Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Danton Heinen to replace Jared McCann?

Episode Date: July 31, 2021

It's a late-night one, but sometimes, that's what has to happen. In the first segment, Hunter breaks down the Danton Heinen signing as the Penguins went bargain shopping after getting Brock McGinn. Where does he see him slotting into the lineup? Could there be a fit with Jeff Carter? Is there a real shot he gets his scoring touch back? He also discusses what's next for the Penguins offseason. Is this likely it? Could a goalie trade still be coming at some point? Should they consider dumping Mike Matheson's salary? Hunter also touches on notes around the league and how the New York Rangers seem to be taking major steps back this offseason. All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, everyone, welcome to this Friday night episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins.

Today is the last episode for at least four shows a week. next week we go to three days a week in case anyone is not aware. Do have some big news. It looks like sometime next week I have not set a date yet. I am going to be bringing on Brock McGinn, who of course just signed Penguins this past week. I got in touch with this agent. We're just finishing a date and a time, and then we are going to bring Brock McGinn on for an interview. It might be a bit of a longer episode, but this is the big thing that I have been working on for this podcast.

I want to bring current and former penguins onto the show. I know I've done a lot of the media. I've done a lot of people from hockey Twitter, but this is my next step, and I can't wait to hopefully bring on Brockham again next week. It looks like it is going to happen. It's probably going to be one of Thursday or Friday. I'm just waiting to get the email at this point,

but just wanted to let you all know of that. Obviously, you know, the Penguins did sign him to that four-year deal, 2.75 AAV. day the penguins continued their depth signings and signed Danton Hinen, which I am going to touch on in this first segment of the episode. I really like this signing. Sure, it's a bottom six player, but I really don't care that much just because I think he just got a bad rap these last couple of years because he's played with the Anaheim ducks. I'm trying to just find his stats here real quickly, but he was basically a 50-point player back in 2017, 2018, the Bruins the year after that, I think it was around 34 to 35 points, and then those last

couple of years just did not fit in with the ducks. I think that Hinen trade was him for, I'm trying to remember that trade with Boston. I don't know if it was for Andre Kasha that came over to Boston for Hinen. Actually, excuse me, no, it was Hining to the Ducks for Nick Ritchie, who I think is still unsigned as well. So my apologies on that, but in my opinion, this is still a good player, you know, if you look at Andy and Rono's stuff, ranks in the 93rd percentile for PK, 99th percentile for possession exits, rolling difficulty, 60th percentile.

Scoring in offense, you know, 45. So he's not known for his scoring, though he did have 14 points in 43 games this season. He's an 81st percentile, excuse me, for chances for transition, eh, shooting, kind of as well. But I really think that he has more to give here for the Penguins. I was actually reading a tweet from Danny Shire Irving of Pensball. He is actually willing to make a bet that he outproduces McGinn at 5E5 this year.

And honestly, I wouldn't bet against that just because Heinen has been, again, really good in the past and has had good underlying numbers with the Bruins. And you put him with Jeff Carter potentially and McGinn. I think he's going to produce a lot more than he did this past season with those seven goals and 14 points. I think you could get closer to the version you saw with him in Boston when he had 16 goals in 3. 31 points in 2018. Then the year after that, I think, was close to around 16 goals again, but still not as many points. But overall, you know, he's basically a more defensive player, I would think, than an offensive player.

When healthy, I think the Penguins will go Gensel, Crosby, Rust. I think they'll still have Zooker if he's still here with Malkin and Kaepernin. Ashman-Ey's Bluegar on the fourth line, they can put whoever they want. They're on there with Evernor Regis. These are Dany's lines, at least. McGinn, Carter, Hinen. I think that's a really good third line. It's not as good as what you saw in the playoffs with McCann and Carter together.

But I think the McGinn-Carter-Hinen line could definitely do some damage. And hopefully there's more scoring than potentially meets the eye. But, you know, they've been needing to replace some of the depth that they lost in expansion and because of the McCann trading. Hell, hell, I get it, you know. It's basically you're trading Jared McCann, Brandon Tenev for Danton-Hinen. and Brock McGinn, I'm not sure how they're going to be better after it. I could see it.

