Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Celebrating 20 YEARS of Penguins captain Sidney Crosby!

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

Twenty years ago on this date, the Penguins' fortunes changed forever when they drafted Sidney Patrick Crosby. Patrick and Hunter begin the show looking back on the fateful day that was July 30, 2005, when the Penguins selected Sidney Crosby with the first overall pick in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft and changed their fortune for the better. They look back at all his achievements, what he's done for the sport, the franchise, and so much more. Then, Harrison Brunicke is expected to get top-pairing minutes with Team Canada during the World Junior Summer Showcase, a big show of faith in the Penguins' young defensive prospect. They discuss expectations for Brunicke, Villie Koviunen, Rutger McGroarty, and the rest of the Penguins' young guns as the season inches closer. Finally, a youth hockey parent is facing charges after allegedly assaulting a teenage referee in Pittsburgh. Patrick gives an impassioned plea to the Pittsburgh youth hockey community to tone it down or risk hurting the growth of the game. 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.

July 30th, 2005 is a day that no penguin fan will ever forget. In 20 years later, we look back on the day that changed the penguins forever. You're locked on penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Welcome in to another edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet. Joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes.

You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give the show's Twitter account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. You can also drop us a follow on Instagram at Locked on underscore Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget we're free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. And if you follow us on YouTube, be sure to hit the notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our latest episodes. Before we jump into it today, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime.

Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first order. Hunter, it is a day in Penguins history that no fan will ever forget. July 30th, 2005, Craig Patrick in New York City, after a year-long lockout, walks to the podium of the NHL draft and says from Quebec Ramuski, the Major Junior League, the Penguins Select, Sydney Crosby with the first overall pick. And I don't think I'm talking out of turn here when I say that he has lived up to expectations as a generational first overall pick who had the full force of the hype train behind him, especially because, and maybe I'm forgetting it. maybe I just didn't notice it. I was maybe a little too young. I was only about 14 when the penguins drafted Sidney Crosby. But because it was at the end of a year long lockout, that year with no NHL hockey, all eyes more so than ever were on Crosby as the next one. So then the lockout ends. They have the lottery. The penguins win it. And then Crosby.

becomes the first overall pick to the penguins. But let's at least start there. 20 years of Sidney Crosby, and he has more than lived up to his end of the bargain. Time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it? I mean, I was seven years old, about to turn eight later that year. I'm now 27, about to turn 28. I can't believe we're all getting really old at this rate. It's crazy that it's been 20 years.

And you remember everything that was being said about him. You know, he's the next one. You know, he's going to be one of the greatest players of all time, especially if he hits his potential. And then not only does he go out there and hit the expectations, Pat, he exceeds them by 10,000 levels or whatever word you, whatever other word you want to use. Top five player of all time, three-tires Stanley Cup champion,

has won numerous individual awards. he's won Olympic golds. He's won the World Cup of hockey. Obviously, he's won a World Championship. He just won the Four Nations face-off. He has won literally everything that there is to win at the professional hockey level. And he came into that season as a rookie with pretty high expectations. And then he shattered those expectations when he had a 39 goal,

a 102-point season in 81 games. Just absolutely ridiculous. stuff from him. And ever since then, again, it's just been outstanding season after outstanding season, after outstanding season. He's the best player of this generation. I don't think it's particularly close. And he continues to still turn back the clock like he is in his early to mid-20s when

you see the way that he plays in his late 30s. Is he good defensively anymore? No, he's kind of left that part of his game, you know, in the, mid-2010s, if I had to say. And, you know, Jesse Marshall, our good friend of the show, you put that Twitter picture up today of him and Mario, having that cool little picture at the draft. Just, again, it really is nuts how fast time flies.

