Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Could Alex Nylander make the jump in training camp?

Episode Date: July 26, 2022

Congrats, you have made it to the offseason! Hunter is back with the first three episodes that will hit your airwaves this week. He starts the show off by going into Alex Nylander and how some fans have been asking him if he can potentially make the leap back to the NHL this season. Hunter goes into Nylander's numbers from this past season in the AHL but warns people as he also rode a pretty high shooting percentage. He then looks at what Nylander did the last time he was in the NHL and if that can be done in the Penguins' bottom six. After looking at the depth chart, he gives a percentage chance of Nylander making it or not before getting into a fun topic: Franchise Records! Hunter goes into some of the most significant records in franchise history and whether or not anyone can break them in the future. Can Sid pass Mario in goals and points? Who will hold the all-time record for most game-winning goals when it's all said and done? Will anyone match Kris Letang's records? Finally, Hunter ends the show with a fan survey from JFresh ranking the top D-men in the league and why Letang was again severely underrated.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! 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.

Hello, happy Monday, July 25th. We're almost to the end of another month in 2022. It's crazy just how fast this year has flown by, excuse me. You all have also made it. We're now fully into offseason mode, only three episodes a week for you. I'm going to try my best each week to post my episodes Monday, Wednesday, Friday. If I don't do that, I apologize. It would probably be something like, you know, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, something like, like that. But my hope and my goal is to do Monday, Wednesday, Friday for today's episode. We're going to look at a player down on Wooksbury who could make the jump this year, but I do want to temper some people's expectations with someone like this player because I've seen some lofty projections. For him, we're also going to get into some of the Penguins franchise records. And if players on the current team right now have any chance of breaking those records, and we'll also get to a poll that, well, a defense.

defenseman rankings fan survey that J. Fresh posted today, Jayfresh Hockey, please go follow him if you are not already on Twitter. And I'll look at where Crystal Tang landed and I'll give my thoughts on, you know, why he just continues to be underrated by not just, I think, some of the hockey media, but by just fans around the league. So that's all coming up for today's episode 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, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the shows Twitter at Eleanor for Penguins. Today's episode is brought to you by Ben Online. Benline has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines that ever before.

That has been online where the game starts. Again, thank you all so much for a wonderful season of this show. I believe this was now the end of season three of it. Just record-breaking numbers this month so far. The listenership, it's up 50% compared to where we were in June. I can't thank everyone enough, whether you've listened to one or two episodes or every single episode this month or just going back numerous months before that. I really appreciate your support, and I love interacting with all the listeners

on hairs. Again, next six to seven weeks, it's going to be three days a week up until about mid to late September. And then we will be back to everyday episodes. I, you know, honestly, I, you know, if I had to do five a week up until training camp, I don't know, man. I think I would almost, I don't think I'd be able to, because I'd run out of stuff to talk about. I think the three a week right now, and I'm able to, you know, get some good topics in there. You know, my goal for you all, I'm going to try to bring on a player if I can, you know, this next month, month and a half, maybe two. That would be, it would be awesome. But, you know, one of my goals right now is to bring on another member of the Pittsburgh Penguins after I brought on Rockham again last summer.

If you do not listen to this show at the time, you go check that out. I believe it was, you know, episode, I don't know, 300 or something like that. But let's get into our first topic for today's show. And that is, you know, I've been getting this question a lot from some listeners. And they're wondering, you know, can Alex Nealander make an impact for the Penguins? You know, he played well in Wilkesbury after he got traded to the Penguins from the Blackhawks. Remember, the Penguins gave up Sam Lafferty for Nealander. And, you know, the penguins, you know, at least down in Wilkesbury,

Nealander led them in points, 42 points and 67 games. Well, he was tied with Altery Puson, but also led them in goals with 22, shot about 15% this year. seven of the, only seven of the goals were on the powerpoint. So 15 of the 22 were even strength goals. I think that's, you know, pretty important to point out. You look at the underlying numbers overall for him as an NHL player. And, you know, they're not terrible.

I guess, you know, his last sample size was 2019, 20 with a Chicago Blackhawks win. He had 10 goals during that season. but, you know, when he was on ice, the Hawks only had, you know, 49% of the shot attempts, about 50, 15 actual goals for, 47% of the expected goals, 47% of the scoring chances, 48% of the high danger chances, at least, you know, 56 of the actual high danger goals for, that's very good. A shooting percentage, 8.3%.

