Don't expect Penguins president Kyle Dubas to use all his draft picks

At the end of the business day March 7 — or at least as it pertains to the NHL’s trade deadline that afternoon — Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas offered something of an inventory of all the draft picks he had accumulated after jettisoning several veterans from the team’s flawed roster.

Forwards Anthony Beauvillier, Cody Glass and Jonathan Gruden were sent elsewhere that day, in part for draft picks.

So was defenseman Luke Schenn, who was acquired in a trade with the Nashville Predators two days earlier and then flipped to the Winnipeg Jets for a handful of picks.

Also, in the days, weeks and months before the trade deadline, the likes of defensemen Vincent Desharnais and Marcus Pettersson, as well as forwards Lars Eller and Drew O’Connor were offloaded for the same purpose.

Heck, Glass and forward Kevin Hayes were added during the 2024 offseason by their incumbent teams as the price the Penguins had to pay to accrue more picks.

Standing at the lectern of the media room in the team’s practice facility in Cranberry on March 7, Dubas ran through the draft assets he had gained.

“That leaves us with six picks in the top three rounds in each of the next three years (of drafts),” Dubas boasted. “Triples of the third (round) of (2025), triples of the second (round) in (2026) and triples again of the third (round) of (2027).”

More than three months later, he added another pick when the New York Rangers, through conditions of a trade with the Vancouver Canucks, transferred their first-round pick (No. 12 overall) in this year’s draft to the Penguins (who already had their original first-rounder at No. 11 overall).

That’s a lot of draft picks. And the Penguins aren’t going to use them all.

To be certain, that’s not an educated guess. Dubas largely suggested he would use those draft picks to pursue trades with teams facing salary cap crunches. Specifically, Dubas implied targeting pending restricted free agents in those trades given that the Penguins will have salary cap space to operate with (instead of pursuing big-name free agents when the league’s signing period opens July 1).

According to Puckpedia, the Penguins have $22.95 million of salary cap space as of Thursday, the ninth-highest figure in the NHL.

“It’s going to allow us to maybe trade for players that other teams can’t afford that are restricted free agents, and then sign them longer range ourselves, using that cap space that way,” Dubas said during his season-ending availability April 19. “So, you’re signing a player that’s (age) 23-24 for seven or eight years versus going into free agency for someone who’s 27 to 32 and getting them for seven years. So, I think that would be the more likely route.”

In contrast, eight teams have less than $10 million of salary cap space according to Puckpedia:

Dallas Stars — $980,000

Colorado Avalanche — $1.2 million

Tampa Bay Lightning — $3.48 million

St. Louis Blues — $5.03 million

Montreal Canadiens — $6.11 million

Vancouver Canucks — $7.03 million

Vegas Golden Knights — $7.62 million

Washington Capitals — $9.38 million

Signing an offer sheet with a pending restricted free agent seems to be a less attractive option to Dubas given all the draft picks that must be surrendered to that player’s incumbent team (based on the level of salary). But Dubas cited the Blues as having success last season after signing restricted free agent defenseman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway from the Edmonton Oilers last August.

Of course, Dubas could actually use all these draft picks he has gathered on … draft picks. Bundling a handful of them together to move up to a higher pick in the draft is always a possibility, if not probability, in every round.

Regardless of what avenue he ultimately takes, Dubas currently has 11 draft picks to operate with this weekend. Chances are, he won’t be using them all.

“Teams around the league know, as we get close to the draft and restricted free agency coming up, whether players are going to re-sign or not,” Dubas said March 7. “We’ll try to be in the mix for all those young players that fit that next era of the team that can come in and help us right now.”