Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - BREAKING: Penguins trade goalie Alex Nedeljkovic to the Sharks!

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

The Penguins weren’t very active on July 1, but they did send one of their goaltenders out west! Hunter and Patrick begin the show talking about the Alex Nedeljkovic trade to San Jose and how this is right in line with their desire to get younger. The trade will now open up room for goaltenders such as Joel Blomqvist and Sergei Murashov to take the next steps in their development. Despite being mostly quiet on the opening of free agency, Kyle Dubas did make a couple of re-signings and signings, including Conor Dewer and Philip Tomasino. They dive into the details and talk about the value of these players. Finally, with big free agents opting to stay with their clubs and one big name headed to Vegas, the Penguins find themselves in a position to be very active on the trade market this upcoming year.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get $150 in Bonus Bets if your first $5 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.

The Penguins were not major players in free agency on Tuesday, but they still made some moves, and Pat and I are going to discuss those moves right after this. 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 back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick, we can follow him on all social media platforms at send him for wet you can follow the show's

Twitter at hello underscore penguins and you can find us on instagram at locked on underscore penguins of course thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day we are free and available on all platforms happy july first everyone out there and also happy canada day to our friends up north so pat as expected the penguins do not make any big bold or flat out Ad moves on Tuesday, that was very much going to be the norm. You saw some crazy deals handed out earlier today. Tanner Geno, Cody C, C, even old friend Brian Dumont, I feel like got a little bit of an overpay. You saw the McIle-Granlon contract with the ducks.

Yeah, I know the ducks have a lot of cap space. I don't think Granlin is worth $7 million per, though, on the open market. There were some crazy deals, as expected, handed out. But for the penguins, not really, just because of where they are right now with this we build. We can start in a whole bunch of different circumstances today. Tomicino coming back, Connor Dewar coming back. There's rumors that Parker Weatherstone is going to be joining the Penguins. There was a rumor out there that Anthony Mantha could be signing with the Penguins.

We'll get to that a little bit later. But we do want to start with some breaking news. We are recording this right about five minutes after this broke pat. Alex Nadelcovich has been traded from the Penguins to the San Jose Sharks for a 2028 third round pick. My thoughts, really good move for the Penguins. They get the third round pickback, which is honestly a bit surprising considering that Ned has been fine in the couple years that he's been here.

I just didn't think they would be getting a third round pick back for him at all, even though it's not a 2026 first round pick. The fact that they got a third round pick in any draft for him is pretty good business by Kyle Dubus in my opinion. But I will also miss Ned. He was a great vibes guy in the room, always had some great quotes from there. he always provided a spark to the team when they needed one in quite a handful of games.

But it felt like at least one of the two goalies had to get out the door this off season. I mean, in a perfect world, I think you can get out of both of these. But I still don't think that's going to happen. I think they're going to ride with Jari and Blummequist now going into next season. But you had to get out of one of them. And Ned, he was the easiest one to move. It was. It was the easiest contract of the two to move.

getting something back for him is solid. And I've seen a lot of people really kind of downplay the value that Ned had. I get that he wasn't very good down the stretch of the last two years. But the team as a whole was really bad down the stretch of the last two years. He had a lot of company. And we learned in both seasons that Alex Nadelcovich, is a 1B at best. And he can't be your starter.

He can't be a spot starter. He can't even be a 50-50. He's got to be on that fringe of a backup where you're not going to feel bad about playing him 30 to 35 games a year. But once you get past that threshold, he kind of starts to fall apart. Now San Jose gets a bit of a veteran

to work behind Ascarov, which will be huge for him. The penguins are able to clear the log jam a little bit for their young goalies. This opens the door for Sergei Murashav to really take the reins with the baby penguins. It will give Blumquist a chance to get NHL experience and potentially steal the net from Tristan Jari. So overall, I like this deal a lot. I can't get mad at Ned for just being in the wrong situation. I think with a lot of the support or supporting cast that the penguins have had over the past couple of years, they have just been in the wrong situation at the wrong time.

