Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Finding a fit on the Penguins for Tommy Novak and Luke Schenn

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

Now that Kyle Dubas has made two moves, it's time to figure out where they'll fit in the Penguins' lineup! Patrick and Hunter talk about the acquisitions of Luke Schenn and Tommy Novak and where they'll be playing once the Penguins take the ice post-trade deadline, assuming they remain on the roster. Then, after a surprising return for old friend Brian Dumoulin, they discuss how that may have increased the value for Penguins' defenseman Matt Grzelcyk. Could they ask for something similar, such as a second-round pick and a mid-level prospect? We'll see what kind of magic Dubas has up his sleeve. Finally, they discuss the stunning Tampa Bay Trade with Seattle as well as what the Carolina Hurricanes should do with Mikko Rantanen. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR 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.

Today on Locked-on Penguins, there's some new faces in Pittsburgh. So where exactly do they fit in the lineup? What is Matt Grizzlick's trade value and a quick look around the league at some of the other trades that have happened ahead of the deadline? All that and more on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on all social media platforms at Synonym for 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 L0 underscore Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcast. including the Roku channel and YouTube.

If you follow us on YouTube, be sure to hit that notification button that way. You can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. And as we did last night, a breaking special analysis episode of the two trades that Kyle Dubus made. Before we dive into all of that, though, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new customers can get $150. in bonus bets if their first $5 bet wins. So as I just said, you're probably aware of people

because you are absolute sickos like Hunter and I are, but we dropped a very late night, technically early morning episode of Locked on Penguins after Kyle Dubus made a couple of trades on Wednesday night. And if you missed it, shame on you for six weeks. The Penguins sent Vinnie Dayharnay to the San Francisco, Jose Sharks for a 2028 fifth round pick.

That was a bit of a nothing burger, as I'm sure you can imagine, that was not emergency episode worthy. But then just about an hour later, Kyle Dubas shocked all of us by sending Michael bunting and a 26 fourth round pick to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Luke Shen and forward Tommy Novak. So we kind of went over the trade last night in our emergency episode, Hunter. We just kind of talked about who are these guys? Do we like the trade?

And what does this trade mean for the long term health and the long term plan of the Pittsburgh Penguins? So today, rather than rehash all of that, because again, you should have listened to it if you didn't. Again, shame on you for six weeks. But today, instead of all that, we'll talk about, okay, should Shen remain a penguin, it kind of feels like he's going to, at least through this season. And Luke, or Luke Shen, excuse me, already said that. Tommy Novak, excuse me, where will they fit in this lineup for the Pittsburgh Penguins? So let's start with the easy one.

And the easy one is Tommy Novak. I look at this penguin's roster right now. You set it on Twitter. Some goofball tried to flame you for it and found out you don't walk into the furnace without any sort of protection. He's the third best center on the Pittsburgh Penguins right now. So to me, immediately you slot him in as your third line center. I think you would go something like Novak between Hayes and Cody Glass,

if I had to guess. and that would give you a fourth line of Noelle Achari, Blake Lazotte, and Danton Heine. I think that's fair. I think Novak has to be the third line center going forward. You can put him with Tomasino, if you want to try that out, even though I am still a big fan of Tomasino playing with Evgeny Malkin full time. That's just me. I know a couple people have asked like, what does this mean for Hayes and Glass?

Well, in my opinion, there's at least a chance that one of those guys potentially gets moved by Friday. Hayes is probably the more likelier of the two because I think they like Glass a little bit more and they want to see more of what he can do with this team down the stretch and then potentially into next season. Again, that's just my opinion though.

But after that, you can have Lazot still be your fourth line center and then, you know, put Hinen around him or something like that. If a chari gets moved, heck, you can even put glass around him or something like that like this. That's the type of line that I think can get Lazot going a bit more because when he was playing really well during the, early stages of the regular season and scoring goals. It was because he had a good amount of talent around him.