So compared to what happened in Wilkesbury last year, you know, it's definitely, you know, it might regress a little bit. But, you know, again, 2019-20 was really, the last time that Nealander was, you know, in the NHL. So, you know, I've just, I've read Takesay and that, you know, he can, he's got 15 to 20 next year if he comes up. And, you know, I personally, I don't see that because, you know, the leap back up to the NHL level is, is very difficult, especially from someone again who has not played in the league

in the last couple of seasons. Again, I understand that he had 10 goals in 26 points and 65 games with Blackhawks. That was by far his best season league. That was his only full season in the league. Before that, he had only played 19 games with Buffalo, had three goals, six points. I'm not a big plus minus guy, but was minus nine. So that's not particularly good. You know, you look at his chart from J. Fresh hockey, 64th percentile for wins above a placement for a fourth liner.

83rd percentile when it comes to finishing, even strength offense, 43 percent, even straight defense, you know, about 50, 50, 50 in terms of the how he ranks against his peers, but you know, primary assist per 60, 76 percentile, goals four per 60, 70th percentile. Again, you know, those are two pretty good numbers. But again, you know, most of these are just from a sample size of 65 games. I do think the penguins are going to give Nylander every available opportunity to make the team through camp.

You know, I would say, obviously outside of POJ, who's on a one-way deal, you know, and, you know, Drew O'Connor and Redeems O'Hourna, he probably has the best chance to make the roster, you know, forward. I guess I'll just say that forward-wise. Outside of Zahorna and O'Connor, I probably say he has the best chance to make the roster. But, you know, it's really no guarantee. Is he just going to be in the press box every night at this point? I mean, I do think, you know, he's a speedy winger, you know, can chip in a little bit on. offensively, you know, defensively, you know, he's fine, but, you know, he's just, he's had a lot of growing pains throughout his career. And, you know, at this point right now, you know, I mean,

I'm just trying to make sure, you know, he's kind of out of those peak years that you consider to be, you know, in the NHL, like, you know, 22, 23, and all, I'm just making sure. at least yeah i mean he's he's 24 so you know this isn't someone that's coming up who's 19 20 21 years old no this is someone who's 24 you know sure could you say he's in the prime of this career yeah but this is he's not in one of those peak peak years that really you know come before i guess you know the prime where he's you know still producing but not as good as he did during his peak you know he's going to be 25 at some point next season i think what what you've seen so far is probably what you are going to

get i think at this point i don't see him in my projected top 12 right now um but you know that can change if he does have a pretty good camp and a pretty good preseason um again you know they they got him so that he could you know we discover his game a little bit down in wilkesbury they basically just it was a flyer um i should say you know credit to hextall you know that ended up working out flafford didn't we do anything in chicago and you know neelander or found his game a little bit down in the HL. So, you know, now he's, you know, he's probably thinking bigger things. He wants to make the team.

He wants to be in the lineup on an every night basis, you know, we'll have to see. I think if he does make the team, you know, maybe he scores five to ten on a fourth line role. But, you know, the people that are sitting here, you know, telling me or I've seen this on Penguin's Twitter two saying, you know, he, oh, he's going to pot 15 to 20 and something like that. And, you know, it's not the majority of people. It's just a very low minority.

It's like, okay, temporary expectations of it. There's at least, again, a couple other forwards in the system down in Wilkesbury, who I would definitely take over Neelander. So in terms of, I guess, a percentage chance for, you know, if he can make the team out of camp, you know, I'm going to go 35% yes, 65%. No, I think at the end of the day, he probably starts the season down on Wilkesbury, in my opinion. So that wraps up this first segment of today's episode coming up.

And the next one we're going to get into some of the Penguins franchise history records. And if some of the players on the current team can potentially break some of these. So before we get to that, banline.net is the fastest and easiest way to check in on all of your betting needs. You can find all of your favorite sports and events at the number one online source for odds, lines, and games. You can find reviews and news of every league including major league baseball, NFL, NBA, NHL, combat sports, and even golf. It continues to be the top online resource for all of your sports of your information from live in-game betting scores and podcasts.

They have you covered. You can head to the bed online today to use mobile device to turn or more of the trends in action. That has been online where the game starts. All right. I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hon. Hoadies.

I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows, Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Okay. So let's do something a little more fun. Let's get into some of the franchise records for some different things within the Penguins organization. I'm going to start out with this, though. When it comes to defensemen, I do not think many, basically anyone is going to touch the records that Crystal Tang has right now.

