Rumor: Dubas has told other teams "everyone is available, except 87."”

[TheFinalWord]

If Pittsburgh does the smart thing and blows it up, will Crosby consider leaving? I know he wants to stay there, but if Letang and Malkin go, would he still be dead set on staying? Would he consider a trade to a Colorado or Montreal (I think that was his team growing up)? Or perhaps a Boston?

 

[Empoleon8771]

If Pittsburgh does the smart thing and blows it up, will Crosby consider leaving? I know he wants to stay there, but if Letang and Malkin go, would he still be dead set on staying? Would he consider a trade to a Colorado or Montreal (I think that was his team growing up)? Or perhaps a Boston?

Crosby and Malkin are both dead set on staying with the Penguins and aren't going anywhere.

I bet Dubas would trade Letang if he could, though. Count me as skeptical about it.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

If Pittsburgh does the smart thing and blows it up, will Crosby consider leaving? I know he wants to stay there, but if Letang and Malkin go, would he still be dead set on staying? Would he consider a trade to a Colorado or Montreal (I think that was his team growing up)? Or perhaps a Boston?

The problem is it isn't up to Dubas. All three have full NMCs and seem pretty set to finish their careers together. Maybe another year of losing will change their minds but until that happens, Pittsburgh is basically stuck.

It sucks too because while I appreciate they want to stay loyal to the team they've had so much success with, being open to a trade would allow Pittsburgh to acquire assets they desperately need. At this point, all Crosby and Malkin are doing is ensuring the Pens are a bottom feeder for several years the moment they retire.

 

[ManofSteel55]

If Pittsburgh does the smart thing and blows it up, will Crosby consider leaving? I know he wants to stay there, but if Letang and Malkin go, would he still be dead set on staying? Would he consider a trade to a Colorado or Montreal (I think that was his team growing up)? Or perhaps a Boston?

Teams who blow it up completely tend to stay in purgatory for a long, long time. The Pens have a lot of decent trade bait to load up on youth, and that youth would benefit from having Crosby around to teach them the ropes. It seems that Sid is very much wanting to be a legacy player - someone who only played for one team. If that's what he wants, and he is okay with not winning any more cups and being there to mentor young guys into being stars, then that's a good thing for his legacy as well.

 

[Empoleon8771]

The problem is it isn't up to Dubas. All three have full NMCs and seem pretty set to finish their careers together. Maybe another year of losing will change their minds but until that happens, Pittsburgh is basically stuck.

It sucks too because while I appreciate they want to stay loyal to the team they've had so much success with, being open to a trade would allow Pittsburgh to acquire assets they desperately need. At this point, all Crosby and Malkin are doing is ensuring the Pens are a bottom feeder for several years the moment they retire.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with what you're saying, but I'm not sure I'd expect it to be any different if they traded Crosby or Malkin. For the same NMC reason you mentioned, I think these guys would bring back far less than most people on here think they would. I don't think you're getting franchise altering futures by trading any of those guys. Hell, I'm even iffy on Letang having positive value at this point.

In a hypothetical situation where these guys would be moved, I'd expect a 1st and 2nd in value for Malkin (comparable to the St. Louis to NYR and Iginla to Pittsburgh trades) and maybe a 3rd for Letang in value (comparable to the Burns to Carolina trade). Crosby is impossible to tell because there are simply no modern examples of someone of Crosby's caliber being moved, but it's probably not that much more than what Malkin would be bringing back.

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Having Crosby, Letang, Malkin on reasonable deals is a fantastic thing to have. Trading them isnt necessarily gonna make your rebuild that much better. Dubas just needs to surround this proven core with good players and maybe have two/three years of playoff hockey. Its not too high of a expectation and hes failed massively.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Having Crosby, Letang, Malkin on reasonable deals is a fantastic thing to have. Trading them isnt necessarily gonna make your rebuild that much better. Dubas just needs to surround this proven core with good players and maybe have two/three years of playoff hockey. Its not too high of a expectation and hes failed massively.

I don't know that I necessarily agree with this side, either

The reality with the Penguins right now is pretty simple: they're an old and mediocre roster with a coach years past his expiration date. How they got to this point is more complicated. The situation Dubas inherited was not just as simple as "he just needs to surround the core with good players".

When Dubas took over the Penguins, this was their fully healthy roster to end that season:

Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Malkin-Rakell
Heinen-Granlund-Carter
Poehling-Bonino-Archibald
O'Connor

Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Petry
Joseph-Rutta
Kulikov-Ruhwedel

Jarry-DeSmith

Their bottom-6 was a downright mess and the defense's puck moving wasn't nearly good enough to make Sullivan's system work. Zucker, Jarry and Dumoulin were pending UFAs while Petry ($6.25 million), Rutta ($2.75 million), Carter ($3.125 million) and Granlund ($5 million) were all duds and making a huge amount of money. They only young players they had pushing for NHL minutes were O'Connor, Joseph, Smith and Poulin, and Smith was a complete bust and Poulin missed significant time in 2023-2024 due to mental health issues.

Dubas came in and made things worse with the Jarry and Graves deal along with the Karlsson trade, but the situation he inherited was a downright terrible one. There was not an easy fix to that 2023 Penguins team because they had about $18 million in unmovable dead money, an aging core and no prospects coming up. I think saying "he failed this easy task" is being disingenuous about how bad their situation was when he came in.