Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Can Radim Zohorna make the team?

Episode Date: August 4, 2021

The first week of three episodes a week is here and we do have some Penguins news to start the show! Radim Zohorna has re-signed with the Penguins and Hunter shares his thoughts on that move and what it means not just for this season, but for the season after as well. Is he on track to 100% make the team next season? Could he inch his way onto this year's team, despite all the moves at forward? He also discusses Chad Ruhwedel going into next season and how he's the easy choice for the No. 6 spot. The fans need to just let Cody Ceci go. After that, a discussion about Bryan Rust's next deal takes place. What would Hunter realistically pay him? Should the Penguins walk if his ask is over $6M per?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 “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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.

You're 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 Tuesday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow this show, Twitter, at L-O-Wensport, stay's episode is brought to you by rockado.com. Amazing selection, reliability low prices, all the parts, car. ever need. You can visit rockado dot com and tell them locked on sent you. So we are back here with

another episode this week. Remember everyone from now until the end of September three episodes a week. We are done with the four to five episodes a week until the season starts. An update on the Brock McGinn situation. I have been in contact with his dad and his agent. We are just setting up

a day and a time where it works best with Brock and hopefully it will be the end of the week where I can bring him on and talk about a whole bunch of stuff, you know, when it comes to the penguins, you know, it's time in Carolina and a whole bunch of miscellaneous questions that I've been thinking about for the last few days. Again, as I said on Friday, this has been something that I've been wanting to do ever since I started the podcast. You know, just, it's been a dream of mine forever to bring players on for the penguins and to just talk to

them like, I'm just talking to my friends. I mean, I've been wanting to do this for so long. Hopefully, he is just the start. I'm definitely not satisfied after I hopefully bring him on. and I also plan to reach out to more current players and retired members of the Pittsburgh Penguins as well. So I wanted to let you all know about that. I'm also working on a piece about Chad Ruehdle and Cody Sisi for full press hockey. I'm going to touch a little bit on that coming up in one of the segments today and how I think Chad Ruehle is fully ready to be the number six defense. But I'm going to save most of it from our article tomorrow, which will come out, of course, on Wednesday.

Just to start out with today, we did have a little bit of Penguins news. that dropped on Redeem Zohorna has been re-signed. He was one of the two restricted free agents that the penguins needed to sign. It is a two-year contract, 750K per year, two-way deal this coming season, and then a one-way deal in 2022 and 2023. So I saw a lot of people were confused on Penguins to order about, you know, well, why is it two-way this year? Then it's one way the next year.

And honestly, it's as simple as this people, if you weren't able to figure this out. They want to finish his development this year. I think they want to split his time with Wilkesbury and Pittsburgh, and you know everyone that he is going to get a lot of time with the penguins, because knowing this team, they're going to be banged up like hell. I mean, the last couple years, they've been top five, top 10 in main games lost. I know this year they were top five, I think the year before that they were top 10. I'm sure it's going to be close to the same next year.

So he is 110% going to be in the lineup. It's just a matter of how much more he develops. because I did really like his game when he played this past season. I think he only played in, what, 8 to 10 games, but had a couple really nice highlight real goals, was really fast with the puck creative, was really flashy, I thought, too. The biggest knock on him, though, he is 25 years old,

so there's probably not going to be too much more development there because he's basically in the peak years of his career. But the shortest explanation I can give you all is that this year, they're expecting to finish his development in Wilkesbury, even though there's probably not much more left. and then for the next season in the last year, that two-year deal, bring him up to the Penguins full-time and have him be that 12th or 13th Ford. Again, he only makes 750K.

So if he's not good enough to play, you can just put him in the press box. I mean, it doesn't really matter if you're putting someone in the press box that makes 750K for that season. But, you know, again, I did like his game from this season. I'm curious to see how he plays at both the HL level and the NHL level this coming season. Ron Hextall said when he signed in a day, Redeem impressed us last season with his ability to change us into the smaller ice service quickly and adapt his game. He is a power forward with a lot of potential, and we are excited to watch and continue to grow as a player. Yes, I did forget to mention that, everyone.

