Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - FAN TAKE FRIDAY: Should the Penguins have started rebuilding earlier?

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

It's another edition of Fan Take Friday, and we dive into a question that has us wondering...should the Penguins have started rebuilding earlier? Patrick and Hunter begin this all Fan Take Friday edition of Locked On Penguins with a simple question: Should the Penguins have started this rebuild-retool after losing to the Canadiens in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs? They discuss if it would have made sense, who they could've moved, who they could've kept, and if they trusted former GM Jim Rutherford to execute the plan. Then, they take more of your questions and takes about where some of the young players fit in, if this team will be better in 2025-26, and which of the big three will remain on the Penguins the longest. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get $150 in Bonus Bets if your first $5 bet wins!FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It is the final day of daily episodes for this season of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. So with that in mind, we are going to do a full episode of Fan Take Friday where we take your questions, read your hot takes and everything in between. And we'll get into that right after this. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4 Wet, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes.

You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at L-O-U-U-Square penguins, and you can also follow us on Instagram at Locked-on underscore Penguins. of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine because we're your team every day. Don't forget, we're free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as YouTube. Plus, if you follow us on YouTube, make sure you've hit that notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our newest episodes, whether

that be Monday through Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or whenever there's breaking news. Before we get started, today's episode is brought to you by. game time, download the game time app, use the promo code locked on NHL, create an account, and you'll get $20 off of your first purchase. So Hunter, as I said in the intro, as we have been saying all week, this is the last episode of the schedule where we do episodes Monday through Friday. Starting next week, we will go down to three episodes per week. As we have said to you, we're going to try to stick to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule, but with breaking news, potential guests, and life just happening in between, we may stray from that schedule a little

bit, but you will get three episodes a week for the next couple of months in the lead-up to training camp. And before we start off, fan take Friday. I just want to thank our audience, our listeners, everybody who's part of the Locked-on Penguins community for another great season. It's been a ton of fun. We have seen our audience grow. We have seen our reach grow. It's awesome that you guys tune into us to chuckleheads talking about the Pittsburgh Penguins as often as we do, especially when they're in the middle of a rebuild. We know that can be annoying, stressful, and not as fun. But from the bottom of my heart and Hunter, I don't want to speak for you, but I will. Thank you guys so much for this season. I just want to add to that.

Thank you to everyone who has also at times even challenged us on some of our takes. We very much appreciate that as long as it's respectful. Of course, I don't want to be too mean to us in the comments. But I still very much appreciate those comments as well because it makes for some fun debates, some fun hockey talk in the comments. Again, as long as it's respectful. But I very much do appreciate some of those listeners as well because it is really fun going back and forth with you guys. I know how much you guys love this team as much as we do.

So from the bottom of my heart, thank you guys so much. We keep seeing our subs on YouTube grow every month. The audio downloads continue to grow every month as well. Yenz Rock, truly. Even when we make an occasional mistake on the show, you guys still keep coming back. So we very much appreciate this. It's the perfect time, in my opinion, to phase down to three episodes a week, especially as we get deeper into July.

The news is not as newsy anymore. but from the bottom of my heart as well, thank you guys so much for making this another really fun season. I know the penguins are down right now, but I do think there is going to be light at the end of the tunnel at some point here in the future where this team will be a contender again. It's probably going to be another rough year this year, but I know yins are going to stick around for it.

So again, thank you guys so much. And with that in mind, because you guys are so awesome, we are going to finish up this run of daily episodes with a full episode of Fan Take Friday, whereas we have said multiple times, we take your questions, react to your hot takes and everything in between. And we start this one off with an absolute banger from Raphael

on Instagram who sent us this one. And I am going to use his words to set this one up. He says, hi guys, greetings from Portugal, not the typical ice hockey country. And he says he has a twist for fans. and take Friday. He asks, what if the penguins started the rebuild slash retool after they lost to Montreal in the

COVID bubble in 2020? What stage would the penguins be in right now? So before we get into any of the specifics, I want to set this one up this way. There is a team in a plan that we reference on this show quite a bit. Hockey analysts all around the sport reference this. And it's the Washington Capitals because regardless of their lack of playoff success over the past year or two or anything like that, they have kind of set the standard of what a team that has an aging core but still believes in that aging core can do to give them another kick at the can. and that's identify the players that you believe still have something left to give and sell everybody else off.

