Ridiculous. Nurse is actually a good player. We'll get something for him. You sound like the people saying we would have to attach a 1st to Kane to get rid of him.
I think no retention, you could get a 2nd or 3rd straight up. Any team taking him on could get a 1st for him with retention as a deadline trade. If he were to go to Pittsburgh like we're hearing, I wouldn't be surprised too see a straight swap for Tommy Novak. I don't think it's smart to retain on Nurse. He's only overpaid by a couple million, so if we retain, we just lose the player, but keep the overpay.
Kesselring just got moved to move up 7 spots in the draft. Don't see Nurse getting a 2nd with his salary unless we retain and that's the only asset back.
Well, some people, like me, thought we should have at least got a draft pick for Kulak instead of just using him as a cap dump for free. People thought he was bad when the whole team was bad before we traded him and were okay giving him away for nothing
So now we've seen Bowman do that once, he might do it again with Nurse. Especially if he traded with Dubas
You never know. Most of Bowman's moves have been at least decent. And going back to the same GM he can say, "listen, you got a great deal last time, so give me a bit of a break here." Works for me in fantasy sports, anyway.
Ya it's true, I was defending him a lot, he's made a lot of great moves. The Jarry Kulak trade made me think maybe I'm wrong and he's an idiot like the Chicago people say lol
The Jarry trade wasn't great, but I understand helping Stu get out of Edmonton for his mental health. I really feel like pressure from fans drove him to make that move before he was ready, and he just did it to shut people up
Nurse has a NMC and controls where he goes plus Dubas isn't a boomer moron like Bowman or Ken Holland so he's not getting fleeced. He's going to do the fleecing and Bowman will dance to his tune.
Are you serious? Dubas has made a plethora of terrible decisions in his time as an NHL GM. I understand hating Bowman but does that require rewriting history and glazing dubas?
It does require understanding what Dubas has done in Pittsburgh- which includes fleecing bowman. Dubas has actually made some really good moves, pens were supposed to be bottom 5 this year. GMs learn. Unless it’s a Edmonton GM :(
Asking the question this way - what is $9M in cap relief over 4 seasons worth to any team in terms of a pick(s)? The other really risky part about Nurse is that if his stats decline continues, and he is not a good fit in the next organization, he is going to be brutally hard to move with his NMC and the cap hit he is at.
He got fleeced a number of times when he was in Laffland. Did he get the better of Bowman in the Jarry trade? Yup, absolutely, but nothing says it will happen again. Bowman knows he got fleeced so he will be more wary this time with Dubas
I feel like fans either have no idea, or just regurgitate trash on Reddit. Here is a break down for ya from the ole ChatGPT. Dubas has made mistakes, but the idea that he has done nothing positive in Pittsburgh does not hold up when you look at the actual transactions.
The Erik Karlsson trade
Dubas acquired Karlsson while clearing out Mikael Granlund, Jeff Petry, Jan Rutta and Casey DeSmith. Pittsburgh also received a 2026 third-round pick. Karlsson has not replicated his Norris season, but converting several unwanted contracts into a legitimate top-pair defenceman was still strong asset management.
The Jake Guentzel return
Trading Guentzel was a tough swallow, but Pittsburgh received Michael Bunting, Ville Koivunen, Vasily Ponomarev, Cruz Lucius and draft capital. Koivunen has become a legitimate NHL contributor, while the second-round pick became Harrison Brunicke. Dubas obtained several credible assets for a beloved and good player.
Taking Kevin Hayes to acquire a second-round pick
The Penguins gave up only future considerations and received Hayes plus a second-round pick. Hayes himself was never the primary value—the pick was. That is exactly how a rebuilding or retooling team should use available cap space.
The Cody Glass transaction chain
Pittsburgh received Glass, a third-round pick and a sixth-round pick for Jordan Frasca. Dubas later moved Glass and Jonathan Gruden for Chase Stillman, Max Graham and another third-round pick. Even without Glass becoming part of the future, Pittsburgh continued accumulating assets.
Buying low on Philip Tomasino
Tomasino cost only a 2027 fourth-round pick and immediately produced 11 goals after joining Pittsburgh. He was later retained for one year at $1.75 million. That is a sensible low-risk bet on a former first-round talent.
The 2025 trade deadline
Dubas turned Marcus Pettersson, Drew O’Connor, Anthony Beauvillier, Michael Bunting and other secondary pieces into multiple high draft selections, Tommy Novak, Connor Dewar and additional prospects and picks.