It's closing on a thousand games. I don't know when anyone is going to break that record. Latang also has 144 goals in those games. He broke Paul Coffey's record. a couple years ago on that record. You know, in terms of the next closest player on the team right now, Ryan Duman has 18. So make of that as you will.

Let's hang also has 650 points. The second place, Paul Coffey, 440. After that, Ron Stackhouse, Randy Carlisle, Larry Murphy, Sergey Gonschar. There's some people that will actually argue with me and other people that Sergei Gonshaw was a better overall defenseman in this franchise history than Chris saying. And I love Gonshart. I thought he was a perfect fit for the team way back when, you know, he was a little bit older, but still he was kicking pretty nicely.

But, you know, finished with 54, 54 goals, 259 points, and 32 games. Again, I'm saying 650 points and 941 games, he takes everyone's lunch money in terms of records in this franchise's history, also has the most power play goals among defensemen and franchise history, 46, Paul Coffey is next in line with 40. All of the records I've talked about for points for defensemen and all this stuff, I do not think those records will be broken for the next at least two decades, unless they can somehow find a franchise defenseman in the NHL draft pretty soon. It's definitely a little bit bleak when you look at the defenseman right now in their system and all that. So, yeah, these records,

They're going to be staying for a very long time. I think Let's hang by the time his grew is over, he's going to finish with well over 700 points. I wouldn't be surprised if he potentially hits 800 for his career. It's going to be close. I think he has a chance, you know, but I'm definitely, you know, I'm going to say it right now, 725, 750. I think definitely 725. But I think, you know, maybe that 750 to 800 range is what he'll end with, you know,

maybe potentially even more on that. But he's set to hit 1,000 games. actually this season, if he does stay healthy. That's, again, that's another record. That's not going to be touched for a long time. So in terms of, you know, records among defensemen for this franchise, what Tang has all of them and they're not going to be broken anytime soon. Now, in terms of goals in franchise history, so Mario Lemieux leads, obviously,

60, Cindy Crosby, 517 of Kenny Malkin, 444. Obviously, the best, you know, the best chance that record has to being. broken is Sid, it's going to be tight. But if Sid wants to play until he's 41, 42, I think he would have a chance at grabbing. I do that, you know, his member said did his 500 earlier this season. I think, you know, he's up, I think he can hit 600 by the end of his career. 700 is going to be tight. But, you know, I wouldn't put it past Sid to break that record.

That record is stood in place for a very long time. So we'll have to see. But again, I would have to think if anyone's going to break it. In terms of Gino, I don't think he's going to top close to 700 for his career. He is set to hit 500 pretty soon. He's only 56 away. So I would have to say, because he had 21 and a half a season here, would have to say in the next two seasons if he's able to stay healthy,

Gino is also going to join the 500 club. be only one of three penguins in the team's history. To hit 500 goals. Assists, Mariel also holds that record. 1,033. Sid is next up with 892. Sid is going to break 900 assist this season. He's only eight away.

He will, I think, definitely break a thousand by the time his career is over. In my opinion, I think Sid will have this record by the time his career is up. Now, again, only a few away from 900. After that, he'll only need, what, 133 by the end of his contract or, you know, whenever he still wants to play for the Penguins after that. With how he is continuing to produce at a point per game, I know the production is going to drop off a little bit, but I do think he is, he's going to break that in the next few years points. So this one's a little more interesting. So Lemieux, 1,723 right there. Sidney Crosby, 1,409.

So, Sid, well on his way to 500. He's going to have that very soon. You know, I think Sid, again, I just said it, he'll hit 500. $1,500. I think he'll hit $1,600. $1,700. I think that's going to be a little bit tougher. You know, does he have a little over 300 more points left in him by the time his

career is over? Not going to bet against him. That's for sure. I think, in my opinion, he's probably going to come up a little bit short. but I think, again, if anyone has a chance to take down this record that Mario has, it is him. Gino, he's closing in on 1,200. If he's healthy this season, Gino should hit the 1,200 point mark by the end. And then I think, you know, he is the potential to potentially hit 1,300.

I don't know why I just said potentially two times in a millisecond. But I think Gino by the end of his career hits 1,300. I think, Sid, you know, 1,600 for sure, maybe a little bit over that. And, you know, just because I love looking at this site, I'm just going to make sure here, most NHL points of all time. You know, with where Sid is right now, he's set to pass a lot of players this season. You know, right now he's tied with Darrow-Hawrchuk for 21st all-time. One point behind Alex Ovechkin for 20th all-time. I think if both Sid and OV are healthy this season, I think Sid eventually passes him for good.

