I saw someone here on Pensburgh (kudos to who it was and apologies for the faulty memory) equate Kyle Dubas’s progressive wheeling and dealing into the ‘one red paperclip’ theory and that stuck. After Dubas got forward Yegor Chinakhov in exchange for a second round pick (that Pittsburgh received as part of the bounty from St. Louis for taking on Kevin Hayes and his contract) and a third round pick (that Pittsburgh received from trading Dubas free agent signing Lars Eller), it’s too good not to share
as becoming clear for a nice parallel of what is happening in the hockey ops department in Pittsburgh. The original theory, summarized from Wikipedia:
One red paperclip is a website created by Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald, who traded his way from a single red paperclip to a house in a series of fourteen online trades over the course of a year
MacDonald made his first trade, a red paper clip for a fish-shaped pen, on July 14, 2005. He reached his goal of trading up to a house with the fourteenth transaction, trading a movie role for a house. This is the list of all transactions MacDonald made:
- On July 14, 2005, he went to Vancouver and traded the paperclip for a fish-shaped pen.
- He then traded the pen the same day for a hand-sculpted doorknob from Seattle, Washington.
- On July 25, 2005, he travelled to Amherst, Massachusetts, with a friend to trade the doorknob for a Coleman camp stove (with fuel).
- On September 24, 2005, he went to California, and traded the camp stove for a Honda generator.
- On November 16, 2005, he travelled to Maspeth, Queens, and traded the generator for an “instant party”: an empty keg, an IOU for filling the keg with the beer of the bearer’s choice, and a neon Budweiser sign. This was his second attempt to make the trade: his first had resulted in the generator being temporarily confiscated by the New York City Fire Department.
- On December 8, 2005, he traded the “instant party” to Quebec comedian and radio personality Michel Barrette for a Ski-Doo snowmobile.
- Within a week of that, he traded the snowmobile for a two-person trip to Yahk, British Columbia, scheduled for February 2006.
- On or about January 7, 2006, he traded the second spot on the Yahk trip for a box truck.
- On or about February 22, 2006, he traded the box truck for a recording contract with Metalworks in Mississauga, Ontario.
- On or about April 11, 2006, he traded the contract to Jody Gnant for a year’s rent in Phoenix, Arizona.
- On or about April 26, 2006, he traded the year’s rent in Phoenix for one afternoon with Alice Cooper.
- On or about May 26, 2006, he traded the afternoon with Cooper for a KISS motorized snow globe.
- On or about June 2, 2006, he traded the snow globe to Corbin Bernsen for a role in the film Donna on Demand.
- On or about July 5, 2006, he traded the movie role for a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan.
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Dubas has been using his cap space to create a stockpile of future assets to build up gradually but surely to create enhanced value. Whether it’s been taking on players like Hayes, Cody Glass, Luke Schenn, Connor Clifton and Matt Dumba or signing free agents like Lars Eller, Alex Nedeljkovic and Anthony Beauvillier only to swap them out shortly down the line for more assets, the stockpiling has been intentional.
Ever so slowly he’s started out with smaller returns and parlayed that up a rung into something more useful. Earlier examples included Dubas using a NYR fourth round pick (that Pittsburgh procured for Chad Ruhwedel on an expiring contract) into adding Philip Tomasino. The Pens used their own fifth round pick to grab Connor Dewar and Conor Timmins only to send Timmins out for a second rounder months later. Now, Dubas and the Pens are attempting to upgrade again by using some of their excess they’ve built up from other deals to bring in a young player in Chinakhov.
Dubas made comments to the end via email:
“We believe Yegor has the potential to become a winger who can play anywhere across the top of the lineup,” Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas said via an e-mail with Pittsburgh- area outlets. “That belief comes from the fact that he showed that ability on a consistent basis early last season over a long stretch of games before his season got off track for a variety of reasons. We must create the right environment, and he needs to put in the work with our staff that will allow him to be at his best very consistently.”
“Anytime a player has public issues with their team, we do a lot of digging to figure out what has truly gone on,” Dubas wrote. “In this case, what was more important to us was that Yegor reported to camp and continued to work hard despite the opportunity not being what he wanted. As for moving forward, we expect him to earn great opportunity and then make the most of it.”
“He’s a young player in his early 20s who has flashed great potential,” Dubas wrote. “So our development team and coaching staff will be tasked with getting his form to that level, Yegor matching the work that our staff will put in to match our belief in him, and everyone working together to stay there for a long time.”
“What we like about Chinakhov is his size, speed, ability to get to the net with the puck, ability to shoot and score from distance, and we feel he adds a lot defensively when tracking back with speed.”
This part of the process is the trickier area of the flipping to successfully land. Chinakhov is a player that needs a fresh start, he also needs to step up and make the most of the opportunity. Each successive move only pays off, of course, if it provides more value than the move that came before it. Now that the Pens have gotten a couple of steps deep into their strategy to accumulate capital and then move it for what they hope will be upgrades will prove to be the tricky part.
The good news is there should be plenty of opportunity. Pittsburgh has 32-year old Rickard Rakell and 33-year old Bryan Rust, but then not much else by way of scoring line wingers within the pro ranks of the organization right now. Justin Brazeau has done exceedingly well, Anthony Mantha is likely a short-term patch that could well be the next in line to get flipped for more assets. Tommy Novak has bounced around the lineup, Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen have been getting up to speed as their careers take the next steps, but the Penguins could certainly benefit from a 24-year old player with pedigree and the raw ability of Chinakhov, should all that come together into the way they are envisioning.
Chinakhov isn’t likely to be the final move in the multi-step efforts either.
“No hesitation (in using a pair of fairly high draft picks to acquire Chinakhov),” Dubas wrote. “We have a lot of draft picks, and we need to use them to procure high-potential young players.”
Dubas ought to have no hesitation to make deals like these where he thinks he can improve the team since they still are sitting on an enviable amount of picks to work with. Pittsburgh started yesterday morning with a league-high 17 draft picks in the first three rounds of the 2026-28 drafts. They made the transaction to get Chinakhov for the two picks and still find themselves with a league-high 15 draft picks in the first three rounds of the 2026-28 drafts. That goes along with having 34 total picks in the next four drafts. By nature of the NHL’s 50-contract maximum, that’s too many picks to make and sign, necessitating Dubas to identify situations like Chinakhov where he looks to add NHL talent for the future. It’s one thing to add extra lottery tickets that could pay off, it’s another thing with timing and player development to be able to bring in an unlimited supply of young players into the organization at the same time.
Dubas and the Pens think they’ve made an upgrade with Chinakhov. Time will tell if the move was prudent and bountiful or won’t pay off as well as they hoped. Until then, Dubas will keep sending out his proverbial paper clips in hopes of eventually landing his team the type of upgrades they will need to become filled with strong NHL players once again. So far they’ve done well on the early steps to accumulate a massive pile to figure out, the trick will come with seeing if they can use it to identify actual NHL difference makers.
