Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Have we reached the end for Cody Ceci?

Episode Date: July 2, 2021

Happy First Day of July! We're still going strong this month with episodes every weekday and there are no shortages of topics to discuss today. Hunter brings up a Rob Rossi quote from the Penguins subreddit as it looks like Ron Hextall wants to bring in a new goalie. Which one makes the most sense? Is there a favorite that they should go after? Hunter weighs in with his top two before changing course to the defense. Hextall confirmed that they'd have to move money to sign Cody Ceci but does that make sense? Is it better to have Chad Ruhwedel at his spot? What about POJ? Finally, Hunter recaps the Stanley Cup Final and the LA/Nashville trade we saw today!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.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.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, everyone, and welcome to this Thursday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes,

follow the shows Twitter at Ed L.L underscore Penguins. Today's episode is brought to you by Rock Auto. Amazing Selection. Right below prices, all the parts of car. ever need, visit rockadootto.com and tell them locked on and sent you. Happy July, first and foremost, and for everyone that listens north of the border, happy Canada Day. I know I have listeners up there, so I hope you all had a great Canada today, you know, did a cookout, you know, just seeing your family and a bunch of other stuff. So again, happy Canada Day. On the 4th of July is

coming up in three days and I'll actually be in the Outer Banks for that. But for today's episode, we're going to go a little bit around the league. You know, we're going to talk about that Victor Arvidson deal that sent him to the Los Angeles Kings. We're going to talk about the Stanley Cup final as Tampa Bay is now two games to none. I'm going to touch on something I saw on the Penguin's subreddit. As Rob Rossi went on 937, The Fan and was talking about the Penguins offseason stuff. And I'll also talk about some comments Ron Hextall made to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this morning as, you know, he was talking about the defensive corps. As the Post-Cazette, they've been doing like an off-season preview, I think, in like three or four parts going position by position.

today it was mainly about the defense and Hextel had some interesting comments about P.O. Joseph, where they stand with Cody C, C, so I'm going to talk about that as well. And we're also, I think, going to continue our season reviews. My hope is to do that. And so I think we're going to go down to the bottom six as we basically finished

our top six reviews for all the Penguins players. But let's start out with the thing I saw on the Penguin subreddit. So someone posted on the Pittsburgh Penguin Subreddit. And for anyone that is not using Reddit, I encourage you all to use it. People will have like dumped on Reddit for some reason. I actually find it to be very informative. Now, TikTok,

that's a different story. I have sworn to myself, never to download it. My girlfriend's obsessed with it. She always sends me those garbage videos on TikTok. It is just a whole lot of cringe. I will never download that. But Reddit, I will say, there's a lot of good information on there. And that includes this. The person says he was listening to the radio now. Rossi was saying that Hextall wants to bring in his own goalie and that Jari is Jim Rutherford's goalie. And he also specifically mentioned, excuse me, that they want a veteran goalie, and that doesn't technically mean that Flurry, although he is an option. So, well, to start off with, that is good news that Hextall does want to bring in his own

goalie. Because again, everyone, he has no loyalty to these players. I know it sounds like a broken record. I basically say that every episode of this podcast going back to when Hextall got hired with the GM and, you know, Brian Burke is president of hockey operations. But it is true. He has no loyalty to almost any of these players. You know, maybe accept the core because to trade any of the core pieces or get rid of those, you know, you got to go through ownership in Mario and Ron Berkel.

But it is good news that he wants to bring in another goalie. And also, if you scroll down in the comments here, the person who posted that, Rossi also said that he doesn't see Flurry being moved and that it's more likely that Robin Lanner is moved over Mark Rondry Florey. And that does make sense. Even though Lennar is signed for four more years, Mark Andre Flurry is Bill Foley's person. I keep seeing, you know, shock jocks like Andrew Philopony and other guys at the fan. You know, Mark Madden and all these people say, well, you know, it's kind of trade back for Flurry. He's the guy that's going to help get the penguins that fourth Stanley Cup. And, you know, sure, he would be an upgrade.

But, you know, Adam Gretz also said it best on Twitter yesterday, and I agree with him. Mark Rondry Flurry is not going back to Pittsburgh. Stop it. Bill Foley loves him. I know he only has one year left on his contract. They're going to extend him. He is going to retire as a Vegas golden night. that's that. I mean, there really is not much more I can say about the Flurry situation.