Then they put Nydo two around him. Then they put Achari around him. And that's just going to bring down his game because Nyedo at this point, he hasn't really not that good. And then Achari, fine enough penalty killer. So-so at that, he is pretty physical, but he doesn't bring a lot of offense. And I think when you surround someone like Lazot with two players like that, you're just allowing your fourth line to kind of get caved in and do a lot of these

defensive zone starts. It really doesn't do you any good to do that. So I think by putting two players who at least can give you a little bit of offense next to a lot, that makes sense. And then with Novak, for example, you don't move Hayes, you can maybe have Hayes next to him as well. That makes sense. And then again, maybe have someone like a Thomasino, if you want to at least explore that as a finisher on that third line. They have plenty of options, honestly, that you can keep Thomasino up with Gino. But at the very least, I would start. Novak as the third line center. I've seen people in our comments also point out like, hey, you could put Malkin next to him. I don't foresee that happening. I think they're going to keep

Malkin at center for the rest of the season. And personally, I think he's still going to be the second line center next season. Could that change? Sure, they could potentially kick him out to wing and bring in the second line center during the all season. But I mainly think that's something that they're going to shop for after Gino's contract is up after next season when he retires and then they have a really big void to fill there. But right now for Novak, I would do third line center. And then for Luke Shen, put him on the third pairing. I think that's kind of what he is at this stage of his career.

You can give him minutes, I think, with Kahlia Chana, who you still want to see more of what you have in him. I liked his debut against Colorado earlier this week. Really good gap control, good play in his own zone. Really nice shot with his pinches. He didn't make any dumb pinches like some of the other defensemen on this team do. So that's what I would do with Luke Shen. Obviously, if you keep him past the trade deadline, I mean, that's still something that they're going to have to figure out. What Kyle Dubas said, though, on Wednesday night, he kind of hinted that they are going to keep him past the deadline.

But, hey, maybe that could be a little bit of posturing. Maybe teams could come calling or all that stuff will have to see right now. I think he's going to stay past the deadline. But, hey, anything can happen at this point. And some of these prices that you're seeing right now, man, are pretty crazy because Brian Dumlin, former penguin just went for a second in a prospect. So we'll get to that a little bit later. but that's where I would put the two new penguins in the lineup. I agree with you to a certain extent.

The one thing I do want to kind of make sure the listeners know, because we're recording this around 1 o'clock on Thursday afternoon. So I'm just kind of looking at the daily faceoff depth chart and working with what is still here. So I look at what they want to do with what they could do with Novak. And obviously, I do still think Anthony Bavillier will be on the move. maybe Kevin Hayes. So I'm operating with what is still here in this moment. I don't want to preemptively trade guys and say you can put this player here,

that player there. But at the same time, when I look at what's available, I do think if you were to give Blake Lazot, Cody Glass, and Danton Heinen, I'm with you on that. I think that could kind of jumpstart him because we've seen Dayton Heinen can play a pretty honest game and chip in a little bit, not a lot. Like, let's not get ourselves carried away here. He's not going to turn into a 25 goal score.

But if you give Blake Lazada a player like Danton Heinen, I think that kickstarts his game again. And it can really help his, whether it's his value or just make him look like he'll be part of the solution over the next four to five seasons if you want to hold on to him and kind of figure out how you want to surround him as the Penguins' fourth line center. going forward. I'm going to make a bit of a bold prediction here and it's going to a little bit contradict with what I just said about. I don't want to trade guys before they're traded. But I think we can all agree. Matt Grizzlick is more than likely on his way out. I would put Luke Shen with Eric Carlson. I know that sounds insane, but think about it this way. I think Ryan

Shea is going to be coming out of the lineup. I think once you move Matt Grizzlic, you bring in Luke Shen, and you're going to keep Ryan Graves on that third pair. So will they, though? He's been scratched quite a bit this year. So I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm not sure he's still going to get a lot of minutes down the stretch, even with Grizzly getting moved just because even without him getting moved so far, he's going to get moved, I think, in the next 24 hours.

he's still been healthy scraps for a lot of games this year. And I'm also not sure that Ryan Shea will come out of the lineup too. Just not trying to be mean again. I'm just curious to see what the plan is. The other thing I'm keeping in mind here, even though I don't think we have much of a timeline on it, you do have to remember that POJ, should he remain with the team after the deadline,

is going to come back. I think that Sullivan likes at least a little bit, letang and POJ together. And I think that could be your pairing. and then you have Colichonach and Ryan Graves and or Ryan Shea as your bottom pairing. And I'm not saying that you have to staple Shen to Carlson and never move on from it. Obviously, I think that's where you start him because it's what we have said that he kind of needs is, and I don't want to overinflate Shen's value.

