Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas has been letting his assistants Jason Spezza and Amanda Kessel do most of the talking this off-season up until Dubas’ traditional start of the season press conference today.
Here are some of the takeaways:
As far as injuries go:
-Blake Lizotte has a big practice tomorrow to determine his
status for opening night Wednesday depending on how it goes for him on Tuesday. To editorialize, it sounds like the door is open for Lizotte to play as long as everything goes well but they’ll have to see how he gets through tomorrow’s work to know for sure. -Bryan Rust is going on the IR with a week-to-week upper body injury. -Justin Brazeau, already on the IR, remains week-to-week with his injury. -Ryan Graves is on IR ‘indefinitely’, had a summer surgery to clean up one knee that needs more work again on that leg. Once that is completed he will have to have medical attention on his other knee. Another editorial note: doesn’t sound like Graves will be back in the equation any time soon and this situation will keep him on the shelf (and out of the AHL) for potentially all season as all sides slow play the recovery and use the time to their benefit. -The funeral for Andrei Kuzmenko’s father was today in Russia, an update on his status is still to come with the team completely fine to give him the time and space he needs personally with his family at this time. Doesn’t sound like Kuzmenko will be back in time for the start of the season and rightfully/understandably in this case the Penguins aren’t worried about hockey right now.
Dubas cited the team’s status within the division as their key for the season since the top-three teams are guaranteed a playoff spot. Says the team’s ‘sole focus’ is attempting to bridge the 15-point gap in the standings from last season with Carolina while seeing that the team needs to separate from the other teams in the division that should be tightly competitive again this season that lacks pure championship contenders (besides Carolina) but is deep with good teams.
He called this season ‘pivotal’ for this season, looking to continue to add more players to avoid being in the ‘middle ground’ as the team looks to get back into contention. Knows that it will take bold decisions and tough calls to elevate. The burden falls on the organization to keep adding quality young players to reduce the load on the star players that are in their late 30’s even though their might not be ‘big, flashy moves’ and require more slow build for the future path.
On Sidney Crosby’s contract situation, Dubas said the process becomes a lot less about deadlines and more about comfortability for both sides on how the future is looking. Called it an ‘open back-and-forth’ with agent Pat Brisson and the team is comfortable with where things stand with Crosby and the future.
Dubas brought up, ‘direct, open and great’ communication with Erik Karlsson with it still waiting to be seen if both sides want to ‘jump’ and make a future commitment to extend.
Dubas flatly shut down any talk about Evgeni Malkin and the potential future beyond 2026-27, clearly not wanting any part of a repeat of last season where Malkin’s expiring contract and status was a regular topic of conversation (and obviously annoyance to Dubas).
On the subject of the goaltending battle, Dubas admitted the 2026 goalie competition was pretty much sorted out in last season’s AHL playoffs when Sergei Murashov performed spectacularly to show he was firmly at the head of the line. Dubas said he was up front with Joel Blomqvist about the plan to send him to the AHL this year and the decision for how they would structure playing time in the preseason.
Dubas pointed out that progress wouldn’t be ‘linear’ for the young players not being all on the same timeline to make their way up to the NHL. Says he thinks Rutger McGroarty understands he’s going to have to start at the bottom of the lineup, continue to improve his skating and PK ability and work his way up. Called Owen Pickering a very different case but needed to continue to push towards the NHL while playing a major role in Wilkes-Barre. Dubas thinks the competition level will drive players into earning it, but doesn’t want to force them into the NHL when it’s early and notes that just because they aren’t on the roster at the start of the season that he’s not too bent out of shape about it, though noting in the third year of their careers it’s time for them to start pushing the issue.
Dubas said that there wasn’t a younger player in the league that becomes available that the Penguins don’t ‘investigate’, noting that sometimes the trade fits don’t match depending on what the other team is looking for compared to what kind of assets the Penguins have available to trade away.
Regarding the coaching staff, Dubas was impressed how Dan Muse and the coaching staff reflected back on the season after the end of the season and was looking immediately for ways to improve the systems and processes for moving forward looking for upgrades. Was very complimentary of how Muse can take a new player and understand their strengths and look to work with them into the Penguins.
Defensively, Dubas wished Ryan Shea will but said the team didn’t want to commit another longer-term contract to a player in his 30’s. They’re excited about the contract, size, right shot and age of Kaeden Korczak coming in. Dubas said the Pens’ staff were kicking themselves for not claiming Declan Carlile last season when he was on waivers and think he has a lot to add for them.
Dubas said again today, as he has before, that he’s looking for a 5-player group on the ice to help the poor defensive metrics to help boost the team with a concept of everyone trying to help that area, not just the defensemen.
For longer range plans, if the team isn’t gaining on Carolina this season then some ‘difficult decisions’ might come into play, development of younger players remains a priority but the team’s goal at the end of the year is to be a team that can contend and he isn’t looking to take a step back or expecting to see the team regress.
