At the end of preseason, the Penguins started and projected to only have a 7.6 percent chance of making the post-season and they were said to be in the Gavin McKenna sweepstakes. The Penguins came into the season with nothing to lose, being written off and no chip on their shoulders, which can make any team dangerous if all the right buttons get pushed.
As of January 23, the Penguins currently sit at 74.0 percent and is currently sitting alone in second place in the Metropolitan Division with 61 points. They are on a projected pace for 100 points and firing at every angle and making some surprising and shocking noise with the lineup invested with new blood and a new voice with coach muse.
There is still 32 games to go and a lot of hockey left to play. How the Penguins head into the Olympic Break will give Kyle Dubas an idea of where he should go come Trade Deadline time, which will be shortly after the team returns from the lengthy Olympic break.
The Washington Capitals last season shocked and took over the National Hockey League by storm with a change in voice with Head Coach Spencer Carbery and some off-season moves that changed their entire complexity and pushed them right back into a contender just like that. They claimed the regular season eastern conference title and won the metropolitan division.
Kyle Dubas this off-season brought in Anthony Mantha, Justin Brazeau, Arturs Silovs,Parker Wotherspoon and Ben Kindel (Draft) to fill those holes in the Penguins lineup, following some departures. He also has acquired Egor Chinakhov, Stuart Skinner, Brett Kulak to give this team the chance to compete with youth and experience in the chance to light a spark to get this team going, that is exactly what happened.
Pittsburgh is proving teams that they took their own direction and own path to being successful with the players they have. They now control how this season plays out and they have a heavy schedule ahead of them with real tests to see if they are really for real and built to make the playoffs. They are not quite there yet but the month of March will be the true test of the identity of this hockey team.
Another question to be asked, will Kyle Dubas be a soft buyer the rest of the way or will he conservatively sell pending UFA's to maximize draft capital?