Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Evgeni Malkin's season review, plus, what does part of my mock GM Penguins offseason look like?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Happy Tuesday, April 25th on another very, I guess, semi-cold day here in the city of Pittsburgh. We're at the end of April and we're still in the 50s, not even really getting to 60 degrees. It's getting a little annoying. I'm sure it's going to warm up at some point. I'm just complaining about the weather. Anyways, for today's episode, we have Evgeny Malkin's season in review. We can continue our player season reviews and our start of a new series, my mock offseason.

Starting point is 00:00:25 If I were GM, these are some of the moves I would make. We're going to start off with a couple of moves. moves today and we'll continue it Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and probably into next week. I don't think I can fit a whole mock off season into a 30-minute podcast. So we're going to do them in segments throughout the week. And then next week, then we'll also finish up with the Stanley Cup playoffs. That's all coming up right after this drop. You're Locked-on Penguins.

Starting point is 00:00:54 Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at Elinster Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first list in the day, where you're free and available on all platforms.

Starting point is 00:01:30 Today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, great an account, and use code Lockton NHL for $20 off your first purchase. So let's get right into a kicking off my new mini-series here, my mock GM offseason. And if I hired the GM and the Penguins somehow hired me, please do not. I have no experience in that kind of role. These are just a couple of the moves I would do. Number one, my first order of business, if I were to be the general manager, I had a press conference, and I would get to know the team and see what I'm working with and all that.

Starting point is 00:02:05 After about a week or two, my first order business, I would buy out the contract of Macau-Granlan. I know huge shocker to some of you, probably like a lot. Oh, Hunter, easy way out. Yeah, you know, it kind of is. I don't see any way he can be on this team next season. I've talked about it extensively on this show on my Twitter. I know Davey and Taylor Hoss have talked about it on their podcast. I think it was for D.K. Pittsburgh Sports.

Starting point is 00:02:31 I know the Nick and Nick show on it as well. There is no reasons for him to be on this team next season. I know buyout suck. You're paying a player, you know, longer to, not be on your team. The penguins are learning that right now with Jack Johns because it's been a couple of seasons and they're still paying his contract and they're going to continue to pay his contract for the next couple of years. That's how it goes. Some of those contracts can cripple you. This one won't be crippling. Funny thing is that the penguins do buy him out this offseason,

Starting point is 00:03:04 which I would do. You do that. You get four million of salary cap space. Right now they have a projected with 20 million in cap space, you can get 24 million in caps space by doing that. He only has about, I believe it's a 830. I believe it actually, no, it's like an 830, 930 K cap hit for this season. Then it goes up to $1.8 million for the last three seasons. You will be paying out the contract over the next four seasons because he has two years left on this contract. You get $3 million salary cap space next season.

Starting point is 00:03:36 After that, it goes down a little bit. You still get a million or two. but you're still saving against the cap and he's also not on your team. I don't think I would be able to get anything front for him. If I were the Mokshaam and whoever gets hired, I would agree, you know, if you are somehow able to ditch that contract, you're probably going to have to part with some futures. And I don't think the Penguins want to part with a high first,

Starting point is 00:03:59 decent second round pick. You know, they don't even have this year's second round pick because they traded it away for Gremlin. So that's what I'm looking for. that's my first order of business is getting rid of the grand loan contract it's just it's a deal that cannot be on the books makes no sense he was terrible when he got here one goal in 21 games it was a garbage time goal you take that away he didn't score in the 21 games was not good offensively his defensive work which was shoddy even before he got here did not improve at all

Starting point is 00:04:34 he is just not a natural fit for the Mike Sullivan system. And that's my first order business. I would be getting rid of his contract and starting really basically almost fresh in the bottom six. Even though you probably are stuck with Carter, Drew O'Connor is going to be there, maybe a couple others. I'm not sure. So that's order business number one. My second thing that I would do, I would go after Jeremy Sleman.

Starting point is 00:05:00 Yep. Goaltending is, you know, you can argue a top left shot D. is more, you know, valuable for the Penguins right now than a goalie. I don't know how many of you would win that argument, but goaltender, it's at least one B in the terms of, oh, yeah, you need to fix this going in the next season because you cannot run Jari and this meant back. Swayman, he makes only 925K this year. He's an RFA.

