Penguins draft and trade plans: What I’m hearing

PITTSBURGH — The NHL Draft begins in a matter of days and the Penguins are in an interesting spot.

They aren’t in win-now mode, nor are they in a complete rebuild, having made the postseason in April and hoping to be even better next season.

Of course, they’re also looking to make their roster younger on the fly while adding to their growing system.

In short, GM Kyle Dubas is trying to accomplish a number of conflicting goals simultaneously. He wants to get younger, make his minor-league system better and make the playoffs again, with the goal of the Penguins becoming a championship contender as opposed to a team that simply slides into a postseason spot.

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Dubas is picking at spot No. 22, which is probably a lot lower than he would have projected before last season began.

Here’s what I’m hearing from several team and league sources briefed on the Penguins’ thinking. Sources were granted anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about sensitive team and league matters.

• Here’s something interesting. We typically speak at length about the abundance of draft picks at Dubas’ disposal in coming years. And that’s generally true, but not in this draft.

The Penguins’ fourth-, fifth- and seventh-round picks in this draft were traded in three separate deals. Thus, the Penguins only have five picks in the seven-round draft at the moment. They have one in the first, two in the second (39th and 54th), one each in the third and the sixth. So they have plenty of premium picks, but not much in terms of quantity.

I’ve heard that the Penguins would be happy to add a pick or two. Any team would be. But I don’t get the sense that it’s a necessity. Remember, they made 13 selections in last year’s draft, seven coming in the first three rounds. Having added that kind of quantity to the stable likely mean Dubas won’t be compelled to go searching for more draft picks for the sake of doing so. If he can add one or two, great. But this draft is more about quality than it is quantity.

And remember, the Penguins currently own 28 picks — including 15 in the top three rounds — in the three drafts that follow this one.

• It would not surprise me if the Penguins moved up from the 22nd spot.

Doing so, however, will more than likely involve trading a player of consequence. They don’t have many picks to trade in this particular draft and picks in future years don’t typically entice teams to trade down. It’s one thing to move up a couple of slots. It’s another to move into the top 10. If Dubas wants to make a bold move, it’s probably going to cost him a roster player. While Dubas isn’t against trading premium picks, he’d prefer to get back NHL-ready players as opposed to using them to move up in the draft. Trading a veteran to move up seems more logical.

Dubas has proven pretty proficient at sliding up and down the draft board as he sees fit. I’d expect at least one trade in terms of draft position. But it won’t be easy. Teams don’t give up top-10 picks for nothing.

In general, I’d expect multiple trades between now and early July.

• If the Penguins are able to move into the top tier of the first round, a target of theirs could be Viggo Björck. The Penguins like him a great deal. The Swedish forward is one of the draft’s most gifted players. His style and skill level scream top-six forward, even though he’s undersized at 5-foot-10.

This is a relevant thing for the Penguins.

There is a concern in the organization that, while many forwards in Wilkes-Barre are destined to play in the NHL, almost all of them project to being bottom-six players. The Penguins like Rutger McGroarty and Avery Hayes a lot, but they don’t necessarily view them as players who will play in the top-six at the NHL level.

There is hope that Bill Zonnon can be one of those guys, but his future could also be that of a third-line player (albeit a very good one). It’s too early to say with Zonnon, and the Penguins love him. But it was clear to everyone watching Wilkes-Barre’s playoffs games that, though the Penguins’ AHL affiliate is greatly improved and clearly boasting a lot of NHL talent, it wasn’t boasting much in the way of top-tier NHL talent. Ville Koivunen’s regression during the past 12 months makes this even more of an issue.

Ben Kindel and Egor Chinakhov are the only young players in the organization whom the Penguins feel will be in their top-six a few years from now. This is a problem and one of the reasons Dubas will consider moving up in the draft. Historically speaking, when we think of the Penguins, we think of a franchise that employs an absurd amount of highly skilled players. In reality, right now, they don’t, especially when you remove the players who are pushing 40.

The Penguins would love to slide up to nab a forward that they believe can be a top-six player, or have one fall to them.

I think you’ll see the Penguins look for as much top-end skill as possible. Last season, the Penguins not only wanted to replenish their system with overwhelming quantity, drafting 13 players, but they wanted to get bigger and more durable players in their prospect pool. After Ben Kindel was selected, the Penguins’ next six picks were 6-foot-2 or taller. That wasn’t coincidental.

Adding top-end skill, and maybe even taking chances on a boom-or-bust player who has a high ceiling, seems to be the organizational thinking.

• And if they don’t trade up?

It’s not like Dubas isn’t aware of the lack of talent on the blue line in his system.

Keep your eye on defenseman Ryan Lin, one of the draft’s more gifted players.

Lin is a right-handed defenseman who has drawn the Penguins’ attention. The question is: will he be around when the Penguins pick at 22? That’s very much up for debate. Most of The Athletic’s mock drafts have seen Lin go a couple spots ahead of where the Penguins pick.

He would check a lot of boxes. Other than Harrison Brunicke, the Penguins don’t have a blue-chip prospect on their blue line. Lin would give them another. Both Lin and Bruncike are right-handed, which would give the Penguins two very intriguing, right-handed replacements for Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang in coming seasons. Right-handed defensemen are typically more difficult to find on the market than lefties, and having two such players internally would be a nice luxury for Dubas.

• Mackie Samoskevich was sent to Seattle by the Florida Panthers over the weekend in a move that set up the Panthers’ acquisition of Brady Tkachuk.

I was told on Sunday that Samoskevich is a player about whom the Penguins had recently inquired. Apparently the Penguins like him a lot.

This makes sense. He’s 23, a former first-round pick and a player who has displayed significant potential. He’s the prototype of what Dubas is searching for, but obviously Seattle made an offer the Penguins weren’t prepared to match.

• A league source told me over the weekend that Dubas is “going big-game hunting” this summer.

• I think Buffalo defenseman Bowen Byram is a name to keep in mind. He’s 25, gifted and perhaps only now coming into his own. He will require big-time money and only has one year remaining on his deal.

It would cost a lot, in terms of trade pieces and in future money. But this is a talented player in his mid-20s. These are the kinds of players Dubas is targeting and I’ve heard this is a player who the Penguins like a great deal.

• The sale of the Penguins from Fenway Sports Group to the Hoffmann Family could be official as early as this week. Multiple sources have confirmed that approval of the Hoffmann Family purchase is on the NHL Board of Governors agenda for this week’s meeting.

• Even if the Hoffmann Family gains control of the Penguins soon — and it’s believed by many in the Penguins organization that this is a formality — games are still likely to be televised next season on Pittsburgh Sports Net. The New England Sports Network runs Pittsburgh Sports Net, and FSG owns 80 percent of NESN. Thus, this isn’t necessarily a long-term commitment. Games airing on the network next season, however, would buy the Hoffman Family ample time to decipher the future of the Penguins in terms of television partners.

• The NHL schedule for the 2026-27 season will be released on July 16. Opening night next season will be Sept. 29.