I also could not see it. You know, this is, you know, we're day three, basically, in free agency at this point. It's still too early to tell. I ate a lot of crow on the Cody Cici signing because I didn't think he was going to be that good. Hopefully I do the same with Danton Heinen. I think he's going to be good. You know, one year, $1.1 million. There's really not much risk there.

If you scratch him because he's doing bad, it's not the end of the world. You just hope that he's not going to be able. like Mark Jankowski, and I did see a little bit of that on Penguin's Twitter after the signing got announced, and it's like, I don't really see the comparison at all. Both of these players, they're just, they're not similar, in my opinion. I think Hainin is much better offensively. He has a much better shot, much better on the PK and in the defensive zone, and Jankowski really just, he had absolutely nothing to the table, had a bad shot, no scoring touch, not even any good playmaking ability, bad on the PK, bad in the defensive zone.

It's really not even close in my opinion, though, again, you know, hopefully we don't see a repeat of that because you do never really truly know, but I'm still excited for him to join this team. He's going to replace Brandon Tannen in a lot of ways, especially on the PK. I know I said this about Brock McGinn. I think also, I should say this, Hinen does have a McCann-like shot. It's not exactly like his. I mean, I think McCann had arguably the greatest shot on the team.

So, again, I'm not fully comparing it to that. But I still think Hinen's shot is underrated and could quickly be one of the better shots that this team has. I don't think you're going to see him get a lot of power play time. They just, they have, obviously, they have the top end talent for the top power play. But even for the second power play, they can throw out John Marino. They can throw out Jason Zulker. They can throw out Brock McGinn. They can throw out Jeff Carter.

I just, I don't see Hainan getting on there. Heck, they can throw off Kisbury Kappan, I'm sure. I mean, there's no way he's getting traded before the start of the season. Bank on that, by the way. I've never been sure of anything in my life. When it comes to that, there's absolutely no way this team is trading Kisperi Kappan before the season. I really don't think they're going to make a lot of deals before the season, if any.

And that brings me to my second point before we do go to a commercial. I understand, myself included, I am a bit worried about the goaltending position. I know Brian Burke, excuse me, talk today. You know, he hyped up for Sanjari. He says he's going to be a good goalie for us. I mean, that's what he's going to do, guys. He's not going to basically trash him. He's not going to say that we're going to trade him or that we're looking for an upgrade.

That basically kills your value. I mean, it's just that this was never going to happen with either Burke and Hextall. I still think that they will make a move at some point for a goalie. it just might be later rather than sooner. I think they honestly might go into the season, hoping to do a deal during the season for a goalie, especially if both of those guys struggle. I mean, if they do this again,

they have no idea how much of a risk this is. Because if it fails again and there's a high likelihood that it will, there's going to be a lot of heat on both of those because there were a lot of goalies available this offseason that they could have traded for or signed. and they didn't. I mean, you know, the free agent class, I liked a couple of those. I know some others were injury prone or a bit washed, but there were still a couple there

that I liked more than others. Like Alinus Olmark, obviously he signed for too much, like a Peter Marazik. And again, if Jari and DeSmith screw up again next season, it's just the cries from the fans and probably within the organization is going to be a lot harder this time around than it was the last season when they all see they got screwed. due to the goaltending. And honestly, I'll offer up this take for you all. I think they can go into next season

by just getting a goalie and then getting a top nine forward before the trade they're on. I think that is where I am at right now. They've made two good signings, at least in my opinion. Sure, they haven't fully replaced McCann. But knowing this team and knowing how injured they get during the season, they are probably going to have no choice

but to get a top nine forward during the season, remember what Ron Hextall said when he took over and they traded for Jeff Carter. He said they kind of forced our hand because they were playing really well and we wanted to reward them. So if this team is playing really well and they get a goalie towards the end of the offseason

or any day now, I definitely think Hextall would go all in and get a top nine forward for them to push to the fourth Stanley Cup in the Sydney Crosby of Guinea-Malkan era. That's what I would do, I think, at this point. I understand there's not a lot of really good wingers left on the market.