Before last year, he had not played on North American ice before. All he had played on was the European ice, which of course is a lot wider than the NHL's ice surface. I guess just to put it in summary, it's a lot smaller than the European. in. And he still played well. I mean, even if you look at his HL numbers from this past year, they were pretty damn good in a very short sample size. Played in 12 games, three goals, 11 points in those 12 games. So almost a point per game. And then with the Penguins in eight games, two goals, four points in those

eight games. So in total, when you look at the regular season for both Wilkesbury and Pittsburgh, 20 regular season games, 15 points in those 20 games when you add it all up. I mean, Again, that's really good. Also a very small sample size. He's probably not going to continue at that pace at either level, but it still shows that he does have some potential to grow and that I think he could be a very serviceable bottom six forward.

Again, I don't think he's going to make the team out of camp this year. I think he's probably going to start in Wilkesbury, as I just said a few minutes ago, so they can finish his development up a little bit. But I find him a really intriguing player going in, to this season because when the Penguins in Italy get hurt, I think he is definitely going to be the first call-up

option. I don't really think they have anyone else that they would call up. I mean, sure, you know, there's some talent down on Wilkesbury, but there's none more, I don't think, than Zohoran. And I think Chad from the 4-1-2 sports talk also had a good take as well, and I agree

with this, you know, he also thinks that he's a guy that he'd like to see. He had a lot of ice time in the preseason because he's not sure what he is as a player. I 100% agree with that. Obviously, you don't play a lot of your top players in the preseason because you know what you have in those guys, right? I mean, you're not going to play Cindy Crosby in a lot of the games of Guinea Malkin. He's not even going to play in the preseason anyway.

You're not going to play Casperry Kappenar and a lot. Jake Gensel, Brian Russ. I think they usually have, what, 67 preseason games. They'll probably play in maybe two or three of them. It's mainly just to see how the kids are and where they are at in their stages of development. So I honestly hope Zo Horna gets. almost every preseason game, so we really see what we have in this guy. And, you know, who knows?

If he has a really good preseason, I could definitely see management having him make the 23-man roster. Again, I think it's maybe a bit unlikely right now with all the forwards they sign this offseason with Brock McGinn and Danton Heinen. Of course, they also brought back Dominic Simone as well. I think right now he's the favorite to get that 13th forward spot. But, you know, it's not out of the realm of possibility that Zohorna could come up here. and not only compete for that spot, but win that spot as well.

But those are just my thoughts on that. There really has not been any other Penguin news these last couple of days other than today out of the abundance of caution with Allegheny County. PBG Paints Arena will begin following guidelines by the CDC, recommending that all guests entering the arena wear masks. I'm not going to go on a whole tirade here about masks and all that. I think everyone who knows me and who follows me on Twitter knows where I is standing with people who are anti-vaxxers

and people that don't support getting vaccinated and all that. So, again, I'm not going to go into a full feel on that. You all that follow my Twitter, you know where I stand on that. I'm not a goddamn idiot. But hopefully, you know, we can start getting more people being vaccinated before the season starts. So we don't have to have the CDC recommending that all guests wear masks going into the 41 home games at PPJ Paints Arena next season. We all know we all want all of the home games to have.

100% capacity, that won't happen unless everyone continues to get vaccinated and unless the numbers start going down again because we've hit a bit of a surge in these last couple of days. But I wanted to report that news to you all. Also saw P.O. Joseph today was hosting a camp at, I think he was surprising the campers at the Willie O'Re Academy this evening. A couple of his quotes from Michelle Crecchiolo, depends inside scoop. He said he didn't think twice being on the ice with these kids and seeing the smiles on their faces. It's what I came for. It's always nice to give back to the community.

