Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Give me good reasons for the Pittsburgh Penguins to move on from the core...

Episode Date: June 15, 2022

Oh yes, we are talking about the Penguins core on this episode of Locked On Penguins. Hunter starts the show out by blasting the people who just want to make change for the sake of it (and there are a lot of those people out there). He defends the core and asks these people why they're using them as the scapegoats when they're not even close to the reason why the team hasn't won a playoff series in four years. He reviews those series and gives his input on why the team really lost while debunking some fan theories. He also begs that portion f the fanbase to come up with actual solutions to them leaving without just going onto NHL 22. After that, Hunter reviews Brian Dumoulin's season. Was it as bad as people made it out to be? What does he need to work on heading into next year? He then looks at what the Penguins could get in a trade for him and whether it's the right call to move on from him given his age and his cap hit. Finally, Hunter ends the show with the latest Penguins news as their front office shuffled a little bit on Tuesday.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Athletic GreensAthletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello there. We are now halfway through June. Again, this year is just flying by. Heck, this offseason is absolutely flying by. And we still have 28 days to go until free agency opens for four weeks. It's going to come up before you know it at this rate. I apologize for an episode on Tuesday. I just had a couple, just an emergency family thing that came up. So I definitely apologize on that. My goal was to record yesterday and always due to five days a week. But that ended up not happening. But again, you know, I will not be missing another episode for the month of June bearing anything like that. You can definitely count on that. For today's episode, we're going to get into a topic that's kind of been bugging me.

I did the last couple of days, something I've been seeing way too often on, you know, radio shows and social media and all that stuff involves the Penguins Corps. So we're going to get into that. also going to continue our season reviews that today's will be Brian Dumolin so as we start off the defensive core. I've already basically done Chris Tangs. I'll get to him probably. I'll actually save the best for last with him. And then we'll also get into the Penguins big moves that they made on Tuesday with some front office moves.

And then they also announced the Kevin Acklin thing today. So we'll get into that for the final segment and then maybe do a little something small in this Stanley Cup final. So that's all coming up for today's episode of Lockdown on Penguins podcast. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hoddes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

You can also follow the shows Twitter at L.O. Underswain Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first to listen of the day. So let's get right on into this. This is a topic, as I said in my intro, this has been really bugging me for the last couple of days, honestly ever since really the season ended. And you know, you have these people in the Penguins fan base

that say, well, you know, you can't bring back the core players. They haven't won a playoff series since 2018. And it's like these people just, they sound so dense when they say this because they're trying to put all the blame on the core and just be like, oh, let's make changes for the sake of making changes. I want to be an armchair GM like I am on HL 22, but that's not how things work.

You know, let's actually go back these last four years and look at why they've bowed out. Okay. Islander Series 2019. Was it, were the Penguins pretty decent? Yeah. Was the team a lot more flawed than the last couple of years? Absolutely. I mean, they were trotting out Jack freaking Johnson on the second pairing. Their depth was terrible. I mean, you all remember when, I think, it wasn't, I think Scott Wilson.

Yeah, it was Scott Wilson was getting bottom six minutes. So many guys just playing well out of their depth. Derek Brassard was absolutely terrible. you know, that team, you know, they weren't, I mean, in fact, you know, Derek Bressard was even traded. They had to bring in Riley Shea Ann, who obviously that didn't work out. I mean, he was never really that good of an NHL player. You know, their depth was not good. Defensively, Justin Schultz was terrible.

Matt Murr did what he could, but at the end of the day, he didn't give him the goal tenure that he was from 2016 to 2018. Very flawed roster. Okay. Bubble, you're coming off of a COVID pause. I don't really know how many people can take something out of that. You know, they hadn't played in basically five months. They outplayed the Canadians. Carrie Price did his thing.

