It is official. The Pittsburgh Penguins have hired Kyle Dubas
Welcome to Pittsburgh, Kyle Dubas!
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) June 1, 2023
Dubas will come to Pittsburgh, not in the general manager role, but as the President of Hockey Operations. The Penguins made a full court press to acquire Dubas and they have succeeded
Dubas: "The ownership group, FSG leadership and the Penguins staff on the ground in Pittsburgh have been absolutely outstanding. Everyone has demonstrated a clear commitment to building a best-in-class hockey operation."
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) June 1, 2023
Personally, I think this was as close to a best-case scenario as the Penguins could have hoped for. Dubas is not a perfect candidate, because nobody is, but his vision for how he builds his hockey teams aligns more with the decade that we are currently in than a lot of the other options. I think he’s made some mistakes in the past like trading a 1st for Nick Foligno, but I’m also curious if they were his decisions or from Shanahan or higher up. He isn’t reporting to a Shanahan type in Pittsburgh. It will be his vision. I’m more than willing to see where his vision takes the team.
I am confident that Dubas will build out the organization’s infrastructure and stream line things to make it a productive unit. From all accounts he did quite a good job of this in Toronto which is one of the hardest places to function in the league for many various reasons. It is also something that the Fenway Sports Group wants to lean into.
FSG EVP Dave Beeston on April 14th: "What we're focused on building is a hockey operations machine."
— Josh Getzoff (@JG_PxP) June 1, 2023
Kyle Dubas checks a massive box atop the list for @penguins. The 37 year-old takes on the President of Hockey Ops role after a five year GM run with @MapleLeafs, going 221-109-42 pic.twitter.com/6Ro8AA1pGN
I think the Penguins job is one of the tougher ones in the league right now given what they want to do and the timeline they have to do it in. Dubas certainly knows this going in and didn’t back away from the challenge. There will be little room for error.
The team knew who they wanted and went out and made it happen. You can’t ask for much more than that.
We will hear from Dubas himself later today
We’ll hear from new President of Hockey Operations Kyle Dubas this afternoon, as he will be holding media availability.
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) June 1, 2023
Thanks for reading!