Confirmed with Link: Kyle Dubas named President of Hockey Operations

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Said the guy called Blind Willy McHurt.

Wait... I'm onto your game here.

Yeah well unlike SOME cowards I'VE stuck with a silly decision for nearly 20 years now and for that I should be praised for some reason.

At least you don't have to go to the (broken) "Previous Username" section to find out if you're talking to the same guy or not this month with me.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I think it's also good that Dubas is working with Crosby and Sullivan to get an idea of where the roster stands and what the roster needs to add to become a contender again. Dubas had mentioned in the press conference that he's informed on the Penguins between their NHL and AHL team, but I imagine Sullivan and Crosby can give him the most direction for what needs to be added on the roster.

With Dubas mentioning the abundance of cap space the Penguins have this off-season, there is really no excuse for him to not give Sullivan the pieces he wants in the bottom-6. If only Hextall didn't go full stupid and acquire Granlund, they'd have even more flexibility to build the roster with that.

Lmao "working with Sullivan..." For the roster is just not exuding any f***ing hope and I don't get how anyone gets excited for that. Also f*** what Crosby thinks. He's there to play and give Blueger hugs or some shit when he visits Vegas.

Dubas is here for a job that they need him to do and asking a player and a dipshit coach ain't it.

Also gonna love the favoritism bs when Spezza is hired as an Assistant Gm.

 

[Pancakes]

Dubas and whomever the next GM is need to Sully-proof the roster as much as possible. That's gonna be a whole lot of changes to the bottom-6 and leaving room on the roster for a 4th line with a DOC-Poehling combo.

Sully's still gonna GCRust this team to awful stretches, but making the playoffs shouldn't be difficult. Half the damn teams make it.

I think the way to Sully proof the roster is to not give him garbage players in the bottom six. He might still mess up the line combinations, but with even slightly better depth this past season we're a playoff team.

So many things went wrong with our depth this year and we still just barely missed.

The big problem (well, other than Sully lineup decisions) is we probably can't count on 82 games of 87 and 71 again.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I think the way to Sully proof the roster is to not give him garbage players in the bottom six. He might still mess up the line combinations, but with even slightly better depth this past season we're a playoff team.

So many things went wrong with our depth this year and we still just barely missed.

The big problem (well, other than Sully lineup decisions) is we probably can't count on 82 games of 87 and 71 again.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Give Sullivan that shutdown 3rd line to give leash to the younger players to develop on the job in 4th line roles. Find a way to get out of Granlund. Hope Carter suffers a Hossa-like equipment allergy.

He's gonna f*** up TOI distribution and line combos. Just try and make sure the roster is as solid as can be.

 

[Pancakes]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Give Sullivan that shutdown 3rd line to give leash to the younger players to develop on the job in 4th line roles. Find a way to get out of Granlund. Hope Carter suffers a Hossa-like equipment allergy.

He's gonna f*** up TOI distribution and line combos. Just try and make sure the roster is as solid as can be.

And if you do that, he has no excuses if he fails to make the playoffs or gets embarrassingly bounced in the first round again. At that point Dubas would have to look critically at Sullivan's body of work here and decide on his future.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Here's how I think the GM hires will go.

Dubas - POHO or whatever idiotic acronym it is.
Botterill - GM
Spezza - AGM
Out of the box hire - AGM

Skills Coach added to coaching staff
An analytics hire as well.

I hope Dubas also fires everyone in WBS and hires a better coaching staff there, the hope is Sullivan is fired asap, but I'll wait to watch the team until that happens.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I'm going to laugh when the team comes back with a soft, wannabe-scoring line with their revamped L3 and you guys find a way to still pretend it's not Sullivan who gives the GM his wish list every single season.

 

[TimmyD]

Lmao "working with Sullivan..." For the roster is just not exuding any f***ing hope and I don't get how anyone gets excited for that. Also f*** what Crosby thinks. He's there to play and give Blueger hugs or some shit when he visits Vegas.

Dubas is here for a job that they need him to do and asking a player and a dipshit coach ain't it.

Also gonna love the favoritism bs when Spezza is hired as an Assistant Gm.

We get it. Everything is Sullivan’s fault, Dubas should fire him and when he doesn’t you are going to hate him to. Also Jarry is the best goalie in the leaguezzzzzzzzzzzzz and he has gotten a raw deal from everyone over the last few years

 

[Peat]

I think the way to Sully proof the roster is to not give him garbage players in the bottom six. He might still mess up the line combinations, but with even slightly better depth this past season we're a playoff team.

So many things went wrong with our depth this year and we still just barely missed.

The big problem (well, other than Sully lineup decisions) is we probably can't count on 82 games of 87 and 71 again.

I love how the phrasing is "not having bad players protects us from the coach" rather than "coaches do a better job when not given garbage players". If one cook has filet mignon and the other has a pack of beef jerky, you know who's going to cook a better meal.

