Kyle Dubas OPENS UP about the Penguins rebuild, management, and more!

Kyle Dubas OPENS UP about the Penguins rebuild, management, and more!

Kyle Dubis opened up in a way we have not heard much from him since he’s been the Penguins president of hockey operations. Hunter and I are going to break down his comments and more right after this. Your Locked On Penguin your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins part of the Locked on Podcast Network your team every day. Welcome in to another edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I’m one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at synonyonym for wet. Joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodies. You can follow him on Twitter, Hunter Hodes. You can give our show’s Twitter account a follow Penguins. You can also drop us a follow on Instagram, locked_penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don’t forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as YouTube. And if you follow us on YouTube, be sure to hit the notification button. That way, you can be among the first to know when we drop our latest episodes. Before we dive into it today, today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets on FanDuel if their first $5 bet wins. Well, Hunter, this is something we I don’t want to say missed so much as we had to kind of hold off so we could do fan take Friday to end last week. Kyle Dubis was on the PDO cast last week and it was a very interesting conversation and it was a side of Kyle Dubis that we haven’t really seen since he became the Penguins president of hockey operations. Now, we all know he is a very wellspoken, very thoughtful person. If you watch any of his press conferences and press availabilities since he’s come to Pittsburgh, he gives just about every reporter in the room time. He answers questions thoughtfully. He answers them honestly. Sure, there’s a lot of general manager speak and fog of war in there where he doesn’t want to give too much away on what his plans are. Let’s be honest, he was trained under the toutelage of Lou Lamarillo. And if you so much as speak out of turn with Lou Lamarillo, you might find yourself with cement shoes at the bottom of a river. So there’s a little bit of that in him. But the thing I wanted to start the show about with today, and we’ll get more into the overall Penguin side of it later on in the show, is Kyle Dubis’ theory of management. One of the things he touched on in that conversation, it wasn’t directly about Mitch Mner, but it was basically a nod to what he’s learned and what he believes when it comes to elite players. Basically saying it’s better to give a player you believe in a longer term deal and give them that security than to string them along. Now, the Penguins aren’t in position to do anything like that right now. Obviously, they’re not going to give out big deals to Crosby, Malin, Latang. We’ll see what happens in their future. But I like the fact that he was willing to admit that, hey, everybody calls me this player friendly kind of always doing right by the players. But it’s better to give your best players longer deals to let them know you believe in them rather than to make them have to sing for their supper every 3 to four years. Right. That was definitely really enlightening. And by the way, people, if you have not listened to this episode yet with Dimmitri and Thomas Dance, they both did a great job asking questions to Kyle Dubis, I very much suggest that you go and listen to the full show. We’re not going to talk about the entire thing today because that would be kind of ridiculous for us. We want you to go and listen to the episode because they did such a good job with Dubis as a guest. So, please take the time, listen to it. I would say 80 to 85% of the conversation was about management in the NHL and about you know the 15 to other 20% is about the Penguins but it’s still a really and I mean a really fun listen. One of the things that really stood out to me was when they asked Dubis about all the players they’ve taken, Pat, that have, you know, skating grades of, you know, four to five, like they aren’t the best skaters in the draft. And he kind of just said like, yeah, like we identify players that we think can improve in that department, but we also think they have, you know, good physical traits, they have good hockey IQ, good offensive tools on the ice. That’s what they’re kind of looking for. Even though, you know, when you look at the elite prospects grade for their skating, it’s not, you know, close to that nine rates or even a seven or eight. They feel like they can improve in that regard. And I also liked how he discussed his management style. There was a part during the interview where he even said like, yeah, like you know, I encourage conversations, you know, between, you know, the scouting staff and the analytic staff. Like there’s nothing, you know, weird about that in the scouting rooms. you know, he even said like, you know, I come from a a big scouting background and I encourage these conversations. Like I I really like when both sides, you know, give their opinions. And he even said like there’s nothing weird about it. You’re not seeing any major disagreements or anything like that. But I like how he answered that they just try to, you know, bring everything together in one room. And that’s how it should be now, especially with where hockey analytics have come in the last what, Pat, 10 to 11 years. Honestly, scouting obviously has been around way longer than that, but I feel like hockey analytics, they still have a long way to go, at least in my opinion. We both use them on our show, but they’ve still come a long way in the last 10 to 11 years. So, I really liked that aspect as well. And another thing I really liked is how he