Sure, I would love to have Tomas to and maybe dump Mike Matheson's contract, and I'm going to get to that coming up in the next segment. But I think as of right now, the biggest priority for this team needs to be to get a goalie, go into next season, have him potentially push Tristanjari or flat-out star, and then deal with your top nine winger issue

during the season when the team is hopefully playing well. I think that's where I stand, and I think I'm going to stick with that at least for a while. So coming up in the next segment again, I'm going to touch on potentially moving out. a little bit of salary and why I think it should be Mike Mavison that's moved out rather than Marcus Pereson, why everyone needs to lay off Marcus Pedersen a bit. And again, I still would move his contract.

I'd love for one of the two to be moved, but I think there's a preference as to which one of them should be moved. So stick around for that. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. You know to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. So all this shows Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So there's always been a lot of talk, basically the honest season, or honestly during the season, about Marcus Pedersen.

In my opinion, everyone, I think he takes a much more of a beating than he should. Just because I think people want him to be more physical in the defensive zone, I honestly don't really give a shit. If he's not being physical enough, it's that he's just not making a lot of hits. And honestly, if you're making a lot of hits, that just means that you're not having the puck, which, again, means that you're likely losing the game. But, you know, if you look at the underlying numbers when Pedersen, you know, first is isolated impact plus 0.2% expected goals for a lot of red right in the slot areas defensively, minus 0.18 expected goals against per 60,

a lot of blue in the prime scoring areas. But then if you go to the Pittsburgh 5B5 defense with Marino and Pedersen as a pair on the ice, it's 2.06 expected goals against per 60. a whole lot of blue, basically in the entire defensive zone, a little bit of red in front of the net. That just means that they're doing their job, especially Pedersen, exceptionally well. Now, if you look at the season before,

and I go on to hockey viz's stuff, their expected goals against per 60 was 2.02. So it was even better than it was this past season at minus 19% in parentheses. Again, the more blue that is in the defensive zone, the better you are doing at suppressing shots. He is probably their best shots depressing defenseman, and I think he is a lot more valuable to this team than someone like Mike Matheson is. And don't get me wrong.

I liked Matheson down the stretch in the season. He can do a lot of plays with a puck that basically no one on the blue line can do except for Chris LaTang. But I still don't think he's that good defensively. And he's also signed for, again, five more years at 4.8 million per end. We've seen a lot of bad contracts moved this offseason already. especially for defensemen. We saw Oliver Ekman Larson moved. He has, what, six years left at over seven, eight million per.

And honestly, they got an okay return on that. And again, Nate Schmidt was moved. His contract's not that good. Brendan Dillon, whose contract is bad, got moved for two second round picks. There's been a lot of movement with defensemen who are really kind of met at this point in their career. And they've gotten a decent return buck. So I really think you could get a GM who would, sucker into acquiring him.

And you know what, I get it. I know Ron Hextall does not want to do pure salary dumps. He wants to do hockey trades. It's evident by how there's been little to no action on the trade front right now for the Penguins. But I think at this point, if you want to go into the season a bit deeper, especially in your top nine, or as for a goalie, like I just touched on in the last segment, I think you need to shed some salary and just do a pure salary dump.

And again, you know, the Penguins also don't have a lot of picks. I mean, these are still years coming up that they sacrificed a lot due to winning three Stanley Cups in the Siddi Crosby of Gany Malcan era. So I really think the player that needs to be moved in this situation is Matheson. I mean, you need a defender like Pedersen that can thrive in a shutdown role while still not being a liability with the puck. And I really don't think that POJ would replace Pedersen better than he would Matheson. I think POJ could come in and do a much better job replacing the latter than he would do the former because, you know, as much as I would like a POJ merino pairing, I would much prefer him to start on the third pairing potentially with Chari Riedel. That way you can keep

Dumlin-Latang as your top pairing and then the shutdown Pedersen Marino pairing as your second pairing and you can throw that out to the wolves and just send them out against the top competition on a nightly basis because, again, you saw what their underlying numbers were this past season in the defensive zone. 428 minutes together at 5E5. The expected goals against was 2.06. So they need this pairing going into next season where they can just throw them out there, 10 to 12, heck, even 14 to 16 minutes a night. And then by moving Mike Matheson's contract, you can hopefully get a goalie in here and potentially a top 9 forward, even without bringing someone in during the deadline.

and then you can have a third pairing that's a bit unproven but also really cheap in POJ and Chavar-R-R-Weedle because I honestly think that third pairing would be one of the five cheapest ones in the league. I think Chavar-R-R-R-R-Reedle doesn't even make a million against the salary cap. I think it's actually 900K if I'm correct. And then POJ is on an ELC, so he doesn't really count too much against the salary cap either. That's just what I would do because, again, you know, all three of the pairings will have that right balance. Brian Dumlin and Chris Latang. Latang is great at moving the puck up the ice, great at zone entries.

