OTTAWA -- It's been hard sledding as the Penguins continue to struggle and lose hockey games in which they were competing hard for last season. They just went win less on their central road trip which puts them so far behind the eight ball.
In a recent segment on Saturday Night Hockey on Sportsnet, insider Elliotte Friedman reported that the Pittsburgh Penguins are open for business with their veteran players and they are looking for draft picks and young players/prospects in return so that they can open up roster spots for the young players who are unable to enter the lineup.
To see Kyle Dubas wave the white flag already is certainly a let down to the players, owners, staff and fans who had even the slightest of expectations for the 2026-27 season.
Players like Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, Kris Letang, Erik Karlsson and Evgeni Malkin will be among those available and will be dangled for a price Kyle Dubas believes is what they are worth at the current parts of each players career.
Players like Rakell and Rust have been attempted to be moved multiple times by Dubas these past two seasons and this very well will be the year they get moved and their time with the Penguins comes to an end. Rakell has trade protection, meanwhile Rust has zero trade protection.
One would think Sidney Crosby is the only untouchable out of the veterans and he would only be moved at the request of him wanting to be moved to another club.
Letang and Malkin will be the hardest to trade just based off the fact they are Pittsburgh loyalty and people have a hard time letting go of the past and Kyle Dubas will try and do right by each player if they are moved. Letang to Montreal would be a common destination of the top of the head that makes sense for the player and Malkin to a contender with players he's familiar with makes sense for the player in that situation.
This is long overdue as throwing darts at the board and betting on your old aging veterans to try and roll back the clock is not a good recipe for success. It worked last season but so far this season 10 games in and it is an epic fail as team's have figured the Penguins out and they have zero consistency, they all looked checked out and not interested in playing the way they did last year.
Kyle Dubas set the Penguins up to fail by not fulfilling his promise to land big fishes in the off-season and simply bringing in players who either have little experience, struggled with their last club or needed a change of scenery. Those players have produced next to nothing in terms of success and on ice success and that's on the head coach and the general manager for not putting this team in the right spot to succeed.
If the hockey continues to be this unbearable, there could be some really painful hockey for the next 74 games remaining in this season.
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