Now, they obviously got some injury luck with Oshy and Baxter going on LTIR, getting all that cap space up, freed up, which helped them out. But realistically, if the Penguins could have done this after the COVID bubble playoff in 2020, they would probably be in pretty good position right now because if you look at this team that loses in the bubble to Montreal in 2020. They've still got quite a bit that would aid in a rebuild. Sid, Gino, and Latang are in their early 30s. Unfortunately, they get eliminated on Crosby's birthday, 8-7, 2020.

But you run down the list of what they have available to move. You could realistically move on from Jake Gensel years earlier. he's only 25 at the time of this series. So dead in his prime, one of the best wingers going at the time. You'll get a lot of return for him. Brian Rust, 27, not quite what he is now, but you could see the seeds starting. Teams would absolutely have taken a shot on him.

Zooker values not that high, but still you can see teams taking a chance on him. You've obviously got John Marino, who they move on. from about a year and a half later young defenseman with a lot of potential. Jared McCann is a player they could have gotten a good return for. Brian Dumolin, still much, very much Brian Dumlin. And then you have Marcus Pedersen, a young defenseman with a lot of promise. And then in net, there's still Stanley Cup shine on Matt Murray. He's fallen apart a little bit, but it hasn't quite happened yet.

So you probably could have convinced some teams. and then you have a 24-year-old Tristan Jari who looks like the next one, which is something you could get returned for. I think if they were to have done this, Hunter, they probably would be right back near the top right now. Maybe because like the thing about that series is it was just so weird. They were off for so long.

Remember, they weren't even expecting to have Jake Denzel back. If that year was normal, Pat, obviously it wasn't because of the pandemic, but they get Jake back. We're all like, okay, we know this is a weird. situation, but they could potentially make a run here with everyone healthy, even though they did have legit issues, you know, the Schultz-Johnson pairing for one of them. And then Matt Murray just wasn't as good, especially in that series against Montreal. Heck, there were also fans out there at the time that wanted the Penguins to move on from Sullivan. And, you know, with where we are at

today, five years later, I get the gripes that fans had at that time, just looking back at it. But Also, it feels like even when I look at it right now, I don't know if that was the correct time to really start, like doing that what if, being like, oh, what if they did that retool on the flyers, anything like that,

just because that team was still really good. You have Crosley Malkin in your early 30s. You have Latang still playing at a decently high level. It's not nearly as bad as it is right now. You have Jake in the prime of his career. You have Brian Russ still, you know, below 30 years old.

you don't have Ricardo Raquel yet you probably don't get Rickel by the way if you start that retool on the fly here so you don't have that situation you still have other players on the team that you'd have to figure out a way to get rid of maybe you still buy out jack johnson for example you still figure out a way to get out of Justin shultz you know the brandon tannive contract is still there and hell i like brandon tannov a lot as a player that contract was not good to say the least and also pat another thing we didn't really talk about do we really trust Jim Rutherford to do that during the late stages of his tenure. Again, I love Jim Rutherford for what he did with 16 and 17. He made some decent moves toward the end of his tenure. I love the Jared

McCannum move, by the way, and I'd like to think they get a lot more for him than they did around the time of the expansion draft when they bungled that and all that other stuff, but that's a whole different discussion for a different day. But I just don't know if I trust Jim Rutherford to do what needs to be done if they were to actually do a retool on the fly in that situation, just because he was very hit or miss at that point. A lot of it was kind of throwing stuff for the wall, hoping it stick. Again, there were some good moves in there. Don't get me wrong.

I love that he was able to find, you know, for example, you know, John Marino out of absolutely nowhere. I love that he was able to, you know, obviously get Marcus Pedersen towards the late stages of his tenure. As much as I hated the TANF contract, he was still a lot of fun to watch. I love that he was able to find Jared McCann and even Nick Bukstad. You know, you still have Duma in there. But I just don't know if he was going to do, you know, if he was going to, excuse me, make the necessary move. So looking at where we are today and looking at that roster, looking at the seasons that we saw after with how good the 2021 team was, the 21-22 team was, I'm kind of glad they didn't start it at that rate.

you know, if you want to argue that they should have started it during the 22, 23 season, I will not argue with you. I think that would have been a really good time to start it. But I think around that time, I'm kind of glad they didn't. Maybe that's a hot take to some people, but that's how I see it because I still felt like the core in place was still really good. The supporting pieces were still really good. I felt like you still at that point owed it to Sid to keep going.