Obviously, an amazing playmaker has a really good shot. The number one of the team, one of the 10 best defensemen in the league. And then you have Brian Dumlin who can cover for him if he screws up and is also great defensively. Patterson, Marino, Marino, really good at moving the puck up the ice, good playmaking ability, good zone entries per 60. Then you have Pederson who can also help him out if he screws up and is great in the defensive zone. and then with POJ, he can also really move the puck up the ice as good at zone entries. And then with Chabar-R-R-Reedle, he's steady as they come and is good in the defensive zone as well. I think that's the penguin's best bet going into the season.

And again, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind if Matheson was here, but I also wouldn't mind having that camp space to go out and trade for a goalie. Hopefully, maybe that's more Andre Fleury if they can somehow work that out or maybe see some reports that they're more interested if Fleury is not going to play in Chicago this coming season. But even without that, they can go out, hopefully trade for a decent goalie. And even if they don't want to do that,

which again would be a mistake, they can go out and trade for a top 9th floor, which this team desperately needs. I really think that this team is not as deep as they were from last season. Sure, they did have those two signings with McGinn and Hinen, and they may look good, potentially in the bottom six, but they need someone that can come in and play in the top six so they can bump Jason Zooker back down to the third line. Because having him on your third line, especially if he's having a good season, that is such a luxury.

And it makes the team so much deeper and so much tougher to play again. So that's what I would do going into this season and what the rest of my offseason plan would be. I would dump Mike Matheson's contract. I would bring in a goalie with starting experience, especially in the playoffs. and I would hopefully bring in a top nine forward before the season, if not then, then during the season before the trade deadline. And then, of course, move up POJ full time because I think he is ready for that. I know I've seen reports that the organization does not think he is ready. I completely disagree with that.

I think they're skewed by that the numbers that he put up with Chris Latang because he was just eating up too many minutes too quickly. I think if you start him out on the bottom pairing with someone like Chad Rito or with someone else, that they trade for, standard free agency that's cheap, that he could do a really good job. So those are my thoughts on that. Before we do get to the next segment, talk about a couple other stuff around the league.

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That's promo code Locked 15 for 15% off at Built.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguin. So going around the league a little bit these last couple days, again, I really have no idea what the New York Rangers plane is going into the season. They have taken a huge step back, I think, this offseason.

I do not think this is a playoff team right now. Sure, they have a lot of high-end talent in Artemmy Pinaran and Mika Zabanajad. Chris Kreider is still good. Adam Fox is probably top five to top ten defensemen at this point. I mean, he's obviously top 10, but I think he's pushing for top five. They have a good goalie in Ingersha Sterkin, but Chris Drury, I don't think I've talked about this on the podcast yet. Some of y'all wanted this guy to be the Penguins' GM. That's just a fat yikes in the chat, for me, at least, in my opinion.

He has done an absolutely awful job with the Rangers signing Barkley Goodro to that six-year term, signing Jared Tenorty for no reason, and then last night did the cherry on top, trading for Ryan Reeves and giving up a third round pick in the process going full Jim Rutherford except he didn't give up a first for him. I'm pretty sure that Drury at this point is Jim Rutherford's long-lossed son

and it's just like I don't like to use the term, you know, rent-free, bro, rent-free because I think it's one of the most cringiest terms you could use but Tom Wilson is living rent-free in the Rangers' heads right now. I think, you know, Katie Damon of Scones on Penguin's Twitter yesterday

had this tweet where it was like Penguins fans when they see Tom Wilson controlling an organization and it's the gift of James Franco saying first time while he's being hung so yeah that that's basically you know Penguins fans we are very aware of you know Tom Wilson getting inside a general manager's head you know obviously we had that with Jim Rutherford with Ryan Reeves and bringing in Tom Sastito of all people for no reason at all but yeah I just really don't understand why the Rangers are not only doubling down on this grit and toughness, but tripling and quadrupling down on it. It just really doesn't make any sense to me. Again, they have definitely taken a step back at this offseason, in my opinion.

