Could Dubas’ Penchant for Flipping Hurt the Penguins?

When I was a kid growing up in suburban Bethel Park, flipping baseball cards was for the most part a popular and enjoyable pastime among adolescent boys, myself included. However, I remember one day in particular when things turned cut-throat and a school chum named Addison Race pretty much cleaned out my collection.

Hard lesson learned, I rarely engaged in flipping after that.

It seems Penguins POHO/GM Kyle Dubas has a penchant for flipping, too. Yesterday’s Parker Wotherspoon-for-Kaeden Korczak swap the latest example.

Indeed, going back to the ’24-25 season, there are numerous examples of players being acquired and subsequently flipped or jettisoned before their contract expired. Anthony Beauvillier, Matt Dumba, Cody Glass, Brett Kulak, Conor Timmins and now Wotherspoon, with ex-Oiler Kulak being the most egregious example.

Had he not been so vital to the team’s success, Anthony Mantha liked would’ve have been flipped at last season’s trade deadline. I wouldn’t be shocked to see fellow Filene’s Basement signing Justin Brazeau go early as well.

I fully realize hockey, like any pro sport, is business. And that Dubas’ oft-stated bottom-line is to make the Pens younger and more competitive. A goal that to his full credit, he’s gradually attaining. Certainly nothing wrong with that.

The players, I’m sure, understand and accept this as well, at least to a degree.

However, loyalty is a door that swings both ways. Treat your players well and with respect, and your team could be viewed as a desirable destination.

If not?

My point being, could Dubas’ penchant for flipping be viewed as a negative when it comes to attracting free agents?

To digress, I fully realize Dubas isn’t the least bit interested in signing big-ticket free-agents to bloated contracts with unreasonable term, as is the current market trend. I commend him for that.

However, you do want your team to be an attractive landing spot for second-tier free agents. Unless a player is at an absolute low point in his career with few options, I wouldn’t think they’d be too keen to sign with a team that’s likely to deal them in-season.

As we so vividly saw in Kulak’s case, there’s personal pain involved in uprooting your family, not to mention adjusting to a new team on the fly.

Ideally, we want Pittsburgh to be viewed as a desirable place to play, not one with the skull and crossbones on full display over the team’s headquarters.

Forcing It?

It seems the big-trade rumors involving the Pens just won’t die. Legit sources have, indeed, reported that Dubas has been trying to work a deal for Stars star RFA winger Jason Robertson. One wild report set the asking price at Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust and two firsts.

The Darnell Nurse-to-the-Pens rumors are still simmering as well.

Reading the tea leaves, it appears Dubas desires to accelerate our retool/rebuild and literally force the team forward, but at what cost? Does it really help the team if you have to rob Peter to pay Paul in order to get the deal done?

A case in point, yesterday’s Wotherspoon-for-Korczak swap. Yes, you added a nice piece, but blew a hole through the lineup doing it. To say nothing of altering and potentially damaging team continuity and chemistry.

Personally, I just don’t think the organization is at a place to support an aggressive move forward.

I’m all for improving the team, but I think it needs to be done in a measured, prudent way. Which has been Dubas’ modus operandi—at least up till now.