Several weeks prior to the Penguins hiring Kyle Dubas as their president of hockey operations, a report came out from AHL reporter Tony Androckitis that said, at the behest of Mike Sullivan, Fenway Sports Group would require the team's new leader of the front office to make Wilkes-Barre/Scranton highly competitive going forward.
This requirement, Androckitis said, is to ensure "the organization's top prospects are developing in a winning environment." Both Sullivan and assistant coach Mike Vellucci served as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's head coach prior to joining the Penguins in the NHL and are well aware of the value that comes with developing and promoting from within.
Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary and Jake Guentzel ring a bell?
Of course, it's been years and years since those three came up through the ranks and became key contributors in back-to-back Stanley Cup runs in 2016 and 2017. Drew O'Connor and P.O Joseph are two pieces on the current roster who (somewhat recently) put in the work with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before graduating to the NHL level, but the club has generally lacked home-grown players who make much of an impact over the past handful of seasons.
Sullivan has taken some flack -- especially of late -- for his limited utilization of younger players who were called up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Just this past season, the following occurred:
• O'Connor endured stretches of minimal ice-time despite appearing to be one of the Penguins' most effective players in an uninspiring bottom six.
• Forward Jonathan Gruden was called up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for three games in January and logged just shy of 16 total minutes of ice-time.
• Alex Nylander found himself out of the lineup as a healthy scratch for an eight-game stretch after being called up and performing relatively well in a brief stint.
None of those players really compare to the three aforementioned youngsters who helped secure a pair of Stanley Cups, but it's clear they weren't trusted a whole heck of a lot, albeit to varying degrees.
Sullivan virtually met with reporters on Friday morning for the first time since locker cleanout day in April. When asked about Androckitis' comments, Sullivan warned not to blindly trust every story, but his remarks that followed largely lined up with the report.
"Well, the first thing I’d say to you is don’t believe everything you read, because sometimes these stories tend to take on a life of their own," he said. "What I will say to you is that in my time here in Pittsburgh, we’ve certainly had a lot of players come through Wilkes-Barre to have a real, positive impact on the Pittsburgh Penguins and their ability to have success, and win Stanley Cups.
"I think that’s something that’s been part of the recipe for success that the Penguins have had, certainly in my time here. So, whenever we have an opportunity to make Wilkes-Barre as competitive as it can be and surround our young players with the caliber of players to set them up for success, it certainly breeds a winning culture, and hopefully we can continue to do that."
Turning Wilkes-Barre/Scranton into an AHL powerhouse isn't something that can be accomplished right away. The task appears even more difficult considering the goal at the NHL level remains winning a Stanley Cup with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang in the fold.
Nevertheless, Dubas stated his intentions to make the Penguins' downswing as short-lived as possible after the core is gone. For that to happen, the work must begin right now at the AHL level. Both Sullivan and Dubas appear to be aligned on a process to get it done.