Also saw the Columbus Blue Jackets giving Zach Werenski a six-year deal, nine and a half million per. I guess when they have cap space, they can use it, and they're going to be bad for the next few years. But, I mean, the fact that Werensky is getting more money than Kail Makara is, that's just, that's hilarious to me. And again, you know, he's getting more than $2 million per year than Chris. fricking Letangian is, and I would take Latang a hundred times out of a hundred over

Zach Werenski at this point. And don't get wrong. I think Werensky's a fine defenseman. Probably a number two, number three on a contending team, but I don't think he's a number one at this point. He's not a defenseman that you give nine and a half million per two. That is just really stupid, in my opinion. I did see some other stuff this morning from, I think Brian Burke was talking on the

serious XM NHL's channel. on the radio. I know already touched on the Tristan Jari comments. Again, everyone, he's not going to throw anyone under the bus. That's just not who he is. Though he did touch on a couple other things this morning. If I can go to Josh Getsoff's Twitter, real quick to find these comments. Berkey says, I don't think you need a straight top six, bottom six,

but I do think you need a good top nine, bottom three or a top eight, bottom four. I think you need people to block shots, kill penalties, finish text. I do think you need a blend to win. I have no problem with that kind of a statement. You know, obviously you do need players to kill penalties, and I'm not going to sit here and say that

it's a divine skill. I think most players in the league can kill penalties. Hell, I would put Sidney Crosby on the penalty kill, and I think you could do fine with it. We've seen them do it before. Heck, he's set up chances with Jake Gensel plenty of times with two-on-ones on the PK. So if they really needed to do it, I'm sure they could. Sure, you need players to block shots, but, you know,

I don't really think it's like a necessity for it. Though I will agree, with him that the penalty kill was a major concern last season, and I am glad that they are prioritizing that going into this next season, because the PK cannot be as bad next season from this past season. It was just a tire fire in basically every way. I know it didn't really cost them in the playoffs. It actually warmed up a bit, but still, for most of that regular season,

it was pretty dog shit, and I don't think they want to have that again. Other comments that I'm catching up here. he did share his thoughts on signing Danton Hining he says we see him as a third liner that can kill penalties and supply some offense he skates like the win we're happy with what we picked up yesterday and again you know 1.1 million for him that's just a flat out steal I mean again he's been

over a half a point per game player in the national hockey league before I don't know if he's going to get back to that point this year I think I would bet against that though it wouldn't surprise me if he did because now again he's going to be playing on a team with much better line mates. I mean, I think his most common line mates last year,

according to Seth Warbaud of the Pittsburgh Tribovie Review, was Jacob Silverberg and Adam Henrique. I mean, both of those players are not close to what they used to be. Jeff Carter, obviously, he's not in his prime anymore either, but he was awesome last season with Pittsburgh, and I think Brock McGinn is going to be better than some may think. So I really think that he's going to fit in quite well here, and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets back to scoring 15 goals.

next season. And, you know, if he does that and he puts together a really good offensive season, he could go out onto the open market and cash out in the next off season, just like Cody C.C. did, because, you know, C.C., he bet on himself. He went to an organization where there weren't a lot of high expectations for him. He played well in the third pairing, went out, got that insane deal from the Oilers, but you know what? I'm happy for him. He's set for life now four years over three million per. I'm sure that's potentially what Dantanen is thinking as well. But I think that'll do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I think they're going to be quiet for the rest of the off season, everyone.

I really don't think they're going to be doing too much more unless it's for a goalie trade. Maybe there's a couple other bargains that they come for. I'm holding out a little bit of hope for Tomas Hattar. I don't see it at this point, but I really think that this team right now is done going into the season unless they make a trade for a goalie. And with that, the show is now moving to three episodes of the week. week for all of August and basically all of September. Also, looking to have Brock McGinn on the show next week when I get that date and time

finalize, I will let you know on both my personal Twitter and on the Lockdown Penguins Twitter. Thank you all so much for listening to this episode and for all of the everyday episodes during the season, and I can't wait to talk more Penguins with you all during the offseason. I have some special stuff planned. Can't wait for you all to listen to it. So I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and we'll talk to you. next week.