Responding to the rumors that are picking up in respect to a possible Jake Guentzel trade, Pittsburgh Penguins’ GM Kyle Dubas offered some insight this week. Wanting to make sure everyone knew that the organization was not shopping the forward in a possible trade scenario, Dubas said he understood the comments made by Guentzel’s agent. He also understood how those comments might have been misconstrued.
“We haven’t had any discussions with teams about Jake — anything out there is pure speculation,” Dubas said on his biweekly radio program that aired Wednesday night. “I don’t think that Ben Hankinson (Guentzel agent) with his comments a few weeks ago meant for it to kind of develop into the level of noise it’s gotten to.” Dubas added that knowing how much Hankinson cares about his clients and knowing the relationship between GM and player, “I don’t think that was his intention whatsoever.”
Dubas didn’t think that ‘it could get ugly,’ comments were about how Guentzel feels about the Penguins or negotiations with the team. Instead, he believes that the agent was rightfully pointing out that if the Pens continue to struggle, there could be tough decisions made about the roster. “that was about the contract. I don’t think so. “I think he was more talking about … the team and where it’s going to go in the next several seasons. So I didn’t take it as offensive or as anything other than Ben trying to do right by his client.”
So, Where Are the Penguins At With Guentzel?
Dubas then noted, “We’ll continue to go through the season here and I’ll continue to evaluate where we’re at, and either after the All-Star break or after the season we’ll do what’s best for everybody — best for the Penguins, best for Jake, and we’ll determine that together.” The team isn’t making a decision one way or the other right now.
Dubas will certainly consider a trade after the All-Star break if the Penguins are out of it. There will be too many teams prepared to take a big swing in a deadline trade for the Pens not to at least field offers. At the same time, Dubas will probably be talking to Guentzel about a contract extension, just to ensure he knows what all of the options are.
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