Dubas Press Conference Summary 10/7

[FLPensFan]

I'll be adding here as he goes along:

Dubas talked about last year's free agency, acquiring players with proven track records, recent playoff runs for those players, etc. Mid-year, it was clear we would fall short of returning to playoffs. That falls on me. Then we discussed a chance to pivot going into the trade deadline, brought in a good fitting player. (Didn't name Guetnzel or Bunting by name, but did the prospects).

This year, targeted players that needed an opportunity or guys that were hungry to prove themselves. Focused specifically on those types of players for this year. Wanted to allow for younger players to go to prospect show case and training camp, to push for spots or show us they are ahead of where we thought they may have been.

Fitness level of the club improved dramatically. Attention to detail by the players over the summer, hats off to them. Also saw core group of younger players mimic and follow existing core. Great to see Pickering, Howe, McGroarty, Brunicke, Broz out on the ice late into the day after practice. Looking to build that younger core group that learns from the existing group.

Prior to coming to Pittsburgh, I always thought of this team as having 3 things...Competitive spirit, elite development and high number of coaches and GMs that have been groomed here, then, they were always in control. My duty to protect those core principles.

[FLPensFan]

SethR - Marcus Pettersson final year of his contract, could this be a similar situation with Guentzel, season dictates contract?
--->Marcus represents everything the Penguins want to be about. Ended up being an excellent trade for the Penguins. Got most out of himself here with his development, zero maintenance, great teammate.
--->In regards with all of our upcoming UFA, we want to protect our options, see how our own young guys develop, and how are season goes. I think Marcus may be a special case, and I've put Drew (O'Connor) in that special case area as well.

[FLPensFan]

unknown reporter - Rutger and other players who may join at other points of time, how do you highlight his skills, and giving young players to chance to grow and make mistakes.
--->Decision to have McGroarty here, that's a coaches decision...but if he wasn't going to be in the lineup and just sitting, I wouldn't keep him here. It's a coaches decision, but Rutger earned his spot, got better and better as time went on. More than skillset, his IQ is a strength and allowed him to make reads. Solid hockey, not always highlight real stuff, but the little things were there.

[FLPensFan]

Yohe- Mentioned expectations around the league, we see a little bit of a youth movement...do you still expect to make the playoffs, and is it disappointing if you don't?
--->So many variables come into play, injuries can have a big impact. Maybe we squeak in and many teams above us have injuries that we could go further and maybe even made more moves. Can have the inverse happen too, where we could have made a big run but we run into injuries. Young players growing throughout the year will also be a big part of it. We'll need internal improvement.

[FLPensFan]

Taylor - Of young guys in WBS, who impressed to maybe deserve a callup during the season.
--->In Buffalo tourney, Avery Hayes, Broz, Brunicke, Finn Harding...as camp went on, Owen Pickering really impressed and seemed to improve every session and game. Talked about Pickering likely not coming up here and being on PP with Letang and Karlsson here, so focus on 5v5 and PK right now. Koivunen and Broz all had their moments.

unknown reporter - Turning over bottom 6 with Hayes, Glass, and Lizotte
--->They have a longer history of production, or are younger (Glass) and have started to show it. Want to get away from pure bottom 6 have to defend. We need to score but...we also need to defend our ass off. You don't want to jam an offensive young guy into a 4th line role. See more replication of Friday night where bottom 6 really contributes.

[FLPensFan]

unknown reporter - Realistically, how close are you to the next era of championship hockey?
---> Need to continue to bring in via draft, trade, college UFA. Development, how quickly can we convert those players into good NHL players. Analytics, using that data to speed up and help players/coaches.

[FLPensFan]

PaulSteigerwald - Points in October just as important in April. Do you have a way to develop urgency earlier in the year?
--->Need to put some things in rearview mirror (missing playoffs), but you also need to learn from them. Last October we went 3-6, blew 2 regulation games to teams that were in the lottery. Message to players has been every single night counts.

unknown reporter - Salary cap era, pockets of success then bottoming out. Seems like you are trying to delicately thread the needle between string of success and avoiding bottoming out.
--->Those franchises were also very open about what they were doing. Rangers sent a letter out to ticket holders stating their path. With us, we'd be foolish to go down that path. We have young players that came in and had excellent camps, one of the contributors to that is the core guys here...Sid, Geno, Rust, etc. I think that helps to thread the needle. Some teams go all the way down to the studs and they are there for a long time, others adapt and can get back to it soon (Rangers example).

