Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas
Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas, who has stocked his club with players who apparently just needed a fresh start or a new challenge, said Wednesday that his latest trade fit the same mold.
The Penguins on Tuesday acquired defenseman Ilya Solovyov in a trade with Colorado. Although he has split his past couple seasons between the NHL and AHL, Solovyov reported to Calgary, where the Penguins play Wednesday night, and not to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Dubas indicated that the Penguins had done a deep dive on Solovyov in the fall.
“It’s a 25-year-old that all of our departments on the personnel side, R&D side, all are fans of and believe that he’s got good potential,” Dubas told Josh Getzoff on Sportsnet Pittsburgh’s weekly “Game Plan” show.
Dubas noted that Solovyov fits a familiar mold in terms of recent acquisitions.
“We just think he’s shown enough defensively to be able to make stops and play that role, but also with the puck, the ability to get up the ice and transition the puck well,” Dubas said. “It just continues in the trend of trying to add younger talent to the organization any chance that comes up.”
As far as how well the Penguins have been playing since the Christmas break — going 8-2-2 — after struggling most of December, Dubas said he simply has liked the way the team has played.
“It’s not only the fact that we’ve won, but it’s the fact that we’re carrying the play. We’re doing a really good job (with) goaltending, both guys have been really strong. … And I think defensively we’ve probably been at our best in the stretch vs. any other on the whole year. We’ve also continued to get offense from all throughout our lineup,” he said.
“Since we’ve come out of the Christmas break, I think we’ve shown really what we’re capable of, and I think this is the longest stretch where we’ve put it together consistently.”
On signing fourth-line center, energy guy and penalty killer Blake Lizotte to a three-year contract extension: “When you have people like Blake who play that role and do so without complaint, do so without wanting to take on more of an offensive side, they’re really hard to find.”
On trading for forward Egor Chinakhov: “It’s a player we’ve talked about for a long time. … We just felt that it was a player that had had a falling out with the previous coaching staff in Columbus, and that stuff happens with every team. We just thought with his age and his speed, with his offensive speed — and probably more than that, as we dug into it, he also is extremely responsible defensively. He tracks back hard, covers for guys. We just thought that with our group that we have, he could play a really key role, and we just feel like — especially now having had him just over three weeks — it’s only kind of hammered home the fact that there’s so much more for him to give on so many different levels for him to get to.”
On rookie forward Rugter McGroarty’s season, with him now in the AHL: “I just think it’s part of it. I don’t see it as frustration at all. Would we love for him and Ville Koivunen and Avery Hayes and Tristan Broz just to all have had great camps and then jump right in and be flying? Of course. But they’re in development, and it’s never linear. You learn so much more about them, and I think accrue the different skills that they need to accrue to be at their best when things aren’t going right.” Dubas added that right now McGroarty, coming off a concussion, simply was an odd man out at the NHL level because the Penguins like the lineup they have.
On captain Sidney Crosby at age 38: “People who are deeply dedicated to their craft, who live their craft, are able to sustain their level of performance for a long time. … You have to outwork and be more deeply committed to it than anybody, and I think that’s what Sid’s able to do. The level of focus, the level of commitment day in and day out, it doesn’t ever fade. … It’s a lot of fun to watch, and I don’t see any reason to put a timeline on how long he can keep it up for because in the three years that I’ve been here, the performance level has been incredibly consistent, and that’s been amongst the best in the league.”
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