While new Pittsburgh Penguins President of Hockey Operations Kyle Dubas is getting praise for what he did during free agency, if you really breakdown the moves made by Dubas, you can’t help but wonder that he would have run back the same roster if he had stayed with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Before departing, Dubas talked about making the tough decisions and changing up the roster. He was finally open to trading one of the core four players of Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Auston Matthews, and John Tavares. That chance never came.
Instead, Dubas found himself out the door and heading to Pittsburgh. Since arriving in Pittsburgh Dubas has said all the right things. However, some of the moves the team has made personnel-wise just do not make sense.
Salary Cap Was Big Winner of NHL Free Agency
For months, we heard Tristan Jarry was not coming back to the Pittsburgh Penguins. With the Penguins up against the salary cap, they were going to go in a different direction. The future of Casey DeSmith was unclear as well. Though his performance at the IIHF World Championships might have changed the minds of some inside the organization.
But when the goalie market started to run dry, there was a realization from the Penguins organization that they may have to overpay for Jarry’s services. We see it every year on the opening day of Free Agency, similar to fantasy hockey once one goes, they all go.
Thus Kyle Dubas had to outbid himself for the services of Jarry. He gave Jarry a five contract that carries an AAV of $5.375 million. For a guy who has not gotten out of the first round, that was a lot of years and a lot of money.
You could see this year, if the Penguins got a stop from their goaltending they are in the playoffs. But again it did not happen. Pittsburgh is a bubble team at best being the oldest team in the league. Thus giving that contract to Jarry likely meant only one thing if Dubas stayed in Toronto, the Maple Leafs would have run it back one more time.
Dubas has a track record of believing in a team when he feels they are right there. And as he stated, when he first got to Pittsburgh he still believes in this Penguins team led by Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang.
He did address other areas by signing Lars Eller, Matt Nieto, Noel Acciari, and Ryan Graves. The Graves contract was a little long. But the fact is, Dubas has yet to make a tough decision. He is great with analytics and finding players, but making a tough decision is something we have yet to see it. Eventually, he will need to.
Dubas did not re-sign Jason Zucker, but the fact of the matter that Mikael Granlund and Rickard Rakall’s contracts are still on the books is puzzling. Giving Jarry what he did just did not make sense either.
It seems like running it back is always in the cards for Kyle Dubas. Eventually, the law of diminishing has to catch up with him and it has in Toronto. We will see in Pittsburgh.
However, the more you look at what Dubas did in Pittsburgh, especially with the Tristan Jarry signing, he would have run it back with the core four in Toronto.
