PITTSBURGH — Kyle Dubas met with the media following the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft and, as per usual, made a lot of sense. Pittsburgh Penguins officials love when Dubas speaks publicly because he’s really good at it. When he speaks, it immediately becomes clear that this is a highly intelligent executive who very much knows what he’s doing and very much has the franchise headed in the right direction.
He said something on Friday night, however, that wasn’t necessarily incorrect but didn’t tell the whole story.
Dubas said reaching the playoffs last season — and subsequently burying the Penguins’ attempt to land a high draft pick — was worth it. Fair enough. There is no honor in tanking. Sidney Crosby’s return to the postseason was a mesmerizing story.
He mentioned that last season’s success was “fueled by the development” of his younger players, pointing specifically to Ben Kindel, Egor Chinakhov, Parker Wotherspoon, Connor Dewar, Blake Lizotte and Arturs Silovs. He also went out of his way to mention Sergei Murashov and Joel Blomqvist. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again into the future: we can’t measure the importance of Kindel sitting in the locker room with Crosby during a playoff game, seeing how Crosby composes himself, seeing how much it means to Evgeni Malkin, seeing the work Kris Letang puts in when the cameras aren’t on. These are all powerful things that will help the Penguins long after the Big Three are gone.
And yes, the likes of Kindel, Chinakhov, Dewar, Lizotte and Silovs all enjoyed varying levels of success last season, which is great. Dubas isn’t wrong. I’d throw Elmer Söderblom into that mix, too. It was also good that Rutger McGroarty and Avery Hayes got a taste of NHL action.
Let’s be clear about something, though. The Penguins’ two best players last season were indisputably Crosby and Erik Karlsson.
Crosby turns 39 in August, you may have heard. Karlsson just turned 36.
Their next four best players, in whatever order you’d like to place them in, were Evgeni Malkin, Anthony Mantha, Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell. Mantha, it’s becoming increasingly clear, won’t be back next year. His regular season was truly outstanding, but his postseason performance was consistent with his reputation as a player who isn’t going to run through a wall for you in the postseason. Malkin turns 40 in a month. Rust is 34, Rakell is 33.
And this, of course, is the problem.
The 2025-26 Penguins were a magnificent success story. They were a good team, a fun team, a team with a very good coach in Dan Muse. But they were absolutely carried by their older players. The Penguins scored 293 goals, good for third in the league. It can’t be ignored, however, that players 30 or older scored 175 of those goals. For comparison’s sake, the only team in the East to score more goals than the Penguins was Carolina, and only 103 of the Hurricanes’ goals were scored by players age 30 or older.
So, the Penguins find themselves in a dicey position. They probably won’t fall off of a cliff next season. Their older players are another year older, sure, but I wouldn’t exactly write any of them off. They can still play.
Are they going to elevate their respective games to make the Penguins a legitimate Stanley Cup contender? I would find that to be highly unlikely. Their best chance would be if goalie Sergei Murashov becomes an instant sensation. While I won’t discount this possibility and think he could give them better goaltending next season, we have to keep our expectations for him somewhat in check.
Plus, have you gotten a look recently at Carolina and Florida’s rosters? Check out Tampa Bay, Washington, Buffalo and Montreal when you get a chance. too.
In some ways, Dubas is a victim of his own success. Identifying players like Mantha, Wotherspoon, Brazeau, Kindel and Silovs last season was brilliant work and helped the Penguins get off to a good start without spending much money. Those five played for a total of about $7 million last season. Even more impressive was landing Chinakhov and Söderblom for a handful of non-first round draft picks, to say nothing of unloading Tristan Jarry’s salary.
Oh, it was sensational stuff. And it moved the Penguins back up the standings. But now what?
They still aren’t Cup contenders, and while their system is immeasurably better than it was two years ago, it’s not championship-level yet and won’t be for a while.
There are also a couple of issues that no one wants to hear. For one, the longer you go without trading the likes of Karlsson, Rust and Rakell, the more their value may drop. We learned over the past weeks that the trade value for Rust and Rakell isn’t quite as high as many in Pittsburgh wish to believe. I suspect you could still receive a legitimate package for Karlsson, but who knows?
Then there is the sad fact that while Crosby is still great — easily a top-20 player in the league even as he’s 13 months from his 40th birthday, and probably closer to top 10-15 — the Penguins’ best players are no longer good enough to take over a playoff series.
We saw it in April. The Penguins, save for one bad Stuart Skinner outing in Game 3 against Philadelphia, received good goaltending in that series. Their defensive work, often a weakness, was perfectly fine and improved as the series progressed. But they couldn’t score. That’s why they lost the series. Crosby, Malkin, Rust, Rakell and Karlsson combined for only six goals in six games.
In particular, Crosby, Malkin, and Rust are three of the fiercest competitors to ever wear a Penguins uniform. To a man, they craved being back in the playoffs, craved playing against the Flyers. But when push came to shove, they were unable to take over the way they once could. That’s because the playoffs aren’t for people pushing 40.
It’s not that these guys aren’t still wonderful players, but they need more help. They need a couple of more stars to ease a transitional period. Reaching the postseason was a great accomplishment but served a reminder of how far away the Penguins are from being a great team.
Dubas knows this. He knows stars come along organically to some extent, and that his remarkable heater over the past year would eventually cool.
There was a hint of frustration in Dubas’ tone over the weekend. He’s done a lot of good, and I think he knows it. The Penguins are headed in the right direction. Just look at their prospect pool.
Dubas has turned a below-average team into an above-average one, and that was no easy task. The Penguins’ system was expansion-team bad when he took over — actually, it was worse, because he didn’t have the benefit of all of those draft picks — and their stars were aging then. They’re three years older now.
Turning an average or above-average team into a great one, however, will require Dubas’ greatest act yet. This past week wasn’t the right time for him to strike, in retrospect. He made the right call to retreat.
But the fans want more. I assure you the big names want more. That massive move, the one he very much wanted to execute during the past week, will have to wait a little longer.
There is no clear answer as to how the Penguins will get to the top of the mountain again. I suspect Dubas will get them there at some point, because I think he’s that good. But producing such a feat while Crosby is still playing seems a bit more unlikely after the past week.
It’s nobody’s fault. It’s merely the reality of how daunting the Penguins’ turnaround is.