Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - An update on the GM search situation!

Episode Date: February 5, 2021

After an unexpected day off, Hunter is back with more Penguins content and this time, it's to update the GM search, as well as some practice updates. Hunter goes through some of the candidates who have already interviewed for the job and who are expected to interview. He discusses Kevin Weekes, as this may just be an interview where he can dip his toes into it. Is there an opportunity for him to blow the team away though? Hunter then gets into who his top 3 choices would be, and yes it includes Ron Hextall, who famously chased Robbie Brown around the ice after a goal. He also gets into the John Ferguson Jr. interview before closing with thoughts on Gillis and Futa. Finally, Hunter gives some practice updates as there looks to be some reinforcements coming to the lineup this weekend.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, everyone. Welcome to this Thursday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow the show's Twitter at L-O-Square Penguins. I apologize for not having an episode up on Wednesday. I've gone a full year without having any COVID-R-R-LOR. problems with my family, you know, my friends and all that, but, you know, family made its way to my close family and friends. My girlfriend tested positive for it a couple days ago. I've been with her for about a week. I've tested negative so far, but, you know, how reliable is it? I'm not really sure. I haven't felt anything yet, but, you know, I could just be asymptomatic to it, but which, you know, I'd be one of the lucky ones that I wouldn't have any symptoms, but, you know, it's still a bit early.

We're going to see how it is. But, you know, for right now I feel good. I'm going to give you guys some penguins content. Today, we're going to be doing some GM updates. So the penguins have been starting to interview some candidates for the GM position. And then tomorrow we're going to do a preview against those pesky Islanders. Going to preview the game on Friday and then preview the game on Sunday. And also today, we'll have some injury updates in case you guys mispractice. It looks like the penguins are going to get a couple of their defensemen back next game and potentially a forward as well. So some good news finally on the injury front of the penguins as they've just been ravaged by injuries left. I think they are tied for the lead league.

in Man Games Lost already. I think it was with Vancouver, if I'm not mistaken. I have to look up the tweet. But I know they're tied with someone, top two, top three, something like that. But, okay, let's get into it. So the Penguins, you know, they've really gotten in this GM search. Apparently today, according to Darren, Rod Rossi, and a couple others, former Flyers general manager Ron Hextall interviewed with the team.

I know some Penguins fans are not going to like that because of what Ron Hextall did to old friend Robbie Brown. I think that was with Mary O'S, seventh point of the night, and Hextall just went after Robbie Brown after he scored. I think it was basically like a tap-in goal. And then, of course, you know, everyone knows their Penguins history, just chasing him around a little bit before the ref got in the way. But in all seriousness, no, I think Hextall would be a great hire for the organization.

You know, I don't really care that he did that with the Flyers. I don't care that he played for the Flyers. He's very patient with his approach. I mean, the Flyers are good now because of him. I mean, he drafted Travis Connecting, I believe. drafted Ivan Provehrav, drafted Carter Hart, drafted Travis Sandheim. He drafted a lot of those really good players that are on the team now. He was there when Drew was playing well, Voracek, Couturier.

I don't know. Did he draft Morgan Frost? I'm not really sure, but I think he's still going to be a good player at some point for Philly. He might have drafted Joel Farabee, if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, he builds through the draft, and he did a great job stocking up the fly. prospect system and I think he would do a good job doing it with the penguins too. I think he uses analytics with his moves. And like I say, he's just, he's a very patient GM. He's the anti-Gin Rutherford. That's what this organization needs. Um, moving forward, you don't really need a general manager

making trades with the sake of making trades. I think the list of trades that Rutherford made during his tenure here was around 50 to 60. If I remember reading correctly from an athletic article, I think it was, um, Sean Gentile did like a whole list of all the Rutherford moves. And I'm pretty sure it was close to 60. I don't know the exact number. I'm going to have to look it up. But, you know, Ron Hickstock, he ain't going to come in here and make 50 to 60 trades. You know, you'll be lucky if he makes 30. You know, it's probably going to be somewhere between 15, 20, something like that. I mean, obviously, they'll be in the wind-down mindset. So he'll actually have to go out and make some trades. But he's not going to make a panic move for the sake of making a panic move.