He is not coming back. If they somehow do make it work, very unlikely. I'd probably give it a 5% chance. I'll eat Crow. I'm prepared to eat Crow on this as well. But I'm 95% sure that this is not going to happen. The only reason why it came close to happening last season was because Rutherford was trying to go through L.A. or Anaheim, according to Elliot Friedman, to make it work in a three-way deal. Ron Hexel is not going to go through all these loops and bounds in a three-way trade to go get back Mark Andre Fleury, who he has no loyalty to as a general manager. It's just not going to happen. He wants to bring in his own goalie. And again, lucky for him.

I've talked about this on the podcast a lot. There's a lot of really good veteran goalie options out there. I also wrote about this today for Last World Hockey. My personal favorite is Linus Almagher. I don't know if I've said that on the podcast before, but if I had to pick a goalie from the crop of free agents, right now, Linus Olmark is my number one choice. I'm not sure if he is going to go back to Buffalo, but he was what, 915 this year with the

Sabres. I know he only played in 20 games, and that's maybe a small sample size. But to go 915 and 20 games with one of the worst teams we've seen in the Salary Cap era, I mean, that's pretty impressive. Even the last season, I think he was 34 games with the Sabres, battled some injuries, was 917. I mean, he was a career 916 goalie with the Buffalo Sabres these last couple years, one of the worst teams in the NHL,

definitely the worst team this past year than arguably the worst team last year as well. So contract-wise, I would probably give him a two-year deal, maybe a few million per year. I think the highest I would go for him is $3 million per. I'm just never a believer

in paying your goalie way too much money. I have said this on the podcast before as well. I'll repeat it again. The goal-tending position is like the running back position of football. you know sure there's a lot of there's a few elite backs in football and you want to pay them and keep them but most of the other backs are just average to a bit above average once their contracts are up you don't want to be the team that pays them because you can just replace their value within the draft

or some other cheap option that teams are going to let go you know and that's exactly what the penguins can do here with upgrading on tristan jari even though i think jari's going to be on the team next year they can bring in someone who had better stats than jari did this past year especially on a worst team. I mean, imagine seeing Allmark in front of this defensive corpse. I mean, it's going to be night and day, I think, if he does come here with all the talent backs in front of him. And again, you can sign him for not that expensive of a contract. You don't need to give a goalie in years, 80 million,

Koff Sergei Babrovsky, Dale Town in Florida, or, you know, Kerry Price up in Montreal. But, again, you know, Price is one of the best goalies of this generation. Well, I wouldn't say he's one of the best goalies in the league right now. He's just really having a good playoff run. But, okay, you know what? I kind of should go back on that. I think Price has shown these last couple of years in the playoffs that he is still one of the better goalies in the league,

but he's not, I don't think, top three, top five at this moment. I'll say that about Kerry Price. But again, you know, he's one of those goalies that it's okay to pay a lot of money because you know how good he is. It was the same with Henrik Lungquist. He, in my opinion, is the best goalie of generation. You have to pay a premium to keep that goalie. all these other ones, you know, you can get league average goaltending for a million per year,

two million per year. Again, you know, with Allmark, I'd give them like a two-year, $6 million a deal. I would not mind that at all. You can pair them up with Tristan Jari. And then what, your goalies are making close to $7 million against the cap. I think it would be a little below $7. I don't even think that's that bad. But both goalies are making around, well, one would be making three.

The other one would be making, I think, three and a half, a little over three and a half. A little over three and a half, I think, was that contract. So that's nothing overly terrible. I mean, in Montreal, you know, Kerry Price makes a lot of money. Then Jake Allen, I think, is making over $4 million per. I think their combined contracts are over $14 million per. I mean, that's, you can't have goaltending contracts take up that much of your salary cap space. So a cheap option like Linus Olmark would make a lot of sense.

Another option that I really do like that. I don't think I've talked about on the podcast yet is Aunt Tehranta. I'm just loading up his stats here, actually. As I recorded this, you know, he was very banged up this year, only five at five and two and twelve games played. 9.05% percentage. But the year before that, he was 921 with Arizona and 33 games played. The season before that, again, was banged up. It was 906, but then in 2018 with them, 47 games, he was 9.30.

