Nobody expected Pittsburgh in the postseason last season. The Penguins got there anyway, on the back of a general manager who spent eighteen months winning transactions nobody paid much attention to at the time.

Here’s what that run of moves actually built.

The trades that worked

Kyle Dubas entered this offseason on a genuine organizational heater. The sequence:

Drafting Ben Kindel 11th overall. A center, and the kind of premium pick a rebuilding roster needs to hit.

Dec. 12 — the Jarry salvage. Pittsburgh sent Tristan Jarry and the entirety of his contract to Edmonton for pending unrestricted free agent Stuart Skinner, Brett Kulak and a second-round pick. Moving a full contract without retaining salary is the hardest thing to do in the modern cap era, and Dubas got assets back for doing it.

Dec. 29 — Egor Chinakhov acquired from Columbus.

Feb. 24 — flipping Kulak to Colorado for defenseman Sam Girard and another second-round pick. A player acquired in December turned into a top-four defenseman and a pick two months later.

March 6 — Elmer Söderblom from Detroit for a third-round pick.

None of those individually looked like much. Together they’re the reason Pittsburgh played playoff hockey.

Elmer Söderblom is the sleeper

The 6-foot-8 forward arrived at the deadline and immediately looked like a different player than he had in Detroit.

He scored four goals and four assists in his first 17 games with Pittsburgh — after managing just three points in his final 39 games as a Red Wing. He finished with 10 points in 20 regular-season games and added a goal in five playoff appearances.

He’s under contract through this season at a $1.125 million cap hit, which means the Penguins get a full year to find out whether the surge was real.

The size alone makes him interesting. The production after the trade suggests there may be more to his game than his Detroit tenure indicated. Rather than fighting to stay in an NHL lineup, Söderblom now has a genuine shot at establishing himself as a regular in Pittsburgh’s forward group.

The draft capital question

The Penguins held picks Nos. 22, 39 and 54 in this June’s draft — useful, but not where a franchise seeking elite young talent generally finds it.

That produced the offseason’s persistent speculation: whether Dubas would package multiple selections to move up. Given his track record over the last eighteen months, it wasn’t a wild suggestion.

The elephant, addressed plainly

Sidney Crosby trade speculation has been a constant feature of the offseason rumor cycle, as has talk about Erik Karlsson’s future.

Rumors are rumors. But a Penguins season preview that ignores them isn’t being honest about what the fan base is actually thinking about, and both situations will shape the deadline in February regardless of what happens in October.

What success looks like

Last season’s playoff berth was a surprise, and surprises are hard to repeat. The more useful framing is whether the underlying rebuild is progressing.

The markers:
– Kindel’s development. An 11th overall center is the foundation piece in this class.
– Söderblom’s full season. Twenty games of production is a sample, not a conclusion.
– The Skinner and Girard fits. Both arrived through salvage trades; both need to be real contributors, not just cap-space arbitrage.
– Dubas at the deadline. He’s earned the benefit of the doubt, and the Crosby and Karlsson situations mean February will be the season’s most consequential month.

A second straight postseason would mean this isn’t a rebuild anymore. Missing it doesn’t mean the plan failed — it means last year came slightly early.

Pittsburgh Sports Wire covers Penguins news, schedules and game coverage all season. See the Penguins schedule for puck drop times and broadcast info.