Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas said exactly what you would've expected when addressing Sidney Crosby trade rumors during an appearance on "The Sheet" with Jaff Marek: "For us, having discourse around transactions or responding to the different things said in the media is a distraction that, with the task at hand, we just can’t get distracted with it. I don’t spend any time thinking about it or worrying about it all."
Sounds to me like he's either not revealing his hand or doesn't plan on trading Crosby any time soon, something I've said in the past that I'd endorse. Why? One reason is that Crosby's not winning with this hockey team, so keeping the legend around just so he can play a few more unmemorable seasons with an organization that's decaying makes zero sense from a business standpoint.
Emotional? Sure. But sports is a business, and the object of any business is to make sure it runs at max productivity. If it doesn't, or if it doesn't give the consumer what it demands, then it goes under. In the case of pro sports, that means a slowly decaying franchise like the Pens could find itself in perpetual mediocrity.
And I'm 1,000 percent sure Dubas knows this, which is why I'm not buying the statement he made on "The Sheet." Not that I buy much of anything said in the sports world, because at any given time, an executive could be throwing a giant smokescreen or putting on a poker face.
What else was Kyle Dubas supposed to say?
And were you, the fan, expecting anything else? What, did you think Dubas would appear on a YouTube channel/podcast and say, "Yeah, we're shopping him right now?" Or did you think, in any way, shape, or form that, with the season literally on the doorstep, he'd make any implication that he's shopping Crosby?
Of course not. No, Dubas went with the "scripted" answer because he had no other viable option. And if anything came up regarding Crosby during the regular season? Because don't think, for a single second, that this is going away soon.
I'm sure he'd praphrase what he said when talking to Marek once somebody brings it up again in January, assuming Crosby's still in town. Either that, or he'd give a such a bland answer to the point he should've just said, "I'm dodging the question." This isn't to say I'm expecting a trade, even if it'd make a ton of sense if you wanted a fast track to bring the Pens anywhere near their most recent heyday.
But when a general manager either implies nobody's being shopped or gives such a polished answer complete with an "approval stamp," it shouldn't give you an incentive to take it with anything more than a fine grain of salt.
What's really going through Dubas' mind? Three words, and I'm sure I'm speaking for hundreds of thousands of fans here: I don't know. And I'm not gonna pretend that I do.