Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - BREAKING: Penguins trade defenseman Brett Kulak to Colorado!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Kyle Dubus and Team Canada are back from the Olympics, and Dubus is wasting no time. We've got a trade to talk about, and we are going to get it into it on this quick emergency edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome in to an emergency episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet. Joined as always by my co-host, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow our show's Twitter account at LO underscore Penguins. You can follow us on Instagram at Lockedon underscore Penguins. TikTok at Locked on Penguins. You're here. You know where you can find the podcast.

Starting point is 00:01:06 I'm not going to give you the full rundown because as soon as, well, not as soon as, but moments after Hunter and I finished our Tuesday edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast, which you should make sure you go back and listen to before you jump into this one, Kyle Dubus decided you guys didn't have enough content. You didn't have enough to talk about. So he decided to pull the trigger on a fairly big trade for the Pittsburgh Penguins. If you have not seen it yet, here are the full details. To the Pittsburgh Penguins comes defenseman Samuel Gerard and a 2028 second round pick.

Starting point is 00:01:47 To the Colorado Avalanche goes defenseman Brett Kulak. This one, I won't lie, Hunter was a bit of a surprise to me because it felt like they were, going to let Brett Kulak play this season out and then probably walked a free agency. But this is on the surface, snap reaction, a really nice trade by Kyle Dubus. Yeah, Kyle has been on a heater for the last year plus. It continued with this trade. And I'm with you. I felt that Kulak was going to finish out the season as a member of the penguins before

Starting point is 00:02:24 walking to free agency. I felt that they weren't really going to mess too much with his pair with Lettang, just the way that he's been able to stabilize him a little bit. But Kyle gone off or he couldn't refuse. And, you know, when I compare Gerard and Kulak, I do think Gerard is the better defenseman. So I am curious to see if they start him with Latang right away, or if they bump Ryan Shea to play up with Latang.

Starting point is 00:02:48 They've had history playing together with one another this season, or if they put Gerard back down the third pair with Connor, Clifton or Ilyos Olovia. We'll have to see. But my first reaction, I'm with you. I was surprised. But when I saw the full deal come in, I was pretty happy. You get Gerard, who he's good offensively. He's good in transition. He's not as good defensively as Kulak. But I do like the offensive presence that he brings to the blue line. And when you look at this trade as a whole, you're adding a second rounder and a defenseman who has some really strong underlying numbers this year for a UFA. defense and that you weren't going to sign. You take that trade every single day of the week. And I'll get into a few numbers here, Pat. So he's played in 40 games this season, Sam Girard, that is, about 653 minutes of five-on-five ice time. When he has been on the ice, the Colorado out of Lynch have had 56% of the shot attempts. They have also had about 55% of the expected goal share, 58% of the scoring chances, and also 53% of the high danger chances. Really good

Starting point is 00:03:53 underlines throughout the year. And yeah, he makes $5 million, but he's still only signed through next season. This isn't a long-term commitment or anything like that. So Kyle Dubis, he's sticking to his plan, but also at the same time, he's rewarding his team too. That's what I would say as well. And the numbers, when you look at the underlying is for Kulak, the underlyings for Gerard, they're pretty comparable.

Starting point is 00:04:20 basically you shift a little bit more to the offensive side of the puck than the defensive side of the puck. But it's not such a significant drop off that I think you need to worry about it. They the team, it's going to be difficult to really apply that though, I think for the penguins, because Colorado's a wagon. They're head and shoulders the best team in the NHL. And you get kind of how we say when you get those players. who have been on basement dwelling teams and have negative numbers, you kind of go, we got to take it with a grain of salt because they were on a bad team.

Starting point is 00:04:59 With Gerard, he's kind of right there in the middle of the pack. So his offensive underlines may dip a little bit in Pittsburgh. His defensive numbers might be a little bit better or they may even dip a little bit. But you got a younger defenseman with a little bit more of offensive upside. And the cap hit is almost negligent. it's about twice as much as Kulak and he was making next to nothing. They have so much cap space that it really just doesn't matter. He's still only here for the rest of this season and then next season.