I said it on the emergency episode last night. He's not even close to what he was even four years ago. but at the end of the day, you give Eric Carlson Shen, and Shen can just hang out back there. Just don't get out of position. If Carlson's going to pinch, back off, be ready for that. And you can give Carlson a little bit more of a room, some more room to cook. And is it going to be like it was at Four Nations? Absolutely not.

But if he can bump up his value ever so slightly with a good performance down the end of the season into the off season, it might make moving him a little bit easier. That's best case scenario, but I still think it's a big risk because of the way Shen is defensively now. There was a time where he was really good in his own zone, but he's a bit older now. His defensive play has kind of gone down in the last few years. I don't know. I know they're not going anywhere, but it's still a big risk because I still feel like you're putting Carlson on an island. You know, it's not, you know, if we like the Four Nations face off, where you had Ekholm really helping him out.

That's the perfect partner for him. Gustav Forzing was also playing with him for a time. Another really good partner for him. Obviously, we know what Shen brings the lineup. He has a lot of bite, has a lot of toughness. He'll stick up for his guys, delivers a lot of clean checks. He brings all that. A lot of fans are going to like it, rightfully so.

But his defensive work, especially, it's not what it used to be. And that that's what scares me about him playing with Carlson on the second period because Carlson, he's all gas, no breaks. he'll sometimes do some of those ill-advised pinches at times he'll make some poor decisions at times i think since coming back from the break he hasn't been on top of his game and i think that just kind of spooks me a little bit if you put shen with him that's why i think i'm a little bit more in favor of putting him on the bottom pairing in my opinion but hey let's just see what mike solvin does yeah and there's again i'm not again i'm not saying that you have to staple him to

them and hold on for dear life and prove to yourself it works in the face of it not working. But we know that with where this franchise is going and where this season is going, Sullivan's going to have plenty of time to play mad scientist for the rest of the year and just throw things at the wall, see what sticks, and figure out who is worth taking a bigger risk on over the next few years and who you can maybe package over the summer. But speaking of packages, we do still have to see what happens with Matt Grizzlic. As Hunter alluded to, a former penguin just got dealt back to the Metropolitan Division. So in our second segment, we are going to talk about what is the value of penguins defensemen,

Matt Grizzlic, at this trade deadline. And we will do that after the break when we come back. So stick with us. We'll be back in just a second. But first, we've got to tell you about today's sponsor. and that is Fandul. When the game tips off, the NBA action is just getting started, and there's no better place to get in on it than Fandul America's number one sportsbook.

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And a player who it kind of feels like we're all just kicking him in the butt and saying, get the hell out is Matt Grizzlick. But obviously that is where the penguins are as a team right now. They're looking to get value out of expiring deals. They're looking to stockpile draft picks and restock the prospect pipeline through that and trades. So when you look at Matt Grizzlic, a trade that obviously sticks out that happened earlier today was the New Jersey Devils acquiring old friend Brian Dumlin from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange. for a 2025 second round pick and 2024 third round pick, Herman Traff. So a draft pick and a mid-tier prospect gets you Brian Dumlin.

I look at that and I think maybe there is a world where Matt Grizzlick can fetch you a second round pick and a B-tier or C-tier prospect because I love Brian Dumlin, Beachfront property in my heart for those Stanley Cup runs. He was the model of stay-at-home defensemen, lockdown defensemen. Our good friend and frequent guest of the show, Jesse Marshall, back in the day, wrote a great piece for the athletic about how Brian Dumlin basically wrote the blueprint for how to slow down Connor McDavid,

and it was poetry in motion. He was genuinely fantastic in his prime. but he is no longer that. He's not unusable. He's a bottom pairing defenseman at this point. Give him limited minutes, shelter them in defensive situations, and he's extremely useful for a team like that.