He's a career 919 goalie. This is another goaltender that I would take a pretty good chance on. And again, I would probably sign them to a two to three-year deal, a few minutes. million per season, pair him up with Tristan Jari. If Jari falters, you can just put Ranta in there and let him ride until he starts playing bad. I mean, I think it's a win-win situation in my book. So in order, those are probably my top two goal is that I would want this offseason.

If I were on Hextall, Allmark are at the top. I think maybe a 1B, Auntie Ranta, then probably Peter Morazek. Frederick Anderson may be a bit after that. James Reimer, I think is also UFA. He'd probably be after that as well. but, you know, I'd be cool at those top two. And then if it comes to it, Peter Morazek, I think, as well. So those are my thoughts on what goalies or what my top two goalies would be to target this offseason.

We still have more to get to when it comes to potentially some moves this off season with Ron Hextall commenting on the defensive scores coming up in the next segment. But before we do get to that, it's time to talk about bet online, the fastest and easiest way to bid on all your sports action. Baseball season is in full swing. You can track all the action at Bet Online. It's actually crazy. I've been watching a lot of baseball recently in my Washington Nationals. Two games above 500. I think Mets fans are definitely a bit trembling right now.

They are only two games back in them. The Nats have won 14 of their last 17 games. I'm getting a lot of 2019 vibes right now. But again, it's the easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Before the next pitch, head over to bet online on your laptop or phone. Check out all the great sporey news. Sign up bonuses and contest information. You can head to the website or use your phone to sign up today

and receive your 50% off welcome bonus on your first deposit. That's been online, your online sportsbook experts with the promo code locked on. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hon. Honduras. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodies. Follow the show's Twitter at L-L underscore Penguins. So Ron Huxel did have a couple interesting comments when it came to Mike DeFabo when he was talking about the offseason preview.

Because, you know, obviously there are changes coming on defense. They're not going to have the same defense of corpse next season. I touched about this on my article today on Last War on hockey. It is very unlikely that Cody C.C. is going to come back. And Hextall even said as much. He says, we do have interest in him coming back next season. In terms of the cap, that's another question. Right now, we don't have this space.

So in order to keep him, we would have to create the space. So that's the big kicker here. Do they want to create cap space to sign Cody C.C. back and hope that he can reclimate what he did this past season for the next. next two to three years or however many years he wants. I would only really give him a two to three year deal if it came to me. Four to five years for Cody's C.C. is just way too much, especially for he's a bottom-paring defender.

I mean, we all saw what happened with Jim Rutherford was signing Jack Johnson. And also, happy three-year anniversary, everyone. Today is the day, July 1, that Jim Rutherford side Jack Johnson to that five-year term. And as Danny from the Penn's blog said on Twitter this morning, it would be flat-out scary if he was still on the team right now because there would still be two more freaking years of Johnson on this team if he had not been bought out. So just wanted to let you know about that. You know, sleep with one eye open tonight.

As the saying goes in the song, Enter the Sandman by Metallica. And yes, I also did have to throw that in there as well. But getting back to what I was talking about. So, yeah, this was always going to be the likely outcome and that C.C. is not going to come back. He has more than earned himself this page, especially with the numbers that he put up the season. I think I touched on it on my article if I can go find this stat here.

If I can just do this real quickly. So when he was on the ice at 5 and 5, here's the stat. Penguins had over 59% of the actual goals. I think the expected goals were below 50%, but the actual goals did not line up with the expected. And then to make matters even better, CC was also on the ice for 64.2% of the high danger goals at 585. I believe that was a career best for him, if I'm not mistaken.

Again, he has more than earned himself a chance to go out in the open market and cash out, because this is honestly his last big chance that he's going to get to cash out on the open market. I think he's probably going to get a three-year deal, two and a half to three million per. I could totally see that. But again, the Penguins just don't have the cap space to pay him because, I mean, they have two big RFA situations this on season if both of those players are not picked by Seattle, and that is Zach Asson-Rise. And Teddy Blugher.

