Kyle Dubas does not seem to be in a hurry for an ‘everything-must-go’ sell-off of the roster.
With the Pittsburgh Penguins floating on the Eastern Conference playoff bubble and looking like sellers before the March 7 NHL trade deadline, they have been at the center of trade speculation over the past couple of days.
It mostly started with a seemingly random report from a Montreal-based website that suggested a huge fire sale was on the horizon.
It continued on Tuesday with a segment on TSN’s Insider Trading that suggested the Penguins have very few untouchable players anywhere on the roster beyond legacy players like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
On Wednesday night the man whose opinion matters most — Kyle Dubas — had a chance to respond on his bi-weekly radio show with Penguins play-by-play announcer Josh Getzoff.
He used that opportunity to reject the idea of a pending fire sale, while reiterating his plan to acquire younger NHL players and continue to stockpile future draft capital.
“That’s the goal, and that’s our ambition, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do. We’re not going to stray from that. But to say that it’s a ‘fire sale’ and we’re willing to retain money on very long-term deals? You know, I understand how that stuff starts to get out and take on a life of its own, but it’s not accurate. We’ve had lots of conversations. But are we telling teams that everything must go? No, we’re not.”
You can listen to the entire show and Dubas appearance here.
Honestly, that is pretty close to what Chris Johnston had to say on Tuesday night when talking about the Penguins situation, especially in regards to them looking for younger NHL players and not wanting to retain salary.
Even if the Penguins DID want to retain salary, they only have one salary retention spot open at the trade deadline would have to be extremely selective on who they used it on. If they even wanted to use it.
In putting together the puzzle pieces here it’s really not hard to see what Dubas’ approach to the deadline will be.
He will listen. He will probably be open to offers on pretty much anybody. He is not doing his job if is not open to that given where the Penguins are in the standings and overall as a franchise. If somebody steps forward with an offer you absolutely can not refuse full of young players for somebody like Richard Rakell or Michael Bunting you have to take it. Or at least strongly consider it.
But listening and being open to ideas is not the same as actively and aggressively shopping.
An everything-must-go sell-off is the type of thing you do when you are ready to tank and tear it all down to the foundation for a complete rebuild. As much as some people might want to see that, there really has not been any sign of that happening anytime soon.