Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - An intriguing left winger possibility for Geno if the money can work...

Episode Date: July 21, 2022

Getting closer to the end of daily episodes, but today is NOT that day. Hunter starts the show with a formal apology to the listeners about not pronouncing Ryan Poehling's last name right (I stink!) before getting into why the Penguins SHOULD go after someone like Vladimir Tarasenko if he still wants a trade out of St. Louis. He looks at the numbers he put up this season and why he'd be a perfect fit with Malkin, plus it would end the #RussianWingerForGeno campaign that started so many years back. He also goes into his power play impact and how it would give the Penguins an unfair man-advantage. He looks at what he would likely cost from the Blues, especially if they're getting Matthew Tkachuk from the Flames. After that, Hunter looks at the pros and cons (mostly cons) of bringing back Phil Kessel after he was mentioned in Josh Yohe's mailbag on Wednesday morning. He looks at the numbers he put up this year and why he's only going to keep declining. Finally, Hunter gets into more Matthew Tkachuk talk and which teams make the most sense for him. He also gives his opinion on who would be on the table if the Penguins tried to acquire him.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, happy Wednesday evening, Penguins fans, July 20th. We get closer to the month of August or someone likes to say, you know, the dog days of summer are almost upon us for today's show. I'm going to go into a potential left-winger option for of Guinea-Malkins since I have been told that that's what the team is looking to potentially do to make the floor of group a bit deeper. Also talk about a potential, I shouldn't say potential, but, you know, the thought of maybe a homecoming with a certain player who, is a free agent still.

I'm not really sure when he's going to sign, but he is out there and he was asked in Joshua's mailbag, so I'm to get into that. And a couple of other things, especially the whole Matthew Goodchuk. I know I did a segment last night saying how it would be very unlikely for the penguins to get him. But I'm going to go into the teams I think make sense for him.

And I think the parts that I would be willing to part if the penguins were to. to somehow be interested. So a little bit different from the segment I ran on my Tuesday episode. So that's all coming up right after this drop. Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network,

your team every day. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter, Hunter Hodes. You can also follow me all the shows, at L.O. Orn's Girl Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So a couple of things before I really get into the meat of this show. First off, I apologize to everyone. When I mispronounced Ryan Palings name, there it is. I've been doing this show for almost three years now. It is not often I mispronounce someone's last name. And believe me, you know, I've had my last name mispronounced way too many times, you know, hoodies, potty's, huddies,

I feel really bad that I did that. It's embarrassing that I honestly mispronounced Ryan Palings last name. But, you know, thanks to the listeners who comments on the YouTube channel. And of course, to Ryan Mill, who gave out all the pronunciations for the new Penguin players that have been acquired over the last week or two weeks. It is Ryan Paling. Wanted to get that out of the way. I feel really bad.

Brian, if you ever listened to this podcast, I'm going to be. will never butcher your name again. So it's my fault. I'm not saying that's the first name I bushered since I somehow mispronounced Louis de Mies name. No, for those that were not listening, this was like last September, I said his last name like so it was like a, I think I said like Doming or something. And I'm like, yeah, that's that's not right. So again, very rare that I do that, but want to take a couple minutes here to apologize for that. Also wanted to say if anyone is going to be at the Penguins Toronto Maple Leafs game on November 15th of this year, I will be there. This will be the first time I think I'll be at PPG since I really started this podcast, to be honest.

I mean, you know, I think last time I was there, I think I was maybe two to three months into doing the show. So, you know, it wasn't really well known yet. But this is really, you know, basically the first time when the show is a lot bigger now that I will be back in Pittsburgh for a game. So if you are thinking of going to that game, let me know, meet up, you know, just talk penguins and all that stuff. I'd love to meet as many listeners as I can, as long as I do the show. I'm also, I believe I'm going to be going to the game on March 11th against the Flyers at PPG. Shout out to you, Ricky. You know, I think I'm going to be going with him, a longtime listener of the show.

I'm very excited to do that. So, Ricky, I'm sure you're going to listen to this episode. You know, definitely excited to go with you for that game. So I wanted to get those couple of things out of the way before I get into the meat of this episode. But, okay, let's get into the first topic here. And that is, you know, that other, that potential left winger for a beginning market. I guess the St. Louis Blues might be making some big changes here. For those that don't know, you know, they've been heavily linked to Matthew Kachuk,

Jeremy Rutherford, and Haley Salvin of the Athletics today. They both reported that it's looking likely that Kach is going to get dealt. I think J.P. Rutherford, that is. and Haley, they both listed seven teams that he would like to be traded to or sign an extension with. I believe a few of them, obviously St. Louis, Florida, Las Vegas, Dallas, Nashville, I think a couple others. Basically, you know, teams that, you know, they're in states with no income tax for the blues, you know, that's a homecoming there.