Just absolutely awesome that he would do that and surprise all those kids. Again, I'm really hoping that he does make the team this season. As I personally think he is ready to be a full-time NHLR, not on the top pairing, obviously, but I think in a second pairing or a bottom-paring role, especially if they move out Mike Matheson's contract, I think he would be a perfectly fine addition to the team. And heck, if their bottom pairing is P.O. Joseph with Chad Ruehdle,

I think that's a third pairing that they can win his Stanley Cup with. I'm just going to throw that out there right to you all right now. But that's the latest Penguins news from today, at least coming up in the next segment, we're going to touch on a couple other things. One of them being Chad Rewito, actually, and we're also going to talk about Brian Russ's contract a little bit as well. But before we do get to that, we have to talk about the title sponsor for today's show, and that is rockado.com. You can save time and money when using Rock Auto.

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And you can write locked on in their how-do you hear about us box so they know. we sent you amazing selection library low prices all the parts you car we ever need that's rock auto dot tom all right welcome back to this episode of the locked on penguins podcast I'm your host hunter hoodies

remember to follow me on Twitter at hunter hodies follow the show's Twitter at LO and a swore penguins so let's just discuss this whole number six defensive spot thing I have a full article coming tomorrow on full press hockey when I go really in depth on it but I wanted to spend still a few minutes

talking about a couple other aspects of this. I've been seeing some pundits, you know, around the Pittsburgh media, and, you know, some fans as well on Penguins sort of talking about how, you know, it was a mistake to let Cody C.C. go. We're not going to let this go. This is going to be a huge mistake. The Penguins are going to pay for it this coming season. And I really don't understand that.

I mean, he got a four-year deal worth, what, 3.25 million per year? I'm sorry, for someone who's going to be in his 30s for all of that. contract, that's just too much of a gamble and too much of a risk that I was not going to take. And I'm glad that Ron Hextall decided not to do that. I know he discussed after the season that they were hoping to bring him back, but I'm sure he was not going to do that at four years and $3.25 million per. I mean, that's just, and oh yeah, everyone, I'm sure he's going to get top four minutes with Duncan Keith or the corpse of Duncan Keith with the orders after they traded for him.

So they're just, they're not even going to use him in a third-parent rule because they didn't sign him to be used in that role. When the penguin signed him last year, they knew exactly where they were going to deploy him and why. The Oilers, they know exactly where they are going to deploy him. And again, they're not paying him four years to be sitting on the third period eating 10 to 12 to 13 minutes a night. I mean, that's just not their logic right now.

But, you know, you have an in-house replacement in Chad Roodle who is more than ready to come in here and play full-time. I don't think enough people have been talking about it this offseason. You look at Michael Blake McCurdy's stuff on hockey viz, and with Rorito on the Ice this season, he played 219 minutes at 5E5. His expected goals against per 60, or the Penguins expected goals against per 60,

with Ruehle on the ice, 1.76 minus 28% in parentheses. That is a career high for him. There is a whole swath of blue right in the high. high danger areas, the high slot, low slot, right in front of the net, that's exactly what you are looking for from a third pairing defenseman. And then when you go to Cody Cici, he played 829 minutes on the third pairing this year. The Penguins expected goals against Per 60 with CC on the ice, 2.44 plus 1% of the parentheses, way worse than Ruehdle. And again, I understand that

CC played about 600 more minutes than Ruehiel, but this is night and day. from what Ruiedel did. And I get it. He only played in 17 to 18 games. But if he can give close to that for an entire 82 game season, that is the upgrade of the century, I think, in my opinion. And also, you know, I know his penalty kill numbers weren't that good either this year. But, I mean, I don't think they could be worse going into next year when the Penguins

P. P.K. is probably going to be better. I mean, remember everyone. The team's P.K. this past year was 28th in the league. For those that are keeping track, that is the fourth worst unit league-wide. I still don't know how Mike Volucci kind of has a job at this point. I don't think he does a good job with it and a whole lot of other stuff with regards to his responsibilities. Hopefully he's been making some tweaks to it during the regular season. I mean, the Penguins better hope so because, again, that unit was a tire fire.

But I think putting Rewito on there is going to be just fine with how he suppresses shots at a really good level at 5E5. And that's what you're looking for for someone who's playing as your number six defender. And I honestly also think he would be the perfect compliment to Mike Matheson. Another thing I'm being up in my article tomorrow. And that gives it also a really good balance for the Penguin's defensive corps. So you look at this, as what it would say right now. Brian Jumlin, Chris Lenton, you know what Lattang can do with the puck. He's that offensively gifted defenseman, good on the defense is over.

