PENGUINS

Kyle Dubas has been pretty clear over the past eight months about the direction and intention behind this team, and it isn't necessarily to contend just yet. Building a contender was the goal in summer 2023 and, once it was clear they weren't close to achieving that, they pivoted.

To cite a few of his takes on it all:

• Wednesday: "Our intention and our focus is on continuing to build (draft picks) up so that it can help the roster right here. Not so much help the roster at large, but help build a group around the existing core that the fans here have known so well, and start to transition to the next era of the team. ...  I understand that can bring with it a lot of criticism and angst, but we're steadfast in our plan and vision for the team, and that's what we're going to execute every day."

• Oct, 7, on the pivot: "Last offseason in 2023, we were quite aggressive in free agency and in trades, trying to acquire players with long-proven track records that either won or had been on playoff runs with their respective clubs in an attempt to kind of jolt the organization after missing the playoffs for a first time in a long time. And as we got into the midway part of the year, it was clear to me that we were going to fall short of that objective. I think that the fact that we fell short of our intention there falls on me. And with that said, I think we then looked at a chance to pivot and repositioned ourselves and made some very difficult decisions to part with very long term and successful members of the club."

• Oct. 7, on the strategy this past summer: "Our focus was to continue down that path in trade and free agency, to have a very particular focus on short-term contracts with players we felt either needed a greater opportunity, or who were coming off difficult or challenging seasons and had a lot to to prove, and that was our primary focus rather than spending all our cap space with one or two splashy moves, we felt that the value would be better and would improve our team as best possible if we focused on very specifically those types of players."

• Oct, 7, on a successful season this year: "We could make the playoffs, but squeak in while all the rest of teams above us have a ton of injuries. And I would say, 'Gee, like we should have really taken advantage of that if we were healthy.' And vice versa. We could have a great season where our players develop, we have injuries, different things happen and I would define it as a success if we're taking steps in the right direction. But for me, the key is with the younger players coming on, combined with the guys I think that need to use the opportunity here to get themselves going in the in the right direction. "

• July 1, on the moves made so far: "We have the approval on budget from ownership to go to (the salary cap upper limit) that we can use that space either to acquire good young players, or what we can do is we can use that space to acquire more assets, whether it's draft picks or young players. The (Kevin Hayes) one is an example." (The Penguins' acquisition of Hayes was primarily an acquisition of three draft picks).

• July 1, on the direction of the team: "We're not looking to simply squeak into the playoffs. It's to return the team to become a contender as soon as possible. Can we do that this season? Can we do that next season? It's hard to put a timeframe on it, but this is obviously not a strip-it-down-to-the-studs situation here. The people in the room are too good for that. It's trying to use every method we can to acquire future assets that we can then bring into the organization through the draft, or through younger guys, through free agency, that we can bring in here, and they can pop, or be a trade or via waivers, that can come in and support the core group that's here. What we're not going to do is to get into the free agent quick fixes, like some of the longer range things that we've seen today (around the league). If we had been in a situation where we had been a playoff team and close to being a contender, we would do that."

• June 28, on the Penguins' impending free agency plan: "We won't be involved in the long term free agency stuff."

• June 28, on goals for this season: "I understand it would be nice to be in (the playoffs), but we want to be a contender, and so we have to put the work in and accrue the assets that are going to allow us to get there and do that. ... But for me, the major focus is trying to bring in players that are younger, hungrier, that can be with our club for a long time and help us long term."

• April 19, his opening statement in his season-ending press conference: "I think you all have a good idea from what we did at the trade deadline (Jake Guentzel trade) that we need to reposition where the team has been really for the last couple of decades. And I think justifiably, the team for a long time has been pushing to move assets in attempts to win, and the team has won here three times and been in contention for far longer than that many other times. But we need to reposition. And the way that we go about it, we've started to do that and replenish the assets that we have in an attempt to get us back into not sitting here two days after the regular season and having year-end press conferences and meetings."

• April 19, on his goals: "I think (to make the playoffs the last two years) it's come down to waiting the night before the season for another team to win to give you a chance on the final day. That's not desirable and it's not conducive with the end goal, which is to reposition the way that we go about it, replenish the prospects of the team and the draft capital of the team, and then start to build towards being a contending team that everyone in this room and in this city expects and has gotten used to. So that's really the only goal for me here. And I knew that coming in that this was all going to be part of it. It's a matter of how quickly can we get it there? And I mean, you can quickly get it there for a short stretch. It's how quickly can we get it there for a long stretch where we're back in that mix."

The "too long, didn't read" of it all: Making the playoffs this year would be nice, but not necessary. Making quick fixes to make the playoffs this year at the expense of long-term success can't happen. They didn't try to bring in big-name free agents, and the cap space was better served for deals like Hayes and Glass, where you get to take a flyer on a player but the real get is the draft picks that come along with them. They're not going full-rebuild in the sense that everyone gets moved, they're focused on rebuilding around the core -- not "the roster at large."

Could he have typed this up in a neat little statement for a social media graphic or letter to season-ticket holders like a couple teams have done in the past? 

Sure, but nobody can act like the goals of this season weren't made clear by Dubas since the day last season ended.

Does that mean that the organization doesn't also want to see the players they have be more competitive? 

Of course not. Does that mean the coach is totally, completely safe given that playoffs aren't the immediate goal?

Of course not -- just look at what happened to David Quinn in San Jose last season, fired after his rebuilding team bottomed-out a little too well.

The Penguins are trying to make changes. As previously reported, everyone is on the table for trades except Sidney Crosby, though obviously some of those contracts aren't exactly movable. But even then, the goal is to get either young players who could help the player long-term, or more futures like they just did in the Lars Eller trade. They aren't a few roster moves away from becoming a contender now, and they weren't a few moves away this past summer, either. It's going to take some time.