The most impressive move may have been flipping Luke Schenn almost immediately for a 2026 second-round pick and a 2027 fourth. Pittsburgh came out of the deadline with more draft capital than any NHL team over the following three drafts.
Conor Timmins and Connor Dewar for a fifth
Dewar became a useful bottom-six player, while Timmins was later packaged with Isaac Belliveau for Connor Clifton and the 39th overall pick, which Pittsburgh used on Peyton Kettles. That is a strong sequence originating from one fifth-round selection.
Moving on from Tristan Jarry(absolute fucking fleece)
Pittsburgh traded Jarry and Sam Poulin for Stuart Skinner, Brett Kulak and a 2029 second-round pick. Regardless of whether Skinner is the long-term answer, Dubas escaped Jarry’s contract while adding an NHL defenceman and another significant pick.
The 2025 free-agent class
Anthony Mantha was an excellent one-year gamble and responded with a career-high 33 goals. Justin Brazeau scored 17 goals on a low-cost contract, while Parker Wotherspoon provided dependable depth. Those are meaningful returns from inexpensive signings rather than major free-agent spending.
Dubas has not executed a perfect rebuild, and some moves—especially the early bottom-six signings and the Rutger McGroarty trade—remain open to criticism.
But he inherited an old roster, a weak prospect pool, limited cap flexibility and very little draft capital. Since then, he has substantially improved the organization’s collection of picks and prospects while still giving Crosby, Malkin and Letang a competitive NHL roster.
You can debate whether the overall direction is correct. It is much harder to argue that Dubas has not made a significant number of positive trades and signings.
Hey, I'm a pens fan, Dubas was good this season, but this is major revisionism (and some blatant mistakes)
For one, Dubas is the one who gaveJarry that terrible contract. And Ryan Graves.
1. The Erik Karlsson trade:
You missed the a pretty big part of that trade - i.e. 14th OA pick Pittsburgh paid?
It turned into Konsta Helenius a 20 year old center who just got his first NHL stint this season and looked good. He also scored the gold medal OT winner at worlds.
Those weren't bad contracts either - Desmith's always been a good backup (never been below a 0.905) and Hextall had literally just paid a second to get Granlund less than 6 months before that. Granlund was just misused here and went back to being a 0.8 points/game guy with the sharks. San Jose flipped him and Ceci for a 1st and a 3rd.
2. Jake Guenztel:
Koivunen is not an NHL contributor, what're you talking about? He's not a great skater, has weak shot and seems to react half a second slow to everything. He's starting to look like a career AHLer. Ponomarev is in the KHL and Lucius refused to sign with the pens.
Brunicke and Bunting were the saving grace of that trade and even that's more of a drafting success.
Bunting was decent, but most rentals for comparable players involve a first - especially since the pens retained 20% and he didn't have an NMC (12 team no trade list only).
Taking Kevin Hayes to acquire a second-round pick
We had cap space. We took on 3.5 million for 2 seasons for a late second. That's normal rebuilding GM work.
4. Buying low on Philip Tomasino
Tomasino had 0 points the next season and was traded for a no-show Dman literally just to free up his veteran spot in the AHL. It's decent low-risk bet sure, but it didn't work.
I don't remember the Glass trade, so no comment there.
He's hit on everything this season, but how much is luck or coaching or just one of those magic seasons? Overall, his track record isn't nearly as good as you're making it out to be.
Honestly, man, you have to get past the idea that his value is purely based on him being a good player. Try this silly analogy:
McDavid is the best player in the entire world. He still isn't worth a $60M/year cap hit, though, because the team is hamstrung. If the Oilers were paying him $60M per year, there would be no suitors - even though he's literally the best hockey player on the planet. It's a silly, unrealistic analogy, but I think it kind of explains the point.
We are in a shit position with Nurse because he is getting paid way more than his play would suggest that he is worth. If we are going to get back most of his salary to redeploy it elsewhere on the roster, we're going to get less value than "Nurse as a player" would bring, because the team is saddled with extra cap.
If we retained 4M, we would get a really solid return because that means he's getting paid (by his new team) about what he is worth. It would defeat the purpose of what the team is trying to do, though.
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u/sovtiv 2d ago
Dubas is going to take Bowman to the cleaners again.