Speculation: Penguins off day talk thread: Yes, Sully is still the coach

[Sideline]

Surprised no one has mentioned that when Dubas was asked "Have you or will you ask any players to waive their no moves?" Dubas said "I have not asked anyone" but he did not rule out or rule in asking them in the future.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

My takeaway from the presser is that he's not happy with the state of the team, but instead of doing the difficult but needed action of starting the teardown, he's fully confident in Sullivan (especially) and this core group of guys to right the ship. He just has to figure out how to make it happen with moves.

He also said he and his scouts were the brains behind the Phillips pickup and Sully was shown video and just asked if he wanted to give it a go, to which Sully obviously said yeah, so y'know. The braintrust behind landing that guy isn't gonna inspire a ton of confidence in me.

Fingers crossed Jake wants no part of this team long-term, cuz if he's even a bit open to coming back, this team will do backflips to accommodate him.

f***in' losers.

 

[SEALBound]

Surprised no one has mentioned that when Dubas was asked "Have you or will you ask any players to waive their no moves?" Dubas said "I have not asked anyone" but he did not rule out or rule in asking them in the future.

He did says he's been getting calls so yeah I'm curious if he asks the likes of Rust or Rakell if there is a move that makes sense.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Where are the usual suspects?

Approaching life-threatening dehydration from fevered cranking.

 

[HandshakeLine]

lol kill the scouting department again.

 

[SomeDude]

This is a frightening but I admit entirely possible scenario.

This team is just one giant bag of hot air, huh?

Farts are hot air, so I concur.

 

[Allie Kitsune]

Part of me wants to say "Contract the team, retroactively award the 5 cups to an organization with some brains and vision".

Like, how can anyone come away from that farce of a presser and not be thoroughly embarrassed?

 

[Kristopher Letang]

What a f***ing useless press conference. I’m more depressed than yesterday lol

This franchise is cooked lol

 

[Sideline]

He did says he's been getting calls so yeah I'm curious if he asks the likes of Rust or Rakell if there is a move that makes sense.

I wonder if Detroit would look at Rust as a good veteran to bring in as they trend up. It would be a home coming for Rust so he might prefer it to playing his last good years in Penguins limbo.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

To a degree Dubas likely is handcuffed.

I am sure that the decree from on high is to ride out the Sid and Geno show for as long as you can milk it. Both out of respect for them and to sell tickets.

So how do you rebuild and not rebuild at the same time? That is a needle that will be difficult to thread and likely will lead to a couple more frustrating years.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Dubas' answer to "What do you say to fans who are frustrated with the direction of the team?" is such a slap in the face. f*** I hate this guy. I tried to be optimistic, but god he sounds like a politician word-vomiting without addressing the question until you can hardly even remember what the question was.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

The issue, I think, is that Dubas fully bought in on everything last summer. The Sullivan pitch worked.

He may or may not come around to reality, but it'll probably take another full season after this one. Hell yeah, very cool.

It boggles the mind how anyone would want more of this shit (or them to try to retool, which will 100% lead to more of this shit with Sully) than just blow it the f*** up. How is this a better situation than zero expectation viewing and watching legitimate premium prospects grow and develop into (hopefully) franchise pillars? Petrified with indecision and scared to death of change.

 

[Andy99]

State of the organization right now is just embarrassing…it’s hard to watch the team but equally hard to listen to the people in charge…what a shitshow…I mean the Pirates and Steelers have more credibility lol

 

[pistolpete11]

Surprised no one has mentioned that when Dubas was asked "Have you or will you ask any players to waive their no moves?" Dubas said "I have not asked anyone" but he did not rule out or rule in asking them in the future.

I never really understood how this works.

For the guys with limited NTC, they submit a list at the beginning of the year, right? So maybe he doesn't need to ask those guys as long as he's talking to teams that aren't on the list.

For the full NTC guys, Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and Karlsson aren't going anywhere.

So that really just leaves Rust and Big Jeff. If they were looking to trade those guys, do they ask them to waive and then go look for a trade? Or do they see if there is any interest and then go to them and say "will you waive for X?"

 

[Lustaf]

"There doesn't need to be any discussion about Mike. We're gonna sit down together after the year, as I will with other guys, and we'll go over everything."

