So... Are the Penguins Even Going to Try?

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

The Blues return from the ROR/Acciari trade is finally all in and they ended up with Otto Stenberg at 25th in '23, Juraj Pekarcik at 76th in '23 and Lukas Fischer at 56th in '24 along with the pair of players. So a 1st, 2nd and 3rd spanning two drafts to do that deal furthering your point. I listed what the Blues got to illustrate the futures haul for those picks vs the short term gain of ROR/Acciari. No judgement here, Blues just paid their 2nd in '25 to get rid of Kevin Hayes much to my disappointment.

Yeah and I LOVED that deal at the time ROR was GREAT as a Leaf and honestly so was Noel Accari, if we could pry him out of Pittsburgh I'd bring him back in a second.

But it shows what I'm talking about it was a massive futures haul for the blues.

And now people are going to say "But he got a 2nd to take on Kevin Hayes that's a rebuild move." no that's a win now move that also came with a draft pick. They acquired a veteran and bought a draft pick.

Let's see if he keeps that pick, I bet he doesn't.

"they traded Reily Smith that's a rebuild move."

It would be a minor rebuild move if they hadn't brought in Kevin Hayes to replace him.

All they did was swap one veteran for another and they picked up a couple of 2nds and a 7th to do it.

Rebuilding means trading Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Rust, Karlsson and that's not going to happen.

Crosby will finish his career as a Penguin, until then those cupboards will be emptied and when they do rebuild It's going to be a long one.

If you remember the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2002-2004 before Sid we are going back to that except we probably won't have to worry about them moving.

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

It doesn’t matter what Dubas/Pens are doing while Mike Sullivan and Todd Reirden are still there…

Swing and a miss strike one.

 

[Ace Card Bedard]

So... Are the Penguins Even Going to Try?​

​

I'm sure the players will try but there's only so much management can do while Crosby and Malkin are still around.
They won't tank until those guys are done out of a sense of loyalty to the two guys who brought them 3 cups.

It makes for a few more years of mediocrity followed by a long rebuild.
We're in the rebuild phase in Chicago.

 

[Hockey4Lyfe]

Yeah and I LOVED that deal at the time ROR was GREAT as a Leaf and honestly so was Noel Accari, if we could pry him out of Pittsburgh I'd bring him back in a second.

But it shows what I'm talking about it was a massive futures haul for the blues.

And now people are going to say "But he got a 2nd to take on Kevin Hayes that's a rebuild move." no that's a win now move that also came with a draft pick. They acquired a veteran and bought a draft pick.

Let's see if he keeps that pick, I bet he doesn't.

"they traded Reily Smith that's a rebuild move."

It would be a minor rebuild move if they hadn't brought in Kevin Hayes to replace him.

All they did was swap one veteran for another and they picked up a couple of 2nds and a 7th to do it.

Rebuilding means trading Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Rust, Karlsson and that's not going to happen.

Crosby will finish his career as a Penguin, until then those cupboards will be emptied and when they do rebuild It's going to be a long one.

If you remember the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2002-2004 before Sid we are going back to that except we probably won't have to worry about them moving.

They traded Smith for a good future pick and brought in Hayes that also had a valuable pick to do so. What you are saying about him constantly making buying trades is a direct contradiction to what he is currently doing.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

They traded Smith for a good future pick and brought in Hayes that also had a valuable pick to do so. What you are saying about him constantly making buying trades is a direct contradiction to what he is currently doing.

like I said all Kevin Hayes is, is Reily Smith replacement, all Dubas has done is replace one veteran with another but you believe It's a rebuild move bec he happened to pick up a couple 2nds and a 7th to do it.

Would you say the Leafs were rebuilding if they acquired Pageau and a 2nd from the NYI for nothing, and then traded Kampf for a 2nd? because that's essentially what Dubas did.

He replaced one veteran with another and picked up a couple 2nds to do it

 

[Hockey4Lyfe]

like I said all Kevin Hayes is, is Reily Smith replacement, all Dubas has done is replace one veteran with another but you believe It's a rebuild move bec he happened to pick up a couple 2nds and a 7th to do it.

Would you say the Leafs were rebuilding if they acquired Pageau and a 2nd from the NYI for nothing, and then traded Kampf for a 2nd? because that's essentially what Dubas did.

