Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Could Evgeni Malkin be moved to LW towards the end of his contract?

Episode Date: August 6, 2022

Happy Friday! It's the week's final episode, and there's plenty to discuss. Hunter starts the show by answering a question from a listener about Malkin's 1,000th game for next season. Should he have to sit out one game to get the honor at home? Would that even matter to him and the fans? He also gets into if the Penguins should rest their starters at various points during the season if the team is in a playoff spot (like NFL teams do) before touching on if Evgeni Malkin could move to the wing during this four-year deal. What would have to happen to get to that point? Would it be right away if the Penguins sign JT Miller next summer? Finally, Hunter goes around the league to catch up on all the latest news & notes.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 Friday. Welcome back to another episode for this podcast, just chugging through the month of August now, already the fifth day of this month. And yeah, you know, stuff's kind of dead at this point. We are officially in to the dog days of summer. Sure, there's been some stuff in the until that's happened lately, but, you know, with regards to the Pittsburgh Penguins, just it's very quiet right now. You know, I think it's quiet for, again, a lot of teams around the league. I think you're going to see some. some stuff to start to pick up towards the end of the month, right around maybe start in September because that's on the training camp comes in. I think teams will start to get a little active. I think right now some guys are on vacation. They're enjoying their family time. You're not going to get much for the next week or two. But for today's episode, we're going to get into something I saw in a mailbag on the athletic.

I think it came from Rossi. It had to do with potentially Malkin switching positions at some point during this four years. contract. I'm going to get into, if that makes sense for him and, you know, when I think that would happen. Also, going to get into a question that long-time listener, Alan T. Yoder, asked me, and I think it's something pretty legitimate considering that Malkin has, he's coming up on a thousand games. This season, we're going to get to that. And then we're going to go around the league a little bit and touch on. I give my thoughts and some of the latest things that have happened these last couple days, notably, notably, excuse me, the Jonathan Hubertoe on contracts.

So that's all coming up right after this drop. Your 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. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

You can also follow the shows Twitter at L.O. Arnold's for Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listening. of the day. Also, just thank you all for still listening at this point. I know August, very quiet, again, around the league. You know, if you're still listening at this point, you must really love hockey. And, you know, maybe you just love listening to me blabber about this team for 30 minutes, three days a week, even though they're not going to be playing games until October. But again, you know, thank you all so much for listening is, I guess, my main

statement out of that. Getting into the first topic. So, We'll just get into Alan's question here to start off the show. And if I can get to that on my DMs here, I'm not looking, don't know why I'm up at my DMs. Alan asks, you know, I was listening to DK's Daily Shot earlier this week. And for those that do not listen to that, go check it out. You know, he's still doing five episodes a week. That's Dan Kabachievich of DK Pittsburgh Sports.

He does a very good job with Penguin's content. You know, if you like my show, I think you would like his as well. He's apparently he said he mentioned about resting guys like crossey, Malkin, Lattang. I personally think that would be a good, that would do them so good. I was thinking if this were the case, what Sullivan said it up to where they would look at resting Malkin for maybe one game so that he can play his 1,000th game at PBG. What would you think of manipulating the lineup for a major milestone like that?

Honestly, I'm fine with that, Alan, and for everyone out there that's listening to this. Right now, so if you go to the Penguin's schedule, right now, Gino, his schedule do play his 1,000th game. Yeah, against the Chicago Blackhawks on November 20th, that would be in the United Center. You know, not good. That would be also if he played his first full 19 games of the regular season. So, yeah, I think any milestone like that should be celebrated at home at PPG. I mean, Sid scored his 500th last year against the Flyers, of course, and that came right at PBG.

