I don't think anyone here is sucking Dubas' cock lol. He's doing a good job. All you can ask is to try an make good moves. I think most of us questioned the Graves signing a little when it happened and also Eller. But Smith and EK, hell no, those were good moves. I gave Hextall his praises for the Rakell trade and signing because it was good. But his other work was pretty bad.
- 668710

I’d disagree strongly that “he’s doing a good job.” There are more errors than good moves. Even his “good moves” aren’t exactly producing like they should which mainly isnt his fault but those still aren’t working great. His entire approach has failed. My opinion his first move in the offseason should be to hire a GM to take over and they can pick their own coach.

Jokes aside O’Conner had a legitimately good game last night. I think my opinion of him is solidifying as a good third liner that can play third wheel in the top six in a pinch.
- Victoro311

I'm not mocking O'Connor as much as I am Sullivan's love affair with the guy. O'Connor is a fourth line set him and forget him. He's an asset to any team, he becomes a problem when he gets to be a top six option. And when that happens your team is worse off than just one guy. As in the world we are currently living in.

I’d disagree strongly that “he’s doing a good job.” There are more errors than good moves. Even his “good moves” aren’t exactly producing like they should which mainly isnt his fault but those still aren’t working great. His entire approach has failed. My opinion his first move in the offseason should be to hire a GM to take over and they can pick their own coach.
- pens4life-66

Atleast he’s admitted it failed and is taking a different approach instead of doubling down. He took over a huge mess and it wasn’t reasonable to think he could fix it within 12 months.

Atleast he’s admitted it failed and is taking a different approach instead of doubling down. He took over a huge mess and it wasn’t reasonable to think he could fix it within 12 months.
- abasin

Yes not doubling down on bad strategy is a breath of fresh air, but pens is right. Dubas f'ed up last offseason. Regardless of how bad of a situation Hex left him and how well he did moving out a bunch of bad contracts for a really good player, his overall strategy of building out a defensive bottom 6 to compliment a thin and old scoring core was bad and a lot of people saw that even at the time.

How he responds to that failure this offseason is going to go a long way in how much faith I have in him moving forward.

I’d disagree strongly that “he’s doing a good job.” There are more errors than good moves. Even his “good moves” aren’t exactly producing like they should which mainly isnt his fault but those still aren’t working great. His entire approach has failed. My opinion his first move in the offseason should be to hire a GM to take over and they can pick their own coach.
- pens4life-66

I agree... It's not been great. Not tragic or anything, but not good either. The EK deal was good considering the bad contracts moved. I think we'll see better next year from him. Beyond EK, Eller was really the only move that was decent. I think he was miscast as a 3C.

FSG gave him complete control and I highly doubt he steps aside as GM. He'd do himself a lot of good if he got a new coach. Sully with 3 years left and ownership has a love affair with him, It's hard to see how that gets done unfortunately. If he's handcuffed with sully, I'm not optimistic about next year.

Yeah, he should stick around for the bottom 6...no matter what Grinder says or thinks haha
- MattStrat

He’s probably the most bland vanilla piece of poop hockey player I’ve ever witnessed.

I agree... It's not been great. Not tragic or anything, but not good either. The EK deal was good considering the bad contracts moved. I think we'll see better next year from him. Beyond EK, Eller was really the only move that was decent. I think he was miscast as a 3C.

FSG gave him complete control and I highly doubt he steps aside as GM. He'd do himself a lot of good if he got a new coach. Sully with 3 years left and ownership has a love affair with him, It's hard to see how that gets done unfortunately. If he's handcuffed with sully, I'm not optimistic about next year.
- madmike71

Ned was a solid add

I at last understood the Smith move. Who'd have thought he'd go full Brassard. I would've signed Zuck first for about the same cash though.

Acciari is OK for his hit to kill penalties even though he's a black hole offensively.

Graves is a HUGE F so far. How do you miss on an evaluation that bad?! He does nothing well. I've been pisstified by that one since game 1.

Ned was a solid add

I at last understood the Smith move. Who'd have thought he'd go full Brassard. I would've signed Zuck first for about the same cash though.

Acciari is OK for his hit to kill penalties even though he's a black hole offensively.

Graves is a HUGE F so far. How do you miss on an evaluation that bad?! He does nothing well. I've been pisstified by that one since game 1.
- Thorny87

Yeah.... Forgot about Ned. I hope they extend him.

I’d disagree strongly that “he’s doing a good job.” There are more errors than good moves. Even his “good moves” aren’t exactly producing like they should which mainly isnt his fault but those still aren’t working great. His entire approach has failed. My opinion his first move in the offseason should be to hire a GM to take over and they can pick their own coach.
- pens4life-66

I agree with the hire a GM part for sure. But don't agree with more errors than good moves. Also have to take into account the poop storm he was left with from Hextard. I'm not calling Dubas amazing, but maybe can say he did solid. I would say his worst signing was Graves. He was an offensive defensmen we really didn't need.