Now for 22, 23, especially after, you know, missing the playoffs that year. Okay, maybe that was the year in Kyle Dubas's first offseason. If you want to argue for them to start the retool then, I think it's a lot more better to argue than 1920 for me. That's why I don't want to throw too much cold water on this because it's a, that's the whole purpose. Right.

And take Friday is we're playing in alternate universes. We're throwing out hot takes. We're not operating in any sort of. of actual analysis. We're having fun with it. But that to me, you brought up the thing that kind of keeps me from saying they should have done it is not just that the team was still pretty good. They still had some of the best odds to win the Stanley Cup in that in that time frame.

That 2020 team was so good. They got done in by goaltending. That 21, 22 team. I will still to this day say this. They beat the Rangers. They will beat the Hurricanes. in that series. I felt like that team was better than the Hurricanes.

I think they would have gotten to the Eastern Conference final. I do not think they win that series against Tampa. I think that is where their run ends because that Tampa Bay team was really good. But I think some people do forget just how good those two teams were right after 1920, which is why, even though this is a fun exercise, I'm glad that they did not start the retool slash rebuild on the fly after 1920. And then you brought up the other point that would have concerned me was the Jim Rutherford of it all. Right.

He is notorious for not having patience. He is a very impatient general manager. And that is part of what makes him a hockey hall of famer and a multiple times Stanley Cup winning general manager is that he can be ruthless. He can be impatient when he sees he has a team that can win. And I just don't know if having the likes of Sidney Crosby, of Gennie Malkin, Chris LaTang,

and Mike Sullivan behind the bench is going to be enough for him to say listen, we're going to take a couple years off here. We're going to hit the reset button and we're going to try to fill out a better supporting cast. So I do think after they miss the playoffs in the playoff streak ends, that's when it should have began. But we're not going to relitigate all of the heckstall years. We have done that way too much, way too often. But that was a great question and a great start to Fan Take Friday.

we've got plenty more, and we brought up Kyle Dubus in the rebuild. We're going to address that and so much more of so many more of your questions on this fan take Friday episode of Locked on Penguins. Stick with us. We'll be right back right after this. But first, we got to tell you about today's sponsor in that is Game Time. Have you ever decided at the last minute to head to a ballgame with your friends or family? Maybe it's game day and you suddenly realize you want to sit, you want to be in the stands.

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L-O-C-O-C-O-N-H-L for $20 off. Download the game time app today. Last-minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. Welcome back to a fan take Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp, right alongside Hunter Hodes. We're going to keep this rolling. We got this one from Penn's Fan,

00-82 on YouTube asking, why don't a lot of Penguins fans like Kyle Dubus? I feel like he's doing a fine job. I see a lot of fans putting too much blame on him when he's only been here for a little over two years. I'm over a couple mindsets of this. One, he inherited a mess, an absolute mess. It cannot be understated,

and we're not going to do the thing where we harp on the previous regime for too long. They're gone. They did what they did. But it can't be understated that in about two years, the Hextall-Birk regime did a lot of damage to this team. They did not leave them in a good spot. And it really, really screwed the future for this franchise. Then there's the other end of it. And I don't mean this in a negative way.

It's just the reality of the situation. The biggest bullhorn in the hockey world is Toronto. And Toronto's severely underachieved. in his time as general manager and that fairly or unfairly leaves a stench on a guy right i mean you see all the takes coming out of toronto right when he gets hired you see it even after he does the smallest thing you know least fans go after him it's very strange we sometimes get a couple of those comments from lease fans on our channel just some weird people out there but i think ever since the Jake Angel trait, I think Kyle Dubas has had a good approach. I think he is handling things

mostly fairly decently throughout the early stages of the rebuild. Now, the jury is still very much out if he can build a legit contender again. That's going to be the biggest challenge that he faces. And we'll have to see if he succeeds or fails. Again, the jury is out. But over the last year, almost year and a half, I think he has had a good approach. I think he's a nice job building out the front office. And I think you can see a pretty clear plan in place right now. I understand that Ricardo, Raquel, and Russ Nader Carlson are still on this team right now. I get it.