I mean, he could have done it a few games before on the road, didn't save it for his longtime nemesis. Penguins, honestly, they're a long-time nemesis as well. And, you know, that's a moment, again, stuff like that should be celebrated at home. And, you know, I know it was obviously great that the Penguins won those three Stanley Cups in this era overall. But still, man, part of me wishes they could have won at least one of those at home, if not more than that, just because the city would have went even crazier than it already did, you know, for those three wins. But for something like this, you know, I think I would be in favor of it. As you say, Alan, you know, you look at the schedule right now, the Penguins,

if Malkin were to miss even any game during that 19-game stretch, the earliest he would be able to do it is November 23rd against the Calgary Flames. That's the Wednesday right before Thanksgiving. Now, if you were to miss two games, he could also do it November 25th at Philadelphia. If you missed three, it would be November 26th against the Toronto. It's funny, I'm going to the game on the 15th against Toronto. That's my birthday. I'll be turning 25 that day.

So I would be missing Gino's 1,000th game if he were to play on 19 games by three games. Like that hurts. Like, I was this close. If he played three more games last year, you know, I would basically have it. So definitely a little upset about that. that, but whatever. But as for your question, again, as for your question, Alan, I wouldn't be too upset if they did that. Again, I think it would be kind of a right call. And as for your overall point with what D.K. was talking about, I kind of agree with him. I think at times,

you know, the team, they should be resting some of their star players, especially towards the late stages of the regular season. You go back to the same this year, right? Penguins are comfortably in the play-on spot. Sure, you know, they're jockeying for seating and all this stuff. But, you going into that last week, week and a half, the regular season, I don't think you may be playing your regulars every game unless they just have like a massive milestone to hit. I think at times, you know, you could rest them a little bit. And, you know, you can honestly just, you know, do what, you know, some teams in the NFL do,

you know, so say, you know, you're the number one seed going into the final week. No one can get you. Yeah, like, you're just going to call up a bunch of your AHL guys and you're going to play them. You don't really give a crap about the results. sure there's definitely some added risk in that because you know the players you know it could take them a little more time to get back in the game swing when they come back in the playoffs and all that stuff but you know I do think the rewards for this I guess outweigh the risks

if that if that makes sense then I think you know 99.9% sure that it does but you know I I do think it's fine obviously I would love all three of them to stay healthy this year but you know, it's the penguins here. So honestly, who knows if they are going to all three stay healthy? I'm sure one, two, if not all three of them are probably going to get hurt at some point. And I'm sure half the team is going to be out for some unknown reason this coming season. But I do think, you know, if a playoff spot is basically all but clinched, you know, you say the magic numbers at like five or something like that towards the late stage of the

overseas and I would be resting them a little bit more, you know, maybe not playing them as many minutes as they normally play. You know, just calling players up. You're seeing what you have in some of the minor leaguers and stuff like. I know it's kind of found upon in the NHL. You don't really see a lot of teams do that because, you know, it's just not how they're wired, they're programmed. You know, again, the NFL's a bit different. The NBA, a little bit different.

I mean, you know, this past season, you know, the Lakers, I mean, they were out of the playoff race like two or three weeks left. And, you know, they're like resting LeBron James. Like they don't even want to, he doesn't even want to play. because there was basically just no point to him playing when the team is not going to get in the playoffs. So I'm not obviously saying that's not going to happen with Penguins, but I think you're getting my drift right. You know, if the games are kind of meaningless down the stretch, I mean, I don't really care if they after rest. I don't really care if, you know, they have to miss a few games is what I'm trying to say.

But again, you know, that sums up my thoughts on that. And then again, as for the Malkin thing, Allen and to everyone out there, you know, would love if. that moment happens at home. 19 games away from 1,000 is going to hit it this season. I'm looking to make sure if I can find, if there's any other big milestones that are probably going to happen this season, just don't check in here. Yeah, Chris Lattang, so he's at 941 games played.

He is also likely to hit 1,000 this year. If I can find, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29. 30. I think that's, I think his 1,000th game is not going to come until sometime in February. I will have the exact date for you all, probably down on the comments, to be honest. The fact that I didn't even have that prepared is pretty embarrassing, to be honest. I just, I don't want to just be counting here on a podcast. I think that's just kind of embarrassing.