 

[Pancakes]

I'm going to laugh when the team comes back with a soft, wannabe-scoring line with their revamped L3 and you guys find a way to still pretend it's not Sullivan who gives the GM his wish list every single season.

I don't think Dubas would have come here if he wasn't going to be given a lot of power to make his own decisions.

I'm sure Sullivan will have a fair bit of input but I actually feel confident that Kyle can make the decisions here.

That's why I'm actually excited about this hire. Because Dubas is well regarded enough that if he wanted to hold out for a job where he was given the keys to the kingdom, he could have done it. I think him coming here signifies FSG gave him a lot of authority.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

And if you do that, he has no excuses if he fails to make the playoffs or gets embarrassingly bounced in the first round again. At that point Dubas would have to look critically at Sullivan's body of work here and decide on his future.

Pretty much. Make it so when things go wrong, there's no glaring, convenient thing to point to that gives Sully cover. /shrug

Team's still f***ing cooked and the window slammed shut, imo. Just, try not to embarrass yourselves for the final few years of Sid's career, eh? High bar to clear, I know.

 

[vikingGoalie]

I am awfully curious how the Jarry situation plays out now. Not sure how reliant I'd be on the goalie coach as they typically are a little biased towards their guy

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I think the way to Sully proof the roster is to not give him garbage players in the bottom six. He might still mess up the line combinations, but with even slightly better depth this past season we're a playoff team.

So many things went wrong with our depth this year and we still just barely missed.

The big problem (well, other than Sully lineup decisions) is we probably can't count on 82 games of 87 and 71 again.

I think the point is being missed.

There is no way to "Sully proof" this roster - It's his usage that destroys. We've had players that were solid players for top 9 talent get murdered in his usage and deployment. He has this idiotic "old school" mentality on how to utilize the 3rd and 4th line. He essentially just wants 2 scoring lines with how he uses them despite what he verbally shits out of his mouth to the media, use the bottom 2 lines as shut down lines in the most harshest usage imaginable in the league, and then he gets pissy when they can't produce.

You'd basically need Crosby on the third and 4th f***ing lines to get offense with the moronic usage Sullivan likes to utilize with the bottom 6. To this day, the only times the bottom 6 has ever produced for the Pens in ways that were acceptable?

HBK lines, literally needed Kessel on that line to produce and not have awful usage.

Since then? McCann was there but his stats were inflated by the top 6 usage for a large portion of his time as a 3rd liner. I like that a lot of you have hope to fix a coach that is just so f***ing narrow minded with his approach, but we're approaching 7yrs of that same idiot doing the same idiot things.

Literal definition of insanity here where a coach is doing the same shit each time and you lot are expecting a different result.

WE HAD some very good rosters, but Sullivan destroyed it each time only for the lot here to piss on the players that left that succeeded again away from this team out of spite.

Dubas has 3 weeks with 6yrs of data to go over to come to the correct conclusion that this team needs leadership change at the coaching level as well, he needs to see how this coach has continuously f***ed about with the roster he's been handed for 6yrs..

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I don't think Dubas would have come here if he wasn't going to be given a lot of power to make his own decisions.

I'm sure Sullivan will have a fair bit of input but I actually feel confident that Kyle can make the decisions here.

That's why I'm actually excited about this hire. Because Dubas is well regarded enough that if he wanted to hold out for a job where he was given the keys to the kingdom, he could have done it. I think him coming here signifies FSG gave him a lot of authority.

I hope so.

I DO think that Granlund was outta Sullivan's hands to be clear, I'm still debating whether or not that was just Hextall upper decking the team on his way out the door.

 

[Pancakes]

I love how the phrasing is "not having bad players protects us from the coach" rather than "coaches do a better job when not given garbage players". If one cook has filet mignon and the other has a pack of beef jerky, you know who's going to cook a better meal.

Ingredients aside, Sullivan in your analogy is the Michelin Starred Chef who goes from 4 stars to 3 because he becomes complacent with the menu and loses the freshness and innovation that he once had.

I hope Dubas coming in gives him a shot in the arm to become better. He used to be great. Maybe he still could be again.

 

[Malkinstheman]

FSG may like Sullivan but Dubas is their guy. They went full court press to get him. If Dubas wants Sullivan gone, he'll be gone.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I hope so.

I DO think that Granlund was outta Sullivan's hands to be clear, I'm still debating whether or not that was just Hextall upper decking the team on his way out the door.

I think it was 100% a "I'll buy low on this guy who was good years ago, ignoring the circumstances and fit, because I'm shitting my pants that the arena is chanting for my firing and I need a move that makes me look like a genius" thing.

Shame Hextall was a f***ing dipshit.

