Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Figuring out Kevin Hayes's fit on the Penguins with Haley Taylor Simon!

Episode Date: July 5, 2024

On a special crossover edition of the Locked On Penguins Podcast, Patrick and Hunter are joined by Haley Taylor Simon to discuss how Kevin Hayes will fit into the Penguins lineup this upcoming season. Haley shares what she's seen from Kevin Hayes over the past few seasons, what he brings to the table, and more. Then, they give Haley their thoughts on the Blues' latest acquisition, P.O. Joseph! Finally, since Haley is also a Flyers beat writer, the trio trade some barbs back and forth, adding to the rivalry! Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM/LOCKEDON and add a big win to your summer bucket list!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 ( Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kevin Hayes is now a Pittsburgh penguin. Pio Joseph is now on the St. Louis Blues. And joining Hunter and I on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins is Haley Taylor Simon from the Locked-on Blues podcast. And we're going to get into all of that right after this. Your Locked-on Penguin. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

as well as another edition of the Locked-on Blues podcast. And I am Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4Wet. Joined by my co-host Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. We thank you for making this your first listener watch of the day because we're your team every day. And don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcast.

And before we get started, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply. As I said at the top, we are joined today by Haley Taylor, Simon, of the Locked on Blues podcast. And before we talk about anything, Haley, for our locked on penguins listeners, who may not know you, give them a quick rundown of Locked On Blues, who you are and what you do, because I'm sure they're very interested in getting to know yet another Locked On network

host. Yeah, absolutely. So I'm Haley, I'm the host of Lockdown Blues. So you can expect daily episodes, five days a week, talking all things, St. Louis Blues. Also, exclusive blues content is found on my channel as well, some one-on interviews with some players and prospects. So always on Twitter at Lockdown Blues as well, tweeting away in my own Twitter at Haley T. Simon. We're happy to have you. We're really excited.

And thanks to give people a little bit of a peek behind the curtain. You reached out to us after the Kevin Hayes trade. We finally found some time because as you'll find out, out as this episode progresses. Haley is everywhere. She does everything. Us two bums, we do this show and do whatever else we do. So we appreciate you finally having some time set aside to join us to talk about this.

So without further ado, let's get into it. Kevin Hayes is now a Pittsburgh penguin in a sort of an interesting trade where the penguins sent future considerations, which apparently the blues spent no time flipping to us. other teams for Kevin Hayes and a second round pick. Haley, what can Penguins fans and the Penguins expect from Kevin Hayes now that he is on the roster? I'll give you some positives to begin with. On the face off, he is really good and consistent.

So I didn't expect to see that out of him. If he's on the third or fourth line, you're going to get a consistent center out of him as well. Nothing too crazy, but he is good at generating plays, very smart on the ring too and very careful and careful in a go-way, not overly cautious, but just careful with how he makes his passes and plays. So you get a hardworking guy that's great on the face-offs. What do you think led to him just having kind of a down year this past year just because when you look at him this year compared to previous years, 13 goals, 29 points in 79 games,

the year before that, he was a lot better, 18 goals, 54 points, and 81 games. His underlines went down a little bit this year with, you know, 45% of the shot attempts per 60 minutes when he was on the ice for St. Louis, his scoring chances rate went down, his expected goals rate went down. Do you think it just wasn't a good fit for him with the blues more than anything? Yeah, so that's my biggest takeaway. I'm watching Hayes for quite a while. I don't think he meshed very well at the St. Louis Blues, and he never wanted to leave his previous team. So when he take that into consideration that you have a player that was really comfortable where he was at, you're throwing him into a new team. A lot of negative,

um coming negativity coming to the season especially from the fan base no one was really wanting Kevin Hayes and i think that you know players go on social media they read what's going on so you're going to a city where you know you're not really wanted uh you're not meshing well with the team who knows you know what went on in his head but it definitely translated on the ice to a really bad season yeah and you look at like hunter kind of brought up he has kind of declined a little bit over the past couple of seasons. He was very effective in his time with the New York Rangers actually went on to do fairly well with the Philadelphia Flyers, considering their situation, being in a rebuild and

starting to get themselves back on track to being competitive and then eventually becoming contenders. But when you look at the penguins and where they are right now, they're obviously, Hunter and I have been saying it on our show. Kyle Dubus isn't saying it, but they're doing a quick rebuild here over the next couple of seasons. They're not using that word, but you look at all the moves they've made the last couple of weeks and into free agency. They're trying to do some quick stockpiling here and get back to being competitive before the Corps retires. But with that in mind, you look at what he's been able to do in the past couple of seasons.

do you see this as a guy who can at the very least keep this penguin team moderately competitive going into this season? Yeah. So as I said, that third and fourth line is going to be a huge upgrade having haze in it. Most likely with the penguins, I would say that he's a third line type of guy, just with how the team is.

