It is officially draft week. We are entering one of the busiest times of the NHL calendar as far as roster moves are concerned. This is Kyle Dubas’ first chance to put his mark on the team. A few days back Dubas spoke to the media about his plans in the upcoming draft and free agency.
Kyle Dubas: "I don't believe, unless we're adding a very impactful younger player, that we're going to part with our younger assets – meaning like the Owen Pickerings of the world or our first-round picks. As we move ahead here, I think we have to build up the system."
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) June 23, 2023
Not only are we going to learn what Dubas’ plans are for the team in the next few weeks, but we will also learn if media Kyle Dubas is in line with the actions that are actually made with the roster. Jim Rutherford told you exactly what he was going to do. You could take a lot of what he said at face value. This is one area where we are going to find out real quick if Dubas is telling the truth are playing his cards close to the vest. Personally, I think the hard task of giving Crosby, Malkin, and Letang what they need to be competitive is made even harder with this mindset. Not impossible, as there are certain strategies available, such as...
Kyle Dubas: "That said, I think we're in a good spot and fortunate that the cap has remained flat, because it allows us to take on people from other clubs that can bring us good value and have us push to contend."
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) June 23, 2023
Pittsburgh should have ~$20 million in cap space to work with.
The Penguins actually have the eighth most cap space heading into the offseason at 20.2M. This does afford the team the opportunity to take advantage of some other teams feeling a cap crunch. Today, we saw an example of this when the Boston Bruins traded Taylor Hall for basically nothing to the Chicago Blackhawks. There will be other trades along these lines to be had.
In order to do that, the Penguins won't be targeting long-term, expensive forwards. Instead of making a splash during free agency, they'll be looking for smaller, more subtle bets, like players who are maybe reclamation projects to an extent.
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) June 23, 2023
Well it’s just really nice to hear from somebody in charge of the Penguins state the obvious. The star players played like stars and the depth players played like crap. They need more talent on the roster. I mentioned Max Pacioretty the other day as a possible cheaper free agency option with a potential to help. Dubas will be looking at short term options and making bets on players he think will out play their market value. A lot of roster problems around the league or overpaying depth players with both money and term. Short term deals for depth prevent you from being locked into problematic contracts. The tough part is having to do this process over and over again. Nobody is going to hit on all of these bets. The benefit of hiring Dubas is he will be using all tools available to try and assess these players and increase probability to be successful on these types of signings.
Dubas said they'll have deeper conversations with Jarry, Zucker and Dumoulin's reps in Nashville, and probably have a decision about whether it's going to work or not here in Pittsburgh on all fronts by the time we get to next Wednesday/Thursday.
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) June 23, 2023
The goaltending position is one of the more fascinating choices Dubas will have to make. I think Jarry is still probably one of the Penguins better options due to an underwhelming goaltender market. I am not in favor of running back Jarry and DeSmith. I do think there’s a path for Jarry to return.
Jason Zucker is going to be hard to replace if the Penguins can’t come to terms with him. Tyler Bertuzzi is an interesting candidate to try and do so. The Bruins did clear Hall’s 6M and would probably like to retain Bertuzzi. Problem being they only have about 10M in cap space and only 14 players signed. I think Zucker will stay in Pittsburgh if the Penguins are in the neighborhood of other teams and their offers.
I have no interest in Brian Dumoulin at any price. Even if he comes back for league minimum, I think there will always be a temptation to play him up the lineup. I would rather that temptation be eliminated by the front office altogether. Dumoulin was a really good player for the team for some of their best years. Playing at a high level into the 30’s isn’t super common even if the Penguins core players have made it look easier than it is. I don’t think Dumoulin will be one of those players who bucks the aging curve trend.
Draft is in two days, we’ll start to get a lot more answers.
Thanks for reading!