CRANBERRY TWP, PA (93.7 The Fan) – While the cost was prohibitive on a couple of potential moves, it was a pretty simple reason for general manager Kyle Dubas as to why you didn’t see a major move by the Pens at the trade deadline.
They like the team they have, currently in second place in the Metropolitan Division.
“Obviously the mix has worked quite well, they’ve got good chemistry,” Dubas said Friday at the UPMC Lemieux facility in Cranberry Township. “Dan (Muse) has done a great job coaching them and we just have to deal with some absences for various different reasons and continue to stay with it, find a way and continue to write our own story regardless of what anyone expects of us.”
Dubas pointed to the earlier additions of Egor Chinakhov, Ilya Solovyov, Sam Girard and Stuart Skinner, along with the trade deadline move of adding 6’8” forward Elmer Soderblom from Detroit.
“We tried to get the players in earlier because the types of players we were trading for and had traded for throughout the year are the guys who are going to be here a while or maybe it wasn’t going perfectly where they were,” Dubas said “So the more runway you have to get them up and running rather them put them into the blender right now with back-to-back games over the weekend.”
Dubas said their decisions at the trade deadline were not impacted by the injury to Sidney Crosby or the likely suspension coming for Evgeni Malkin following the ejection on Thursday night.
Related
“Trade deadline, everyone wants mass action,” Dubas said.
But the Penguins general manager, in what has been a surprising season to most everyone, said it was in his team’s best interest to make only one move, losing a third-round pick.
“It’s a very good team,” Dubas said. “We all get into this because we want a chance to win. When a team shows itself consistently to be able to play at that level, even when things aren’t perfect, and they can sustain it. You want to be in this spot.”
“We are going to try to put some pressure on Carolina, separate ourselves from the other group.”