Tim Benz: Yes, Kyle Dubas has many options. No, none of them are any good

If you tried to follow the flowchart of messaging from Pittsburgh Penguins’ general manager Kyle Dubas, it got pretty confusing.

• At one point during his media availability in advance of the March 8 trade deadline, Dubas made it sound like the Penguins may have to trade All-Star winger Jake Guentzel because he is about to become a free agent and the team needs to get more quality youth and draft picks in the system.

“We have to take stock of where we’re at (12th place in the Eastern Conference) and be realistic about the fact that one of the issues is we need to get younger,” Dubas said.

• Yet, Dubas is obliged to give the Penguins’ veterans more time to pull the season out of the malaise that it is in before having a fire sale and isn’t ruling out acquiring help at the deadline.

“I still believe our group is capable,” Dubas said.

“If the group didn’t have the pedigree it has or the history that it (has), I wouldn’t feel that they’re owed that same latitude. But I feel this group, in respecting them and what they’ve accomplished in the past here and how proud they are, that’s the right, fair thing to do.”

• That said, Dubas doesn’t sound thrilled about trading future assets to get that help now.

“I can’t see us expending a ton of our future draft capital this (draft) year. We don’t have a ton, but in the future years, we’re well-stocked. I don’t think that will go out the door,” Dubas added.

• But the Penguins’ roster includes 13 players with no-movement and/or no-trade clauses in their contracts. Thus far, Dubas has intimated that he has not asked any of them to waive those clauses in an effort to free up some cap room or roster space.

So, to recap:

• Guentzel might need to get traded, but Dubas feels obligated to the core veterans of the Penguins to stick it out by maybe adding talent or at least avoiding a yard sale.

• The team needs to get younger, but a lot of the veterans with no movement clauses may stick around.

•If they do decide to add to the roster, it won’t be with any immediate future assets leaving in exchange, even though it’s going to be hard to move any of the existing veterans to free up cap space.

Did you get all that?

Oh, yeah, and Dubas added that “all options are on the table.”

Yeah. Clearly. That is because none of the options are any good.

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If Dubas stands pat, this club is not good enough to make the playoffs, and he will have done nothing to make it better for 2024-25 and beyond.

If the Penguins try to add, they may not be able to add much quality because they have very little quality to offer in return.

If the Pens sell, that’ll alienate the veterans who thought they were staying with a team that was trying to make another Stanley Cup run before they all eventually retired.

So, again, I don’t blame Dubas for giving so many meandering options as to what the Penguins may do when the franchise itself is in such a meandering state of affairs.

As it was when he got here.

I can blame Dubas, though, for acquisitions such as Reilly Smith and Ryan Graves, who have been $9.5 million of “meh” on their best nights and a whole lot of “blah” on most others. Not to mention the Erik Karlsson trade that hasn’t worked out as he expected.

Then again, he wasn’t alone on that one, was he?

I can also blame him for his unwavering support of head coach Mike Sullivan, who should at least be considered for replacement if the team misses the playoffs for a second straight year. However, that’s the one thing Dubas did take off the table for consideration Wednesday.

“I don’t think that there needs to be any discussion about Mike,” Dubas said.

“I know he has great belief in the work that they’re doing, and I see the work that they’re doing every day.”

Best of luck to Dubas. He has no good options. But he’s still going to be the guy responsible if he chooses the wrong one.

Which is why I couldn’t believe he took this job in the first place.

LISTEN: This week’s Gerger Construction hockey podcast with Tim Benz and Seth Rorabaugh on Kyle Dubas’ comments in advance of the trade deadline.