Elmer Soderblom Is Producing at 28% of League Median. That Is Pittsburgh's Entire Left Wing.
The number that should be dominating Pittsburgh's offseason conversation is not Anthony Mantha's 33 goals with the Penguins last season, impressive as that was. It is 0.2 — Elmer Soderblom's points-per-game production at a position where the league median sits at 0.72. That is 28% of what a replacement-level starter looks like at left wing. And when Mantha signed a two-year, $9.5 million deal with the New Jersey Devils this week, he did not just leave a hole — he exposed one that was already there and had no bottom.
The depth chart entry for Pittsburgh's left wing is, in full: Elmer Soderblom, rank one, and then nothing. No rank-two player with observed playing time. No viable depth option behind him. This is not a thin position — it is a position that functionally does not exist beyond a single player who is producing at less than a third of the league standard. Every other roster hole can be contextualized. Bryan Rust's right wing production sits at 37% of league median, which is genuinely alarming on its own. But at least the right side has Rickard Rakell behind him, a player who generated 3.5 shots per game over Pittsburgh's final ten games of the season even while converting at a meager 5.7% clip. The left side has nothing comparable. There is no Rakell waiting in the wings on that flank.
What makes the Mantha departure sting beyond the raw production loss is where he actually played. The news reports describe him as a forward, and his Pittsburgh numbers — 14 goals, 16 assists, 30 points in 49 games per the season aggregates — were logged as a right wing in the key players block. But he was a physical, versatile presence who gave the coaching staff options on the left side of the ice when the lineup demanded flexibility. That versatility is gone, and it went to a division rival. The Devils are now paying $4.75 million per year for a player who just had a career season. Pittsburgh gets nothing back and heads into 2026-27 with the same Soderblom problem it had before, now without even the illusion of a safety valve.
The broader roster context makes this more urgent, not less. Pittsburgh finished 41-41 last season with a goal differential that was essentially flat. That is a team balanced on a knife's edge — Sidney Crosby at 54 points in 47 games and Evgeni Malkin at 33 points in only 32 games are still producing at a level that makes this franchise a legitimate contender when healthy. But the close-game record from last season — 12-23 in one-goal decisions, a 34% win rate — tells you this is a team that cannot afford to carry a positional hole into tight games. One-goal games are decided by the players on the ice in the final minutes, and if one of those players is a left wing producing at 28% of median, you are starting that moment at a structural disadvantage.
My read is that Pittsburgh's front office cannot treat the Nick Robertson signing and Brandon Pridham addition as sufficient offseason activity when the left wing situation looks like this. Robertson is a right wing. Pridham is a consultant. Neither addresses the 0.2 versus 0.72 problem. The Penguins also just ended their AHL affiliation with the Wheeling Nailers, which removes one development pipeline at the exact moment the organizational depth at this position is most exposed. The arithmetic here is not subtle. Left wing is a high-priority positional hole with no quality depth behind the starter, and the offseason has so far moved in every direction except toward it.