It really is. And you brought that up. I think a lot of people, understandably, because we're two decades into this, forget that his career did start with Mario Lemieux on the Pittsburgh Penguins. It wasn't just Mario the owner passing the torch to Crosby the next one. It was Mario the owner player passing the torch to Sidney Crosby. I would put it this way. His offense, it's not the same as it was in the mid-2010s. He's not sleepwalking his way to triple digits in

points. He's still getting very close. He's still one of the better offensive drivers top 10 in my estimation in the NHL right now, but he is still a rock defensively. It's not, again, similar to the offense, not the same as it was in the mid-2010s when there was a three, four-year stretch where you could put his name in Selky conversations. He wouldn't win it, but you could definitely have him top three, top five in voting for it, but you were never going to give him the trophy. At the same time, you look at the way he plays now and the thing that he does better than most,

and I would say better than any one of his modern day cohorts, is he adapts his game to where his skill level is. Is he the same lightning fast, highly skilled early 20 something anymore? Not at all. but he plays within himself better than any player I think we've ever seen. Because, again, not putting up 100 points like clockwork, not being the two-way force he had become in his mid-20s, but is rarely, if ever out of position. He still has vision like none other.

He can still make unbelievable passes and make unbelievable, looks even to this day. And he's slowed down a little bit, but he's, I don't want to say this as an insult to the Robin to his Batman, but you kind of see this with both of Genie Malkin and Chris Latang now. The body's slowing down a little bit on those two. And they're still trying to do things that they were able to do six, seven years ago that they can't do anymore.

You can't really say that, Brady. seven anymore. I will say this, just to finish up this segment. I disagree with you about the defensive part. I do think that part of his game has really left as he's gotten older. I think he's really sacrificed that part of his game at this rate to drive more offense. And that's on tape.

And when you look at the numbers, especially when you look at the numbers, he ranks in the 13th percentile for five on five even strike defense, 99 percentile for five on five even strike offense. That comes courtesy of J. Fresh cards. very good support him he does a fantastic job and when you also watch the tape i get what you're saying like he's not really out of position but he's still not making a lot of oh my god like look at these you know great defensive plays like say someone like a burjron was doing in his prime even now for example like aniko he's she or sasha barkoff and you know he's not going to be that type of

player now in his career but he also i wouldn't i wouldn't say he was on that level defensively early in his career, but at the same time, I agree with your sentiment that if you wanted to put him maybe top five to seven-ish for the Selkie, even when Bergeron was winning these awards every single year, I would not have disagreed. He was fairly underrated defensively during the early 2010s into the middle 2010s and even towards the late stage 2010s, but especially these last few years, I feel like his defensive game has really gone downhill again. I think that's supported by the film and that is supported by the numbers. So I will disagree a little bit with you there.

However, the offense, it is still fantastic, one of the best players in the league. And I can't wait to see what he does this upcoming season. And for the rest of his penguins, senior, even though we are now at the back nine of his career. So those are my main thoughts on the Crosby stuff. But hey, I think that's a great. Now, I think that's a great place to leave it. It's been a great career so far because we know he's got at least two years. years left on that deal. We don't see him retiring anytime soon. And like you said, Hunter,

we're excited to see where it leads for the next however many years. We're blessed to watch Sidney Patrick Crosby play in the National Hockey League. But that'll do it for this opening segment. When we come back, Harrison Brunick with a big, big moment in the World Junior Summer Showcase. We will talk about that as well as some of the younger players in the Penguin's system this upcoming season. So stick with us. We'll get into that when we come back right after this. But first we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is GameTime.

We have all been there logging in early and waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale, only to lose your spot for a show that you have been dying to see. Live music should be about making memories, not dealing with the stress of ticket shopping, and that is where Game Time comes in. Game time makes it easier getting concert tickets faster than ever before. And prices, they actually drop the closer you get to Showtime, and you can save up to 60% with these killer last minute deals. Huge fan myself of Game Time.

I've used it for Penguins games, Pirates Games, used it for WWE. I'm sure I'm going to use it again this summer for Pirates games. As the season winds down, we get closer to Penguin's season. you get your panoramic seat view right in the app. I'm a little OCD about that. I'd like to know what my seat looks like before I get there, even if we have a couple of aren't in Pittsburgh where there really aren't any bad seats,

but I digress with GameTime. The other biggest thing I love about them, the price you see, it's the price you pay. You're not getting hit with any of those surprise fees at checkout, so you know what you're paying right off the rip. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime, download the GameTime app, create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase.

