Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - BREAKING BONUS SHOW: Penguins make two trades on Wednesday night!

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

Hunter and Patrick give their early thoughts on the two trades that Kyle Dubas orchestrated on Wednesday night in this special bonus edition of the show. They discuss how Tommy Novak will be a big help at center, plus how Kyle Dubas continues his vision of making them a younger team for the foreseeable future. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins! FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kyle Dubus was very busy on Wednesday night, making not one but two trades. Pat and I are going to give our quick analysis on these two moves and more on this very special bonus edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. you can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes

joined by my co-host Patrick Damby. You can follow him on all social media platforms as Pat comes to you live from the KDCA Studios. He's working late tonight, but we wanted to get this out for you all pretty early Thursday morning as a little bonus edition of the Locktime Hengland's podcast. We'll have a full episode of the show for you all

a bit later on today. But Kyle Dubas was very busy on Wednesday. First, trading defenseman Vinnie Day or Ney to the San Jose Sharks for a 2028 fifth round pick. We hardly knew him. But then he makes the bigger move trading forward Michael Bunting to the Nashville Predators for Tommy Novak and Luke Shen. Gotta say, man, I was pretty stunned by that move.

I did not have Bunting even close to my radar for a potential player that could get moved at this deadline. I kind of felt like this was going to be maybe a summer move or a move that you make around next year's trade deadline because he still had a year left on his track. I didn't think Dubus would be quick to get rid of him right away. Also because that's one of his dudes. Like people forget he had bunting when he was the GM in Toronto. He's had a close relationship with him. And I was, again, pretty surprised that they moved on from him that quick. But all in all, when you look at these two deals in totality, I really like this for the penguins. You get younger, especially with Tommy Novak coming back. And yes, people.

I know Luke Shen is a bit older. But I don't think Shen is going to be here for that long. Kyle Dubus was speaking to the media tonight in an email press release saying that they really like his toughness. They like his spirit, his energy and all that. He might play with them for the rest of the season, maybe gets moved during the summer or maybe it gets moved during the next season. And there will be a market for him, by the way, people like GMs, they love this type of player. I was telling Pat before we started doing this, it kind of reminds me a little bit of Noalach, especially around playoff time. Teams love to get that defenseman who was tough, hard nose. They'll stick up for their players when something happens, delivers a lot of physical checks,

gets everyone fired up. Shen will do that for the Penguins. Even though they're not a good team this year, he will still do all of those things for the Penguins. And I think that's going to make a lot of fans who really enjoy that type of stuff pretty happy. But with Novak, that's the gem in this trade. He's instantly someone you can put as their third line center right behind Evgeny Malkin and Sidney Crosby.

He's had a little bit of a down year this year when you look at his counting stats, 13 goals, 22 points in 52 games. But people, Nashville is rotten this year. They are one of the worst teams in the league. But look at what he did last year when they made the playoffs. 18 goals, 45 points in 71 games. Before that, 17 goals, 43 points in 51 games. That's when he really broke out during the 22, 23 season.

And oh yeah, by the way, his underlying numbers really, really good. Like, when he's on the ice, the predators have been really good with shot attempts, scoring chances, expected goals, high danger, chances for all that good stuff. Very much passes the I test with his playmaking ability. Really nice release. I like getting Tommy Novak quite a bit. And he has a little bit of team control as well. Pat, I know I just rambled for about four minutes to start this little bonus edition. But what are your thoughts on the moose? Because I really like them. Yeah. I mean, the longer I've had to digest them and dig into them because a little inside baseball for

our people listening to this episode, it's a little. after midnight. So it's Thursday morning when we're recording this. I've finished up my four to midnight work shift here at KDK. So I ducked into what we call our Zoom room where we conduct Zoom interviews. So I could get a better view for this. But yeah, the longer I've had to think about them and look into these moves, the more I start to like them. The Vinnie Day-Day trade is whatever. You get a 2028 fifth round pick. You can either hold on to that or use it in a package for another move sometime in the next couple of seasons. So that's whatever, you got something for essentially nothing.

