Pittsburgh Penguins Need To Stick to the Plan
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period was on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio on Wednesday’s Power Play Segment with Steve Kouleas and Jason Strudwick. He was asked if the Pittsburgh Penguins should stick to their plan or retool instead of trying to compete.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
NHL Rumors: Pittsburgh Penguins Plan is Still To Retool
Jason Strudwick: “You with the recent little streak of the Penguins after the trade for (Philip) Tomasino and then we know Lars Eller moved out. Does that embolden Kyle Dubas to kind of continue down this path of trying to acquire younger players by maybe shipping out a little bit older guys?”
Dave Pagnotta: “Yeah. I mean, that seems to be still the mindset. And I don’t think it’s going to deviate from the plan just because they’re putting it together. You know, it’s all in streak here. You know, 4w together consecutively. That’s always nice. The Rangers would love that. But, you know, you don’t want to take away from the plan.
NHL Rumors: How Far Would the Pittsburgh Penguins be Willing to Go?
Like is it window dressing? Is it like, how do you evaluate that. You don’t want to get too behind on anything. You don’t want to get too overly excited and have that kind of sugar coat that’s exactly what’s going on there. I think they’re going to maintain, you know, the direction.
I think you’ll see (Marucs) Pettersson get moved out on the back end. They’ve got a couple other guys on expiring deals that provide depth for other contenders. And they’ll look to move other guys like (Rickard) Rakell names out there and (Bryan) Rust and (Michael) Bunting and so on.
NHL Rumors: Pittsburgh Penguins, and New York Rangers Trade Tiers
So I think that the mindset certainly is, and it’s been reinforced based on how they performed in the first quarter of the season. It’s we need to get younger. We need to get quicker. And we can still get those types of pieces by moving some veterans out and still complimenting the core that they’ve got there.
So, you know, it’s we kind of re-evaluate a little bit, but I don’t think this has shifted the mindset of where Dubas is at right now and try to reshape the roster.”