PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – After the trade with Vancouver sending a pair of everyday players away late Friday night, the Pens will look to do more of that going forward. It’s not exactly a fire sale, it’s Kyle Dubas’ plan that really came to light after moving Jake Guentzel before the trade deadline in 2024.
“With where we are at we just need to continue to move down the path of the mission that we’ve set out for the last year or so which is to continue to stockpile younger players, prospects and draft picks,” Dubas said Saturday morning.
The Pens GM did not directly speak to trading some of the big pieces, specifically those like Erik Karlsson with no trade clauses. However, Dubas said there has been increased communication from some of those players agents about where their client fits into the team’s plans. So read into that, those players are starting to think about their future outside of Pittsburgh which could open a window for more trades.
What they are looking to add is more capital, whether that’s a young player who can grow and be a part of their future, or a draft pick that can be developed or used in a trade scenario.
Dubas seemed hesitant to just bring up a bunch of their younger players from the American Hockey League just to give them experience in the NHL.
“I think what we would like to do with the players from Wilkes (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins), they’ve really built a strong thing going down there in terms of their performance night-in and night-out,” Dubas said. “I like how they respond when things don’t go well. I think it’s been really pushed as of late by younger players.”
“When they earn the opportunity to come up and not just play for a weekend, but play for a prolonged stretch. Once they earn it, we are not going to deny them that opportunity.”
The idea is to allow a few of them to grow through the ups and downs together. To experience success, learn each other’s tendencies, learn to be a pro and to Dubas’ point, fight through the struggles at that level and not against better competition.
The question now is how long will they be in this mode? How long is the process to build back up? When can we expect to see a Penguins team challenging for the Stanley Cup again?
“For me, I don’t ever want to put a timeline on anything,” Dubas said. “Our goal is based on the types of people we have in the locker room and how much they’ve meant to the city and the franchise. We want to operate as urgently as we can to return the team there.”
“We don’t want to buy patience or say it’s an ‘x’ amount of years plan and in year ‘x’ we hope to be at different points. Our goal is to try to acquire the assets that we have laid out and turn those draft picks and develop them into players that can help the team quickly, but not expedited to hinder the development of the player, or use those assets to be in the mix when players that can make an impact are present and can help us.”