Caught Between: Penguins Strategy, Dubas Plan Raising Questions - Pittsburgh Hockey Now

The Pittsburgh Penguins‘ quest for players in their 20s was bolstered by acquiring Nick Robertson on Wednesday morning, hours before the start of the NHL free agent frenzy, but by the end of the afternoon, the Penguins had raised questions about their path to the future. At this juncture, most simply assume a big move is coming. The awkward surplus created over the last few days will act as a rainy day fund, and the team will acquire its next big attraction. They just have to. But what if they don’t? After all, the marquee names are going for the equivalent of three first-round picks and more. That’s a spicy meatball. There were confused looks when the team moved quickly to sign a 35-year-old right-handed defenseman despite already having two who are older and two more viable players fighting for the third spot, including a rookie presumed to be a big part of the future. There were shrugs after signing a 30-year-old winger with a 39-goal season in his first NHL campaign after five years in the KHL, whom four other teams were excited to acquire but quickly passed along to the hockey winds. And there is consternation over the abundance of right-handed defensemen and a dearth of lefties. Indeed, for the first time in a few years, there are questions, if not a real questioning, of the Penguins’ direction. Harkening back to Dubas’s first days on the job in June and July of 2023, he swung for the fences by signing defenseman Ryan Graves to a six-year contract, buckled to market scarcity when he inked Tristan Jarry to a five-year contract, and stalked a trade for Erik Karlsson. Dubas wanted to immediately revitalize the stale Penguins, but by the March 2024 trade deadline, he had bow to defeat and trade away pending free agent winger Jake Guentzel to the Carolina Hurricanes for a packagre that was more volume than quality and has not yet produced anything notable other than the potential of Harrison Brunicke (selected with the second round pick included in the deal), and the yet untapped potential of Ville Koivunen. Perhaps Dubas pushed too hard then, but he course-corrected with a solid run of talent acquisition and draft pick accumulation without denting the core. But this summer has the same pushy feeling as the first. The moves don’t fit with the stated intent to take a sustainable step forward, just as they don’t fit with the current situation of needing to build a solid foundation beyond the hallowed core three players. In fact, the moves counter some of the work Dubas has done to push the organization forward by creating more traffic for young players to fight through. And the moves look like they provide just enough talent to be competitive but not enough talent to be successful–meaning they could have too many meaningless wins. The July 1 moves also compounded the fundamental question about rebuilding and remaining competitive. Dubas hit grand slams by signing Parker Wotherspoon and Anthony Mantha. Specifically, those two were integral to the Penguins’ rise to a playoff team. Dubas traded Wotherspoon for defenseman Kaedan Koczak. In a vacuum, the move afforded the Penguins a younger, sturdy defenseman with upside who is under contract for four more years. However, in the larger context, the move shipped away their top-pairing defenseman without a suitable replacement, and Koczak will be part of the right-side gaggle that will exist for at least one year, likely blocking Harrison Brunicke’s exciting progression. Perhaps equal players in the trade, but far from equal roles. Based on assistant general manager Jason Spezza’s comments Wednesday, it appears that soon-to-be 35-year-old Trevor van Riemsdyk will slot in as the top-pairing counterbalance to Erik Karlsson, though TVR is also right-handed. The righty-righty pairing means his hard work in the defensive zone will be followed by a backhand puck movement or a momentary delay to get the puck on his forehand. Spezza downplayed the difficulty of some defensemen playing on their offside, but an immutable fact is that all coaches and GMs downplay the difficulty when they are forced into that situation. “I think it’s a few days, a few weeks, a few months. I think we’re a long time until the start of the season, but even with the guys we have, we have some versatility of guys that can play both sides,” said Spezza on Wednesday. “Obviously, everybody likes to see lefty-righty setups, and it looks good on paper, but TVR has played on his offside quite a bit. We have other guys. Harrison Bruinick has played on his offside. So, we have guys who can do it. And as I said, it’s (only) July 1, so there is time to move things around, but no, we’re happy with the guys we’ve got, and we think we’ve added quality pieces.” The offseason is early, but the market scarcity also indicates the movement is about done. But that left-right balance. It’s downplayed and no big deal when things are imbalanced, but it quickly becomes a big deal when teams have the chance to fix it. Beginning with the first real move of the offseason–giving Evgeni Malkin a new contract–through Wednesday, the Penguins are becoming a tangled web of serving two divergent goals. Their top six is likely set, which pushes UFA-signee Andrei Kuzmenko to the third line, where trade acquisition Nick Robertson will likely play, too. One knock on Robertson is his defensive shortcomings. A big knock on Kuzmenko is his defensive indifference, if not total absence. So, the Penguins’ third line with Ben Kindel in the middle could be the most dangerous line in hockey … against the Penguins. Kindel fastidiously defends, but it takes five players, not three, to successfully take care of the defensive zone. On the defensive side, with only one NHL regular on the left (though Declan Carlile most likely makes two), the defensive corps has similar problems in creating a balance of players who complement each other. Unquestionably, the Penguins took action. By signing legitimate players, but those who may not be good fits, the Penguins coaches must again figure out how to fit together a puzzle of imperfect pieces, but everyone knows the sequel is never as good as the original. Not only do the Penguins have a chaotic roster situation in which their young players are blocked, and short-term veterans are more than likely suboptimal, but the immediate future of Erik Karlsson is combining with the declining trade value of veteran players to create a singular question. What’s the plan, and how does this roster, as it presently constituted, take the Penguins’ rebuild forward?