Kyle Dubas on What Comes Next for Pittsburgh Penguins
okay well it’s a microphone too it’s just right here though okay just that speaker right there um all right fire away I’m ready to roll go ahead se you eager start diligence I know you’ve said any negotiates between yourself and sits Camp you’d like to private or anything more you can reveal there you hit the nail on the head yeah it’ll it’ll stay that stay that way it’s a private matter with Sid Pat and uh myself and our ownership and and we’ll keep it that way would the same apply for Marcus Patterson as well yeah we’re I know that’s not what everyone here likes uh to hear but I think that’s always best for for those and you look around and when they start to become a public matter it uh it it hurts the process about where you’re at I I mean of course I think it’s been a predates my time here by a decade and a half or more um so I mean Sid’s an ultra competitive person and wants the team to you know become be a contender right and and I think as long as you have someone like sit on the team and like the players we have the the process we have to follow as to as urgently as possible acquire younger hungrier players that can help us get back to get back to that that time and the real goal is to try to take where we’re at and the era that the team has just been through which a lot of the people here have covered and return us to you to to be able to hand that over to the to the next era but we have to build that era up starting you know started last year goes to the trade deadline not a popular decision but something we felt we had to do and and tomorrow at the draft and then again on July 1st could you shut some light I got to I got to go here John some light just on the strategy for the next few days and is and is getting rid of some salary something that might be important for you to try to do what you want to do on July 1 I I think with where we’re at um the only the only thing that’s really important to us is that if we’re if we’re moving players out we have to the return has to be has to be good that I don’t think we’re a team at with where we’re at Josh right now where we’re going to be looking to do these types of deals that where we’re looking to move salary out and willing to you know willing to do poor deals or attach any assets I don’t think we have any players that fall in that tranch um but I think we would with where we’re at right now would be more on the opposite would be if there were deals where we were getting assets that best serve us to get to that goal we would probably look to to take those on so if there are draft picks young players um or prospects that will help us get back to contention sooner we would be more in that uh realm than we would be in trying to move off our guys to create more space to get into free agency we we won’t be involved in the long-term free agency stuff privacy the only question I had was in your talks there been said about I want to have this done for the season I don’t want to run into the season it runs into the season to talk about it is there anything like that there’s I’m not going to even yeah I I know you have to ask but we’re not we’re not going to we’re going to keep it private Kyle you previously mentioned you’re that you’re having talks with po are there any other of your pending three agents that you’re talking to with can sign yeah vuki is has continued to talk to to Po’s representative I I think the defense Market of of those that type of free agent has been quite interesting uh a lot of the players are not getting qualified there’s a an arbitration element an arbitration element to it that is important to us and and cap space so you’re trying to measure the players that aren’t going to be qualified the other players that are going to get to free agency to see you know if you go down that path what is that cap space what type of player do we have is it better or equal can we we get the same for for less money there’s all those types of things so we’ll work through that um um the only other uh player that I think fits in that round we have two others bemstrom vuki has continued to talk to Pro on him and Cory and denski will qualify here in the coming day KL when you talked in April at the end of the season you didn’t necessarily sound overly confident that Ned would be coming back seemed a little unsure at the time how happy are you to bring him back and you got about 8 million locked into your top two goals is that a number you’re comfortable with yeah I’m comfortable with the number I think because they’re you know I think in the end ended up and they’re certainly in the top half of the league and for a lot of the year they were um in the top near the top five and I think our team in front of them you know in that stretch before and after the trade deadline it was not a not a great group to play goal for um and then we got it back on track and and Trista got sick and Ned took the ball and ran with it I I just thought as well that with the goal tending Market the way that it was having you know knowing Ned wanted to come back and and then that also gives us some breathing room with Joel but it’s not to say that any of the competition is locked in because of where we’re at if they will come into the season you know and I expect all five of the goalies that we have signed to push and nothing is going to be given to to anybody and and uh that was the message to Ned when he signed was was a good finish to the year obviously provided a lot to our team but now let’s continue to push here in the offseason so in regards to the money you know I think in the end we’ll probably end up around 10th in the league and to spend in net and would depend on who comes in and out but um all told I’d rather have the goalies in the barn than be chasing them on Monday not a fun place to be Mike talk to us a little bit about bringing on David Quinn just what was that process like from your perspective as fars he obviously has a relationship with David like with you getting to know David and bringing him in I I thought the process to go through with Sully was was great because we each had different uh we each had different ways that we wanted to different questions that we had that we felt were important we worked through it together we built the process out we went through the list of we went through the list of names and and coaches that were going to be available and and who we wanted to talk to who we need to permission from and um you know that was you know and then I got to know some of them throughout the process uh once we kind of Whitted it down but the the key thing