Yawn

Haven't seen the presser but he straight up said after the YEAR?!

Yea this is horrible bad.. The one decision that at least you pull the trigger and try is firing the coaching staff. It doesn't always work but it's at least doing soemthing. Sitting around and saying the same coach that hasn't accomplished anything in 7 years will be there for a sit down after missing the playoffs two straight years for the first time in 2 decades?

 

[SomeDude]

To a degree Dubas likely is handcuffed.

I am sure that the decree from on high is to ride out the Sid and Geno show for as long as you can milk it. Both out of respect for them and to sell tickets.

So how do you rebuild and not rebuild at the same time? That is a needle that will be difficult to thread and likely will lead to a couple more frustrating years.

Dubas knew the situation going in.

Getting so sick of the Dubas is being held back narrative. Dubas is an idiot. A very highly compensated idiot.

 

[SEALBound]

I might be a "usual suspect" as I don't think Dubas did a bad job at all...but then again, I don't go to Olive Garden expecting an authentic Italian experience.

He's know the future of the team. It's not hard. They have a core that they need to support until they retire or ask out. Then it's rebuild time. There is nothing hard to understand about that. We've all know that. What was he supposed to say otherwise?

Even if someone asks about Sullivan, Dubas is not going to roast him in a presser about the TDL. It's just not going to happen. Expecting him to and then chastising him for not doing so is not on Dubas; it's on you.

He said the TDL is like a game of poker. Do you show your hand to those you're playing cards with? No. So I mean, I'm really not sure what people were expecting here.

On the "message to the fans", again, what did you want him to say? He's right when he points to the game last night where they were "close" but it's just not going our way for one reason or another. Who is to blame for Neds missing that Pelech shot from the blue line? They fought back 2 goals down.

 

[Andy99]

To a degree Dubas likely is handcuffed.

I am sure that the decree from on high is to ride out the Sid and Geno show for as long as you can milk it. Both out of respect for them and to sell tickets.

So how do you rebuild and not rebuild at the same time? That is a needle that will be difficult to thread and likely will lead to a couple more frustrating years.

You can easily rebuild keeping Sid and Geno…as he said, you have to get younger around them…signing all 30 year olds this summer based on what Sullivan wanted was stupid…jettison the 30+ year old wingers around them and fire the coaching staff…that would do wonders

 

[eXile3]

Did Dubas just hold a press conference to say nothing is changing and it will work itself out?

The arrogance of this guy. I was so optimistic about this hire.

 

[SEALBound]

I wonder if Detroit would look at Rust as a good veteran to bring in as they trend up. It would be a home coming for Rust so he might prefer it to playing his last good years in Penguins limbo.

I've suggested Rust for Copp. I think that would be a solid swap for both sides considering how well Compher is doing at 2C.

 

[Malkinstheman]

What was the point of the press conference? You wanted to tell everyone that you have no plan and the team will continue to be shit?

 

[Kristopher Letang]

Dubas pretty much said he has confidence in Sully because he speaks to him daily

That man got you brainwashed, he could’ve been your pimp in another life.

f*** this team.

 

[HandshakeLine]

It rules watching this team shit all over its legacy, lol.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Maybe in order to salvage whatever interest in this team or sanity I have left, both of which are in EXTREMELY short supply, I'm just gonna not evaluate Dubas until Sid retires. I fully expected this team to continue to be the lame f***s they've been for years, I fully expected Dubas to be enchanted by the Sullivan mystique upon arrival, I fully expected the organization to essentially be held hostage by Sid until he decides to retire. But to see it all declared, and with confidence, sucks.

I just hope Jake forces them to trade him, but he's a f***ing loser too so I doubt even that happens. That's the one thing I wanted out of this season tbh. f*** wins and losses, this team's been dead in the water since 2020.

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

Surprised no one has mentioned that when Dubas was asked "Have you or will you ask any players to waive their no moves?" Dubas said "I have not asked anyone" but he did not rule out or rule in asking them in the future.

I caught that too.

Maybe that means he could explore something like Rust to Detroit, since they’re on the up and Rust might waive to go home.