Doug Gilmore is at 1414. Sid is going to pass him. Adam Oates, 1420, Brian Trottyate, 1425. Sid's going to pass all three of those. Timu Solani, he's going to pass him, I think, this season. Stan McKita, if he continues at a point per game, he should pass him. So, you know, by the end of this year, Sidney Crosby, there is a very high chance that he's going to be top 15 all time

in, for the most points at NHL history. After that, got Stan McKita at, actually, excuse me, got Paul coffee at 1531. I think Sid will eventually pass him. Mark Recki, 1533, Joe Thornton, 1539, Ray Bork, Phil Esposito. Sid, he is going to get into the top 10 in initial history for most points. Joe Sackack, 1641, I think he can definitely pass him. You know, then it just gets it a little bit dicey. Mario 1723 is it just talked about Steve Iserman, Marcel Dion, Ron Francis, Gordie Howl, you know, Sid's going to keep climbing near board, but it's just how high, you know, just how realistic it is for him to, you know,

get in to the top 10. Short-handed goals, Mario Mew has 49. No one out. No, that record is going to never be broken. I will say that here on this episode. No one in the history of this franchise will ever break that record. 49 for Mario. Who's after him?

Jordan Stoll at 13. John Provist at 14. Maxine Talbot at 12. I honestly did not even know that Max Talbot had 12 full-handing goals. If you would have asked me how many he had as a penguin, I probably would have said like six. Had no clue he was in the top 10 all time in that category for the penguins. Ryan Malone is up there.

Bob Erie, Yomri-Rager, had nine, Marty Strachka. Game winning goals. It's a three-way tie right now with Crosby. Malkin and Dogger, actually. They all have 78. I think by the end, I'm going to go a little more. I think of Gany Malkin is going to have that record in Penguin's history. I know Sid has, I think Malkin was above Sid before, you know,

the latter was eventually able to tie it. But I do think Malkin is going to take this record. Both of these players are going to pass Yager. This year, power play goals, 236 for Mario. Malkin's at 162. SIDS at 153. I personally don't think this record is. going to be broken anytime soon. Malkin has a chance, but, you know, he has, you know, if my math is

correct here, so he needs, what, 74 power play goals by the end of his career? You know, probably not. I think that record is going to stay for a very long time. Here's a good one, though. Penalty minutes. Kevin Stevens, 1,048. Malkin is at 1,0008. I think Malkin is eventually going to get this franchise record. He's second all-time in it. Only he needs 40 more minutes with how he takes penalties at this rate. And I know people love to come after him for that. I do think by the end of his career, he will have that franchise record over Kevin Stevens.

Even strength goals, Mario finished with 405. SIDS at 360. Again, wouldn't put it past Sid, but I still think Mario is going to keep that record. Here is a cool one, though. I did not, I've not really thought about the stat. So Mary Lemieux is all-time, for most shots in franchise history, 3,633. Sid is at 3,539. So he needs what, 94 more?

I say he does that. I think Sid is going to break that record by the time his career is over. He averages enough shots per year to break the record, I think, in the next three to four years. I do think Sid is going to have that record by the time it's up. You know, looking at shooting percentage here, Peter Nebdead all time with 19.8. No one, I don't think anyone in the franchise's history is going to break that. Hat tricks, Mario, going to keep that record. 40 all time of Guinea Malkin is at 13, City, Crosby 12.

That record will never, ever be broken. So there's definitely some records on here that, you know, I think will be broken, but there's a lot on here that Mario has, excuse me, that it's like, wow. Just, it just makes you forget, just makes you remember, excuse me, how dominant he was when he played. My opinion, greatest hockey player to ever touch this earth. I'll die on that hill for everyone. But that wraps up this second segment looking at some of the Penguins franchise records.

If you have some other franchise records that I did not get to, you know, touch on them in the YouTube comments. You can DM me on social media and that stuff would love to hear from you all. If there's other ones that I guess I just didn't really find or get to for the segment. Coming up in the final segment, we're going to get into Jay Fresh's defenseman rankings from a fan survey and touch on what I think. And just why LaTang was definitely underrated by a lot of fans. So stick around for that coming up here in the final segment. All right. I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You're not to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow all the shows, Twitter, at L.O. Arn'sport Penguins. So let's hear, let's get to this fan survey poll. I did vote in it if I do not remember all the results off the top of my head. But so J.Fresh does this annually, does a fan survey, just ranking the top defenseman in the league. Number one, Kel McCar, Victor Hedman, Roman, Yossi, Adam Fox, Troy, McAvoy. Very respectable top five.

