In Mel Brooks’ comedy, The Producers, Max Bialystock (brilliantly played by Zero Mostel) and his accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) hatch a scheme to produce a sure-fire musical flop, then abscond with the investors’ money.
Intended to offend, Springtime for Hitler instead became a smash comedy, leaving Bialystock and Bloom in the lurch and holding the proverbial bag. They conclude the only way out is to blow up the theater and force the play to close.
In a thinly veiled way, this seems to describe the dilemma facing Penguins’ POHO/GM Kyle Dubas to a T. Judging by his less-than-inspired work over the summer, you get the impression that while Dubas might not have purposefully set the Pens up to fail, he wouldn’t be disappointed if they did. The easier to sell off the remnants and pieces/parts at the trade deadline so the team can really tank and spiral its way to a lottery pick in the draft.
Who knew this seeming rag-tag bunch of aging stars, misfits and cast-offs would actually show signs of melding into a capable, cohesive unit?
In as abrupt a turnaround as I’ve seen in quite some time, the Pens went from being one of the very worst teams in the league to arguably one of the better seemingly overnight. Once the team started playing with more discipline and structure, especially in the neutral zone, the wins started to come in bunches. Against some pretty decent opponents, too.
What if the wins keep coming? What if the Pens are in a wild-card spot or better at the trade deadline?
If you’re Dubas, do you trade the likes of Marcus Pettersson, Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust with an eye toward acquiring assets for the future?
How about second-tier guys Anthony Beauvillier, Matt Grzelyck, Kevin Hayes, Blake Lizotte or Drew O’Connor? Tristan Jarry or Alex Nedeljkovic?
Dealing pending UFAs Beauvillier, Grzelyck, O’Connor and Pettersson almost seems a given.
Or is it? As I noted this past week, teams that have executed full-blown teardowns are struggling to return to respectability. Analyst Justin Bourne likewise addressed the issue in a recent article on SportsNet.
Perhaps Dubas is leaning more toward a retool on the fly than a total tear-down. If that’s the case, he may be more selective about who stays and who departs.
In a similar situation last spring, the Capitals executed a controlled sell-off, trading pricey veterans Evgeny Kuznetsov and Anthony Mantha for draft picks, in the process freeing up a cool $13.5 million in cap space.
The result? The Caps, who still made the playoffs, were able to aggressively pursue fresh talent over the summer (including Pierre-Luc DuBois, Jakob Chychrun, Matt Roy and Logan Thompson) and are, remarkably, leading the Metro.
While occupying a playoff spot, the Flyers flipped top-four defenseman Sean Walker to the Avalanche last spring for a first-round pick and forward Ryan Johansen (and his hefty, albeit short-term cap hit). A move that could serve as a blueprint for how we handle Pettersson, IMHO the most likely to depart.
For now, Dubas seems to be holding his cards close to his vest.
