4 Penguins Thoughts: Motivation, Sullivan Retrenches, & Dubas Criticism

The last two weeks were the first major drop of the Pittsburgh Penguins roller coast. After treading water for the first month of the NHL season and hovering around .500, the roller coaster went straight down at a speed that made fans and probably a few players feel like they were coming out of their seats.

Horrible losses born of dreadful mistakes, sometimes conceived in lackadaisical effort, put everyone on edge.

Instead of making well-deserved sweeping changes from the roster to the coach, Penguins president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas nibbled at the present and future by acquiring former Nashville Predators prospect Philip Tomasino for a 2027 fourth-round pick.

For podcast fans, we discussed the trade, as well as everything else, on the No Pucks Given, Ep. 8 podcast:

The roiling negativity and frustration that was confronted by goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic Saturday night following the Penguins’ 6-1 loss to the Utah Hockey Club had somewhat dissipated by Monday at practice. The team had a shootout practice, and Sullivan spoke openly of trying to create an environment conducive to winning. Instead of doing what he termed the easy thing–being negative–he and the team were pushing in the opposite direction.

4 Penguins Thoughts

1. Dubas Criticism

It’s pure coincidence, but days after we wrote a lengthy piece in August detailing Dubas’s likely strategy to sell salary cap space for draft picks, Dubas acquired Cody Glass in exactly the type of deal we described (though we didn’t include Glass on our list of potential acquisitions). And a few days after we detailed a potential new Dubas strategy of searching for faded prospects and used the 2011 Houston Astros rebuild strategy as a directional marker, Dubas acquired Philip Tomasino on Monday.

Again, we didn’t have Tomasino on our list, but there are several more struggling, fading, or out-of-favor young players around the NHL who could use a good home. Dubas scouted defenseman demoted Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman David Jiricek at the Cleveland Monsters game on Sunday.

It’s a good strategy to pursue, but execution is everything.

This reporter believes Dubas overpaid for Rutger McGroarty in August by giving up 2023 first-round pick Brayden Yager. Winnipeg was able to dictate the terms for a player whom they were going to eventually lose for nothing. McGroarty’s struggles to score in the pro game and skating issues do not make the trade look better in hindsight.

Tomasino was far more moderately priced (a 2027 fourth-rounder), but he’s also not waivers exempt. If he doesn’t stick with the club, the Penguins could essentially forfeit the pick if another team claims Tomasino on waivers.

Dubas’s other trade acquisitions, beginning with Erik Karlsson, Michael Bunting (with three other prospects), Kevin Hayes, and Glass, are not making an impact and certainly not performing to the team’s hopes this season.

Dubas could sure use a win.

2. Mike Sullivan Retrenches

It was quickly clear from the tenor and tone of practice to coach Mike Sullivan’s daily presser that his job is relatively safe. He cracked himself up while playfully poking at reporters, as well as simply having command of the room.

There is a tone or feeling when coaches are in trouble. You can almost smell it in the air as the tone becomes a little combative or exasperated. Sullivan was there Friday night when he sparred with this reporter (and it wasn’t playful), but with a day off Sunday, for everyone to breathe and step away, Monday was reset.

Whether Sullivan got an internal vote of confidence or reassurance from higher up, he articulated a plan to rebuild his team’s decimated psyche.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Nedeljkovic get more starts, just as he did down the stretch last season, as Sullivan leans on his goalie’s feisty attitude. Some of Sullivan’s lineup decisions may come under some scrutiny, especially if he scratches Owen Pickering in favor of Ryan Graves or Matt Grzelcyk on Wednesday, but one should credit the sheer volume of changes Sullivan has made in his near desperate attempts to find something that works for this team.

The Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins (away), Calgary Flames, and Florida Panthers await. Followed by the New York Rangers at MSG and the Toronto Maple Leafs at home. The Penguins’ schedule doesn’t get easier. More losses, especially pathetic ones like the ones they suffered last weekend and the previous weekend, will put everyone right back in the fire.

Sullivan needs wins, or the next wave of calls for his job will grow in intensity.

3. Nedeljkovic Fire

It’s easy to see why Nedeljkovic was a spark for the team down the stretch last season. His tone Saturday vs. Tristan Jarry’s tone Friday were light years apart, even as both called out their team for baffling plays.

Jarry said the team needed to defend harder and be ready to play in the first five minutes. Nedeljkovic was ready to deliver a sermon, challenging everyone to pay the price to win, decrying the horrible feeling they all felt, and laying down a path to change it.

The locker room was a disconsolate place on Saturday. Sidney Crosby scored his 600th goal but couldn’t muster a smile. Knowing him, he never will, either.

The team needs more of Nedeljkovic’s fire and much less of the shrug-it-off crowd. The Penguins are talented enough to get leads to lose,

4. Pickering & Development

Player development is not simply calling up young players and dunking them in the lineup. It’s not “coaching them up” to play in the NHL, either. Yet, that’s the perception many (most?) fans have of the process.

The environment is critical. So, too, is being put in a position to succeed.

“Call them up, see what they can do!” remains absolutely the worst and most ignorant but often repeated phrase. For every player who might excel if given free rein, there are several who the experience and subsequent struggle would crush. Ask any player who made the leap, and they will tell you how vast the chasm between the AHL and NHL is, and it grows annually as more young players are in the NHL and more middling veterans are in the AHL.

To whit, we tried to chat with Penguins rookie defenseman Owen Pickering Saturday night. He uncharacteristically didn’t have much to say about his performance or the game because it was such a bleak night. He seemed to be wearing just a bit of it on Monday, too.

That’s bad, and that’s what happens in bad situations. Many teams have tried to rebuild around youth but do not have the necessary structure and framework for those players to succeed. Losing breeds losing, just as winning breeds winning.

To bring it all full circle, that’s another strong reason—perhaps the best reason—to fortify the current NHL roster not with faded prospects but with productive talent. Being competitive and believing you can win every night goes a long way to building for the future, even though the dichotomy might seem mutually exclusive.

For the record, Pickering has played well. Solid. Our impression of his game has grown exponentially over the last few months. He is a quick study, and now he has the physical tools, too.