Dubas: Cruz Lucius won’t be signing with Penguins

21-year old forward Cruz Lucius, whose rights were acquired by the Penguins as part of the Jake Guentzel trade, won’t be signing with Pittsburgh according to general manager Kyle Dubas on his GM Show podcast (Apple link, apologies for nothing much broad). Lucius had a star season for Arizona State this year, scoring 46 points (15 goals and 31 assists) in 36 games. He qualifies to become a free agent on August 15th.

Here’s what Dubas had to say:

“We’ve met with Cruz and his representatives from Newport Sports a number of times. And I think just right after the trade deadline, they informed us that he was not going to be signing in Pittsburgh for a few reasons. That it’s up to him to share.

It’s a personal thing for him. But obviously, we felt we had a great opportunity for him. And obviously, the proof is in the pudding on the development side.”

“But players are entitled to make their decision. And I don’t think we’re at the position here anymore where we have to beg people to come. So when it comes to his decision making on it, then I think passing up a chance to get into the American League and developing here over.. (he) would have been a month already now.

But obviously, the next few months and it’s, especially when your (college) team doesn’t qualify for anything, it’s a big miss. But that’s his decision and his right. And we’ll just move on to the next.”

Lucius ranked 24th in last summer’s Pensburgh 25 Under 25 list, and improved his stock with that great 2025-26 season to the point where he’ll be on the radar across the league as an intriguing pickup. As Dubas mentioned, the Pens were been willing to be that teamand offer him the opportunity to turn pro after his season with Arizona State ended in early in March, but the player has opted to take a different path and forego pro hockey at the end of 2025-26 to pick a new organization for next season.

The Penguins’ organization is stocking up on young forwards – Tanner Howe and Melvin Fernstrom are in Wilkes-Barre as rookies this season. Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty both may be nearing graduation to the AHL. Bill Zonnon and Mikhail Ilyin could be in the mix for Wilkes-Barre next season.

Lucius apparently won’t be one of them since he’s on the verge of picking whichever NHL organization he wants to join for next season. Dubas wouldn’t expand further on Lucius’s reasoning, though often in these cases players are looking to join an organization where they feel they would have the best chance of getting to the NHL as quickly as possible.

Some of the Penguins recent moves could have negative consequences in that regard. Bringing in older “young” options like Elmer Soderblom and Egor Chinakhov can serve as road blocks for players in a similar mold like an offensive winger like Lucius, let alone a team active in signing mid-level free agents like Justin Brazeau, Anthony Mantha and Connor Dewar. As a partial result from the flurry of movement, Lucius and his advisors surely have noted that younger players like McGroarty, Koivunen, Tristan Broz and Avery Hayes have yet failed to find long-term NHL niches and spent plenty of time in the AHL as the Pens stock up on other options besides internal prospects. Competition is everywhere in the industry of building NHL teams, who have an incentive to bring up players when they can help, though Lucius must feel his career is better served joining a different team to get on his own best path.