Starting point is 00:05:29 The Bruins, they're going to have a cap crunch. They are already paying Lianis Allmark, $5 million. believe for the next two seasons. They are not, I don't think they're going to be eligible to pay Sleman and Allmark at the same time. I don't think they're going to want 10 million tied up in goal tending when they have other matters to attend to when it comes to their roster. If I am the Penguins and I am the GM, I am aggressively going after Swayman. I don't know if you can do an offer sheet. I read this this morning from Adam Gretz on Pensburg where apparently they, so they no longer own their third round pick is, of course, in the Kulikov trade,

Starting point is 00:06:04 with McGinn. So that limits what they can do and also takes them out of the running for some offer sheets that they could, you know, have. You know, if you get an offer sheet, if you sign someone in an offer sheet and you get the player, I think one of the things you have to give up is a third round pick and the Penguins don't have that. So that might be off the table, but you can still trade for an RFA, for his rights at least, so you can negotiate a contract with him. And if I'm the Penguins and I'm the GM, I would be very much one. wanting to do that. Swayman has been unreal for the Bruins a season. And him and Allmark, they won the Jennings trophy together.

Starting point is 00:06:46 Allmark second overall in goals saved above expected. Swam in the season eight. He played 37 games, saved 24 goals above expected. 913, 7%, not not 13% percent, 927%, 2.27 goals against average. his safe percentage on unblock shots. 9.58 is expected same percentage on unblocking shots, 9.45. Plus 13 in terms of expected to save percentage over actual same percentage on block shots. He was one of the best goaltenders in the league this year.

Starting point is 00:07:20 He's young. He's very good. I would be giving up a lot to go get him. You know, whether it's, you know, the first-down pick, another piece. I would be aggressively going after Sway. and to try to really get a true starter in here because, you know, you look at the free agent goalie market, it's crap.

Starting point is 00:07:40 Antirontas out there, cool, veteran. Frederick Anderson, he's injury prone. Tristan Jari, you know, we all know what he is. Seymond Varlamov. Mediocre. There is not a lot of good goleys out there on the free agent market. If you are looking to really, you know, make a splash to try to improve this team,

Starting point is 00:08:00 has to be via trade for goaltending. That is the one I will be doing. I will be looking to trade for his rights to see if I can sign him to a long-term deal. Or, you know, maybe you have the good old-fashioned sign and trade where the Bruins sign him. And then they send him to Pittsburgh and the Penguins give up, you know, where they want, whether it's, you know, draft picks, you know, prospect, player, something like that. But that is my second order of business when it comes to my mock off season. Those are the only team meetings I'm going to give you today

Starting point is 00:08:30 because this is just the first segment. But my first team is a general manager, buying out my Kyle Granlin, and I am trading for Jeremy Swetman. And if you can, you know, and if someone is a little smarter than me with offer sheets and they can do it, you know, I would be doing that as well,

Starting point is 00:08:45 but I think they're probably going to have to trade for him rather than offer sheet. He is my guy. I guess, you know, I don't know if Nashville's going to want to give up UC Soros. I think they see him as a very cornerstone piece for the franchise. Obviously, I would love to throw their kitchen sink get the predators to try to get him.

Starting point is 00:08:59 You know, if not, Swayman is the dude. Yeah. Heck, even if the Bruins somehow want to keep Swamen and they put Allmark on the market, even though he's making a little decent amount of money, I would call the Bruins for that him too because he was, he's potentially going to win the Vezna at this season. He was that good. So either way, I am looking at the Bruins in terms of goal tending. Preference, though, Swamen, a bit younger, you know, cheaper right now.

Starting point is 00:09:25 It's not going to be any longer because I'm, you know, he's going to have a contract. extension or a raise, excuse me, after the season is up. But that wraps up this segment for a couple of moves from my mock off season. Stay tuned for Wednesday when I give a couple more mock offseason moves that I will have. But coming up after this commercial break, we're going to get into a Gini-Malkin season review, how I thought he played, did he exceed expectations, and what to look for for him for the 2023-2020 season. But before we get into that, we do have to discuss, indeed, well, that is not.

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Starting point is 00:11:01 Indy.com slash locked on terms and conditions apply. Cons per application pricing, not available for everyone. If you need to hire, you need indeed. I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Not to follow you on Twitter. Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at Annalia Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first listen of the day.

Starting point is 00:11:27 So, again, Malkin, continuing our player season reviews, he exceeded all of, I think almost everyone's expectations this season, played a full season, which is something that I and probably no one else saw coming, because, you know, he's obviously been a little injury prone to these last couple of years, but he stayed relatively healthy this year and he showed it. You know, 83 points in 82 games, he was right up there, Ristina Crosby is one of their best players, you know, night in and night out. does he have the defensive metrics? No, but honestly, has he ever had the defensive metrics? Also, no. I'm not, his defensive game, does it need work? Yes, but you know, the guy's 36 at this point, I don't really think he's going to care that much about it anymore. You know, he's, he didn't care that much about it when he was 25 and putting up 100 points, not into 100, I guess. I don't think he's going to give too much of a crap about it. Right now. I know people complain that he's like a minus player. You know, sometimes I couldn't care less about that. You know, he's, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:25 he's a difference maker for this team at 5-on-5, and he provided value that no one else in the free agent market would have last year. He's not a power play specialist, as people like to say. He was very strong at 5-1-5 this year, and the data back to that. Played in all 802 games. When he was on the ice, the Penguins had 55% of the shot attempts. They also had 51% of the actual goals for, 65% of the expected goals,

Starting point is 00:12:49 54% of the scoring chances, 56% of the high-danger chances, and 53% of the high-danger goals for he was outstanding for this team. One of the only reasons why they were in the playoff race until the end. If you subtract him or Sid out of line up for any stretch of this season, they are probably eliminated by that time. They play the Chicago Blackhawks.