for me with uh with Quinny was that he you know was very clear to me that he’s his own very much his own person and he’s going to be because of the relationship I think the positive is he’s been disagreeing and pushing back on on Sully and they’ve been challenging each other for a long time and I think when you have two people that that have that stronger relationship that can push back on one another and with Quin in quinny’s case especially is history with success and colge jockey goes to the Rangers goes to San Jose the the types of players that he’s coached there I think it’s a it’s a great fit for us and and uh he brings a lot of life every day and and you can see why he’s had a lot of success so we’re excited about it youti any additions coaching St the staff or even yeah we’re one we’re at least one more uh certainly the assistant coaching position in wils and then we’ll sit and evaluate where we’re at from there I know you already spoke about chy being and the Press Rel I just wanted to ask you know what it’s like working with her I know you probably don’t feel that much onto basis just ask that she sended a it was a really cool well it was a really cool moment because at one of the break she came to me that she need speak to me and I could tell I mean usually she said my sorry I need to tell you something my phone’s been ringing the whole morning and and her she’s like I’m sorry my heart was beating really fast and I I you know when you start to hear that you start to think that something’s gone wrong at home or and she said I I just got called that I’m getting inducted into the Hall of Fame it’s being announced that three is it okay if I miss some of the meeting to go on the media um but she’s so humble and Amanda being on the staff has really been great for educating the rest of the staff on how great a player uh Chrissy uh was and and what she brings to the staff now in her role deep knowledge of the players in Minnesota Minnesota high school USHL and the way she goes about her business it’s it’s awesome she’s so humble but confident and um it’s been great to see the outpouring of support for her the last few days and for us to be able to share in that moment during our scouting meetings was cool Kyle as far as the draft is there any particular position you’re looking to address more than others or is it just going to be best available with where with where we’re at right now it has to be the the best players available I mean with the two picks so back so close together we’ve had a lot of talk about that but I mean we it will we just need to get the two best players we can there and then continue to try to help ourselves you know stock that Pipeline and we’ll see what we end up with uh in 24 hours from that in free agency are there an tra as are there particular player types or position Target and then how do you balance kind of bringing in open well I think the you know the free agents we it’ll be guys on shorter term we we with where we’re at you know bringing in one guy on a longterm deal or two guys on long-term deals isn’t you know it’s not really what we need we need to make sure that we have the flexibility and the options to bring in younger hungrier players that can help us to get back to where everyone wants the team to be as quickly as we can um and so it’s a I I understand looking at it people say well that’s it’s not a it’s not a it’s not clear one way or the other but to me it is that we we’re not going to be in on you know last year in the summer we tried to jump start it with uh you know in free agency and in trade and you know we ended up missing on the next to last day of the Season again which is what the team where the team was the year before so now we need to begin to Pivot away from the way that we’ve gone about it and into a more clearcut guys for shorter trip deals want to play with good players and play for a good coaching staff integrate city um you know will be a good option for on if they don’t get what they want longer term and and they want to come to Pittsburgh um and that would be at really at all positions um aside from in net I don’t we won’t be active there we’ll be active in all the other facets to to try to help the team and remain flexible uh and that’s the way we’ll go about Kyle how confident are you without major changes in this team that you can have better results next season I I think for me the the range Dan is is looking Beyond like just the one season and I I wouldn’t deem it a success if we we got into the playoffs next year by a point we want to get back to being a contender and so I probably look at it in a in a much more uh I mean the coaches and the players have to look at it dayto day they’re trying to win every day I have to look at it at a with with a much broader lens of in Pittsburgh to be a team that just squeaks in I understand that would be nice to be in but we want to be a contender and so we have to put the work in and approve the assets that they’re going to allow to get there and do that and that’s going to be our focus and then that’ll be and you know we’re going to try here it’s not that we’re we’re going to go into free agency and do nothing we’re going to try to get established guys on on shorter term deals and come in and try to help but um you know that’ll be up to us to to select the right players there but for me the major focus is trying to bring in players that are younger hungrier that that can be with our club for a long time and help us some of the trades where teams have moved salary in the last few days it doesn’t seem like the prices have changed that much even the C going up what it cost to move money has that been your sense around the league and give any theories for why um I think it depends like there seems to be a lot of teams trying to preemptively move um players I think the term is something that gets lost a little bit and or the reputation of the player or how things ended for the player um and then how badly the other teams want the player I think it’s so circumstantial so I I always I always find it you know some people have come up and asked why did this team give up this and and but it was only X for this other player there also teams have become I think more sophisticated and how they value the draft capital and and the actual salary exchange so you’re going to have I think for the short run have a pretty wide variance on what the deals look like um and that that’s just my opinion as I we haven’t been involved in in those yet uh you know this week but to me there’s just a wide variance in how people evaluate it so um I think that’s why it comes to that point
