Kyle Dubas’ return to Toronto went as bad as it possibly could have

After all the drama surrounding Pittsburgh Penguins’ President and General Manager Kyle Dubas and his firing by the Toronto Maple Leafs last summer, many were expecting a memorable match between his former and current clubs last Saturday in Toronto.

Instead, we saw the Maple Leafs beat up on Dubas’ Penguins by a score of 7-0, a game which saw Max Domi get a goal and two assists, Martin Jones secure a shutout and the Toronto fans taunt the former GM with sarcastic chants of “Dubas, Dubas.”

On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss the struggles of the Penguins, and where they might find themselves if things don’t get better in the near future.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Pittsburgh Penguins aren’t really within arms reach of a playoff spot right now after a 7-0 loss to the Maple Leafs. When you look back at their first 29 games of the season, they’re 13-13-3, right around the .500 mark of the modern NHL.

But they’re healthy, Sidney Crosby is scoring at a 50-goal pace, Tristan Jarry has been good, and now you have to ask yourself: what if those players start to slow down? It’s getting hard to envision things getting better in Pittsburgh, and that’s going to lead to some interesting conversations.

Frank Seravalli: What is the best-case scenario for this Penguins team? That’s teh part I really struggle to figure out. Could their power play have been better in the last month? Sure. Could they have piled up more points? Certainly, especially with all the one-goal games they’ve played.

But despite Crosby and Jarry and a healthy Evgeni Malkin, for this team to still be on pace for 82 points, which is probably at least 10 points away from a playoff spot, they’ve got some tough questions to ask. Especially after Dubas traded away their 2024 first-round pick to get Erik Karlsson, who is on pace for about 65-to-70 points this year, instead of the 100 points he scored last season.

Where are they heading? What’s the best case scenario? Can this Penguins team claw back into the race in the Eastern Conference?

You can watch the full episode here…