CRANBERRY TWP, PA (93.7 The Fan) – The best team in the Eastern Conference this year was 11 points behind the Pens two years ago and won at battle with them to sneak into the playoffs last year. What could the Pens learn from the Washington Capitals?
Penguins GM Kyle Dubas said there are two ways for team to get back into championship form. You can go into the mass teardown and hope you get lucky with the lottery. Although given his reaction to this path saying ‘you can hope in one hand and defecate other and see which one fills up first’. It’s not a preferred method.
What Dubas appreciates about what the Caps did is they drafted well while they were still contending. This was a much tougher option for the Penguins as previous general manager Jim Rutherford was aggressive in maintaining a championship window and would trade high draft picks for established players. Washington now has a number of players in their early 20s who were well scouted and highly sought after.
They married those players with future Hall of Famer Alexander Ovechkin and established veterans like John Carlsson and Tom Wilson. Those players set the standard for the younger guys and it allowed them to elevate their game, and the team’s game, quicker.
“The difference that I see between the teams, if we're trying to learn anything, is in that middle range where we don't have a Martin Fehervary and Connor McMichael yet,” Dubas said Monday. “We're trying to rapidly get to that point. The two guys that came up and showed the most promise at the end (Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty) were guys that one wasn't here 10 months ago, the other wasn't here 15 months ago. So, we're trying to use our assets to get us there and push us there. That's where we lack.”
The other part that Dubas points out that Washington did is they went into acquiring mass assets. They used those picks and players to find the right mix of guys that complemented what they already had. They did what the Pens still have to do, find players between 22-25 who can play at the NHL level. Some might not even play for them, rather they become part of another deal to find the right piece or pieces.
The Pens have more assets now, 30 draft picks in the next three years, 18 of them in the first three rounds. Now it’s about Dubas putting it all together and finding those players who can win now while you still have Sidney Crosby and be part of a new core of players to maintain Stanley Cup contention.
“They're (Washington) not going to go anywhere,” Dubas said. “So, we have to haul ass and catch them because they're way ahead right now, as the standings show.”
“But they weren't. They weren't two years ago. But they've done a great job in coaching, development, drafting.
It's impressive."
Dubas is taking his clues from the division rival, but also clear in his path that he’s not trying to build a team that can sneak back in the postseason, rather return the franchise that seemed to be a birthright for nearly a decade and a half.