But it's still only July 11th. There is no guarantee that all these guys will be on the opening night roster come October. I would bet that they all probably will not be on the open night roster. I would say at least one of them is going to get dealt, if not two. Who knows about three? but I would say right now at least one, if not two. But again, ever since the Gantle trade, I think he's had a mostly fine approach,

but he will succeed or fail when it comes to building a legit contender. I want to see if he is still here after the Penguins come out of this rebuild, if he is still here, what moves does he make to get this team to be back to being a contender? that's where I'm going to really see if his tenure succeeds or if it fails. You know, his first summer here wasn't very good. We've talked about that a lot on the show. And some of that was bad luck. Like the Eric Carlson trade, I saw what he was going for.

It hasn't worked out the way everyone thought it would. But we went on the show applauding him because we felt like the penguins were able to get out of some bad contracts. They got back Eric Carlson, who was expected to be really good on the blue line. and I think some people had some unrealistic expectations, but I will also admit that he hasn't been as good as I thought. He was going to be. I'm not going to sit here and defend him for everyone.

You know, even the Riley Smith trade. I came on here saying like, yeah, I really like that move. It didn't work out here. Noachari, Matt Nietto, those two moves did not work out. Even the Ryan Graves one. I liked it a little bit more at the time. That might take on that age like complete milk because he's been a complete disaster. And again, as we discussed in the first segment,

If you want to argue that he should have started the process at that point, I won't argue with you. Like I understood why they did what they did, giving them one lash push. But if you want to argue that that was wrong, I won't, I'll see your point because I understand what you're saying. So that's probably a lot of jumbled words in my answer. But I do think some of the hate is a little misguided. It's still very much a work in progress here. The biggest thing I will say in Kyle Dubus's defense is that outside of, I would say, probably the Jari extension. That one, yeah.

All of his moves, including his first off season, which we have acknowledged in hindsight was not very good. There has yet to be a move where you go, what is he trying to do here? The greatest one I would say as well, but I guess at the same time he's trying to replace. Brian Dumlin. To my point, all of his moves, you see a logical end point to them. There were no, why did you trade Carl Haglin for the sake of trading Carl Hagelin kind of moves, right? Where it just seems like he's trying something that makes no sense.

It's just doing it to do it. It's making a move to make a move. Signing a guy just to sign them. There was logic and reason behind them, even if they didn't work out. So we'll leave it at that for that one. Let's actually keep this moving with a good one from Michael Gregorich. He says, if Rust and Raquel are on the roster game one this year, it's a better team than last years.

There are more top six options. There's addition by subtraction when Carlson gets dealt. What makes you guys think that they'll be worse? I'll say this. I agree with the beginning of this. I do think their forward group is much improved going into this season. There's a log jam, but you can see where the addition by subtraction works as well, because there's better, not better, but more top six options available, which pushes some guys down,

which gives you a better forward group. The problem is there are still too many question marks on defense in massive question marks and goal. We know, we kind of know who Jari is at this point. Maybe he improves a little bit on the margins, is a solid. is slightly better, but that's still a big question mark. And as for Yowell Blumquist, he's a young goalie. He's going to be inconsistent. He might have a couple weeks stretch where he looks like he's ready to take over

starter duties. He might have a couple of weeks stretch where we look like, oh my God, we can't even put him in the net. So those are two really big question marks. The forward group marginally better, but defense in goaltending are still big, big question marks the top nine right now as it stands with rickelle and brian russell here i think the top nine is better than where it was last year especially now with anthony mantha that's probably one of the best ufay forward signings they've had and quite a while if we're being honest in the crossey malk

and aeropath there's not too many than i can think of when it comes to pure ufa forwards that they have signed in free agency that have been better than anthony mantha i i'm trying to think of some right now, not too many are coming to my head because a lot of these guys, again, you know, Brian Rust drafted, Ricardo Cal trade. You know, Marco Magnaugherty, they traded for. The Lake Govinen, they traded for, you know, even before Jake Gensel, they drafted him. Like, you look at the players in the top nine right now, Anthony Manth, probably one of the best forward as they sound in free agency, Thotha Crosby, Malkinera.