I mean, Teddy Bluger, in my opinion, probably going to get around a three-year deal, maybe $3 million per. I think if Austin Reese is still here after expansion as well, you're probably looking at maybe some sort of a bridge deal. Again, two and a half to $3 million per. I don't think it's going to be more than that. I mean, they're both bottom six players. But that still takes up potentially $5 to $6 million in cap space, and the Penguins only have

$3 million in cap space right now. But, you know, this is par for the course for Pittsburgh. This team never has a lot of cap space. That's the price you pay when you have a lot of your cap locked up into your elite talent. And again, that's the way I would like to build a team. The general managers that have these jobs, you know, constructing a roster like the Penguins, you know, it's probably one of the easier jobs in the league. You just can't screw up surrounding the core with bad pieces.

I mean, you look at Tampa Bay. I mean, they have Anthony Sorrelli down there, Ross Colton, Barclay, Goodro, Blake Coleman, Yanni Gord surrounding Nikita Kuchera, Victor Headman, Stephen Stancoast, Alex Kalor, Andre Palat, etc, etc. McHale Sargachev surrounding headman, and then you have a god in net.

That is how you build a team. That is what the Penguins did in 2016 and 2017 to surround their elite talent. You have to put the depth around them that can chip in when your stars are not putting up stats on a netly basis because, let's face it, they are going to go cold for a bit and you need those depth players step up

That's exactly what has happened with Tampa Bay in this run again as their depth has just been surreal. But yeah, I mean, this is just par for the course for Pittsburgh. They don't ever have a lot of cap space due to their salary cap situation with, you know, a lot of their money tied up to their core pieces. But also, I think the big thing going into this offseason is there's not a lot of bad deals on this team right now. I mean, sure, you know, you probably want to get rid of Mike Matheson's contract. We'll see if Ron Hextel wants to do that. Same can be said with Marcus Pedersen. I think he's probably the more bigger prime candidate to be traded because,

Matheson's contract might be unmovable with five more years left at 4.8 million per or wherever the hell it is. And then Pedersen, I think, has... I'm trying to think how much his contract is. I have to go back to Cap Friendly, but I think it's four more years at $4 million per or something like that. Actually, let me just check here real quick. I'm going to go to Cap Friendly here. Pedersen still has... Yeah, he still has four more years left around $4 million per.

And Mike Matheson, yeah, he's at 4.8 for the next five years. So you're probably better off dealing Pedersen because his contract is probably more. more movable. He's 25 years old. I think a team would take a chance on that. Sure, you might have to maybe retain some salary. Outside of that, I mean, there's not a lot of bad contracts on this team. I mean, sure, you know, Jason Zooker might be making a little bit too much money, but I mean, if he starts producing the way he was the season before that with Pittsburgh next season, if he's still on the team, that contract does look a lot better. But anyways, you know, getting back to what I was saying, to sum up this large blurb up that I've just been talking about for the last five minutes,

it was always going to be hard to retain CC. I'm more than comfortable promoting Chad Ruedle to a full-time basis. He has shown enough throughout his initial career, you know, with his coursey, with being on the ice for more shot, Tim Soar, you know, with scoring chances that he can come in and play really well in a full-time role. He has more than earned it and really excited to see if he could potentially be on the team full-time next season and actually be playing full-time next season as well. But outside of the CC stuff, you know, as Mike DeFee,

Debo says, the biggest act factor is Pierre Olivier Joseph, you know, who played in 16 NHL games. I understand that he didn't play as well after being elevated at the top pairing, but again, I mean, this was his first time being in the NHL. They were so banged up with Brian Dumont being out. But Haxdell kind of pumped the brakes on P.O. Joseph coming up to the team full-time. He said, based on this year, I'd say there's still some development that needs to happen with him. Sometimes in the summer, kids come a long way with their strength. That's P.O.'s biggest thing he needs to work on his strength if he has a great summer.

Never say never, but based on this year with his play, I'd say he might need a little more time. So that is definitely a bit interesting to me. I did not think that would be the stance that Ron Hextall would have when it comes to P.O. Joseph. Now my biggest thing is, if P.O. Joseph is not ready to play, are they not going to trade one of Pedersen or Matheson? Is the defense going to be next season? Dumont-Littang, Pedersen-Marino, and then Matheson Ruido? or Matheson Marino. I don't,

the Matheson Marino pairing never really worked to begin with. I mean, those underlying numbers. I think the core C4 was like well below 50% scoring chance for it they were getting caged in and I think the same with, it was with high danger as well. The Pedersen marino pairing is so much better. I think Matheson Ruehdle could work because Rueel is much better defensively

