Kyle Dubas Explains Reason For Lack Of Trades During NHL Draft
· Yahoo Sports
Kyle Dubas Explains Reason For Lack Of Trades During NHL Draft originally appeared on SportsNet Pittsburgh. Add SportsNet Pittsburgh as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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The 2026 NHL Draft saw several young, high-end NHL players get traded, like Pavel Dorofeyev, Mason McTavish, William Eklund, Bowen Byram, and goalie Sebastian Cossa, among others.
Yet, the Pittsburgh Penguins weren’t among the teams that were involved in any of the blockbuster trades. Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas, meanwhile, believes that was due to the lack of assets Pittsburgh had in terms of draft picks.
“I think, in some of them, we really just haven’t had the assets to get there,” Dubas said on Friday. “If you go through the younger guys that have been traded, it was a fourth overall pick (the Bowen Byram trade to the Chicago Blackhawks). The Florida-Ottawa pick was a ninth overall pick. We were at 22.”
According to The Athletic’s Josh Yohe, the Penguins did check in on Byram and Mackie Samoskevicch, but Dubas didn’t have the assets to pull off a trade.
“We found in this last stretch that teams want the exact guys we’re looking for (and) in exchange in those deals, players in that group that we lack,” Dubas added.
As Dubas noted, he was surprised that the cost to acquire those young players was higher than he thought.
Although the Penguins didn’t make any big moves during the draft, Pittsburgh has all offseason to add more talent to the roster.