The last thing you want to do in your first year as general manager of an NHL team is to make your star player unhappy. Especially when that star player is, and has been one of the best players in the league for a while. That said, it looks like Pittsburgh Penguins GM Kyle Dubas is about to do just that.
While the Penguins aren't out of the postseason race yet, they are 8 points out of a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with 22 games to go. Captain and star player Sidney Crosby recently said regardless of what happens at the trade deadline, the goal is to make the playoffs and that won't change. However, with Jake Guentzel about to become a free agent at the end of the year, Dubas will likely have to trade him knowing that the chances of making the post season are slim. A report says Crosby won't be pleased.
Trading Guentzel now is a sure sign that management believes the season is over. Crosby has repeatedly denied that players see it that way, but flipping Guentzel at the deadline is not just a sign that management is already throwing the season away, it will also make it that much harder for the Pens to make a push as the season winds down.
Dubas has a delicate balancing act to pull off. Keeping Guentzel and missing the playoffs only to have him sign elsewhere in the offseason would be seen as a massive mistake for the GM in his first year in Pittsburgh. Trading him now sends the signal that he has little faith in his team to turn things around.