But he's also scheduled to hit 1,000. And, you know, if he could have that be done at home too. that would be massive. And, you know, he's also has 650 points. He's, you know, he's also potentially going to have a 700th point this season. We'd love to have that at home as well. And for more, for Gino, 54 points away from 1,200 for his career, would love to have him get that at home.

That's also a lot of milestones coming up. As you said, Alan, you know, I would be more than willing to have them potentially manipulate some of the games to make sure Malkin in and let's hang. have that honor at home. It can definitely happen for Malkin. I'm going to double check on Lantang, see when that game falls to see if, hey, you know, if he's slowly healthy, maybe it comes at home. Maybe it's on the road.

But I'm going to double check that here pretty quickly after the show and just probably just put that on the comments or something like that. But coming up in the next segment, we're going to get to something that I saw in that Rossi mailbag that a reader had room about Malkin moving to wing. And I'll give my thoughts on that, just when that could occur at something. point. But before I get to that, if you haven't tried the Bilt Bar Puffs yet, you are depriving yourself of one of life's greatest joys. And guess what? There's a new flavor. Ready? It's delicious, indulgent cookie dough covered in chocolate. That's right. Bill has done it again. Let me introduce

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I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the show's Twitter at Eleanorstled Penguins. So let's get into what I saw in Rossi's mailback when someone asked about Malkin. And Rossi says this. Inevitably and against his probably true desire, I think Malkin is going to probably play more on the wing on his four-year contract, especially if I'd expect is in the cards. the penguins are in play for J.T. Miller next offseason. Miller can play center or on the wing.

So, you know, we're going to continue to see the J.T. Miller stuff until he either signs an extension in Vancouver or he's traded to some other team in sign an extension there. You know, until either of those two things happen, you're going to continue to see Miller link to the penguins. Again, I've been told that he wants to come home. I've heard that from multiple people. and he's, you know, made it clear to the person that, you know, he was talking to at the time that, you know, he would love nothing more than a return to Pittsburgh in play for his hometown team. And again, he's a UFA next summer, the Penguins, you know, they will have the cat money to do it.

Brian Dumas' contract comes off the book. Jason Zuckers' contract comes off the book. There's over $9 million right there to give him. There you go. I mean, you know, and, you know, if Dumman walks, you know, you still have a defenseman in your system that, you know, Hopefully this season can show that they can play, you know, top pairing minutes next year when he's, again, when he's probably off the team. But in terms of Malkin potentially not being at center at some point down the road, you know, I think that only happens if his production, like, really dries up. If he's not close to a point per game player and, you know, they're trying to get him back to the way he used to be,

I can see Mike Sullivan going if he stole the coach at that point. you know, this isn't working, Gino, we're going to put you on wing, you know, take some of the responsibilities off your hands, like say face-offs and, you know, playing, you know, more structure in the defensive zone, some of that stuff, and, you know, just let you roam free and do your thing in the offensive zone. And, you know, maybe that would work for someone like Gino. And, you know, but also there's the chance that you could age more gracefully and he continue to have a responsibility at both ends of the rank, and you wouldn't need to make that move. You know, right now, in my opinion, I don't see him moving to wing, but, you know,

say he were to at some point, and the penguins are able to sign JT. Miller next year for a massive extension, seven times eight something, seven times nine something. You know, you could theoretically play JT at center, move Malk into his wing, and then you still bet you have a super line. You have two super lines at that point, especially if JT, you know, has close to a season like he had last year in Vancouver this year. You know, you can throw out Jake Gensel, Cindy Crosby, Brian Ross, J.T. Miller, with Evgeny Malkin on their second line with potentially Rickel. Good luck to a lot of other teams stopping those two lines.

You know, even, you know, in your depth at that point, you know, still not bad. I think you can bring back to Tanton Hinen. You know, I know, captain's probably on the team. You know, you have to figure out some of your bottom six. Teddy Bluger, I think, comes off the market. Oh, it comes off the market. It comes off. His contract comes off the books next year.

too. So you'll also have options to, you know, fill in some of those players in the bottom six just because you have a lot of cap space opening up again, even though a good chunk of that would go to Miller in this hypothetical. But, you know, that's a scary top six. It's a scary looking forward group so hard to say at least. And I think you would only see Malkin move to wing in that instance still if his production does.

