Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Could Jeff Petry be a possible Kris Letang replacement if Ron Hextall walks away?

Episode Date: June 25, 2022

It's somehow almost the final week of June and that means the NHL Draft and free agency are just around the corner. Before Hunter gets to some free agency stuff, he starts the show off by touching on a couple of promotions that the Penguins announced on Monday. One is a long-time player in the organization getting a pretty prominent role, while the other is taking Andy Saucier's role from the last few years. He gives his thoughts on those moves and how much could change over the next few seasons (especially in Saucier's old job) before getting to Mark Friedman's season review? How was his first real season of action? Could he provide the team with more value next season? Is he able to play higher up in the lineup if he's not the No. 7? After that, Hunter touches on an option that fans aren't thinking about enough when it comes to the second-line center spot if Malkin doesn't come back. Hint: Part of it involves signing a premier winger. Finally, Hunter ends the show with a little Jeff Prety rumor and whether it's worth it for the Penguins to trade for him if Kris Letang walks.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!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.

Hello, everyone. Happy Friday. Today, I am rocking my party at the point 2016 shirt when the Penguins just absolutely steamrolled everyone during the playoffs that year. It's amazing that I got that shirt six years ago, and it still fits, you know, even though I've grown, you know, so many inches height-wise. No, at that time, I was probably like, I don't know, 5'8, probably graduating high school. I'm 6'1 now. So pretty crazy. Anyways, another action-packed show today. We're going to get into Penguins making a couple other front office moves today. So I'll give my thoughts on those. We'll get into a potential trade that I think came up in Frank Sarah Belli's article.

I believe it was the trade bait a couple of days ago. I'll bring up that. And we'll also talk about an option for the Penguins at Second Line Center that not many are, you know, bringing up right now. So those are going to be the three main topics that we discuss on the show today. We might also have a season review of Mark Friedman, too. So that's all coming up right after this drop. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on podcast network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I am your host. Hunter Hodes want to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. R.R.S. Greenwood, and, of course, thank y'all so much for making this show first listen of the day. So earlier on Friday afternoon, we'll just get right into the two Penguins news, the two front office news that the Penguins made today. So Tom Costapalos, he has been named the Director of Player Development for the team, Madison, Nicol is now the new video coach replacing Andy Sause, who of course got his promotion.

I'm pretty sure Saucet is still going to be doing most of that stuff. But, you know, if his new duty takes up much more of his time, I'm sure Nickel will be just fine with that because he's been basically learning under Saucer for a while. Now, yeah, he spent the last three seasons as the Penguin's assistant video coach from 2019 to 2022. For that, he spent three seasons as Wilkesbury's video coach, 2016 and 2019. He's also worked with Boston College. So he has a lot of experience with being a video coach. He has been Andy Saucet's right-hand man. I don't really think much is going to change.

I think this is a good move. I still think Saucer is going to be the main guy buzzing down to Mike Sullivan if they need a challenge of play. But, you know, Nichol is going to be right there with him, you know, say, you know, Saucet is something came up or something. You know, I'm sure Nicol will do a fine job. So congratulations to him. It looks like this has been a long time coming, especially because he's been either the assistant video coach for the team

or the video coach at Wilkesbury. He now gets his opportunity with the big club here. So congrats to him. And as for us for Costa Palos, he spent the last four seasons as a player development coach for Wilkesbury. Remember, he was the longtime captain for the baby pens. I played 19 combined seasons in the NHL and HL, a logged almost 1,500 games, was the captain from 2002 to 2004, and he was the captain for his final

five seasons. And he also helped a lot with some of the penguins young players who were down in Wilkes right at the time when he was playing, like, you know, Matt Murray, Jake Ansel, Brian Rust, all those guys, you know, for those that don't know, and I almost forgot about this too, he was drafted by the Penguins in the seventh round of the 1999 draft. and he was playing hockey up, you know, until I believe he retired back in 2019, 2020. It's actually ridiculous that, you know, he was in the organization for, you know, that long, played for the Penguins through the 2004 season when they were really bad,

went on to suit up for a couple of other NHL teams. Actually, almost put up 200 career points. Congratulations to him, even though he was in. the minors for a lot of his career. But, you know, this is, I think, a fine move. Again, he's been very instrumental with the development of some of the Penguins' younger players that are up now, like Jake Gensel, Brian Russ, you know, Matt Murray when he was down there, even though I know it's a different position. But, you know, this is still good news. And, you know, I'm glad that, you know, both these people are getting, you know, bigger and better

opportunities for them, you know, and especially to stay in the Penguins organization. So Grouch to Tom, congrats to Madison. Very well deserved for both people to say the least. Now, switching gears a little bit. We're going to get into Mark Freeman's season review, as I pull up his stats on hockey reference here, if I can just find this here real quick.

