Penguins GM Dubas calls any trade talk around Guentzel 'pure speculation'

The Pittsburgh Penguins are not shopping around star winger Jake Guentzel — at least not yet.

During his bi-weekly radio appearance on Wednesday, general manager Kyle Dubas provided an update on the team's current status with the pending free agent and shut down any rumours of ongoing trade talks.

"We haven’t had any conversations with any other teams about Jake — so anything that is out there is pure speculation. That's really as simple as that," said Dubas.

Guentzel, 29, is in the final year of a five-year, $30-million contract that sees him become an unrestricted free agent at its expiry.

"We’ll continue to go through the season here and I’ll continue to evaluate where we’re at," added Dubas. "Either after the All-Star break or after the season we’ll do what’s best for everybody — best for the Penguins, best for Jake, and we’ll determine that together. That's really it."

The Pittsburgh GM also provided his take on the comments made by Guentzel's agent, Ben Hankinson, back on Jan. 6 during an appearance on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. Namely, that Hankinson said things could get "ugly."

"I don't think Ben Hankinson, with his comments a few weeks ago, meant for it to kind of develop into the level of noise it's gotten to," said Dubas. "... I think a lot of people (thought) when he said it could get ugly that was about the contract. I don't think so, I think he was more so talking about the team and where it's going to go in the next several seasons."

The day after his agent's comments, Guentzel told reporters, "I’m not going to go too much into detail about it. I’m just trying to play and we’ll see what happens as we go."

Drafted 77th overall by the Penguins in 2013, Guentzel has been with the team for eight seasons, amassing 216 goals and 244 assists over 495 career games. In the current 2023-24 season, he has recorded 16 goals and 27 assists over 42 games.