Penguins hire Dubas as director of hockey operations | News, Sports, Jobs

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Kyle Dubas wanted to take a breather and take a break after being fired as general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Then the Pittsburgh Penguins called.

The hiatus ended shortly after this.

Dubas joined the Penguins as the team’s director of hockey operations on Thursday, less than two weeks after leaving Toronto for Florida in the second round of the playoffs.

The 37-year-old Dubas is moving from one hockey pot to another. In Toronto, he was tasked with helping the Maple Leafs overcome two decades of futility. In Pittsburgh, his job is to open the Stanley Cup window for Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang a little longer.

All three are 35 or older and haven’t won a playoff series since 2018. Still, Dubas strongly believes that the problem is not due to the age of the franchise’s core, but to deficiencies elsewhere on the roster. Dubas replaces Brian Burke, who was fired along with general manager Ron Hextall in April after the Penguins missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

“I heard a lot of people who were very skeptical about the team’s ability to contend here and my approach to it. If people want to bet (against Crosby, Letang and Malkin), they can go ahead and do that.” Dubas said. “But I’m going to bet on them and go with them here. I think it’s a group that can fight for the championship.

Crosby and Malkin were excellent for most of last season, and Letang showed remarkable resilience in dealing with multiple setbacks, including a stroke and the death of his father. However, aside from a 14-2-2 stretch in November and December, the Penguins struggled to find consistency and ultimately stumbled down to snap the longest active playoff streak in major North American sports.

While the Penguins have $20 million in cap space and the 14th overall pick in this month’s NHL draft, significant changes or upgrades may be difficult in the short term.

Dubas inherits a team that was the oldest in the NHL last season and is full of question marks, especially in goal and in the forward group outside of Crosby, Malkin and Jake Guentzel.

Two-time All-Star goaltender Tristan Jarry will be a free agent this summer and was plagued by injuries in the second half of the season. Forward Jason Zucker, who served as an emotional spark plug for long stretches, is also set to hit the market and may have priced himself out of town.

Pittsburgh also has several aging players with full or partial non-movement clauses, including 38-year-old forward Jeff Carter, 30-year-old Bryan Rust and 35-year-old defenseman Jeff Petry.

“I think these are obviously very real situations, everybody knows they exist.” Dubas said. “For me, the impact on that…is what can we add in terms of depth? What can we add in terms of younger players? That’s the real key.”

Dubas plans to hire a CEO to fill the vacancy created by Hextall’s vacancy after a short but largely fruitless tenure. Dubas will act as GM temporarily until the beginning of July.

Dubas arrives in Pittsburgh after nine seasons with the Maple Leafs, including the last five as general manager. Toronto won a postseason series for the first time since 2004 this spring before falling to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference semifinals in five games.

Shortly after the Maple Leafs’ playoff exit, Dubas said he wasn’t sure he wanted to stay in Toronto. His contract was set to expire on June 30, but team president Kyle Shanahan decided to preemptively fire Dubas instead. Toronto hired former Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving to replace Dubas on Wednesday.

Dubas helped build the Maple Leafs into a regular season power during his tenure. Toronto set single-season records for wins and points, going 221-109-42 on the season. Dubas wasn’t one to shy away from big moves either — he fired Stanley Cup-winning coach Mike Babcock in November 2019 and replaced him with Sheldon Keefe — but struggled to find the right combination in the playoffs until this spring.

In the end, advancing past the first round for the first time since 2004 wasn’t enough to keep Dubas in Toronto.

He joked that he might be a little “too honest” season-ending press conference with the Maple Leafs when he expressed reservations about returning. Shanahan’s sudden decision to move on came as a bit of a surprise, and Dubas planned to take some time to hit the reset button before looking for a new job.

Still, the Penguins — who had already been given permission by the Maple Leafs to interview Dubas — offered a compelling reason to speed up the schedule. Dubas’ due diligence included talking to Crosby and longtime coach Mike Sullivan to get the pulse of a management group that remains firmly in place.

Dubas called them “Some of the best competitors” in hockey. Competitors who, for one reason or another, have not managed to get back the magic of 2016 and 2017 in their consecutive cups.

Time is running out for Crosby to put his name on the Cup for the fourth time in a career that will almost certainly end in the Hall of Fame. Dubas knows he will be judged in part on whether he can make it happen. It took more than six weeks of searching before landing Dubas, Fenway Sports Group Chairman Tom Werner believes Dubas is up to the challenge.

“Our philosophy is to give Kyle and his associates the best possible resources to win.” Werner said. “Kyle has been very clear today about his success … we are very confident that Kyle will execute the plan he has presented to us.”