Kyle Dubas essentially has unlimited power these days.
As far as people within the Penguins organization are concerned, this is good news. In Dubas, there is trust.
First, consider the muscle Dubas can flex. He’s not just the team’s president of hockey operations, he’s also the general manager, which is unprecedented in Pittsburgh. Then, consider the significant financial investment Fenway Sports Group made in bringing Dubas to the Penguins nearly two years ago. With such money and term comes even more power.
Speaking of FSG, the Penguins’ owners are not overbearing. Far from it. Teddy Werner is around from time to time, sure, but he lives in Wisconsin. I’ll presume that John Henry and Tom Werner are occasionally briefed about the team’s finances, debts, profits, whatever. But the Penguins were an investment to them, and that’s largely how they treat the Penguins, for better or worse. The bills are always paid and things run smoothly enough, but I assure you that the billionaires who hired Dubas did so with every intention of him figuring out this mess.
And make no mistake, the Penguins’ are Dubas’ show. His power in the organization right now is unmatched. Sidney Crosby has an abundance of power because he’s Sidney Crosby, but if he had full control, Jake Guentzel never would have been traded last season. And sure, coach Mike Sullivan has tremendous power because of his credentials and because he is very clearly FSG’s guy. But no NHL coach has that much power.
This is a delicate time in franchise history, as the Penguins are 12 months deep into a rebuild they aren’t really labeling a rebuild. It doesn’t look nor feel like a rebuild because Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang are still employed here, but make no mistake, this is a rebuild.
Dubas is calling every shot, and those underneath him in the organization have complete confidence in him.
I first noticed this in the wake of Dubas’ early big mistakes. He had just signed goaltender Tristan Jarry to an instantly troubling deal. He signed defenseman Ryan Graves to a six-year contract with an annual average value of $4.5 million. He traded for Karlsson. He made other moves that, for the most part, didn’t turn out well. Still, the prevailing thought within the organization was that Dubas would figure it out, even if he made some mistakes along the way.
In the summer of 2023, I was standing beside Sullivan at Kevin Stevens’ golf tournament in Boston.
The longtime Penguins coach couldn’t stop gushing about Dubas. Sullivan noted their daily chats and lauded how intelligent, organized and impressive Dubas was.
About 18 months later, nothing has changed. Sullivan doesn’t want to rebuild because coaches never do, but he trusts what Dubas is doing. When I speak with other people in the organization — executives, players, scouts, coaches, you name it — the same themes persist.
He’s the guy. He’s so smart. He’s going to lead us to great things.
Jim Rutherford, the architect of two championship teams in Pittsburgh, was the first person I heard from when the Penguins hired Dubas.
“They hit a home run,” he said. “They got the right guy. Trust me.”
Much work remains. This is only the beginning, and things might remain rocky for some time. The jury is out on Dubas for a while, objectively speaking. I can tell you, though, that people in the organization have complete faith in him.
• And just like that, we are only 17 days from the NHL trade deadline.
So, what’s the plan?
Only a handful of Penguins are off-limits. In particular, the Penguins won’t be taking any calls on Crosby or Malkin, which is nothing new. Dubas also has no intentions of asking Bryan Rust to waive his no-movement clause that expires on July 1.
The biggest name the Penguins have to offer other teams is Rickard Rakell, but the odds of Dubas trading him don’t seem good. Sure, it’s possible, but the asking price for Rakell will be substantial. Dubas doesn’t feel any pressure to unload him, knowing full well that Rakell’s value could potentially increase starting this summer when the salary cap skyrockets. There will be interest in Rakell. But the price will be huge.
• It appears more likely that the Penguins will make a series of smaller deals to further add to their growing lists of assets.
Matt Grzelcyk is a name that will be bounced around in trade talk for the next couple of weeks. There’s a real chance he will be dealt. As Dubas noted a few weeks ago, defensemen can’t even go on waivers without being claimed left and right around the NHL. Everyone wants defensemen. The demand is massive.
Grzelcyk started slowly with the Penguins, but the longtime member of the Bruins has been quite good in the last two or three months and has shown to be effective running the power play. Because his contract expires this season, he is likely to be moved. Given the pipeline of impressive-looking defensemen in the Penguins’ system — Harrison Brunicke, Emil Pieniniemi and Finn Harding have seen their stock rise dramatically since the Penguins drafted them — and considering the heavy money already invested in 30-something defensemen Karlsson and Letang, it seems unlikely that the Penguins will attempt to re-sign Grzelcyk.
It’s a seller’s market, and the Penguins have already received calls about him.
• There is interest around the league in Anthony Beauvillier, who has enjoyed a nice season with the Penguins. If the price is right, he could be dealt. He has scored 12 goals this season, can really skate and is regarded as a solid two-way forward. Contenders are interested in Beauvillier as a bottom-six, depth forward.
• Speaking of Harding, he had a four-point day for Brampton (OHL) on Monday and continues to play at a particularly high level for a seventh-round pick. The Penguins remain excited about the potential of Brunicke, Pieniniemi and Harding. Brunicke might be the only member of that group to have top-pairing potential, but there is growing confidence that all three will become, at worst, solid NHL players.
• Although he’s never played an NHL game and is 26, which pretty much disqualifies him from being considered a “prospect,” remember the name Mac Hollowell. The Penguins like how he’s played in AHL Wilkes-Barre this season. He’s an undersized, right-handed defenseman who does a nice job of running the power play. Dubas’ connection to him is deep. In one of his last acts before leaving the Soo Greyhounds for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dubas drafted Hollowell while running his hometown OHL team. Four years later, Dubas drafted him again, this time in the fourth round of the NHL Draft for the Maple Leafs. Hollowell was a free agent in July, and Dubas came calling again, signing him into the Penguins organization.
Should the Penguins sustain some blue-line injuries or trade a defenseman or two, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Hollowell get an NHL look.
(Photo: Chase Agnello-Dean / Getty Images)
