On the cusp of the regular season beginning Kyle Duba addressed the media and providing a little bit of clarity on some of the roster moves and where the team is heading in the years to follow. It sounds like her has a good handle on where the Penguins are as a team and understands the challenges ahead

#Pens KD: We aren't favored by anybody to accomplish anything and that's not being said as motivation - that's simple fact. We will have to earn it and build the competitive spirit in practice, the gym and each and every game we play.

— Josh Getzoff (@JG_PxP) October 7, 2024

He's not wrong, the Penguins are being picked by most to miss the playoffs for the third consecutive season. Something that hasn’t happened since the final years of Mario Lemieux’s career where they missed from 2002-06.

I have maligned the bottom six for a number of years now and it has included Kyle Dubas’ choices in this area as well. One-dimensional defensive forwards are not part of my vision for a highly successful modern NHL team. It should not be the dominating trait of your depth players. We’ve seen how this plays out over and over again. Even Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in their prime couldn’t elevate those teams constructed in that fashion. It appears, at least through words, Kyle Dubas understands this as well.

Kyle Dubas said Cody Glass is a good example of what they're looking for with players in that group.

— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) October 7, 2024

I don’t disagree with anything said here. It only leaves me wondering what happened when he was signing the Noel Acciari’s and the Matt Nieto’s of the world to multi-year deals. I would include a player like Ryan Graves in this as well. He has done nothing to facilitate puck possession or put the team in better spots to attack offensively.

I think targeting a former 6th overall pick who has yet to make his mark in the league can be an OK strategy if it is one of the many darts you are firing at the board. Clearly, Glass had an offensive pulse to be drafted as a forward that high by the Vegas Golden Knights. Another example of this is Dubas taking a chance on Jesse Puljujarvi coming off of hip surgery. He is a former #4 overall pick trying to find his game. These are cheap bets with players who showed at younger ages they had the ability to generate offense. It doesn’t always translate and there will be misses with this strategy, but at least there was evidence at some point of production at various levels. I have a lot more time with the logic of those acquisitions than the run of the mill veteran bottom sixer we’ve been seeing the past few seasons.

Another player starting in the bottom six this season will be Rutger McGroarty and Kyle Dubas had a very detailed answer on his ability to make the team out of camp.

Here's the full quote from Kyle Dubas on Rutger McGroarty: pic.twitter.com/7nLGGCiNEu

— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) October 7, 2024

It is very clear McGroarty has earned the trust of both Kyle Dubas and Mike Sullivan. He would be in WB/S if he wasn’t going to get ice time at the NHL level. By all accounts it sounds like he has earned the opportunity to start where he has. I admit being underwhelmed at the beginning of training camp with how he looked and I also think what Dubas said is true, he got better as things went along. He has had to learn a lot in a short period of time. The game moves at a different speed at college than it does at a prospect camp, than it does in the preseason, and how it will when he plays his first NHL game on Wednesday. Being a player who is not fast by NHL standards he is going to have to process the game at a high level. It takes reps for that to happen and as he has gotten them I think you see his decision making speeding up and his ability to read the ice will be strength.

Kyle Dubas praised Marcus Pettersson, calling him a steady, “zero-maintenance” player.

But Dubas was noncommittal about whether Pettersson will be re-signed. Basically said the Penguins will keep their options open there.

That’s how they played it with Jake Guentzel.

— Matt Vensel (@mattvensel) October 7, 2024

This is a tough one because I’ve taken a shine to Marcus Pettersson as a player. He’s the perfect partner for a high-end defenseman. His skating and hockey IQ have him positionally sound the entire game and he is able to facilitate controlled plays to help ease the job of the forwards as they build their attack. Unfortunately, the Penguins aren’t in a position to be signing a player like him into his thirties at the kind of cap hit he will command. The team is not a contender and by the time they are Pettersson will not be providing cap value to the team on his aging contract. Trading him is the prudent move given where the team is. It sucks because he is a set it and forget it player who is an asset to any team in their competitive window, a window Pittsburgh isn’t in now.

Something that might make the Pettersson trade a formality:

#LetsGoPens    Dubas was "extraordinarily impressed" with defensive prospect Owen Pickering's camp. @TheHockeyNews

— Kelsey Surmacz (@kelsey_surmacz4) October 7, 2024

Owen Pickering is a former first round pick who will be seeing his first full year of professional action this season. If he gains traction in the AHL and is tracking towards being playable at the NHL level I can see this being the natural succession for the Penguins moving away from Pettersson. Pickering has a long way to go to replace a player like Pettersson, but in theory, your former first round pick should be able to eventually slide into a middle pairing role. If Dubas is being authentic about his assessment then the path has already been laid out for what is to come in the not so distant future.

Tomorrow Penguins hockey returns.

Thanks for reading!

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