And that absolutely applies to Ned. I think Ned on a team with an actual starting goaltender would be in a better position. The penguins just haven't been that for the past couple of times. years. So we'll see how he does backing up Ascarob for San Jose, where the expectations aren't very high right now. I mean, the expectations aren't really high here in Pittsburgh either, but he's still at least going to a team that has some promise going forward, especially with Macklin Zalbreen. I don't think the sharks are going to be any good this year. I mean, I still think they're at least a couple years away from even contending for a playoff spot, in my opinion. But I do think that's still

a fine situation for him. He gets to play behind a fairly young team with a fairly young core. And, you know, he'll probably get what, Pat, 30, 35 starts during next season right around there. Maybe he'll get half the season or something like that. So I do think he's getting a pretty good opportunity to play for that Sharks team. And again, I wish him the best going forward. He was really good in the locker room.

I still think back, remember Pat when he was pulled in that game against the flyers? He slammed his stick on the post, basically threw it to the corner, slams the bench. he tells the team to wake up. That was so awesome because you really didn't see it that often during last season where a player would just get so mad. But Ned had that dog in him that he could do that at any time. And you saw in the locker room when some of the core guys weren't giving quotes, even not even Brian Russ, for example.

Ned was the guy in there being like, hey, come over here. I'll talk to you. So he seemed like a great dude to have around, had some up and down starts. But I wish him the very best going forward. But as you said, wrong situation, wrong time. I love that you brought up. This allows Sergei Muroshov to have the net more on a full-time basis in Wilkesbury. I think that's the next step for him in his development.

And you really needed to start solving this logjam. Philip Larson, Pat, is still there too. We know they didn't qualify Taylor Godier. So he is a UFA right now. But you needed to start solving this logjam in some way or another. And this is, again, the start of it. And it also fits into what Kyle Dubus has said about a youth movement starting this year in Pittsburgh, that they are going to lean very heavily on the young guys.

And that applies to Yoel Blumquist. And looking at the way Blumquist started to the way Blumquist ended in the two stints that he had in Pittsburgh, I know a lot of people will focus on he wasn't very great with the penguins at the end when he had to step in when there were injuries or when there were Jari getting demoted moments. But you have to keep in mind this is a young goaltender. And the caution that they're going to have to proceed with here with Blumquist over the next year or so is manage the expectation because we know this isn't going to be a very good team. We know that they are not going to be competing for a playoff spot. you don't want to give him too much too soon.

You don't want to, unless he has an unbelievable two to three month run where he really starts to look like he is a number one starting goaltender at the NHL level. I know people are going to immediately want him to take over for Tristan Jari, but we have to play the long game here. Let him be a backup. Let him be a 1B. don't go 41, 41 with him, maybe go 30, 35 for him. Let him get his feet wet.

Let him work out of jams. Let him get into a groove and let him develop. And I would be willing to put my flag down now in saying that when we get to around this time next year, the numbers aren't going to be great. He's not going, I would say it's more likely than not that his numbers will not be very impressive. But look at the way he starts, look at the way he performs, and try to ignore the numbers a little bit and see if he gets better month over month and then year over year. And you can determine if you've got something there because he's not going to be playing behind a very good

team. It's not going to look like when he was the starter in Wilkes Barron was lighten the league up. If he's starting to look better, his fundamentals are getting better. He's looking in control. he's not getting rattled by a bad game. That's what we're looking for, not for him to have a 920 save percentage and 35 wins and a GAA of 2.5. Hey, we'll be nice if we had that from him, though, right? But I'm just saying manage the expectation here

because the situation overall has not changed very much. Right. I think I'm looking for around 30-ish, 35 games from him next season. And if he can improve upon the level that we saw during his second stint, that's all I want to see. Because he was really allowing too many goals to his blocker side. That's the key area that I really want him to hone in on during the offseason because you could tell that these shooters, they were really targeting that area. And I really want him to focus on that once he returns to the NHL. I know some people are going to be upset that Tristan Jari is more than likely going to be the starter.

I get it to an extent, but people, they are rebuilding right now. If a team wants to come calling for him at some point, if he can somehow, we gain a little bit more of that value, the Penguins, I'm sure, would love to get out of that contract. And I will say this about Tristan Jari. And I'm going to make a comparison that are going to have a lot of people screaming at their phones and their laptops and wherever they're listening or watching this. He has one thing in common with Mark Andre Fleury and Matt Murray. The two of them were at their absolute best when there was somebody behind them who could realistically take their job. This is also something that could work in building Tristan Jari's value on the trade market.

