It is not every day when you see the Penguins make a trade on draft night especially to move down into the first-round. But that happened as general manager Kyle Dubas decided to trade pick 12 to the Philadelphia Flyers for picks 22 and 31.
The trade for now seems like a win for the Penguins as the Flyers absolutely reached with the 12th pick they received from the Penguins. The Flyers took Jack Nesbitt and Nesbitt would have been there later in the first-round.
Kyle Dubas also picked up a couple more first-round picks to add to the prospect pool for the future of the team.
First trade of the night:
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 28, 2025
To #Flyers:
No. 12 overall
To #pens:
No. 22 overall
No. 31 overall
Kyle Dubas usually is not great with trades but knocked Briere out of the park with this one
Kyle Dubas is usually someone that is better with drafting than he is at making trades. But the fact that Briere reached for a player that would have been there later down the line, says a lot about Dubas' trading abilities.
Penguins fans have been in an outrage over the fact that Victor Eklund was right there at 12 and the Penguins did not take him with the 11th pick and traded the 12th pick to pass on him.
Passing on Eklund becomes so much easier knowing that Dubas fleeced Briere and it is hilarious that Briere might have messed up as bad as Trotz did.
Dubas knows what he is doing and fans need to trust him
Sure Dubas has made his mistakes in the past, but fans need to go ahead and trust that he knows what he is doing.
Sure it was tough to see him pass on Eklund twice, but he knows what he is doing. He made a trade to grab two more first-round picks as the Penguins have not had many over the years.
He is adding two more high-quality players to the prospect pool when he makes the selections at picks 22 and 31.
He fleeced Danny Briere and picked up two more firsts in the process. That is a win in my book.