Kris Letang’s quiet offseason and what it could mean for the Penguins this season

With a new season on the horizon, Penguins defenseman Kris Letang appears poised and ready to jump into the campaign at full swing. After ending the 2018-19 season on a low note, being swept by the New York Islanders, Letang seemed to take things personally when being criticized for making mistakes.

“You don’t want me to make mistakes? I’ll try that,” he said after a back-and-forth with a reporter. “Next year, I’ll try to make no mistakes at all. Maybe next year you’re going to say, ‘We have Kris in our lineup. He doesn’t do anything offensively.’ Now you’re going to rip me apart because I don’t produce anything.”

The tone heading into the new campaign feels a little different, in a good way. When asked how he feels heading into the 2019-20 season, “Just older, I guess,” Letang said. “One year older.”

It’s clear from the conversations surrounding Letang and the Penguins, there still is a taste of disappointment from how their playoffs and season ended in the spring, being swept in four games by the New York Islanders, but the focus is now on the current. “We want to win every year,” Letang said. “Maybe we wasted one year, last year. But this year is a new year, and the only thing that I’m thinking of.”

After a quiet offseason and a low profile from Letang, there were questions asked about his workouts and his offseason. True to his somewhat snarky form, Letang was not hesitant to defend himself yet again.

I think it’s safe to guess that neither he nor Sidney Crosby were taking the summer off and the workouts were going on without any video being taken.