Kingerski: Penguins Should Drop the Pretense, Just Tear it Down

Individually, each Pittsburgh Penguins trade and transaction this summer has been positive. On Tuesday, Penguins president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas completed a trade with the St. Louis Blues in which he essentially gave up the Penguins’ 2025 fifth-round pick for a 2026 second-round pick, a 2025 third-round pick, and Kevin Hayes.

That’s a pretty good haul for a fifth-round pick, eh?

Dubas also swiped Nashville’s third and sixth-rounder by accepting the $2.5 million salary cap hit of struggling NHL player Cody Glass.

Both moves fit perfectly with Dubas’s stated desire to acquire draft picks “as urgently as possible,” so the draftees will have a chance to learn at the feet of captain Sidney Crosby.

On paper, they’re great trades. In the case of Glass, the Penguins acquired a 25-year-old former sixth-overall pick.

So, it’s all good, right?

Well, no.

The Penguins are still trying to maintain the visage of honoring the core players: Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Bryan Rust, and Erik Karlsson.

As Dubas said in June of a tear-it-down rebuild, “The guys in the room are too good.”

Yet Dubas’s competing interests have left the team vulnerable, and it is difficult not to forecast some hard feelings deeper into the season when the Penguins are competitive but missing a piece or two, but Dubas already spent his salary cap windfall on trade acquisitions who came affixed with draft picks this summer.

Assuming second and third-round picks take a few years to reach the NHL (if at all), Dubas’s wheeling and dealing will probably help the organization in 2029.

That’s a long way off and most likely beyond even Crosby’s career arc.

Which brings us to Mr. Crosby, who must be at least a little bit disappointed. Factoring the Reilly Smith trade, the Penguins had about $10 million in salary cap space to play with. Surely, a helpful free agent was willing to play with Crosby on the Penguins top line.

Surely, there was some additional offense or genuine NHL roster help available. And Dubas could have acquired a couple of picks, too.

First, let’s give Dubas credit. He’s sold the present for the future while maintaining just enough to be competitive. Also, he didn’t just sell the cow for some magic beans, he sold the cow for a pile of magic beans.

Yet the cold reality of the NHL Draft posits that for all of the extra picks, he’s acquired perhaps one, maybe two, impact players for that 2028 or 2029 season.

That’s a rebuild, and there’s no other word to describe it.

Youngsters & Mr. Crosby

Sidney Crosby.

It was a spectacle to watch him carry the Penguins last season. The mighty Atlas with the world upon his shoulders, Crosby carried the team with the grit and determination befitting the fiercest captain in the NHL and one of the greatest players to ever put on skates.

His reward has been to greet new teammates Anthony Beauvillier, Matt Grzelcyk, Hayes, and now Glass.

With respect to NHL players fighting to get back to their peak or find it, excluding Grzelcyk, the team could do without each and not suffer. Their benefit is surely debatable as their previous teams paid up to subtract them or didn’t offer bargain contracts.

However, let’s not gloss over the second part of Dubas’s edict, either: To get younger and hungrier, which included opening spots for the Penguins’ young players.

Dubas hasn’t quite closed that door, but the packed roster is assuredly leaning against it.

Vasily Ponomarev figured to be part of the Penguins lineup this season. Sam Poulin was facing a make-or-break moment to finally crack the big roster. In our estimation, Brayden Yager probably isn’t ready for the NHL, but in early July, the club surely seemed eager to give him a good shot. We thought Tristan Broz and 2024 second-round pick Tanner Howe also deserved good looks in training camp and the preseason.

In fairness, Pittsburgh Hockey Now has argued for seasons that young players must force their way into the lineup. While deafening calls for players like Daniel Sprong or Alex Nylander echoed across social media with vain-popping ferocity, that reality was far different than the coming situation.

With Glass, Beauvillier, Hayes, Puustinen, Blake Lizotte, Lars Eller, Jesse Puljujarvi, Jonathan Gruden, and Noel Acciari, the NHL roster is already overfilled, and those young players will have reduced opportunities.

Several of those players need ice time and space to acclimate to the Penguins. Is Dubas prepared to simply waive several of those players to make room for one of their own?

Before you reflexively say yes! Understand the push-pull of still trying to be competitive, too. The roster is still led by the established core that Dubas promised to honor.

Guessing Game

It is far too easy to assume that a young player who has earned his NHL shot will continue to grow. That doesn’t always happen, and the Penguins know that. So it’s also far too easy for management to hedge their bets in a close race by keeping the young player in the AHL or juniors while keeping the veteran on the NHL roster.

In other words, it’s too easy to look at Yager and believe he could benefit by another year in juniors (which he could), even if he has a solid camp. It’s too easy to keep Ponomarev or Broz in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton if it’s a close call between Glass or Hayes and those players.

At some point, this rebuilding begins to resemble slowly peeling off the band-aid, grimacing, and stopping throughout.

There’s no question that new vice president of player personnel Wes Clarke and the player development staff will earn their money over the next few years.

Dubas has achieved the first part of his goal to acquire picks but not so much on the second part of getting his young players into the lineup. And it’s quite debatable if he’s properly supported the current NHL roster, too.

Now, about that Crosby contract?