Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas declined to give more specifics as to how long he believes his team’s ongoing rebuild is going to take when speaking Monday about Sidney Crosby’s future with the franchise.
Six days after Crosby’s agent Pat Brisson told The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun his client’s future with the Penguins depended on “how the team is going to do,” Dubas discussed his rebuild plans in a Monday appearance on The Sheet with Jeff Marek.
“Our focus remains on continuing this job that we’ve
signed up for, which is to build the team back into a contender,” Dubas told Marek.
“We don’t put any timelines on that, because we’re trying to do that as urgently as we can. So, we haven’t come out and said it’s an X amount of years plan, because we talked about development and what younger players are capable of, and we’re trying to find every edge we can to try to get back into that mix in our division and then within the league.”
Dubas was then asked if the reports surrounding a potential trade for Crosby were “annoying.”
“I don’t begrudge any of it. I think that it’s a player that people have a deep amount of interest in,” Dubas answered. “I understand that people want to see all great players contend and win every year of their whole life because they’re special. They mean a lot to them.”
Dubas concluded, “People have a narrative that they want to write, and I respect that they all have a job to do. So it doesn’t have any negative impact on me, or on us.”
The interview took place on the same day Crosby was asked about how he felt about teams tanking when speaking to reporters during the Penguins’ annual season ticket delivery promotion.
“It’s professional sports, you play to win,” Crosby said. “That’s how I view it and you’re not gonna convince me otherwise… If you’re one of those people that believe that, then you’re entitled to believe in that, but that’s not why I signed up to play the game and that’s not the game that I know,”
About trade rumors, Crosby said there were “a lot of narratives out there, and I don’t think a lot of those have come from me.”
And Crosby seemed more willing than Dubas to indicate the rumors surrounding his future were annoying.
“This is where I want to be. I love it here and I can’t keep having to answer the same question over again,” Crosby said.
The ramp-up to the 2025-26 season is set to begin Thursday when the Penguins arrive for the first day of training camp at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.
How some of the young players fighting for roster spots this fall perform during camp will shape what rebuild timeline Dubas, Crosby and the rest of the Penguins’ leadership can hope for going forward.
