Kyle Dubas had a lot of interesting comments in the first edition of his team-produced ‘GM Show’ with Josh Getzoff.
Some notable comments on young players and what Dubas saw out of them in camp, starting with goalie Sergei Murashov.
And if you look historically, you look throughout the league, the guys who comprise the top goaltenders every year, whether it’s your Hellebuycks, Vasilevskiys, Shesterkins, Oettingers, so on and so forth – they have a very long stretch of dominant play at the American League level. So, the confluence of all of that, Silovs and Jarry performing well, Sergei really having an excellent camp all the way through, but then Joel being hurt really clears the path for him to own the net down there and provide him that opportunity, not unlike what Matt Murray or Tristan Jarry had here in Pittsburgh in the past, where they strung together a long stretch of dominant play down there and then forced their way up.
Murashov being 21 and only having 16 AHL regular season games, it makes a lot of sense to give him more developmental time. Dubas also cited Arturs Silovs and Tristan Jarry performing well in preseason to give the team confidence it was the best decision in the big picture for the whole organization.
Tristan Broz had his great moments in camp, here’s what Dubas thought about him.
going into camp, starting in Buffalo, we wanted to put him in a good position… we felt he had earned that last year. We used him as the placeholder in the first two exhibition games with the wingers that had been practicing with Sid and Gino to see how he would do going into Montreal, into Columbus, playing against their top lines on the road. Felt he played well. Then felt he had a bit of a drop off in the middle of camp, and then came on strong at the end. We feel he’s knocking right at the door. We also feel like by going to Wilkes with the situation at center there, him and Joona Koppanen, they are going to have to carry the mail. He’ll play a huge role in leading that group down there. And we feel like, could he have been here? Sure. But do we want him to really take the ball and run with it down there? Similar to what I said about Sergei Murashov, we do. But for us, the challenge to Tristan was, how fast can you force our hand and push us, because we want young players like him to come in here and earn those spots. But a dominant stretch down there – and I don’t look at dominance for him as how many points do you have – it’s, what’s the impact he can make at both ends of the rink?
Having a perceived “drop” in the middle of camp likely doomed Broz’s chances to stick in the NHL. Dubas makes it clear that he wants the young players to push his hand and force them to keep them, but it’s also important to remember those players have to hold up their end of the bargain with consistency and that can be a tough task. Ben Kindel didn’t show any drop off, he had a continued ascent all preseason, Broz did not in the eyes of the Pens’ decision makers. It’s a long season and a lot can still develop but now the onus is back to Broz to be great at the AHL level and await the next steps.
Dubas had a very similar outlook to Avery Hayes as he did with Broz.
And Avery Hayes, I think, more pronounced than Tristan Broz. I thought, you know, Avery was excellent in Buffalo at the Prospects Challenge. He had a strong start early, and then right around the middle of the camp here, both in practice and the games, just thought his effectiveness dropped. Then at the end, he pushed his way back again and finished very strong. He’s someone that he’s ultra-competitive. He’s had to earn his way to everything…
…Just someone that we feel embodies everything that we want to be about on the developmental side, someone that shows when you buy into the programming, what you can make of it. And he just continues to improve. And you want to see guys like that have success, who are that competitive. And he’s not the biggest guy in the world, but he goes to the middle of the ice and will play in contact. He’s another guy similar to the two we’ve already talked about, like, they’re there. They’re banging on the door. Can they go down, play huge minutes and continue to exert themselves, and much in the way that Ville [Koivunen] did throughout the year last year, but particularly at the end, and Rutger [McGroarty] the same way, and earn their way up. So, I know it would have been a great story for all of them to be on the team, but we have to make the decision we think is best for their long-range development, to get them to be the best players they can be at the NHL level at the very end. And that’s what we did.
Koivunen and McGroarty were specifically mentioned but didn’t come back to the NHL until late-March. That might indicate a longer road for Hayes this season, but then again no one can tell what the future will hold in terms of injury, trade or team needs.
Dubas indicated that while he thought Owen Pickering had his strongest training camp in three years this year, Wilkes-Barre would be the place for his development.
He continues to make major strides, and excited to see him in Wilkes and in a massive role there, and hopefully make our decision making much harder by forcing his way up here. We don’t want any of those guys to stay down there longer than they need to be. We want them to force our hand, and then we can have the next group come in behind them and start anew.
Dubas seems more open than might be expected to play Kindel and/or Harrison Brunicke more than 10+ games this season, which would trigger their NHL contracts to start tolling.
I think we will re-evaluate it at different intervals, right? And I think that the nine-game situation gets a lot of play because you burn a year off the entry level. And so, that’ll be one checkpoint you got. There’s a bunch of them. There’s the nine-game checkpoint. There’s the there’s the World Juniors. Are they going to go, are they going to not play for Canada, are they on the Canadian team or not? And if so, will we release them to go? Then there’s the 40-game checkpoint for season towards unrestricted free agency. There’s return dates for major Junior. So, with both of them, I think management and the coaching staff, we’re committed to continuing to give them opportunity in practice. Dan will determine whether that is into games. And also know that if they’re not going to be here, they’re going to be back in Kamloops and Calgary, respectively, for Harrison and Ben. But we will not be reactive after one practice or one game. We’ll continue to give them opportunity and see how they perform.
The opportunity is there, and so far it’s been so good with the teenagers earning spots in the game lineup.
On the flip side, the young players have pushed older players like Danton Heinen and Ryan Graves to the minor leagues. Dubas talked about the tough decision to jettison veterans while focusing on the positive side that the players still have the opportunity to straighten out their games and potentially be a part of the NHL team down the road.
You’re trying to pull every lever you can to get the most out of the team in the short and long run, and that is essentially getting the most out of every player in the short and long run. And for both Danton and Ryan, it was to attempt to put them in a spot now in Wilkes-Barre – can they go down there and work with our developmental staff, just because they’re both 30 years old, we’re going to put as much into them as we put into everybody, and they all get out of it what they put in in return. The door is not closed on anybody forever. If you go down and take to the developmental programming on and off the ice in both their cases, we’ll obviously be counting on them to provide leadership, but also to produce in their respective positions. Obviously, very different players. So, Danton, we’ll be expecting on him to produce and lead offensively, Ryan on the defensive side. We’ll be watching every practice and every game and trying to get them back to the potential I think everyone knows that they have, regardless of how it may have gone.
That’s all a team can do, and as it played out with Tristan Jarry last season — you never know when a veteran might be back or get the next chance in the NHL.