You know, maybe they went to Tristan Jari a little too late. And the funny thing is the Penguins' defensive pairings were really good. But it was the Schultz Johnson pairing. That was literally the only pairing getting scored on. And, you know, that was one of the situations where I was actually criticizing Mike Sullivan because he wasn't doing enough to put the team in the best chance. to succeed. He kept icing that pairing, didn't want to scratch either one of them. I never really understood that. So those two years, I just don't think the team was good enough. But, you know,

did they blow up a core? No, they made some changes. They built around them. Last year, they look like they have a great shot at making a run. Trish and Jari had other plans. He stunk. This year, same thing. I think the team is probably even deeper than last year's team. The defense, I think, is probably just as good, if not better. Jari's having a phenomenal year. But you don't plan. for both of your goaltenders and Casey DeSmith and Jari to get hurt right when the playoffs begin. So now you're starting Louis Doming. He stunk. That's the reason why they lost. People can point to whatever they want. I'll add special teams that too. Special teams are not good. People can point to whatever reasons they want to. At the end of the day, it was goaltending and special

teams. And I'm not about to sit here and say, well, you know, I'm going to make changes for the sake of making changes because the core has shown that they can't win anymore. Again, that is another statement that's not true because, you know, they've shown over the years plenty of times that they can win the Stanley Cup. They have three of them. They've been to four S Seneca Finals and all three of them are still elite players in the NHL. I ask this to the people who want either one or both of the Gennie Malkin and Chris Lattang gone. So basically two-thirds of the thing. court. Who do you want the penguins to replace them with? That is my big question. Because a lot of these people, they don't, in the very loud but minority section of the Penguins

fan base, they don't usually have those kind of answers. Someone was telling me the other day, but they would sign Josh Manson, trade for Scott Mayfield. And it's like, that is not going to make your defensive court better. It's just going to make it worse. Someone thinks that The same person was telling me that Mike Matheson, of all people, is going to just take Crystal Tang's minutes and, you know, produce just like him for a player. That's a player that's been over 30 points in his career one time. I mean, I just don't know what people are watching here

that they can come to these sort of conclusions. And I'll go off that for a beginning Malkin, too. You know, I have made the argument on this podcast that, yes, it is easier to replace him. And I am glad that Penguins are prioritizing Crystal Tang because he has a lot harder to replace. That said, look around the free agent market. Who are you going to get that's going to give you a point per game level of production,

great power play time, and someone that is still a very good playmaker and a goal score in today's NHL. And people can come back at me with, oh, Evgeny Malkin's turnovers, oh, my God, his penalty minutes. And you know what I say to that? I don't really give a flying crap. Does he sometimes make boneheaded plays with the puck? Yes.

And I call him out for that like I have his entire career. Has he sometimes taken boneheaded penalties? Yes, I have called him out for 16 years when he does stupid crap like that. But the good that he does for this team far outweighs the bad. And when you look at who is available on the free agent market, you are probably not going to get anyone maybe outside of Nazim Khadri that can actually match his production. And hint, just for everyone out there, no, the Penguins are not going to sign Nassam Kadry

because they do not have $9 million per year to give him. He is going to make a boatload of cash. Penguins do not have that money to give them. And another thing, excuse me, that people I've been seeing on social media and radio stuff, is that people have said, well, if you bring both of them back, you know, you're not really going to have a lot of cap space to do anything else. And I'm like, well, that's where it takes a GM being a little cremate. creative here to open up cap space. They have the ability to bring these players back and

open up cap in other ways. Brian Dumlin, which I will get to in a second with the season review. He could potentially be available. Jason Zulker in this $5.5 million cap hit. If you even get someone to take 50% of that, that's an extra almost $3 million in salary cap space. Brock McGinn, he's at $2.75 for the next three years. I don't think he'll be traded, but if he is, that's another 2.75 million off your payroll. Right there, that's right there. That's over 5 million in cap space. And if you are able to unload Zucker's full cap load, that's over seven million, almost eight million, I should say, in salary cap space. They have ways to be creative. I don't want to hear that the cap can be an excuse because teams are always willing to jump in and help

you out. Why do you think Tampa Bay? always gets out of their cat problems. To teams, despite what you read, despite what you hear, teams are always willing to bend over backwards to help each other. All the general managers, it's an old boys club. They're always willing to help out their friends. So I'm just, you know, I'm sick and tired of reading this take that the Penguins, they can't win with the core.