[FLPensFan]

unknown reporter - Goalies being tested early, Nedeljkovic injured, how do you feel about the position overall.
--->Feel good about it overall. Joel had a great year last year. In summer, felt we would never regret bringing Ned back, getting Larsson, etc. Murashov and Larsson will start in WBS, Gauthier is injured but when he comes back, even though he was ECHL goalie of the year, he'll need to go down to ECHL to get himself back in shape. When everyone is healthy, then we'll have to re-evaluate where everyone is.

DanK - Asks a stupid question. Dubas is nice and clarifies what he meant for what Kingerski was asking (was about external people predicting playoff miss and if they miss again is that the end of the core)

KelseyS - Organizational development, assess overall growth of depth of organization
---> I've been happy with adding good experienced people like Doug Wilson, Trent Mann was an assistant GM in the league, added Wes Clark. Spezza will run minor league and Kessel will be his "right hand man," talked Andy Saucier, Vukie, and potential of others.

[FLPensFan]

Josh - Rusty on IR, is he going to be out longer?
--->It's retroactive, so he could come off after 7 days...really almost any time now. Want to be more cautious with him because he often likes to try and play through things.

PaulSteigerwald - Brunicke was talk of camp. Can you describe process of selecting him and his play.

--->I think we were happy with both Brunicke and Howe. Tanner blocked a shot with his face so that July-September timeframe was tough for him. I think luck is one reason we got Brunicke, as he was injured the year before. We had a scout Robby that scouted for us, and he got a good sense of his character, amount of work he would put into his development. Most impressed in Ottawa game in Sudbury, he struggled mightily and thought we could hurt his development, but then he came out and played outstanding in the 2nd and 3rd period, and you just don't see that very often. That was against Ottawa's full team. Great mental toughness.

unknown reporter - Ryan Graves signed last year, needed to have big rebound camp and summer. Describe him, has his role changed, etc.
--->Came into camp in excellent shape, he's an experienced player. Goals was to get him up and running. Think he and Jack are a solid defensive pair and can kill penalties. Played 19-20 minutes in NJ between 5v5 and PK, and I expect something similar here.

[FLPensFan]

End of press conference....

[largegarlic]

Thanks for the summary. It's interesting that he's pretty open about the Pens not being true contenders. He's saying what we all know, but I'd have thought that at least at the very start of the season, it'd be "rah rah" from him.

Also interesting that McGroarty really is up. I have to think he goes back down once another forward is healthy, but it's still unusual in recent Pens history for a guy to come right from college into the opening night roster.

[FLPensFan]

Thanks for the summary. It's interesting that he's pretty open about the Pens not being true contenders. He's saying what we all know, but I'd have thought that at least at the very start of the season, it'd be "rah rah" from him.

Also interesting that McGroarty really is up. I have to think he goes back down once another forward is healthy, but it's still unusual in recent Pens history for a guy to come right from college into the opening night roster.

We'll see with McGroarty. At a minimum, he should be here while Rust and Lizotte are out. We are only carrying 22 players right now instead of max 23. I have them with 87K in cap space, but that includes Lizotte, Rust, and Nedeljkovic. If Rust comes off, they go to a 23 man roster, still with 87K in cap space.

I think the question right now is, what happens when Lizotte comes off. I wasn't impressed with him, although he didn't get much of a chance before his injury. Unless McGroarty struggles mightily the first few games, I wouldn't be sending McGroarty down to make room for Lizotte. I'd waive Lizotte.

[Puck-Lurker]

Thanks for the summary. It's interesting that he's pretty open about the Pens not being true contenders. He's saying what we all know, but I'd have thought that at least at the very start of the season, it'd be "rah rah" from him.

Also interesting that McGroarty really is up. I have to think he goes back down once another forward is healthy, but it's still unusual in recent Pens history for a guy to come right from college into the opening night roster.

We'll see with McGroarty. At a minimum, he should be here while Rust and Lizotte are out. We are only carrying 22 players right now instead of max 23. I have them with 87K in cap space, but that includes Lizotte, Rust, and Nedeljkovic. If Rust comes off, they go to a 23 man roster, still with 87K in cap space.

