Kyle Dubas Media Availability (06.27.25) | Pittsburgh Penguins

Kyle Dubas Media Availability (06.27.25) | Pittsburgh Penguins

yeah so obviously done the um done our portion of the first round i know it’s still going on but we’re trying to see if we can get everybody here home tomorrow um so uh we’re excited about the results for for us um Wes Clark can speak more deeply on the players um you know in the coming uh later today or tomorrow whenever he addresses everybody but for us to come out of the first round with three players that we did i think all very different player types we’re extremely excited and and look forward to tomorrow but I’ll I’ll open up for any questions specifically on Ben Kindle on seemed like an outside the box to some people some of the draft experts had a little lower what was it about you like so much yeah Wes can Wes will talk deeply about tomorrow but I think right from the beginning of the year he was a player that our area scouts and then Wes had really keyed in on as as someone that um they just had a lot of belief in and then you know so I I had watched him play and he just continued to get better and better and then especially you know we understand he’s not the biggest guy but you look at the production and you look at the the intelligence and the skill set and where we came to in the last couple days as we met here was just we we had intel that um it wasn’t going to go much further beyond and um we just didn’t want to look back on and say geez why do we pass on this guy that had 99 points and then stepped up his game in the playoffs and it’s just you know it has all the makings of one of these prototypical ones that that we were going to kick ourselves about so Wes was certain about it for months that that Ben should be in that mix and would be a great pick and and he has deep belief in him and obviously From what I have watched on tape and live um I see exactly Wes is talking about what’s happen
you take three forwards did you come in today wanting to certain no we didn’t come in thinking that we were going to come out with three forwards i think the um where we came to was we felt by moving out of the 12th pick it would give us a chance to um to potentially add you know two more highend players that we had rated high on our list 59 tomorrow and then once we saw the way it was going we thought there’s very little chance we were going to get somebody that we really had rated high at 59 so what we did was we traded to what we did was select Bill um there and then we just felt like if we didn’t move up and get Will Horov um we were going to be reaching a little bit at the pick later and so we used 59 to get up and make sure that we got Will as well it was just a quality of player where they came out on our board and how they graded out for us um so um you know we’ve fortunate we got some D last year that have already signed and ready to come in plus from the class the year before which will develop and we just especially with the varian style of play from all three of them we were we were excited about picks were there any discussions as far as either players or prospects going or coming there’s been lots of trade conversation the last couple days and then as usual you know there’s a big trade obviously earlier today with Montreal and the Islanders and a few others but nothing that for us that we felt really got us that was going to affect tonight close to the finish line what did you see in Bill as a player he’s someone who kind of seemed to creep up on draft boards over the last year or so
well I think um Bill this year he played on an excellent team and was a massive a really good team in the in the QMGHL and throughout the year every time you watched him he production speaks for itself but I think the thing that was most exciting us was that he he really thrived when he moved to center was excellent at center plays in all situations plays against the other team’s best players and as the year went on just the level of competitiveness especially in the playoffs uh for them was was really a driver for his team and that was for us the most exciting part of it was the combination size competitiveness and then the production and then stepping his game up as it went along especially as they faced very difficult opponents and on their road to to playing Monton um and so we we were excited to get him met at the combine you see the intelligence level and and combine results how much they predict is is depends on how deep you want to go into it in terms of the actual testing but it gives us a base for when a player comes in here and he’s obviously someone that’s taken that element very seriously and we know he’s going to give us everything he has to reach his potential
you all three prospects as centers or just forwards to find their way
we’ll let Dan figure that out in time uh not you Dan but Dan coach Dan so we will uh we’ll uh you know we’ll have you know all three of them have played center uh Kindle and Kindle and Zan more so than than Warov um but um you know we we view all them they play in all situations and um we’re excited about them if they can all play all three of them can play that would be fantastic but we’re going to need guys to play higher up the lineup as well on the wing so having that ability where we know that they can shift between positions is is always great
i feel like it was at the deadline you talked about having triples in a few different rounds in the next three years i mean to come with triples tonight I mean just how helpful is that as you guys are continuing along this path to get the Penguins back to where everyone wants to be
