Seravalli bodies Kyle Dubas

[SEALBound]

It would interesting if someone did an article on the success rate of Servalli...

 

[Anomie2029]

….and he immediately nailed the coffin shut by trading for the ghost of Karlsson, handcuffing the team to a crappy goalie in Jarry, signing an empty sweater in Graves, and sticking with Mike Sullivan.

The guy did more damage in a week than the much maligned Hextall did in 2 years.

Hextall moves:

• Signed Brock McGinn to four years $2.75aav
• Let Evan Rodrigues go in order to keep Jan Rutta
• Protecting Jeff Carter in the expansion draft and extending him for two seasons.
• Signed Kaspari Kapanen to two years $3.2aav
• Traded away Jared McCann
• Trading a 2nd round draft pick for a 31yo Granlund who wasn't having a good season. $5M aav wasn't the best either.
• Trading away Matheson for Petry on $6.25 and a 4th line rental.
• Trading away John Marino.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

Ya dubas is a trash ass fraud

 

[SomeDude]

Hextall moves:

• Signed Brock McGinn to four years $2.75aav
• Let Evan Rodrigues go in order to keep Jan Rutta
• Protecting Jeff Carter in the expansion draft and extending him for two seasons.
• Signed Kaspari Kapanen to two years $3.2aav
• Traded away Jared McCann
• Trading a 2nd round draft pick for a 31yo Granlund who wasn't having a good season. $5M aav wasn't the best either.
• Trading away Matheson for Petry on $6.25 and a 4th line rental.
• Trading away John Marino.

And yet those still do not hold the long term ramifications of bringing in Karlsson at 10 mill x 4, wasting a total of $52 million on Jarry and Graves, and doubling (and since tripling) down on keeping Mike Sullivan - who previously tanked the value of McCann, Granlund, Marino, and Matheson. Again, that was all done within weeks of Dubas taking the job. That doesn't include other moves since.

 

[WarriorofTime]

I don't disagree with the overall premise but the part about the Guentzel trade kinda grinded my gears. The Penguins did get pick #44 as part of the return, but Seravalli acts like there's this cavernous gap between the Canes 1st (#27) and #44.

I understand in general that the term "first rounder" sounds sexier and that player gets to be taken on national TV so expectations are higher. But a lot of years the gap between a late first rounder and mid second rounder isn't that huge. It's early but Harrison Brunicke seems like a solid pick at #44.

I haven't kept close tabs but it seems like Koivunen/Ponomarev are doing decently in the AHL and Dubas seemed to value 'older' prospects who might be able to contribute with Crosby rather than a couple more 2024 (or beyond) picks who might be 4-5 years away.

idk, 17 picks is pretty high, it's not like the 29th pick vs. the 34th pick

 

[nturn06]

Not a Dubas fan but he inherited a team with old generational players in Crosby and Malkin. No way he was going to dump them for picks so he tried to build a team around them as best he could. He failed but he tried.

The biggest issue is that if that's what he should try, then it makes absolutely no sense to trade Guentzel for a bag of pucks.

 

[nturn06]

I think it's an extremely easy argument to make about Dubas doing a bad job but this article sucks ass. The Smith trade discussion is a great example of how biased and shitty this article is:

Here's how the Smith trade went:

1. The Penguins traded a 2024 3rd for Smith
2. Smith put up 13 goals and 40 points in 76 games for the Penguins.
3. The Penguins trade Smith with $1.25 million in retention to the Rangers for a 2027 2nd.

How Seravalli frames that is:

1. The Penguins traded a 3rd for Smith.
2. Smith had a below average season where his goal production was cut in half.
3. The Penguins then traded Smith for a pick that is "one round higher in 2027 (!) that won't help the Penguins until 2030" and added $1.25 million in dead cap space.

It is so obviously written with an agenda that it reads like a biased fan post. Calling a second rounder "a pick that is one round higher" is obviously intentional, because clearly saying "he traded a 3rd for a 2nd" makes Dubas look good. Same thing with adding the exclamation point after 2027 and saying "the pick won't help the Penguins until 2030".

