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

Antropovsky

Registered User
Jun 2, 2007
15,494
7,263
Ego and incompetence is a hell of a combination.

Washington's duct tape job has really exposed what a poor job Dubas has managed to do since arriving in Pittsburgh.

Seeing him turn Jake Guentzel into Michael Bunting and 2nd was such an object lesson in why he was so scared to move off the Big 4 in Toronto.:

-2.5M- Alex Nedeljkovic
- 5.3M- Tristan Jarry
- 3.5M- Kevin Hayes
- 10M - Erik Karlsson
- 2.5M - Cody Glass
- 2M- Noel Acciari
- 4.5M - Ryan Graves
- 4.5M - Michael Bunting

Total: $34.8M

Ugly retool work by Dubas.
 

DackellDuck

Registered User
Sep 20, 2024
388
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What would Pens give a team to take Karlsson contract?

I don't think they would give a team anything just to take the contract.

I do think they'd be willing to take back a different player with a big contract who may be a better fit for them.
 

GirardSpinorama

Registered User
Aug 20, 2004
21,842
10,834
I don't know that I necessarily agree with this side, either :laugh:

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.

He had a ton of cap space though because those guys were UFAs or on short term deals. 18M in dead money is not true, most of them were moveable with a non brain dead GM. The flexibiltiy to trade picks, future picks and cap space was all blown by Dubas.

I'll take Granlund at 5M over any move Dubas has made..
 
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horner

Registered User
May 22, 2007
8,613
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Ego and incompetence is a hell of a combination.

Washington's duct tape job has really exposed what a poor job Dubas has managed to do since arriving in Pittsburgh.

Seeing him turn Jake Guentzel into Michael Bunting and 2nd was such an object lesson in why he was so scared to move off the Big 4 in Toronto.
Dubasss didn't do a great job in Toronto either.
He was gifted Mathew's Marner Nylander and Rielly
He signed JT a goid player but not the player to lead our team (the same type of player like the core).
At that time we needed to improve our D
He gave up draft picks like candy at the TDL.for an injured Folingo
He never built our center position
Dubas and Keefe should have been fired yrs ago for there playoff failures..

Treliving is trying to fix what dubassss didnt

Dubas will ruin Pittsburgh Sid jump ship we need you in the playoffs.
 
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horner

Registered User
May 22, 2007
8,613
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-2.5M- Alex Nedeljkovic
- 5.3M- Tristan Jarry
- 3.5M- Kevin Hayes
- 10M - Erik Karlsson
- 2.5M - Cody Glass
- 2M- Noel Acciari
- 4.5M - Ryan Graves
- 4.5M - Michael Bunting

Total: $34.8M

Ugly retool work by Dubas.
Graves and Jarry awhfull signings
Karlsson they will need to retain on that contract to trade him awfull trade
 
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Empoleon8771

Registered User
Aug 25, 2015
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Redmond, WA
He had a ton of cap space though because those guys were UFAs or on short term deals. 18M in dead money is not true, most of them were moveable with a non brain dead GM. The flexibiltiy to trade picks, future picks and cap space was all blown by Dubas.

I'll take Granlund at 5M over any move Dubas has made..

This is a complete hindsight analysis. Go look at how people reacted to the Granlund to Pittsburgh trade at the time it happened.

Petry, Rutta and Granlund were all cap dumps for the Penguins. In hindsight, it was a mistake to dump them plus a 1st for Karlsson, but let's not act like those guys were good assets.
 

GirardSpinorama

Registered User
Aug 20, 2004
21,842
10,834
This is a complete hindsight analysis. Go look at how people reacted to the Granlund to Pittsburgh trade at the time it happened.

Petry, Rutta and Granlund were all cap dumps for the Penguins. In hindsight, it was a mistake to dump them plus a 1st for Karlsson, but let's not act like those guys were good assets.

Fan opinion on those cap dumps dont actually matter. Dubas has always made moves that pleased fans but end up being terrible. Granlund is a good player who had a bad stretch period. GMs need to actually look ahead.

Petry was a cap dump.. montreal managed to dump him to detroit without paying much extra. I'll take that over Karlsson's franchise crippling deal.

All that cap space just burnt.
 
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SomeDude

Registered User
Mar 6, 2006
18,278
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What would Pens give a team to take Karlsson contract?
Nothing. Why would we pay to get out of a bad contract when we just got paid to take on 2 bad contracts this summer?

If a player has negative value then they’re here for the long haul to help with the tank. Teams that have aspirations of being good are the ones who pay to get out of bad deals. Teams that suck just let them ride out.

If Karlsson has negative value and doesn’t want to be here he can retire, fake an injury to LTIR, or request that his contract be mutually terminated.
 

Hookslide

Registered User
Nov 19, 2018
5,605
4,998
So not even half a year into the new 7 year contract he's traded for Malkin?

This isn't a video game.
It was not even a contract that should have been even offered. Does not matter when you can get out of , just get out of it. This has to do with your smart ass remark about video games, so weak. This contract has hurt their cap space.
 

Stephen

Moderator
Feb 28, 2002
81,568
59,357
-2.5M- Alex Nedeljkovic
- 5.3M- Tristan Jarry
- 3.5M- Kevin Hayes
- 10M - Erik Karlsson
- 2.5M - Cody Glass
- 2M- Noel Acciari
- 4.5M - Ryan Graves
- 4.5M - Michael Bunting

Total: $34.8M

Ugly retool work by Dubas.

It’s almost a good thing he handcuffed himself with that Big 4 money in Toronto. Can’t imagine the stuff he would have bought on the UFA market with money to throw around on top of guys like Nick Ritchie and Petr Mrazek.

On the positive side for Pittsburgh, maybe this is the accidental tank that will refill the cupboards. Set the table for the next era and next GM…
 
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Sidney the Kidney

One last time
Jun 29, 2009
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Fan opinion on those cap dumps dont actually matter. Dubas has always made moves that pleased fans but end up being terrible. Granlund is a good player who had a bad stretch period. GMs need to actually look ahead.

Petry was a cap dump.. montreal managed to dump him to detroit without paying much extra. I'll take that over Karlsson's franchise crippling deal.

All that cap space just burnt.
I'd also like to point out that Granlund had a bad stretch while being utilized completely wrong by Sullivan.

Who would have thought that a small offensive playmaker would look out of place when utilized as though he's a gritty defensive-minded shutdown player? Everyone except Mike "Dumbass" Sullivan, apparently.
 

Antropovsky

Registered User
Jun 2, 2007
15,494
7,263
It’s almost a good thing he handcuffed himself with that Big 4 money in Toronto. Can’t imagine the stuff he would have bought on the UFA market with money to throw around on top of guys like Nick Ritchie and Petr Mrazek.

On the positive side for Pittsburgh, maybe this is the accidental tank that will refill the cupboards. Set the table for the next era and next GM…
He undoubtebly wanted to bring Karlsson to TO before being canned (thsre were rumors leafs were talking to San Jose) We dodged a big one there. Im not a huge fan of keeping the core 4 together, but all are more valuable then Karlsson.
 

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