Reilly Smith takes ownership of disappointing debut campaign with Penguins

Acquiring winger Reilly Smith just before last year’s NHL Draft represented the first major offseason move Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas made after being hired to lead the club’s front office.

Bringing in Smith from the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a third-round pick in 2024 looked like a prudent move.

But, ultimately, Smith, who is signed through 2024-25 with an annual salary cap hit of $5 million, proved to be one of the Penguins’ most notable disappointments.

Smith posted a 26-goal campaign with Vegas, helping the club to its first Stanley Cup title, and was an original member of the Golden Knights dating to their inaugural year of operation in 2017-18.

The Penguins needed top-six scoring depth, and, on paper, Smith appeared to be capable of providing it.

Unfortunately for Smith and the Penguins, he navigated through multiple chunky scoring droughts (of 15, 11 and 13 games), finishing with just 13 goals, half of what he produced in his final year with Vegas.

“Frustrating. Obviously, (I) didn’t live up to my own standard or expectation that I wanted to,” Smith said of his first year in Pittsburgh. “So those things, they’re hard to swallow.”

At the start of the season, it seemed as if Dubas had hit a home run in trading for Smith.

Beginning the year as left wing to Evgeni Malkin on the Penguins’ second line along with Rickard Rakell, Smith thrived, scoring six goals through the first 10 games.

From there, his production tailed off.

After a multi-goal effort Nov. 2 vs. San Jose, Smith failed to score another goal for more than a month.

“Reilly Smith (had a) great start to the year with (Malkin) and (Rakell), especially when (Rakell) wasn’t doing well,” Dubas said. “Then, from mid-November on, (Rakell) was hurt, (Malkin) wasn’t as good and I thought that affected Reilly. Very different linemates than what he played with in Vegas, (Jonathan) Marchessault and (William) Karlsson, so big adaptation for him.”

Smith saw 16 minutes, 8 seconds of nightly ice time this season in 76 games and regularly was featured on the club’s power play.

And to be fair to Smith, he finished with 27 assists, mostly in line with his career average and just three fewer than his total with Vegas two seasons ago.

But he was envisioned to play a prominent top-six role with the Penguins.

As the year went on, Smith ended up seeing the most action on the club’s third line as Lars Eller’s left wing, also featuring rookie Valtteri Puustinen.

“I thought that was a better fit for Reilly, to kind of get him back up and rolling,” Dubas said. “In talking to him, he knows he wasn’t as good as he was last year. Certainly, he was an excellent player on a Stanley Cup-winning team. But I think if you look at his history, I would expect a big bounceback from him next season.”

A change in linemates didn’t exactly prove to be a boost for Smith in the goal-scoring department.

His final goal of the year — April 15 vs. Nashville — came after nearly a month of being held scoreless.

Dubas and coach Mike Sullivan likely expected 20-plus goals, a plateau Smith has reached in five of his 11 seasons as a full-time NHLer.

The failure of Smith, 33, to score at such a rate leaves question marks as to if he will be able to better earn his paycheck next season, his final one under contract.

To his credit, during the season and after it concluded without a playoff berth for the Penguins, Smith owned up to his individual shortcomings.

As the offseason gets underway, Smith heads back to the drawing board.

“You have to just look into the summer and try to fix the things that didn’t go your way,” Smith said. “Thankfully, there’s a long summer, and there’s a lot of things I can learn from.”