Penguins president Kyle Dubas no stranger to dealing at NHL Draft

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kyle Dubas doesn’t have some sort of master plan as he approaches his first draft as president of hockey operations for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Nor does the task require some artful or shrewd maneuvering.

With one of the least-impressive collections of NHL-caliber prospects in the league, the Penguins don’t have specific holes to fill.

Just one big hole.

“I know it’s cliche to say you take the best player available,” Dubas said Friday in Cranberry. “But I think especially where the organization is in terms of the prospect pool and where the roster is at, you absolutely cannot worry about how a player may fit in two or three years. We have to get the best player we can.”

Barring a trade, the Penguins have the 14th overall selection in the draft that begins with the first round Wednesday and continues with the final six rounds Thursday.

It’s the highest pick they have had in more than a decade, when they selected defenseman Derrick Pouliot No. 8 overall in 2012.

Upon Dubas’ hiring June 1, he acknowledged he has a difficult task with regard to restoring the current roster to being worthy of qualifying for the postseason while also restocking the organization’s reserves of future assets.

So while Dubas might need to find a new goaltender or a second-line left winger should the likes of Tristan Jarry or Jason Zucker depart when the free-agent signing period opens Saturday, don’t expect him to find replacements by jettisoning draft capital.

In other words, Dubas isn’t likely to deal away the 14th overall selection or one of the team’s limited number of top prospects (such as defenseman Owen Pickering, their first-round pick in 2022) unless another high-end future asset is involved in the return.

“I don’t believe unless we’re adding a very impactful younger player that we’re going to part with our younger assets, meaning like the Owen Pickerings of the world, or our first-round picks, as we move ahead here,” Dubas said. “I think we have to build up the system.”

Dubas isn’t a stranger to dealing at the draft.

In 2018, during his first draft as general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dubas traded down from the No. 25 pick and acquired the 29th and 76th (third round) selections.

The Maple Leafs drafted left-handed defenseman Rasmus Sandin at No. 29, and he had an underwhelming four-year existence with that team until he was traded to the Washington Capitals on Feb. 28.

During the 2019 draft, Dubas sent the Maple Leafs’ first-round pick in the 2020 draft (which wound up being the 13th overall selection) to the Carolina Hurricanes as part of a transaction meant to dump salary. The Hurricanes were taking on the contract of veteran forward Patrick Marleau and insisted on a first-rounder to complete the deal. That pick wound up being top-six forward Seth Jarvis.

And last year in his final draft with the Maple Leafs, Dubas, in another move needed to clear salary cap space, dealt the 25th pick and the contract of veteran goaltender Petr Mrazek to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for the 38th pick in the second round. The Blackhawks selected defenseman Sam Rinzel at No. 25.

So don’t be surprised if Dubas moves from No. 14. He has done it before, albeit for different motivations than what he has currently with the Penguins.

“I don’t think anybody that we draft, especially at 14, is going to make an (immediate) impact on the roster,” Dubas said. “Not for another couple of years, two or three years, at least. The goal in the draft and the needs of our team, if you start projecting two or three years out, are totally different.”

In addition to the 14th overall selection, the Penguins currently have five picks in this draft:

Third round: No. 90 (from New Jersey Devils)

Fifth round: No. 142

Sixth round: No. 174

Seventh round: No. 217 (from Toronto Maple Leafs)

Seventh round: No. 223 (from Florida Panthers)

Three of the Penguins’ selections were acquired through trades:

• The 90th selection was acquired July 16, 2022, in a deal that sent defenseman John Marino to the Devils.

• The 217th selection was acquired July 17, 2021, in a deal that sent forward Jared McCann to the Maple Leafs.

• The 224th selection was acquired July 8, 2022, when they dealt a seventh-round selection (No. 214 overall) in that year’s draft to the Panthers.

Four selections that originally belonged to the Penguins were dealt away in trades:

• Their second-round selection (No. 46 overall) was traded to the Nashville Predators on March 1 in exchange for forward Mikael Granlund.

• Their original third-round selection (No. 78 overall) belongs to the Los Angeles Kings and was upgraded from a fourth-round selection as a condition of a trade that brought forward Jeff Carter to the Penguins on April 12, 2021. Carter had to play in at least 50 games during the 2021-22 season for the condition to be met.

• Their fourth-round selection (No. 110 overall) was traded to the Montreal Canadiens along with defenseman Mike Matheson as part of a trade that brought defenseman Jeff Petry and forward Ryan Poehling to the Penguins on July 16, 2022.

• Their original seventh-round selection (No. 206 overall) was dealt to the San Jose Sharks in a three-way trade that involved the Montreal Canadiens and resulted in forward Nick Bonino returning to the Penguins on March 3.

The entire draft order can be found here.