Before I launch into my diatribe, my brain fully realizes what Kyle Dubas and the Penguins are trying to do. They’re making cap flexibility and acquiring draft capital a priority with an eye toward an eventual and inevitable rebuild. An abrupt and total departure from our long-standing organizational MO of grabbing for the proverbial brass ring (or silver chalice if you prefer).
The following is my initial reaction to yesterday’s moves…raw and unfiltered. Kind of like Apple Cider Vinegar. It isn’t meant to be a personal attack on any of the players involved.
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With Saturday’s trade for forward Kevin Hayes serving as a grim precursor (I get that it was all about the second-round pick), I confess I wasn’t especially looking forward to the first day of free agency. Kind of a like a kid who’s hoping against hope for a Christmas present, all the while knowing deep down there won’t be anything for him under the tree.
The negative reports starting filtering in bright and early through texts from PenguinPoop contributor Caleb DiNatale. The Penguins were trying to sign 30-year-old defenseman Matt Grzelcyk.
Sure enough, a couple of hours later it was official. The Pens had inked the former Bruins rearguard to a one-year deal for $2.75 million, presumably to replace Pierre-Olivier Joseph.
For the unfamiliar, Grzelcyk is the prototypical Mike Sullivan defenseman. Stands 5’10” and weighs 176 pounds. Can skate and move the puck. Not especially productive.
As for defending? C’mon Buker, you know better than to ask a silly question like that.
In other words, get used to fishing pucks out of our net on his watch.
Hell, if you’re going to set the team up to fail, then go out and get a guy like Dylan McIlrath to beat up opposing forwards on our free fall to hockey hell. But noooooo, that’s not the Penguin way. We have to be small and wimpy while sucking.
Okay, we did sign minor-league heavyweight and frequent fighter Bokondji Imama. Although “Boko” can hold his own in a scrap, he has about as much a chance of playing for the Pens under Sullivan as I do. Michael Bunting will continue to serve as our token “aggressive” player.
Anyway, with the Grzelcyk signing I knew any pretense that POHO/GM Kyle Dubas was actually trying improve the team for a potential return to the postseason was a sham. A thinly veiled slow-motion tank job.
As the old saying goes, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.
Subsequent moves only fanned the negative flames and fueled my outrage. As my eyes literally bled in horror, we proceeded to sign underachieving skill (perimeter) forward Anthony Beauvillier and ex-King fourth-liner Blake Lizotte while bringing back for an encore such in-house notables as the thoroughly vanilla Ryan Shea and Emil Bumstrom…er…Bemström.
In sum total, the NHL version of flotsam and jetsam.
As for the tale of the tape? A left wing by trade, Beauvillier goes 5’11” 180. Lizotte, a speedy energy guy, 5’9” 170. Shea and Bemström are comparative behemoths at 200 pounds and 195 pounds, respectively. But not to worry, neither plays a physical game.
I mean, did any of the team’s brass watch the playoffs? Did they see the type of hockey that was being played?
Hard, forceful, punishing.
That type of play most assuredly ain’t gonna be delivered by the likes of Grzelcyk, Beauvillier and Lizotte, who combined for a whopping 170 hits between ‘em. Or seven less than Russian road grader Nikita Zadorov, who replaced Grzelcyk in Boston.
I guess I shouldn’t be shocked. I mean, I knew our Stanley Cup window closed a few seasons back, probably for good after our Game 7 loss to the Rangers in ‘22. But we went from being all-in only last summer to all-out in the blink of an eye.
That 8-2-3 finish last season? Perhaps the last flailing gasp of respectability in the Sidney Crosby era.
The one move I heartily endorse? Dealing disappointing (and uninspiring) forward Reilly Smith to the Rangers for a second-round pick (’27) and a conditional fifth-rounder in ’25. We retain $1.25 million of his salary.
Too bad the Rangers didn’t want Hayes, too.
Back to the bigger picture. Dubas has obviously set this team up to fail, perhaps with an eye toward jettisoning even more veteran talent (Tristan Jarry, Rickard Rakell, Bunting?) at the trade deadline to suck even worse and possibly qualify for a lottery pick in the draft.
The sins of the fathers are being visited on the sons.
The piper is being paid.
But I don’t have to like it…or the way we’re going about it.
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Hey Rick,
Like you I didn't have a banner day watching Dubas commit harakiri. As I have mentioned on more than 1 occasion recently, our Penguins are taking on a 1983 feel. They do look like a team intent on tanking for a shot at the no. 1 overall pick. The bigger problem here is that there is no Mario out there who could come in an save this franchise from years of misery. Despite our friend Caleb seeing generational talents in every corner of the league, by definition those types of players only come around once or twice in a generation. Having Crosby and Malkin so few years after having Lemieux and Jagr was certainly divine intervention.
Worse than a lack of sure fire talent in the upcoming drafts is the simple fact that our scout department stinks. Even if another Mario, or Jags, or Sid or Geno would pop up,the team has given ample reason to suspect that they would blow it and draft another Angello Esposito, Craig Hillier, Mike Meeker, or Gordie Laxton instead.
Honestly, in many other situations I would look forward to the opportunity to rebuild, but with the people in charge right now (using the scatter gun approach) and the potentially long period of time before another true stud comes up for the draft, no I don't look forward to this decent into hockey oblivion. Dubas has robbed me of any hope.