I don't think he's going to overpay for players in free agency, overplay for players in trade and that stuff. I would feel really comfortable if the organization did go after Ron Hickstall. I also believe, according to Rossi, they are interviewing John Ferguson. It was either today or it'll be on Friday. Ferguson's an interesting candidate. I did not know about his Toronto tenure until honestly last week. When he got the GM job with Toronto, I was only about five to six years old. So a little bit before my time, he was fired in 2008 when I was about, what, 11 years old, something like that, 10-11. He was the architect behind the Tuka Rass for Andrew Raycroft trade.

You know, hard pass right there. But it's just, this would be an interesting hire for a multitude of reasons. You know, when Rob came on the Lockdown Penguins podcast on Saturday, he said they kind of viewed him as a Mike Sullivan clone. You know, got his dream job with Toronto, like Sullivan did with the Bruins. It didn't pan out. Both did a terrible job. Then they got fired. And then they went to do something that, you know, they were good at, you know, with Sullivan.

He was an assistant coach, was doing stuff in Chicago with, like, scouting or something like that. just a lot of video stuff, then goes to coach Wilkesbury, of course, and then, you know, the rest of history with back-to-back stand the Cubs. With Ferguson, went to Boston, has helped build up their prospect system very nicely. I think he's like a director of player development there

or something like that. I'm not, or he's an assistant general manager. All I know is he's worked with the Bruins prospects or has had some say, you know, who they pick in the draft and all that. And he's done a good job with that. So, you know, he's not had a GM role. And over a decade, I would hope that he would do a better job now than he did from 2003 to 2008.

But it would be a big risk, I would think. You know, with how that tenure ended in Toronto, you will be taking a risk, you know, hoping that that doesn't happen again. You know, remember with Rutherford, everyone said, oh, yeah, you know, it drove the hurricanes to basically the grave, just with making terrible trades leaving in a terrible spot, and then Ron Francis had to come in and clean up the mess. Now Rutherford did do well in his first two years here. then the last couple years just kind of drove the penguins to their grave. Not obviously in the way that he did the Carolina, but just had some bad trades, some bad signings and all that.

So, you know, you just have to be careful, though. I think Ferguson obviously deserves a look. He hasn't had a GM job in a while. He's done well with Boston. I'm just not sure that they're going to hire him. Now let's get into the Kevin Week situation. There's been some takes on Twitter for some people that I don't agree with. Some people calling his analysis bland.

I 100% disagree with that. I think when I've watched him on the NHL Network, he has some of the best analysis that they have to offer. Honestly, some of the best analysis that a lot of the NHL networks have to offer. I mean, he's much better than a lot of people on NBC Sports Network. I mean, Keith Jones stinks. I mean, Jeremy Roanick, when he was there, sucked. Mike Milbury, he sucked.

I don't mind Anson Carter on there. I actually think he's not a bad analyst. Patrick Sharp is okay. But, you know, compared to NBC as a whole thing, I mean, I would honestly, if Kevin Weeks worked for NBC, he'd probably be their best analyst on their panels. So I don't, let's see how I want to describe this. I mean, I think this interview is mainly just for him to dip his toes in. But I could also see Weeks just blowing the penguins away and then being like, okay, you know, here's the GM job.

But, you know, we also want to hire someone as president of hockey operations like Mike Gillis or something like that. I can totally see that happening. I also do agree that there needs to be more of minority people. in prominent hockey front office rules. But, you know, I think weeks at first, you know, he doesn't have any front office experience, you know. If I were the Penguins, you know, if they want to reshuffle their front office,

maybe you could hire him to be a consultant or something, hire him to be like an assistant general manager who reports to the new GM or something like that. You know, that way dips his toes in can work in a front office. And then, you know, at some point, if he wants to be a GM somewhere or, you know, if the other guy is fired or something, then you can make him the GM.