If Blumquist develops well, plays pretty well, and it looks like there's a chance that he could maybe take him over. And Jari responds to it the way he has in the past when he's had people behind him who could take his job, that can be both beneficial for Tristan Jari's value and beneficial to the team overall. I do think that's fair, but again, I still want people to have expectations fairly low for Jari. He can go hot for a few weeks, then he goes cold for several more weeks, then he gets a little bit hot, and then he goes really cold again. Again, the inconsistency with me is the biggest storyline throughout his career. So we'll just have to see how he does.

But as of right now, 6 o'clock Eastern time on Tuesday, July 1st, it looks like that the tandem for next season in goal will be Tristan Jari and Yual Blumquist. But again, that is subject to change. have quite a long ways to go throughout this offseason. But that'll do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to give our thoughts on Connor Dewar and Philip Tomasino coming back. That's coming up right after this. Before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor,

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I've been using Fandall to track my favorite matchups, and the app keeps it fresh with new daily promotions and fun ways to bet. It's easy to use, fast to pay out, and makes even regular season games feel like must-watch events. If you're new to Fandle, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 and bonus bets if your first bet wins. open the Fandul app today or visit fandul.com to get started. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-Patch, Pat. Penguins re-signed two of their own players today after not giving them qualifying offers on Monday. I saw a weird freak out from some fans on social media, Reddit, Discord, some of these other places that like, oh, my God, they didn't give them qualifying offers.

This just means they're gone. No, it just meant that they were still talking about a contract with them. They were just trying to get them at a little bit of a lower price. And that's exactly what they did, at least for Conor Dewar. They gave Tomasino a little bit of a raise, not much compared to last season. But Dewar, they got him for a little bit of a discount. You look at the do contracts, Pat, with Tomasino. One year deal, 1.75 million for Connor Dewar, 1.1 million for this year.

And I expected both of these players to come back. I like the way Connor do a really forecheck for the penguins down the stretch. He was kind of like a wrecking ball below the goal, I felt like. He was just a very, what's the word that I'm looking for here? He was a high energy player. I think that's a good way to put it. I like both of these signings. And I saw the same freakouts you did yesterday about Tomasino.

Two things on that. One, you already brought up the obvious point. I tried to bring it up last night, but I was a little busy, yeaton inside PPG paints, arena. But this is just how business is done. They didn't want to go to arbitration and have to overpay. And let's be completely real here. I don't think Tomasino was going to be a hot UFA for teams. They made a calculated risk that he can go to market as a UFA. We can pay them what we need to pay them and we'll be okay. So on the other hand of it, we do have to temper expectations. I still like Thomasino's potential. I like

what Dewer brings to the table is a stopgap guy because they still got to field roster. They may be doing this rebuild on the fly, but they still got to put 18 skaters and two goalies on the ice for 82 games this year. And Deer is a guy that you can hold on to him for the full year. He can bring you energy. He can bring you some physicality. If you want to hold on to him for the whole season, who really cares, if you can get some value for him at the trade deadline, even better. And the same thing goes for Tomasino. If he can continue to develop, he can find the consistency that you and I have been talking about where he'll have a two to three weeks stretch where he looks like he's going to force his way into the top six and then go cold for two to three weeks. That's going to be a problem.

But if he can start putting it together consistently for stretches of six, seven, eight games at a time, no player outside of the top stars is going to be on for 82 games. but if he can be on for 65, 70 games in a season, he's playing the way you need him to play. Well, at least I found the word that I was looking forward to describe Connor Dewar. Feisty. I don't know why that didn't come to my brain, and I brain farted there for a couple seconds before he took over, but that's the word that I was looking for.

He was just a feisty little fella down the stretch of the last season, gave them some goal production, had some nice plays away from the puck, brought the physicality, forechecked his tail off below the net. I liked his game quite a bit. I'm excited to see what he can do for a full season or at least two-thirds, potentially if he has slipped at the deadline for Philip Thomasino.

