Blue Jays’ Guerrero Jr. belts first homer of season at Rogers Centre
Vladmir Guerrero Jr. finally has hit his first home run of the year at Rogers Centre. The Toronto Blue Jays’ star first baseman crushed an offering from Oakland A’s starter James Kaprielian over the wall in left-centre in the third inning for a three-run blast to give the home side a 4-3 lead on Friday.
Kyle Dubas is not only settling into his new role with the Pittsburgh Penguins but also settling into life in a new city for himself and his family.
The Penguins hired Dubas as president of hockey operations on June 1, less than two weeks after the Toronto Maple Leafs parted ways with the 37-year-old following five seasons as general manager.
Dubas, who is from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., said now that he’s actually immersed himself in Pittsburgh, he’s starting to feel more at home.
“I think the thing that’s really impressed me has just been the quality of the people here and frankly, how comfortable it’s been in the city already not just for me but for my family,” Dubas said during a press conference Friday. “I think for us, I’m from Sault Ste. Marie, the time in Toronto, I think the city is much larger. It’s a great city, but here it just feels a little bit more like home and what it was like growing up.”
“You never know what you’re going to get into when you make that type of move,” he added. “It’s been, for the first three weeks anyway, we haven’t lost any games yet, so the people have been very, very kind. But it’s been great that way.”
Dubas has his work cut out for him in Pittsburgh as the Penguins finished fifth in the Metropolitan Division and missed the playoffs for the first time in 17 years to end the longest active post-season streak in major North American professional sports. That prompted a front-office house cleaning as the team fired director of hockey operations Brian Burke, general manager Ron Hextall and assistant general manager Chris Pryor.
The Penguins have three key players set to hit unrestricted free agency on July 1 in forward Jason Zucker, defenceman Brian Dumoulin and starting goaltender Tristan Jarry. Dubas has had “varying degrees” of conversations with all three players and is hoping to have a clearer picture during next week’s NHL Draft in Nashville.
“I think it’s trying to figure out what the market’s going to be for them and then whether our view of it aligns with what the players and their agents (want) and they are still working through that process right now,” Dubas said. “Obviously, in Nashville, we’ll have deeper conversations with each of their respective representatives and probably have a decision about whether it’s going to work or not here on all fronts by the time we get to next Wednesday, Thursday.
“So that’ll allow us to plan going into Friday, Saturday free agency and allow them to kind of set their course if it’s going to be here, that’s great. If it’s going to be moving on, we know we’re going to have the cap space and be able to roll on. … I would say the dance is ongoing right now with all of them.”
Even with potentially $20 million in cap space, Dubas doesn’t expect to make “big, splashy type” of signings during free agency.
“If that’s where we go into, they’ll probably be more subtle bets and we’ll need to hit on them in order to have success,” Dubas said. “But I don’t think you’ll see us in the market for the long-term, highly expensive forwards, especially in free agency.”
The Penguins hold the 14th overall pick in the upcoming draft and although Dubas admitted it’s cliche, he’s focused on acquiring the best player available, whether that’s through selection or leveraging the pick for quality assets via trade.
“I don’t think anybody that we draft, especially at 14, is going to make an impact on the roster probably, speaking just in probabilities, not for another couple of years, two or three years at least,” Dubas said. “So the goal in the draft and the needs of our team, if you start projecting two or three years out, are totally different.”
“I think especially where the organization is in terms of the prospect pool and where the roster’s at, you absolutely cannot worry about how a player may fit in two or three years,” he added. “We have to get the best player we can at 14 or … if we feel we can get multiple players, we can move up and acquire somebody that’s really going to make a difference, then we can do that. We can move back to collect more draft capital and really add to the quantity of our prospects. But they have to be the best players though. … For us where we’re at right now, we have to absolutely focus on just adding the best players possible.”
Dubas, who is also holding the role of interim GM, has been busy filling out his front-office staff with Jason Spezza joining him from the Maple Leafs as assistant general manager. When asked what Spezza brings, Dubas smiled and reflected on their time together in Toronto and how the former all-star made the transition into management.
“The amount of work that he put on all fronts to try to learn as much as he could and advance himself as quickly as he could through the year was very impressive,” Dubas said. “He has a certain way about him that he’s close enough in terms of his playing experience that he can help and relate to the players but provide that conduit between management and the players where he can hold them accountable, push them but then also provide us some feedback of where we can help them without crossing any lines of confidentiality or conflict of interest and he’s able to thread the needle perfectly.
“I think with our group here, with where we’re at now but also where we want to go, his affinity for the development side, the minor league system, I just think he adds so much. So be able to have him come in here I think is a massive benefit for me personally, coming into this role, but also just for the whole group, the coaching staff, the players, for everybody in the building. Just his demeanour and the way he goes about every day, his intelligence, his work ethic and how much he’s willing to learn from everybody involved. It’ll be a great boost for us as we start to build out our staff through the summer.”
