A failed offseason is getting heightened as Penguins showing several early signs of a lottery team

Kyle Dubas might be inching closer to getting his wish…….

The Pittsburgh Penguins are sputtering and in six of nine games are looking everything of a lottery team or as others say a team in no mans land.

Let’s not kid ourselves. What happened last season was not anything that Dubas and his staff envisioned when they were regarded around the league in the summer of 2025 as ‘being the only team not trying to win’.

But, what played out in 2025-2026 was the Penguins not only claiming second place in the Metro, it wasn’t a situation of the Penguins just sneaking into second place. They had a cushion and rested players in the final couple games and it was a year where you needed close to 100 pts to get into the postseason.

What has become mindbloggling since the Penguins first round exit to the Flyers is really the wording from Dubas compared to actions.

After the season it was talk from Dubas himself of big-game hunting, finding that true difference maker and becoming a destination city. It seemed like the Penguins were doubling down on their surprise season of trying to reward the core with more chances to keep competing. And of course there was also continued talk from Dubas of getting younger.

Yet absolutely none of that played out. Despite an improving prospect base and albeit quantity of draft picks (not quality), Pittsburgh continued to chase trade talks in a manner of being scared to risk any type of the future. Pittsburgh in the summer was caught off-guard by the prices for those 23-28 year old type forwards and even misjudged the trade market for second and third tier level talks for a top target like Darnell Nurse whom the Penguins thought To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

Then there’s the Jason Robertson saga where it depends who you talk to if things ever got close or it was majorly blown out of proportion.

By July 1, though, it was crystal clear in the Penguins organization a trade for Robertson was highly unlikely and Pittsburgh went into mode of making meaningless one or two year signings of blocking young players, which makes it pretty funny that entering the ninth game of the season Saturday night it gets leaked to the Top Insider in the game in Elliotte Friedman who reported on HNIC that Pittsburgh is looking to move veteran forwards out for draft picks to open spots for younger players.

How deep is this thinking right now? Are we talking just a Justin Brazeau and an Andrei Kuzmenko or To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

<Out Smarting Themselves>

What appears to be at play here is the Penguins just outsmarted themselves in the off-season. They’re a group that thinks their the smartest people n the room and how they talked themselves into that Declan Carlile was some hidden gem and could play a top pairing role with Erik Karlsson is something.

Erik Karlsson was the pulse of last year’s team and this is what they came up with?

The team internally believed they drastically improved the back-end in the short-term and long-term with the additions of Carlile, Kaeden Korczak and Trevor van Riemsdyk. Minus Erik Karlsson, feed back on the Penguins around the league is all about how bad the blueline is at handling pressure and how easily you dictate them throwing pucks up up the wall. Maybe they had something last year with Parker Wotherspoon and Brett Kulak who would have strongly considered resigning on the roster…..

The Penguins again on the morning of July 1 told Anthony Mantha’s representative To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

The dark reality the Penguins found out this summer is they’re not a destination city and certainly are unlikely to be post Sidney Crosby years. Some around the league believe that could expedite a tear down this season. This is one thing the Washington Capitals have done an excellent job at doing where the Penguins are being left at the altar when you start thinking about long-term projections for both franchises. The Capitals were a destination city this past summer via free agency/trades and seeing them among the eight to nine teams on Dylan Larkin’s acceptable trade list just shows how they’ve navigated the waters of moving on from their core to a new wave via free agency, trades and internal options.

One prominent agent said of the Penguins, if you wanted to be a team players wanted to consider over the summer, they should have been inking both Sidney Crosby and Erik Karlsson to three year To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!