than Matheson. And then the Penguins can let Matheson just roam free with being in the offensive zone and giving him some easy competition as he was doing really well down the stretch while playing with CC. So I think that would be the defense next season if they don't have PO Joseph being elevated into the lineup full-time unless they go out

and either trade one of Matheson or Pedersen and then go out and sign a defenseman in FHC or trade for one. I could see Pittsburgh potentially upgrading the defense by getting rid of Pedersen or Mavison and not upgrading P.O. Joseph to a full-time status. But I still think the best course for action

is elevating P.O. Joseph and starting him off with second or third pair of minutes because before he was elevated to the top role, he was looking really good playing those shelter minutes I thought with Pittsburgh. I thought he looked like he was ready for a full-time role with him. Obviously, you know, the defense was a lot deeper this past year, so it probably was not going to happen with him with being on the team every game and playing every game.

But I think this year, there's as good of a chance as ever for him to get into the lineup and show that he is ready to play on a nightly basis for this team. he is still the main piece that they got in the Felkeessel trade. I think it's time to see what this kid is made of by throwing him to the wolves and putting him on the second or third pairing and just seeing what he can do. I mean, that's my stance at this point. I think he deserves to make the team. And if they can move out one of Petterson or Matheson to do it, I think that makes a lot of sense. Preferably, I would like Mike Matheson to go over Pedersen because I like Pedersen's defensive play down the stretch.

I understand that people weren't that high on Marcus just because, his offense not being there, but his pairing with Marino is one of the best shutdown pairings in the league, and whenever a player would come into the Penguin Zone, it would basically be one and done. If you look at their heat maps together, Pedersen-Marino, that is, there's a whole lot of

a blue blob right in the prime scoring areas, and that's exactly what you want to see in a shutdown pairing where you can throw them out like, what, 12, 14, 15 minutes a game. So we'll have to see what they do with the defense going into next season. I still, in my opinion, I still think it's unlikely they go out and get someone

from another team, whether it's a trade or a signing. I guess it wouldn't surprise me in a way, but I still would think it's unlikely with how deep they are at this position, even with Cody Cici leaving. Those are just my thoughts on that. But great article from DeFabo.

I disagreed with one of his articles yesterday while talking about Brandon Tanneth and Captain and Brian Rust, excuse me, would be a bit expendable because TANF can elevate into a top six role. Don't get him wrong, I love Brandon Tanniv, but, you know, as Jason says in his tweet, he's pushing 30, he's never been that offensive force that Rust and Kaepernan are. Again, I talked about this earlier in the week.

I'll never understand a lot of people in the fan base that would protect Brandon Tanniff over, you know, one of Brian, not Brian Rust, excuse me, Kisbury Kappan, or Teddy Blugher or Jared McCann. I just, I'll never really understand it. I think all three of those players are better offensive players than TANF. And again, everyone, this is not a popular take, but it's true. If Seattle would take Brandon Taneff off the Penguins' hands, it would help them cap-wise going into next year, and even this summer and beyond that.

But those are just my thoughts on that. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to talk about the Stanley Cup Final. I think I'm going to save the next season review for tomorrow's episode Friday. That is. But before we do get to this next segment to talk about the final and the trade today, it's time to talk about rock auto.com. 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? They are a family business serving do-it-yourselfers for over 20 years. The prices are reliably low for every customer.

They have everything you could need from brake parts, tail lamps, motor oil, even new carpet. You can go explore their easy-to-use website today to find a solution to your auto part needs. You can go to rockadodo.com right now and see all the parts available for your car truck and you can write Locked On in their how did you hear about this box so they know we sent you amazing selection, wide below prices, all the parts of your car will ever need. Let's visit rockato.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hon.

Hodeys. Remember follow me on Twitter at Honor Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguin. We have our last segment here. It's time to talk about the stand-likeup final. as I kind of thought this was going to happen. Tampa Bay up two games to zero on the Montreal Canadians, though I will say this everyone.

Montreal played their asses off last night. I mean, I think they outshot them 43 to 23 or somewhere around those last, 43, 25 or something like that. They show that they belong in the Stanley Cup final. They show that they can compete with Tampa Bay, but Andre Vasselowski was just too much. Kerry Price, he has to be near perfect in this series, or Montreal has no chance.