It's just, to me, it's kind of ignorant. you know, people are placing too much blame on three players who have played their butts off the last four years. I mean, I had someone today telling me that if Gennie Malkin has been a no show in the playoffs. Dude has 11 points in his last 11 playoff games. I really don't know what people are watching when they say this kind of stuff. It's just, you know, it's bad faith arguments. You know, I am more than willing to hear part of the opposite side, but engage in a conversation where you can tell me what they should do to replace one or both of those players.

And I'm not trying to be a jerk about that. I'm openly asking those people to, you know, come up with a plan and pitch me to it, the people that don't want one or both of them back. Pitch me your plan in a perfect, you know, what's the way I'm looking for? You know, in a good tone or whatever. And, you know, we'll discuss it. You know, I've had people say Vincent Trocheck. I like him, but he only had points in six.

of Carolina's 14 playoff games. He would only be, excuse me, I don't want to say a last resort. And I also do think he's going to cost a boatload of money. But, you know, you look at what Tampa Bay has done since 2019, when they got swept by Columbus. They kept their core intact. Now they're on their way to the third straight Stanley Cup final. Julian Brisbaugh believed in them.

He even said he did not even think about trading anyone from that core. He knew who was going to turn around. and sure, you know, their core is younger than the penguins. But, you know, for Tampa, it also helps having Andre Vasselowski in that. He's going to go down probably as one of the 10 best goaltenders to ever play the game. And, you know, it's criminal that the penguins have gotten really poor goaltending in a lot of Cindy Crosby and Guinea-Malkins peak years. Even, you know, this year where both of them are outside of their prime,

but they still put up ridiculously good seasons. They're not going to rebuild. They should not rebuild, especially when Cindy Crosbyn's. Rosby is still at over a point per game. Gennie Malkin. Jake Gensel just scored 40 goals. This team doesn't need a retool? Yes.

Do they need to get younger and faster? Yes, I am in full support. They're changing out some of the supporting cast and bringing in some new blood that can help the core go chase one more Stanley Cup. That is what their main objective should be this offseason. You know, again, the people that just want change for the sake of making changes and say, well, you can't bring them back because they've lost four years in a row. I mean, look at the Washington Capitals here, for instance.

Do I see Capitals fans wanting Backstrom traded, Alex Ovechkin of all people, you know, and all their other court players? You know, maybe not even John Carlson, and he's honestly way worse defensively than Chris Lentan. No, like they may need to make changes to their supporting cast because, oh yeah, just like the Penguins, they also have not won a series since they won the Cup in 2018. So they're kind of both in the same boat. but it's funny that one fan base wants a lot of changes, and yet the other one is kind of going more low-key,

okay, let's go get a goalie, let's make changes to build around Ovechkin and all of our other core players. And especially there was someone like T.J. Oshy, who, you know, his contract is aging a lot better than I thought it would. But still, you know, the contrast is definitely really weird. So at the end of the day, this team, they can win with this court.

They've shown it in the past. They showed it this season. Should have won that series in five or six games. games, they got better goal tending. I'm not going to be open to then making changes that they get making change. Again, you want to replace one or both of them? Cool. Tell me who you're replacing them with. In my view, you're not going to get anyone on the free agent market that's going to come close unless I like I said, for Nazim Kadri, though he's not going to come here, but you're not going to get anyone on the free agent market that's going to come close to the value

that both Likini Malkin and Crystal Tang brain. So that wraps up this first. first segment of Locked on Penguins podcast. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to get into Brian Duhlin's season review, positives, negatives, what the team should do with him over the offseason. But before I get to that, you can save time and money when using Rock Auto. Why should you choose to spend 30%, 50%, or even 100% more for the same parts from a chain store or car dealership? Rock Auto is a failing business issue and do yourself for over 20 years.