But then you have Brian and Jumlin who can cover for him if he does make a bad pinch of times or just makes the wrong read. You know, Marcus Pedersen, John Marino. Marino really gifted with the puck as well, not as much as Crystal Teng, obviously, but it's still good in the offensive zone. Marcus Pedersen, great defensively. I think people underrate him,

especially with his good underlying numbers in a defensive zone. He can cover for Marino if he makes a bad pinch. And then for Matheson, obviously he is so gifted with the puck. He plays like a forward about 70% of the time. And then Ruudel, steady as he goes in the defensive zone. It can cover for Matheson

when he inevitably screws up. So there's just a really good balance with these three pairings with three players who are really good with the puck. And Brian Newman is also good with the puck as well. But then you have three really good defensemen who are good at suppressing shots and good at denying the opposition getting into the defensive zone. So I think it's just a slam dunk for me

when it comes to putting Chad Riehl into the lineup full-time. Again, I understand that he doesn't have a lot of a big sample. The last couple of years, but, you know, this is your time to find out what you have it. He keeps resigning here because it sounds like he likes it. He's not making a lot of money. You need to have cheap third pairings if you want to win the Stanley Cup. You cannot be giving your third pairing $9 to $10 million during the season if you want to win. You know, look at what the Tampa Bay lighting have done the last few years.

I mean, their third pairing has not made $10 million per. I know the Penguins did not in 2016 and 2017. I don't think Washington's did either, and I don't think the Blues one did either. So if the Penguins do want to get back to another Stanley Gophon, again, you obviously, you need your core players in place, you need good depth around them, but you also need a cheap third pairing that's not going to kill you on a nightly basis like the Jack Johnson, Justin Schultzwin did. I think a Matheson-Ruadal pairing would be awesome, and especially, you know, if they were able to put POJ in there and trade Matheson salary out, that third pairing of POJ-Ruadil would probably be around what, 2.4, 2.5 million, probably one of the cheaper third-parings. in hockey. So I think this makes all the sense in the world for Pittsburgh. And there's also just no one else out there on the free agent market that they can bring in

inside. I mean, there's no Cody Cici equivalent. I mean, Nikita Zedorov is out there, but he's a left shy. You're not going to put him on the right side. I know people have been clamoring for Mark Friedman to get in. His underlying numbers, very small sample size were good offensively, but not that good defensively. I don't really know what the organization thinks of him.

I think it's just too early to tell with him at this point. There's other Jason Demers, I think, is out there. He's washed. Eric Granson, of course, the old friend of the Penguins. He's washed at this point. I mean, there's Matt Niskin's on Cat Friendly, but he's retired. There's so many other bad defensemen on there that they've made too much money over the last few years and they've not put up as good numbers as Ruehiel has.

And, again, in my opinion, this is just a no-brainer for Pittsburgh to finally promote Ruehle and give him full third-pairing minutes, which he has deserved, I think. for the last year and a half. I was clamoring for it to happen last year until they brought in CC. I was very surprised with him during the season, but I think this year they have to do it, especially with how all of the right shot D or all of the good right shot D came off the free agent market really quickly

and with how Pittsburgh prioritized, adding a couple forwards over some defensive because I think they can definitely feel that internally. So those are my thoughts on that going into next year. Before we do get to the next segment, We have to talk about everyone's favorite bar, and of course that is Bilt Bar. They have many delicious flavors. There is something for everyone when you talk to a Bilt Bar fan.

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You can go to built.com and use poulencode locked 15, and you'll get 15% off your first order. That's moral code locked 15 for 15% off at built.com. All right, so we're back here on this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hon. Hon. Hode's. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Honor Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O underscore Penguin. So I was having this discussion actually with Jason, who, of course, his emoji on a penguin's Twitter,

if he's anyone does not follow this guy. He basically just has, I think it's his cat in a penguin jersey or it's a cat. Well, one of the two. We were discussing this earlier, you know, about, you know, the cap going into next year, and, you know, about Brian Rust, just what an extension looks like with him. And I think at this point, I would do an extension for him. What I think it'll look like, though, in my opinion, I think he's going to look for at least a five times five deal, five years, five million per.

