It comes down to just how urgent is “urgent” for Kyle Dubas..
Kyle Dubas has been tending to use a curious word often when it comes to his intended timeline towards getting the Penguins back into contention.
“We want to operate as urgently as we can to return the team there.,” Dubas said in February. “We don’t want to buy patience or say, ‘It’s in X amount of years, (the) plan in Year X, we hope to be at different points.’”
The same word popped up again in April.
“When I say as urgently as possible,” Dubas said in his season ending press conference, “I try not to put a timeline on it because I don’t want to be a perpetual and evergreen conference when we come in and say ‘Ah, we’re a year or two or so away.’ We’re pushing. That’s what the organization is used to and what the fans want. We just have to stick to a very concise plan and execute our butts off. That’s for sure.”
He was intentional to not box himself into a timeline or specifically define what his idea of “urgent” means, which begs the question of just how urgent is urgent for Kyle Dubas?
The answer, whatever it may be, will set the tone for the course of the rebuild path he sets for the Penguins this summer.
Pittsburgh has a variety of different options to display that urgency, should they wish to take it now. The team enters the summer with $23 million in projected cap space per Puck Pedia, a figure that will balloon to $54 million next summer in 2026. The Pens could sit tight, kick the can down the road and let contracts toll one more year to expiring and undergo another season like the last one where they take on bad contracts for assets and play the long, patient game waiting for younger talent to develop into NHL caliber players. Not to mention getting another quality draft pick along the way as a reward.
There’s always one huge thorn in the side of fully accepting the long, patient rebuild. It’s the franchise icon that just became the player who just became the first to record three 90+ point seasons at the age of 35+. Sidney Crosby wants to win. Will that force Dubas’s hand into a little more urgency? We’ll soon find out.
One area where Dubas did a good job in 2024, compared to where he did not do so well in 2023 was the free agent pool.
“Can [free agents] help us get there; then can they perform at that level all the way through? Not looking to acquire players in their early 30s and sign long-term and have those on our books,” Dubas said.
A 28-year old forward who just scored 102 points last season would certainly qualify.
Changes finally look unavoidable after Toronto’s latest playoff flameout. What was once considered extremely unlikely has now developed into watching Mitch Marner separate from his hometown team in real time. From The Athletic:
The 28-year-old winger signaled his intentions during a 102-point season where he put off every overture from his boyhood team to engage in negotiations on a contract extension. He then batted away management’s attempt to trade him to the Carolina Hurricanes ahead of the March 7 deadline by refusing to waive his no-movement clause, saying only that he wanted to focus on hockey and finish out the season as strongly as possible.
And on Sunday night when a second-round series with the Florida Panthers ended in misery for the Maple Leafs, with fans throwing jerseys and beer on the Scotiabank Arena ice amid a 6-1 defeat in Game 7, Marner had a reflective tone when addressing his 10-year run in Toronto.
“It meant everything,” he said. “(They) took maybe a risky pick on a small kid from Toronto and I’ve been forever grateful to be able to wear this Maple Leaf, and be a part of some of the great legends here and be able to wear this jersey.
“So never taken a day for granted, and I always loved it.”
Given the crushing nature of the amount of pressure and expectation found in Toronto (and Brad Marchand was right, last night’s game wasn’t that big compared to the next two rounds to come that are uncharted territory in Toronto), a place like Pittsburgh would be a place for Marner to breath again. The media circus in Western PA is nothing compared to Southern Ontario.
There’s some other obvious positives to link Marner to the Penguins: Dubas lends more than familiarity and offers Marner a manager he knows, and presumably likes and trusts, having stocked the front office with some former Toronto staffers along the way. Marner has made no secret about being fond of Sidney Crosby, even beyond the normal ways where all hockey players are fond around Crosby. The biggest carrot of all to dangle for a free agent is money, and the Pens have plenty of that too where they could conceivably make Marner a competitive offer in the $13-15 million annual range — if they wanted to.
Those last four words loom the largest, because it’s unknown as of right now just what the Pens want to do. Perhaps the opportunity to pursue an elite talent like Marner is something they can’t pass up. Then again, perhaps as likely the idea of signing a player to a seven year deal to eat up a huge chunk of cap space is antithetical to the moves the Pens have made over the last 15 months since trading away Jake Guentzel.
This summer presents a fork in the road where Dubas will have to show how urgent he really is. Pittsburgh needs more top-line talent, but then again they need a lot of things starting on the blueline and in net. At this point the reasons to not prioritize Marner for the Penguins make just as much since as Marner not being too keen on joining a non-playoff team that has no guarantee of going anywhere any time soon. (Not to mention if he wanted to go that route, possibilities like Chicago or San Jose could be on the table where they already have key young pieces in place).
A lot would still have to come together, but logically speaking the fact that it looks like Marner is angling towards a Toronto exit increase the viability of the possibility that he could be a Penguin. A whole lot would have to still align and be agreed upon, from the player’s side and from the team’s position as well, but it’s fair to see the idea is more realistic now than it has ever been. Don’t go ordering that No. 16 Pens jersey just yet, but if Kyle Dubas wants to put meaning behind his words of “urgency”, the option to turbocharge his managerial work and give Crosby a high-level piece to work with sounds like a consideration that will have to be at least schemed out. Mitch Marner to Pittsburgh could still be thought of as a low percentage dream but as of this morning it is a little more possible than it ever has been.