There is our total chaos player. All right. So, you know, he was the main number seven guy. this year got ample playing time to it because the penguins were just, you know, not healthy for a lot of it. You know, played in 26 regular season games, played in six six of the seven playoff games. When he was on the ice during the regular season, the penguin said right around 50% of the shot attempts, right around 50% of the actual goals for, 55% of the expected goals, 52% of the 20 chances, 56% of the high danger chances.

That's the best work of his career. And, you know, this was really his first, main actual season in the NHL. I think a lot of people forgetting that. You go back to when he first got started with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2018, 19, played one game that year. Next year in Philly played six, and then played four before being traded

to Pittsburgh played in five. So before this season, Mark Freeman had a total of 16 career NHL games played. It was a very big unknown. But, you know, from what I've seen so far, he's a totally fine number seven defensemen. And if you have to play him

and your line up on an every night basis, he's really not going to hurt you that much. You know, again, solid underlines here. You get 56% of the high danger chains. That's the best mark for his career. 8-8 for high-danger goals for a shot 7% this season. His huge percentage last year was 17.6% in only five games. That is obviously not sustainable.

But, you know, if anyone gets hurt, especially, you know, on the second pairing or, you know, even on the bottom pairing, and you say if Matheson or Ravito get hurt. You know, you can just plug Friedman in there and, you know, he'll do his job. And, you know, obviously he's the total, he's the penguins. I shouldn't say he's a, he's a chaos player, but he's just such a, I mean, he's just such a troll on the ice.

I think that's the best way to describe him. He lives on getting under everyone's skin. I think I was watching the Penguins Inside the Room thing. And I think one of the quotes that he said, I think when he was out of the open mic, he said, man, I love pissing people off. And sure enough, almost every game that he played this season, he was getting into it with someone on the other team. And, you know, people were saying that Igor Shasturkin was waving goodbye to the Penguins.

It was mainly he was waving goodbye to Friedman because I think he was starting crap with some of the Rangers after that game when they got blown out at Madison Square Garden. counting stats-wise, if I can get back here, you know, one full goal at 5-5 this year, a 4 total assist at 5E-5. Now we go to the playoffs here and you know, did get his first playoff goal that came in game 4 when the Penguins just absolutely blew the Rangers out. When he was on ice, the Penguins said 47% of the shot attempts, 80% of the actual goals for he was on the ice for one goal against, 65% of the expected goals.

55% of the 20% chance is. He was also only on the ice for six high danger chances against. Very, very solid numbers from him. And honestly, you know, for a little bit in that series, it was almost like the Penguins really didn't miss Brian Dumont that much just because Freeman was doing such a great job of filling in, you know, not even just for Dueling, but just overall, you know, his offensive presence was very much needed.

Defensively, he's fine. I think, you know, I know, I know it was. wrote that Chow Riedel was the better option of the number six spot last year. And I still think he is. But, you know, I'm not saying that Friedman is no slag. I think he's a good serviceable player who can come in, you know, play like he did my sure, 26 to 30 games as number seven defensemen. If you need him to play half the season or probably maybe two thirds of a season,

I think you can get away with it too. He really did not hurt the Penguins at all last season. And, you know, I'm excited to see what he can do for next season. I have to think right now he is probably going to be. the number seven defensemen again, even if the penguins do trade another advancement. I think they'll be bringing in someone else from the outside from another team to replace that defenseman.

I don't think Freeman is going to get that opportunity. At least that's my opinion. So that wraps up this first segment of today's episode. And as for Freedman's grade, I'll give them a solid B this year. Probably exceed my expectations a little bit. Not as much for an A because we didn't get as big of us, sample size as maybe I wanted to. But, you know, I think a solid B sounds right to me.