Starting point is 00:13:10 That's just that's how important both, especially Malkin was, to the team this season. It's honestly a miracle that they almost got this team to the playoffs because the rest of that team outside of a handful of, contributors was not good, but man, what a renaissance season he had. He came off the injury. Remember, after last season, had a full offseason to recover. And I expected him to be good.

Starting point is 00:13:39 I don't think I expected him to be this freaking good for the penguins. Night in and night out. Great offensively. He scored one of the goals of the season for the penguins when they needed it most against the capitals after they blew that 3-0 lead in the third period as they were blowing leads all season long. I kept reading for people like, oh, the Penguins have had a blowing lead problem for a long time.

Starting point is 00:14:03 No, it was only really this season. Before this season, the Penguins had been very good of protecting leads under Mike Sullivan, whether it's going into third period or when they have a lead, you know, when they take the lead in the third period, they usually able to close it out this season. That changed. And obviously, that does need to change next season. But, you know, it really only became a big issue, I think, this season. But, no, Malkin, get that goal was awesome.

Starting point is 00:14:27 He was able to pick Anthony Manta's pocket, go block her side on Darcy Kemper, and the celebration that he had was tremendous. He was only the only players I thought that showed up against the Blackhawks in the second to last game of the season, had that goal off a beautiful feed from Mercard Raquel. His celebration was also great. He really wanted to be in the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:14:44 He hadn't missed the playoffs since, you know, really coming over here, to be honest, Russia. You know, that's just, you know, he's a, a competitive person. I know he broke the penalty minutes record for the franchise this season. Don't think for a minute that he doesn't care. He's very emotional player. He wears it all on the ice. You can see it. And yeah, does he take dumb penalties sometimes? Yes. He's to make a stupid play on the ice sometimes. And makes a bad defensive read, yes. But he makes up for all that with his offense. And you saw this year when he had an 83 points and 82 games.

Starting point is 00:15:23 You know, he he did all that at age 36. 36 people, 83 points. You know, again, I keep saying this. It would be so much easier to say like, and not be as upset that the game was missed the playoffs and they missed a goal opportunity to continue to contend this year because, oh, the core players just don't have it anymore. They had a bad decline.

Starting point is 00:15:48 No, no. Sid still had it, had over 90 points. Gino still had it over 80 points. We're going to get to Lattang a little later on. We're going to come to play our season interviews when we get to the defenseman. But, you know, Gino was a massive reason why this team was in the position that it was. And he had so many outstanding games this season.

Starting point is 00:16:12 It was like, wow, it was almost just like vintage Gino out there. So I'm really happy with his season. And I think for next season, expectations-wise, you know, I don't know if you could expect him to play every game. game again, I think that's a little bit of a fool's errand. But if he can play 70, 72 games, obviously you could play the full 82. That'd be awesome. But if he can play, you know, 90, 95% of his games, still stay close or over a point per game and get this team into the playoffs, I would say that's a very successful season for someone who's going to be 37 next year. So that's what I'm

Starting point is 00:16:46 looking forward to from Malkin for next season. Thought he was great. Underlines were awesome. Vince Trocich doesn't put up those numbers. Neither does Andrew Kopp. Neither does anyone else on the free agent market that people were talking about replacing him with. He was awesome. So that wraps up this segment one Malkins player review.

Starting point is 00:17:05 Coming up to end the show, going to get into the Stanley Cup playoffs, what happened on Monday night and what to look forward to for tonight and then obviously Wednesday I'm recording this right now, right about 7 o'clock, right when the islanders and hurricanes are going to take off. So by that time to listen to this,

Starting point is 00:17:17 that part's probably going to be old news. We'll discuss the games from Monday night and all that jazzed. But before we get to that, I can finally put my game time promo up. You know, buying tickets to your favorite events should not be stressful. And with that, you know, game time is the fastest and easiest way to buy tickets for all of your sports, music, comedy, in theater near you. I know I've had my fair share of times. I need, you know, to buy tickets really quick when I've been stressed. Like, for example, the Steel Panther concert, actually was run this time back in March.