talked about how fast things can change in the NHL. He really talked about the Florida Panthers, how they were really able to keep their core players and, you know, talked about the rising salary cap and also talked about their draft picks, but we can get into that a little bit later. But another big point, as I just as I just discussed, Pat, how things can change quickly in the NHL, he really hampered that home during this episode. Right. And this will kind of be a good way to not We’re not going to close out this segment after about five minutes. Obviously, there’s a lot to discuss here, but it’s a good way to kind of get us on the road to the second segment about where this rebuild is and where it’s going. the Panthers being able to retain everybody really kind of I think and Dubis doesn’t outright say this, but he hints at it that it kind of messed up their strategy because they expected one or more of those big names on the market to move whether it was the Panthers, whether it was Mitch Mner and obviously that happened with Mner, but that happened via signin trade. they kind of expected there to be more movement which would have squeezed some teams out and left some players available whether it was via trade whether it was for RFA offer sheets and things like that but given that a lot of the teams were able to flex their salary cap space it really threw a a bit of a wrench into the plan of what they were looking to do and what they’re looking to do going forward so I I think it was good of him to say like Hey, things in the NHL, they change at a really rapid pace. And to to kind of put a bow a little bit on what he was saying overall and how it relates to the Penguins, he talked about how in the 2010s, the best teams were the best teams not because they had any sort of reinventing of the wheel. the Penguins, the Blackhawks, the Los Angeles Kings, the Boston Bruins, they identified a really good core, kept them together, and players wanted to go there. That it wasn’t some, hey, look at us. We’re this big, flashy team. We’re reinventing the wheel. We’re doing all kinds of new things. No, they had two, three, four really good players that they identified and locked up and said, “This is a core that can win.” And that attracted top tier talent to want to go to those teams. And you can see that happening with Florida. You can see that happening with Vegas. You can see it happening with Dallas, Carolina, Colorado. Kyle Dubis understands that we’re going to have to lock up some good talent and keep them here to attract other talent to come to town. That and also, you need to get back to winning again. I mean, again, they’re still very early in this rebuild. We’re going to touch on that a little bit more coming up in the second segment, but you still have to get back to winning a little bit more, Pat. So, you can convince some of those players, hey, you should come here based on our history, based on, okay, we’re coming out of this rebuild eventually. And this is down the line. I don’t think this is going to be right away. They’re still very early in this rebound, but eventually down the line when you’re ready to go get some of those complimentary pieces, especially after you potentially draft your next core players, you can convince them, hey, we have these guys in place. We’re ready to win. You look at our organization’s history. Come join us. And I think that’ll be a step again that’s coming down the line as well. and he kind of admitted that he wanted to take action on the assets that they had accumulated, but because of what the Panthers did and what some of these other teams did as well, Pat, with some of the signs and trades, especially, you know, with Mner not even getting to market, they just didn’t have the opportunity to do that. So, they kind of had to pivot pretty quickly. you know, they obviously picked 13 players in the 2025 NHL draft, and they’re not going to pick players with all these picks coming up in these next few years, but it does show that they had to pivot pretty quickly. And he even admitted that during the show, but still again, those are just a couple of things that really stood out to me. And we’re discuss more about the rebuild coming up pretty quickly here. Yeah, that’s a good place to put a button on this first segment. We’ll kind of mesh together in the second segment. a lot of the things that Dubis said on the PDO cast and how they relate to where this team is in the process of this rebuild and retool. We’ll get into that when we come back. So stick with us. We’ll be right back. But first, we got to tell you about today’s sponsor, and that is FanDuel. Summer sports are in full swing. And whether you’re all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, or high stakes soccer action, FanDuel is the best place and best way to make those games even more exciting. You’re already following the action, so why not make it a little more thrilling? With FanDuel, you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned on the beach. FanDuel’s extremely easy to use. They have fast payouts, and it makes regular season games feel like mustwatch events. If you’re new to FanDuel, new new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if their first $5 bet wins. So, open the FanDuel app today or visit fanduel.com to get started. Welcome back to the Monday edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I’m Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodies. Let’s keep this conversation going about Kyle Dubis’ conversation on the PDO cast and how it relates to what the Pittsburgh Penguins are doing right now. And one thing that stood out to me a little bit was he did kind of reiterate that they are still operating with a mindset of wanting to get Cydney Crosby back to the playoffs. And this is kind of