For me, I just want to see some more consistency with his game. I do think he has quite a bit talent. He had double-digit goals for the Penguins this past season. I like him as a middle six to top-nine option for them. He can fill in on the beginning Malkins line. If needed, I can also see him again playing on the third line. I think he can get some power play two minutes this upcoming season. But I want to see him put it all together.

together. I think Dan Muse is going to give him quite a bit of opportunities this past season because I felt like with Mike Sullivan, he would play him up up high for a bit, then kind of demote him, play him up high, demote him. I want to see Muse maybe just give him, you know, one line to start, give him some runway, a good sample size, and then maybe if that's not working, you change things up with him, but I still want to see Tomasino bringing all together because I really do like this player, but I still want to get a little bit of the inconsistencies out of his game. That's going to be the key is the runway. And I know I can already hear comments about Mike Sullivan burying young players.

I agree to an extent with Tomasino because like I said, it wasn't that Tomasino would make one mistake and then he'd bump him to the fourth line for one mistake. He would leave him there for two to three games and then demote him. I would rather see him get six, seven, eight games to try to figure it all out, And if he has a rough stretch, you try to give him the opportunity to work out of it, which he didn't really get that opportunity under Sullivan. And I think that's for two reasons. One, we know what Sullivan's mentality was, especially now that he's moved on to the Rangers,

was he's a competitive guy who wants to win right now. The penguins are no longer in win now mode. And when you have a coach like Dan Mews and a president of hockey operations and Kyle Dubus, who is straight up telling you, that this is a youth movement. They're working on this rebuild and retooling. That's going to give guys like Tomasino more of a runway to figure it out. They're not going to pull the plug after two weeks.

Now, if he does revert, quote unquote, revert or continue to be who he is where he disappears for a couple weeks at a time, then I'm not going to be as upset about him getting demoted. But you have to now give him more chances to work out of said inconstitutional. consistencies. Well, again, if he keeps being a bit more inconsistent, you'll just move on at the end of the season. And that's that. I don't think anyone is going to freak out about that. But I'm glad he's back and I want to see what more he can do in 25, 26, even though again, we don't think the penguins are going to be fairly good this year. But that will do it for the second segment coming up to end the show.

Pat and I are going to discuss a couple other signings that look like they're going to be announced fairly soon. Plus, how the trade market is shaping up to be fairly good for the penguins this offseason when you look at what's left on the free agent market that's coming up right after this. Welcome back to the latest episode of the locked on penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Pat Tranham and Pat. It looks like the Penguins are adding forward. Justin Brazzow on a two-year contract from the Minnesota Wild and Boston Bruins this past season. He was with the Bruins and the Wild finished with 11 goals, 22 points combined last season.

And he is a big boy, 6-6-200. 27 pounds. We keep saying on the show, Kyle Dubus, he wants to get bigger, he wants to get tougher, he wants to get nastier to play against. Justin Brazo will definitely do that. And he brings some offensive flair to his game as well. I think when you have him in the lineup, I don't really see that much more of a place for someone like Noachari. I think Brazo does everything Achari does, except it's better, in my opinion. So this could lead to Achari potentially getting dealt later this offseason. But it looks like,

this is going to get announced fairly soon. Darren Dregor confirmed it on Twitter, literally 10 minutes before we started recording. Again, two years, 1.5 million per, assuming this gets finalized. And we think it will. Dregor is one of the best insiders out there. I have no problem with this. Yeah, why not? Why not?

Like you said, Big Boy. And he had career highs last year. And he did it on a pretty good team in Minnesota. And I look at the way, well, I hate to interrupt you. He only played 19 games in Minnesota. Sorry, yeah, but overall, the thing is, I've seen a lot of people discuss this, and I'm very happy that Kyle Dubus is falling into the trap, but understanding what the trap is.

