Dubas Talks Deadline; Tough Decision to Trade Guentzel

With the Penguins falling short of expectations, President of Hockey Operations and GM Kyle Dubas said a lot of improvements are needed – so management entered the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline with that objective in mind.

The biggest move the Penguins made was trading Jake Guentzel to Carolina along with Ty Smith in exchange for forwards Michael Bunting, Ville Koivunen, Vasily Ponomarev, Cruz Lucius, and conditional 2024 first-round and fifth-round draft picks.

The Penguins also acquired a 2027 fourth-round draft pick from the New York Rangers in exchange for defenseman Chad Ruhwedel; acquired goaltender Ludovic Waeber and a conditional 2025 7th-round draft pick in exchange for goaltender Magnus Hellberg.

With these transactions, Dubas feels the Penguins have acquired both the salary cap flexibility and assets required to start the process of optimizing the group, while also getting a roster player in Bunting who can help the team now. He didn’t want to give a timeline on anything, saying that the goal is simply to improve the team as best they can every day.

“We're going to go into the summer now with about $12 million in cap space to improve on certain slots,” said Dubas, in his first season with the Penguins after joining the organization in June of 2023. “They don't have to be allocated to certain positions... the salary cap will be going up, too, so we'll set our plans for the summer.

“We've gotten more assets now to get involved in conversations that we couldn't get involved with when it comes to trades for younger players. That was our goal here exiting the deadline."

Dubas said the call to part ways with Guentzel, who went from a third-round draft pick in 2013 to a Stanley Cup Champion; a bonafide superstar in the National Hockey League; one of the best homegrown players in franchise history; and Sidney Crosby’s best and most consistent linemate “one of the most difficult decisions that I have had to make in my time in management.”

The trade didn’t get finalized until well after the players had left the rink following their loss to Washington, though rumors started heating up right before puck drop. Those who have known Guentzel the longest and won a Stanley Cup alongside him are trying to come to terms not only with his departure; but what it means in terms of being sellers versus buyers at the deadline.

“Jake's an unbelievable guy, both on and off the ice,” Bryan Rust said. “I think it’s fairly difficult to realize this and come to the realization that this is all kind of going down. Obviously, my first experience with this in nine or ten years, however long it's been. So, it's a bit of an odd situation.

“Jake and I were very close. Our families were close off the ice. So, it's something that is going to be a bit of an adjustment. But obviously, he's going a really good team with a really good opportunity to do something special. So obviously, wish him all the best, and he'll be missed.”

“Last couple weeks, I think probably we know something is going to happen, and I think he understands too. It’s tough, of course,” Evgeni Malkin said. “Everybody likes him. He’s an amazing player, for sure. I want to just say good luck to him, you know? He’s a nice guy, great player, and I hope he scores many goals.”

Dubas repeatedly mentioned how he knows nobody is happy with the situation right now, and doesn’t expect people to agree with it, as he completely understands where they’re coming from.

“He’s a very popular player in the room, in the community,” Dubas said. “I think in this position, you have to make these types of decisions, knowing that they're not going to be popular to anybody, and that's part of the job. It can be lonely, and a lot of people can be upset at you a lot as you go along. But you still have to make the decisions that you think are best for the group regardless of how they're perceived, and do what's right for the Penguins.”

Dubas said the Penguins attempted to sign Guentzel prior to the season, but when it didn’t happen, he chose to keep their positioning and options open after the year began.

“The way that I have to look at it is, do I believe in the group? Yes, I do. I think we showed that in the summer trying to improve it every way we can. We can argue about the success of those transactions and moves, and that's fine,” Dubas said. “But once it starts, my job is to take care of the long-term of the group. When we couldn't get to that point – and I don't blame them for one second if they think that maybe we should have gone further – I think Jake deserves all that he gets.

“So, if there's any blame to go on that, I would take it myself, but I viewed it at that point as, once we got to a certain level, that we had to then go through the year and see the way that the year went. In the event that we’re in the spot that we're in, or we had a lot of injuries and we weren't in the mix, (then) we would have the ability to move either Jake or others to begin to recoup some assets.”

Dubas said Guentzel being on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury (he is eligible to come off on March 10) didn’t come up in many discussions with teams, and didn’t impact his value. What did have an effect is Guentzel being a rental player, as his contract is up at the end of the season. So is Ruhwedel’s. A member of the 2017 Stanley Cup Championship squad with Guentzel, Mike Sullivan called the veteran defenseman “a great teammate” and “a great pro.”

“We're real appreciative of what Chad's done to help this Penguins organization be what it is. It's built around people, and he's one of the great ones,” the Penguins head coach said.

Ultimately, as Dubas put it, players on expiring contracts are the most common to go, while the ones with term in a flatter cap market are tougher. The secondary part of the decision-making is what’s the value today at the trade deadline, versus the offseason with the salary cap going up, versus next year at the trade deadline if there are players with term other teams are interested in.

“So, in every decision, with every player that we made was: what's the expected value of the trade vs. the future juxtaposed against what is their value to our team now and then moving into next season,” Dubas said.

In the meantime, the Penguins still have to play out the rest of this one. There’s been so much noise around the team, much more so than in previous years, and it’s been difficult to block out as Pittsburgh’s hopes of making the playoffs have grown smaller as they’ve struggled in this last stretch of games.

“But it’s hockey. It changes quick,” Malkin said. “Like, we win against Columbus, and the next game we play so bad. We have great players here, but not a great team right now. We need to help each other and support each other. Hockey changes quick.

“We see at the beginning of the day today, we trade Rudy, it’s like maybe a couple new guys give us energy. Who knows? Maybe now, after trade deadline, guys do not feel pressure anymore and maybe a little bit more relaxed and play better, everybody play better. Who knows? We still believe… we have not a big chance, but we still believe we have a chance to make playoffs.”