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Follow the show's Twitter at L.L. Rokper Penguins. So let's start our day. defenseman season reviews today with the defender who I thought was the worst on the team this year. That was Brian Dumlin. Excuse me. You know, 76 games played, but his numbers took a dip this year. This was the first time he's been below 50% in Corsi since 2014-15, when he was basically a rookie at that point when he was on the ice, the penguins at only 49% of the shot attempts.

55% of the goal is 4%. So that's good. But I think a lot of that has to do with playing. playing with Crystal Tang on his top pairing. 50% of the expected goals, a little higher than he was last year, but not near what he was in 2019, 20, 2016, when he was at 56, 55%. Squaminted chance this year, the Penguins had 51% of those when he was on the ice a little bit down from where he was last year when it was basically at 52%. High danger this year, penguins had almost 52% of the high danger chances.

That's a little up from last year. 39 high danger goals for 39 high danger goals. for 39 high danger goals again. So about 56% of the high danger goals for from when he was on the ice. On ice, same percentage, 931. That means the goal tend to the same percentage for the Penguins goaltoning is on the ice.

So he was potentially getting bailed out by some bad goaltending. But, you know, defensively, you know, he was a, it just wasn't good. You know, it looks like he's lost a lot of his skating ability on this season. Excuse me. And I think that's probably due to the,

injuries that he's had in his career, but also due to the fact that he's on the opposite side of 30 now. And sometimes a player breaks down faster than someone else in their 30s. I mean, this happens all the time. And for someone that makes over $4 million, he can't have a repeat of this season going into next year if he is still on the team. He plays top pairing mince with Chris Lange. I expect more from him based on what I have seen over the last several seasons on the top pairing. He's usually very reliable defensively. Sometimes ships in it offensively, but that's usually not his game.

I've always loved that pairing with Tanger because he lets Letang do his thing in the offensive zone. But if Latang does make that blunder, and he does, he's had his fair share of those, you know, Doolin will be able to get back and cover up for him. And

you know, someone like Mike Matheson isn't able to do that because he is also, you know, he has all the same offensive instincts that what Tang does. And that's why I just, I've never really been a fan of that pairing. And why, you know, I do think the Penguins miss Dumlin a bit more than some others may think in the playoffs.

You know, Matheson had, it was probably like four or five, uh, Pucks go off his skate and in-past either Louis Deming or Christian Jari. I mean, when the Penguins made it two to one in game seven against the Rangers, they come right back a couple minutes later. Oh, you know, Puck don't lie, goes off Mike Matheson skating in. It's just like, man, that was like, again, I was like the fifth one during the playoffs that that happened. And, you know, Brian Duman there, he's probably not in that same position.

He is definitely a defender, though, you know, despite all of his past accolades, excuse me, that he's had for the Penguins. I saw him looking to potentially move him this summer. You have POJ down on Wilkesbury. He's probably ready. You have Mark Friedman as reliable depth, also ready to chip in. you know, it's tough because if you bring Latang back and you also trade you in one, who are you putting next to Latang for the remainder of his deal?

I'm not, again, I'm not confident in Mike Mathes in doing that. I know the underlieings have not been bad at times when in the playoffs. I was not a fan of that pairing. You're not going to put Marcus Pedersen up there. That would be suicide. Mark Freeman's not going to go up there. Do you have to go out into free agency and sign someone for cheap? Do you go out and sign like a Nikito's Adoro of?

to play your top pair of minutes after what he just did in Calgary. That's an option. You know, maybe he makes, you know, four to four point five million per, but, you know, A, will the penguins have that camp space available? And B, would they be comfortable giving him that deal after just trading way Duman? And for those things Duman would not really fetch anything on the trade market. I definitely disagree with that because, you know,

teams are always looking to give that kind of player a decent money or a decent return. I mean, you know, this was in free agency, but look at Barclay Goodrow with the Rangers, right? And guy told depth player throughout his career gets a six-year term from Chris Drury for three and a half million per year. I mean, what are we doing here?

