Kyle Dubas talks free agency, Sidney Crosby extension at 2024 NHL Draft

The Penguins are only planning to offer short-term deals in free agency this summer, according to Dubas.

Kyle Dubas spoke to reporters before the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft Friday in Las Vegas. Here’s a few highlights from the press conference.

• Dubas “of course” feels good about where the Penguins are in negotiations for Sidney Crosby’s next contract.

“Sid’s an ultra-competitive person and wants the team to be a contender, right? I think as long as we have someone like Sid on the team, and the players we have, the process that we have to follow is to, as urgently as possible, acquire younger, hungrier players that can help us get back to that time.”

Dubas went on to use that phrase— “younger, hungrier players”— multiple times.

• Dubas said the trade of Jake Guentzel to the Carolina Hurricanes was “something we felt we had to do.”

“The real goal is try to take where we’re at, and the era that the team has just been through... and return us to be able to hand that over to the next era. But we have to build that era up, starting last year. It goes to the trade deadline, and not a popular decision, but something we felt we had to do.”

• The Penguins don’t plan to attach assets to outgoing players in order to clear salary, and won’t be signing any long-term deals in free agency.

“The only thing that’s really important to us, is that if we’re moving players out, the return has to be good,” Dubas said.

He continued: “If there are draft picks, young players, or prospects that will help us get back to contention sooner, we would be more in that realm than we would be in trying to move off our guys to create more space to get into free agency. We won’t be involved in the long-term free agency stuff.”

• Dubas emphasized that the Penguins only want to sign short-term deals in free agency this summer while adding to their forward and defense groups this summer.

“Last year, in the summer, we tried to jump-start it in free agency and in trade, and we ended up missing on the next to last day of the season, again, which is where the team was the year before. So now we need to begin to pivot away from the way that we’ve gone about it.”

“We’re gonna try to get established guys on short-term deals come in and try to help.”

• The Penguins are “continuing to talk” with the agent of restricted free agent P.O. Joseph.

During those negotiations, the Penguins are monitoring the RFA defense market to see which players do not receive qualifying offers from their teams and could become available as potential replacements, Dubas said.

Dubas added that the Penguins are also in talks with RFA forward Emil Bemstrom, and plan to make a qualifying offer to RFA forward Corey Andonovski.