I think if Miller were to come here next year, I think Malkin would start out at. as his center and JT would play on the wing because he can play either position it doesn't matter you know he's great at center he's great on the wing you know he's he's he's had good productions um either position so you know I don't really think it matters you know too much for him um I guess but still it would be a lot of fun um wouldn't it but you know overall you know I know this is probably not going to be the longest segment for the show I do think the only time you see Gino move to wing is if he's just not playing well at center anymore, not putting up the usual production that he's doing, not schooling the goals,

playing way more passive in the defensive zone, just kind of just going through the motions at that point, to be honest. Again, I think that's probably the only time you see that happen. I'd like to think he's going to stay at center for most of that contract, Maybe, you know, third year that deal moves to wing. The last year that deal moves to wing. But I don't think it's going to be anytime soon, if you're asking me. I think it's going to be, you know, a little bit down the road.

I guess. But, again, you know, it would be a lot of fun to see JT and Gino on the same line together if Miller comes to the Penguins next summer. And, you know, I'll say this, you know, people are going to sit here and probably tell me, well, you know, you can probably get him on a massive discount. You know, he'll come home and a plate for the penguins. I take a three, two, three million discount. He's not going to do that. You know, he will probably come home for maybe a little less money, but it ain't going to be like a two or three million discount. This is not going to be a Brian Ross situation who probably just left at least a million to a million to a half per year on the open market.

That is how much of a discount he took to come back to the penny. Even Gino, you know, he's making 6.1 this year. Honestly, he probably left, I would say, up to a million, 1.2 million from the free agent market. Just because of how good of a player, he still is let's hang. He's making the same amount of money. He easily left at least 2 million on the table, probably more than that, to be honest. But, you know, those are franchise cornerstones. Someone like Miller, that would be the first time he's even hitting on a restricted free

agency in his career, he is not going to go out there and say, well, you know, I'm just going to take this massive discount and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, he'll take a little bit of a money discount, but he's still going to be a big ticket. He's going to command a lot of term, a lot of money, especially if he has a great year this year. Again, it'll be a bidding rule if he does make it to the open market if he's not traded or if he canucks don't accept him at that point. So that wraps up this segment while I touched on my thoughts on Afghani Molkin, moving to win and when I think that could happen and when honestly the only time that can happen

and why it would be definitely be a lot of be a lot of fun to see j t and gino together next year because sorry penguins fans doesn't look like that's happening this year you know it's just they don't have the cap for it right now probably don't have the assets for it they're probably you know if they're going to get j t they're going to have to wait until he becomes a free agent um coming up in the final segment i'm going to get to some news and notes around the league i haven't done that in a while. So stick around for that coming up for after this final commercial break. All right. I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honor Hoadies. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Honor Hodes. You can also follow the shows,

Twitter, at L.O. Orsore Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So, you know, late on Thursday night, we saw Jonathan Hubertow extension in Calgary, eight times 10.5. It's a high ticket. That's a big ticket for the flame. I think they kind of, I think in a way they had no choice with that one because, you know, traded Kachaki didn't want to be there, Godreau, left the UFA, you got to show your fans on them. You got to show them that you're still sure you thought winning. You know, they were desperate. They had to do it.

Is it an overpay? Probably, you know, I'm not really sure if Hubertow is ever going to hit 100 points again. But, you know, you got a bet on it. You know, he's forward group lines outside of, you know, Elias Linholm, Huberto is your best forward. he's obviously not trying to make a dro, but he's still a very prolific player who is great with a puck on his stick, has a great shot, great first pass,

all the good four-tracker in the offensive zone, just a really skillsy play. That's a weird way to describe it. Just a really good all-around player overall. Again, almost 11 million per year, definitely high. That could be a trade by year-four, year five. I could definitely see someone like the Arizona Coyotes. ending up trading for that contract at some point.