 

[Gurglesons]

I love how the phrasing is "not having bad players protects us from the coach" rather than "coaches do a better job when not given garbage players". If one cook has filet mignon and the other has a pack of beef jerky, you know who's going to cook a better meal.

Obviously you haven’t seen Chopped.

 

[The Old Master]

Also, like, I get it, no one on this board plays for the penguins, but for a leafs fan - who probably was not alive when his team last won the cup - to come here and tell us to prepare for misery…

little does he know half this board is misery.

 

[Ryder71]

What I'm excited about is we have a guy who's young but very experienced, savvy, analytical and comes to a market that's far less critical than the place he's coming from. That's not to say there won't be critics, but it won't be as intrusive or tiresome as it would be in a god forsaken Market Like toronto.

 

[Pancakes]

I think the point is being missed.


WE HAD some very good rosters, but Sullivan destroyed it each time only for the lot here to piss on the players that left that succeeded again away from this team out of spite.

I think saying that his player usage only worked with Kessel isn't accurate given Sullivan has had four years of being coach of this team sans Kessel and his player usage got the Pens into the playoffs in three out of four of those years.

His usage works when he has the right players to execute what he wants to do, and fails when he doesn't have those players. Just like any other coach in the history of the NHL. If you have a coach who wants to bury his bottom six in defensive deployments and then give him the corpse of Jeff Carter and Mikael Granlund....yeah, it's not gonna work.

But I do think staleness is a thing and sometimes the message stops resonating with players. And I'm worried that we may be at that point with Sullivan.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

FSG may like Sullivan but Dubas is their guy. They went full court press to get him. If Dubas wants Sullivan gone, he'll be gone.

Agree. They basically told everybody else in the running to f*** off after two weeks of interviews as soon as Dubas became available, courted him aggressively, and likely let him name his price and demands (we all thought he'd be the GM, but he's the POHO, etc).

I highly doubt they'd step in if Dubas decided Sully needed to be replaced. The issue is that he (nor anyone else imo) is likely to think Sullivan needs to be replaced.

 

[TheGoldenJet]

I’ve followed dubas tenure with the leafs closely and I can’t imagine a better person than Kyle dubas to lead your team into the next tanking phase. his trade history is impeccable like top hits kadri for Barrie and kerfoot or his penchant love for small hockey players Marchment for malgin. But that’s not all. Expect 1st rders to be traded for injured nick foligno’s at the deadline or his best song catelogue “I love injury prone goalies and can’t play half a season”.

inherited a matthews, nylander and marner on ELC’s and a taveras landed on his lap and got an amazing 1 playoff round win in 5 years against a depleted blue Line in Tampa.

its a great hire, I promise!

The sad truth.

Luckily he’s the POHO, not the GM (for long)…we hope?

Your team's sucked for 60 years.

The even sadder truth, LOL

 

[Peat]

I'm going to laugh when the team comes back with a soft, wannabe-scoring line with their revamped L3 and you guys find a way to still pretend it's not Sullivan who gives the GM his wish list every single season.

The trademark of the double teams was intensity. They were small, but they worked like mad and went to the dirty areas regularly. I feel pretty sure he doesn't want any soft players at all. Small players who compete like mad, but all the various guys who've just been a bit vanilla custard in their approach to the game? Nah.

You'll deffo see some skilled players there with the it'll be a two way line. But the soft guys... well, Sully's told us what he thinks of them through multiple benchings and demotions.

Ingredients aside, Sullivan in your analogy is the Michelin Starred Chef who goes from 4 stars to 3 because he becomes complacent with the menu and loses the freshness and innovation that he once had.

I hope Dubas coming in gives him a shot in the arm to become better. He used to be great. Maybe he still could be again.

I know I'm mostly alone here but I really don't see him doing a lot different and tbh, do think the struggles have mostly been ingredient based. The stars can't carry the same load; the goaltending has got significantly worse; and the lack of resources has forced painful compromises in the bottom six and blueline at a time when opposition with more resources haven't had to do so.

He did what he did with a nice slice of luck and fantastic ingredients; now they've gone off and the luck is all bad.

Obviously you haven’t seen Chopped.

Chopped is dull, GGG and Cutthroat Kitchen is where it's at.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

re: Sullivan... honestly I'm close to the point of fatigue even complaining about him. I hate to handwave it but it's just best to hope he figures things out and goes into next season with energy and a willingness to think around some corners instead of plowing headlong into them.

But I'll say this... the onus is not on his "haters" anymore... it's on him. It's been five years of poor results with various rosters configured different ways. Undoubtedly with his input on much of it. You get some mixed results in that time or if we're maybe at year two or three and I can be more understanding. But at this point people must realize it sounds like a bunch of lame excuses. These aren't five years of not winning a Cup... I'm not that big of a hair-on-fire lunatic. It's five years of unmitigated failures.