When the Penguins named Kyle Dubas president of hockey operations over the summer, he said that he believed the window for this team to win a Stanley Cup was still open, but he had some work to do to make that possible.
"I do think that we need to build up the depth of the group and supplement the greatness that (the core) brings each day," Dubas said in his introductory press conference in June. "I think some of those pieces are already here. But in the next several weeks, we'll get to work on on more of that."
He certainly did some work.
The Penguins overhauled their defense, letting Brian Dumoulin walk and trading Jeff Petry and Jan Rutta to sign Ryan Graves and acquire the defensing Norris Trophy-winning defenseman in Erik Karlsson. In the top six, Reilly Smith was brought in to play on the left wing of the second line and Jason Zucker was not re-signed. Casey DeSmith was shipped out, and Alex Nedeljkovic was brought in to serve as backup goaltender. The biggest changes happened in the bottom six, with the only familiar faces being Jeff Carter and Drew O'Connor. The bottom six saw the biggest changes, with Mikael Granlund getting traded and Josh Archibald, Nick Bonino, Ryan Poehling being let go in free agency. New signings included Lars Eller, Matt Nieto and Noel Acciari, and Jansen Harkins was added via a waiver claim during camp.
The depth beyond that was increased exponentially from what the Penguins had in years past. Acquisitions included forwards Rem Pitlick, Radim Zohorna, Joona Koppanen, Vinnie Hinostroza, Andreas Johnsson and Marc Johnstone, defensemen Ryan Shea, Will Butcher and John Ludvig (the latter claimed off of waivers from Florida only Monday) and goaltender Magnus Hellberg. Their roles are two-fold: To serve as call ups in the event of injuries at the NHL level, and to serve as competition for the guys who are higher up in the depth chart. The depth pushes those players to be better, because there will always be someone fighting to take their spot.
As season-opening rosters were submitted on Monday ahead of Tuesday's opener against the Blackhawks, Dubas said that he was "very happy with the depth that we have, especially up front."
"It gives us a lot of options as the year goes on," Dubas said. "We're expecting our guys that have already gone down to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to continue to push and keep the pressure on. And I think that the players who are here know the level of competition, and that will help us as a team throughout the year, and continue to foster that type of competition and push everyone to be at their absolute best."
As long as Jake Guentzel gets the go-ahead to play after being designated a "game-time decision," the line combinations used in practice Monday suggest that the Penguins' opening-night lineup could look like this:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Reilly Smith - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Drew O'Connor - Lars Eller - Jansen Harkins
Matt Nieto - Noel Acciari - Jeff Carter
Ryan Graves - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Erik Karlsson
P.O Joseph - Chad Ruhwedel
... in addition to a top power play of Karlsson, Guentzel, Crosby, Malkin and Rakell, and a second power play of Letang, Smith, Harkins, Carter and Rust.
The centerpiece of the offseason moves is obviously Karlsson, who looks to start the season quarterbacking that top power play and playing what could be top-pairing minutes, despite being listed on paper as the second pairing.
The Penguins' power play (albeit minus Guentzel) got off to a slow start in their first game together, going 0 for 6 in the game in Halifax. They started to click in their second game as a unit, and went 2 for 3 in the Penguins' preseason finale in Buffalo.
"We all know that special teams are hugely important, but I don't put a whole lot of stock into the preseason portions of it," Dubas said of his initial impressions of that unit with Karlsson. "I think we'll get into the year, Todd (Reirden) is doing a great job being prepared on that front. I don't have a whole lot of question personally as to how Erik's going to fit on the power play with the group. I think Erik is the type of player instinctually that's going to find a way to make it fit and work. Not everyone is going to have to adjust around him, he'll find a way to get the most out of others as he facilitates."
Off the ice, Dubas said that he's been "extraordinarily impressed" with Karlsson's energy, professionalism, work ethic and conditioning, to a degree that Dubas didn't anticipate when he traded for him.
What might matter just as much is the performance of the bottom six as a whole. The bottom six -- especially the third line -- was a major weak spot for most of last season. There were stretches when the Penguins weren't getting much of anything out of the third line -- no offensive production, and not strong defensively enough to be anything close to a shutdown line.
Dubas said that he's not sure if you can ever be "fully satisfied" with an aspect of a team, and that you're always looking to improve "without tinkering for the sake of tinkering." But considering where he started and where he hoped to be by the end of camp, he's happy with the way the bottom six has shaped up.
Much of that will depend on the year Carter has in what looks to be a diminished role from last season, moving from third-line center to fourth-line right wing. Dubas said that he thinks Carter has had a good camp and preseason, and he thinks that "the (external) doubt that may be there will probably fuel (Carter) to show that he's still capable of being a strong and contributing member of a contending team."
But if Carter or anyone in the bottom six struggles ... well, that's why the Penguins acquired all those depth pieces.
"That's why we're trying to always have that depth," Dubas said. "But we tried to build out the team deep enough so we didn't have to rely on every single person to be firing on all cylinders at all times, because it's just not going to happen during the course of a year. We've tried to build out the team so it's deep enough, so we can slot people a little bit lower and then try to get the most out of them."
Dubas named Zohorna, Hinostroza, Johnsson, Valtteri Puustinen, Sam Poulin and Alex Nylander in particular as forward who could push for spots. With Poulin, Dubas said that he was impressed with his camp but thought it would be better-suited for Poulin to start in Wilkes-Barre and be able to play big minutes and play center, especially after missing much of last season, rather than stick around at the NHL level as the 12th or 13th forward and hardly play. Dubas said that he can see Poulin pushing for a spot during the year and "spend significant time in the NHL" over the course of the season. When it comes to Nylander, Dubas mentioned him having an "outstanding" start to the preseason but then "dipped a little bit" in subsequent games and practices. If Nylander can work on executing on a more consistent basis, then Dubas said he'd "be shocked if by the end of the year he hasn't established himself as a full-time NHL guy."
What Dubas didn't do over the summer is go out and target a dedicated "enforcer" type. That doesn't mean he doesn't see the need for physicality and toughness -- he specifically mentioned not liking that Harkins was being targeted by Red Wings players in the penultimate preseason game, and the rest of the players just tried to play through it instead of doing something about it. What Dubas thinks this team is capable of having is team toughness, and he said that Crosby's preseason fight against Peyton Krebs in Buffalo is an example of that.
"I never like to see Sid fighting," Dubas said. "But I loved the moment for the team."
Dubas said that the fight "set the tone" for the team about how to handle those situations.
"I've always observed the Penguins from the outside," Dubas said. "So whenever there's something that happens in a game, they attack it as a group. It's team toughness, there's not an enforcer, per se. But you know you're not going to get away with anything against them, even if the team is a little bit bigger, and a little bit more physical, that they're going to stand up for themselves. I think Sid embodies that most, unsurprisingly."
Dubas said that as training camp officially comes to a close, there is a "positive and optimistic feeling" around the team as it prepares for the season to start. Then, the real work begins.
"Now, I think it's up to us as a group and up to the team to turn that optimism into an earned confidence," Dubas said. "Last year, the group here found out full well how important every single point is. So starting tomorrow night, we have a chance to start to try to put those (points) on the board and get rolling."
