Kyle Dubas Hints at Changes to Penguins Lineup

The Pittsburgh Penguins haven't seen production from certain areas, and things could be changing soon.

When Kyle Dubas was hired as president of hockey operations by the Pittsburgh Penguins, one of the main goals was to address a lack of identity within the bottom six forward group.

While Dubas worked overtime in adding elite talent to the Penguins blue line, there was a ton of changes made to the bottom two forward lines, but the work might not be done.

During the first intermission against the Detroit Red Wings, Dubas did an interview with the TNT panel and hinted that a certain area of the lineup isn’t yet up to the standard.

“The identity of the team has always been that ‘team toughness,’” Dubas said. “We wanted to kind of get back to that, and address that in the bottom six. I don’t know that we’re quite there yet, and that falls on me.”

Head coach Mike Sullivan always preaches that the Penguins need to be a ‘tough team to play against,’ and that hasn’t really resonated yet this season.

The top two lines, led by Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, have been fantastic, but they can’t carry the load for all 82 games.

Dubas has said before he would like to be involved in any move or shakeup that would benefit the Penguins, and those muscles could be flexed pretty soon.

The bottom six is yet to produce offense and Dubas doesn’t believe they are ‘quite there yet.’

Finding new faces for the bottom six was noted to be a key priority in the offseason for Dubas and the Penguins, but after a handful of games, they haven’t shown much push.

Heading into the year, it was pretty agreed upon that the Penguins depth was improved, but just not in terms of offense.

Sure, that isn’t they main focus, but the Penguins could use some production from their bottom six, and quickly.

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