Dupuis ponders his purpose with Penguins

Pascal Dupuis suspects his hockey equipment still stinks of champagne and beer. He said he hasn't removed it from its bag since the night of Game 6 in the Stanley Cup Final in San Jose, Calif., so he's not sure.

Dupuis might take the gear out and freshen it up in preparation for Penguins training camp, which begins in about a month.

Or he might just leave it packed away and continue to relish his post-player life in Quebec, where his family now resides all year.

“I'll be around here in Quebec a little more than last year, so I'll definitely need to maybe step away a little bit to refocus and just think about me and my family for a little bit,” Dupuis told the Tribune-Review. “Basically they always came first, but when hockey came around, I took the time to make sure I was the best I could be on the ice. (The family) definitely suffered from that.”

Dupuis' hockey life remains at a crossroads. But the current intersection is different than the one he encountered last December, when he decided to hang up his skates after 968 NHL games, including 529 over nine seasons with the Penguins. He no longer wrestles with whether to battle through blood clot treatments to extend his career on the ice.

He now finds himself torn between the team that needs him — his family — and the one that welcomes his help but thrives even when he's not around.

“There's no pressure (on him to work),” said assistant general manager Bill Guerin, who has stayed engaged with Dupuis about what comes next. “We're on his time. ... Whether it's this year or 10 years from now, he's always going to be one of those guys that wants to give back. We're lucky to still have him around.”

Dupuis still is a Penguin — his player contract, worth $3.75 million in annual average value, runs through 2016-17. But he'll spend the season on long-term injured reserve. And he'll wonder if staying home more often means he's selfish, smart or bound to become stir-crazy.

“They're asking me to do what I feel is best for me in the next little while,” Dupuis said. “And obviously the team is always in my mind and heart, so we'll see if I jump right back in.

“Not having a role and not being one of the guys who's counted on to make the ship go or to help at one thing, I think that's the hardest part. I'm a dad here of a family of four kids. I run stuff around here. But that's pretty much it.”

The finality of his transition to full-time fatherhood set in during the first week of August, when he and his family spent their day with the Stanley Cup.

His friends, family and dogs posed for pictures with the chalice. His kids ate cereal out of it. He used his hometown's interest in the Cup to hold a jersey raffle that raised money for charity.

“It felt like it was my Cup party, as far as having people around me enjoy it, plus a retirement kind of party as well,” Dupuis said. “Just saying goodbye — not to hockey itself, but just to me playing hockey.”

Retired — Dupuis used that word sparingly to describe himself over the past year. He's still not sure it applies.

“He's going to do some scouting out of (Quebec) and possibly a little bit of development work,” Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford said. “I think it's one of those things where he's still under his player's contract, and he'll just kind of feel his way a little bit.”

Former Penguins abound among the team's front office and hockey operations positions. Dupuis closely watched how Guerin, Sergei Gonchar, Rick Tocchet and Mark Recchi went about their roles last season. He sat in on coaches meetings. But he viewed what he did as little more than dabbling.

“I didn't step into that (consulting role) at 100 percent, so I don't think I can really assess if something I did last year is something I'd want to be,” Dupuis said.

“If I do something with a team in the NHL, it's 100 percent going to be with the Penguins. ... I was treated right, and I feel like if I'm on the other side as part of management or staff, I would want to treat people the same way I was treated. Their philosophy is something that I really respect.”

Bill West is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at wwest@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BWest_Trib.