulin	D	L	29	2012	Biddeford, Maine
11		Frederick Gaudreau	C	R	27	2020	Bromont, Quebec
59		Jake Guentzel	LW	L	26	2013	Omaha, Nebraska
14		Mark Jankowski	C	L	26	2020	Hamilton, Ontario
35		Tristan Jarry	G	L	25	2013	Surrey, British Columbia
73		Pierre-Olivier Joseph	D	L	21	2019	Laval, Quebec
42		Kasperi Kapanen	RW	R	24	2020	Kuopio, Finland
18		Sam Lafferty	C	R	25	2014	Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania
31		Maxime Lagace	G	L	28	2020	Longueuil, Quebec
58		Kris Letang (A)	D	R	33	2005	Montreal, Quebec
71		Evgeni Malkin (A)	C	L	34	2004	Magnitogorsk, Soviet Union
6		John Marino	D	R	23	2019	North Easton, Massachusetts
5		Mike Matheson	D	L	26	2020	Pointe-Claire, Quebec
19		Jared McCann	C	L	24	2019	Stratford, Ontario
10		Drew O'Connor	LW	L	22	2020	Chatham, New Jersey
28		Marcus Pettersson	D	L	24	2018	Skellefteå, Sweden
50		Juuso Riikola	D	L	27	2018	Joensuu, Finland
9		Evan Rodrigues	RW	R	27	2020	Etobicoke, Ontario
2		Chad Ruhwedel	D	R	30	2016	San Diego, California
17		Bryan Rust	RW	R	28	2010	Pontiac, Michigan
7		Colton Sceviour	C	R	31	2020	Red Deer, Alberta
13		Brandon Tanev	LW	L	29	2019	Toronto, Ontario
55		Zach Trotman	D	R	30	2017	Carmel, Indiana
3		Yannick Weber	D	R	32	2021	Morges, Switzerland
16		Jason Zucker	LW	L	29	2020	Newport Beach, California

Transactions

The Penguins have been involved in the following transactions during the 2020–21 season.

Trades

Date	Details
October 7, 2020[10]	To Ottawa Senators Matt Murray	To Pittsburgh Penguins Jonathan Gruden 2nd-round pick in 2020

Draft picks

Below are the Pittsburgh Penguins' selections at the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, which was originally scheduled for June 26–27, 2020 at the Bell Center in Montreal, Quebec, but was postponed on March 25, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was instead held on October 6–7, 2020, virtually via video conference call from the NHL Network studio in Secaucus, New Jersey.

Round	#	Player	Pos	Nationality	College/Junior/Club Team (League)
2	52	Joel Blomqvist	G	Finland	Oulun Kärpät U20 (Jr. A SM-liiga)
3	77	Calle Clang	G	Sweden	Kristianstads IK (HockeyAllsvenskan)
4	108	Lukas Svejkovsky	C	United States	Medicine Hat Tigers (WHL)
6	170	Chase Yoder	C	United States	U.S. NTDP (USHL)

References

1. "Jim Rutherford Resigns as GM; Patrik Allvin Named Interim GM". NHL.com. January 27, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
2. Stainkamp, Michael (August 25, 2010). "A brief history: Pittsburgh Penguins". NHL.com. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
3. "NHL Hockey Standings". www.nhl.com. National Hockey League.
4. "2020-21 NHL schedule announced". NHL.com. December 23, 2020. Retrieved December 26, 2020.
5. "Devils games postponed through at least Saturday because of COVID-19". NHL.com. February 1, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
6. "2020–21 Regular season – Pittsburgh Penguins Stats – Skaters". NHL.com. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
7. "2020–21 Regular season – Pittsburgh Penguins Stats – Goalies". NHL.com. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
8. "Pittsburgh Penguins Roster". National Hockey League. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
9. "Pittsburgh Penguins Hockey Transactions". The Sports Network. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
10. "Penguins Acquire Gruden and a 2020 2nd-Round Draft Pick for Matt Murray". NHL.com. October 7, 2020. Retrieved October 7, 2020.