At the time we signed/traded for the guys:
Good- EK, Smith
Meh- Eller, Accari, Ned
Bad- Graves

What it turned out to be:
Good- EK(even though he's not gonna get 80+points)
Ned, Eller
Bad- Smith, Graves, Accari (Used incorrectly as a center instead of wing)

I agree with the hire a GM part for sure. But don't agree with more errors than good moves. Also have to take into account the poop storm he was left with from Hextard. I'm not calling Dubas amazing, but maybe can say he did solid. I would say his worst signing was Graves. He was an offensive defensmen we really didn't need.
- 668710

I just think if your team has Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and Guentzel, and gets great goaltending to boot, and you don’t make the playoffs, by default you didn’t do a good enough job.

Yes not doubling down on bad strategy is a breath of fresh air, but pens is right. Dubas f'ed up last offseason. Regardless of how bad of a situation Hex left him and how well he did moving out a bunch of bad contracts for a really good player, his overall strategy of building out a defensive bottom 6 to compliment a thin and old scoring core was bad and a lot of people saw that even at the time.

How he responds to that failure this offseason is going to go a long way in how much faith I have in him moving forward.
- Victoro311

Offensive players willing to sign for low money in PITTSBURGH aren't a dime a dozen. Every team in the league is after those guys and then they don't sign for low money due to that same demand

You have to draft and develop those guys, that aint on Dubas

I think this season is a good reminder that on paper it might look like you can get a similar player for less but until they’re on the team and in the system it’s an educated guess at best.

Zuck and smith come to mind, also I think we’re on our 3rd player that plays like Tanev but cheaper.

I just think if your team has Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and Guentzel, and gets great goaltending to boot, and you don’t make the playoffs, by default you didn’t do a good enough job.
- Victoro311

I’d like to see this year repeated under a different coaching staff. It’s hard to evaluate anything given the guy driving the bus. I was honestly hoping Smith would get traded so hopefully some intel might leak about the player coaching relationship in that room.

Offensive players willing to sign for low money in PITTSBURGH aren't a dime a dozen. Every team in the league is after those guys and then they don't sign for low money due to that same demand

You have to draft and develop those guys, that aint on Dubas
- RoloTahmasee

You also have to build a team. The right guys, the right mindset. I don’t think there’s much of a team vibe in that room right now.

I just think if your team has Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and Guentzel, and gets great goaltending to boot, and you don’t make the playoffs, by default you didn’t do a good enough job.
- Victoro311

Well, not firing Sullivan earlier this year is a mistake. That's for sure. But I'm not knocking him for the moves other than Graves.

You also have to build a team. The right guys, the right mindset. I don’t think there’s much of a team vibe in that room right now.
- Grinder47

I agree, it's terrible. This reminds me when they were trying to get rid of Therrien.

I’d like to see this year repeated under a different coaching staff. It’s hard to evaluate anything given the guy driving the bus. I was honestly hoping Smith would get traded so hopefully some intel might leak about the player coaching relationship in that room.
- Grinder47

Agree as well. Sully should have been fired.

I’d like to see this year repeated under a different coaching staff. It’s hard to evaluate anything given the guy driving the bus. I was honestly hoping Smith would get traded so hopefully some intel might leak about the player coaching relationship in that room.
- Grinder47

I don’t disagree. I’m not sure what our ceiling was because this team was always gonna have issues scoring consistently at 5v5 and that’s a Dubas problem to figure out but the floor shouldn’t have been close to this. This was a complete bottom out and a lot of that is on coaching

Did anyone really think this was going to be a good team back in August? At best it could have been a wild card. I really didn’t expect them to be battling for last in the division.

Eller has the 4th most goals of any UFA signed this year at under $2.5M. It's not clear to me what "offensive players" people think we could've signed with the $2M we gave Acciari (everybody else brought in was near league min, so that's all the money we had).

Eller has the 4th most goals of any UFA signed this year at under $2.5M. It's not clear to me what "offensive players" people think we could've signed with the $2M we gave Acciari (everybody else brought in was near league min, so that's all the money we had).
- MickV

I thought we needed to focus on value trades for the bottom six rather than gassing cap space on UFAs that almost never live up to their billing

Jokes aside O’Conner had a legitimately good game last night. I think my opinion of him is solidifying as a good third liner that can play third wheel in the top six in a pinch.
- Victoro311

Completely agree. DOC should be in that 8-10 range on the depth chart. Instead he was seventh. And the two guys in front of him, Smith and Rackell, had such poor years Sully kept pushing him up the line-up even on his off-wing.

I don't know if this changes though. I'm curious what they do with the glut of young players who are doing less than DOC plus Poulin in the minors. Feels like they'd jam a bunch in the bottom six and we're in a similar situation.

Did anyone really think this was going to be a good team back in August? At best it could have been a wild card. I really didn’t expect them to be battling for last in the division.
- sammy87

I think we all agree with what you said? (That can't be right). Compete for a wild card was the expectation. Falling apart like this is a disappointment. But nobody expected a true contender. Past couple weeks have made it look worse because they aren't even competitive and even Sid seems shot.

Did anyone really think this was going to be a good team back in August? At best it could have been a wild card. I really didn’t expect them to be battling for last in the division.
- sammy87

3rd in the division I thought was our ceiling, and looking at who is there, we could of had that spot. But guess what they sucked ass haha.