I think the question right now is, what happens when Lizotte comes off. I wasn't impressed with him, although he didn't get much of a chance before his injury. Unless McGroarty struggles mightily the first few games, I wouldn't be sending McGroarty down to make room for Lizotte. I'd waive Lizotte.

Thanks for posting FLPF


I would send McGroarty down if/when Lizotte comes back. Here's why.

I believe that you give the guys we picked up a whirl. Lizotte, Beauvilier, Glass, Hayes, give em 8-12 games and if they crap the bed in that time, it's down to Scratchville and/or Waivertown. You'll likely have Puustinen as the first player to sub in -- he's contending for a spot with Puljujärvi at the moment and well.. Jesse knocked it out of the park in camp really. After that, you call up anyone who's doing really well in WBS.

If Lizotte starts on the injured list, cool. Opportunity for RMG to shine. If he comes back, you activate Lizotte and bump RMG to the AHL to give Lizotte a string of games to prove his worth, or fail at the same. RMG won't be hurt by some AHL time. In fact if he gets to start in the NHL at all, that'll be something of a minor miracle. Word around the campfire is that he needs to work on his game, so he won't cost the big Pens points. I don't see any harm in looking at what Lizotte can bring.

Maybe injuries will conspire to keep RMG around longer. I kinda doubt it, but it's cool that he's been up for as long as he has.

[FLPensFan]

Thanks for the summary. It's interesting that he's pretty open about the Pens not being true contenders. He's saying what we all know, but I'd have thought that at least at the very start of the season, it'd be "rah rah" from him.

Also interesting that McGroarty really is up. I have to think he goes back down once another forward is healthy, but it's still unusual in recent Pens history for a guy to come right from college into the opening night roster.

We'll see with McGroarty. At a minimum, he should be here while Rust and Lizotte are out. We are only carrying 22 players right now instead of max 23. I have them with 87K in cap space, but that includes Lizotte, Rust, and Nedeljkovic. If Rust comes off, they go to a 23 man roster, still with 87K in cap space.

I think the question right now is, what happens when Lizotte comes off. I wasn't impressed with him, although he didn't get much of a chance before his injury. Unless McGroarty struggles mightily the first few games, I wouldn't be sending McGroarty down to make room for Lizotte. I'd waive Lizotte.

Thanks for posting FLPF


I would send McGroarty down if/when Lizotte comes back. Here's why.

I believe that you give the guys we picked up a whirl. Lizotte, Beauvilier, Glass, Hayes, give em 8-12 games and if they crap the bed in that time, it's down to Scratchville and/or Waivertown. You'll likely have Puustinen as the first player to sub in -- he's contending for a spot with Puljujärvi at the moment and well.. Jesse knocked it out of the park in camp really. After that, you call up anyone who's doing really well in WBS.

If Lizotte starts on the injured list, cool. Opportunity for RMG to shine. If he comes back, you activate Lizotte and bump RMG to the AHL to give Lizotte a string of games to prove his worth, or fail at the same. RMG won't be hurt by some AHL time. In fact if he gets to start in the NHL at all, that'll be something of a minor miracle. Word around the campfire is that he needs to work on his game, so he won't cost the big Pens points. I don't see any harm in looking at what Lizotte can bring.

Maybe injuries will conspire to keep RMG around longer. I kinda doubt it, but it's cool that he's been up for as long as he has.

There's no right or wrong answer for sure. I agree, Lizotte deserves a chance, but on the flilp side, let's say Lizotte misses the first 3 games, and the McGroarty-Eller-Puljujarvi line continues to play at a lights out pace like they did the other night. Do you risk breaking up something like that just to give Lizotte his playing time?

Those are still interesting decisions that will need to be made. Same thing with Rust and Beauvillier. Rusty isn't going to lose his spot, but if Beauvillier plays great in his short time, where does he go when Rust comes back? In for McGroarty? To the bench?

[KG]

I hope they trade MP for a solid return at the deadline. D men always go for a lot come deadline time.

[Coffey Break]

I hope they trade MP for a solid return at the deadline. D men always go for a lot come deadline time.

Agreed. And if Pickering's development continues on the trajectory it appears to be, that would make the loss of Pettersson much easier to withstand. They should be able to replace him internally.

[Cow_Master66]

I hope they trade MP for a solid return at the deadline. D men always go for a lot come deadline time.

Wonder what the offers were for MP last season.