Upon Kyle Dubas being hired as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ President of Hockey Ops and eventually naming himself the GM, one thing was clear: Dubas was going to be afforded a long runway to run things as he saw fit. With a seven-year contract seemingly comes a lot of job security to navigate the waters through a rebuild.
Along with his hire, he was tasked with deciding upon the future of Mike Sullivan with the Penguins. He chose to keep him around, undoubtedly respecting his work and hoping to begin pushing forward with Sullivan as the guy for the long haul.
On Monday, after 10 years of service behind the bench, Mike Sullivan and the Penguins have “mutually” agreed to part ways. In a nice way, Dubas fired him. If you listened to the press conference he held today in regards to the decision, the wording came across as though Dubas made a decision that he thought was better for the organization going forward whether Sullivan was agreeable or not.
Now, after cleaning house of most of the front office staff and now the on-ice staff, the only true holdovers from the pre-Dubas era are the couple players that he named specifically in his statement in Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Bryan Rust.
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As we sit here today, this truly feels like this is finally molding into the team Dubas wants. The Penguins are all his now. But with that comes the responsibility of taking credit for all that happens with the team’s results moving forward whether that be good or bad.
If the Penguins hire the right guy behind the bench and get back to the playoffs this season, Dubas will seem like a hero. If they hire a coach and are miserable for the next few seasons, he should be blamed for that and have the heat turned up too.
By his own admission, Dubas doesn’t expect this team to become a Cup contending team right away. And he certainly doesn’t have aspirations of only getting back to the postseason, but being a true contender in those playoffs. Unlike the baseball club around here, Dubas has higher aspirations than just being there.
The news kind of came as a shock. I started leaning towards Sullivan returning again next season especially after no news came of it following the season. It was probably a few years overdue but regardless, it’s done now.
Dubas said that he will cast a wide net and will likely not name a head coach until early June as they obviously will be trying to interview some coaches that are currently in the NHL and AHL playoffs and won’t be able to talk to them until their seasons are done.
All of this is exciting to hear because it seems that the stale Penguins we’ve seen the last two or three seasons have a chance for new life. They’re still going to be led by the old nucleus of players but a new infusion of young guys such as Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty and a handful of other players that are still in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is key. Dubas has done a good job with that.
It’s clear the core had lots of respect for Mike Sullivan, especially Sidney Crosby. But Dubas is making the decision that he believes is best for the organization which is important. It shows he isn’t afraid to make the moves needed to succeed.
And as time continues to go on, Dubas is beginning to put his own vision to work. Whether that vision gets the Penguins to where they need to be remains to be seen.
(photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Penguins)