And I think they have the pieces to do it. They can get up like a first in their second round pick, Jordan Kairu, maybe, you know, maybe Tori Krug, Marco Scandela, maybe Volodymyratercenko, I don't really know if he would go back in that deal. But, you know, that is the player that I would kind of be looking at here. If I were the Penguins, if you actually want to make a big splash, and yes, I know what his cap hit is for this one year. 7.5 million, you would have to be dumping out a lot of salary just to bring him in.

Right now, if the Penguins, I believe they have one to two million in cap space. So, you know, I think, you know, someone like Marcus Pedersen have to be going out, you know, maybe Brock McGinn, I mean, maybe Jason Zucker or something like that. You know, they would have to move one of those four to five million dollar contracts and then create a little bit more cap remit of potential other salary dump. But, you know, teams, you know, they fin angle with the cap all the freaking time. So, you know, I think he is definitely within, I mean, he's more in their asking price range than someone like, you know, Kach is.

And going into this season, he was still a very good player, 85th percentile and wins about replacement per J. Precious model, 90th percentile in finishing, 70-second percentile, and power play. Even straight offense, about 50-50, but it went up a lot. This year, quality of team A 95 percentile is able to draw a lot of penalties, which is also great. And then, you know, this year, he had one heck of the season. You know, he didn't really play. that much last year comes back this year, 34 points, 34 goals, 82 points in 75 games. And you wouldn't know if he asked for a trade last year. You know, the Blues, they got pretty lucky that Terrace Angle came back and played like this because, you know, remember, he was exposed in the expansion draft last summer. In Seattle, they easily could have taken a fly. on him. But, you know, Ron Francis kind of screwed that up. And, you know, the blues that I said, thank you very much. We'll keep him. And, you know, he was great. You know, played in 75 games

year before that. He only played 34 games in the last two seasons combined before this one. That's how banged up he had been. But, you know, usually when he's healthy, he's one of the top five, 10 best pure goal scores, I think, in this league. You're going to knowy numbers. this year. You know, when he was on ice, the blues only had 46% of the swing chances. It's a little bit down from where he was, you know, even in 2019, 20, 20, but 55% of the actual goals for St. Louis.

46% of the swing chances. You know, he's never really been that good defensively, but, you know, high danger goals for 57% of those. High danger chances, though, for 45%. So those numbers aren't super good. But, you know, I feel like he would be, a very good fit on Afghani Malkins line. You know, it would also finally end, you know, that Russian Virchino kind of thing.

Remember back in the day, I'm sure something, so you all remember this, the Penguins were going after, I believe it was like Nikolai Kuliman. That's a throwback name, I'm sure, for some of you all. And everyone just kept saying, the Russian winger for Gino, Russian winger for Gino, this is the one. And then he ended up, it ended up not happening. I think something fell through with that. And so that this would finally bring an end.

you know, to that kind of talk. But, you know, it would also just, you know, it would make the team, you know, more of a contender. But it would also strengthen, you know, Malkins' line. It would probably give him arguably the best winger he's ever played with. You know, James Neal was awesome for a couple years. Actually, no, this probably would be the best winger that he's ever played with now that I think about it for like five seconds. James Neal was great for a couple years, scored 40 goals on his line. But this is Vladimir Teresanko here for God's sake.

He is a very, very good player. And, you know, if you think about a top six of Jake Gensel, Cindy Crosby, Brian Russ, Vladimir Tarasenko, Evgeny Malkin, and Rickel, and you potentially, if Zulker is still there, he's slide down to the third line with Jeff Carter and someone else. But if he's not, you know, you still can, you know, you can still, I guess, have options in your bottom six. You know, even if Zulker is not there, maybe you could still sign someone. you have a little bit more cap room left over even though again you know it is 7.5 million but also which is nice you potentially ask st louis to retain a little bit of that salary you know say

you know they want to retain 50% of that um excuse me that's what 3.75 3.75 so you know the penguins they can make that work um at least a little bit you know maybe st louis doesn't retain 50 but maybe it's like 33% and you know the number goes down to 5.5 6 or something you know that that would also help the penguins a lot. And, you know, say Zulker is. So on the team, you can bump him down to the third line. And in an instant, the team becomes even deeper. So, yeah, the bottom six still needs some work.

