Kyle Dubas certainly had a route mapped out as he steered the Pittsburgh Penguins through the first night of the NHL Draft on Friday.

That plan had plenty of detours and divergences in the form of multiple trades that he made (and was unable to make).

In the end, the team’s president of hockey operations and his amateur scouting staff deepened the organization’s still somewhat shallow pool of prospects with three players acquired in the first round.

Not a bad bit of business considering he started the week with only one guaranteed first-round selection.

After a fair amount of wheeling and dealing, the Penguins selected three forwards: Benjamin Kindel (No. 11 overall), Bill Zonnon (No. 22) and William Horcoff (No. 24) in the first round Friday.

The final six rounds of the draft will unfold Saturday.

“You’re trying to find that balance between having a lot and having quality,” Dubas said from the team’s temporary draft headquarters downtown near Market Square. “And we have to deliver.

“We believe that all three are going to be very high-quality players in the NHL. So, we’re excited about that, excited to get to work with them. Obviously, when you’re in our position, you’re accruing picks and prospects — but you have to make good on them. You have to draft good players. You have to do a great job in developing them. We’ll turn them over after today to (director of player development) Tom Kostopoulos and we’ll get to work.”

A lot of work went into how the Penguins arrived at the picks they had.

The No. 11 pick was their original selection. Then, on Tuesday, they obtained the No. 12 overall selection from the New York Rangers as a condition of a trade between the Rangers and Vancouver Canucks (the latter of whom sent the then-conditional pick to the Penguins in a January trade).

After selecting Kindel, the Penguins dealt the No. 12 pick to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for No. 22 and No. 31 overall.

Once Zonnon was selected, the Penguins moved the No. 31 selection and a second-rounder (No. 59) to the Los Angeles Kings to obtain No. 24.

(The No. 59 pick was obtained from the Washington Capitals on March 7 in exchange for forward Anthony Beauvillier.)

With Horcoff getting the call at No. 24, the Penguins’ night was done.

The Penguins didn’t devise an elaborate scheme to add three forwards. It just happened that way.

Getty Images Benjamin Kindel of Team CHL skates against Team USA during the CHL USA Prospects Challenge in November.  

“We didn’t come in thinking we were going to come out with three forwards,” Dubas said. “I think what we came to was that we felt by moving out of the 12th pick, it would give us a chance to potentially add two more high-end players that we had rated high on our list. And without picking until (No. 59 overall) tomorrow … I thought we had very little chance that we were going to get somebody that we really had rated high at 59.

“So what we did was select Bill there. And we just felt like if we didn’t move up and get Will Horcoff, we were going to be reaching a little bit at the pick later. And so we used 59 to get up and make sure that we got Will as well. It was just a quality of player thing and where they came out on our board and how they graded out for us.”

Dubas addressed a variety of other topics Friday:

• Kindel was something of a surprise selection at No. 12. Several outlets that cover prospects suggested he would be available in the low 20s.

“Right from the beginning of the year, he was a player that our area scouts and then (vice president of player personnel Wes Clark) really keyed in on as someone that they just had a lot of belief in,” Dubas said. “And then I had watched him play, and he just continued to get better and better. We understand he’s not the biggest guy, but you look at the production and you look at the intelligence and the skill set, and where we came to in the last couple of days is that if we passed on him, we had intel that he wasn’t going to go much further beyond (No. 11). And we just didn’t want to look back on it and say, ‘Geez, why did we pass on this guy that had 99 points and then stepped up his game in the playoffs?’

“Wes was certain about it for months that Ben should be in that mix and be a great pick. And he has great belief in him, and from what I’ve watched on tape and live, I see exactly what Wes is talking about. We’re thrilled to have him.”

• While the Penguins were busy making trades, none involved any players or prospects already in the organization.

“There’s been lots of trade conversations the last couple of days,” Dubas said. “But nothing that for us that we felt that … was (going to get) us to the finish line. “

AP Forward prospect Bill Zonnon stands with defenseman Kris Letang, his son Alex Letang and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman after being drafted by the Penguins during the first round of the NHL Draft in Los Angeles on Friday.  

• Zonnon’s potential at center stood out.

“Throughout the year, every time you watched him, his production speaks for itself,” Dubas said. “But, I think the thing that was most exciting to us was that he really thrived when he moved to center. Was excellent at center, plays in all situations, plays against the other team’s best players… and as the year went on, just a level of competitiveness, especially in the playoffs for (Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League). He was really a driver for his team, and that was, for us, the most exciting part of him.”

• The Penguins tried to trade into the top 10 selections but were unsuccessful. In fact, no team with a top-10 pick made a deal.

“We had the two picks and I think we put our best foot forward to try and do that,” Dubas said. “As you saw, nobody moved out of the top 10 (picks). They all held. With a number of teams that seemed open to it, we put in front of them a number of options in the event they got to the pick and wanted to move down. And none of that came to fruition.

“That’s sometimes just the way it goes. Oftentimes you look back and are thankful that you held. We look forward to working with the three (prospects) now, for sure. If we would have moved up, we would have ended up with just having one player tonight as well. Which we would have been happy with. But we’re thrilled with the players that we have.”

• After hiring Nick Bonino, Rich Clune and Todd Nelson as assistant coaches under new head coach Dan Muse, Dubas indicated another assistant will be hired to oversee the defensemen and penalty kill.

Per Dubas, Nelson will oversee the power play, Bonino will address faceoffs as he learns the details of being a first-time coach and Clune will have a player development component to his role as an assistant coach.

It wasn’t immediately clear who will oversee the forwards.

Additionally, Sheldon Brookbank, previously an assistant coach with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, has moved into a player development capacity.

• This draft was decentralized. That’s to say the management of all 32 teams remained in their home cities while the NHL presented the players drafted on a stage in Los Angeles. That process — which included mind-numbing cameos by alleged celebrities and awkward video conference interviews between players and management — wound up lasting nearly five hours.

AP Forward prospect William Horcoff stands with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman after being drafted by the Penguins during the first round of the NHL Draft in Los Angeles on Friday.  

(In contrast, the first round of the NBA Draft clocked in around two hours earlier in the week.)

Dubas was ambivalent about the format change.

“There’s so little that’s actually face-to-face,” Dubas said. “Aside from the social stuff before the draft, everything else is on the phone. When I was in the (Ontario Hockey League) growing up and then (general manager of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds), it was this exact format. So, it’s fine for me. We’ll see what happens.

“I know there’s been a lot of chatter about it. I’ve gotten a lot of texts throughout the night that people maybe want to go back to how it was. Whatever the league decides is best for the league is good with us. We’ve got a lot of people that have major junior experience in the room that are used to this exact format the way it is today. Whatever they decide is best, we’ll be ready. As you know, we have a lot of picks coming up the next number of years. We’ll be major actors in all those drafts.”

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