It’s early days, but already this season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have looked like a Jeykll-and-Hyde team.
The Penguins were blown out 6-0 by the New York Rangers in their first game, then doubled up the Detroit Red Wings by a 6-3 score Thursday night. It’s tough to know what to expect from Pittsburgh from game-to-game, but one thing is for certain: the Penguins’ next game on Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs will be a hugely important contest for Pens GM Kyle Dubas.
If things end up as many believe they will this year, Dubas is going to be looking at a Leafs team he never should’ve left.
It’s been nearly a year and five months since the Maple Leafs changed their mind and didn’t renew Dubas’ contract, and he joined the Penguins as their president of hockey operations. In that time, the Leafs – under new GM Brad Treliving – have grown into a more rugged and arguably deeper group than they were in the nine years Dubas served as a key part of Leafs management. Of course, joining a Penguins team that employs superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin made the team confident Dubas would be able to steer them to playoff success, but that hasn’t happened yet.
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Indeed, while you can’t assign all the blame to Dubas for Pittsburgh’s struggles, the fact remains the Penguins missed the playoffs in his first year running the team – and it was the second year in a row they missed out on the post-season – and the Pens won two fewer games in 2023-24 than they did in 2022-23. That has to be a worrisome trend for Pittsburgh brass, but the chairman of Fenway Sports Group – the Penguins’ ownership team – said this week there’s trust in Dubas and his blueprint for success.
“We know that we are in another period of some transition,” FSG chairman Tom Werner told reporters and triblive.com Wednesday. “We are so confident, though, in Kyle’s vision. He brought on (new assistant coach) David Quinn this last (off-season). We’re going to improve in various aspects. Our responsibility as FSG is to give (coach Mike Sullivan) and Kyle the resources that they need to win.”
In that regard, you can’t say Werner and FSG haven’t delivered. Once again this season, the Penguins are spending to the salary cap’s ceiling. And although Dubas has more control in Pittsburgh than he had in Toronto as the GM and the president of hockey operations, look at it this way – if someone said you could buy an ancient muscle car for yourself or lease a new Rolls-Royce, wouldn’t it be wiser to choose the latter option? You’d have a better, more dependable car than the ancient muscle car, and you’d be able to drive the Rolls-Royce far longer than you’d be able to drive, say, a 1967 Chevy Camaro. So doesn’t it make more sense to drive for longer and take the Rolls-Royce? We think so.
This isn’t to say Dubas and the Penguins have no chance at succeeding, nor that the Leafs are guaranteed to go further than the Pens this season. Certainly, any team that has Crosby on it should be respected and not underestimated. But take an honest look at Pittsburgh’s lineup and compare it to Toronto’s. We’re of the opinion that, at every key position, the Leafs have better depth and overall skill. And that’s what Dubas walked away from two summers ago.
Dubas knew what he got into when he took the Penguins job. Maybe that felt like more of a challenge for him than going back to the drawing board like he was going to have to do in Toronto. Maybe he looked at Pittsburgh’s core of proven winners and decided the Pens had what it takes to go on a lengthy playoff run. Whatever it was, he’s dealing with the results of his decision now.
What would you do if you were in the same position as Dubas was when he left the Leafs? Undoubtedly, some of you would’ve made the same choice Dubas did. But others would’ve tried to stay in Toronto and operated within the management framework laid out by team president Brendan Shanahan.
Consequently, on Saturday night – and throughout the season and playoffs – the Penguins under Dubas are going to be compared to and contrasted with the Buds under Treliving. And from this writer’s perspective, staying with the Leafs was the smarter choice for their former GM.
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