For the devils, this kind of feels a little bit like they're grasping at straws because they're without the services of quite a few players now. Unfortunate for them, they look like they were primed and ready to have a great bounce back year, but injuries once again hit them. So to put a bow on all of this, I look at a player like Brian Dumlin who probably has lower value than Matt Grislich. And if you're Kyle Dubus at this point, you're pointing to that trade and saying, if Dumlin's fetching that, I want at least the same for Matt Grisleck.

100%. And I know I've kept saying on the show that it will be unlikely that Grizzlick would get a second back. but I look at these prices. I saw what Brian Dumlin just went for a second in a prospect, and I'm like, hey, what is Matt Grizzling worth on the trade market? Someone that can quarterback your second paraply unit, someone that can play second or third pair of minutes. I think in a perfect world, he's probably a third pair guy on a true Stanley Cup contender. And, yeah, if I'm Kyle Dubois, I'm like, hey, look at that.

Brian Dumlin, still a fine player, but he's not nearly as good as what he used to be in 2016. 2016, 2017. Penguin royalty for a long time. He was outstanding on the top pairing with Chris saying he was everything Latang needed and more on that pairing. But his game has kind of gone down these last couple of years. But he still gets that type of value coming back. Grizzlic, you know, even just counting stats wise, one of his better seasons in the league still has a few deficiencies in his own zone. But if a team needs someone that can quarterback their second power play unit, and someone that can eat up some minutes on the bottom pairing, why not see if you can try and squeeze out a second rounder for him? I mean, that would be insane because for the longest time, I kept saying, you know, probably going to be a third, a fourth, or a fifth. But now after that Dumblin trade, I'm like, okay, maybe there could be a world here where he somehow fetches a second round pick.

And, you know, a team like Tampa Bay, I continue to look at, yes, I know people. They did, they just made that humongous trade on Wednesday getting Yonnie Gourd and York Shrain from Seattle, basically saying, you know what, F those picks, Julian Brisbaw does not care about future traffic. He is all in with a few surefire Hall of Famers on his team. But I still think they could use maybe another defenseman on the back end. I think Tampa Bay could make some sense there. I also had Edmonton in mind,

but I also know Edmonton has quite a few defensemen on their main roster right now. So I might have to scratch them off a little bit, but I still have them in the back of my head a little bit. I think Winnipeg potentially makes some sense if they're looking to add a depth, for their team. Those are just a few teams that keep popping in my head about Grizzlic, but still people. I would be very surprised if he is on this team past Friday. Yeah, it would be genuinely shocking. At this point, I won't call it a total failure by Dubus if he doesn't move him.

But at this point, expiring deal, you're not going to resign him, get something for him, Even if it's a third or fourth round pick, even if it's a reclamation prospect, just you have to get some kind of value out of them for all the things that you said. He has been very good on the power play for the Penguins. He has been a very steadying presence on that second unit. And when the first unit has needed a kick in the pants, Sullivan and Quinn have put him on that first unit as a message to say, hey, get it together here.

You need to go out there and stabilize this power play. And we know this, both from the Penguins winning Stanley Cup championships, to every team that's pretty much won the Stanley Cup since and before. Special teams make all of the difference in the postseason. If you look back at those 16, 17 runs by the Penguins, it was almost automatic for that power play. Yeah, you'll go back and look at the stats. and it wasn't like they were operating at like 80%.

But when they needed a power play goal in the big moments, that power play came through. And it's happened for just about every team. Now, I'm not saying Matt Griswick's going to unlock a power play for a team and win them a Stanley Cup. But having that valuable asset on your roster come playoff time is pretty important. So if I'm Dubis, I'm pounded in the pavement to find somewhere to send Matt Grisleck and get something back.

Right. No, 100%. You got to do that for all the pending UFAs. You know, but Villiers as well, I still expect him to be dealt over the next 24 hours. Still to see what happens with the Chari. Heck, maybe he has another surprise in store for us. Like, we didn't see this trade coming with bunting for Novak and Luke Chen. Maybe he has another surprise coming, but it's been a bit quiet so far this week. Like, you've seen a few deals, right? And we're going to get to that in the final segment here.

