Kyle Dubas: Penguins' primary focus must be stacking up in Metropolitan Division

New Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas, with not yet a full day in the saddle in Pittsburgh, has an abundance of pressing matters to address.

The NHL Draft begins June 28, followed a few days later July 1 by the start of the league’s annual summer free agency period.

That alone fills Dubas’ plate pretty significantly, to say nothing of how he’ll begin to familiarize himself with the Penguins’ organization — its current roster, coaches, minor-league players, officials, etc.

Introduced Thursday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena alongside Fenway Sports Group chairman Tom Werner and executive vice president Dave Beeston, with principal owner John Henry also in attendance, Dubas fielded many questions from the media.

Dubas laid out his mentality for reforging the club back into a Stanley Cup contender.

“I think that the major focus, No. 1, is inside our division,” Dubas said. “That’s the way I always looked at things. Rather than try to stack ourselves up against all 31 other teams, let’s focus on our division. Let’s focus on trying to win our division. We play the most games there.

“That’s what’s going to set our playoff seeding. We’ve got to be inside the top three to lock ourselves in, and our goal is going to be to win the division.”

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As fans of the Penguins are acutely aware, the team missed the playoffs this season for the first time since 2006 by one point, finishing the year with 91, with the Florida Panthers (who are preparing to take on Vegas in the Stanley Cup Final) making the field as the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference instead.

Dubas’ remarks about the Penguins performing better in division suggest he’s identified a critical needed area of improvement from his new club.

This past season, the Penguins struggled against playoff-caliber Metropolitan Division foes, going a combined 2-8-2 against the Islanders, Devils and Hurricanes.

The Penguins fared a bit better vs. the Rangers, splitting the four-game season series.

But still, for a team that missed a playoffs by such a thin margin, it’s hard to overlook the divisional shortcomings — highlighted by midseason stumbles against the Islanders (Feb. 17 and 20) as well as back-to-back losses against the Rangers on March 16 and 18 — as anything but highly detrimental to the Penguins’ ultimate postseason aspirations.

Against the Devils, the Penguins routinely were outplayed, dropping three of four games by multiple goals.

Dubas said Thursday that he was prepared to juggle general manager duties on an interim basis for the next month or so before beginning an interview process for the position.

For now, he is getting to work on a number of different fronts while using his previous experience as general manager in Toronto to get the ball rolling.

Soon, he’ll need to begin the process of re-signing players vs. letting some go, as well as dealing with the draft and free agency.

“I try, and I think it’s the responsibility in this job and especially because Pittsburgh was a conference rival in my prior post, but I try to stay as up-to-date at both the NHL level and AHL level with every team,” Dubas said. “So, I have my feelings on the team here, (and) I have my feelings on the free agent class.”