Terms apply again, create an account and redeem code L-O-C-K-O-N-N-H-L for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Back here on the Wednesday edition of Locked on Penguins, I'm Patrick Damp, right alongside Hunter Hodees and Hunter, you caught this and somehow it slipped under my radar, So shame on me for six weeks that there is a big, big honor for Harrison Brunich coming up today. Why don't you let everybody know what this kid is about to do? Yeah. So Pat and I discussed a little bit about the World Junior Summer Showcase on Tuesday because Canada was having an inter-squad scrimmage game.

And Harrison Brunich played on one of the teams with Matthew Schaefer on the top pair, 2025 first overall pick to New York Islanders. He is going to make the Islanders out of training camp unless something bizarre happens. But now Canada is playing Finland today in an actual game in the World Junior Summer Showcase. And Brunick will play with Schaefer on the top pairing. And I know it's not the biggest deal just because it's only a summer tournament. You know, we still have to see what happens in the Prospect Challenge as we discussed on Tuesday. But it's still really cool that he's getting an opportunity to skate on the top pair with the

top overall pick in the 2025 NHL draft. It shows what the coaching staff for Team Canada thinks about him. And it also shows, at least from a Penguins perspective, you know, if he hits his peak, he could be a top four defenseman for many years to come with this organization. I don't want to put too high of expectations just because he's never played an actual NHL game. But the fact that he is already on the top here, at least for this game against Schaefer. and the fact of what we saw, what we did in camp last year,

this is only good thing. So it's really cool that he's playing on the top pair. For sure. And we broached this subject a little bit yesterday. And the biggest thing, again, to keep in mind is you kind of come at it with a level head. Because let's be real here. The World Junior Summer Showcase is a glorified hockey camp. It's a couple of nations coming together.

for some practices, from some intra-squad games, and some scrimmages. It's not the world juniors. It's not an actual tournament. It's just more ice time for a lot of players that these national programs see as part of their future. But that's the other side that you have to look at it for. Schaefer, there's a reason he went first overall in the NHL draft this year. Very good defenseman. Harrison Brunick, until he kind of exploded onto the,

seen at camp last year. There was talk about him being a good solid prospect and a potential NHL defenseman one day. But now he's really risen up the ranks. And as you said, again, I'll reiterate. Yeah, it's a glorified hockey camp, but it's team Canada looking at Harrison Brunican thinking, when we get to the future and these guys are going to the world juniors. They're going to potentially the Olympics.

They're going to the world championships. They're going to whatever NHL-sponsored international tournament that comes up over the next five to ten years. Harrison Brunick is someone they're keeping their eye on. And it's also a test for him to see how do you play with elite talent? Matthew Schaefer's an elite talent. Can he be a good running partner for Schaefer? If that's the case, it tells you and it tells Kyle Dubus, okay, we can see what this kid's ceiling can be we need to both make sure he develops and bring in people that will help him develop

and he will help get the best out of on the other side of it. Now obviously that all depends upon how he plays with him, how he does in camp this year, how he does it the prospects challenge in a couple of weeks. So we'll obviously keep an eye on that. But that is a good spot for us to transition over to the other thing we want to talk about really quickly in this middle segment, and that is expectations for younger players that the penguins have. We started the show talking about how it's been 20 years of Sidney Crosby, and charitably, let's say, 17 of those have been with Stanley Cup playoffs,

whatever aspirations in mind. We haven't been here for a really long time where the penguins are rebuilding, they're developing young talent. So it's easy for us to get starry-eyed. We see the Rutger Magrortes, the Villiers Coivinens, any of the draft picks that they had these past two years and think, superstars in the waiting, superstars in the wings. But we've got to be a little bit more realistic than that. So let's start with the two guys who got some time at the end of the year. Rucker McGority and Villay-Coyvenin.

So I pose this question to you, Hunter. What is a successful year for the two of them? Well, I kind of hinted at it during the episode on Tuesday. So I will reiterate that here. I think if you can get 35, 40 points out of those two that are around half a point per game players over an 82 game season, that is a success for me. Anything more, like say Pat, you get 50 points out of them. That exceeds expectations for me. but if you can get, for example, 15 goals, 20 assists out of the equivalent,

or even from a grorty, the opposite, you know, 20 goals, 15 assists, somewhere in that ballpark, I will gladly take that. I think, as I kind of hinted at during Tuesday as well, there have been some unrealistic expectations from some people in the fanbase that I have seen on social media and even on Reddit and some other places where, like, oh, like, they're going to play with the top six, talent, they could be Calder Trophy players this year. The brakes.