I just, I think I want to see, weeks in a front office role before I would make him the general manager, but we'll see how the Penguins think of that, you know, especially after they interview him. But, you know, I do like that they are interviewing Kevin Weeks. I actually do think his analysis is pretty good, and I think he's a bright hockey mind. And there's still plenty more to come on this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. We are going to get to the Scott Mellonby stuff, the Chris Jewelry stuff, and why some people kind of overreacted to him, not wanting to be interviewed. I'm going to tell you guys why. I think we kind of dodged a bullet there. And we'll also get into some other the candidates that have been mentioned

as well. Before we do that, it is time to talk about betonline.ag. There's only one place that has you covered in one place we trust. That is betonline.org. And sign up today for a free account and use that promo code locked on for your 50% off. Welcome bonus. Don't just sit down on the sidelines anymore, guys. Get in on the action. Don't forget to use that promo code locked on to receive a 50% off. Welcome bonus with your first deposit. That's bet online and your online sports book experts. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So two people did take their names out of the Penguins' GM search. That is Scott Malambi, assistant general manager in Montreal. That wasn't a surprise. I think he's really liked working with Mark Virgin. I think he's interviewed for GM jobs in the past. I'm not mistaken, he interviewed in Arizona.

Might have interviewed in New Jersey, but I'm pretty sure he interviewed in Arizona. He's seen from a lot of people as someone who's young and up and coming, but he wants to stay in Montreal. No surprise there. Then you get to Chris Jury. It was kind of like a seesaw back and forth, you know. Oh, you know, the Rangers aren't going to give him permission. And then they say they did give him permission.

Drewie's going to get an interview, and then he's not going to get an interview. So we finally got confirmation today that Drury will not be interviewing. He's going to stay in New York. He likes what he's doing there. You know, that got some Penguins fans, you know, a little upset. Like, oh, man, this was the guy. This was the guy. Guys, I can tell you, I think there's better options out there for the penguins.

I've had more than one person tell me that, you know, you just, you kind of don't want him. And I say that because you look at the Rangers farm team. So he's been in charge, he's basically the GM of their farm team. I think it's the Hartford Wolfpack. And for a lot of the seasons that he's been in the GM there, they've stunk. I think he's had, I think their latest season, they were pretty good. But, you know, before that, they just weren't good for a lot of those years. and I mean, do you really trust the Rangers with their talent evaluation?

Someone coming from the Rangers, I mean, this organization signed Jack Johnson. They gave Jacob Truba that albatross of a contract. They gave him number one defender money, and he's basically giving them, what, below replacement level play this season. He's number three, number four at best, but he's just been not good for the Rangers ever since coming over from Winnipeg. Look at their bottom six, and it's just filled with players who are, not that good. I mean, I know they have Zabanajad, Panarin, you know, Ryan Strom's not bad,

Pavel Bouchnevich is good, but you know, you look up and down the lineup, they're going to be a good team soon, but they're just, they're not there yet. And, you know, I just, I won't, I don't think I want Chris Drouy coming from the Rangers, especially, you know, with the job that he's done is the Hartford Wolfpack GM and just how the teams

have been there and just, you know, their talent evaluation. I just don't think it would be a good idea to hire him. You know, that's maybe not going to be a popular take with people, but that's just my take on the situation and I'm kind of glad that Chris Drury is not going to be the Penguins General Manager. Other options, Chris McFarland. I think he's going to be getting an interview according to Rossi.

He's my number one pick. If I had to rank my top two, top three, I would probably have McFarlane, Hextall Gillis. McFarlane is Joe Sackick's right-hand man. He's probably next in line for the avalanche job if Sackick ever steps down, retires, or just leaves or whatever. I mean, he's done a great job there.

And just with what Colorado does, I mean, they have a very analytics-friendly front office. They obviously use it a lot with their moves. I mean, the move to get Devon Taves this past summer. He's great. His underlying numbers are awesome. You know, just Sam Gerard, Bowen Byram, and just their roster moves in general, you know, trading for Brandon Sod giving up, what, Nikita Zedorov. I mean, they gave up Tyson Barry to basically get Nazim Kodry, who's been good.

Tactic's just made a lot of great moves as the GM there. And McFarland has obviously had a health. helping hand in that. So I'd really love to maybe poach someone away from Colorado, which is how they've been building their team because they've built a juggernaut. I think they were my Stanley Cup pick this year. And I'm going to stick with that. I really do think they are going to win the Cup.

And just with their core and their depth is great. Their defense is awesome. And even their goaltending is a strength too. So getting McFarlowland would be great. I'm hoping that they interview him pretty soon. I'm sure they're going to cut down the list about five to six people by the end of the week, or at least that's what I read from Dreger and a couple of other people. Mike Gillis, you know, we all saw that application that was leaked on Twitter by his son.

