Updates on Penguins’ RFA Trade Options; Dubas Has ‘Big’ Choice

The Dallas Stars began their purge Thursday by dumping Mason Marchment to the Seattle Kraken for a bag of pucks despite Marchment’s 27 goals. Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin reaffirmed that he likes Marc0 Rossi, but not at the salary numbers that Rossi likes. And with the growing disconnect between some younger players and their team’s accountants, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ trade target list could grow.

But in what direction will GM Kyle Dubas go?

Dubas seemed to throw off the shackles of finding players to fit a system or coach when he introduced new head coach Dan Muse. In fact, Dubas specifically cited Muse’s willingness and ability to coach different systems.

“The key thing to me was that he was very adaptable. There wasn’t just one way that he wanted to be able to play, and he was very easily able to communicate the way that he would teach very different systems, which gave great comfort not only to me but to our staff that we weren’t going to be bound by having to do one specific thing,” said Dubas at Muse’s introductory press conference on June 11.

Flexibility and versatility are wonderful assets that provide a GM far more options than grocery shopping for a picky eater. However, versatility doesn’t preclude a team and coach from choosing a direction. In fact, a team without a cohesive roster with commonalities such as speed, skill, and physicality risks having no identity and risks not being much of a team.

So, while Dubas might suddenly find himself like a kid in a candy store with more choices and eyes bigger than this trade wallet, it should also behoove the leader of the organization to begin choosing the type of team he wants to build, so that he may eschew the best players for the right players. Piling mismatched players onto a roster because they’re under 25 years old might sound like a strategy, but the turnover would be enormous.

The strategy of getting all of the players has been tried. See the New York Rangers from the late 1990s through the 2000s. When the Blueshirts could outspend everyone by a multiple factor, they did. Every good player that hit the free agent market was headed to New York if New York wanted them. The glorious result was, in fact, nothing. Those Rangers had more playoff misses than successes and missed the playoffs numerous times.

The point and parallel is that Dubas has many options, but first picking a path will be the fastest way to get where he wants to go.

Trade Talk

Many more than three RFAs will be available via trade, but there are three that would fit the Penguins’ need for scoring talent, though all three have one unfortunate similarity: All are small.

Rossi, Dallas forward Mavrik Bourque, and Florida Panthers winger Mackie Samoskevich are talented players who had some measure of success this season. Rossi set a career high with 60 points while primarily playing center. Bourque was finally stuck in the NHL for the entirety of the season and posted 25 points (11-14-25) in lower-line duties. And Samoskevich began to fill the net later in the season, finishing with 16 goals and 31 points before being benched for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

UPDATE: Dallas signed Bourque to a one-year, $950,000 deal Friday afternoon.

Samoskevich didn’t project to be available until he sat out the playoffs, and Sam Bennett further upped his value with a Conn Smythe-winning performance. Samoskevich is a shifty and creative type who needs some work on the defensive side of the game, and at 22 years old, still needs to get a little stronger. However, he could be an explosive winger who shows off slick hands and quick skates. Since this was his first NHL season, he’s got plenty more learning and growing to do, but by the end of this season, he would have been a middle-six winger for most teams.

He’s a prime offer sheet candidate, especially if the Penguins trade one of their top-line wingers.

With Guerin publicly laying down a hard line Thursday, Rossi’s future in Minnesota is almost over. The player could acquiesce to the club’s valuation or push for more ice time and money elsewhere. If he does, the ball will be in Guerin’s court to facilitate a trade, or risk losing Rossi to an offer sheet.

One bit of note, Rossi is projected to earn money right around the line of demarcation between an offering team’s second-round pick and that offering team needing to sacrifice a first and third-round pick. If Rossi demands more than $4.6 million, a trade is the only option for the Penguins, as giving up their 2026 first-round pick would be an immediate deal breaker.

The Vancouver Canucks are said to be interested in Rossi, but reports on Thursday indicate dthat Guerin rejected Vancouver’s offer of a player and the 15th overall pick in next week’s draft. Neither Vancouver nor Minnesota beat reporters have been able to uncover the identity of the offered player, but it speaks to the high trade cost.

Rossi won’t come cheap. Perhaps if the Penguins get the New York Rangers’ 12th overall pick, that will be a little sweater for Minnesota, but it will apparently cost a second asset, too.

Also on Thursday, Dallas basically dumped 30-year-old winger Mason Marchment and his $4.5 million salary on the Seattle Kraken, getting only a third and fourth rounder in return. Marchment is 6-foot-5, tough to play against, and had 27 goals this season, but Dallas had less than $500,000 in cap space after re-signing Matt Duchene.

Dallas has six more unrestricted free agents and two RFAs, including Bourque. AFP Analytics projects Bourque’s next contract to be one or two years at $1.9 million. So, he’s affordable, and Dallas is in a salary cap jam.

A trade with Dallas might work somewhat backward than other deals, as Dallas’s big issue is shedding cap space and Bourque clearly won’t take up much. No, the Penguins could help Dallas by taking on unwanted salary, such as defenseman Matt Dumba, who has one more year at $3.75 million remaining.

Dumba would make the logjam on the right side of the Penguins’ defense a little worse, but he was once a sought-after defenseman with offensive skills and speed. However, it hasn’t worked in Dallas, and the situation has worsened. Perhaps the Penguins would suffer through a temporary logjam to get a good look at Bourque.