I would give that to him. But if he's going to look for something like five years at six million per, you just got to walk away, especially with how he's just getting a bit older. You don't really know if he'll fall off a bit. But I think six million is just, I think that's too steep for me. I think I'd go as high as five and a half. But over that, that's pushing it. I would just walk away.

Hopefully, though, and he was telling me this, Jason, that is, he would come in at the Saad number, which was five years, four and a half million per. I understand that people have been, excuse my language here, bitching at the Penguins for not just giving him that contract. I mean, people, they signed Brock McGinn and Danton Hinen, and I think they're going to be really good players for the same. I'm actually going to have a Danton Hining article coming out next week

and why I think he could be the McCann replacement that we have all been waiting for. Yes, I am that high on Dan and Hinen. If I am wrong about that, well, you know, it won't be the first time I've been wrong, and it won't be the last time I've been wrong. But I'm still right now, I'm in favor of paying Rossi. He's, well, outside of Malkin and Latang, who obviously are going to get paid either this summer or during the season, he is their most important free agent next season. Sure, Casparic captain's contract is up, but I don't think Pittsburgh is going to want to pay that

just because he's probably going to be looking for a pretty big raise as well. I would choose personally Rust over Kaepinemann. Because I think Russ is a better player. Sure, he's a bit older and he's going to be also obviously older at the end of that current contract if he does sign it. But I think he'll be better in those years than Capitan will be when he signs his next contract. You know, agents are probably going to know that next year is going to be way different. I don't think you're going to see as much money thrown around next year as you saw this. year because with Seattle coming in, it was just, it's a bit different because a new team enters

the system. But next year, when that team is fully in now, I think teams are going to have to be a little cautious about what money they give out. And that's why, again, I don't think you're going to see a very active free agent market, even though there's some good players going to be available. Because with the flat cap again next year and for a couple years after, teams are going to be pretty cautious. But that is still a player that I would give, yeah, five years, four and a half to five and a half million per.

If he asked for six years, just walk. I think six years, that's too much. I mean, sure, you know, he's a top line forward. You know, it's not six years to freaking Barclay Goodrow or Brandon Tanev or something like that. But it's still too much term for someone who

could fall off at any point. I don't expect Russ to fall off completely. I mean, he's had two really good seasons. in a row here where he scored 20 or more goals. I mean, in 2020, he was on pace to score 30 to 35 goals for a full season. But I'm also, again, just worried that that's not going to last during that contract. But if you're asking me to choose between Rust and Captain, I'm choosing Rust any day of the week. I also think the Penguins will have a little bit more cap flexibility next year anyway.

I mean, they'll probably offload. Maybe another contractor to potentially Mike Matheson, maybe Marcus Pedersen, if they feel like it, though I would rather move Matheson than Pedersen at this point. Maybe one of their goalies. The roster is going to look a lot different after next all season because the window is going to be slamming shut pretty fast. I mean, that's just, that's their big year where they're going to decide if they want to retool the team or if they want to keep going all in during Sid and Gino's later years.

But I did want to spend a little bit of a segment talking about Brian Russ and his next contract. I don't think at this point he's going to be traded. I know I did an episode during the early. portions of the off season where it would make sense to do it because I think you could get a haulback but there's been no rumors of that at all this off season so I would not expect that going into this season. Maybe you could see a sign and trade like how Zach Hyman almost happened with the Oilers. I think the Leafs were looking to get a pickback for him with that sign and trade but I think that would be unlikely as well. I think they're just going to play it out with him and see if they can

come to an agreement after this coming season. But that'll do it for this episode. of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I appreciate every one of you listening to this one, and we'll be back later this week. I'll let you all know when I get a finalized date and time for Brock McGinn to come on to Locked-on Penguins. So stay tuned for that. Hope you all have a great rest of your evening,

and I'll talk to you all soon.