In Kyle Dubas’ first offseason in charge of the Pittsburgh Penguins it was very clear that he was still trying to give the team a chance to compete and win immediately.
Acquiring Erik Karlsson was very much a win-now move.
Trading for Reilly Smith was a win-now move.
Signing Ryan Graves and Tristan Jarry, as poorly as those signings have been, were win-now moves.
They were trying to capture lightning in a bottle and give their core another chance to compete for a Stanley Cup. It did not work as he, or anybody else, could have intended, and it kickstarted what is now the early stages of a rebuild, but it was very clear what the vision was.