But, excuse me, if you can get that pure top six sniper to put with Hvgeny Malkin and Rickel, man, all of a sudden, that team starts looking a lot different. And now, I think Terasoko, I think that trade request is still up. I don't think he's rescinded it, at least from what I've been able to gauge on it, for when I've been able to raid from Jeremy Rutherford, I think from the Athletic, who does a great job covering the St. Louis Blues, I think that is still out there. So, you know, that's an option that I think could definitely work for the Penguins. You know, I think they would have the more, they would definitely have the assets to maybe do this one

other than over someone like Matthew Goochuk, even though, you know, I would move almost anyone on this team. to getting even though the penguins obviously they're not going to do bad that's just that's not how ron hextall is going to operate here but you know i was bought to you know the attention of teresenko by one of my rituals and you know the more i looked into it uh the more it did make sense it can also put them on a power play um say if one of the big guns gets hurt or maybe if brian rust um must come off the top unit say you have a power play of terranco malkin crosbie letang and gensel Oh, good luck to anyone stopping that. Seriously.

I mean, that is, that's beautiful right there. And again, and I do think his underlying numbers would go up big time with that kind of acquisition. So that wraps up this first segment of today's episode. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to get into a potential hometown, well, potential homecoming. And if that would work, would I be a fan of the penguins going after this way after seeing it? and Joshua's meal bag, and then we'll get to a couple other things to end the show. But before I get to that, Benin.com.com. It's the fastest and easiest way to check on all your betting needs.

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with the trends in action that has been online where the game starts. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the locked on penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes.

I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow all the shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. I don't know

what is going on. I don't know why this cause is just killing me. So early showers reading, Josh Joey's nail bag and for those that did not read it, you know, go check it out,

some good info in there. and you know my scoop was verified at least by him he was not obviously the person that told me that penguins included marcus peterson the original offer for jeff petrie but he had also heard the same thing so checkmark for me on that one i will gladly take the w um with that so you know i like to gas myself up a little bit uh sometimes even though again i'm not i'm not elliott freeman over here i'm not breaking trades left and right you know when i hear something from someone that I very much trust that I know is around the team a lot more than me. I passed along because, you know, this person has never failed me in the past.

Now, let's get to this player that was talked about in Joshua's mailback, and it was the man, the myth, the legend, Phil the Thrill Kessel. Someone asked Mr. Yewee, what are the penguins going to bring him back? And, you know, he had a funny answer about it, if I can load it up here. on the mailbag. Nope, that is not what I want because that was about Matthew Kuchuk. And I'm trying to find this year, no, no. Everyone's asking about J.T. Miller. Yeah, there it is.

Josh basically asked, you know, does Phil have anything left in the tank? You know, I saw him play twice in person, and I thought he looked awful, physically speaking. His shots have lost a lot of velocity. He's also an average skater now, that burst that made him unique is a thing of the past. And then he was asked, you know, will the penguin son Kessel? And Josh goes, I would love to tell you that yes. You know, under no circumstances, though, do I see this happening? He is a right wing.

The Penguins already have Rust and O'KLkeld. Do you see KSle? Fitting into a third line. And before anyone says the HBK line work, yeah, I know it did, but he doesn't also have Nick Benino and Carl Hagelin on the scene. He'll be saddled right next to Jeff Carter. And I'm not really sure how Mike Selman would feel about that, considering, you know, there's all these rumors that him and Kessel do not really have the best of relationships.

But, you know, you look at the underlying numbers this past season, you go on Natural Statrick. You know, 5B5, 5 goals, 33 points at even strength. And, you know, only five even strength goals in 82 games. Like, that's just, that's not fail. You know, this is, you know, two of his last three seasons that he's scored under 10 goals at 5-5. The underlying numbers this year when he was on ice, the coyotes only had. 44% of the shot attempts. This is now the fourth straight season in five of his last six that he's been under 50%

in terms of course the goals 4 percentage, 42%. That's one of the worst marks of his career. Only 42% of scoring chances at even strength, 41% of the high danger chances. And then only 43% of the high danger actual goals for. Yeah, I know the numbers aren't that good. But even going back to his last year in Pittsburgh, he was definitely starting to fall off a little bit. And, you know, I know Jim Rutherford did not do a lot of good towards the end of his tenure with the Penguins, but, you know, I do think he picked the right time to trade fill

because, you know, that decline came really steep for him. You know, sure, could you get him for, I guess, a cheap deal on the open market? Yeah. And, you know, he is basically a folk hero in this city. I think a lot of fans would love to see him come back just because of what he did, you know, history and all that stuff. But, you know, in terms of how he is, as a hockey player at this point. I hate to say it, but, you know, he's just, he's kind of, he's kind of washed at this point. He's not all the way there yet, but you can definitely see that, you know, the decline is, is in full motion with Kessel.