Was most likely real guys. I highly doubt someone can put together a hoax that good. It looks like he's learned a lot, you know, since being the Canucks GM, talked a lot about analytics in that proposal, just the modern game of hockey, basically called out the dinosaurs for a bad way of thinking. You know, the only thing that's kind of scary, he's just been out of the game a while, you know. I don't think he's been a GM. since. I don't know if he's at a front office role since. So, you know, you'd be getting

someone who just hasn't had a GM spot in almost a decade now. So it would be a little bit of a risk, but I do think that he's good enough where I think he would do at least a decent job with the penguins. I do expect him to get an interview. Mike Fuda has also been linked to the Penguins. I think Jesse Marshall, the Athletic, first had that report. He does stuff with the LA Kings. He's very analytics friendly as well. Rob Blake has been doing a really nice shot with the rebuild there. I think the Kings are going to be a decent team in a few years. You know, they're just, they're still collecting as many picks as they can, as many prospects as they can, as they're just, you know, they're rebuilding right now. I don't think they're going to trade Copaatar at any point

or Dowdy. I mean, he's, he's already in the shitter basically already. But, you know, for some of their other debt players, I mean, they also traded Alec Martinez, traded Jake Muzzen a couple years ago. They're just, they're going to keep making these moves, just try to get more picks and prospects, you know, so they can pick higher in the draft. We all know they're going to stink. But I think Fuda has had a helping hand with Rob Blake with his move, so I really wouldn't mind Mike Fuda as the Penguins GM. There's not really many other options that I think have been linked to the Penguins at this point.

Some people have said, Pat Brasson, I mean, I don't know why you would hire Sidney Crosby's agent to be the general manager. That would make no sense to me. It looks like they are going to stay away from Dale Talent. Again, that's great news. They're going to stay away from Peter Shirelli, who's just basically a walking run. meme at this point. I mean, I don't know why anyone would hire Peter Schrelli to be in your GM or in your front office.

He's just a dinosaur at this point. And then Peter McGuire, too. I mean, I know he was a finalist for the job in 2014 along with Jim Rutherford and Julian Brisblaw. I was thinking about this the other day. Imagine if Julian Brisblaw actually got that Penguin's GM job, you know, where would the franchise be today? Were they still have those two Stanley Cups?

It is interesting to think about, you know, would they have Mike Sullivan as their head coach today? I mean, he's done a hell of a job in Tampa, you know, just, you know, just, you know, getting the depth pieces needed for them to win the cup and just making their team stacked. And it was just, I was thinking about this a lot, just how different would the franchise look with him there? As he's, I think, one of the best GMs in hockey. But, you know, going back to Pierre McGuire, you know, just that's not going to happen. There's been no indication that they're going to interview him.

So I think, like I said, guys, Mike Gillis would be great. Mike Fuddle would be fine. Ron Hextall would be great. Chris McFarlane would be awesome. Now, John Ferguson, I think it could work out great, but it could also. to be catastrophic. You know, it's a high risk, high reward for that one. Are the penguins willing to take a risk with that and kind of, you know, do what they did with Mike Sullivan again? I'm not really sure, you know, maybe can Kevin Weeks pull him away in an interview? We'll see. I'm not

expecting him to get the job, but I think it's just more for him to dip his toes in. And then, of course, you know, Patrick Alvian, I'm sure, has already had his first interview. I don't expect him to get the full-time gig, though it's not the worst option you can give them as the full-time gig. I think he would actually do a decent job for Pittsburgh in that role. But, okay, I think that's basically it for the GM updates. Like I said, guys. They're hoping to have a short list, I think, by the end of the weekend, five to six names, going to the second interviews next week

and then maybe make a hire right around Valentine's Day. So maybe, you know, as a gift of your significant other, the Penguins will get a new general manager around that time. We'll have to see. But before we do get to the next segment, or we'll talk some practice updates and all that. It is time to talk about rockado.com. It's a family business serving.