You had 10 whole games of any day, Arna, and he didn't really amount to much, except for four penalty minutes in a minus four plus minus. So we hardly knew you. I don't think we really wanted to know you, but whatever. The Luke Shen part of it, I'm very curious to see what comes to this. you look at Kyle Dubus's comments tonight, and like I said, I'm so out of my element here. I've got to pull out my phone to read some of the comments. But he basically said that they feel like having Luke's defensive play, his character,

his leadership, toughness and all of that is going to help build the culture of this team. And when I read that from Dubis, I know a lot of people are taking that as, oh, he loves this guy. He wants to hold on to this guy for as long as he can. I compare it to what I said about Hayes a few days ago, where is he going to be an ultimate impact player and do a whole lot for the team? Not on the ice. But when you look at the idea of what Kyle Dubus wants to do, and then you fold it into a guy like Tommy Novak, who even though is 27, he's not very young, but you know that there's a lot of guys coming up from Wilkes Bear. There's guys who are still in junior. There's players that they're going to draft over the next

few or the next year or so he's a guy who can teach other young players how to be professionals. Yeah, Crosby, Malk, and Latang are three of the best teachers you could ask for, but they have that superstar shine on them where you can get a little starstruck when they're telling you, hey, kid, do X, Y, Z. And it's hard to, I don't want to say hard to listen, but it's a different source. But when you can have sort of that every man, guy who had to earn it, guy who has been on multiple different teams and has learned to be a professional, that can be a lot, that can be very valuable to younger players you're bringing in. So that's how I've kind of warmed up to the Shen deal, part of the deal. And I think that, like you said, he might get flipped before

Friday. I'm doubtful of that, especially with the way Dubas spoke about him. But I can see him being moved next season to a team that's actually trying to contend. Because keep in mind, penguins aren't trying to win right now. And a lot of people will talk about how Shen's not that great of a defenseman anymore. Again, they're not trying to win. So he can help you with things that aren't on the ice. As for Tommy Novak, this is the exact mold of player that Kyle Dubus has been going after for the last year. It's a player who has shown some flashes.

Remember, this is only his fourth full NHL season. He's 27, but he's only played in the league for a handful of years. So there's still some untapped potential here. And you have him for the next two years. It's $3.5 million with a rising cap, it's not going to be that much. So you can either find another hidden gem, and he turns into a player that you can count on, for the next five to six years,

or he's spent next to nothing on them, and you can tell them happy trails in two years, or at the end of the second year, if there's another team that wants to take a chance on them, you can turn them into a couple picks. So overall, in totality, looking at this deal after these deals after they came a couple hours ago, I'm starting to really warm up to them.

100%. And another aspect of it, again, they were really never going to sign Michael Bundy, So turning him into Tommy Novak, especially you're getting younger at the forward position, slam dunk for me every time. And I'm also curious to see who the penguins are going to put with Novak. Once he gets into the lineup, do they put Tomasino with him? I know they've been kind of flopping Tomasino with the Balkan line.

They've been putting it with Hayes a little bit, et cetera. So I'm curious to see what happens there. I'm still very much on the train that Tomasino should be up with Malkin full time, but still curious to see if Mike decides to experiment. with Novak and Tomasino since again, you know, they've been teammates together in Nashville. You know, they know each other pretty well. You know, Cody Glass, of course, he comes from Nashville as well. And this is another trade for me with Dubus.

And it's a little bit of a different point where he's continuing to go after GM that he's had a bit of success with, you know, Philip Thomasino, really great trade for the penguins. He's been fun this year. I'm excited about him next year. Cody Glass. I think there's still maybe a little bit more with him there. That's my opinion, though. But you at least got some picks with him.

You took a chance on him. Totally fine with that move. You're doing the same thing here with Novak, who is a bit better, obviously, than Glass. I think, honestly, is a bit better than Tomasino as well, in my opinion. And you're going after a GM in Barry Trotz, who you've had success with in terms of trades, especially this year. And, again, he has the team control, 27 years old. I'm excited, man. I really am.

