![Dubas of Penguins Seeks Quick Acquisition of Draft Picks; Unveils Rebuilding Strategy Dubas of Penguins Seeks Quick Acquisition of Draft Picks; Unveils Rebuilding Strategy](https://i3.wp.com/pittsburghhockeynow.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/IMG_1696-1000x600.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1)
The Pittsburgh Penguins are trying to acquire more Draft picks.
Penguins president of hockey operations and general manager Kyle Dubas didn’t mince words about the Penguins’ targets on the NHL trade market: draft picks and plenty of them.
Dubas spoke at the NHL combine with NHL.com on Saturday.
“The main focus for us now is to acquire as many young players, as many prospects and as many draft picks as we can to try to infuse the team with really good young talent and then stock them for the future as well. and try to get us back into contention as quickly as we can,” Dubas said.
The attempt to acquire more picks sheds more light on Dubas’ strategy for balancing the final years of Sidney Crosby’s career and the team’s need to plan for the future. Despite what should have been a successful roster, the 2023-24 Penguins missed the playoffs for the second straight season. Despite analytics showing the Penguins should have been in the top half of teams in the league, they were well out of the playoff race until a frantic effort in the final weeks of the season.
Dubas began the process by trading for Jake Guentzel before the NHL trade deadline in March. The Penguins acquired not only NHL regular Michael Bunting, but also three prospects and a second-round pick.
The reason for the desperate push for draft picks is not exclusively to facilitate a rebuild, but a matter of continued organizational culture and faster integration of prospects.
“I think what I really learned this year is that we really have to do everything we can as urgently as possible to infuse the organization with very high-quality young players and give ourselves the opportunity to add that by adding the draft. picks, adding prospects any chance we can get,” Dubas told NHL.com. “Because if we can do that, while those players are still playing, that standard set (Crosby), (Evgeni Malkin), Kris Letang, Erik Karlsson, Bryan Rust, that’s just going to help the young players come in and get up to speed faster. “
Dubas caught Vasily Ponomarev, Villie Koivunen and Cruz Lucius. Ponomarev reported to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins after the trade, but suffered a season-ending injury just four games later. He made his NHL debut early last season, playing two games with the Carolina Hurricanes.
Koivunen, 21, finished his season in the Finish Elite League and debuted for the WBS Penguins in their first-round playoff series against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The WBS was swept in two games, denying the Penguins prospect any more opportunities to play with the organization.
Read more: Two penguin prospects soon ready, one not
Lucius is still enrolled in college and transferred from the University of Wisconsin to Arizona State.
The goal is to add young players and picks and allow them to be influenced by Crosby and the Penguins core. This is also how Dubas believes the penguins can reorganize themselves on the fly.
“We’re trying to strike that balance of not just focusing on draft capital or just focusing on … younger players, but trying to find that combination in everything we go through.”
The Penguins currently do not have a first-round pick, having spent it in the Erik Karlsson trade. After the Guentzel trade, the Penguins have two second-round picks, their own (46th overall) and the Philadelphia Flyers‘ (44th overall), as well as a fourth, sixth and two seventh-round picks.
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