It seems pretty likely that Kyle Dubas had his eye on an old pal for the Pittsburgh Penguins GM job.

When the Pittsburgh Penguins hired Kyle Dubas as president of hockey operations in June, he stated that he would take general manager duties on an interim basis and start looking at full-time options in July.

July had come and gone and August crept up with no hires made by the Penguins for a full-time GM.

It wasn’t that much of a shock, however, as Dubas was working hard in his first month with the team getting to know players, staff, and rebuilding multiple facets of the organization.

The Penguins take on a much different look since Dubas took over, but the GM chair was still empty.

That was until the Penguins announced that Dubas would take over as general manager as well as president of hockey operations.

Dubas essentially hired himself for the job, citing continuity for the organization and will look into GM options in later offseasons.

While having Dubas having a duel role is perfectly fine for the team, and may even be the best option, what happened to the hunt?

According to Elliotte Friedman on the NHL Network, it’s possible Dubas wanted to bring Brandon Pridham on board.

Pridham worked beside Dubas as the Toronto Maple Leafs’ assistant general manager since 2019.

Dubas had already scooped Jason Spezza from the Maple Leafs, but Pridham decided he would stay in Toronto and work with their new GM Brad Treliving.

For the time being, the Penguins will be perfectly okay with Dubas having two roles.

He is building the team in his image, and so far, the vibes have already taken a major upswing.

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