GM Search Buzz: Belief around league Penguins were leaning towards hiring Matheiu Darche prior to Kyle Dubas being fired

Among the new developments in the Penguins search for a new Hockey Operations leader is the Pittsburgh Penguins top brass will hold a face-to-face meeting with Kyle Dubas this week, a meeting that’s expected to happen as early as today at an undisclosed location. Early last week the Penguins had moved on from any Dubas scenarios and were tracking towards naming a new General Manager as early as Tuesday or Wednesday this week. However, things changed with Friday’s firing of Dubas and the Penguins on Saturday gathered intel that Dubas was willing to meet with the team after all that has put the core group of 4-5 finalists in the GM search now in limbo. As the team has casted a wide net of candidates, if Dubas was indeed willing to at least take a meeting, the Penguins didn’t want to go through this search without speaking to the former Leafs GM………So here we are…………

“Pittsburgh was very close to ending their search (before the Dubas firing),” Top NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said today on his _{32 Thoughts Podcast}. “Now Dubas has dropped into the middle of all of these searches. Whole idea of Dubas going to Ottawa at some point definitely appealed to some people……Pittsburgh is going to make their pitch,” Friedman said.

A big question is will there be consequences for the Penguins losing someone they wanted if Dubas passes on Pittsburgh? A strong sense in league circles on the Penguins search is Tampa Bay’s Mathieu Darche and New Jersey’s Dan MacKinnon had emerged as the leaders in the clubhouse as multiple Penguin players were said to be buzzing prior to the weekend that the team had planned to hire To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

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