Penguins Update: Did Kyle Dubas Have a Jim Rutherford Summer?

After the Penguins barely squeaked into the playoffs during his first season as general manager, Jim Rutherford was extremely active during the summer of 2015.

In addition to his blockbuster trade for Phil Kessel, JR acquired center (and current assistant) Nick Bonino from Vancouver and signed a pair of veteran free-agent forwards, Eric Fehr and 39-year-old Matt Cullen.

He further bolstered the team with the savvy in-season acquisitions of speedy, puck-hunting forward Carl Hagelin and puck-moving defensemen Trevor Daley and Justin Schultz.

In aggregate, the moves reaped enormous dividends and helped transform a sagging, underachieving bunch into back-to-back Stanley Cup champions.

Rarely has a GM done better work.

Fast forward to the present. As I behold our shocking early-season success and turnaround (tied for most points in the NHL), a thought popped into my head.

Did Kyle Dubas have a Jim Rutherford summer?

I sure didn’t think so at the time. Truth be told, I was decidedly underwhelmed with his work.

But now?

Nearly every one of his free-agent signings landed squarely in the bullseye. Power forwards Justin Brazeau and Anthony Mantha have joined forces with a resurgent Evgeni Malkin to form a lethal and, dare I say, darn-near unstoppable second line.

Coming off a strong season in his native Sweden, Filip Hållander has done a really solid and perhaps undervalued job on the first and third lines. To my eye, our former second-round pick always seems to make the right read and the responsible play.

Unheralded Parker Wotherspoon has served as an extremely effective partner for Erik Karlsson, allowing the former Norris Trophy winner to do what he does best, i.e., freelance to his heart’s content. The former Bruin and Islander is also providing some unexpected offense.

Caleb Jones, who spent the better part of the past two seasons toiling in the AHL, was a quietly effective partner for Harrison Brunicke. Indeed, the rookie’s progress has stalled since Jones went on the shelf with a lower-body injury.

Reaching back to a prior signing, Ryan Shea, like Jones buried in the AHL behind the Stars’ stacked defensive corps, has emerged as a force on the backend while partnering with Kris Letang. With his wheels and new-found assertiveness, Shea’s been flat-out dynamic at times.

Speedy and skilled Tommy Novak and feisty Connor Dewar, both acquired at last season’s deadline, have been decent in bottom-six roles.

In hindsight, each move seems to have been preplanned and executed with pinpoint accuracy, as if the players themselves were specially designed for their current roles. So much so, it got me to wondering about Dubas’ process.

He’s stated for the record he’s targeting players of undervalued talent who might not have gotten a fair shake elsewhere. Dubas is also heavily into analytics, reported to be a driving force behind the selection of hot-shot rookie Ben Kindel 10 slots ahead of projections. A bet he clearly won.

It’s interesting to note that Brazeau, Jones, Mantha, Novak and Wotherspoon boast surprisingly impressive JFresh WAR charts for players considered to be on the fringe.

There’s another, perhaps overlooked aspect that’s fueled their collective success. Each player Dubas has brought in, including goalie Arturs Silovs, has something to prove. There’s a palpable hunger. It’s made for an incredibly motivated, competitive squad. Even when the Pens are down, they’re never completely out of it. Like the Energizer Bunny, they keep coming, and coming, and coming…

I mentioned this before, but this group reminds me very much of the original Vegas “Misfits.” They really seem to enjoy playing with and for each other. It looks like they’re having a lot of fun, to boot.

To borrow from the Tool song, Schism, right now the pieces fit.

Hats off to Dubas for a job well done.