Tim Benz: Kyle Dubas doesn't question the strategy of Penguins' draft pick stockpile

As Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas started to amass draft picks throughout last season in an effort to help rebuild the franchise, few felt all the selections he had for the 2025 entry process would be used as actual picks.

After all, as of Friday morning, he had 11 of them in his back pocket. He even gained two more as the weekend went on.

So, if you had the over-under on “Draft picks used by the Penguins in 2025” at 12.5, I would’ve been very comfortable betting a couple of car payments on the “under.”

I guess that’s why repo management companies do so well.

My assumption was that Dubas would parlay some of that stockpile into trades for some young players under contract or RFA offer sheets that fit the franchise’s long-term vision while also not gumming up the NHL roster and bogging down the salary cap.

As it turns out, the Pens used 13 draft picks this past weekend, including three in the first round, even though they only started with two.

Well, that’s long-term, for sure. This ain’t the NFL, where those first-round picks are frequently counted on to make significant contributions immediately after the draft. It takes a little time.

That speaks to a point I was making repeatedly during our “Breakfast With Benz” podcasts surrounding the trade deadline. Maybe high-round picks were flying around like crazy three months ago for forgettable players such as the Anthony Beauvilliers of the world (who was dealt to Washington for a second-rounder) because no one in the NHL cared about the picks.

At least not in this year’s draft.

On Monday, to an extent, Dubas corroborated that notion. But he didn’t seem bothered by the eventuality.

“I don’t think we ever expected that the picks in the ’25 draft would see us trade for players,” Dubas said. “It’ll be the future draft picks that teams are going to want as we get into these next few days and throughout the summer.”

More sports

• Tim Benz: Details of Steelers-Dolphins trade are easier to figure out than the big picture
• First Call: How Steelers' trade may impact T.J. Watt's contract; Bill Cowher and George Pickens weigh in on deal
• Mark Madden: Dave Parker was a Pirate, was Pittsburgh and a worthy successor to Roberto Clemente

The “next few days” begin Tuesday when NHL free agency opens and trades frequently occur. The Penguins have six of those draft picks over the first three rounds of the 2026 draft and eight overall.

All of them will be seen by opposing teams as collateral to use toward getting as high up in the Gavin McKenna sweepstakes as possible.

With that being said, though, don’t expect the Penguins to spin their lone first-rounder. But those three second-rounders they own could come into play.

Regardless of what Dubas didn’t get out of all of his picks this year in terms of adding more professionally known assets or improved draft stock for this season, he isn’t second-guessing his approach at the deadline in the spring to acquire loads of picks.

“There was no appetite for any team to move (out of the top 10). To get up there, it would have been (the) 11 and 12 (picks the Penguins owned),” Dubas explained. “We moved up using the pick from the Beauvillier trade to go up and get Will Horcoff (No. 24 overall, through Los Angeles) — which we paired with the pick that we got in a trade down (from Philadelphia). Throughout the day, I think that that was present.”

The only appetite that matters is how hungry hockey fans are for another playoff run in Pittsburgh. We haven’t had one of consequence since the Penguins advanced beyond the first round in 2018. Penguins fans would be plenty willing to wait for the buffet so long as they have some sort of indication that the rebuild is going according to plan.

Dubas doesn’t have to go 13 for 13 with those picks. But 3 for 3 with the first-rounders better be part of the recipe.