Now, coming up in the next segment, we are going to get into that option for a second line center that I don't think enough people are discussing. But before I get to that, Beneline.com.net is your number one source for all your betting needs in sports info. You can find all the latest sports elements, league reviews and news, including this year's NHL playoffs and Major League Baseball. Benline is your continued source for all your sports weight of your information, including live betting, e-sports.

and more. And bet online.net remains the best spot for all of your sports scores, podcasts, and news this season. It's also the fastest, easiest way to check in on all your favorite sports, including MMA, boxing, golf, whatever you watch. Head to the website today or use your mobile device to the warm of the transit action that has been online where the game starts. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast.

I am your host. Hunter Hodes, want to follow me on Twitter. Hunter Hodes follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore penguins. Was just launching this Timika final. I kind of out of the quarter of my eye. And Darcy Kemper probably just allowed the worst goal. I think I've seen a goalie allowed during these playoffs.

Maybe that's not Louis Deming. You know, the Crider goal in Game 6 still, you know, brings back some bad memories. But just a slap shot from like 40 feet out, no traffic in front of them. And it somehow goes below his glove. It's a miracle that the avalanche, one went away from winning the Cup tonight. And, you know, by the time you listen to this, they may have already won the Cup or the series obviously will be going back to Tampa Bay but he's just not been good because by eye off especially after a really good regular season but um getting back to our

topic discussion for this um let me know what you all think about this one put this idea for you out there what if so say the penguins cheap out on a beginning malcolm you don't want to pay him 7.5 to 8 million they're like hey you know you can go chase your money somewhere else where we think it's too much of a risk. You know, say they feel that way. One if the Penguins re-sign Evan Rodriguez, put him at the two-center and then bump a couple guys up or potentially sign another center free agency,

and then use the money on one of the big wingers in this free agent class, like a Philip Foresburg, like a Johnny Goodreve. That would be interesting, right? you could roll a Gensel-Crosby-Russ first line, and then you could also roll, especially if you have that cap space from Afghani-Malkin, that 9.5 million, even if you bring back Chris Lattang, you can, again, I want to keep it Begani-Malkin, but, you know, stay with me here on this hypothetical. You gain that 9.5 million. You give it, you give most of it to sell them like Foresburg, who maybe want eight, you know, I don't know, eight times eight, something like that, or maybe like six times eight. and you put him on that second line with an Evan Rodriguez. And, you know, say you also bring back Rickel, if you can get him below $4 million, that would be nice.

Obviously, the Penguins will have to make other moves from the salary cap trade out of defensemen to make that work, especially if you are bringing back Crystal Tang and then potentially figuring out who you want to bring in from the outside. Defensively, a lot of moving parts. In that situation, I am trying hard not to sound like someone who displays a bunch of NHL-22. I know that the cap works here, people.

But, you know, then your second line is definitely cooking with something there. You know, an elite winger in Forsberg, a pretty good second, a pretty good center in Rodriguez, who almost had a 50 point year, a decent winger like Ricardo Raquel. If you don't bring him back, you know, maybe you sign someone else in the agency. Or you can just elevate Dayton Hinen up there, pay him, and then voila. I mean, honestly, that's a pretty decent second line. If you can roll out Hinen Rodriguez and someone like Philip Forsberg, who's a right shot, I would say I would be, you know, even though I'm someone that is not happy with Malkin leaving,

I still think that's a decent second line. Now, is it a massive downgrade going from Malkin to Rodriguez? Yes, you know, especially because, you know, Rodriguez was, you know, obviously not the same player this year. Now, I think, you know, Danny Shirey summed it up that when he was writing about Rodriguez for the drive-to-net this year. you know, Rodriguez before January 8th, played in 33 games, 15 goals, 30 points at 64% of the expected goals. After that, for the second half of the season, played in 49 games, four goals, only 13 points, 54% of the expected goals share. While that stat is good, the four goals and the 13 points is not. He was a totally different player, was not consistent at all. Where is that middle ground?