Starting point is 00:05:30 And Pat, we still have to see how they do next season because say, for example, just throwing this out there, say they take a step back, that's someone you can easily flip for more assets at the trade deadline. And I'll throw this in there too. They have now turned Tristan Jari's contract into two future second round picks, Stuart Skinner and Samuel Gerard. Caladubis, take about, my friend. That's the most impressive part,

Starting point is 00:05:53 is that you look at the Tristanjari contract that he signed his first offseason with the Penguins, and that looked like it was going to be an anchor on the Penguins' books for the entirety of it. And he has been able to turn it into some very valuable assets. Here's the thing I want to focus on more than anything. The Penguins now, over the next, three drafts will have 10 picks in the first two rounds. They will have three first round

Starting point is 00:06:25 picks and then they will have seven picks across the second round over the next three drafts. That is a coup of all coups for Kyle Dubus because we talked about this years ago when he came on as the general manager. This was going to be a what we thought at the time, a heavy lift to rebuild and retool this team. And in about two years now, he has done a really good job restocking the prospect pool. And he has done an unbelievable job replenishing the draft pick pool. So he has given himself a lot of options here because at this point, the penguins have, in my estimation, the best of all worlds. They've got a massive amount of cap space.

Starting point is 00:07:23 They've got a lot more prospects who can actually turn into NHL talent. And they have got way more draft picks than just about any team in the league. So any direction he wants to go, he has given himself that flexibility. I agree. And you mentioned the first round picks. You mentioned the second round picks. Pat, they also have six third round picks in the next three drafts. So if you combine all of those picks, that is 16 picks in the first three rounds of the next three drafts.

Starting point is 00:07:58 Again, take a bow. Kyle do this. He continues to be on a really big heater. And I've said a lot. I'll say it again here. They make the playoffs. I think he should win GM of the year for the job that he has been able to do. I like this trade quite a bit.

Starting point is 00:08:13 Again, you can play Gerard in the second pair if you want to play them on the third pair. I think that works too. We have to see what DMUs decides. But this trade just makes a lot of sense. Again, you're sticking to your plan, but you're also helping your team in the short term and kind of rewarding them a little bit at the same time for the season that they've had. Yeah, you're subtracting someone off the team, but they haven't been on the team that long. It's not like they were on the team at the start of the season.

Starting point is 00:08:38 So you're rewarding the team, even though, again, you're sending someone out, but that player's only been here for a couple of months. I also love getting that second round pickback. Really nice piece of business by the Penguins here. That was a really smart call by Kyle Dubus because at the end of the day, this was a move to help the Colorado Avalanche free up some cap space. For sure. Dubis basically said, I'll take on your $5 million defenseman.

Starting point is 00:09:03 You throw me a second round pick. I will help you out with that. that is a really, really good use of weaponization of cap space by Kyle Dubus. And to your point, and we'll end on this, it is really rewarding your team in a way that keeps it flexible. You didn't send anything out the door that is going to hurt you in the medium or long term. You brought back something that can help you in the short and medium term. And you brought in something in a second round pick in 2028 that can help you in the long run. So this is at the end of the day to go full cliche sports talk.

Starting point is 00:09:40 The trade grade for me for Kyle Dubus and the Penguins is an A plus. For Colorado, I will actually give them a B B plus because you get something you need in a steady blue line defenseman who, yeah, he's not going to chip in offensively. But if you look at Colorado's numbers, they don't need any help offensively. You give them someone who can defend really well and has been a big. part of those runs to the Stanley Cup final with the Edmonton Oilers over the past couple of years. This is a really good mutually beneficial trade for both clubs. Yeah, and I do think the trade for the abs, depending on what they do, you can potentially move that grade up because to me, I think the ads are planning something big. They're trying to go all in. You freed up cap space.

Starting point is 00:10:28 And yeah, I do think Kulak can help them. By the way, I think this is someone that can play, you know, some lockdown minutes on the second pair if they want to put them on the third pair. That works too. What I'm more curious about is what are they doing with that extra cap space? I think they're going to go all in for a player over the next week and a half. And they kind of have no choice with the team that they have right now. They really do. But that is going to do it for this quick update edition of the locked on penguins podcast.

Starting point is 00:10:53 Hunter and I will be back on Wednesday. We will talk more about this trade where Gerard fits in, how we see him working on the penguins blue line and giving you any other updates on news that may happen between now and then. And despite the penguins being off, of course, we're going to find a way to shoehorn in warrior helmet Wednesday because one week off is just one week too many without warrior helmet Wednesday. But thank you so much for hanging out with us for this quick edition of locked on penguins for Hunter Hodes. I am Patrick Damp. We will talk to you again on Wednesday.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - BREAKING: Penguins trade defenseman Brett Kulak to Colorado!

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