But also, this is not the end of the deadline for the Penguins people. They are going to be quite busy Thursday and Friday, I would say. I mean, the pending UFAs have still not even been dealt yet, people. Matt Griswick, Anthony Villiers. We still have to see if Noel Charter gets moved. We have to see if, you know, if Rickel gets moved, one of the goaltenders. This was the move that very much surprised me, very much surprised you. I think the obvious ones are still to come.

But, hey, man, I will still take this one any day. best wishes to Vinny Day or Ney, best wishes to Michael Bunting. My girlfriend is actually a little bit sad about Michael Bunting leaving because he was one of her favorite players going dating back to last year. But hey, I still like this move quite a bit, man. I'm with you on that. And the thing that I remember saying, I don't know if it was on this show or if it was on social media or writing. And you hinted at it a little bit that we figured there was going to be something of a surprise move from Kyle to this, where it's a player you weren't talking about. And I know that Bunting's name had come up

a little bit here and there in talks of someone they could potentially trade, but that was a lot of, for my wrestling fans out there, it was a lot of fantasy booking where we were just kind of playing armchair general manager and saying maybe they could get something for Michael Bunting, but there wasn't really any rumblings around a potential Michael Bunting trade. And then you add in that there's really no timetable for his return right now because he just had to have his appendix taken out. So Kyle Dubus being able to take a player like Michael Bunting and turn him into these two players is a nice little piece of business. And I'm going to keep bringing this up when it comes to Shen because I know that there is going to be frustration that they went out and got

a 35-year-old defenseman who is kind of a relic of. of a former NHL where he's not really fast. He's very physical. He, that's kind of really all he brings to the table. But the penguins, remember, the penguins are not trying to win right now.

They're not trying to go for the Stanley Cup. They are rebuilding and retooling on the fly. And this is a guy that I imagine they're looking at as, as I've already said, he's going to be somebody that can help with the younger players in the room. And I know that Crosby, Malkin, Latang and Rust have all won Stanley Cups themselves. But so is Luke Shen.

And it's a different voice. It's a different perspective. Rust, Malkin, Latang, Crosby have known one franchise their entire careers. Then you look at Shen, he's bounced around the NHL. He's been on multiple different teams. He won Stanley Cups with Tampa Bay in the bubble and then in the shortened season. So he can help with some of those non-frontal. franchise younger players who are trying to make their way into the NHL.

And we know that over the next four to five years, we're going to see a lot of those in Pittsburgh. Unless something absolutely catastrophic happens or this plan doesn't pan out the way they want it to and this team truly goes in the tank, you're going to have a lot of guys who aren't going to be franchise cornerstones. So they're going to have to learn the ropes of how to be professionals. and now you've got Kevin Hayes, you've got Luke Shen, you've obviously got the core guys, you've got a group of players who, while you're going to look at outside of the core guys, their underlying numbers, their top line numbers, in just their history as NHL players,

and think, what do they really bring to the table? For Dubis, and of course I'm not quoting him on this, this is my interpretation of it, he wants to also bring in veterans that aren't your cornerstones. They are guys who can help younger players adjust to life in the NHL. And that has just as much weight as getting the 24-year-old former second round pick who didn't pan out with the team that drafted them. While that's still going to be important, you're kind of approaching this as a whole organization philosophy.

And for now, I like the idea of it. Yeah, I think if they were actually contending for a cup this year, I'd be a little bit more annoyed that they got Luke Chen, but they're rebuilding on the fly. He brings some toughness. He brings some snarl. He's going to push back. He brings some big hits.

I know a lot of fans that listen to our show, love that type of stuff. So you're winning with this acquisition with Luke Shen. I don't think he's going to be here that long. Is there a chance he gets slipped before Friday's deadline? Sure. Like, I'm sure contending teams will look to call, be like, hey, are you looking to flip him?

Like, we'll offer you a pick or something like that. And I'm sure Kyle Dubus will listen. but he may not be in a rush to actually make that move and could do it again maybe the summer during next season something like that but unless you have anything else to add about this move i think we can wrap up here and we'll have a full episode for you all later on today on thursday breaking down more these about these two trades and then looking at again what else could be next for the penguin so for patrick damp i am hunter hodies thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to this very special bonus edition of the locked on England's podcast and we'll talk to you all in a few hours.