Team: 2023-24 Pittsburgh Penguins

Initial Creation Date: Dec. 11, 2023

Published: Dec. 11, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Whether it's on here or on twitter, Pens fans are starting to drive me up a wall.

First thing to remember as far as Kyle Dubas goes. He was signed in hopes that he can try and revive something of what's left of the team, while also getting to work on a future rebuilding of the team. That's a very delicate balance for any GM to manage, specially one with the circumstances around the penguins.

A lot of fans continue to critique and complain about certain moves made by Dubas this season while blindly ignore some of the following:

-Ron Hextall made some awful trades and signed some awful contracts. (Jeff Carter is stuck on this team thanks to Hextall and the contract given to Rakell prevents him from being traded like many pens fans continue to push (no team wants that contract on that player)

-Ryan Graves = Definitely has not been a great signing, but if you look at the UFA market, please point out another direction you would've gone for a top 4 LD? All I can see is maybe Mikkola or Soucy. The market was full of mostly nothing after that, or players that were never going to come to Pittsburgh due to their cap requirements or players that resigned with their previous team.

-Bottom 6 = I'm not sure what else there was to do when every analyst and team went into the summer noting that this was not a very strong UFA class of Free Agents. ROR? He wasn't coming to the penguins. Dubas traded for him in TOR and my assumption is that if he wanted him in Pittsburgh and they had a good relationship, there would've been a better chance. Duchene was always going to a contender and the Penguins were not a contender. After that the center depth was awful. DET Overpaid Compher (pens could never afford that), Domi is not a good center and awful defensively, After that you're pretty sol (sure there were guys like Donato/EROD/Geekie that I would've liked to see, but think only EROD could realistically be a 3C of that group.

-Jarry = He's been very strong this year, and while people complain about the AAV and Term (term to me is meaningless given the team will be in shambles by the final year of his contract) I'm not sure what else the team does in the summer. Many wanted to go with two backups that would save money, but I think that's vastly too much of a gamble for a team that's supposed to essentially be in their final year(s) of trying to win another cup, you need to have a goalie that you believe can be the top guy. Guys like Stolarz/Talbot/Rittich have benefited from being on very deep and strong teams, I think the same can be said about Reimer and Lyon even though i've seen some in Detroit wanting to upgrade the position. Raanta and Anderson were both going to stay, and guys like Quick were only going to sign with a contender. This is another example of terrible UFA market.


Many people can obviously point out making a trade to address Bottom 6/Defense/Goaltending in the summer over the signings, but Dubas noted wanting to maintain his assets while trying to make the team competitive and that's a very delicate balance. He obviously choose to spend his 1st on Erik Karlsson as is one big trade to improve things and while he's been great, the PP has been awful, and that's somewhere that EK needs to be adding value to.

The penguins are stuck in limbo for a number of reasons but those reasons have meant that we've been able to enjoy the best player in the world for the past decade and a half and win 3 cups. At this point fans just need to enjoy getting to watch someone like Sid age like a fine wine.

There isn't much left that can be done imo unless Dubas really decided to blow away whats left of the future (few prospects and your picks). Lots of penguin fans continue to think it's simple to move out someone like Acciari or Graves or Rakell. It's just not there.