When Kyle Dubas took over the job of the Penguins' president of hockey operations last summer, he described his task ahead as a "two-pronged effort."
"In the short run, it's continuing to make decisions that are going to allow the team to be competitive, while the core group of players that have led the team through championships in the past continue to perform at the levels that they have for as long as they can and make decisions that will support them in lineup every night," he said in his introductory press conference. "That will allow the team to contend with each season while those players are with us. At the same time, the work will also begin at delivering a long-term hockey organization that can be the class of the NHL."
In his first summer on the job ... Dubas didn't make a ton of progress in either direction. He managed to unload tough contracts like Mikael Granlund and Jeff Petry, managing to shed cap space while acquiring Erik Karlsson in the process. Beyond that, the moves were largely underwhelming. Ryan Graves was the big splash in free agency after he was signed to a six-year deal, and he had a challenging first season in Pittsburgh. Aside from two wins in Alex Nedeljkovic and Lars Eller, the rest of the free agent signings were bottom-six forwards who couldn't stay healthy enough to make a real impact, or borderline players who ended up in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for the most part.
They didn't get any better, and they didn't make any progress in restocking the prospect pool.
But from last season's trade deadline to now, that "two-pronged effort" Dubas spoke of has been in full swing. In the last six months the moves the Penguins have made have set them up to be competitive this season, while adding younger players and prospects that can go a long way toward long-term success in the future.
Laying it all out in one place really emphasizes that progress. Here's a recap of who is out and who is in from trades alone over the last six months:
OUT
• Jake Guentzel
• Ty Smith
• Reilly Smith
• Chad Ruhwedel
• Brayden Yager
• Lukas Svejkovsky
• Jordan Frasca
• 2026 fifth-round pick
IN:
• Michael Bunting
• Kevin Hayes
• Cody Glass
• Rutger McGroarty
• Vasily Ponomarev
• Ville Koivunen
• Cruz Lucius
• Bennett MacArthur
• 2024 second-round pick (Harrison Brunicke)
• 2025 third-round pick
• 2025 third-round pick
• 2025 fifth-round pick
• 2026 second-round pick
• 2026 sixth-round pick
• 2027 second-round pick
• 2027 fourth-round pick
I mean ... is that not crazy?
Yeah, it would have been nice for the Penguins to keep Guentzel. But after seeing the deal he ended up signing in Tampa, he was always hitting free agency, and the Penguins got a haul of Bunting and four prospects who now rank in their own top-10 for letting the Hurricanes rent Guentzel for a few months. Other than that ... what did they really give up? Getting out from under Reilly Smith's contract was a win. Ty Smith wasn't going to make an impact here. Ruhwedel was fine in his role, but moving him out clears room for Jack St. Ivany to push for that spot on the right side. Svejkovsky and Frasca were ECHL prospects. Yager was their top prospect, but he still has a year left in the WHL and likely some time in the AHL after that before he'll be competing for an NHL job. McGroarty is their new top prospect -- maybe even better than Yager, but that's what happens when a kid like McGroarty doesn't want to sign with the Jets and takes away all their leverage -- and he's way closer to competing for an NHL job. Even if he starts the year in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, he'll likely see NHL time this season. And on top of that, they have seven more picks in future drafts to gradually build up the prospect pool moving forward.
I don't know if there's a single move to knock here.
Looking at who is out and in as far as free agency goes, there's a lot to like too.
OUT
• Jeff Carter
• Jansen Harkins
• P.O Joseph
• Radim Zohorna
IN
• Matt Grzelcyk
• Blake Lizotte
• Anthony Beauvillier
• Sebastian Aho
... plus a handful of other smaller losses/signings of players who will likely see more of Wilkes-Barre than Pittsburgh.
Again, a lot to like here and not much to knock. Keeping a young guy like Joseph would have been nice, and the Penguins did try to do that, but his arbitration eligibility made qualifying him risky and they couldn't wait around for him once free agency opened. Grzelcyk isn't younger, but he's an upgrade on the left side and Aho could be a fine bottom-pairing or extra defenseman. Then replacing Carter, Harkins and Zohorna with Lizotte and Beauvillier? Even if that's all the Penguins did this summer it'd be a decent offseason. Two guys who could really bolster the bottom-six -- and in Beauvillier's case, move up in the lineup if needed.
It wouldn't be surprising to see more moves made over the next few weeks, either. The Penguins just have too many forwards.
Say the top six is some combination of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell, Michael Bunting and Drew O'Connor. That leaves a lot of players competing for the remaining six (or seven, with an extra) forward spots: Kevin Hayes, Cody Glass, Lars Eller, Noel Acciari, Blake Lizotte, Anthony Beauvillier, Matt Nieto, Rutger McGroarty, Valtteri Puustinen, Sam Poulin, Jesse Puljujarvi, Vasily Ponomarev, Emil Bemstrom and Jonathan Gruden. That's 14 forwards for those remaining spots, with some obviously more likely to make it than others.
Some -- like maybe Ponomarev, Poulin, Gruden, Bemstrom, McGroarty could end up in Wilkes-Barre to start, though Poulin, Gruden and Bemstrom would require waivers. But they can't stick everyone else in Wilkes-Barre, even if they did clear waivers. For one, it wouldn't do much cap-wise for some of those options -- sending a player on a one-way down to the minors only clears the first $1 million or so in cap space. There's also the AHL's development rule, which significantly restricts the number of veterans who can be in an AHL lineup at one time. There's no limitations on how many veterans can be on the actual AHL roster, but only six are allowed in a lineup at one time, which forces an awkward headache of a rotation of scratches for teams over the limit. And even if that rule didn't exist, do you really want someone like Nieto down in the AHL taking even a minute of playing time away from prospects like Koivunen or Tristan Broz? No thanks.
Maybe the Penguins could make another move or two like the Reilly Smith deal before the season begins. If another team sees an opening on their roster for someone like Acciari and the Penguins don't, then maybe they could flip the player for a mid- or low-draft pick or two. The benefit would be two-pronged: Clearing a roster spot for a younger player like McGroarty or Ponomarev or Poulin, and loading up on more draft picks for the future.
The Penguins might not be done yet this summer. But as things stand now, there's a lot to like about what Dubas has done over the last few months.
