Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan is expected to return next season, general manager Kyle Dubas said Monday. Associated Press

CRANBERRY TWP — The standings said the Pittsburgh Penguins took a step back this season. At times, far too many, particularly early in the year, the on-ice product did, too.

And while another sublime performance by the seemingly ageless Sidney Crosby couldn't stop the Penguins from missing the playoffs for a third straight year, general manager Kyle Dubas believes the worst is behind his club as it tries to navigate the tricky and often painful transition from one successful era to what he hopes is the next.

While there remains plenty of work to be done at the NHL level over another exceedingly long summer, Dubas thinks the organization as a whole is in a better place than March 2024, when the trade of popular winger Jake Guentzel to Carolina served as an emotional gut punch to both the fan base and Guentzel's former teammates.

It was a move Dubas deemed a necessary part of the process in an effort to restore a prospect pool decimated by years of trading away picks in hopes of extending a near two-decade run of excellence that included three Stanley Cups.

The pace of prospect and pick acquisition has only picked up over the last 14 months. The Penguins have a whopping 30 selections over the next three NHL drafts, and their minor league teams are contending. Dubas believes it's only a matter of time before that success cascades up to Pittsburgh.

“I’m more optimistic going into next year than I was organizationally (last year),” Dubas said Monday. “The results are going to be what they’re going to be, but I feel we’re closer to where we want to get back to now than last year.”

The Penguins finished 11 points out of a playoff spot, their worst since Crosby's rookie year nearly two decades ago. Only Chicago and San Jose gave up more goals, and only three teams had fewer wins in regulation.

There are plenty of areas that need to be addressed by the time Pittsburgh reports for training camp in September. The goaltending tandem of Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic ranked among the worst in the league. Jarry, a two-time All-Star, endured a demotion to the American Hockey League in January and Nedeljkovic couldn't seize the opportunity to establish himself as a bona fide No. 1.

Yet, given Jarry's contract carries more than a $5 million cap hit, don't expect teams to call Dubas to offer a lifeline. Dubas has already told both goaltenders they will be competing for a job when camp arrives, with the idea they will be pushed by Joel Blomqvist and maybe even Sergei Murashov, who turned 21 earlier this month.

“If you look at every metric measuring performance, we also conceded a lot defensively in terms of what was expected to be given up, but we also allowed more than expected,” Dubas said. “So that’s a really poor combination. Both need to be rectified.”

Better play in front of them would help. Pittsburgh's defensemen struggled to make any sort of impact. Three-time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson mixed flashes of brilliance with extended periods of play where he too frequently gambled and lost, symbolic of a unit that often left whoever was in net in a tough spot.

Dubas described the team's approach to defense as an “organizational” matter, one he will sort out with longtime head coach Mike Sullivan and his staff in the coming weeks.

Sullivan, the second longest-tenured coach in the NHL behind Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper, is expected to return for what would be his 10th full season with Pittsburgh. Many coaches, no matter their resume, don't stick around after three straight playoff misses. Yet, Sullivan remains committed to trying to help the club navigate its retooling to the finish.

“There’s always the point that very few coaches who are in (Sullivan's) realm often want to see a team through this," Dubas said. "But he’s been very open about this (as) what he wants to do, so we’ll just continue to reaffirm that and as long as he’s on that side of it, we will roll with that.”

Dubas declined to offer any sort of timeline on when he expects the Penguins to return to the NHL's elite, only that he remains committed to building Pittsburgh into a long-term winner rather than try to patch the roster together in hopes of sneaking into the postseason.

There are no plans to add any more 30-somethings to a roster that began the season as the NHL's oldest. The Penguins do have more salary cap space than they've enjoyed in quite some times, and there's a very real chance Dubas turns some of that draft capital into NHL players in their early-to-mid 20s who currently work elsewhere.

The only real concession Dubas has made in terms of when he sees Pittsburgh becoming a legitimate Stanley Cup threat is before Crosby retires. The future Hall of Famer turns 38 in August, though he shows little signs of slowing down and has two years left on the extension he signed last September.

Crosby has admitted it's been difficult at times to endure the franchise's roughest patch since the early 2000s. Dubas expects Crosby to be “grumpy” until the Penguins get back to where they have been for most of Crosby's career.

“(We're) trying to build something that can contain itself for a long time,” he said. “Getting those younger players who are going to be a part of that core around Sid (is important). Him helping them and them helping him is really what the focus is.”