where I’m going to push back on Kyle Dubis a little bit. And no, we’re not getting into any of the stupid is Crosby going to get traded conversations. Get out of our mentions. We’re not talking about that. I get why he says this. I understand why he says this. You don’t want to come out and go, “Sorry, Crosby. Everything here sucks. Now you’re just going to have to eat crap and smile.” But there is a world where he can make this happen. Because I want to talk about it this way, blending what he said about things changing so rapidly in the NHL with Florida being able to lock everybody up, not a lot of big names getting to market and the salary cap expanding. The thing that he might be able to pull off here is cliche as it’s been, overhyped as it’s been about every all 31 other teams are trying to get better and trying to win and then there’s the Pittsburgh Penguins who hold all the cards. Here’s the thing. There are going to be a lot of teams this year that underachieve, that disappoint, that things aren’t going to go well. And here are the Pittsburgh Penguins with a couple of good tradable assets and Brian Rust, Ricard Raquel, Eric Carlson, whomever else, a boatload of picks, a boatload of prospects. now. So, if he wants to get back to the playoffs, if I’m him and I want to get back to the playoffs in the next, let’s say, two to three years, one of those disappointing teams or a couple of those disappointing teams are going to have talent that you could maybe poach if they really get desperate. So, I’m interested to see what happens on that because like he said, things change and they change pretty quickly. They do. But, I also will push back on that a little bit. I mean, you kind of said it. He kind of has to say that at this rate with where Sydney Crosby is at the tail end of his career. He’s not going to say like, “Hey, we’re going to suck this year and we’re going to suck next year too and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Like that will probably, at least in my opinion, make Sid a little bit upset. But at the same time, I also know that he signed up for, you know, a rebuild when he reuped with the Penguins for this contract extension. But I still don’t think he’s going to go out there and say like, “Oh yeah, you know, we are 100% going to suck this year and all that.” Like we we can sit here on the show and say they’re not going to be good because we believe that. And again, I don’t think they’re going to make the playoffs, but you know, crazier things have happened, but I still would put it at 85 90% know that they won’t get in and maybe about 10 to 15 yes. But he really admitted that with the draft picks that they have, like they want to a draft their next core players/franchise players and b use some of those other draft picks to go get some complimentary players that will be out there whenever because those types of players are always available. I think some people need to, you know, remember that a lot of those types of players, they’re available every year, but they still don’t have their next wave of franchise guys yet. That might start in 2026 depending on how high they pick in the draft, whether that’s McKenna, whether that’s someone else a bit after him, but it may start at that point. And maybe maybe it continues into next year with Landon DuPont just because he’s also seen as a generational franchise type of player. But again, I also think some people need to understand that not all rebuilds are created equal. Are they at the beginning stages of this right now? Yes. Does that mean this is going to take 8 to 10 years or something like that? No. Because not all rebuilds are the same. I’ve seen some take that long, but I think in my opinion right now in the cap era with where the league is and where the league is going, your rebuild should not take that long at this rate. And I think that’s why you’re seeing more teams try to do this as quickly as possible and kind of do it on the fly. I think the days of you of seeing, you know, a decade long rebuild or even close to a decade long rebuild, they’re getting close to being over in my opinion just because of where the league is going, how high the salary cap is going and all that. But I also know that Kyle Duba’s company, they’re not going to put a total timeline on this. I’ll say this though, if if this takes 8 to 10 years, I think something went horribly wrong and I think they just mismanaged this whole thing. It should not take that long. I think if it’s somewhere, you know, you know, few years up to maybe five to six, I think that’s totally reasonable for me just because that’s how you see some rebuilds go in even other sports even in the NHL as well. But they are still in the early stages of this. We’ve seen the reports out there that they want to get aggressive in 2026 for free agency with the capsu they have. Again, time will tell. He said it. Things change on the fly. But just to wrap this up, we’re still very early in this process. Well, once they really potentially get a franchisecore piece that will be with the team for many years to come, that’s when I think this will really start speeding up a bit more. For sure. And I I look at a lot of what Kyle Dubis did at this draft, what he’s done for the past year, and he I think is understanding that to your point about not all rebuilds being equal, not all rebuilds being built the same. Yeah. I think he’s acknowledging that the franchise player, the top tier, top guy, it’s probably better, at least in this instance for the Penguins and where they are as a franchise, that he’s the last piece and not the first because for two reasons. One, you have the players the Penguins have right now. They’re not bottoming out. It’s just not going to happen. They’re not going to be historically bad. It’s just it’s not going to