It was just a normal Friday afternoon in the NHL world before absolute chaos took the day by storm. In a span of 20 minutes or less, the NHL world saw the Edmonton Oilers make two massive trades at once to try to help their team's chances of making a playoff run.
They traded for defenseman Spencer Stastney from the Nashville Predators and goaltender Tristan Jarry from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Fans were wondering what Oilers general manager Stan Bowman was doing, but the talk-of-the-talk should be Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas.
Dubas seems to have fleeced Bowman out of his shoes in this deal and there is a massive reason why. In dealing Jarry, Dubas gets out of his 5.375 million contract now before Jarry ends up going back to his inconsistent self.
And the fact that the return Dubas got in goaltender Stuart Skinner and defenseman Brett Kulak, their contracts both expire at the end of this season. And that their salaries combined help clear a boatload of future cap space for Dubas. And getting a 2029 second-round pick as part of the deal gives Dubas more draft assets or trade assets. Much more to work with and much more to think about.
Dubas continues amazing work as the Penguins GM and continues to help them with their rebuild or retool or whichever term that fans like to use. He has done amazing work to get a ton of assets and a ton of young players that either can develop in the minor leagues or be NHL ready players now.
It cannot be understated that as of the current moment, Kyle Dubas can be ranked as one of the top 5 best GMs in the whole entire league. He should get his props after coming to the Penguins a few short seasons ago and trying to stay competitive by handing out the massive Jarry and Graves contracts and the Erik Karlsson trade.
But now that the Penguins are out from Jarry's contract and Dubas did not have to retain any salary, that is another massive win in it's own right. Maybe Dubas can try to get out of the Ryan Graves deal with no salary retained and really keep the foot on the gas for the current and future of the Penguins franchise.