Latest Pens Buzz: What We Learned on Penguins Plan Moving Forward

— KEY TAKEAWAYS/OBSERVATIONS FROM KYLE DUBAS PRE-DEADLINE MEDIA SESSION –

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Dubas Does Well in Outlining a Plan Moving Forward

What Kyle Dubas needed to do Wednesday was start selling a message to the fan base and whether it’s the right move or not, he did well in laying out his vision. In believing the likes of Sidney Crosby, Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang will remain higher level players for the next couple seasons, the Penguins will try to toe this line of being competitive while bringing in younger talent on the fly to avoid any real short or long-term pain. The view outside of Pittsburgh is this will not work but Dubas was extremely thorough as to why he believes this is the route to go in trying to remain competitive, while also having future hall-of-famers be that olive branch to the next wave where Pittsburgh hopes combine both for a couple more playoff runs in the Sidney Crosby era.

“When you have players like that, they prevent you from (falling to the bottom of the league) because they are too good,” Dubas said of the Penguins core. “At the same time, what they can pass on to the players who come into the organization, in terms of the standards that we have here, the impact that being around Sid, Geno, Letang and Karlsson can have on a young player, it’s impossible to measure. That’s what we set out to do. So whether that’s our own guys in Yager, Pickering, Poulin, Blomqvist or more tangibly, draft picks, but also any other younger players we can bring in via trade, I think that can serve to expedite things and make sure there isn’t a massive breach. Everything that we do will be with the intention of delivering a championship contender for the team without them having to go through years of pain to get there. That’s my commitment.”

Leading into the deadline the Penguins are going to play this game of not necessarily buying for this season but making moves with their eye on giving it another go next season.

“I still believe our group is capable,” Dubas said. “[But] my view of it is that I can’t see us moving future draft capital at this point to try to bolster the team.” At the same time, [hide] are there moves that will allow us to add good younger players to the organization that can help to expedite things here and help us and support the group that’s already here? We’re trying to look through all of that. But I can’t see us expending a ton of our future draft capital this draft year. We don’t have a ton, but in the future years, we’re well stocked. I don’t think that will go out the door. [/hide]

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Big Game Hunting this Summer?

There is a sense around the team Pittsburgh is primed to be Big Game Hunters this summer. Multiple sources say, though, with little success to this point, Dubas has been laying the groundwork. The hope at the deadline is to accumulate assets to put back into the team this summer.

 “Are there moves that would allow us to add good younger players to the organization that can help expedite things and support the group that’s already here? We’re trying to look through all of that,” Dubas said. “If there are scenarios where we move some of our younger prospects for players that are a little bit older and closer to ready, we would look at all of those things. I don’t think there’s anything at all that’s off the table here.” 

One player the Penguins have shown significant interest in is Buffalo’s To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

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Cleaning up his own Mess

There are a variety of reasons to be critical of the roster moves Dubas has made in year one as President of Hockey Operations/General Manager. Not to mention a lack of urgency when this team needed a jolt several weeks ago. There’s a long list from the Ryan Graves/Reilly Smith blunders to the philosophy of building a defensive minded bottom-6 that put significant stress on the roster for a 37 year old Evgeni Malkin to pull his weight as a legit scoring 5 vs 5 second-line center, which was always going to be unlikely, to the obvious that Pittsburgh built this roster where they were going to have to have a top-5 or at worst top-10 power play unit based on their measures to be a 96-100 point team.

“We got back to the beginning of the year and our discussions that we have in here about the way we wanted to construct the group, it was to have a group in bottom-6 that could take the defensive pressure away [from top lines Crosby/Malkin] and let them go out and flourish,” said Dubas. “When you don’t produce on the power play, it puts an added pressure on the even strength production on those groups which is not really how we sit out at the beginning of the year. That falls on me.”

This philosophy of don’t let your bottom-6 hurt you Dubas put in place is something he adopted late in his tenure as GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In Toronto, though, you had a much younger core that could carry its own weight. No one can fault Dubas for believing the power play was going to be an impact unit to off-set a lack of skill in the bottom-6, but from the outside he bought into the belief Evgeni Malkin is still a formidable second-line scoring center and that’s where this plan also went south. Pittsburgh is a one-line team.

Dubas talked at length Wednesday about the Penguins needing to get younger, yet, he really doubled down over the summer with term contracts via free agency or trade with 30 and older players from the likes of Noel Acciari, Matt Nieto to Riley Smith as examples.

“New energy, that’s what we really need,” Dubas said of the current roster.

Pittsburgh is in talks with as many as three teams about the prospect of moving veteran To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

[hide] “We’ve received a lot of calls on a lot of our players, especially as our team has been in that spot that it’s at,” Dubas said of his group. “Out of respect to the group here and what they’ve accomplished, I’m trying to be as patient at possible and give the group the time. I’ve outlined to them to show that we can really make a push and make a run at it. Is the group capable of it? Yes. We’re sure that we are, but we’re running out of time to show that we can do it consistently. As we’ve had, coming out of the All-Star break, we lose two of three. Last week is the same, we lose two of three. These are really good players here. So, teams are calling more and more asking, ‘Are they going to be available?’ That’s my job to listen to it. But there’s been no discussion about ‘These guys are, these guys aren’t available.’ A lot of teams are just calling and asking about a litany of our players.” [/hide]

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Coaching Buzz: Reirden Expected Out this Summer

Dubas as expected came to the defense of Mike Sullivan. Barring Mike Sullivan wanting to move on at some point, the organization starting with the ownership group are all-in on Sullivan who has three more years left on his contract and is scheduled to make around To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

Sullivan also has Sidney Crosby strongly in his corner as it’s no secret in the organization Crosby has little interest in playing for anyone but To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

“He [Mike Sullivan] takes this very seriously and takes the ups and downs very seriously,” Dubas said of Sullivan. “That’s the respect I’ve developed for him throughout the year. You know that from afar and when you get in with somebody it only helps you. So to me, with the coaching staff, I envision Mike Sullivan, based on what I’ve learned from him in our discussions this year, his ability to take the development of each individual player seriously, I think he’s the type of coach that can help you win. He’s the type of coach that shows he can win but also that he can develop people. I don’t think that there needs to be any discussion about Mike.”

Where there is going to be change this summer is with To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!