Dubas: Penguins’ Revamp Ready to Enter Next Phase

CRANBERRY — The process has not been particularly quick or painless for the Pittsburgh Penguins, but president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas believes it is proceeding as planned.

And, more to the point, has reached a point when the focus can shift, at least somewhat, to adding players, not just assets like draft choices and salary-cap space.

“We spent the last 12 months, almost exactly, accruing assets and accruing flexibility and cap space,” he said after the NHL trade deadline passed Friday. “Now, we begin to shift to the execution of that (plan). That will be drafting players using some (acquired choices) … I don’t know that it’s feasible to expect that we can use all of those draft picks … and then expect all of them, in sequence, to become part of the club.

“We’ll have those assets available for trade. We’ll have cap space available in free agency. We’ll shift here, a little bit, from asset-collection — continue down that path, but also looking to how we can use the assets we’ve acquired. … It’s going to require patience. It may not be as quick as some like, but that’s what we intend to do. Our goals, as I’ve stated here a number of times, is to return the team to contention as early as possible.”

He was quick to add, however, that burning through all of the assets they’ve acquired during the upcoming offseason is not part of the plan.

Dubas made a series of relatively minor moves as the deadline approached — parting with Anthony Beauvillier, Cody Glass, Jonathan Gruden and Luke Schenn and a fifth-round draft choice in return for defenseman Conor Timmins, forward Connor Dewar and a number of draft choices — but did not part with two assets who had been expected to generate considerable attention around the league.

They would be winger Rickard Rakell and defenseman Matt Grzelcyk, the latter of whom will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Dubas called Rakell, who has two years remaining on a contract that carries a salary-cap hit of $5 million, “a big part of our program.”

He added that, “there was lots of interest in Rickard Rakell” leading up to the deadline but, “we just decided, based on where we are at and his value to us, the term remaining on his contract, the way he’s played and the player that he is, it was in the best interest of the team to have him remain.”

Rakell has a team-leading 29 goals and 24 assists in 63 games going into the Penguins’ game in as Vegas Friday night.

“We’re happy to have him,” Dubas said. “He’s a big part of what we do and he really wants to be here.”

He said “there was interest, team’s kicking tires” on Grzelcyk, who is working on a one-year with a cap hit of $2.75 million, but there obviously wasn’t a proposal that moved the Penguins to part with him.

Grzelcyk enters the Golden Knights game with one goal and 29 assists in 64 games this season.

“When we brought him in (as a free agent from Boston), we pledged that we’d give him the opportunity to get things back rolling, and he’s taken advantage of that,” Dubas said.

Dubas said he did not ask any of the five players with active no-movement clauses — Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Erik Karlsson and Bryan Rust — to waive those, and that he did not receive offers attractive enough for any of the half-dozen players with modified no-trade clauses that he felt compelled to ask them to waive that provision in their contracts.

Of the guys with no-movement clauses, Karlsson was the most frequent subject of pre-deadline speculation, but while Dubas alluded to his inconsistent play and frequent defensive lapses, he said Karlsson “is not a player we would just look to move along” because of the pluses in his game.

“He’s such a talented player,” Dubas said. “I know that, night-in and night-out, like our team is this year, he can be a little up and down. But his skating continues to be among the best in the league. Obviously, offensively and puck movement continues to be at the level … we have to keep pushing him. I think he can be a part of helping our team continue to move along.”

Even as it prepares for the next step in its development.