And if you can, you know, if a middle ground can be reached and he produces, you know, maybe not as bad as he did in the second half and maybe not as good in the first half for a full season. And you bring in an elite winger like Forsburg who can put the puck in the net, no, very well. And you potentially bring high in back who also just set a career high in goals this past year. That's a pretty dang, that's a pretty damn good second line to say the least. I would be surprisingly happy with that. And you don't have to go out and overpay for Vincent Trochek, which is a very Ron Hextal move.

I've seen so many people throw that out there. Yes, I know it's a great hometown story with Trochec, but at the end of the day, he's probably going to make too much money on the open market. And you're also not guaranteed of even signing him, just like you know, you're not guaranteed of bringing back Forsberg. I'm mainly just doing this for silly reasons, but no, it does make sense.

in a little bit of ways. You know, the back top six is still pretty decent. And then your third line, you can roll out, you know, potentially you can have Teddy Bluger down there. Or, no, you can have, well, Teddy Blugger being on the fourth line, excuse me, you can have Jeff Carter on your third line. You can have, you know, if you want to bring back a prosperity cap on a very cheap contract, you can maybe have him there.

If not, you can go out and sign a third line winger to play with Carter, potentially elevate Drew O'Connor to that. line, fourth line, you can roll back. Tad Bougars with Brock McGinn and whoever else you want to put on that line defensively, you have most of the defense that you're going to be playing with next year. If you do bring back Crystal Tang, that's even great. That's even better. And you always have Trishanjari and Net and potentially you have a back-up ready to go. All of a sudden, you know, there are pieces here to work with. Even though the penguins are not, you know, paying and getting Malkin in this circumstance, they're still getting a pretty good goal score in return.

and, you know, they're bringing back Rodriguez who, you know, they can afford just because of their salary cap, you know, constraints. So, you know, let me know what you all think about that. You know, would you sign someone like Forsberg or Goudreau to come in, you know, for Malkins contract and potentially be signed Rodriguez to be their center? Or would you rather overpay for Solmite Trochev or an Azam Qadri? And, you know, I would be very down to sign someone like Cadry, but, you know, he's probably going to want. you know, nine million plus or something like that, he'll easily get over with how he's played this year. I just don't think the Penguins will want to give out that kind of money for Solma, Cadry because, you know, what if he doesn't produce the way he did for the avalanche next season

if he signs with Pittsburgh or, you know, honestly, whoever he signs with? You know, that's the big concern I have with him. So it would definitely be intriguing. It's something that, you know, I've seen brought up by a couple of people. the penguins community. Want to give my thoughts on that on episode. I'm glad I've been able to do that. So, you know, let me know in my comments on YouTube.

Let me know, send me a DM on social media if you have it. You know, would you find that, you know, acceptable for the penguins as they potentially search for a new second line center and they add an elite winger? Or do you think they should just bring back to Gennie Malkin and maybe Ricard Raquel as well and maybe find a way to bring back Crystal Tang? You know, just let me know what you all think there too. I still have a little more to get to you for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Coming up in the final segment, we're going to get into a potential trade target for a Latang replacement that was linked to the Penguins earlier this week.

I have not talked about it super much on the podcast on the song season, but we're going to get to it now. You know, this is what it comes to. You know, we're June 24th now. We're only a few weeks away from fee agency and the draft and all that. I still have plenty of time to do a lot of other targets, but, you know, this is one of my favorite times. as I get to talk about players around the league that, you know, lightly won't be on the Penguins next year, but hey, you know, you never know at this point. So stick around for that coming up in the final segment for today's episode.

All right, I'm back here on this episode for the Locked on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hon. I know, follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow this show's Twitter at L.O. Arsore Penguins. So I saw this floated around from Frank Serilelli's trade targets. And at number 12 at the time, he had Jeff Petrie. This would be a trade target, six goals, 27.68 games last year. Contract-wise, three more years, 6.25 million per.

And the scoop from Sarvelli, last season was a right-off for both Petrie and the Canadians, both the player and team struggled and the habit of knowledge that they would try to facilitate a trade to help Petrie, whose family is still living in the United States. At the same time, the Canadians know Petrie didn't suddenly forget how to play hockey, the pandemic restrictions have lived to now, and they aren't willing to pay assets to move a player. They're surely better than last season indicated. He would be a solid backup plan in Pittsburgh if the Penguins aren't able to bring back Chris LaTang.