And, you know, I'm not really sure how much of a fan he'd be playing on the third or fourth line with Penguins. I think he wants to go somewhere where, you know, he can be on someone's second line. I think Jeff Merrick on the last 32 thoughts episode was talking about how he can see the predators potentially signing him and i think that would make sense in the nashville they're not super deep out forward but you know i think he could potentially play on their second line or something like that um but yeah you know it would be fun you know to get some of the band a little bit back together but in terms of no do i think this this makes the penguins a bit better of a team with him on the

ice um i i don't see it now his defensive game has always been bad it's gotten way worse um as he's gotten older and again you know when he's you know not scoring at this point. He's not really doing too much. You know, he's always been an underrated playmaker, but even, you know, that part of this game is a point. Only 28, even strength assists, you know, last season in Arizona. You know, sure, he'll want to go to a contender, but, you know, with the penguins basically loaded up on their right wings on the top two lines. Sorry about that. I had to take a some of my water. My mouth was going to try. You know, with the penguins loaded up with Rust and Raquel on their top two lines.

and I'm sure because Burry is going to come back. You know, I just don't really see the fit there for me, at least. Again, it will be awesome, be fun. So she just, you know, the fan in me, of course, since I loved watching him, you know, back when I was a senior in high school and, you know, freshman, sophomore in college, all that stuff. But, you know, the objective analyst in me says, no, move on. You can try to find someone else that, you know,

I think can score a little bit more for my. liking. So that wraps up the short little second segment for today. So again, coming up in the third segment, we're going to get into some more about Matthew Kuchuk and, you know, where I think this is going to end up. And, you know, if I was able to think about it over and I know what I would potentially move if I were the Penguins and I were looking in to you. So it's all coming up right after this commercial break. All right, I'm back on this episode of the Locktown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter, Hunter Hodes.

You can also follow shows Twitter at Elmer Square Penguin. So, you know, I think that this is going to be, you know, quite, quite the circus. These next few days, week to weeks. You know, Kachuk, this is the next dominant at all. You had to follow. And I feel so bad for Flames fans. You know, for everyone that listens to the show, you know, I don't talk a lot about the flames, obviously.

If you want to learn more about the flames, go check out Jess Belmastow. I've locked on flame. She does an excellent job talking about that team on a daily basis. The funny thing is she doesn't even root for that team yet she still knows them. You know, a hell of a lot better than I do. That's for damn sure. But, you know, they're going to be losing two 100-point players. It looks like during this off-season.

That's just terrible. And, you know, for Kachuk, you know, it makes all the sense in the world for him to go home to St. Louis. Um, but, you know, if, if the penguins were to get involved somehow, some way. And yes, as I said on my Tuesday episode, would he be a great fit here? Duh. I have so freaking lulli as the Pope Catholic here, people for those that, you know, for those that are Catholics that listen to my show, I mean, I'm Jewish, but now that's a whole different story here. Anyways, I don't know why I got sidetracked.

Um, but yes, duh. You know, he, he has everything. that the Penguins would want in a top six winger, the size, the tenacity, the physicalness, the goal scoring, the playmaking, the defensive play, everything you want in a top six winger. He brings to your team and then some. He had over 100 points last season. Could you imagine seeing him and Tom Wilson going at it, Penguins Caps games? That would be something else.

And in terms of what I would give up, if I were the Penguins, You know, they are not going to do this, and I totally get that. And I'm not, you know, I would give up anyone that is not named Sidney Crosby, Jake Gensel, Evgeny Malkin, and Chris LaTang. Everyone else would be on the table in that trade for Matthew Gajok. Dead serious. Maybe, well, maybe Tristan Jari, you know, because there's no goaltender is available right now.

So I would put Tristan Jari on there. Other than those five players, anyone is on the table. Maybe Jeff Petrie since you just acquired him, but. you know, I'm honestly splitting hairs at that point. Anyone basically should be on the table outside of those four to five core players. He is that good. He's a difference maker. He would push the penguins over the top.