i I think you’ve trying to find that balance between you know having a lot and having quality and we have to deliver we think all And that’s why we traded back up again to make sure that we got got Will was that we felt like after him on our way out that we would there would be a bit of a drop off so we wanted to make sure that we got him and um we’re hope we believe that all three are going to be very high quality players in the NHL so we’re excited about that excited to get to work with them obviously when you’re in our position you tend to recruiting picks and prospects you have to make good on them you have to draft good players you have to do a great job developing them and we’ll turn them over after today to get to work kind of going right off of that it’s not just about tonight it’s about what you’ve been doing for a while now just how do you feel like about that yeah I mean it’s it’s uh I knew coming in to take the job that it was eventually going to be the path we had to go down we’ve talked about a number of times you know what the mandate was at the was to try to give the team one last um boost in the summer of 2023 and then but but know that at some point you know we’re going to have to make the call to go into this mode uh to to try to build you know to transition to that next era of the team contending again and um we you know we know what people say about the prospect pool and the and the class and and how long of a road people think it’s going to be but we are down there every ounce of our focus is about is about getting the team back to contention as urgently as possible so I I know that that can at times confuse but we don’t sit down and say it’s going to be x amount of years what can we do to help bring the team back to contention as quickly as possible do you anticipate using all those is there ever a danger of having too many prospects in the system in terms of just being able to pay attention enough to all their development we have as as I think one of the major things in coming in was that the the ownership group was um they were very clear that they were going to invest with player development and research and development and they’ve backed up everything they told me two years ago and coming in here that they would invest so those departments have to grow if we feel that we get to a point where the players aren’t getting enough from our player development department we will we will address that and continue to add quality people to We moved Brook from Wilsberry’s coaching staff to the development staff so we add another layer there with rookie um we have a fulltime member of our NHL staff now Rich CL is going to be the conduit towards development has deep experience with that um so we just we know that we have to get the most out of our NHL players but we also have to ensure that our young developing players are getting the resources they need to reach their potential
there was chat that you might up in the top 10 is that true that you were trying and if so like did you get close at all
well we had the two picks and I think we we put our best foot forward to try to do that i think as you saw nobody moved out of the top 10 they all held i think we you know with a number of teams that seemed open to it we uh we put in front of them a number of options in the event that they got to the pick and wanted to move down and um you know none of that none of that came to fruition so that’s that’s sometimes just the way it goes thankful that you held work with three guys for sure if we had moved up we would have ended up just having obviously teams with first offer this kind of format what’s different when you’re not maybe face to face with another GM president there’s so little that’s actually face to at the you know aside from like the social stuff before the draft everything else is on the phone um you know when I was in the O for growing up and then as the GM it was this exact format so it’s fine for me uh you know we’ll see what happens i know there’s been a lot of chatter about it and I’ve got lots of texts throughout the night that people maybe want to just go back to how it was whatever the league decides is best for the the league is is That’s good with us we’ve got a lot of people that have major junior experience in the room that are used to this exact format the way it is today whatever they decide is best will be ready as you know we have a lot of coming up the next years will be major major actors in all those curious what was Dan Muse’s role just throughout all this as far as input being a resource kind of bouncing ideas off just what was kind of his uh role or position
Dan knew some of the kids I mean he’s he’s he knew some of the kids from you know when they were essentially scouting them at the US program that would have been at the end of his last year so he wouldn’t have had any interaction with them um Dan’s major since coming on has been filling out his coaching staff we’re getting to the the end of that one more addition to make and then we’ll w he’s been having lots of interactions with our with our players and now it’s serving as calling them introducing himself and kind of letting the players know before they come in for development camp on Monday or Tuesday just with the expectation that was going to be from his side so that would be his role here what role are you looking to add to the hire how is that division
yeah someone to run the D in the penalty kill will run the power play that’s been his specialty will sort of serve as the face offs and then learn all about coaching and Rich will serve as the eye in the sky and really focus on the developmental side and throughout his own experience and all that he’s learned so we got that one kind of opening left
Kyle I hate to ask a lot of noise in Montreal about Sydney Crosby
what do you have to say about any of that and some of the comments tonight yeah I didn’t I didn’t I I didn’t know exactly it I mean is it Montreal Rock said
he thought the usual suspect
usual suspect I mean I I haven’t you know I haven’t seen that i mean obviously our focus here is uh deep um so I I’m not sure what the you know or Pat has commented or or whomever about it there’s no change at all to anything from from our perspective you know everything that we’re doing is about bringing the team back to being a contending team and our hope is to sure do that while sit is a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins so um that’s really all I can offer i’m sorry yeah focus has been on picking players and not random former players views on matters but that’s Yeah I get it i get it all stated perfect

Penguins President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Kyle Dubas addresses the media following the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft.

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