happen. If it does, it means injuries. It means bad luck. It means whatever. You’re they are not going to be intentionally bad. They might not be very good, but they’re not going to turn this team into a complete disaster area where it’s borderline hard to watch. So, he’s looking at it as still have to see if any of these players get traded though before the season or even during the season. So, yes, jury is still out on that. But you look at some of the young players he’s signed and traded for. You look at the players he’s drafted because you he did say on they did talk on that show as you said about a lot of these guys their skating on elite prospects was like three and four out of nine. Yeah. But you look at what they’ve been able to do with the likes of Rucker McGory with Vle Kovven and they were like we can work on their skating. Yeah. If they’re good at if they’re good at other things we can work on the skating and we can get that up to par. Cool. We don’t want guys who are fast for nothing. We don’t want guys who get to a point and have nothing they can do when they get there, but they got there quickly, so who cares? But to my overarching point, he’s looking at it as if to say, I want to make sure the complimentary pieces for that big name are in place when the big name gets here. I want there to be cheap depth that is affordable and productive. And then once the big guy gets here, we’re ready to roll. Because you look at places like Buffalo, you look at places right now like Chicago. We’ll obviously see what happens with them, but you look at hell, you even look at the early years of Conor McDavid. You look at those teams and go, well, they got this generational talent and that’s it. And as good as they are, as talented as they are, hockeyy’s not a sport like basketball where you get the big name and they can play 36, 37 minutes a night, be on the court most of the game. There’s at least a third, if not more, of the game where your best player is not on the ice. So, I like this approach of getting as much as you can in now, developing it, see where they end up, and then when you get that big talent, you’re ready to roll that. And also, again, you can also get more complimentary pieces that are even making four to five million that get made available every year, you know, that are putting up, you know, 20 25 plus goals in the league that maybe don’t want to be with their team anymore or maybe they don’t want to sign their next contract with the team. and you can get those types of players and then surround that big guy or potential big guys with those players and then at that point you’re also ready to go. You combine that with your franchise guy and then some of your cheap depth that you already have in the system. At that point you’re almost ready to go especially if you just hopefully get league average goalending, you can defend well and all that. So, I think he’s saying the right things, but as we keep saying, he’s going to be judged by how he brings this team back to contention. His entire tenure that is. So, we’re going to keep watching that as they keep navigating through this. Yeah, it’s going to be really interesting to watch. I like where they are right now. I think there’s a couple other things that they need to do, but we’ve got a whole off season and a whole season to dive into all of that. So, that is going to do it for our breakdown of Kyle Dubis on the PDO cast and how it relates to the Pittsburgh Penguins current situation. When we come back, just because they might not be good this year doesn’t mean that there aren’t a bunch of milestones looming for three of the best players in the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins. We’ll make sure you’re ready for those and you know what they’re coming up against this season right after this. We’re back here on the Monday edition of Locked on Penguins. I’m Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hod’s. And let’s get right into it, Hunter. Let’s get the big one out of the way. Sydney Crosby is 36 points away from tying Mario Lemieux’s all-time franchise point record of 1 723 points. Crosby, as this season gets underway, has 1,687 because of course it ends with 87 points going into this year. I feel pretty comfortable in saying this, Hunter. I think you’re going to agree. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. especially if he stays healthy. And I think that’s going to happen. He is going to break this record this year. And that record is going to stay in place for at least a very long time, if not forever. But hey, I think we all said that about Mario Lemieux’s franchise points record until Sid came along and he’s about to break it. So never say never when it comes to record like that, but it’s going to be in place for quite a long time. After that, he has Steve Eerman in his sights. Pat with 1,755 points, 68 points away from tying Eerman. He stays healthy this year, the level he played at last year. I know he’s going to be another year older. I say he gets ahead of Steve Eisermanman for seventh all time on the points list. After that, you have Marcel Dion with 1,771 points. If he’s healthy, he’ll have a chance to get that one as well. don’t think he’s going to get Ron Francis at 1,798, but there is a real chance if he produces the way he did last year this year, he could be sixth all time in points by the end of this season and could potentially crack top five the following season. I I say the way he keeps producing, I think he is going to get into the top five by the end of his career, which is going to be freaking awesome. You get into the top five, man. You get obviously Ronnie Francis, Gordy How, Mark Messier, Yarm Jarger, Wayne Gretzky. No one’s touching Gretzky’s record, but you know, I think he can definitely get ahead of Francis