That's way, way, way, way too far. I will take 30 to 40 plus points this year, and I will run for the hills. Now, as for us all, like Tristan Bros, I think a success for him is honestly making the team out of camp. I think he's on the outside looking in right now, but he still has the potential to really make things interesting at camp and in the preseason. I think he is someone who could really be called up. during the season, especially when injuries arise, Pat.

Maybe he's one of the first couple of players that gets called up in the case of some injuries. You know, I think for, you know, something like Philip Hollander, I don't think the Penguins will block him to the NHL. They just signed him back at the end of April. They are very impressed by what he did in the Swedish hockey league. If he earns a spot out of camp, they will not block him. And I think a success for him, you know, double-digit goals, some decent assists down in the bottom six role, not expecting anything massive out of him.

But if you can get double-digit goals out of him in a bottom six role, I will gladly take that as well. Philip Tomasino's success for me, just more consistency. I still want double-digit goals. I want for him, especially if he's in a top-nine role, maybe around 30 to 35 points. If you can get 15 goals, 20 assists out of him too, I will also gladly take that.

Obviously, the more the merrier, but I still want him to be a bit more consistent. on a game-to-game basis, in my opinion. And then we already discussed Harrison Brunach, but success for him, you know, if he's able to make this team, get a nine-game trial, heck, I think he exceeds expectations if he stays the entire season. We just have to see what happens during camp in the preseason.

But as we both know, it's either here at the NHL or it's back to his junior team in the WHL. And, of course, there's a possibility that he could get traded from his junior team that's not going to be very good this year to a potential contender once we get to the playoffs for the Western Hockey League. It sucks back that we can't just send him to the HL because that rule is going to be put into effect the following year. So Harrison Brunick's going to miss out on that by just one year.

Yeah, I don't have a ton to add. I agree with pretty much everything that you went with there, especially for Magrory and Coivinen. I want to see them take the next step. I want to see them get more NHL experience. under their belt and start to really grow into everyday contributors at the NHL level. The 1,000 foot view that I have for expectation, maybe not even expectation, but what I would like to see out of a lot of these younger players, especially those who have had some NHL

experience or were pretty good with the baby penguins last year, I want them to make Kyle Dubus's job come September really, really difficult. I want them to have Kyle Dubus, Dan Mews, Nick Benino, and the rest of the coaching staff, basically slamming their heads against the wall come September going, we have so many players who can play at the NHL level. What do we do? To the point where you almost have to feel bad about sending a couple of them back to the A HL because you look at them and go, they're ready to take the step, but you got to open up space for them.

So I really want to see them make camp uncomfortable for the coaching staff, the hockey operation staff, and some of the veterans on the team. Because that to me is what is really going to constitute them taking the next step. But to put a button on it, we do have to temper some expectations because these things take a little while. we don't want it to take forever. We don't want to be here for the next five to 10 years, but we're still very early in this process. There's still a lot of ground to cover.

But from where we stand today on July 30th, that's pretty much what we want to see out of some of these young guys. And that is going to do it for our second segment. When we come back, we're going to do a local news story that I need to talk about as a former youth hockey coach that happened here in Pittsburgh. We will get into that. when we come back right after this.

Back here on the Wednesday edition of Locked on Penguins and Hunter, if you want to just head out early, get to making dinner, go on a walk because it's a nice hot day here in Pittsburgh, feel free because I know that you don't have a lot of experience in this area. So this is kind of going to be an end of the show rant by yours truly. So let me just say, I appreciate you giving me the floor on this one. I'm going to let you cook here, man.