He replaced one veteran with another and picked up a couple 2nds to do it

And you stated that all he does is package first round picks. Which is obviously false. Stop trying to push the narrative.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Dubas wants to infuse the lineup with youth. What we can expect is a year or two of "meh" with bandaid style signings while they recoup draft picks and add prospects. Then in 3-4 years, there will be a renewed urgency to compete via these new young players with a "mentor" style role from Sid.

Maybe not unlike the Bruins when they traded off roster players like Hamilton and Lucic in order to retool via the draft and young player acquisitions.

They will try but maybe not this year. In the next 1-2, they will "try" at a minimal level amd if they make it to the playoffs, bonus. If not, oh well. The days of a 1st or 2nd for a TDL rental are LONG gone.

That would be fine if there was youth to inject in the lineup but there Isn't.

The Penguins have the worst prospect pool in the league and It's not even close.

A prospect pool that they made worse by trading their 2024 1st for Erik Karlsson.

You can't inject youth into a lineup when you have no youth to inject into the lineup.

That's why when the rebuild hits It's going to hit hard because I can count on one hand the amount of quality prospects they have, or young players contributing on the team and I'd have fingers left over.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

That would be fine if there was youth to inject in the lineup but there Isn't.

The Penguins have the worst prospect pool in the league and It's not even close.

A prospect pool that they made worse by trading their 2024 1st for Erik Karlsson.

You can't inject youth into a lineup when you have no youth to inject into the lineup.

That's why when the rebuild hits It's going to hit hard because I can count on one hand the amount of quality prospects they have, or young players contributing on the team and I'd have fingers left over.

I haven't seen any offseason rankings that have them as the worst, let alone "by far".

Bottom 5-10 pool, sure. But they've made strides with Yager and the deadline additions.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

I haven't seen any offseason rankings that have them as the worst, let alone "by far".

Bottom 5-10 pool, sure. But they've made strides with Yager and the deadline additions.

Yegar is a quality prospect, It's him and Pickering and that's pretty much it, they might have a goaltending prospect but that prospect pool is not deep.

 

[OtherThingsILike]

The Penguins' prospect pool wasn't the worst in the league even before the Guentzel trade, and it's not the worst now.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Yegar is a quality prospect, It's him and Pickering and that's pretty much it, they might have a goaltending prospect but that prospect pool is not deep.

Correct. But that doesn't make them the worst.

 

[Tie Domi Esquire]

They can't try. Their GM tied their hands and put cement boots on in his first off-season at the helm.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

They can't try. Their GM tied their hands and put cement boots on in his first off-season at the helm.

Ron Hextall approves of your effort to erase his impact of destroying both Pennsylvania teams.

Correct. But that doesn't make them the worst.

The prospect pool may only have the depth of the shallow section of a public pool, but it used to be contained in a goldfish bowl. Considering all of the NMCs and lack of future capital, I'd say Dubas has done a solid job restocking the prospect pool in a year's time.

The Karlsson trade was the swing for the fence, but the same people that complain that Dubas didn't do anything this off-season are the same people who mocked the Karlsson deal. He's going to get shit on for any move he makes or any move he doesn't make.

 

[Tie Domi Esquire]

Ron Hextall approves of your effort to erase his impact of destroying both Pennsylvania teams.

All moveable contracts just a year later. It's like when Dubas traded the Seth Jarvis pick for one year of cap relief so he could re-sign Kapanen and Johnsson, two bad players who he gave up on after one year. Zero patience and bad GMing. Now you guys are stuck.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Yegar is a quality prospect, It's him and Pickering and that's pretty much it, they might have a goaltending prospect but that prospect pool is not deep.

The guys from Carolina in the Guentzel trade are decent. Granted, none are exactly projected to be top line guys. But from what Carolina fans/prospect watchers say, they seem to project to solid middle six types.

 

[Hockey4Lyfe]

The guys from Carolina in the Guentzel trade are decent. Granted, none are exactly projected to be top line guys. But from what Carolina fans/prospect watchers say, they seem to project to solid middle six types.

Dude has made about 7 statements in this thread alone that have been flat out wrong.

They weren't even the worst prospect pool before they got rid of Guentzel.

 

[Erik Alfredsson]

Karlsson will be back to being a Beast Mode Cowboy this season. Mark my words, he will be a Norris finalist once again. The King will return.

 

[sxvnert]

Will say it again, Dubas will try once he has the justification to fire Sully. Until then Sully will rot with whatever scraps Dubas will give him.

 

[Henkka]

Will be abysmal wasted years which will just delay the rebuild.