Kyle Dubas' press conference reveals interesting free agency plans

Monday was a busy day for the Penguins as Kyle Dubas spoke to the media ahead of free agency day and also introduced the 13 new players of the Pittsburgh Penguins 2025 NHL Draft class.

Kyle Dubas started the day also by bringing on board the final assistant coach to fully complete the coaching staff. Introducing Mike Stothers, new assistant coach who will be taking over and overseeing the defensive core and the penalty kill for the 2025-2026 Pittsburgh Penguins. With that hiring, Dan Muse's coaching staff is officially complete and is ready to go for the upcoming season.

Kyle Dubas also proceeded to speak with the media and gave some small hints as to what he and the entire Penguins organization will be up to on the all but famous July 1, free agency day. From his words, penguins fans should have some small hope as he shined some light on his plans for tomorrow's big day.

Dubas started off by stating he is in talks with Pending RFA's Philip Tomasino and Connor Dewar, he hopes to get deals done, but if not he will most likely submit a qualifying other to both players who he clearly wants to remain Pittsburgh Penguins for the foreseeable future. The other two pending RFA's who are Pierre-Olivier Joseph and Vasily Ponomarev will not receive qualifying offers, which will send them to the free agent market, making them unrestricted free agents.

Next piece of business was on the free agent approach for the penguins, be hopeful penguins fans as Dubas stated he's interested in 2-3 year range players who would be a good fit for the penguins. We could see Kyle take some small swings in free agency which is an upgrade over last year where signed the likes of Matt Grzelyck and Anthony Beauvillier to one year deals to try and maximize asset potential. This year does not seem the case for Kyle as he has other plans in mind for free agency only a year later after a totally different free agent approach.

Final piece of business was on the heavy trade rumours surrounding veterans, Erik Karlsson, Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust. He was adamant that the trade market is "nuts" right now but hasn't been close to reaching a deal to move these players.

""Unless it's something that blows us away in terms of what it returns, then it could very easily be looked at to have us return to contention. That'd be a tough one. But we've got lots of calls on him. ... He's also a massive member of the Penguins.""

Kyle Dubas on Rust trade rumours

Dubas also reiterated that he has a pretty good idea on the free agent market because of the calls he's getting on those three players. The question really is, will Kyle finally move of one if not more of the penguins veteran players as they transition more into the rebuild and rush in the new era of Penguins Hockey.

""I know more about the free agent market because of the calls we get on our veteran guys. Teams say the the market is nuts. We might have more interest in doing a deal or a trade. ..."

Dubas on Potential Trades

Tuesday will be a very busy day as they can shape not only how the season looks but how the next two to three years will look depending on additions and subtractions. Who knows what will happen but that is all up to them man running the helm. Mr. Kyle Dubas, it's all up to you.