Tim Benz: Kyle Dubas getting lots of benefit of the doubt points following Tristan Jarry signing

This is probably a tough hypothetical for Penguins fans to embrace, but work with me on this one.

What if it had been ex-Penguins general manager Ron Hextall who had signed goaltender Tristan Jarry to a $5.3 million contract over five years?

What if that had been his parting shot?

Let’s say in the waning days of his tenure, Hextall had hammered out exactly the same deal that new director of hockey operations Kyle Dubas just did and announced that he had tied the franchise’s fortunes to the oft-injured, playoff-unproven Jarry for the next half decade.

How do you think that would’ve gone over in Pittsburgh?

Because based on everything I had been hearing from Penguins fans down the stretch of last season and into the 2023 offseason, the vast majority of the fanbase was ready to see the franchise cut ties with Jarry and try someone else in net.

Anyone else in net.

If Hextall had done what Dubas just did, I think the public rancor would’ve been akin to David Littlefield trading for Matt Morris at the 2007 MLB deadline. As if it was a last albatross for the franchise to deal with on his way out the door. That’s because, like Littlefield, Hextall had long since used up his benefit-of-the-doubt points.

As if he had any in the first place.

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Hextall was always seen in Pittsburgh as the cloistered, wet-blanket personality, ex-Flyers goalie who chased Rob Brown around the Civic Arena. He was going to have to win three Stanley Cups here before anyone allowed themselves to like him as much as Jim Rutherford (after he won two).

Since the team didn’t come close to doing that, Hextall and the mysteriously prominent old crank Brian Burke were the easiest of scapegoats for Penguins fans who wanted someone to blame for the team’s many failures last season.

Both men were certainly deserving. But I still maintain many others in the organization—some who are still here—required more blame than they have ever gotten because it was so easy to throw rocks at Burke and Hextall as they drove out of town.

If we are being honest with ourselves, Jarry was kind of in that camp too. Any narrative as to how and why Dubas may reshape the Penguins into a playoff contender again, either began with or was punctuated by: “They need to get more reliable goaltending.”

But now that Jarry is staying and it was Dubas’ decision and not Hextall’s, I’m certainly seeing a lot of people giving Dubas’ signing a lot of slack. Whereas if Hextall had done exactly the same thing, we’d be skewering the franchise for doing it.

A contract that was being panned by some immediately on July 1 (as I think it should’ve been) was somehow worthy of a softened response on July 2. Dubas’ suggestion that Jarry’s injury history is more fluky than recurring is being advanced all over the Penguins media landscape. And we are hearing that the contract is workable because of what Jarry has done in the regular season when healthy, as opposed to flaming out in the playoffs—when he’s actually been a part of them.

Think that would’ve happened if Hextall had made exactly the same signing?

Because it shouldn’t matter who the executive is that signs the deal. If the money is the same, the term is the same and the player is the same, the name of the GM/hockey ops guy on the other side of the piece of paper shouldn’t influence your opinion of the deal.

But because Hextall was who he was around these parts, I guess it does.

Dubas being who he is matters a bunch as well. He was the handpicked favorite to succeed Hextall in the first place by the local hockey media. He’s the darling of the analytics community, and there are plenty in hockey media circles who love analytics. So Dubas is getting rope on a signing Hextall never would’ve gotten.

Make no mistake, it’s a double standard. One that Hextall earned to be on the short end of by way of his failures, but a double standard nonetheless.

TribLIVE’s Mark Madden spoke exactly to this point during this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast. He acknowledged the position when he said, “Kyle Dubas is the guy I’ve been campaigning to get this job since March when I started to smell out that he might get sacked by the Maple Leafs. So I want to trust the guy’s plan. I think everything else he did was spot on.”

Two points there. First of all, I agree with Madden in that I give a hearty thumbs up to every other signing/trade that Dubas has made so far.

But Madden’s other point is where I think a lot of Pittsburgh hockey media and fans are coming from regarding Jarry’s new deal. They want to believe it’s a better contract than what it is because the guy who orchestrated it is simply not Ron Hextall.

Meanwhile, for months now, all I’ve been hearing from Penguins fans was, “Just get someone to play in goal who isn’t Tristan Jarry.”

Funny how perspectives change.

Matt Morris doesn’t skate, does he? I’m wondering what the Penguins may do with the rest of the roster if they don’t get Erik Karlsson.

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Listen: Tim Benz and Seth Rorabaugh discuss the Penguins’ offseason moves so far.