Again, that's saying something, considering how long this era has been going on. but top nine right now is better than where it was last season. Defense, no, it's worse. I don't think anyone could argue that. I get what he's saying when it comes to Carlson a little bit, but at the same time, who is giving you all those minutes on the right side if you move him and who is going to do a better job of giving you that offense? I am not sitting here saying Eric Carlson is a perfect player.

He is far from it. But like, again, who is going to give you similar production offensive? at five on five if you move him out. There is no one on that side that can do it. It's not going to be Matt Dumba. It's not going to be Connor Clifton. It's not going to be Chris LaTang. And Harrison Brunich, that's just too high of expectations for him if he even makes

the team out of camp. So I push back on that one a little bit. And then goal attending. Yeah, we know who Tristan Jari is. Very inconsistent goalie. I do think there is at least a path to them being close to mid. if they keep Raquel and Rust going into the season at Forward. But that's really all I can see right now.

I think when it comes to the playoffs, very, and I mean very unlikely that they get in. There is a question about that for Fan Take Friday. You know, oh, like, you know, if they make the playoffs, you know, who do you think we would get? You know, who we have a chance to win a series. I don't think they would have a chance to win a series because they would probably play, A, Florida, because I think they'd be a wildcard team, or they probably play Carolina or New Jersey. because I think one of those two teams is going to win the Metro. Like, that's what Tony was saying.

Like, let's say the penguins get good goal tending this year, have better defense, and Gino actually has a solid line. Do you see us getting that second wildcard spot this year? I mean, that's a lot of ifs at the end of the day. If this happens, if this happens, if this happens. Like, when you have that many ifs, it's just hard to see a lot of that going right, you know?

Like, but if they were to get in somehow by some divine miracle, no, I don't think the penguins would, in a series. And I think they would probably get boat race by one of the top contenders in the Eastern Conference. Anyone that expects them to make the playoffs so this year, I would push that to a few years down the road. Right there with you on that. And that's a good place to leave this middle segment. We've got a couple more takes to run through to end the show. And we will do that when we come back right after this. We're back here on an all-fan take Friday edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp.

right alongside Hunter Hodes. Let's keep the fan take Friday energy rolling here, Hunter. And let's start with another question from YouTube. And that is, where do you guys think Magrorty and Coyvenin will slot into the lineup? Does Muse start them on the first two lines like the end of last season? Or do you see him doing something different with the lineup than Sullivan? Will the team, with the team finally having a new coach? I wonder if we'll see some new lines and new trains of thought.

I do think this is a little dependent upon what happens in camp and also what happens the rest of this offseason with Brian Rust and Ricard Raquel. If they're on the roster, that's going to make it a little bit more difficult. And you also have to factor in where is McGority and his recovery from injury? Is he going to be 100% ready to go? Is he going to need a little bit of runway to recover and maybe play a few games in the minors just to get his feet? dealing back just to get his timing back. Coyvenin, I think, is going to be in the top six to start the year. I think both of them will be assuming they have a good camp, but that's also a big,

not I want to say a big question mark, but still a question mark. They did very well. They did not look out of place when they got their shot to end last season. They very much looked NHL ready. McGority actually had some solid chemistry with Sidney Crosby. Boivenin, same deal with Hvgeny Malkin. So I think these guys are slotted to start the year in the top six. The thing I have brought up on the show before, though, that I want to see is I want to see

these guys along with your Tomasinos, your Tommy Novax, guys like that. I want to see them get a little bit more runway in these roles, more than four to five games. I wanted to be more eight to ten games. and if they're still slumping, then you switch it up. Because remember, not trying to win this season, but they got to go a little mad scientist with the lines. And I think Muse is going to do that. I think so too.

You're going to see some experimenting. My dog is barking at something outside, so I apologize about that. But you'll see some experimenting. I've talked about potentially Tommy Novak playing up with Evgeny Malkin at times this season. I think you might see Anthony Manta get some top six time, especially if they're looking to flip him.

And I imagine they will. if he can give you 15, 20 goals, similar to, you know, what mivoliated last year. I know he only had 13, but still right around that, I think you can get a decent return. They're going to showcase him a little bit up there. But even though they have a surplus of forwards, I don't know how much it means with regard to Covenin and Magrorty.