Everybody is looking at Florida and going, oh my God, they are, they're bastards to play against, they're so physical and big. They are also extremely talented. They are talented players who will also be. you up. And a lot of the players and the draft picks that they have gone with, are they big guys who can beat you up from time to time? Yeah, but they've got skill and they can move. You see a lot of teams over the past few weeks just going out and getting big guys. And then you look at their numbers, you look at their underlines, and you go, that's not what Florida does. That's not why Florida is successful. They beat you up and beat you on the score. board. So I like the fact that they're taking chances on guys who are bigger, but can play. And you look at Brazil, he's going to be a bottom six player. But if you get him for 82 and he puts up eight to 10 goals, 20, 25, maybe 30 points in a perfect world, that's a solid bottom six

addition. And this guy is a nightmare to play against. He is a very heavy four check player. And this is what you need right now in the NHL. So at the end of the day, it's not a lot of money. It's two years. And if it doesn't work out, I'm willing to bet there are 31 or let's go with 25 GMs who will see a 6-6 forward and go, oh, we need that guy. So you can get something for them. 100%, especially when you're around the trade deadline.

And there's a whole bunch of teams looking to get bigger and tougher. A player like this will be valued by other GMs that you can get. get a draft pickback or a prospect or again, something along those lines. He's also only 27. You're not really getting older with the signing. So I have no problem with it. Can play on the bottom six, can chip in offensively. He's decent defensively as well.

There really is no problem with this move at all. The other player that it looks like is going to be signed as well, Pat, is defenseman. Parker Weatherspoon potentially going to be a two-year deal, one million per. This is a player that can eat up bottom pairing minutes for lunch. you look at some of the analytics for him. He ranks in the 80th percentile for even strength offense for J. Fresh. 86 percentile, excuse me, for even strength defense. He is another big boy.

He can skate. He's already an upgrade on the left side compared to a lot of the other options that the Penguins have available right now. I will say they are still probably not close to being finished when it comes to the left side of their defense. Yeah, we know Owen Pickering is probably going to be on this team in some capacity going into next season, but they still need to make another move or two for that left side going into next year and then beyond as well.

But assuming this gets finalized as well, Elliot Friedman had this one earlier in the day. That's a nice, tidy bit of business there from Calduba's for someone who, again, pretty big, skates well, defends well. I think he's a pretty solid bottom pairing defenseman in this league. Right. And that is something that they're missing a lot. And obviously we know the penguins are missing a lot.

They have a lot. get done to get back to where they want to be. But this is another example of a player who is worth giving an opportunity to. It's not going to push you any closer to contention, but it's going to fill a need. They, for even before we got to this point, the penguin's bottom pairing would just get eaten alive by opposing teams. They would just get hemmed in their own zone. they would not be able to defend well in front of the net.

And Wetherspoon kind of helps you out with this. He's a younger, quote unquote, project. Is he ever going to become a superstar defenseman? No, but if he can be a steady fifth or six defenseman who grows into that role and plays well, you've got somebody you can hold on to the foreseeable future. If not, you took a chance and all it cost you was just a tiny bit of cap space. Heck, it's barely not even that much. Again, one million per for two seasons. I will take that and run with it all the way to the bank. You're not going to get a lot of offense out of him, only one goal, 16 points for his career. But he moves the puck out of his zone, excuse me, with control very nicely, skates well, defends his own zone well. If you put him with any of the right-handed defenseman, I think he's going to do just fine on this team. There was a rumor that Anthony Mantha could be joining the Penguins from David Pagnoda. We have to see. No one else. has confirmed that yet.

If it does get confirmed, Pat and I, of course, we'll talk about it on the show. But also, Pat, the trade market is shaping up to be fairly nice for the Penguins right now. Nikolai Eilers is the last, feels like big free agent on the market in terms of scores. Outside of that, it's not much. In Eelers, it looks like he's down to Carolina,

Washington. I've seen Tampa Bay, I think, thrown in there as well. Once Eelers comes off the market, I think you're going to really see teams start circling back to the penguins saying, hey, what can we give you for Ricardo, Raquel? What can we give you for Brian Russ? And then the defensive market as well, it looks like the Rangers are about to get a fairly good haul for the hurricanes here with Keandre Miller. It looks like the hurricanes are going to get Miller for two picks and Scott Morrow,

a conditional first and second plus Scott Morrow. And I like Morrow quite a bit. That's a really nice trade for the Rangers. So with that, you can open up a deal for Eric Carlson as well. So again, I think the penguins right now, they're in a fairly good spot on the trade market. Kyle Dubus might be the luckiest guy in the NHL right now because we expected there to be better or more entertaining things happening today than there were. But then Florida brings all their guys back.

