- Kyle Dubas chased premium talent this summer but struck out on a big addition
- Pittsburgh stood pat, keeping veterans Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell and Erik Karlsson as prices peaked
- Read below for a breakdown of the Penguins’ quiet offseason and whether Dubas missed his window
Kyle Dubas spent the spring talking about adding to the Penguins for one more run with Sidney Crosby. Three months later, the bigger question is whether Pittsburgh’s general manager misread the summer market entirely.
The Penguins came out of a surprise playoff berth ready to swing big, and Dubas said as much. By the end of the first round of the draft, he looked frustrated by prices he didn’t expect and by his inability to move up. He poked around on names like Shane Wright, but nothing landed.
Byram is the cleanest example. Chicago handed Buffalo the No. 4 and No. 45 picks plus Louis Crevier to land the young defenseman. Pittsburgh couldn’t match that without gutting the cupboard, which Dubas smartly refused to do.
The flip side is what he didn’t do. With prices for proven NHL talent as high as they’ve been in years, Dubas held onto Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell and Erik Karlsson instead of selling into a hot market. Rakell is still a Penguin heading into camp.
Evgeni Malkin is back too. The core that has carried this franchise for two decades stayed intact while the roster mostly got younger around the edges.
Dubas did tinker. He brought in Hendrix Lapierre and Nicholas Robertson via trade, added Kaedan Korczak in exchange for Parker Wotherspoon, and signed Andrei Kuzmenko, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Declan Carlile in free agency. New names, new numbers.
The moves made Pittsburgh younger. Whether they made it better is a tougher sell, especially stacked against what the Penguins’ division rivals pulled off.
Dubas built his reputation waiting for other GMs to panic and then pouncing. This summer the cap jumped and the free-agent class was thin, so the patient approach never got its opening. Pittsburgh basically stood still while the rest of the Metro kept moving.
Crosby turns 39 in August. Every quiet summer in Pittsburgh burns another year of what’s left of his prime.
