Yohe: With Penguins' Rutger McGroarty trade, Kyle Dubas starts to hit his stride

Evaluating trades is an inexact science, and when the deal includes two significant prospects, it could take years to conclude which team wins.

My initial feeling on this one is that Kyle Dubas may have just hit a much-needed home run.

Dubas’ first 15 months as Penguins president of hockey operations and general manager haven’t been bad by any stretch, but there has been a feeling that Dubas has had trouble finding his footing. He has the challenge of navigating the delicate balance between keeping Sidney Crosby and the Penguins competitive while rebuilding on the side. In one shocking move on Thursday, Dubas made progress on both fronts by trading prospect Brayden Yager for Winnipeg Jets prospect Rutger McGroarty in a one-for-one swap.

Losing Yager stings. He’s a legitimately good prospect who figures to become a solid forward at the NHL level. I don’t doubt Dubas tried to pry McGroarty from Winnipeg with a plethora of other offers. It ultimately took losing Yager for Dubas to get his guy.

Considering how many boxes McGroarty checks, it’s easy to understand this move.

Let’s name the reasons:

• McGroarty, by many accounts, is NHL-ready even though he’s only 20. The feeling within the Penguins organization is that McGroarty likely will start this season in Pittsburgh.

Yager was at least one year away from playing in the NHL. The Penguins not only want to get younger at the NHL level, but they want to do so as soon as possible.

McGroarty’s cap hit for the next three years will be $950,000. The Penguins need good, young players who will be cheap for a while.

While McGroarty figures to be a good player for a very long time, the immediate jolt he could give the Penguins is significant.

• The Penguins were painfully thin at wing, especially on the left side, before this move. Though McGroarty — who is left-handed — plays a considerable amount of the time on the right wing, he is equally effective on the left. After Michael Bunting and Drew O’Connor, who is a natural center, the Penguins have precious little depth on the left side. They also weren’t sure if Yager was going to stay at center or if he’d have to move to the right side in the NHL.

There is no such uncertainty with McGroarty. He appears to be a plug-and-play guy at a position of need.

• Who is the Penguins’ next captain? Crosby figures to stick around a while longer, but he won’t be around forever. Nor will Evgeni Malkin or Kris Letang. Maybe Bryan Rust or Marcus Pettersson? They certainly possess captain traits, but frankly, there’s no guarantee either will be in Pittsburgh by the time Crosby is done.

McGroarty is only 20, so I’ll hardly saddle him with unreasonable expectations. However, he was the captain of the Team USA squad that won world juniors last winter. When you talk with people who have been around him, you immediately hear about the intangibles. People gravitate to him. He’s a natural leader. 

Leadership is an overused term in hockey, but I’d rather have someone with leadership intangibles than someone who doesn’t. Scouts and observers rave about this kid, his warrior mentality toward winning and his likability.

• Yager is a wonderful kid and known for his gentlemanly conduct on the ice. He twice has won the Brad Hornung Trophy as the Western Hockey League’s most sportsmanlike player. This is essentially the Lady Byng Trophy.

I’m hardly going to be critical of a gentlemanly hockey player. But can we agree that the Penguins have entirely too many gentlemen on the ice these days? They’re among the easiest teams in the NHL to play against. Maybe calling them soft is unfair, but they aren’t tough. They aren’t rugged. Team toughness is one of the elements they have never replaced from the 2016 and 2017 glory years. I’m not talking about fighting. I’m talking toughness. Finishing hits. Taking hits to make plays. Abrasiveness. The willingness to block shots. I’m talking about Patric Hornqvist, Matt Cullen, Nick Bonino, Ian Cole, Ron Hainsey. Guys like that. They’ve never been replaced.

McGroarty, to the best of my knowledge, has never won any awards for gentlemanly conduct on the ice. He’s got a mean streak. He’s tough as nails. He lives in front of the net and scores most of his goals there.

Stylistically speaking, this is exactly what the Penguins need.

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• Speaking of net-front play, did you watch the Penguins power play last season?

It had many, many problems, among them a lack of net-front play. That’s been a major issue since Hornqvist was traded four years ago.

Bunting could potentially do it but isn’t very big. Crosby is great in front of the net but you don’t want him taking that kind of a beating. Maybe O’Connor is a possibility there, sure.

But McGroarty suddenly becomes a long-term and potentially short-term answer. He does much of his best work in front of the net.

• And speaking of Crosby, you may have heard that he hasn’t signed a new deal yet. I don’t know that he hasn’t signed because of any displeasure with the roster. I haven’t heard that. Still, one way or another, I would assume McGroarty will impress the captain.

Assuming McGroarty will step into the lineup immediately and play alongside Crosby might not be fair. He’s only 20, after all. Crosby can be picky when it comes to linemates, and while McGroarty has all of the physical attributes to be a very good NHL player, he doesn’t have blazing speed, which Crosby loves in linemates.

Still, I fully expect him to receive a look on Crosby’s wing. And even if McGroarty plays a lesser role than that this season, that’s OK.

This is outstanding work from Dubas even if some may be disappointed to lose Yager. Here’s the thing: Much of Dubas’ work so far in Pittsburgh has been directed in the way of quantity. He’s multiplied draft picks. In the Jake Guentzel trade, he didn’t acquire any blue-chip prospects, but rather three above-average ones.

This move was all about quality. He turned a really, really good prospect into an even better one — one who fits the Penguins’ needs better.

That’s good managing.

Last week, he took advantage of two vulnerable teams — the St. Louis Blues needed draft picks immediately because they extended two offer sheets, and the Nashville Predators were in salary cap hell — and enhanced the Penguins’ draft-pick collection in both deals, along with taking on a low-risk, talented player in Cody Glass.

These are smart moves for the present and the future.

Maybe Dubas is starting to hit his stride.

(Photo: Bjorn Larsson Rosvall / Getty Images)