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Starting point is 00:18:54 So great night of hockey last night. That Rangers Devils game. Wow. I am kind of stunned that the devil's tied up this series. The Rangers were making them look like fools in those first two games. Looking like Penguin Senators, 2007, where a veteran team was just going to kick the small team's butts or the inexperienced teams' butts. No, no, no, no.

Starting point is 00:19:19 New Jersey comes right back. Wins game three, a really close game in overtime. Dougie Hamilton gets the game winner. That last night, the Devils absolutely kick the Rangers' butts at Madison Square Garden. It's tied now. Going back to Newark for game five, the Rangers got to figure something out.

Starting point is 00:19:36 Their best players have not been good this series outside of Chris Quiter. I don't want to hear Penguin fans complain about some star players not showing up in big situations if the Rangers lose the series. Because right now, Mika's advantage at, Goosey through the first four games. Artimer Penarren, goose egg through the first four games.

Starting point is 00:19:54 They have not done a bleeping thing. Obviously, that can change. With my luck, it probably will. But they need a lot better from their star talent outside of Kreider. Fox has been good. Shistercans doing all he can. He's only allowed six goals in four games. He's been awesome.

Starting point is 00:20:11 I mean, you expect that. But Rangers got to wake up here. I think that would be a pretty bad loss to a young team after going up to nothing. Toronto, I'll say it. I think this might be it. This seems different to me. It really does.

Starting point is 00:20:29 They win this series. I really don't think Kyle Dubas is coming here if they finish this off. I think they're going to extend him if they win this series. The only way I saw him coming here is if the leaves flame out. And sure they could. If they blow a 3-1 lead, oh, a whole bunch of changes are going to. Toronto. Do I think that's going to happen? I'm leaning towards no. Obviously, the memes are there, three one series lead. I don't think it's going to happen though. It just seems different. The past

Starting point is 00:21:01 years, Leaves teams do not win that kind of game that they did on Monday against Tampa Bay. And they also don't come back the way they did as well over the weekend, down one goal with million one. Honestly, the lightning could easily be up three games to one right out. They've blown a lot of leads in this series. But the Leafs, they seem like a different team. great series. I expect to run on win that. And now I think the curse might be lifting. We'll have to see how tomorrow goes. Colorado, Seattle, wow.

Starting point is 00:21:30 Seattle is giving them a fight. And I thought Colorado would dispenser them pretty quick. I didn't think Seattle was going to be much of a challenge. Boy, was I wrong? Even after Jerry McCann went down last night, off a very dirty hit from Kelma Karan. He should have gotten more than one game. So late hit right near the boards after he had a

Starting point is 00:21:49 breakaway, no reason for it. Jordan, Everly, Penguins killer, gets the goal in overtime. It's tied going back to Denver. Avs have a tough game five. Now without McCar, no Landis College. Obviously, he's done for this year. It's going to be really interesting to see how the rest of the series goes. I'm going to pick Colorado.

Starting point is 00:22:07 It's the best of three. But Seattle's definitely not making it easy on them. I'll say that. And then the Vegas series of three games to one, I'm not really too surprised. He'll look can only just. so much for the Jets. I don't, the Jets have never really been that good of an offensive team. And Vegas, they have their faults, but I think they are a better team.

Starting point is 00:22:31 So those were the main ones from last night. Tonight, you know, this is going to be all news, Carolina, New York. The Islanders lose this game. I think you're going to see some serious changes to that organization this summer. I don't know if Lambert would come back. What happens with Lou Lamarillo? Do they make a lot of changes to the roster? I think they would.

Starting point is 00:22:49 I don't think that's going to go over well if they lose this game, especially to a hurricane scene, but down, you know, three to four world forwards at this point. They, the islanders need to force this back to Long Island. The hurricanes, they don't usually lose at home,

Starting point is 00:23:02 so we have to see what happens there. Edmonton, L.A., that should be a fun game five after Evander Cain saved their season over the weekend. It should be good. And is that the only series tonight? Just making sure here.

Starting point is 00:23:19 I thought there was another game tonight as well. I think I'm forgetting tonight. Oh, Minnesota Dallas, of course. Yeah, I have my eye on that game. Also, a must-watch series. If you are not watching it, you are missing out on some electric hockey from both sides. I can't believe I almost forgot that there was the game tonight. Jeez. But that will do it for this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast.

Starting point is 00:23:39 I really appreciate all of you listening slash watching. We'll continue our player season reviews for Wednesday, and we'll also continue the mock GM offseason for me on Wednesday, along with another recap of the Stanley Cup playoffs. and some other notes sprinkled in it. And if we have some GM search updates, we'll put those in there and some other stuff as well. So again, thank you all so much for tuning in.

Starting point is 00:24:01 I very much appreciate it. I'll be back with another episode for you all on Wednesday. Have a great Tuesday.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Evgeni Malkin's season review, plus, what does part of my mock GM Penguins offseason look like?

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