The Pittsburgh Penguins largely stood pat at the NHL trade deadline. With an impending trip to Las Vegas on the schedule this week, a fair analogy would posit that Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas stood on 16 because the dealer is showing an ace.
In real terms, the Penguins are in the beginning stages of an organizational transition and are not Stanley Cup contenders, so it made little sense to part with assets needed for the larger mission for a slight chance at immediate glory.
However, the Penguins are indeed playoff contenders. Their five-game gauntlet that begins Tuesday in Carolina and runs through the best teams in the Western Conference before returning to Carolina would be an upstream fight during the best of times, but will be doubly difficult as they play the next three games without Evgeni Malkin, and likely all of them without Sidney Crosby.
As a reward for their hard work, Dubas kept the band together at Friday’s NHL trade deadline. He likely could have swapped out pending free agents such as Anthony Mantha for multiple draft picks or a B-level prospect. Perhaps he could have swapped Stuart Skinner for a pick or a prospect, too.
But Dubas did not, and his stated reason was the team’s success this season earned them the right to, “see it all the way through.”
But is it that basic? Or is Dubas playing chess?
Hanging over the organization is not only the impending sale to the Hoffmann Family of Companies, but Evgeni Malkin’s expiring contract. Not since 2005-06 have the Penguins been without Malkin. He has been there for three Stanley Cups, winning one Conn Smythe award. He’s also won a Hart Trophy and two Art Ross Trophies over 20 years of exciting Penguins fans.
At 39 years old, he’s having a resurgence. He looks healthier, he’s playing faster, and his offensive production has risen to match. Yet this is likely the end for the franchise stalwart, whether or not he likes it.
Malkin does not want this to be the end, but every indication from Dubas, ranging from tone to body language to the lack of a contract offer, as he tries to avoid saying the obvious, is that the Penguins will move on.
Dubas obviously wants to get to the next phase of his plan and the team’s rebuild. He didn’t take the job to pad the core’s golden years with a gentle landing, and it becomes an even more difficult rebuild with the core-three still at the top of the roster. While this column believes there are plenty of good hockey reasons to re-sign Malkin, there is a significant symbolic value to saying, “No.”
And this is where the psychological component of Dubas’s plan very well might take shape. By keeping the team together this season, no one can question Dubas’s commitment to the group. He didn’t part-out the secondary players for assets as was most likely the plan. He didn’t trade a star player as he did in 2024 by trading away Jake Guentzel.
There is no reason for the current group to pout, complain, or otherwise feel in any way shortchanged.
And if the result is not a Stanley Cup parade, or does not come close, Dubas can plausibly say to both Crosby and fans, “We tried. Now it’s time to move in a new direction.”
Dubas can say he went for it, but the team has reached its end and sweeping changes are needed because it surely won’t get better next year with a 40-year-old Malkin, a 39-year-old Kris Letang, and a 36-year-old Erik Karlsson.
Dubas will have gifted Crosby one more run, or at least a chance at one. It’s not on Dubas that Crosby suffered a lower-body injury. It surely isn’t on Dubas that Malkin couldn’t keep his emotions under control.
If the team does not make the playoffs, it is on them. In fact, whatever the seasons result, it’s on them.
Armed with evidence that the team has used the very last stretch of pavement , Dubas can more easily sell the sweeping changes that are necessary to get from here to there, from this transitional phase to the building phase.
It’s a psychological play. Give the team what it wants, let the results play out, then use the proof to go in a new direction. After this season, the upper limitations of the Penguins’ ability will be undeniable.
After this season, Letang’s full no-movement clause becomes a 10-team approved trade list. While Dubas is turning the page, a Letang trade would complete the symbolism and allow the Penguins’ marketing department to go all-in on a next-generation campaign.
It seems he will get what he needs and widespread support for it by giving them what they want.
If indeed this is the plan, it is one more ride for Crosby, Malkin and Letang, and quite a play by Dubas.
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