Three days into free agency, the Penguins’ roster resembles anything but a finished product. With the recent additions of Andrei Kuzmenko, Hendrix Lapierre and Nick Robertson, we have 19…count ‘em…19 forwards who played at least one game in the NHL last season. That’s enough for six forward lines, with one skater to spare. A logjam that would do a beaver proud.
That doesn’t even include the likes of 2025 first-rounder Bill Zonnon and recently signed Atley Calvert.
Hello, Overstock.com.
The same goes for right defense, where holdovers Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang and newbies Kaeden Korczak and Trevor van Riemsdyk figure to see the bulk of the action, with promising prospect Harrison Brunicke in apparent reserve.
Meanwhile, the left side of our defense, shorn of regulars Parker Wotherspoon (trade) and Ryan Shea (free agency), is tissue-thin bordering on anorexic. While there’s talk of sliding van Riemsdyk to his off side, perhaps next to Karlsson, that’s not necessarily an ideal setup.
It all adds up to an unbalanced jumble of a roster, bloated in some areas and incomplete in others.
Granted, team building isn’t an exact science, and transactions don’t always occur in an orderly or precise fashion. I think we, or at least I, got more-than-a-little spoiled last season when virtually every move Dubas made fell neatly into place as if preordained. Smacking of sheer brilliance in the process.
It stands to reason that stretches like that are the exception rather than the rule.
Too, I’m reminded it took our POHO/GM the better part of his first summer to land Karlsson, the object of his affection.
Speaking of the summer of 2023, that’s what this one feels like to me. That is to say, scrambled and even a little chaotic. In stark contrast to last season, Dubas appears to be shooting from the hip, and in all directions to boot.
A by-product of trying to serve two masters (retooling and making the team competitive)?
Perhaps.
By loading up, especially our forward group, Dubas appears to be backing his way into a larger transaction (or two or three). The most obvious being his desire to land the biggest fish on the market, Stars RFA sniper Jason Robertson.
The rumored asking price, at least as of a few days ago? Top-liners Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust and two first-round picks. Such a trade would certainly be a first step toward reducing the glut of forwards currently on hand, as well as speeding up the transition to a new era.
However, what if the anticipated blockbuster never comes to fruition? What then?
Put another way, has Dubas painted us into a corner with his early moves? Or a rock and a hard place, if you prefer? Kind of like a clutch stuck between gears.
Would he still seek to move Rakell and Rust, perhaps in separate deals?
While there’d likely be no shortage of suitors, especially given the duo’s very favorable contracts (thank you, Ron Hextall), would the fact that Dubas might be pressing to trade them undercut the potential return?
If opposing GMs know they have you over a barrel, they’ll go for your jugular without batting an eye. Dubas would and has done the same.
If we elect to keep the R’n’R boys, we’d still need to do some extensive roster trimming, with players like Justin Brazeau and Tommy Novak possible casualties. Perhaps a bubble prospect like Ville Koivunen as well.
At any rate, Dubas appears to have created a pickle, soaked in lots of heavy brine. One he’ll need to work extra hard to clean up.
As for being stuck between a rock and hard place, this is a self inflicted wound. Dubas has been grabbing a hand full of FA darts and trades, throwing them at the dart board hoping something will stick. Some of the darts sort of hit the edges of the board, but none of them were bullseyes. But then again, what did you expect? when you are holding a fist full of darts, you can’t aim all that well. Bringing in 10,000 UFA and other veterans every off-season makes it impossible for home-grown prospects to get reps to develop nor does it give coaches enough of a sample size to know who really is best.
Barring divine intervention, I am not expecting much this year.
Rick,
I wrote my last post because of the trading for Robertson hoopla. I don’t really doubt Dubas may be looking to trade for Robertson. He has displayed a penchant for destroying his teams by sacrificing all forms of NHL level Goalies and Defensemen for Good but not Generational Forwards. I can easily see Dubas trying to make Robertson the Penguins version of Tavares – an expensive drain on any real hopes of getting to the divisional finals.
However, as I wrote, Robertson will not come cheap, not only does he want money, but Dallas wants paid too. There are always two parts to a trade and sooooo many people think that other GMs are just going to roll over and play dead, trading us Trevor Daleys for Rob Scuderis or worse. Any trade for Robertson is going to serious deplete if not wipe out the Penguins’ assets. I pray Robertson is smarter than the Dubas and the fans that want this trade to happen. If he isn’t he will be playing on a team with only one line and probably no NHL level Defensemen, or a year or two from now he will be playing on a team with no one to get him the puck.
Furthermore, he has stated he wants to stay in Dallas, and with Seguin on LTIR, Dallas could conceivable sign Robertson and keep Seguin hidden on LTIR until they can workout the rest of the roster.