But you have some of these great players on the Pittsburgh Penguins. You have, you know, Crosby, obviously. That's one of the best of all time. Malkin. You have all these really, you know, solid players that are veteran leaders. So you're adding a guy that you can put into the third or fourth line, depending on where are the penguins want to use him.

And it's going to really help out these younger guys, especially the young guys that they drafted a couple years ago, the guys that, you know, maybe they decide to bring up from the HL. But the point is, is that the penguins are now going to have a player in Kevin Hayes that is going to be able to work with Cindy Crosby. He has never played with Cindy Crosby. They've been Metropolitan Division rivals for quite a while with the different teams that he's been on.

So now he gets an opportunity to really excel and play with one of the best in the league. So overall, this is a huge win for the penguins. They gave up future considerations, which I know that's a little tough sometimes to have to give away. But at the end of the day, you're really winning the treat. Like the penguins, no matter what, are going to benefit from this situation. having Kevin Hayes. Right. And Pat and I, we both think he's probably going to slot in at third line center. And if Lars Eller is still on the team, he'll probably slot down to a fourth line center just for added depth. And I think of him more at this point as a playmaker for his career. And if they

were to put some finishers around him, I think that has the makings of a pretty sound third line. Would you agree with something like that? Maybe adding a finisher or two to his line that can just finish off the chances that, you know, for him, him as a playmaker that he would create. Yeah, so Kevin Hayes, I mean, he used to be a big goal scorer back in the day. But over time, we saw that kind of go away and he's more of a playmaker as we talked about. So if you have somebody that's able to score those goals, but him setting up the play, then you're going to have a really solid third line and a very beneficial third line.

Third lines in the NHL for whatever reason always stress me out. Because I feel like the fourth lines, you know you always have to work on them and make them solid. but the third line sometimes get a little bit neglected. So now that you're giving that tender loving care of the third line and you're having Hayes, who is, I have to tell you, but as I said, phenomenon on the face loss, so you're having a guy that's going to be able to generate the puck to the net. You're going to get points out of that third line. So we've talked, to end this segment, we've talked pretty much here at this point about

some strengths and some positives with Kevin Hayes. And I'm admittedly a little bit higher on this than most. I think for obviously you give up nothing to get a guy like Kevin Hayes. Yeah, which who knows what that could be. It could be literally anything or as we've seen plenty of times in the NHL turns into nothing. But we look at all that and we think, okay, we got a solid third line guy. I like I said, I'm admittedly a little bit higher on it than most. I think he's going to help solidify a third line, which is something the penguins have been severely missing for the past few seasons.

but what would you say are some of the weaknesses? Because we know that a little bit up there in age, not the fastest skater. So if there's a downside to having Kevin Hayes on your roster, what should we be cautioned for? And I'm going to be nice on this. He gets in his head way too much. If he's having like an all first period,

he's going to have an all for us of the game. That's just how he is. He's slow to get to the puck. sometimes spatial awareness too he's not always aware of that stick handling it could use improvement but again that's with age the game gets faster you get older you know that happens and you know I would say the number one thing about Kevin Hayes and I know I said in his head but it's so true I mean it's not even just for a game it could be for chunks of games and I think that his confidence and I'm not saying that he's not a confident guy because I don't know him personally but

this confidence on the ice definitely deteriorated. So I think a lot of what you need to get of Kevin Hayes is for him to be in a good headspace. Obviously, when I noticed this, and this is a very sad situation, he lost his brother, Jimmy, a few years back. And, you know, I literally saw Kevin throughout that whole process. And I just know that things have been really rough for him. So I hate to be like, oh, well, that's the reason. why I do believe that a part of a reason why is because, you know, his life completely changed in a really negative way. So you can expect to see a guy and I'm going to leave this positive.