But right now, the flames, they basically had no choice about that. She's some arbitration stuff this week. You know, a couple of common in New Jersey, you know, they had the one with Miles Wood today. And then they had Esper Bratt one-year deal, but he was a little over $5 million per year season. You know, they're kind of punting on it. I think at this point, I think he's, they might have to do this again next year,

though he also might be a UFA out to double check on that. But I actually know I do think he's an RFA again. I think they're going to have to do this again. I think the devils are betting on him being like, okay, so you had a good year last year, right? Do it again, and then we'll be more confident about giving you your money. Because that, I think, was a really hard negotiation from New Jersey. And yes, we're bad.

You know, I don't think it would have been like the equivalent to the Penguins, Deng Hinen. I think Hinen definitely would have asked for over $3 million. on a multi-year deal. But, you know, I think the penguins, you know, they would have been kind of in the same situation, albeit a little less, then like, hey, Denton, you know,

you were this good last year, go out there and prove it again on another kind of this deal that we gave you. And then if you do do that, we'll be more open to, you know, giving you a multi-year deal with a bigger AAB. And I think that's where New Jersey is coming from with this. I understand from Tom Fitzgerald's standpoint, you know, Brad,

very, very good player was one of the best on the Devils last year. He's going to have to be that good again if the devil's hit any shot of making the playoffs this year. I think overall for them, you know, I think they're fine. I think their

forward group is not bad. Defense is okay. It's just their goal tend to. You know, because Vitec, Ancheck can be the guy. Mackenzie Blackwood, is he going to come back from injury and be all right? You know, I think that's their biggest question right now. Lindy Ruff, I don't think he's a good coach. I don't think Tom that Charles should have kept him.

I think that's the main reason why I still have them a little bit below some other teams in the metro. And I was talking with a friend the other day, and a person was telling me that they potentially put New Jersey over Pittsburgh, and I was like, what? Like, what are you basing that? Also, it didn't make any sense to me. As for the Penguins, again, they're still top three team in this division. Carolina, New York, Pittsburgh.

I think those are by far in a way the top three teams, in this division of Columbus. Yeah, they added Johnny Goodrow, but I don't think he's going to push them to be a playoff team. Islanders, they're kind of there too, but are they really going to, you know, make a step forward? They really haven't done anything yet. They've been linked to Cadre.

What's going to happen there? Philadelphia, they're obviously going to be good in New Jersey. I don't really trust them that much. I think Washington, they did make some improvements. I would say, you know, then with Pittsburgh and Carolina and the Rangers, those are probably your top four teams again in Metro and some kind of war. I think the teams below them. or non-playoff teams at this morning, I think you're going to, you know,

I think that's how it's going to play out when next season starts and, you know, as big-go-forward into that season. You know, otherwise, again, pretty, pretty quiet lately. Again, you know, the White Miles Wood stuff, you know, the other stuff in New Jersey, Jonathan Hubert of extension in Calgary. I think they want to probably try to get McKenzie Weeger done and all that stuff. you know right now you know it's it's it's you just you feel the calm in the ocean

is basically what we're going for right now there's going to be stuff that happens some point this month hopefully we'll get something soon as I'm Kadri again what it looks like right now for those that are paying attention Colorado I think is up there Islanders for sure I think the Red Wings have been linked to him those are the three main teams that you know I've kind of served a little bit maybe Dallas if they can make that work

I don't really know if they, I think they have the cap space for that, but I don't really know if they're going to do that. But, no, we'll have to see. But, you know, I really appreciate all of you listening to this one. As for the Chris Lettang 1,000 game, I did just actually double-check this while I was finishing recording here. February 26th, if Latang does not miss any games before then, February 26th, 6 o'clock start against Tampa Lane at PPG Paints Arena. Again, thank you all so much for listening to another episode of the show. I'll be back on Monday of next week. We're back to Monday, Wednesday, Friday episodes for the rest of August.

I apologize for not having that this week. You know, a couple of things came up with a vacation that I'm on. So again, thank you all so much for listening. I really do appreciate it. And I'll be back with another show on Monday.