Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on The Jeff Marek Show on if the Pittsburgh Penguins’ latest loss steers the GM Kyle Dubas in one direction, and what the future holds for pending UFA forward Jake Guentzel.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “The Panthers beat the Penguins 5-2 and this has been a really tough spell for the Pittsburgh Penguins. How much more in focus are things becoming now for Kyle Dubas. And again, we’ll you know circle the name Jake Guentzel who unfortunately left the game night in the third period (out up to four weeks).
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But it’s not as if they don’t have the room to sign Jake Guentzel. They can. It’s only a matter of, are they going to continue to double down on this thing? Do you think night’s game against the Florida Panthers sharpens the focus now for Dubas?
Friedman: “Well, I like, like I don’t think that, like I think Dubas has been prepared for either eventualities. I don’t really believe that, like one game is going to change anything. I really don’t I that’s just not the way Dubas thinks. Like he’s a, like by now we should know one game is not, actually, I shouldn’t say that because I think there is, I think the for example, I think the ….”
Marek: “David Ayers.”
Friedman: “Zamboni driver game actually did change his views on some things.
So you’re right you know, but mostly he’s a process guy. I think he looks at bigger picture as opposed to smaller picture. You know, I saw like, I refuse to believe a 5-1 loss to Florida in the second week of February is gonna say okay, ‘that’s it, we’re done.’
You know, the other thing we have to wait here is the Penguins obviously didn’t have a morning skate in Chicago. And we’ll see if Mike Sullivan has an update on Jake Guentzel, because guess who got hurt last night didn’t play the last 12 minutes and you know, that’s a big deal (the Penguins announced he’ll be out for up to four weeks with an upper-body injury). How serious is that? Hopefully not, but I don’t think that changes at one way or the other.
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The thing about Dubas is, I think he, I think everybody knows what the price is going to be it’s going to be similar, he’s asking for something similar to Giroux ask and you know he can wait he’s, he’s not afraid to be patient.”
Marek: “So essentially the equivalent of two first-round draft picks.”