in the top five. Time will tell for Gordy How. And then for of Malin right now, 1,346 points. He is only a few ahead of Patrick Kane, 31st in NHL history. He’s set to pass Matt Sundine. He’s only three away from tying him at number 30. You have Brendan Shanahan pretty close by. G Laflur, you have Mike Madano a bit later on. Brett Hall knowy Malcin has a really good opportunity to get into the top 25 all time this year in terms of points among all NHL players. So, I definitely think he’s going to get that. I don’t know if he’s going to get to 900 assists this year. He needs 68 to do that. I think that it’s probably wishful thinking in my opinion. Uh for Sid though for assists he’s only 38 away from 1100 and I say he gets that this year especially with the way he played last year. Again Malin won. That’s wishful thinking. I don’t think he’s going to get that this year if he plays another year after that. I say he does. Um so those are just a couple really cool milestones that we could see this year. But Pat, I know you also have a couple for Chris Latang as well. Yes. Before I get to those, I do think we’ll see if Genny Malin move into the top 25 all time, especially if he’s healthy and has consistent linemates this year. He He’s still We kind of forget it and we talked about it on our Friday episode. He actually produced at a pretty solid rate for not having good linemates last year. Yeah. Is he who he once was? Absolutely not. But the talent is still there. We just got to find him some consistency, especially when it comes to linemates. And I think it’ll be it won’t be to the level of Crosby, but it won’t be too far off because it’s still there for of Malin. We just got to find him some help and I think they’re going to try to do that. As for Chris Latang, it’s a big year coming up for him. He’s three assists shy of 600 in his career and he is 28 points away from 800 career points. So, that is another really big year coming up for Chris Latang. And I I feel like I say this way too often, but I have to say it just because the fact that he is still doing this, the fact that he is still playing at a moderately high level. I know he struggled last year. I know on this show we have talked about how he’s probably no longer a top pairing defenseman, but when you accumulate everything he’s gone through in his career healthwise, the fact that he is still chugging along, the fact that he is still motivated and he can hit a couple of really nice milestones this season given all he’s gone through. Really, really rooting for him to do it 100%. And I love seeing him post those workout videos on his Instagram. There is no one that works harder than Chris Latang. You see that every offseason. It’s goated the videos that he posts every offseason on his Instagram. The way that he works out, the conditioning that he has despite being in his late 30s. They may tell him like, “We’re going to cut your minutes down.” But he’s still going to be like, “No, I don’t want that to happen. I want to be out there for half the game.” Even though it’s like, “Okay, Chris, you’re a bit older now. You’re not the player you used to be, but we we understand why you always want to be out there. And Pat, it’s crazy. 22nd all time all time, excuse me, among points for defenseman in initial history. He only needs 15 or 15 points to tie for 20th. 16 to get into the top 20 all time for points among defenseman in NHL history. It’s pretty awesome. Like I I I can’t lie. Like you mentioned the milestones, Pat. three assists away from 600, 28 points away from 800. I say he does both this year, and I say that he gets into the top 20 all-time for scoring among defensemen. Three really cool milestones I think we’re going to get from him this year, even though he’s not going to produce like we’ve seen in the past, that’s just not going to happen. No, but I think the combination of knowing that their time is coming to an end together, the fact that they want to go hopefully on one more run together, and you mix in these milestones that they’re staring down. I think we’re going to see a motivated big three this year. We’ll see how far that motivation gets them because we’re all pretty motivated. Doesn’t mean we always get what we want, but we will see. Obviously, we’re going to be tracking that all season long. So, make sure you’re sticking with us. Make sure you’re subscribed. Let us know what you think when these guys will do it, how you felt about Kyle Dubis’ interview, and anything else on your mind in the comments. But that is going to do it for this episode. Hunter and I will be back with a new episode for you on Wednesday. We’re working on maybe switching up the schedule this week because both of us do go on vacation at the end of this week. So, we want to make sure you’re getting your fill of locked on penguins. So, keep it locked here on our YouTube channel or wherever else you subscribed as well as our social media channels. We’ll let you know. But for now, for Hunter Hodies, I’m Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in and we’ll be back on Wednesday.

Kyle Dubas made an appearance on The PDOcast to talk about his management style, his view of the league, and the Penguins’ rebuild. Patrick and Hunter analyze Dubas’s comments on the show and how we can take what he said and use it to find some clues about where the Penguins are heading. They also discuss where the Penguins’ rebuild currently is, how certain offseason moves by other teams might have forced Dubas to change course, and more about the Penguins’ 2025 draft picks. Finally, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang are always a reason to watch the Penguins, but this year, the big three are approaching some massive career and franchise milestones!

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