Penguins Blog: Potential Dubas Trade, Rebuild Strategy

What do Vasily Ponomarev and Kevin Hayes have in common, and what does it have to do with potential Pittsburgh Penguins trades?

In addition to entering their first Penguins training camp on Wednesday, each could be a bottom-six center for the Penguins. They have wildly different skill sets and attributes, as well as a 10-year age difference, but they could each greatly affect what comes next for the organization.

Penguins president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas loaded up his shopping cart in the offseason. As we’ve documented a few times, there are at least 19 forwards who could, should, or badly want to play in the NHL this season, but the team has only 13, perhaps 14, spots available. The number of potential Penguins line combinations is close to infinite.

Dubas’s summer trade strategy involved adding future assets. He accepted Hayes and Cody Glass in trades because the St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators, respectively, compensated the Penguins with draft picks to accept the players at full salary. They were salary dumps, and Dubas scooped up a 2026 second-rounder and two 2025 third-rounders for accepting the pair.

After a strong weekend in Buffalo at the Prospects Challenge, several Penguins prospects began to emerge as soon-to-be NHL players. Rutger McGroarty was already expected to make the NHL roster, and Ponomarev was already on the list of competing players. However, Tristan Broz showed very well, and defenseman Owen Pickering appeared to take the next step in his development, too.

Pickering, 20, was the Penguins first-round pick in 2022, so his NHL arrival is expected as soon as he’s ready.

Read More: Big Weekend for Penguins Prospects; 3 Who Will Arrive Sooner Than Later (+)

The next phase of the Penguins’ rebuild could very well be a continuation of the summer strategy. Dubas’s amassed glut of forwards could soon be turned into more draft picks or future assets via more Penguins trades.

Or at least that’s a reasonable expectation.

Lars Eller and Noel Acciari’s names have been foremost in speculation, but it shouldn’t end there. With several young players soon ready for their big moment and numerous veterans with one or two years remaining on their contracts, space will be plenty of room next summer.

But why wait until then?

There’s no rule against flipping acquired players to a new team for additional payment. The process can repeat; the more roster space Dubas clears, the more salary cap space he will have, and the more draft pick acquisitions he can make.

Right now, McGroarty is the only young player expected to make the 23-player roster. Dubas would do well to clear more space for the young players. The youthful energy, enthusiasm, and hunger were sorely missing for most of last season. With several prospects in waiting, it would be a mistake to have a nearly exclusive veteran lineup again.

2. Centers Wanted

The 2025-26 lineup could very well be full of prospects, but the Penguins don’t have many centers. After trading Brayden Yager for McGroarty, Tristan Broz is the closest to a top-six center, and he most likely tops out as a gritty third-line center with some slick hands. Ponomarev appears to be more suited to be a winger at the next level.

Talented prospects Villie Koivunen and Tanner Howe (who will most likely return to juniors after training camp) are also wingers.

If Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin suffers an injury this season, the NHL team will have no shortage of centers in the bottom six, but they will lack skill. Hayes would be coach Mike Sullivan’s option to plug into a top-six role, which is the spot Hayes filled with the Philadelphia Flyers upon signing his seven-year deal with a salary cap hit north of $7 million five years ago.

However, Hayes has scored 40 points only once in the last four seasons. If Dubas has the chance to acquire a young or talented center, that would be a priority; otherwise, he must wait for the next couple of drafts and cross his fingers or spend big money on the free agent market, which seems quite unlikely given the rebuilding circumstances.

3. This is Going to Be Fun

I’m looking forward to this training camp and preseason. For the first time in a long time, we don’t know what’s going to happen, who will be featured, and who will win the final roster spots.

We can surmise the veterans will take the spots, but that would be in direct contrast to Dubas’s stated objectives and intentions to put a younger team on the ice.

It’s fair to expect one veteran to lose a roster spot in a surprise move so that Dubas and Sullivan can send a message to the veterans to avoid complacency and another to the young players, indicating that the door is open when they earn the promotion. We predict that by January, the Penguins could look dramatically different and maybe be better for it. Or, they could lose several players via waivers, including Jesse Puljujarvi, Valtteri Puustinen, Sam Poulin, and more, which would significantly alter their depth and ability to deal away the surplus.

Perhaps that’s all the more reason to make the trades quickly.

Training camp starts Wednesday. Game on.