DK’s Daily Shot of Penguins: What’s Dubas doing?

What’s Kyle Dubas doing? Are the messages mixed?

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[Music] been telling you for a while there’s a way to do both there’s a way to graft on to the Sydney Crosby roster and to make sure landscape isn’t Barren when he’s gone good morning to you good Monday morning I’m D kovachich of DK Pittsburgh sports and this is daily shot of penguins it comes your way bright and early every weekday if you’re into football or baseball I also offer daily shots of Steelers and pirates in the same place that you found this Kyle dubis made a trade with the blues over the NHL draft weekend in Las Vegas to bring Kevin Hayes to Pittsburgh which immediately is going to set off the kneejerk a look at them getting younger by adding the 32y old now all of their centers actually Hayes is the youngest of their four centers between Sid and youny Malin and L Zeller but that is spectacularly missing the point because the other thing that dubis picked up in that trade was a second round pick in 2025 St Louis’s second round pick I should add and I don’t believe that anybody’s expecting the blues to have some big breakthrough this winter so it could be a pretty high second rounder that’s a nice asset to acquire that’s a nice way to acquire that nice asset we will commonly think of draft picks as things that general managers just need or want to preserve well there’s also a way to get them and there’s a way to get them by just ponying up the blues were looking for cap space the blues decided that Haze was Expendable in that context dubis comes along and says give me a good pick and we’ll take him so they take him they add somebody to the bottom six who’s functional and everything else who’s not named Eller the team gets a little bit stronger and I I like Hayes by the way I’ve always liked him I have a bit of a soft spot for him because he’s one of the funniest dudes in the NHL but he’s also smart and sound defensively really good on faceoffs he’ll kill penalties he’ll work the power play and he’ll create offense he’s he’s unusual to watch on the attack uh he he creates offense kind of the way Brian Bole did which looks like it’s from a stand still it’s not that he’s slow or whatever it’s just that he’ll operate from a stationary almost tripod to make his plays but he will make plays and he’ll stick handle you’ll see you’ll see but the acquisition there is the second rounder it’s adding to the catalog it’s adding to the scouts pool of being able to add players they like to stockpile really stockpile prospects into the Pittsburgh system for the first time in so long that even I can’t site a year for you and I’ve been covering this team since 1997 they just generally haven’t done things this way but it’s the right approach and there’s more players to get today of course at noon the NHL’s free agency period opens and there’s going to be people getting I’m sure irrationally excited about this thinking oo they could get this guy they could get that guy and look at this name and that name it’s not going to happen this episode is brought to you by bet online your number one source for all your summer Sports needs this season from Major League Baseball golf NHL NBA playoffs get the latest odds and lines including all team matchups player props odds on just about everything that’s out there head to the website today or use your mobile device to get in on the action bet online where the game starts the penguins have less than $6 million in cap space they have very little that they can do to free up more cap space and they’re not going to go spending all of it on you know5 million player or commit to some long-term deal dubis said as much by the way in Las Vegas so what you’d be hoping for there in a similar Spirit to the acquisition of the second rounder is younger players and they do exist I have people constantly biting back at me whenever I say that dubis could have gotten younger players last summer for his bottom six as opposed to the nol aari and Mato types but they do happen you have to take a little bit of a gamble you have to see something in that player’s skill set that maybe his previous employer didn’t see if that sounds like I’m talking about Eric branstrom the Lefty defenseman that the Senators have just basically let go I kind of am but he’s not going to be alone these guys are going to be out there you have to get a little bit creative you have to dig a little bit deeper you can’t be Ron hexol about it you got to do some work and you bring in these types of players with quantity reasonable quantity understanding that you can’t just collect contracts there are limits to these things but you say to yourself all right here’s po Joseph who by the way the Penguins didn’t qualify yesterday but he still might end up signing in Pittsburgh if he doesn’t you can go for a branstrom if neither of them does you go for somebody else but you you’re kind of in that family there where you’re relying to an extent on your scouting people but also your development people and even your NHL level coaches to get the best out of these players to make them better than they were