Dubas Lays Out Prospect Recall Strategy; Opens Door to RFA Offer Sheets

You will see the Pittsburgh Penguins prospects stick together, both on the ice and perhaps on the transaction sheet, too.

Thursday, Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas spent 15 minutes with the TSN’s hosted podcast with Darren Dreger and Ray Ferraro (Ray and Dreggs Podcast). Dubas didn’t exactly give away the Penguins’ plans for their handful of prospects doing well with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, but he at least provided a framework of what he did in the past and what he’d like to see.

You can listen to the full Ray & Dreggs podcast here.

Perhaps the WBS Penguins will also win the Calder Cup, like Dubas’s 2016 Toronto Marlies did, but Dubas is keeping close tabs on Owen Pickering, Rutger McGroarty, and Ville Koivunen.

“We have to be mindful of how we’re using (four remaining call-ups). The other part is we’ve got a group that’s kind of growing and developing, and as they perform very well in Wilkes-Barre, they’re starting to form sort of a collective,” Dubas said. “And so I go back to my experience in Toronto, notably in the ’15-16 season, we brought up a lot of those guys in the second half of that season in sort of a wave. And I’m referencing William Nylander, Zach Hyman, Connor Brown, and Kasperi Kapanen was part of that (group), too … I thought that they formed a great bond in the American League.

“Looking back, there’s lots of mistakes and there’s lots of things that you would learn and repeat. And certainly one of them was that those guys had developed a winning kind of bond down there, that they had success, and then they came up all together and sort of a wave of players. So now in the American League, we’ve got that kind of forming.”

Dubas intimated the Penguins have only two of their four post-deadline call-up transactions available because the team called up Tristan Jarry and Emil Bemstrom. Even though both of those callups occurred before the trade deadline, they had to be re-assigned and recalled by 3 p.m. on March 7 to be eligible for the AHL playoffs.

The Penguins still have a handful of burgeoning prospects at the AHL level. The team is in second place in the Atlantic Division but among the top teams in the league, so as their confidence continues to grow, a playoff run is quite possible.

WBS is battling Hershey for the top spot in the division and near the top of the league. After some raucous games against each other this season, Penguins prospect goalie Joel Blomqvist corrected this reporter when it was suggested they don’t like Hershey. He quipped, “No, they don’t like us.”

Top prospects Rutger McGroarty and Owen Pickering are leading the charge, with substantial help from other NHL hopefuls like Ville Koivunen

Read More: Scouting McGroarty, WBS Penguins Guys Starting to Take it to Next Level (+)

“We’ve got Owen Pickering and Jack St. Ivany (on defense). And we’ve got a couple of goaltenders (Joel Blomqvist, Sergei Murashov) and then we’ve got Rutger McGroarty, Ville Koivunen, Tristan Broz, Avery Hayes and others that have really propelled the team,” Dubas told the hosts.

“It’s a younger team in the American League. And I talk to (Penguins AGM) Jason Spezza daily, or three times daily, about where that team is at and just trying to manage when is the right time to bring those guys up. When would it be a good time to have them come in and give them a great experience? Is that this year? Is it next year? You know, we’re just going to see how it plays out there and here and then make that call as we roll.”

So, fans (and this writer who is quite curious) could see the Penguins recall at least a couple of those players, but the issue would be–once they’re up, the door is closed behind them until the end of the season. With only two recalls remaining, the team cannot call up two players, send them down, then recall two more in their place.

Last weekend in Vegas, St. Ivany was an emergency recall as the Penguins were down to six healthy defensemen and wanted a spare.

Dubas repeated much about how the Penguins will use their 30 draft picks over the next three years, including 18 in the top three rounds. They will spend them as appropriate to draft or acquire younger players closer to the NHL, or already there.

“(The picks) also position us in a spot where if teams sour on guys, guys sour on their situation with the current team, there’s contract issues, there’s cap issues–We’ve tried to position ourselves in a spot where we can … get involved in all of thos conversations,” Dubas said. “I haven’t felt through the first two summers (in Pittsburgh) that we haven’t been able to be there on the younger guys. We feel that whether it’s (those trade conversations) or, you know, if there are restricted free agents and it’s going to be tough to re-sign them, (we’ve) got the offer sheet route.”

Last summer, Dubas facilitated the St. Louis Blues’ ability to swipe Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway from the Edmonton Oilers via RFA offer sheet. Dubas traded St. Louis’s original second-round pick acquired in the Kevin Hayes trade back to St. Louis in exchange for a future second-rounder and a third.

The Penguins will have a small mountain of salary cap space this summer. It’s currently estimated at over $26 million, and there are six to seven open roster spots.