Despite everything that I said, you're going to see a guy that truly does care about the game of hockey that is truly so passionate. And whenever he scores their goal, he points up to his late brother, Jimmy. So he definitely wants to score those goals because he wants to obviously be able to share that moment with Jimmy. So just whenever I talk about Kevin Hayes, I always want to put that out there because people give him a lot of hate, but we're all human, right? And he had to deal with something really, really tragic. Yeah. I mean, overall, I do think, like I said, it's a solid ad. And I'm looking forward to that first Kevin Hayes goal when he points up to the sky in honor of his brother. That'll be a great moment for him, for the fans. I hope it really will endear him

to Penguins fans in that moment. But that will do it for this first segment. When we come back, well, now there's a penguin, a former penguin on the St. Louis Blues, and we will talk about P.O. Joseph and everything that means for the St. Louis Blues. But before we do that, we have to tell you about our first sponsor, and that is eBay Motors. Passion driving patience, the formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive.

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Okay, we're back here on a crossover edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We're joined by Haley Taylor Simon of Locked-on Blues. and it was announced just a day ago that now former Penguins defenseman, P.O. Joseph, has signed with the St. Louis Blues on a one-year contract worth $950,000. Even more exciting for P.O. Joseph and Hunter and I briefly spoke about this earlier this week. He joins his brother, Matthew. They are both now on the St. Louis Blues. So you look at this signing for St. Louis. And aside from it being very fun, a very cool story, his parents will only have to wear different names and numbers at games this year rather than different team jerseys.

Does this Haley fit a need that the Blues had going into this offseason? Because P.O. Joseph, solid younger defenseman for the Penguins, he came on strong at the end of the year. but overall his journey in a penguin uniform, very up and down, a lot of inconsistencies, started to really come into his own at the end of the year. But overall, this has been a bit of a shaky development for P.O. Joseph. But in your estimation, does that fill a need for St. Louis? And can he help them out?

I sure hope so. The one thing about the blues is our defense sucks. I'll say it. We have one of the worst defenses in the NHL. statistically it doesn't show but when you watch them play it's like Swiss cheese it sucks I don't know and that's the thing inconsistency freaks me out when it comes to the blueses defense because that's literally the definition of the St. Louis Blues's defense what I wanted this offseason was to get a veteran defenseman a guy kind of like Colton Pereca who we have that could

really you know show the younger guys especially our you know our prospect guys this is what you need to do. And we have players like a Tyler Tucker who I think has been doing well on defense, but we don't need more younger guys. We have the younger guys. But I'm hoping, hoping that because his brother is on the team, I know they're super competitive with each other, that this will then motivate him a little bit to be more consistent. It makes me nervous. I'm not going to lie. I think the money, it's a good deal. Financially, good deal. But would I have done this? No. I would not have. Interesting. I think, you know, when you look at the penguin situation here, they signed that Grizzlic to replace him for almost $3 million for one year. You look at what P.O. Joseph

got. He didn't even get a million for this. I could think I could definitely make an argument that the penguins would be better off just keeping P.O. Joseph compared to Grizzlic. But, hey, that's not what Kyle Dubbus decided to do. He signed Grizzlick over Joseph. But I am happy for Joseph. He gets to go to a team that I think most people expect to not be a playoff team next year. I'm kind of in the camp. And I know Pat agrees, I think the blues are kind of in that middling pack where I think they're closer to the bottom of the league compared to, you know, the upper teams overall. So I think he could be getting quite a bit of playing time overall. What you're getting is a player who improved as the year went on, especially down the stretch. I think he played the best hockey of his career

down the stretch with Chris Littang, the two together were playing pretty solid. And Joseph, you also saw him work on his shot quite a bit. I made this joke a lot, Unlocked on Penguins and Pat, he knows where this is going. Pio Joseph kind of had a muffin shot at times, but he really worked on it down the stretch. He could really fire the puck in quite a few games, brought a little bit more offense. I think his offensive game really improved down the stretch for the penguins. And if there's one thing he needs to work on, it's his play around the front of the net. I think he's still a little bit soft in that area and just getting loose pucks out of the

corners. I think he could still work on that a little bit as well. But I do think there is at least a little bit of upside to his game as well going to a different environment now in St. Louis. I hope so. I mean, I know you said that you guys don't see the Blues as being a playoff team. I disagree. I think that the Blues, their sneaky team.

We finished 16th this year. So obviously, just a little bit out of it. But as I said, with the right defensive help, this team can be a playoff team. And maybe he will help the defense. You know, definitely not on the first or second pair, but maybe on a third pair, he could fit in. But again, like the thing that the St. Louis Blues is, you truly never know. So I'm hoping this works out. I really am, but I'm not holding my breath.