wherever they’d just been once more with energy here I like this this feels to me like how I’m sure the Penguins feel about watching Drew o’ Conor Bloss him into a top six forward a Bonafide top six forward as a college free agent never needed to be drafted college free agents love the Penguins because they know the system is terrible go get some more of them keep telling them that the system is terrible even when it isn’t dubis said something at his session in Las Vegas that that piqued my interest when in in talking it wasn’t very much about Sid’s extension negotiations and so forth he blurred it out I’m not sure he wanted to that part of what’s being discussed there is that Sid wants to know that the team isn’t going to suck you know I don’t think anybody want to ride out a brilliant career like that Sid wants to be in Pittsburgh Sid wants to spend his entire career with the Penguins I’m positive that he will but why should he before putting pen to paper just blindly accept that he’s going to be part of some rebuild when he doesn’t need to be and dub is making that known whether he wanted to or not I think was letting all the rest of us know hey here this might be some of the foundation of what you’re seeing you might see a Kevin Hayes you also might see a second round draft pick and they’ll somehow be working in concert when we come back j1q [Music] today’s j1q comes from Mark who says Hey DK I’ve been thinking about the Stanley Cup Final and that Edmonton power play how they would slowly pull the forwards down low strangling the PK like a python is this the model that you see for the Penguins power play I’ve got a couple of ways to answer this Mark and they’re not going to be harmonious but here me out yes that’s how I see the Penguin’s power play when it’s been most effective over the past couple of years they do what I’ve been referring to as collapsing where inste just seeing Sid way over here and Gino way out there and Brian rust way over on the far boards and everybody’s just going around the porn all that perimeter Puck movement I see them at their best when they’re just moving in Tighter and Tighter and Tighter the Oilers are the best at this in large part because Leon dry Sidle is the best at this Conor McDavid will do the dancing all over creation Ryan nent Hopkins will make sure that the left wall is taken care of as well as any defending that needs to happen he’ll make really smart passes you know by now after watching those playoffs what Evan buar and matius EOL bring you at the points but it’s dry cidal who makes it go because he’s such a threat to shoot from even the most severe angle on the right side Sid doesn’t really see himself as that he’ll do it but he’s never been great at he’s not he doesn’t have what I’d consider to be a great one-time and boy is that not a criticism of Sid just I mean you can’t have literally everything but that’s when it would work that’s when it would click if you recall not this past season but the previous season when Ricard Raquel joined the power play late over the final two months he had 10 Power Play Goals he was really making things happen from that left half wall he was doing a lot of that Phil kessle used to do a lot of that also from the left side now this is why I just wasted my breath sharing all of that with you David Quinn is going to be the power play coach Mike Sullivan made that known at the draft in Las Vegas and Sullivan went so far as to say out loud that Quinn is going to make us a stronger coaching staff not sure what that must have sounded like to Todd Reen the only departed member of the coaching staff since this past season but Sullivan’s the one who said it not me and with Quinn I don’t think you have to overthink this Quinn was the head coach in San Jose when Eric Carlson won the Norris Trophy for a last place team by putting up 100 plus points a lot of those with the man advantage and all the sharks were doing is all that Carlson play stuff that I’ve been talking to you guys about ever since that trade was executed it’s get a bunch of dudes to the net get the puck to 65 get ready that’s your power play he’ll find a way to get it through he’ll find a way to get it onto your blade as long as your blade is presented and from there you’re at the beach shooting into the ocean that’s it that’s that’s the power play that Quinn ran with the sharks now is he going to be required to you know delve a little deeper into that because he does have to get Sid and Gino and you know who knows who else out of this group onto the first unit because that’s just how things are done but it’s going to be really really interesting again again for a second consecutive year to see how they enter training camp to hear about what kind of conversations they’ve had including with the players you can’t omit the players from this power play is not a normal thing the power play is not an NFL offense where you can drop X’s and O’s and say you go here you go there and this is how the play is going to happen if everybody executes no way too many variables I appreciate the question appreciate everybody listening to daily shot of penguins we’re going to do another one of these tomorrow [Music]