NHL: Detroit Red Wings at Pittsburgh Penguins - Source: Imagn — Top insider expects fire sale in Pittsburgh with Penguins GM Kyle Dubas to make sweeping changes (Image credit: Imagn)

NHL Trade Rumors: Top insider expects fire sale in Pittsburgh with Penguins GM Kyle Dubas to make sweeping changes

Modified Nov 14, 2024 15:13 GMT

The Pittsburgh Penguins are off to a rough start this season. After narrowly missing the playoffs last year, they're currently 6-9-3 and in sixth place in their division through 18 games. It's far from over for Pittsburgh, but they may want to consider looking to the future. At least, one hockey insider believes general manager Kyle Dubas should consider making sweeping changes to the roster.

On Thursday's episode of "The Chris Johnston Show," Johnston and journalist Julian McKenzie discussed rumors of a potential fire sale.

"The Penguins are looking into the situation with clear eyes," Johnston said. "I think that Kyle Dubas isn't kidding himself here about where his team sits. ... They've been getting their butts kicked. ... I'll point you to what we saw last yeaar from this team when they were 10 points out of the playoffs with a couple weeks before the deadline, they went out and traded Jake Guentzel."

This year, the NHL analyst expects the team, which he estimates is in worse shape, to make more trades if they can't turn things around. The Penguins traded Lars Eller to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, and Johnston believes more moves could be in store. He further said:

"That being said, I also don't think they're gonna start in the next week just trading anything that isn't nailed to the ground. The truth is that it's somewhere in the middle. The penguins have five players with full no movement clauses, you know (Sidney) Crosby, (Kris) Letang, (Erik) Karlsson, (Evgeni) Malkin and Bryan Rust.

"So the main names that are probably going to get people all whipped up, I don't think are in play. ... But in the here and now the Penguins do have a number of sort of depth pieces that are on expiring deals, you know someone like Marcus Pettersson on their blue line will be pretty heavily featured on the trade board that comes out." (Time stamp: 5:20)

NHL analyst opens up on Penguins' coach's future

The team has a lot of interesting questions to answer this year. One of them is whether or not Mike Sullivan should remain their coach. He is a favorite of ownership and has a good relationship with stars like Sidney Crosby. He'd also be highly sought after if he were fired.

Mike Sullivan is the Penguins coach (Imagn)

However, on Wednesday, Elliotte Friedman said on "32 Thoughts" that it's "fair to wonder if the time has come for Sullivan in Pittsburgh." He acknowledged that this happens to all coaches at some point, but he said that Sullivan has not checked out.

In Friedman's eyes, Sullivan is still highly committed to figuring out the team's problems. If he is fired, the NHL analyst doesn't think it will be because he's bad or ineffective, but that it's simply time for change.