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Apparently, Kyle Dubas is on the hot seat |
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I don’t know if you knew, but apparently Kyle Dubas is on the hot seat already one season into the job. I certainly have quibbles with some of the choices Dubas has made with filling out the depth of the roster in his first season on the job. I 100% believe it cost the team a shot at the playoffs last year. I’m also under no disillusion that Dubas is going to be on the job for a while longer. Not everyone, though
Ryan Kennedy from The Hockey News:
“Well for me I look to Pittsburgh and Kyle Dubas I know he hasn’t been on the job long but this is a franchise that seems full steam ahead on making the playoffs again after two years out and I just don’t see the plan right now. They’ve basically just run it back, but it feels like they’re even older and they were already one of the older teams in the league. Ok Jeff Carter retires and you bring in Kevin Hayes. Is that not just an older slower center? Like I dont get it.
The only thing i can think of is that they are hoping for a lot of improvement from a Jesse Puljujarvi, an Anthony Beauvilier and these are guys at this point you probably know what they are, especially Beauvilier he is 27. For a team that didn’t make the playoffs it doesn’t feel like Pittsburgh has gotten any better. If anything they might have gotten worse”
This is one reason to stick to more localized coverage of your favorite team. They are not full steam ahead on making the playoffs. Not a single move this offseason would point to that. thinking the Kevin Hayes deal was about Kevin Hayes is the biggest red flag possible on if you understood what that trade was actually about. The Penguins have shifted to a focal point on futures. They received a second-round pick for Kevin Hayes. They used all the draft picks in their possession and I would be really surprised if they don’t have even more draft picks for 2025 when the draft rolls around than they do in this moment.
They are a team full of no movement clauses. Three of them are Penguins legends who have been essentially given the green light, as they should, to close out their career as a lifelong Penguin. So you aren’t going to get a classic down to the studs rebuild like the Penguins have done in the past.
Anthony Beauvillier and Jesse Puljujvarvi are pending UFA’s this season and seem like prime candidates, along with Lars Eller, to be moved for futures at some point during the season. I’ll throw Matt Grzelcyk into that mix as well. The reason for these players is that the Penguins cupboard is fairly empty. They really aren’t blocking any prospects from rightfully getting ice time. The Penguins are in an in-between stage where playing veterans on expiring contracts is prudent as long as they flip them for more assets. In a couple of years this will shift to the younger crop of players making the big club, but not yet.
The Penguins ceded their first-round pick to the San Jose Sharks this past draft for the Erik Karlsson trade. Thus, stripping away motivation to needlessly chase standings points to try and keep the Sharks from embarrassingly getting a high draft pick from them.
Kyle Dubas clearly wasn’t hired with the Stanley Cup as a realistic goal on the front end. He was hired to revamp the team moving forward. We have a long way to go before we’ll know if he is on the right path or not. Using their first-round draft pick last year, making all the available selections this year, and adding to the future draft picks is the beginning of the transition to the future instead of the now. It is pretty transparent. Dubas in reality has one of the colder GM seats in the league at the moment, but you’d have to see the obvious to know that.
Thanks for reading!
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