Building the Pens: what to expect from Sam Girard?

The latest in our informal series to set the building blocks for the upcoming Penguins season takes an individual bent about Sam Girard.

Girard finds himself at a unique juncture entering the 2026-27 season. He is in a contract season, with unrestricted free agency on the horizon for himself for the first time. Despite only being 28 years old, Girard has already played 608 NHL games entering the year from his blueline position.

Results in his Pittsburgh career so far have been limited and mixed. Girard produced seven assists in 20 games, a full-season pace that would stand as one of the better seasons in his already long career that started in 2017. Defensively the situation was a bit more disjointed, playing mostly on a pair with Kris Letang.

Girard enters the year as the most established and top left shot defenseman on the team, though that isn’t saying much considering there is hardly anything else around that is particularly established or strong for LHD (even free agent signing Declan Carlile spent time in the AHL last year).

Jason Spezza mentioned almost off-hand in a summer press conference that Girard was dealing with an injury at the tail end of last season that limited him and the team was excited to get him back fresh for the new season at 100%.

There’s reason to be excited. When Girard is on his game he can be an effective player at this end of the ice. His calling card is usually making plays with the puck on his stick but as seen in the clip below, Girard can be sharp on the details defending.

At other times, the IQ and footwork can get away from him. Girard is talented and fleet of foot, but likes to move his legs a little too much in an attempt to bait opponents in tight for him to try and spin around them and create separation. That might work occasionally but can be a well that Girard goes back to multiple times per game, to a lessening effect.

Style points aside, the Penguins will require nothing less than the best from Girard this season as one of the leaders on their blueline. One would think there’s a good chance Girard is skating with either Letang again, or who knows, maybe even Erik Karlsson. No matter how it shakes out, Girard is an instrumental and key figure on a lineup that could ill-afford to lose his abilities considering how much they lack from other left shot defenseman. It could be the perfect storm for one of those big contract years, Girard will have all the motivation in the world to produce a great performance and get some good tape out there with his next deal to be decided soon. Girard has never put up monster individual numbers (his career-best in points is 37 in 2022-23, though he also once had 32 points in 48 games in the shortened 2021 season), but the opportunity to play with the high-flying Pens for a full season could set him up nicely. Defenders that can at least make a nice outlet pass and play the puck in the offensive zone tend to do well for Pittsburgh, like Parker Wotherspoon’s 27 assists last year (despite only having 15 career assists coming into the year) or Ryan Shea’s 29. It’s not too long ago that the husk of Matt Grzelcyk put up 39 assists playing mostly with Karlsson in 2024-25. Girard’s abilities and talent in that area is superior to those players, which could be leading him into a very good season coming at the exact right moment with free agency looming.

Just what team the contract will be signed with remains to be seen. Pittsburgh has extended some veterans like Tommy Novak and Blake Lizotte in the recent past for players in their late 20s/early 30s – and for a team that just gave Ville Koivunen eight years, good luck trying to predict what the next move might be. Girard’s profile fit as a puck moving defenseman with plus skating is certainly right in the middle of the profile that GM Kyle Dubas tends to covet and keep, and as mentioned above, Girard hasn’t hit 30 years old yet so it’s not exactly like he’s old for an NHL defenseman. Whether he’s back with the Pens beyond 2026-27 or not could be an open-ended question for a while as the player and team sees how the season unfolds.

All of that makes Sam Girard one of the key players to watch for with their performance next season. The Pens will be hoping to see a lot of smart little plays like from the clip above and that Girard will be a driving force for their blueline in 2026-27.