They find a way to get them in. Mitch Marner goes to Vegas on a sign and trade. You see some of the moves made today. And now there are a lot of teams who missed out on getting big names and getting big contributions from those big names. And with the penguins kind of sitting there now going, we didn't spend a lot of money today. We're still going young. And we've got three pieces who, if you want them, it ain't going to be cheap.

And the thing is, they still have the leverage I've been talking about with those three. They are under no obligation to move them this summer. They can keep them here. They can let those guys cook. They can keep them in prominent roles. And if they play well, that value only goes up because there's going to be a lot of teams that wanted to throw Florida, obviously, but the West is always going to be a dog pile. The Atlantic is going to be a dog pile.

pile. So you have a lot of options coming out here. And with teams missing out on the Eckblads, the Marchons, the Bennett's, Mitch Marner's of the world, now Kyle Dubus is sitting there and going, there's not a lot left. Come talk to me. You want to know what team I'd be calling the Kings. They spent a lot of money today. Brian Dumlin, who I have all the respect in the world for. I don't think he's worth $4 million per anymore at this stage in his career. Cody C. 4.5 million. I don't think Ken Holland is good at this.

He gave them a combined 8.5 million to play on the back end. The Kings have been interested. It sounds like in Raquel throughout the calendar year, see if Caldubis can get a pretty good haulback for Raquel and keep calling the Kings. That's a GM that I would keep calling every single day. But Pat, before we end today's show, we do have to discuss Penguins rounding out their coaching staff on Monday.

Penguins hired Mike Stutters to the coaching. staff. It was announced by Kyle Dubus again on Monday. He will coach the defenseman and the penalty kill. So remember, that was what Kyle Dubas said that they had been looking for to round out the staff. So he will be the final coach there with Todd Nelson, Nick Minino, Rich Clune, and then of course, Stan Mews as the head coach. And Southerz has been around quite a while. He was an assistant coach for the Ducks from 2021 to 2023. He also spent time with the Philadelphia Flyers and the Atlanta Thrashers. Remember them, my friends. He's also been. in the HL quite a bit, the Ontario Rain, Manchester Monarchs, Grand Rapid Grifference.

So he's been coaching for quite a long time, another big development coach here. And curious to see how he does. I'm excited. It fits what they're doing. It's a developmental guy who's got a lot of experience. But that second part, he's got a lot of experience. So they now have a very good blend on their staff of first time, whether it's first time NHL head coach or just first time coach, young guys who are getting their experience in as

NHL coaches or coaches at the NHL level. And then you've got your Todd Nelson and your Stothers who have had a lot of experience under their belt. This guy is 63 years old. He has been around the coaching ranks for quite some time. So I like this higher. I like this blend a lot because now you're you're not going with a bunch of inexperienced first-time guys. Because remember, we still do have Sydney Crosby, Fgeny Malkin, Chris LaTang, Eric Carlson. You know that for some of them, the end is closer than the beginning, but you still don't want to alienate them. So they're going to have outlets and places to go in guys who have garnered a lot of respect

over long coaching careers. And then you've got guys who can focus on the, young guns and get them built up, get them developed, and get them ready for the next wave of Penguins hockey. It's a nice balance. That's what the word I keep coming back to with this Penguins coaching staff. You have some of the young coaches who either A, have no coaching experience like Nick Benino.

Rich Clune has been around a little bit since retired with coaching. But then you have like the big experience coaches now. You know, Stuthers obviously just brought in. Todd Nelson's been around a long time. Dan Mews hasn't been an NHL head coach for, but he is still experienced as a an NHL assistant coach. He's been around the game well before then. So I just like the balance quite a bit with this staff. But I think that'll do it for today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for take the time to listen to slash watch this one.

If more deals come in either later today or Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Pat and I will be back to talk about it all on this podcast. We're going to be daily throughout the rest of this week and then next week. And then after next week, people, we are down to three episodes a week. for the rest of the off season going into training camp. So just wanted to plug that for you all just to get your schedules going and all that. But for Patrick Dab, I'm Hunter Hodes. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We appreciate it.

We'll be back on Wednesday.