I think they should be roster locks, in my opinion. They showed enough down their stretch, and I know it was a small sample size, but I think they showed that they belonged, especially playing up with Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin. I expect them to start the season in the top nine this year. McGority showed a lot of really good chemistry with Sid. Coivinen with Malkin, though.

You did see some chemistry with Covenin and Sid as well. I would expect Magrorty, though, with Sid, and then Coivinin with Chino. I really liked Coivinin's minutes with Gino down the stretch. That's where I see it, and then they can fiddle with the other wingers on those lines if they want. You kind of said it. It's going to be a lot of mad scientist stuff where you might be seeing some things thrown in the blender. They'll have no shortage of options.

if like the top nine that you see right now, Pat, if that stays going into the regular season with Rust and Raquel, they'll have no shortage of options to really experiment with once the season starts. Yeah, that's kind of where I sit. And I agree that I think they should be locks, but I don't want to put a guarantee on it just because they are still pretty young. They're not franchise altering players. They're going to be good players, I imagine, as they continue to develop.

but part of the development process is there are going to be growing pains. They are going to have streaks in moments in times where it just isn't working out for them. It doesn't mean that they're busts. It doesn't mean that they stink all of a sudden. They're just going to have to grow through it. That's part of what happens when you're a developing player. Let's end on this one because we might as well have a little bit of fun to close out our run of daily episodes in Fan Take Friday. from G-Tots of the big three.

Only Crosby will be on the team next year. LaTang is most likely going to be Carrie Price and injury retired. You stop doing what you're doing right now. Now, now that I've said that, I don't think this is far-fetched about Latang. It depends on what happens with him because we've brought it up on this show. The fact that he is still even playing hockey at a moderately high level is nothing short of miraculous. He has been through neck surgeries, strokes. He's had all the bumps and bruises

that go along with being an NHL defenseman and a top pairing NHL defenseman. So the fact that he is still playing at even a moderately high level is insane. That said, there would need to be something catastrophic happening again. And I don't want to see that happen to Chris LaTang. I don't want to see him get injured that way. As for Evgeny Malkin, we've been through it. We'll see what happens if this is the retirement tour or if he's going to go play in Russia or if he's going to find something this year

and extend for a year or two. That's so up in the air. It's hard to make a call on it, but it's not just going to be Sid on the roster this season. I disagree on that. I appreciate the hot take, but I think we'll see on Gino. Like again, wait in C mode.

if he decides to come back, I expect it to be a one-year term with the Penguins where you see him play, 26, 27 with Sid. But I still think Let's hang will be there no matter what after this year. I think you'll get at least two of them. TBD on Gino, if he decides to retire, if this is his last season. But I think you'll at least see two of them. And then real quickly here, Pat, before we go. So on said, greetings from Finland.

How was Dubus going to get Carlson traded when the most likely teams have already filled their salary cap? Interesting to see you have a good vacation, guys. I think with Carlson, we still have to see if other teams want to enter the fray. Teams can open up cap room whenever they want. So I think right now the options might be a little bit more limited, but that can change at any point. You know, late July, early to mid-August. Trade can happen at any point.

Teams can open up cap space if they need to when they want. Obviously, there's some retention that could be available to the Penguins. We talked about a few teams in on Carlson. So, yeah, we'll leave it at that. Right now, the list of suitors is maybe a little bit lower, but that could change quickly if some teams open up some cap space. For sure. And seasons are unpredictable.

There are going to be teams of high expectations that don't meet them and they make a desperation move. There are going to be teams who suddenly find themselves as contenders that might look to add. So there's always the unpredictability of an NHL season. And there's one other thing you got to mention about that. Just about everybody in the league. has cap space now with an exploding salary cap.

So there is going to be wiggle room for a lot of teams and you still have all of your retention slots if you're Kyle Dubus. So there will be hopefully a market for Eric Carlson. But that is going to do it for this fan take Friday edition of Locked on Penguins. Once again, thank you guys so much for hanging with us for another season of Locked on Penguins. we will be back hopefully with a new episode for you on Monday covering any news that may break over the weekend and anything else we may want to talk about here on Locked on Penguins. But once again, thank you as always for being a part of this community.

For Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. We will be back on Monday.