I do think those are the five best defensemen in the league. No problem there. Mero Haskin at six, you know, I'd have to put him a little lower, but he is a top 10 defenseman in my book. Air Neck Wad 7, fine, Jacob Slavin. Okay. You know, then it starts to get interesting. Morit Zider at 9.

You know, I like Moritzheimer. He is going to be a top 10 defenseman. for many years to come. Probably will be a top five defender for years to come. But, you know, he mainly just has one full year of a sample size. Is he already a top 10 defenseman in this league? You know, and I guess I don't see it just yet. Quinn Hughes, while I like him, he is not a top 10 defenseman.

Devon Taves, 11, okay, well, that's fine. Tomas Shamot, I think he's just outside the top 10. Zach Wrenski, I don't think he's a top 15 defenseman in this league, even though I do think he's very good. But Transelot 14 is kind of weird. Dougie Hamilton 15, and then we finally get to Chris LaTang. So in terms of where I would rank with Tang, I mean, I would put him over Dougie Hamilton, over Alex Bertangelo, over Zach Bronski, over Tomaz Shabbat, over

Queen Hughes and Maurice Seiber. And I would probably make an army to put him over to Van Taves. I think, in my opinion, he should be put in that 8 to 10 range for that fan survey. You know, am I going to sit here? say that Latang is a top five defenseman in the league. No. I think the top five that the fans, that most of the fans had, that were the results came out. It's a very good top five. I do not think Latang is better than those five players. You know, Hayskin, I think he's probably a bit better than Letting at this one. Aaron Eckblod can certainly make the argument.

Jacob Slavin can certainly make the argument. I think the rest of those players, though, like Cider, Hughes, Tave, Shabat, Rensky, Pat, Mitchell, Hamilton, I would take Latang over those players right now. So I would probably have him at number nine on this list. He's the only penguin player to even appear on the top 32, rightfully so. He's obviously one of the best defensemen in the league. And, you know, yeah, maybe it's a bit weird that I'm complaining that, you know, he's ranked just outside the top 15 in the league by a lot of the fans.

But, you know, considering how he played last season and just how good the underlying numbers were, I just. don't see how you leave him a little bit outside the top 15. And, you know, again, I would gladly make the argument that he should be in the top 10 still. I think he's going to have a very good year again next year. You know, maybe he doesn't put up, you know, 70 points, but, you know, 50, 55, 60, you know, I think that's certainly within range of the tank, especially, you know, if

Duman does have a pretty big bounce back season for the penguins, you know, I would not put the past Tanger to have a good year. And, you know, again, this just goes to show just how underrated Latang is by so many fans. And, you know, I had some mouthwaters coming to my mentions and telling me, well, you know, he's overrated by people in Pittsburgh. And I mean, that's just not true. I think people in Pittsburgh just want, you know, other people outside the city to, you know, give him his due credit because he is one of the elite players at his position in this league and not enough

people talk about it. I think that's all, you know, of what, you know, we're, you know, I guess what I'm saying, um, with that. So just wanted to briefly touch on that, give my thoughts. Again, wish I could say I was surprised, but, um, I'm not. You know, people, again, I really, I judge a lot of people with their hockey takes with the way they talk about Chris Leng. Um, if you don't think that he makes a team better or if you think that he's a turnover

machine, well, without, bother looking at data, um, you know, I'm sorry to say that. I probably just won't take your opinion that seriously unless you just actually show me data when it comes to dumping on him. Because, you know, sure, does he have stupid turnovers at times? Yeah, any player does. But, you know, the best players on the ice usually have the most turnovers. That's just that that is how it works.

Great players tend to make more high-risk plays than lesser players. when it comes to, you know, the NHL. So I wanted to end with that. Again, thank you all so much for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Can remember, I will be off on Tuesday, no episode coming for you all then. Next episode will be on Wednesday. I'm going to have potentially a top 10 prospects ranking where you all go into just my overall

list and why I ranked everyone where I did. So look for that coming up on Wednesday's episode with a couple other things that I'm hoping talk about for that one too. Again, thank you all so much for listening and I'll be back with an episode on Wednesday.