spring without postseason hockey in Pittsburgh.
This dynamic — Crosby producing at historic levels as he approaches two decades in the league, but the Penguins not matching his excellence — is said to place Dubas in an impossible position. How can he, say, trade Jake Guentzel and do right by Crosby?
Quite easily, actually. It starts with Dubas having a tough conversation with Crosby about what should be an easy decision.
Guentzel is on pace for a third consecutive season of at least 35 goals, and the Penguins might end up missing the postseason twice over that span. At 29, Guentzel is playing on the final season of a contract he has vastly outperformed — and Dubas, who inherited no prospect system and only a few serviceable young players, can create a bidding war among actual Cup contenders looking to rent a proven playoff performer.
Dubas should sell Guentzel as soon as another GM offers the right deal. While pitting other GMs against one another for Guentzel, Dubas should also actively seek trades for any players besides Crosby, Malkin, Letang and Marcus Pettersson.
He should listen to any inquiries about Pettersson, too.
There are complications, of course, in the form of movement clauses and cap space. GMs are paid, and in Dubas’ case quite well ($5 million annually), to work through those details for the betterment of their franchise.
The Penguins will not win any of these deals, at least not in terms of talent-for-talent swaps.
That’s fine. Dubas can’t afford to think too much about what will happen the rest of this season. He has a chance to add assets — any are better than none — and create more cap space going into a transitional offseason. He can weaponize any draft picks, prospects and cap space to execute a plan for next season and beyond.
He wasn’t afforded that luxury upon taking control of the Penguins last June. Years of mismanagement forced a quick pivot and resulted in some big swings.
Dubas was right to take those swings.
The best Penguins GMs — Craig Patrick, Ray Shero, Jim Rutherford — always took big swings. Patrick had Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. Shero and Rutherford had Crosby, Malkin and Letang. Any GM who isn’t swinging big every season with players of that stature is derelict of duty.
Trading Guentzel would be a big swing. Hitting a reset button by also moving Reilly Smith before the deadline and possibly Tristan Jarry in the offseason would be big swings. Conceding defeat on the Erik Karlsson experiment would be a big swing, though Dubas might need quite a few hacks to pull off any deal.