You know, the six-year term is already ridiculous enough, but, you know, he's getting 18 to 18.18.2 million, you know, to play third or fourth line minutes, and just because he's won a couple of Stanley Cup. So, you know, a player like Brian Buhn, who has won the cup a couple of times, who has been good defensively throughout his career. I do think he can potentially net maybe a roster player in return,

decent draft pick, maybe a prospect, something like that. You're not going to get like three assets, I don't think for Gimlin. But I do think you can maybe get at least a player in a pick or a player in a prospect back for someone like that. So if I are the, if I am the Penguins, I am aggressively looking to shop him. I was just not a fan of how he played this season. Just always looked a step behind, especially in the defensive zone, was not his usual self, was committing too many turnovers.

When he's at his best, you know, he's commanding the ice with Lettang on that pairing. And, you know, his vision is usually out there. And, you know, he's also skating the puck, you know, easily out of danger in the defensive zone. He was not doing any of those things at all from what I was watching this year. And it's a problem, especially considering he has a lot of years left on that contract. And, you know, he makes a decent amount of money. So, you know, I think Haxall does have a decision to make there.

I, you know, I just don't, I think of all the defensemen that played for the team that's in the regular top six, I think he was the worst one by far. That's how I see it. And if he does come back and there's probably a decent chance that he will, you know, I want to see a lot more from him. I want to be able to see him skate the puck out of danger with relative ease. I want to see him, you know, create shooting lanes in the offensive zone when Chris Lutang is not creating that kind of offense if he is brought back to. And I want to see him not, you know, struggle to keep up with odd man rushes and just, you know, also struggling to make those routine plays that, you know, he usually makes with ease. Again, I do think they missed him after he tore his MCL in the playoffs. I definitely think with Doomlin and Letang in that game,

seven, that second ringer's goal doesn't go in. Who knows what happens for the rest of that game. So it's definitely an unfortunate injury that happened. But, you know, we'll be curious to see what happens. I think that's a bigger decision than some are making it out to be with regards to to Dumlin. So that wraps up his season review. We're going to continue with the other defenseman season reviews

throughout the rest of this week. and, of course, going into next week. Coming up in the final segment, we're going to get into the news for the Penguins on Tuesday as they made some of the promotions that Rob Rossi of the Athletic talked about in his article earlier this week. Before I get to that, though, bet online is your number one source for all of your betting stats and sports info.

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All right, I'm back here in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Odey's. You know, follow Hunter Hodes, follow the show. He's Twitter at EleanorSore Penguins. So let's get into the big news that happened on Tuesday morning. So Rod Rossi, you know, he nailed a couple of of things in his story. So Eric Kiesley was promoted to general manager of the Wilkesbury Scrant Penguins. Congratulations to him. I mean, he's worked his butt off to get to this

opportunity. You know, he started out, I don't know if a lot of you know this, he was a communications coordinator all the way back in 2008 with the Penguins, and he has worked his way up within the organization and into this role. So congratulations to him for getting that general manager spot. I'm sure he's going to do a great job down on Wilkesbury. Andy Sossier, so he is now a hockey operations analyst, but as Rossi reporting his story, he is still going to be a video coach. He's not going to be giving that up. This is just a new title that he's also going to have within the Penguins organization. Congratulations to Andy. Very well deserved. There is probably no one better in the NHL that is as good as him when it comes.

to offside reviews. I said this on my episode a couple days ago. For as long as he's been here, I do not even remember a time where the Penguins lost an offside challenge. Going back at least to the first one, I remember them challenging when he was there, the Jonathan Drangle game six against San Bay. That was won nothing. And if they don't challenge that, that's a potentially much different game. The Penguins obviously won that challenge. They went up three nothing before the Bulls made of the game in the third period. and then the Penguins are able to get a big insurance goal from Brian Russ and then get the empty netter to send the series back to Pittsburgh.

