Penguins: Now A Metro Offensive Juggernaut.

Dubas finally gets his man, 3 time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson turning the Penguins into a legitimate contender and an offensive juggernaut. Or it should be.

I’m not going to go into too much detail over who goes where, as it’s all over the internet and fellow Penguin Poop compadre Rick Buker has already covered it.

But this has to be one of the greatest fleecings by GM Maestro Kyle Dubas. This looks like the trade a thirteen year old boy would come up with in the NHL game with trades set to easy, that absolutely no one in the real world would take seriously.

This trade is the epitome of “Here are all my worst guys for your best guy”. 

Kyle Dubas managed to dump two of the Penguin’s worst deadweight cap hit contracts in Jeff Petry and Mikael Granlund (Deadweight cap and deadweight player for us..)

That in and of itself is a miracle but he somehow managed to get $1.5 million of salary off Karlsson, AND another young forward in Rem Pitlick AND a prospect AND a third round pick for 2026? Crazy. (How many “AND’S” can one add!)

Rem Pitlick could be a nice little steal to boot.

And there’s more, MORE YOU SAY? Yes, after all that, the Penguins get $3 Million in cap, as well the average age of the roster came down. So the Penguins actually got younger.

What did Dubas have to give up? Yager? Pickering? Poulin? POJ, Two first round picks? Nope.

He had to give a conditional top ten protected first rounder, a second to Montreal, and dumped all his worst players. In return, he got a Norris Trophy winner for almost nothing. Wow.

Erik Karlsson is coming off a Paul Coffey like season slapping up 25(G) 76(A) for 101 Points on a dumpster fire of a roster, as a sort of a oh. I’m washed up huh?

What makes Karlsson so deadly on the Penguins roster besides his overall offensive ability, is his transition off the rush, which is exactly what Sullivan wants and exactly how Karlsson wants to play. A literal match made in hockey heaven if there ever was one.

With Karlsson quarterbacking the Powerplay, which they badly need and have been missing since Phil Kessel, or being creative on the blue line, or his offensive scoring prowess. Having a player of this magnitude playing with Crosby, Malkin, and Letang means it’s going to be a nightmare for teams to contain.

The league is all about moving the puck from the defensive zone to the offensive zone, which is exactly what Karlsson is extremely good at. You may know another player elite at this, which is none other than the Penguin’s own Kris Letang. That means the Penguins have two players who can do something in the league that is highly sought after and they have two guys who do it at an elite level.

This is a teams worst nightmare to play against, at almost every point in a game you will have an elite puck moving defenseman on the Ice.

Now defensively yes he’s not going to be the best, he’s also not going to be the worst despite what people might say. With the proper linemate, like a defensive defenseman such as Marcus Pettersson, he should actually be a net positive.

Now everything isn’t all sunshine and roses. The Penguins probably need at least one more scoring forward, which if I had to guess Dubas will try and snag next as one of his last big moves.

Maybe a little something from his former team? Who happens to be in cap hell, at 12 million large over the cap.

The Penguins are also still quite injury prone, per Jake Guentzel is out for most likely the first month of the season. Yikes.

There is also no chance the hockey gods bless us with both Crosby and Malkin playing 82 games again. So just because we have Karlsson (Who’s also injury prone.) doesn’t mean it’s free sailing to the playoffs.

We will have to see what other moves are made, or how this season goes, but I’m definitely a lot more confident to say the least. Injury prone and all.

Worst case scenario some younger guys get some ice time. Ironically that’s when the Penguins play the best.

It seems most of Penguin fandom is quite happy with the trade, but I do see some detractors bringing up that he’s 33 years old, he’s bad defensively, and we gave away a first rounder when we need to build for the future!

Frankly, forget the future. What are you talking about? Seriously I want to know? You would insult everything that Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang did for you because YOU decided they’re done?

Forget that, Crosby still wants to win, this CORE wants to win. These guys are all still producing at a elite level, so why the hell would they be done? Give them their dues and maybe they even get it done one more time.

Some of the fans need to smell the roses, they AIN’T rebuilding with Crosby on the roster, FSG has made that clear. So when you see the Penguins adding players for “win now” purposes, don’t get mad talking about them needing to rebuild. Just enjoy the fun for the next two years.

Because now with Karlsson no matter what it will be fun to watch.

It seems to me with Dubas grabbing that 2026 third rounder, he will just keep stacking picks for 2026 or 2027 going forward. For one, GM’s are more likely to give up picks that far off, and 2026 just so happens to coincide with Sidney Crosby’s contract being over.

This will also most likely keep the Pens transition period, aka being the “dumpster fire bottom feeding team” years. To a minimum.

Because if you stack a bunch of picks, even if they’re 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th rounders, your likelihood of hitting on one or even two is high. Jason Robertson a 2nd round example and Krill Kaprizov is a 5th round example!

2026, that’s the end, that is it, they are not rebuilding until then. That’s two more years for the core to try and win. They just might now, who knows.

I’ve never seen so much hate and doubt from Penguins fans over these past few years. This team has Sidney Crosby, and you never count out a guy like that. Never.

They missed the playoffs by one point. Come on now.

This trade has excited me, and the Penguin fanbase. The Penguins are a contender and they will most likely make it to the playoffs. A Stanley Cup? Maybe and maybe not, but now it’s not hopeless.

Enjoy the ride before the inevitable rebuild, show some respect to this core for what they gave you, and let them be given the chance to try and win.

And for the love of god sell out the buildings while Sid, Geno and Tanger are sill here.

I’ll see you all on the next article. Enjoy the good news!