And it's no disrespect to the Penguins development in any way. It's just when it comes to the blues and defense, it usually doesn't work out. Yeah, and you look at adding P.O. Joseph to this group. Obviously, Justin Falk is still there. Tori Krug is still there. Unfortunately. Nick Letty got Nick Letty and a couple others. Where, obviously only knowing a little bit of P.O. Joseph from what we told you,

where could you potentially see him fitting in that defensive core? Well, all the guys you named, I wish were not there. So, no, it's true. It's really bad. The only guy that I really feel like a solid right now is Colton Farroko. But in that defensive core, I mean, I could see him playing alongside a Tyler Tucker, maybe a Scott Perunovich. Anything higher would honestly not be fair to Joseph because then he would be putting him in a

situation where he wouldn't excel in. So I think, again, that third pair, you would have to either get him with Tucker or Perunovich, and that's even if they get playing time. Yeah, I think the third pair is probably best for him at this point. I mean, he was playing top pair of minutes with Letang, but the Penguins kind of had no choice in that situation just because of how bad Ryan Graves had been for most of the season. Then, you know, he got a little bit banged up towards the end of the season, but they kind of really had no choice. He was playing a little bit out of his depth, but he still

played fine enough. I mean, it was better than Ryan Graves overall, but I still think in a hard bar to clear. Yeah, you're saying it like. The bar is on the floor for Graves heading into next season. But I think the best case for P.O. Joseph, you know, high-end second pairing, potentially, but I think the third pair is still probably best for him at this point. Yeah, it's all about players and how you can make them, you know, be the most successful. So it would be wrong with me to say, yes, who'd be your second pair kind of guy? When the reality is, do I think that from just the observations now? No, but that's why you have training camp.

That's why you have preseason where you can really mash up these lines and pairs, and you can really see where he fits in. Listen, for all I know, he might be in the first pair. that's actually not going to happen. But that's always a possibility, you know, so give it some time. But right now, you're going to definitely get at least a third pair type of guy. Yeah, like I said, I really liked where his development was heading by the end of the year. Now, obviously, like Hunter said, that was born of complete necessity because of what a disaster that Ryan Graves was in his first season and just how inconsistent the penguins as a whole were last

year. So he kind of got, you don't want to say trial by fire because he had been up and down and out of the lineup for a few years. So he started to get a foothold in the NHL, but he was thrust into a role he probably wasn't ready for, but still did a fairly solid job in it. But we will see what happens with P.O. Joseph and his brother in St. Louis now that they have been reunited. But that will do it for this second segment. Like I said at the top of the show, Haley kind of does it all. So along with being the host of Locked on Blues, she is also a beat reporter for Cover Your Eyes, Locked on Penguins fans, the Philadelphia Flyers.

So when we come back, we're going to talk to Haley a little bit about the state of the Penguins Flyers rivalry as it stands today. And we will do that right after this. All right, welcome back to a cross-up. edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We are joined once again by Haley Taylor Simon of Locked-on Blues. And like I said, before we threw to break, not only does she do an admirable job hosting that show. She's everywhere. She was at the draft most recently. She's also a beat reporter for the Philadelphia Flyers. So she has been all over development camp for them this past week.

so we couldn't do an episode like this with somebody who covers the flyers and not talk a little Penguins Flyers. Hunter and I have said this and we, the three of us did kind of talk about this before we hit record. The state of the Penguins Flyers rivalry, at least here in Western Pennsylvania, it's kind of cooled off a bit because both teams have been on separate tracks. there hasn't been that big explosive matchup like we saw in the early 2010s. What does the Penguins Flyers rivalry look like over there in eastern Pennsylvania? It's still going strong. I can tell you that.

Even if it's one way, it is still going strong. Whenever the Pittsburgh Penguins come to town, you can expect to see just craziness happen at the Wells Fargo Center. We hate the penguins here. it's always going to be that way. Sydney Crosby took the ice. I forget which game it was since they play quite a bit. And all you hear is, I'm not going to say it because, again, we're locked on.

We're, you know, censored. But it was Bleep Crosby, bleep Crosby. And that's all you would hear. And music to my ears. I mean, honestly, you penguins people. And I mean this in their respectful way. You penguins people. I'm on the podcast.

I'm being respectful. But you guys, right, look at the flyers and are like, oh, this isn't a competitive team, you know, they're in their, like, fifth rebuild in the past, like, five years. Meanwhile, we look at the penguins. We don't care if we're in a rebuild. We still hate you. And that's the type of environment. So for you guys, you're like, oh, let's go try to get another cup because we have, like, a million.