But in my opinion, I think this is going to start to get busy once we hit midnight on Friday. Like I think teams right now, the buyers especially, Pat, are really nervous. I think they're like, do we really want to pay all this right now? Let's see if we can bring down these prices a little bit. But if that doesn't happen, I think you might see some teams be like, you know what? We're close. Screw it. Banners hang forever.

We're going to trade what we can to go get this type of player. And you know what? If it works, it works. If it doesn't, you know, we'll have to deal with it. But I think you'll probably see something like that as we get closer to the deadline on Friday. It's going to get busier here. people. Don't worry. It does feel like we're in a bit of a standoff between the sellers and the buyers where the buyers are trying to hold out and hoping that sellers will lessen their prices.

And I think you're right. Once we get to Friday, we're going to see a flurry of activity just because it's going to take just one. It's going to take one of these teams at the top to break down, make a move, and then everybody's going to fall in line in respond. So we'll see what happens with that. We are going to talk about the rest of the deadline around the NHL really quickly to wrap up the show, give our thoughts on some of the deals that have come out over the past day or so. And we will do that when we come back right after this. So stick around.

We're going to talk more NHL trade deadline. All right, welcome back to the Thursday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp alongside Hunter. Hunter Hodes. And I am going to start this segment Hunter with what might be the coldest and hardest quote of this trade deadline. And it is from Tampa Bay General Manager Julian Breezebois. And you know what? I might print this out, get it framed and look at it on those mornings where I wake up and go, I don't think I need to go to the gym today. It's not that big of a deal. I can just play Xbox and watch TV.

He said, ultimately, the calculation is that trying and failing will yield less regret than failing to try. And that comes after what might have been one of the most, one of the most unex, maybe not unexpected, but one of the boldest trades of this deadline so far. The Lightning acquire Yonnie Gord, Oliver Bjork Strand, a 2025, fifth round pick, prospect Kyle and prospect Kyle O'Coyne and the Cracken get back, a 2026 first round pick, a 2027 top 10 protected first round pick, Toronto's second pick in 2025, and forward Mikey Ismont.

So Tampa, man, they don't care and they shouldn't because between still being a pretty good team and the Atlantic being an absolute royal rumble of a division, you got to make your move. I love this trade for both teams. I think it's really good for Seattle to get that type of value back for Bjork Strain and Yanni Gore. This is hopefully going to help them really speed up this, I guess, you know, we build slash retool because they're not where they want to be doing. They came into this year with playoff expectations. They have not come close to matching them. So I think this was an opportunity for them to be like, okay, we're going to reset, add some futures here, and then over the off season, they'll decide to pivot in one direction or another. But I thought they got

really good value out of this. Tampa Bay, though, they're like F them picks. They've been like this forever, man. Julian Brisbaugh is one of the most aggressive GMs in the league. He basically traded his entire draft for Tanner Geno, that one time, right? Pat. I remember, don't you remember that trade? It was just so inexplicable that I'm just like, where in the heck did that? come from. He does not care, people. He is all in to win. And why shouldn't he be? Jake Gensel, top player in the league. Nikit Kutrov, he's going to go to the Hall of Fame one day, by the way. Victor Hedman is still awesome. Andre Vasselowski is a 924 goalie this year after being only 900 last year. Braden Point has been once again fantastic, always a big game player in the

playoffs. They are now one of the top teams in Eastern Conference. They are deeper forward. I still want them maybe tweak their defensive group a little bit. But this is now one of the top teams in the East. In Brisbane, he sees the conference as really not being that good this year. He's like, you know what? Screw it. I'm going to go for this. I think we have now the team that can win it.

So I'm going to trade away a good chunk of my draft for it. Like that's a great mentality to have. When you have players that are that good, and we saw the penguins do it for a long time, you owe it to them to go all in every time you can. Yeah, Kutraub, brain point. They've won cups. Like they've been a great dynasty. They're not satisfied.

Why should they be satisfied? They want to keep winning every year. And Brisbane, it's a great move for them because it makes their four groups so much better. Yeah. And before anybody gets up in arms about comparing Tampa Bay to Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay is doing what the penguins just four to five years later. Right.

They're going to end up in the same spot as the penguins in a couple, in a few years. It's going to be you're going to have your big guns. You'll have headmen. You'll have point. You'll have Vazolevsky and all of those guys. And there's not going to be much around them. And there's not going to be much coming.