You approached me with this segment after you saw this on the news. There was also a reel on Instagram that you sent me as well. So I'm just going to sit back, mute my mic. The show is yours for the last segment, my friend. So if you have not read the story or seen the reel, it is on kdk.com. That is my full-time employer. I'm a digital writer for them. It's also on the station's Instagram account, on the Reels account, as well as the

KDK TikTok account. This happened on July 20th at RMU Sports Island. A woman had been accused of harassing and assaulting a 16-year-old youth hockey referee during a game. She was charged in the incident, and her and her husband have been banned from RMU Sports Island as a result of this. essentially what happened. Their child was kicked out of a game on a game misconduct for a blindside hit.

As the referee was leaving the ice, they yelled profanities at him, they grabbed him and lunged at him for kicking their child out of the game. And I want to take a step back on this. A lot of people who know me know, and the reason I wanted to do this segment today wasn't just because of the story itself, but because I talked to over the last week a lot of people that I grew up playing hockey with, people who had coached me, people I had coached with about this incident. This is a huge, huge problem when it comes to youth hockey, not just in Pittsburgh, but around the United States, around Canada. I can't speak internationally because I don't know how it works

around there, but in North America, this is a massive, massive problem. And I'm going to say this and it's going to sound like I'm being insulting. It's going to sound like I'm talking down to people and that is not my intent. But I have run these numbers every year at the start of, let's say, June into July, because that's usually around when tryouts and open summer practices start when you compare the amount of U.S. born players who played at least a game in the National Hockey League in the prior season to the amount of people in the United States who had been struck by lightning in that same time, youth hockey parents, your child has a better chance of walking out of the rink and getting hit by a bolt of lightning than they do playing a show. shift in the national hockey league. Now, that doesn't mean that it's not important. It doesn't mean you shouldn't want your child to succeed. It doesn't mean you shouldn't push them. It doesn't mean it doesn't matter. I played all the way through college from height, from the time I was five years old

until I was 24. I played competitive hockey every single year. And it meant the world to me. It meant the world to my teammates. We competed. We won. We lost. We lost. We Had our hot-headed moments. We had our dumb moments. You name it. It was all there. But we all understood. Our parents understood.

Our coaches understood that this is not a means to an end. This is not the start of a professional career. I'm begging hockey parents to do this much. Let your kid fall in love with the game. Let your kid fail. Let your kid make mistakes. Let your kid succeed. Let your kid become a team player. Because at the end of the day, what your child is going to get out of hockey has nothing to do with hockey. It has everything to do with problem solving, with working within the confines of a team, with becoming a more motivated, more excitable person, somebody who wants to chase success. but doesn't want to do it in a way that is selfish.

It's the beauty of the game. It's the ultimate team sport. No one player or one person can bring you success. It takes a collective effort. And this is the last point I'll make on it. We'll wrap up the show for about, I would say, rough estimate. 90% of youth hockey, especially in Pittsburgh, is volunteer based. The coaches are not getting paid.

The people who run the organization are not getting paid. The teenager who's reffing the game or the 20-something who's reffing the game, they're getting paid, but it's basically gas money. They're not getting a salary. They're not making a ton of money. They're getting paid by the game, and it's not a lot of money. If this kind of behavior becomes normalized, becomes common, those coaches aren't going to coach. Those volunteers that run the organization aren't going to run the organization anymore.

Those refs, they're going to get scarcer and scarcer because they're not going to want to be harassed for $30 a game and $120 in a day to drive all around Western Pennsylvania. just to be harassed and potentially assaulted. So if you want the game in our region to continue to grow, which it has exponentially over the last 20 years, you've got to relax. You've got to let your kid fall in love with the sport. You've got to let your kid understand that it's bigger than just themselves. And you've got to understand that making the NHL is one of the,

most difficult things to do on the entire planet. And just because your kid's not going to get there, it doesn't mean that they are a failure. It doesn't mean that you're a failure. It just means that they fell in love with the game of hockey and got to play it at a great, great level. That's all I've got for this. That's all we've got for the Wednesday. edition of Locked on Penguins. Hunter and I will be back tomorrow for some scheduling conflicts.

So that means we're going to continue our top 25 of the last 25 years, as well as another edition of Fan Take Friday. So we'll put out a call for your takes, your questions, and everything in between. So thank you as always for tuning into the Locked on Penguins podcast. Hunter and I will be back with a brand new episode for you on Thursday.