Outlining an articulate plan for what he sees the next few days and weeks looking like in Pittsburgh, the new President of Hockey Operations, Kyle Dubas is going to hit the ground running, talk to his star players, work with head coach Mike Sullivan, deal with the NHL Entry Draft, and start interviewing for a full-time GM in July when things have settled down a bit.
Despite saying a couple of weeks ago that he didn’t see himself popping up as a general manager for another organization in a week, Dubas said the opportunity to work with the Penguins and Fenway Sports was too good to pass up. He cited his hope was to stay in Toronto if he remained a GM, but when the job was taken from him following his heartfelt and very public press conference, it’s possible his stance on working again had changed. He noted he spoke with his family and they were comfortable, already planning on moving and they all asked ‘What if this situation doesn’t present itself again?’
The news wasn’t a shock to many, even though there were late rumors on Wednesday that he might have turned down the GM job. That said, apparently, it wasn’t the GM job he was after. Weeks after speculation was he wanted President of Hockey Ops money from the Maple Leafs, he got the actual President of Hockey Ops job in Pittsburgh. Ironically, he goes from one team where MLSE was worth billions, to Fenway Sports, which is worth billions more.
As for what Dubas immediately plans to do, he’s already spoken with coach Sullivan and star Sidney Crosby. He knows that there are some contract commitments, especially with forwards having no-move clauses but Dubas said they’re all committed to winning, so his job is to put the right pieces around them. He added, that some might bet against this team because of where their stars are at in terms of age, but his plan is to bet on them. When it comes to what players will make for the best fit, he noted:
“Sully and I had a very brief discussion on this. The top end of the forward group is very, very good… Do we need another piece there to put us over the top? Then it’s what types of players do we want in the bottom half of our lineup that can deliver the game to those top players in the way that we want? And then on defense, it’s going to be going through and seeing what we need and if some of the younger players can step up. That’s how I see it over the next couple weeks.”
Dubas on what he's looking for in players: "Sully and I had a very brief discussion on this. The top end of the forward group is very, very good… Do we need another piece there to put us over the top? Then it's what types of players do we want in the bottom half of our lineupā¦
One of the big questions will be in net where the Penguins struggled this past season. They have a key part of their goaltending duo coming up for pending unrestricted free agency and Dubas said on evaluating goaltender Tristan Jarry: “I will rely on Andy Chiodo (goalie coach) and Mike Sullivan about what he’s all about as a person. I will try to meet him and get to know him myself. Then we will be doing a very thorough evaluation of Tristan and review where he stands in the marketplace. That’s a big priority because goaltending is vitally important.”
That means immediately getting to work on changes that will better this team. He’ll be responsible for those changes as Dubas confirmed he will handle the GM duties on an interim basis for the time being and will begin to look at candidates later in the summer.