You know, I like Petrie as a player. I would probably be down. This might be a hot take to some of you all, but maybe not. I think he's a better option to replace Lettang at this point than Klingberg is. I mean, I think Klingberg's numbers, I mean, I actually even say Klingberg, I think Petrie's numbers are better. I mean, before this season when the Canadians only had 50% of the shot attempts, when the Canadians, I have them like misspeaking a lot, I think, on this episode.

You know, before this season, when he was below 50% in Corsi, you know, he was at least 52 to 54% going back. to 2015-16. I mean, he has been a rock with the Canadians since he was traded there during the 2014-15 season, played in 68 games with the Canadians this year. 49.4% of the shot attempts when he was on the ice, 49% of the actual goals for, 49% of the expected goals, 49% of the scoring chances. He was right around 500 for basically everything, 47% of the high danger chances, but only 37% of the high danger goals for.

So his numbers did dip a lot this year because the Canadians were so bad. But you go back to last season when the Canadians went to the Stanley Cup final, 56% of the shot of him was from Montreal when he was on the ice played in 55 games, 54% of the expected goals, 56% of the scoring chances, 54% of the high danger chances, 53% of the high danger goals for when he was on the ice. He is still a very good player. I think he just had a bad year on a really bad team. And the biggest thing for me is that, you know,

do the penguins even have the assets to go after that player? And the other big thing is why would you want to give up assets and potentially take on that whole contract and especially when he has only 20, he had 27 points last year, when you can just simply bring back Chris LaTang

and pay him what he wants, whether that's, you know, above 7.5 to 8 million or something like that. You know, maybe Montreal agrees to eight half of his salary from six point two, half of that's like three point, like three point one, something, like three point one or something million per year. And, you know, the penguins would be able to make that work. But, you know, I think the Canadians are going to ask for a lot in return for pitching

rightfully. So he's been a really good player for them for many years, you know, before this year. But, you know, in my opinion, I would just rather pay, let's hang what he wants, especially because, you know, his underlines are a lot better and his counting stats this year. I mean, again, Petrie didn't even put up 30 points this year. I mean, Mike Matheson, who was playing on the third pairing for most of this year, but before he was elevated to the top pairing of the playoffs, you know, he had more points than Petrie did this year,

and he's younger than he had 31 points. and 74 games had more goals also than Petrie did. So, you know, I like him fine. Petrie, that is. I think he's a solid player. But in terms of a Chrysletan replacement, if he walks, you know, could you do a lot worse? Yeah, could you do better potentially? But I just don't think it's even worth it to give up the assets because, you know,

I think one of them is going to have to be a first round pick, potentially a top prospect, maybe a roster player involved there too. You know, Kent Hughes is not going to give that player away for. cheap. You know, if the penguins do go down that round, you know, I'll be a little upset, but I won't be as upset if they went down and signed Cleanberg to some stupid seven times seven or, you know, seven times eight million plus because that would just be even stupor. So, you know, to some things up, I like the player. It would be cool for the penguins to have him, but if it comes at the expense of Latang, especially when it comes, you know, comes

as a replacement for him. I'm just, I'm not for that. Especially because, again, you know, the contract $6.25 million for a player that's, potentially, you know, because he could have another year like this one on a contending team. And if that's the case, and say the Penguins or another team is not eating,

is eating that whole cap hit, the whole $6.25 million, you're going to be up a creek there, to say the least. would not be pleasant there. But that'll do it for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I appreciate all of you listening to this one. I'm back next week with five full episodes.

That's the final week of June somehow. We are almost too free. It's going to be a very busy week. As I sign off, the Avalanche just tied the game. So we'll see what happens with that. I know a lot of stuff's been going around for all the people that listen in the United States. I know obviously this was a tough day for so many people. but I'm glad that hopefully, you know, I can, you know, be your escape for, you know, 25 to 30 minutes,

especially on this kind of day. So, you know, they go to each other. Have an amazing weekend. And I'll talk with you all on Monday.