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I'm your host, Hunter Hodey. So as I'm recording, this looks like the NHL has put the Colorado Avalanche on pause until February 11th, so a full week. Guys, that now makes five separate teams on shutdown and in the NHL due to the coronavirus. One of them is insisting. I think it's Buffalo that they got exposed to COVID during a game. I believe that's with New Jersey. I think the Sabres are just, they're pissed off and rightfully so. I mean, the devil's, I mean, the reason why they're on, they're not.

on hiatus is because I think they have like 10 or 15 guys on the NHL's COVID list. It wouldn't be surprising if they did go on hiatus. I don't know if Gary Bettman's going to do that, but, you know, this was always inevitable. You saw it with the NFL, a couple teams early on in the season, really went through it. The Tennessee Titans, the Baltimore Ravens went through it. You just, you have to get through this. And, you know, it happened in baseball, too. The Miami Marlins had a huge outbreak.

I know it hasn't happened in the NBA yet, but I think they have game day testing. mistake. I don't know if the NHL has that. I'm going to have to double check on that, but I know the NBA has it, and they've done a really pretty decent job, I would say, so far with it. But it's just, this was always inevitable. It's happened in almost every sport so far. Like I said, with football, they got through it, and now they're having the Super Bowl. Baseball, it happened with the Marlins and some other teams, and then they're able to crown the World Series. It would be fine. It would be honestly good if the NHL did go on hiatus. I just don't think Gary Batman is going to do.

do that. But, you know, it's just, it's still a mess right now, even with the vaccine still rolling out. And, you know, I hope all of you continue to stay safe and socially distance, because, you know, this, this thing, it's as serious as it was a year ago, and it's still not going away anytime soon. So please continue to stay safe. As for Penguin's practice updates, Chris LaTang was back at practice today. I think he was practicing on the top pairing, practicing on the power play. And speaking of the power play on Josh Yoey's 10 observations from practice, it looks like they were actually. shooting the puck in practice. Now, it is practice. We're going to see if they

transfer over that to the game, but it's still good to see that they are scoring on the power play in practice and also taking a lot of shots. You know, the Penguins, of course, passing up so many shooting opportunities in their last few games. Honestly, throughout the entire season, if we're being honest, they just have to get back to basics for this. Stop handling the puck like a grenade. Stop forcing passes when they're not there. Just fire puck's a net and then crash net when you see the rebounds and good things will happen. I mean, that's basically what you're going to have to do at this point. You can do a Harlem Globe Trotters level play when it presents itself somewhere down the line. Right now, it's about

getting your power play back and actually producing results. You have one of the worst power play units in the league right now. You have 67 shot attempts per 60 on the power play. That's dead last in the league. It's just, it's a bad unit. We're going to see how they do on Saturday against the Islanders after they had a full day of practice, and I'm sure they're going to practice it more tomorrow as well, Mike Matheson was back to practice. It looks like he's going to be back playing on Saturday as well, I would think, if not then, the next game after that. He did say he's basically close to 100% that he's been skating a bunch.

And then Zach, Aston-Ree says, so he made his return to practice with full contact today. He said as well, he's just about 100%. He just has to see when he's going to get cleared to play. So that's a welcome edition. I've always said, guys, Aston-Reece is one of the most underappreciated players on this team defensively. He's a rock that Austin Reese Blugertanavline Just for that entire last season was outstanding

They suppressed shots and a pretty high rate I know he doesn't score a lot But you know with the amount of money that he makes It's not a lot You can afford to have a player like that in your lineup Who is shut down defensively and you know can contribute to some offense here and there But I really do think the Penguins have missed him a bunch this season Not only at even strength but on the penalty kill as well

I think he's one of their best penalty killers just because he's so great at even and strengthen the defensive zone. And forechecking, you know, I should say that too. But that's basically the injury update for today. The Penguins could have three injured players back for their next game against the Islanders. You know, much needed, especially at defense. But, you know, it's also great to get a forward back as well. But that'll do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

I should be back tomorrow with another episode. God willing, I don't get any symptoms from COVID. It just, it would be peak me at this point. I've been great for the last few days, as my girlfriend's had it, that I'm just going to start developing symptoms. I'm not sure if I'm asymptomatic yet, but I am going to get another test on Monday, but please stay safe, guys, and continue to social distance. And I do think we, I see the white at the end of the tunnel coming later this year, as I'm hoping a lot of the country gets vaccinated by the end of the summer or, you know, early fall or something like that. But, you know, thank you guys so much for listening, and I will talk to you all tomorrow for a big preview with the Islanders.