Why it’s time for penguins to move away from trading goals, time to get better

The parallels to the summer of 2023 are too great to ignore, but the differences are too great for the Pittsburgh Penguins to expect a similar outcome.

It’s bluntly time for the Penguins to abandon hopes of anything dramatic. Instead, it’s time to focus on the toil of rebuilding a deeper organization and for general manager Kyle Dubas to embrace the grind of his own rebuilding plan. And it’s perfectly acceptable to focus on getting better, internally and incrementally.

In 2023, Dubas’ first weeks on the job, the persistent trade rumors centered around the Erik Karlsson sweepstakes. The Penguins tried. The Carolina Hurricanes tried. There were even reports that the potential deal was dead until a few phone calls led to the blockbuster of Dubas giving up some unwanted players and salaries to a willing San Jose Sharks team for Karlsson on August 6.

In the summer of 2026, the lingering trade rumors center on Jason Robertson, but other names have surfaced as well, including Darnell Nurse, Elias Pettersson and Shane Wright. While San Jose signed Nurse from the Edmonton Oilers, the most recent flashpoints involved Pettersson, with a relentless cycle back toward Robertson.

As the summer grows shorter and all the moves settle down, the Penguins’ chances for the… Stanley Cup don’t get better. The selection is unbalanced on the blue line and there is overcrowding among the attackers. They are far from being favorites or even Cup candidatesbut that’s part of the process and not a precursor to a headline-grabbing transaction.

Sure, the trade chatter and rumors are eminently fascinating to everyone, and they were certainly real. Still, the timing just isn’t right, and nothing the Penguins did during the important days of free agency could change that.

The biggest free agent addition for the Penguins was Andrei Kuzmenko, who they gave to a one-year, $5 million deal. In the 2022-2023 season, Kuzmenko scored 39 goals with the Vancouver Canucks, but only scored 46 goals with four teams in the three seasons after that.

Kuzmenko is unlikely to change or even be a part of the Penguins’ future. However, two of the Penguins’ catches in recent weeks are indeed potential long-term answers. The team pitched Parker Wotherspoon and $500,000 to the Vegas Golden Knights for 25-year-old right-handed defenseman Kaedan Korczak, and on July 1 signed 26-year-old rising left-handed blueliner Declan Carlile.

Carlile fits very well into the same mold as Wotherspoon and Ryan Shea, who Dubas plucked from the shadows of the Boston Bruins organization and AHL respectively and presented them with NHL opportunities, which they seized.

And those are the kinds of moves that have served the Penguins very well. You can also include the trade for Egor Chinakhov, when the Penguins traded a future second- and third-round pick for the Russian winger, who promptly scored 18 goals and 36 points in 43 games.

Dubas also managed to acquire Connor Dewar at the 2025 NHL trade deadline and re-signed him last summer. The media-shy Dewar shattered his previous career highs with 14 goals and 30 points.

It’s the same story with now 28-year-old Blake Lizotte, although Lizotte merely became an integral part of the lineup worthy of a new three-year contract without hitting career highs.

Uncovering discarded or buried talent has proven to be Dubas’ superpower, making Kuzmenko’s signing even more curious.

Another strong point of the Penguins’ front office appears to be the lineup. From using the 44th overall pick on Harrison Brunicke to the foresight to eschew most conventional wisdom and select Ben Kindel with the 11th overall pick, followed by real NHL prospects Bill Zonnon and Wil Horcoff — all in a supposedly weak draft — support the idea that the Penguins’ long-term growth is indeed on the right track.

And there are a number of draft picks from the Dubas era that could also provide surprises soon.

Unfortunately for those invested in the trade hunt, the biggest schism between 2023 and 2026 is the team’s status. The ’23 version still clung to the potential of winning another Stanley Cup, while the ’26 version hopes to take a sustainable step forward toward competitiveness.

The hyperinflation of prices on the trading market cannot be overlooked either. The Seattle Kraken have reportedly asked the Vancouver Canucks about the prospects for their top defenseman for young center Shane Wright, who had just 27 points last season and has requested a trade.

The Philadelphia Flyers were willing to trade four first-round picks to the Anaheim Ducks for restricted free agent Leo Carlsson for the privilege of vastly overpaying him, dishing out $18 million per season.

And the reported cost for Jason Robertson was the equivalent of four first-round assets, although later reports indicate that the Dallas Stars have continued to pursue a new contract for RFA Robertson rather than a trade.

The rapidly rising salary cap has led to a scarcity of available players, which has also increased costs on the trade market. And there seems little doubt that sooner or later the Penguins and Dubas will get to a place where they can pay the asking prices for the players they want.

It seems like the worst thing Dubas can do now is try too hard and force something that doesn’t fit, like overspending on Robertson, or a dangerous gamble on Pettersson. He has done a very good job in his now more than three-year tenure, and Dubas’ efforts are starting to pay off. But it will take more time, and nothing they could have done in the days leading up to or after has changed their trajectory.

But it remains a good process and one that is worth their long-term commitment.

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Categorized:Penguin Trading Talk