Pittsburgh Penguins Tough Ask of Balancing Rebuilding and Being Competitive
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Steve Kouleas and Martin Biron on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio and was asked about the Pittsburgh Penguins struggles and he stated that it is a tough juggling act as the team tries to get younger but remain competitive.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Steve Kouleas: “What do you think of the Penguins streak? At the time, 0-5-1 (now 2-5-1), and 3-7-1 (now 5-7-1) overall, was not a lot in the cupboard and not a lot of options as it relates to wheeling and dealing. Could this be really bad by US Thanksgiving?”
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Dave Pagnotta: “For the fan base hope not. For the vets that want to keep going and keep pushing, I hope not. But, I mean, you said, you said, it Kool. It’s not looking good. And you got questions in that. You got questions with respect to their overall defensive performances and lapses that they’ve had, not just the guys on the blue line, but the contributing assets up front too.
Like things are have not obviously gone well for this group, and it’s clearly been a challenge. Is it? You know, are you forcing (Kyle) Dubas’s hand with respect to potentially making a coaching change? Are you forcing his hand from looking to see what other alternative options there may be.
So they’ve kind of put talks on hold with Marcus Pettersson, somebody that you know, the consensus after Sidney Crosby got signed was Pittsburgh would look to try to get him locked in a new deal, but that’s on the back burner for the time being, because they want to see how this team is going to do. And he may be joining (Ivan) Provorov as some of the top defenseman that may be available closer to the trade deadline if they can’t right the ship.
It’s a really tough situation in Pittsburgh because you want to be able to fill refill the cupboard with youth and picks, and some young kids that are going to be able to make the jump in the next little bit. They thought (Rutger) McGroarty would be able to do it right out of the gate. He needs a little bit more time.
But at the same time, as you try to fill that you’re also the mandate from up top is compete. It’s hard to juggle both of those avenues in the National Hockey League and, you know, just be competitive on a consistent basis.
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I don’t envy Dubas and his situation. I don’t envy Mike Sullivan right now, it’s a really tough spot for a lot of the guys on that team.”
