Could Penguins’ Kyle Dubas win GM of the Year?
The Pittsburgh Penguins remain one of the surprise stories of the NHL season, and even as their grip on a playoff spot has slipped in recent weeks, the fact that a team often picked to be dead last in the East is still in the race at this point is a testament to the work the organization has done this season.
For Team President Kyle Dubas, it could be enough to earn him the NHL award for General Manager of the Year. The former Toronto Maple Leafs executive has made moves both big and small that have paid big dividends in driving positive results in the Steel City this year.
His first-year coaching hire Dan Muse has been a big hit, and a bounce-back season from his first big acquisition on the job in veteran defenseman Erik Karlsson has buoyed the roster amidst a run of bad injury luck.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed why Karlsson’s resurgence and the overall turnaround in Pittsburgh could result in Dubas earning GM of the Year honors.
Tyler Yaremchuk: What about the job that Kyle Dubas has done? He comes out yesterday and says that the franchise has no intentions of trading Erik Karlsson before the final year of his deal. That’s a move that, hey, 18 months ago were kind of raising an eyebrow at, like why did Pittsburgh do it? That’s looking like a stroke of genius from Dubas, picking up Karlsson at the level he’s still at. You look at Chinakhov, all these other guys throughout the lineup are contributing, and Dubas’ fingerprints are all over this team. Let me ask you this in the form of a fill-in-the-blank, Kyle Dubas has a blank percent chance of winning GM of the Year, Hutts?
Carter Hutton: I think he has a pretty decent chance. Let’s say 25%. I feel like there still are some GMs out there. I’d put Don Waddell in that conversation… There’s so many things that go into it, but I think about Kyle Dubas, kind of handed this team in the sense of like, you have aging generational players, right? Now you have to walk on eggshells about how you manage it, because this is Sidney Crosby’s team, his city, his organization from that standpoint… I think it’s been a great job by Kyle Dubas, and then coming from that fishbowl of Toronto and how everybody hated him and he was a big problem there, to see their struggles and Pittsburgh, you know, this has got to be a rewarding year for Kyle Dubas.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…