And they're going to have to either do what the penguins and the penguins are doing now. The capitals did a couple years ago where they're going to need a year or two or three of pain where they got to rebuild this thing and keep the stars happy. Or they might even have to go into a full scale terrorist. it all down rebuild. But they're in that sweet spot right now that the penguins were in the 2010s where your guys are clicking on all cylinders. You've got the championship core. You've got a solid supporting cast. So go out and get them even more and strike while the iron's hot. Absolutely tremendous deal for them. The one thing I want to keep an eye on because nothing has happened with it yet. And we'll end with this just because I wanted to get to that Tampa trade.

and this is also something that I have been intrigued by. We hinted at it on a show this week already. What is Carolina going to do with Miko Rantan? Because it kind of feels like they haven't quite reached an impasse on resigning, but it feels like they're further apart than they need to be. And if you're Carolina, if you can move him again and get value out of it and still be one of the, while the east is not that,

strong. The Atlantic is the stronger division. Be a lot easier for Carolina to make their bones in the metropolitan division. And if you can get value out of Rantan, and get a little bit of a boost and just go after it, I'd do that absolutely. I keep him for the rest of the year no matter what. Like, I see the conference for what it is. You have a big game player. Yeah, I know.

It's taking a little bit of time for him to fit, but I'm not moving him. Like, sure, teams are going to try and call, see what. they can offer for Miko Ranssenin, who is one of the top players in the world. But if I am Carolina, even though so far he has said he's not willing to sign, I would still keep at it. Keep him past the deadline. Use him as a little bit of a rental. But unlike last year where they kind of waited until it was two with Gensel, continue to try

to circle back to him towards the end of the regular season into the first round of the playoffs. You are a worse team if you move him, especially because if you move him, Marty Natchez is now gone. Like you already moved NACCHIS to get Ransan and NACIS is playing really well in Colorado, by the way. So why would you do it here when you have

a potential shot at coming out of the Eastern Conference? Like I'm not going to pick them, obviously. I think Tampa's better. I think Florida is better. Washington is probably a bit better as well. I have Carolina probably fourth in the conference right now, right up there with Toronto, I would say, fourth. Fifth. But if

I am Eric Tulski and that ownership group as well, no chance in I'm moving him. See what you can do. I know it's a bit risky, but I would keep working at it to end the regular season into the playoffs rather than just moving him. That's me though. I mean, I'll say this ideal world. You resign him for the long term. You keep him in Carolina. That is the ideal. But if they continue to be far apart, you don't want to have Carolina in your organization become a destination where guys go just to leave. Because that has far-reaching impact on more than just your team's success. It impacts your team's ability to acquire players because if say you're a player who has a modified no trade and you want to go somewhere like Carolina or at least you want to go somewhere that chases a cup and Carolina is one of those places you could go, you might think, man, I'm getting tired of living out of a suitcase. case, I want to find some stability. Carolina is not going to be the place to do it. And then it's going to impact your fan base because they're going to start to think

you lack the ability to hold on to top tier talent. And this will be multiple years in a row. If they try and fail and rantan and leaves in the off season, that's going to be a real devastating blow for that franchise. So obviously, ideal world. If I'm Tulski, I'm moving heaven and earth to get pen to page. with ranting in but if it looks like over the next 24 hours that you're so far apart it's not going to happen there will be a contender out there who does not care and they will empty the

tank for him and pay you a pretty penny to get them and it would behoove them to try and make that move but i think that is going to do it for the thursday edition of locked on penguins thank you as always for tuning in and sticking with us during the most hectic, but the most fun time of the NHL season, trade deadline season. As you know from earlier today, if the penguins make another big move, Hunter and I will hop on here to do a quick 10 to 15 minute instant analysis episode following the trade and then we'll break it all down on a full episode on Friday. we will also on Friday get you set because the penguins do still have games to play. They will take on the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday night.

Hunter and I will get you set for that game as well as a weekend showdown with the Minnesota Wild. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thanks once again for tuning in. And we will hopefully be back with an instant analysis episode. But if not, we'll be back on Friday.