Dubas has made some dogshit UFA signings, has a meh trade record and has drafted well for the Penguins. Overall, I'd give it a poor grade so I'm not trying to defend his job here. Still, this article sucks and sounds like a HFBoard rant.

While you make some good points, what most people forget is that Smith is still under the same contract.
It makes no sense for a team who is trying its best to make the playoffs to retain money for the following season too.

The second rounder is probably fair compensation just for the retained salary for one and half seasons, so the Penguins basically lost a third rounder.

 

[MessierII]

Karlsson was a bad move because Pittsburgh desperately needed defensive guys and had Letang. He needed to find the exact opposite of Karlsson.

Graves I just have to agree to disagree. I don't recall that contract ever looking good.

I guess what it boils down to with Dubas is, why does he seem to get so much benefit of the doubt? What has he done? I feel like I'm missing something but I'm not.

Did the same thing in Toronto. He had Tavares, Matthews, Nylander, Marner and Morgan Reilly on D. Looking at that he concluded that they needed Tyson Barrie lol.

 

[hirawl]

Dubas is an awful GM. Seravalli is even worse at what he does. Not going to call him a journalist.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

And yet those still do not hold the long term ramifications of bringing in Karlsson at 10 mill x 4, wasting a total of $52 million on Jarry and Graves, and doubling (and since tripling) down on keeping Mike Sullivan - who previously tanked the value of McCann, Granlund, Marino, and Matheson. Again, that was all done within weeks of Dubas taking the job. That doesn't include other moves since.

Wasn’t Sullivan extended in 2022 under Hextall? While Dubas was still with the Leafs

 

[BHD]

His moves don't make any sense. Regardless of what his vision is, he makes questionable decisions to get there.

 

[johnnyonthspot]

Dubas is no doubt an intelligent guy because he's convinced people to pay him millions of dollars for his knowledge.

Having said that, he has never had success anywhere he went. That's why other hockey people didn't like him. He didn't even win anything in junior, where it's much, much easier. That's why guys like Mark Hunter quit when he got picked for GM. His resume is basically him using big words and stats and traditional hockey people who have actually won before dislike the fact that he gets picked before them because his grammar is better.

I'm pretty confident that Lou would have accomplished more with the Leafs than Dubas did. It's not a high bar though, and that's on Dubas. Dubas traded 4 1st round picks to win 1 round.

I understand that he has not had success in the playoffs but the leafs had great regular seasons under him. There is no doubt he could have he made some questionable deals but ever GM does and Pittsburgh is a different situation than Toronto.

 

[dirtydanglez]

it took the leafs 5 years longer than it should have to come to the same conclusion. he wasted that core.

 

[AlienWorkShop]

I'm probably just turning into an old fart, but a few of these guys who obviously hope to fashion themselves as the next Bob McKenzie, yet obviously lack his talent, really irk me.

(Love ya, Bob!)

 

[ffh]

seravalli is the kyle dubas of hockey insiders. he tries hard but isnt very good at his job

 

[BB88]

Whilst I think there are absolutely fair criticisms that should be directed at Dubas, this really misses the context that the Pens were already failing when he was hired, and everyone knows he was hired under instruction not to rebuild (which they needed to do).

The 1st thing he said was he was going to be building for the future while competing now

Job damm well done., nobody has a worse looking future than the Pens

 

[Barrie22]

Not to get too far off-topic, but seems pretty relevant: I love Erik Karlsson, so what's happened? Why has his play fallen off a cliff in Pittsburgh with Crosby, Malkin, etc.? Or is he actually playing better than he gets credit for?

Karlsson works best when he is given the reigns and given conplete freedom to play like he wants. And when he is not fighting for minutes with another top defensemen (san jose it was burns, penguins it is letang).

San jose did the same thing as the pens are doing, splitting the ice between letang and karlsson and holding on to tight with the reigns.