He would be just an absolute blast to watch. Could you imagine him on the line with Higgini Molkin and McCard Raquel? Or up top with Jake Gensel and Sid? I mean, good Lord. I mean, just good luck stopping the penguins with that. And yeah, will the penguins inquire about Kachuk? Absolutely. If you are a team out there and you are not calling Bradshaw Living's phone to at least ask what the price is, you should not be a general manager. That's how I feel that. I mean, Ron Hextall, I'm sure he gave him a call and said, hey, you know, we're not fully interested, but you know, what's the price for him?

No, maybe they gave him the price. He's like, okay, thank you. We're not interested and hung up. But, you know, at least you're asking around to hear about it. you know, and to see, you know, if it's somehow on your wheelhouse, you know, it's probably not. But, you know, I think the Penguins, they should at least try if they haven't already to inquire with that. So, again, you know, maybe it's, I don't know, your first or second round pick. I hate saying this, Brian Rust and, like, you know, one of your goaltending prospects or even Owen Pickering. You know, it's probably worth it because of Kach himself. and I know you just signed Brian Russ to an extension, but, you know, it's Matthew freaking Kachia, man.

I mean, he is that freaking good. And, you know, there's always the possibility that, you know, a team like Calgary, they could bungle that trade. I mean, you know, the Jack Eagle trade, Shore Buffalo got Alex Tuck and Peyton Krebs, who I think could be decent players, but, you know, they're not Jack Eichael. I mean, Alex DeBrenica just went from Chicago to Ottawa,

and they got what, the number seven overall pick? And, like, that's okay. I mean, you know, you're not really, that pick is still basically, you know, outside of, I guess, you know, the top three to four picks, you know, everything after that is almost like an unknown for me. So, you know, you're basically just trading some magic beans, you know, for a really freaking good player into Brinkett. So, you know, these star trades tend to get bungled all the time. But, you know, I can definitely say St. Louis in it. Nashville does make sense if they want a bona fide top line winger, Dallas pairing him with Jason. Boberson and Rupert Hins would be nasty.

Ooh, man, I was just thinking about that. You know, that's, again, that's just, you know, the old guys get old with Jamie Bed and and Tyler Sagan, but then the young guys, you know, they keep stepping up. And this is, and this, the chuk, you know, he's 23, 24 in the prime of his career. I mean, just think about that, man. I mean, I would absolutely love if the penguins could somehow get their hands on him. And again, you know, I know it's not going to happen. but, you know, four to five players I would keep.

Anyone else, I think, for me, would be on the table. Last thing real quickly, I have been getting some text from some of my buddies, and I want to talk about this on the show. You know, people are trying to argue that, you know, Matheson was just as good as Jeff Petrie or he's a bit better. I don't know what people are watching, but Jeff Petrie is a better player than Mike Matheson. Petrie had 21 points in his final 30 games with Marty St. Louis.

He was a legitimately great player last year. Matheson had a great year, but again, these people that my friends that keep texting me, you don't know if he's going to continue to play like that on a much worse team. Montreal is going to probably be a lottery team again next year. Penguins, they're still a bona fide playoff team. Maybe they're not a contender right now, but they are still very much a playoff. off freaking team. And he's going to be playing on a pairing, it looks like right now, with Marcus

Harrison, someone who is very defensively responsible. And he's also probably going to get a lot of minutes with Hvgeny Malkin, and that's going to benefit both of them. I would be more than happy to make a wage with some of these people, where I would predict that Petrie gets more points next year than Matheson, despite being a hell a lot older than him. You know, this is a legitimately great player. And the fact that the Penguins have a one, two,

punch of Latang to Petrie because Petrie would be a lot of teams, you know, number two guy at least, you know, number one. You know, the fact that, you know, he's basically their number three, I would say at this point, total because Doom one's on the top hearing, so I automatically give him the number two spot. That's just great value for the Penguins. So I wanted to end the show with that, you know, again, just look at Petrie's underlines too, you know, his finishing ability, all that good stuff.

But I will be back with another episode for you all on Thursday. It's not going to be from this house. So I am heading to the beach this weekend. I need a vacation. I'm heading to the beach again for a full week next Friday. It's, you know, I have not gone on many vacations this summer. But I'm definitely excited to head to a couple of different beaches over these next couple of weeks.

I definitely, you know, need a break. You know, need a vacation, I think, is the way. I'm saying I love going to out of the beach. So it's going to look a little bit different when I'm recording from a hotel room starting tomorrow and Friday. And then next week, I will be recording mostly from here. And then the week after that, I will be at my girlfriend's mom's house because we're going down to the other banks where her mom lives and bringing them the puppies. So that I'll do it for this episode again. Thank you all so much for listening.

I'll be back on Thursday. I hope you'll have a great rest of your night.