PENGUINS

Attention, all Canada-based click-baiters: There'll be no rebuild, no retool, no crumbling of the Core, no casting off Evgeni Malkin and, above all, nothing remotely resembling the closing of the Sidney Crosby era of hockey in Pittsburgh.

Sorry not sorry, as the cool kids say.

Instead, at least to my ears in that room within the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex today, Kyle Dubas came across in his annual season-ending press conference as a man committed to continuing -- not cutting off -- an already smooth process of pointing the Penguins' process toward the future, while simultaneously respecting their recent past ... until there are potential replacements at hand.

Which there aren't. Not yet.

As Dubas himself explained upon declaring of Malkin that "we'd love to have him back" regarding his pending free-agent status, "The season that he’s had, where we’re at, where we’re going ... I don’t look at our younger players and think that they’ve done enough to have a view that he’s blocking anybody out in that regard."

They really haven't. And that proved to be kinda the focus of this event, as I saw it.

Dubas spoke of the chasm between the Penguins and the Hurricanes, the only team that finished above them in the Metro and now the winner of all eight of their Stanley Cup playoff games so far. He also recalled watching parts of the recent Canadiens-Lightning and Avalanche-Wild series and musing to himself, “I think we have a long way to go. I don’t kid myself with that. It’s a big task. We took steps this year, but we have a long way to go to return to being a contender."

They really do.

"And that's a focus for Dan and I," he'd say of himself and Dan Muse. "And in the end, it's on me to continue to make the moves, both with the development model for our younger players to continue to take greater steps than they did this year, but also to continue to make smart acquisitions and utilize our assets and our cap space in the ways that best push the team back to being a contender."

Yep.

"I think, in terms of where we're at right now, we have, obviously, excellent veteran players that set the tone and carry the standard for the group. And this year, we started to see the beginnings of a group of players, one of whom was in his teens, but others in their early 20s or mid 20s, that either are our own prospects or were acquired in trade, that I think we feel can be a part of this as we plan ahead for the long term."

He's referring, of course, to Ben Kindel, 19, and Egor Chinakhov, 25. Both are enormously encouraging, but both also represented pretty much the whole of the youth movement at the Pittsburgh level.

"We've got the veterans and the very young players, and now it's just that bridge across the middle," Dubas proceeded. "What we really lack are those players in their mid-20s or later-20s who are true difference makers."

Couldn't agree more. With all of this, actually.

So, what's next?

Well, how about beginning to build that bridge?

The first three trusses should be a breeze:

• Harrison Brunicke's having a terrific Calder Cup playoff for the AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre and, should he keep progressing, he's something of a no-brainer to supplement Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang on the right side for the parent roster this fall. And, at the risk of sounding disrespectful, I'd go so far as to posit he could supplant Letang in some ways by taking on significant ice time -- he's used on both special teams currently -- and allowing Muse and Todd Nelson to more smartly manage Letang's minutes at age 39.

• Sergei Murashov hasn't been anointed anyone's franchise goaltender just yet, but Dubas couldn't have made clearer in this setting that one of Murashov or Joel Blomqvist will partner with Arturs Silovs this fall, leaving Stuart Skinner to walk through free agency. But with Murashov logging all five of the AHL Penguins' playoff games to date, including a 24-save shutout of Springfield later this same day in taking Game 1 of the Atlantic Division final, 2-0, he's now got a .947 save percentage and ... yeah, he's the one.

• Rutger McGroarty ... man, I don't have much to say on this front other than that he's got to stay on the ice. He's got to stay healthy, and that means from the opening day of camp onward. If/when that occurs, he'll be plug-and-play on a third or even a second line. He's got the savvy, the skill and the fire, and that on top of a winning vibe:

But I've also got a couple that might not be so breezy and, as such, from my perspective, they'll be as pivotal as any players at any level of the organization heading into 2026-27.

• Ville Koivunen, the purported prize of the Jake Guentzel trade, didn't show up for camp in optimal NHL shape, and it'd show in a hurry. He looked lost, clumsy and even fragile, routinely being bowled off his skates. He still had the skill to stand out -- no, star -- in the AHL, but that's irrelevant when getting rag-dolled in the NHL. He'll turn 23 next month.

• Owen Pickering, first-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, should've been a cinch to crack a lackluster left defense depth chart, but he'd instead spend all but four games in Wilkes-Barre. He's 6-5, 206, he's got wheels to support the frame, but he never came close to contributing the physical facet management had hoped to see. Nor the general defensive awareness or positioning. He'll turn 23 in January.

I asked Dubas about both young men:

"Ville, to me, had a great opportunity at the beginning of the year, and I think he'd be the first to say he didn't make the most of it. And so he went down to the minors, found himself, came back up, and in the later part of the year, both here and in the American League, we felt, objectively, his speed improved, his power had improved, his strength had improved, he had improved. He was creating more. And then, it just got into one of those funks where then it's not falling for him."

Thirty-nine games, two goals, seven assists in the NHL.

"I would agree with you at the beginning of the year in terms of strength and power," Dubas would add of my remark about Koivunen spending so much time prone. "But I thought he got a lot better at that as it went on. And then, I really thought in the first-round series just now against Hershey, they were obviously keying on him, trying to get after him, be physical against him. And especially in the clinching game, Game 4, he was at his best. So it's a player that we think has a has a very bright future, and for us, like behind the scenes, really responded well during the year to being challenged, to push and become more at his best. And he is a deeply competitive player."

Here's hoping.

Of Pickering, Dubas would reply that it's been a challenge to grow into the frame, not uncommon for younger, taller athletes in any sport, saying, "Coordination, balance ... it takes some time for that to come together. But we've been very happy with the way Owen has come on here in the second half of the year. I don't think you'd look at it and say it was anything truly dynamic, but it was just steady, solid, reliable hockey, and that's what we're looking for him to develop into."

Of both, Dubas would add, "You know, you'd want everyone to jump in like Ben did this year. It just doesn't always go that way. But both have made great progress, and both continue to have a great opportunity."

If both do, and the other three I mentioned do, that'd make for quite the infusion of youth unto itself in the form of five fresh faces. Next, promote Kindel into Tommy Novak's place centering the second line. Next, get Chinakhov time on the top power play.

From there, even without dipping too deeply into Dubas' NHL-high cap space, that keeps the overall mechanism moving forward.

But hey, with $42 million in cap space and endless extra draft picks in hand, who's to rule out some grand acceleration?

"We've got great depth and guys who'll fill in the roster and be very good players for us," Dubas would say. "And we're going to have a better view once this run is done for Wilkes Barre, in terms of what they can do at this time of the year. But I think if we're going to take a really big step next year, a sustainable one, it's going to be by using the combination of not only this cap space we have, but also the assets that we have, draft picks, prospects, etc., to go and acquire somebody. Is that going to be possible? We're sure gonna find out."

Anyone still have Columbus' number?