Penguins Hire Dubas as President; update: Dubas now also GM

[2014olympicgold]

The Penguins have hired Dubas as their President of Hockey Ops.
https://www.nhl.com/penguins/news/pe...ns/c-344675402

To note, the Leafs presser with Treliving starts 15min after this announcement.

[hockeyrobot]

Ohhhhhhhhhooooooooooo fancy new title.

[random-d]

The Penguins have hired Dubas as their President of Hockey Ops.
https://www.nhl.com/penguins/news/pe...ns/c-344675402

To note, the Leafs presser with Treliving starts 15min after this announcement.

https://imgur.com/gallery/fcRDALr

[LawMan]

Dubas must really not have liked Toronto, I cannot see Pittsburgh being a more desirable team to run then Toronto in the next few seasons.
New ownership will be wanting to get every last mile out of the Crosby-Malkin-Letang era and wanting to win without moving any of those pieces.

Hopefully Dubas is content with having less parties to answer to. Pittsburgh also has a conglomerate ownership so will be interesting to see how that works out.

[2014olympicgold]

I think Dubas wanted the title of President, or that role. I mentioned before I thought a realistic move the Leafs could have done was promote Dubas to President and Pridham to GM.

I also don't think there's many teams out there without a President role, and to note, the Penguins have had 1 other President of Hockey Ops and it was Burke in Feb 2021 so this is likely the new ownership wants this role. So if Dubas was gunning for a promotion, Penguins are likely the only team out there that has this open role. Might also have been part of the reason why the Ottawa rumours were swirling, who don't have a President of Hockey ops (they have a director of hockey ops and Manager of Hockey ops).

[dejeanneret]

Yep, further proof that the Pres of Hockey Ops is the new (i.e., real) GM. Good for him for getting out from under Shannahan and the wildly messy ownership structure in Toronto. That was a no-win situation for Dubas.

[Pengwin7]

Is it possible that Dubas is burnt out from being an NHL GM - but knows how to recognize a good one himself?!
I mean, I could see somebody saying such - that they'll stay in the game.
Either way - I see PIT/Dubas as a good fit in the President role.
Sort of works all around.

I wonder if there are any other parties from Toronto that affectionately might "follow" Dubas to PIT.
I mean... if you are PIT... you are certainly hoping for that, right?

[kovalchuk17]

President of Hockey Ops is a much better job than GM. You can probably go through 1-3 GMs before you are fired yourself. Less day-to-day work and presumably final say on big roster decisions.

Technically Kyle didnt lie, he didnt 'pop up as a GM' somewhere after leaving Toronto. Although it sounds like he'll be interim GM until he hires someone in the summer.

[2014olympicgold]

Wouldn't be surprised if Spezza is hired. There's a lot of employees who were given their shot by Dubas who might go if given the opportunity. Dubas had like disciples that followed him it seemed like, so he can def poach people if he chooses.

[2014olympicgold]

Whoever introduced Dubas mispronounced his name pretty badly lol.

Here's the presser, it starts at the 17:50(or18min) mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHMq...sburghPenguins

Quick notes:
- There will be a GM, but hired post July 1st. Dubas will act in that role for now under an interim tag. Looking for a "progressive" GM with a skillset he doesn't have.
- He said he's going to bet on Sullivan, Crosby, Malkin and Letang on winning.
- He talked to Crosby before taking the job.
- I didn't get a warm fuzzy feeling Dubas has any major interest in bringing Jarry back (talks about it around 36min mark)
- Saturday after being let go, he got a phone call from Fenway group wanting to talk.

[Axeman33]

President of Hockey Ops is a much better job than GM. You can probably go through 1-3 GMs before you are fired yourself. Less day-to-day work and presumably final say on big roster decisions.

Technically Kyle didnt lie, he didnt 'pop up as a GM' somewhere after leaving Toronto. Although it sounds like he'll be interim GM until he hires someone in the summer.

Didnt work out that way for Burkie in Pittsburgh.

[kovalchuk17]

Didnt work out that way for Burkie in Pittsburgh.

hence the 'probably' haha. Burke was a competent GM so it was surprising and disappointing he couldnt prevent Hextall's failures. Hextall was so bad Burke didnt survive

[2014olympicgold]

hence the 'probably' haha. Burke was a competent GM so it was surprising and disappointing he couldnt prevent Hextall's failures. Hextall was so bad Burke didnt survive

He also went through a purchase. Burke hired Feb 2021, Fenway bought them Dec2021, he was let go April 14 2023.

[blayze]

So he ended up getting Shanny's job.

I'm guessing he had Pittsburgh in his back pocket all along and leveraged it to make a last ditch effort at getting more autonomy as Leafs GM (and more money I'm sure) which would explain Shanny's timeline of events.

Shanny was probably like, **** this guy he ain't stepping on my job responsibilities and cut him loose, which Dubas probably figured would happen but hey worth the shot

I guess the power and money are more important to Dubas than winning, cause Shittsburgh ain't winning anything for the forseeable future with that dinosaur lineup

[ericdaoust]

This timeline is the best timeline lol