But, you know, again, congratulations to him. He's done a remarkable job for this organization as a video coach. I'm excited to see how much input he's going to have as an analyst for the hockey operations. And then finally, Ron Hextall's right-hand man, Chris Pryor, he is now the assistant, one of the assistant general managers. he was the director of player personnel for that. So now he has a new title. That move, you know, first things first.

Congratulations to Chris. He's worked with Ron for many years going back to the Philadelphia days. But, you know, it is kind of, I guess, frustrating a little bit in a way that Ron really did not want to go outside the organization for that. I don't know if Fenway, you know,

wants him to, you know, look in other areas for someone added to the Hockey Operations Department. I think I did see a job posting on, it's the, it's that sport. It's like teamwork sports, I think is what it is, whatever it's called. And I think they are hiring a data analyst for their analytics team. So I think they do want to bring in someone that has an analytic background to work under Katerina Wu. That may also be Fenway driven.

Maybe that's Fenway's way of saying, hey, you know, if you can make this hire, you know, will allow you to, you know, promote Chris Pryor and not go outside the organization. But, you know, I still think this would have been a perfect time for the penguins to go outside the organization and get some fresh ideas in there because, you know, what's the point of Ron Hector is just getting all of his ideas from, you know, someone down below who's just calling him that he's known for like 10 years? I mean, his circle is very small. And I'm pretty sure there was, you know, what, barely like what, what, five people in the

hockey operations department anyway? I guess that's how he's always wanted to be going back to his Philadelphia days, but I do think it's a little bit of a missed opportunity, in my opinion, for that. And then finally, the Penguins did announce today that Kevin Acklin has officially been promoted to President of Business Operations. That was reported last week by Mike DeFable of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. So he will be in his fifth season with his first season with his business operations. team. He's going to report to the ownership group and manage the day-to-day operations of the business of the team, including strategic planning, corporate partnerships, marketing, and community

outreach. And he's also, again, Guinness, Beard the development of the former Civic Arena site, which has had so many battles over the years, you know, going back to when Melon Arena was demolished. And it does say, Brian Burke will continue in his role as president of hockey operations reporting directly to Fenway Sports Group. So I don't think there's just going to a total president of the team overall. I think Fenway wanted to split that duty up between the hockey operation side with Brian Burke and then the business side with Atkins. So I guess the new ownership group is just going in a different direction when it comes

at. At least that's what I so gather. So those were the main announcements for the Penguins over the last couple of days. Congratulations to all for these individuals who they've done a lot of of great work for the penguins and i'm excited to see you know what they do moving forward um for the team but that will do it for this episode of the locked on penguins podcast um again i have some i have some draft stuff coming up here probably towards the late stages of the month of june early july i'm going to try to dive into some of these players that could be in play at number 21 i don't think the penguins

are going to trade that pick and we're also going to start getting into some more potentially low-key free agents that I think the penguins could look at. And there's one that I think was on, Dan Kovachievich's Daily Shot of the Penguins, which I do like listening to every day. He mentioned one in his episode this morning, actually, that I may dive into for Thursday's episode and give my thoughts on, you know, why he may or may not

should be allowed to come back. But, you know, based on what he was saying on that episode, and you guys can go listen to it on Apple, Spotify, whatever, never he sounds like it might be in play when phacency opens on july 13th so again thank you so much for listening i really appreciate all of you um tuning in to this episode let me know let me know what you all think in the comments for youtube can also message me on social media at hondra hodes the social twitter at l l o'n squirrels i try to respond to everyone that sends me message requests about the team and all that jazz so you all can do that if you want to give some feedback on the

show and I will talk to all of you all on Thursday.