The work isn’t over for Kyle Dubas.

Barely 10 hours after he traded away his most valuable assets on expiring contracts, the Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations acknowledged he has plenty of runway left to craft the franchise’s collection of players, prospects and draft picks before the NHL’s trade deadline March 7.

“Going into the deadline, we’re going to continue to have discussions that fit where we are at in our strategy overall,” Dubas said Saturday morning. “But we’ll also try to be in the mix for any younger players that become available and can come in and help our team. So, we’ll try to use the collection of assets we have now to try to add to the group, if the right younger player becomes available. That collection of assets will get us into those discussions.”

Defensemen Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor are no longer part of the discussion as they were sent to the Vancouver Canucks late Friday night.

In return, the Penguins accrued a conditional first-round pick in this year’s draft that was originally property of the New York Rangers as well as forward prospect Melvin Fernstrom and a pair of veterans in forward Danton Heinen and defenseman Vincent Desharnais.

(Note: Heinen and Desharnais likely were included in the deal to make the arithmetic work for the Canucks with regards to roster and salary cap limitations.)

The Canucks acquired the first-rounder a few hours earlier as part of a blockbuster trade that sent forward J.T. Miller, a native of Coraopolis, to the Rangers. Conditions of that trade call for the Rangers to retain that selection in the event it is a top-13 selection. If that condition is triggered, the Penguins would get a first-rounder in 2026, regardless of what overall selection it is.

Dubas acknowledged dealing away Pettersson and O’Connor wasn’t overly pleasant given how popular they were among teammates.

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AP
Penguins forward Drew O’Connor (left) celebrates at goal with defenseman Marcus Pettersson during a game against the Edmonton Oilers at PPG Paints Arena on Jan. 9.

But given the team’s ramshackle 21-24-8 record entering Saturday, friendships gave way to the franchise’s future.

“Very difficult to move two players and people like Marcus and Drew,” Dubas said. “Obviously, very high-character, high-quality, very popular people in the locker room. But pending free agents and where we’re at, we just had to continue to just move down the path of the mission that we’ve set out for the last year or so, which is to continue to stockpile younger players, prospects and draft picks. That’s what we did last night.

“It’s sad to see Marcus and Drew go, but that’s the hard thing about this position and this business at times.”

Much of the business Dubas has pursued in the past 11 months since he dealt away All-Star forward Jake Guentzel last March is to accumulate future assets (prospects or draft picks).

In a release to announce Friday’s trade, the team boasted it now possessed “29 selections over the next three NHL drafts, which includes four first-round selections and 15 picks in the first three rounds. No team has more draft picks, or selections in the first three rounds, over the next three NHL Drafts than Pittsburgh.”

That said, it’s doubtful the Penguins will actually use all 29 of those selections. They could potentially be used to acquire players actively in the NHL or prospects.

“The draft picks are great to have,” Dubas said. “We either have to execute on them and draft really good players or use them to acquire players that fit what we’re trying to do. We’ll certainly do that. How the increase in the cap will impact players being made available, I think that remains to be seen and we’ll get a strong handle on that. We’ll use the time going up to the deadline to start to learn about that.”

The Penguins appeared to be well-educated on Fernstrom as Dubas noted his amateur scouts offered strong reports on the 18-year-old leading up to last year’s draft.

As it was, the Canucks selected the Sweden native in the third round (No. 93 overall). A right-handed shot, Fernstrom (6-foot-1, 185 pounds) is currently a member of Orebro of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). In 36 games with that club, the right-hander has 10 points (four goals, six assists).

He had a goal and an assist Saturday in Orebro’s 6-3 road loss to Brynas.

He has yet to sign an NHL contract. The Penguins are scheduled to retain Fernstrom’s NHL rights until June 1, 2028.

“We interviewed him (prior to the draft), and it was very clear to us that his mindset was in the right spot,” Dubas said. “His goal for this year was to earn a spot in the SHL and, knowing that role wasn’t going to be as a top-two-line scorer. And when we watched him this year for Orebro there, he was highly competitive. As an 18-year-old, he’s in their lineup every night. He’s not playing in the top two lines. He’s playing on the third or fourth line and on the second power play. But it’s what he’s doing in the games (competitively). He’s chipped in.

“For an 18-year-old, he’s got (10 points). And he’s been a very good player for the national team in the past. All of these players that you draft have been mostly top-line players or top-pair defensemen. Very rarely are you drafting a player from junior who was a lower-in-the-lineup guy unless it’s late in the draft and you think that there’s something that can pop. It’s going to be how they adapt when they’re lower in the lineup. Do they bring other elements when they’re not scoring and they’re not on the first-unit power play? And in his case, that’s what he’s continued to show.”

Dubas didn’t exactly show his hand Saturday when asked about the possibility of dealing away players with term remaining on their contracts beyond this season.

“I don’t think anything has changed with those particular players,” Dubas said. “Some of them, by nature of the language or the protection that they have, they have to send us a list of teams they won’t go to. I think as we’ve gone through this over the last year, there’s been more communication from agents to us wondering where does their player exactly stand in the mix. So, some of that has been initiated from their side. But nothing other than just trying to inform their client about what may or may not happen here. But no real change to anything in that regard.”

The Penguins had brief but limited conversations with the agents for Pettersson and O’Connor regarding potential contract extensions.

“I had met with Marcus and Drew personally after talking to their people, was just that we felt that the best thing to do for us was to protect all of our options and not go down that path to lock anybody in without seeing how things progressed in the season,” Dubas said. “It wasn’t from their lack of desire to be here, it was from us wanting to protect our options, see where the season was going, measure where we were at and then measure what was best for the long run of the team. It was our decision not to deeply engage with that.”

Dubas was engaged in discussions with the Canucks for some time leading into the trade. Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin and president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford were on staff with the Penguins when Pettersson and O’Connor each joined the Penguins.

When the Canucks acquired the Rangers’ first-round pick, that allowed them to meet Dubas’ price to facilitate a trade that was congruent with his approach to recrafting this organization.

“Our goal is to try to acquire the assets that we’ve laid out and then either turn those draft picks and develop them into players that can help the team quickly,” Dubas said. “… Or use those assets to be in the mix when players that can make an impact are present and can help us.

“Now, having multiple first-round picks, seeing these younger players start to develop — it gets us more and more into that mix. We just have to keep moving down that path.”