We're like, let's try to go to the playoffs because we haven't made it. So completely two different type of mindsets right now. You know, I just love that Flyers fans treat their father like that. That's just so nice of them to do that. Their father? We're talking about Sidney Crosby. He is their dad. With how much he produces against them over the years, yes.

I mean, how about that stadium series? Yes. If that's what you're holding up, Haley, I don't know if you really got a leg to stand on here. No, that's literally it. You guys have Cubs. We had the stadium series. Hang the banner. No, I would if you could, but you don't get that through that.

Okay, so the one thing I do have to ask about, aside from the rivalry, you guys got the big prize. Thank you. Breyer made it happen. Matt Veimichkoff is a Philadelphia flyer. And yes, when I decide to redownload Twitter to my phone, I'll probably make jokes about it, but I'm taking a Twitter break for my mental health. At this point, though, I know I'll joke that, oh, a big prospect going to the

Flyers, that's worked well in the past. But by all accounts, this dude is the real deal. What do you know about this guy? And how long is he going to torture us as Penguins fans? Well, listen, we got torture by Senior Crosby still ongoing. So I don't want to hear that one. You guys also got cups. I know. But in all seriousness, though, Mietchkoff is one of players that is going to be a franchise player goal scorer playmaker great on the power play great on the penalty kill he is everything that you want in an all-star type of player he's going to be lights out his speed is inevitable so when you look and you think about okay well where is he going to fit on the flyers put him in that first line deservingly so and you're i mean even this season and i'm being

very honest about this as excited as i am about the flyers having mitchkov do i think they're going to be a playoff team? Probably not. And you know, you look at Connor Bedard, for example, great overall player, but the Blackhawks didn't make the playoffs. And that's because it's a team sport. So I say this not jokingly, but I say this because it's true. Sydney Crosby was one of a kind, especially in his prime. You know, when he came into the game, only a teenager still really and was able to turn the penguins around. So do I think Michkov has that same? kind of power? No. I think that there's very few players, and I'm saying this carefully, you have a Wayne Kretzky that could turn any team good. Sydney Krasby, all we see of him is

on the Penguins. We never saw him anywhere else, and I don't want to ever see him in another team, first off. I hate that idea of it, too. Very few players like him. So as much as Mietchkov is going to be a great player, do I think that there's something that special that he can get this team to win a cup, not on his own with some help. And that's okay. And you know what? That doesn't take away from his talents. But I mean, I love that I'm on this podcast talking about it because I feel like

Penguins fans are the only ones who truly do know what it's like to have a player that is so special. I wasn't able to see Gretzky play. I wasn't alive yet. So my Gretzky is Cindy Crosby. And as a Philadelphia person, that kills me. But it's true. So I guess you can say in comparison,

Mechkoff is like the Alexander Ovechkin, if we had to compare it to a player. Where Ovi still got his help, obviously. But it's different than Sydney because Sydney did it on his own. Yeah, I think once the Flyers kind of transition out of this rebuild phase, they'll get him some more help. And I think they'll start making the playoffs. I mean, they were really close to making the playoffs this past year.

I'm not surprised. I mean, I think everyone was stunned by it. They really bought into Tortorilla system, but I could tell late in the year they were running out of gas. Like some of these games, they were just getting blown now. And I'm like, okay, I feel like this is going on. They had to go on their almost 10 game losing streak to end the season, obviously. But no, remember the end of the season, though? It was the Red Wings, the Penguins, the Flyers and the Capitals, all fighting through that playoffs spot.

Oh, my goodness. I would have lost my mind if the Penguins made it. I'm just saying. Nobody wanted to win it. It was everybody going, just hot potatoing it. Like, no, you take it. No, you take it. I don't want it.

You take it. No, you take it. It was awful. But I do think that will do it for this edition of locked on penguins and this crossover edition with Locked on Blues. But before we close it out, Haley, for our locked on penguins listeners, let them know where they can find you, what you're working on and anything else you'd like to say. Listen, send me those hate tweets, penguins fans. It's at Haley T. Simon. It's a lot of flyer stuff.

So I'm going to warn you if you don't want to see that, then just follow Lockdown Blues, which is at Lockdown Blues. But we'll have some fun when our teams play each other throughout the season, even if it's not an episode, but we want to tweet at each other, you know, off for it. Yeah. Thank you for having me. We appreciate you coming on and taking the time.

Like I said, we know how busy you are with everything you've got to do. So we really appreciate you taking the time to fit us into your schedule. but that will do it for this edition of the show for Haley Taylor Simon and Hunter Hodes. I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always, for tuning in, and we will be back with new episodes next week.