Through two games, he's allowed eight goals in those games, and his state percentage is 888. I know you can't really fault him for a lot of those goals, but he still has to be better than 888. That is not going to get it done against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Maybe it gets it done against Vegas in a way, but honestly, you know, not really. I mean, Price was much better than that in the Vegas series, but through two games so far, this is the carry price that we saw from the regular season. But though, like I said, watching Montreal last night, Nick Suzuki is going to turn into one hell. of a player. I mean, I kind of dumped on that patch ready trade when that first happened a couple

years ago when I think I was a junior in college because it looked like Montreal didn't know what they were doing. But Suzuki has turned into one heck of a play already, and he's only 21 years old. I can't wait to see how he plays when he's around 23 to 24 years old. Tambe was able to score one nothing and then Montreal was able to tie it on a nice goal in the power play. But, you know, the big back, crack breaker, man, end of the second period, Montreal's played their tails off. Blake Coleman gets the goal. The game winning. goal to go up two to one with point three seconds left in the period after that montreal never really recovered it was just a bad i think pitch on pinch on that second goal it led to a two on one and then

coleman was able to score um i've talked about this on the podcast before i would love play coleman was a pittsburgh penguin i don't think it's going to happen but he is the exact kind of player that this management would love to bring in and a player that is not really available that often me, he's great offensively, great defensively, and he can get in your face and be gritty and all that stuff, and he has a lot of size, which is also something that I think the staff looks for, well, the general managing staff looks for as well. But I think that contract's probably going to be a five times five or a five times six. I mean, Tampa Bay is not going to be able to afford him, especially with their salary

cap situation. I would love if Pittsburgh could, but they would have to really create some cap space and some unique ways, I think, to bring in someone like Blake Holman. But again, this game just goes to show you, you know, Tampa Bay can beat you in a whole different ways. They can outscore you in 5-1 in game one, but they can also beat you in the low-scoring games in 2-1, even though they don't bring their A-game. I mean, that was probably a CD game from Tampa Bay and an A game from Montreal, and it didn't matter as the Habs are now down 02,

and they now have to win at least four out of five games against the defending champions to win the Stanley Cup. I don't foresee that happening. I think at best it's probably 3-1 going back to Tampa Bay for Montreal. It's pretty unfortunate that the HABs are not going to have 10,000 fans at the Bell Center. The Canadian government declined their request to put up that many fans. In my opinion, I think that's just kind of silly. I think the numbers up there are starting to really be a lot better. The vaccinations, I think up in Canada last I checked, have gone up a lot these last couple weeks.

So to not have 10,000 fans up there, definitely a bit disappointing, especially when, you know, for the clinching game in Montreal against Vegas, they had thousands of fans outside the arena, partying standing next to each other. So I really don't understand the logic behind that. But hey, I'm not in the Canadian government. I just feel like Montreal and the city, they deserve to have as many fans as they can

to support their team there as they have not hosted us in like a final game since 93. As for the trade today, Victor Arvinson goes from Nashville to the Los Angeles Kings for a second round pick in this year's draft and a third round pick in next year's draft. That is definitely a trade that caught me. bit by surprise.

I know it was mentioned in Elliott Friedman's 31 thoughts that Arvinson was on the block, but I just didn't know he was going to be that quickly that he was going to get traded. As Jayfresh says in his tweet, his projected wins above replacement is 79%. Even strength offense is 77%. He's an 84% percentile in finishing. Goals per 60, 83%. I mean, he's always been, as Jayfresh says as well, a good second line goal scorer. He did have a pretty bad season goal scoring-wise.

I mean, his numbers this season were not. even close to what they were on the previous couple of seasons. And this is a good bet to take if you are the Kings. I mean, they're going back to the regular re-alignment next season. And a lot of the Pacific Division is a joke. I mean, you look at it right now. I mean, Seattle's probably not going to be that good of a team.

The ducks are rebuilding. San Jose is not that good. I'm not really sure about Vancouver. Edmonton, we're still not sure about. Calgary may make a lot of changes. I think Vegas is definitely the frontrunner. But after that, I mean, a playoff spot could very well be in the reach for the Kings next season,

especially if they start to make some shrewd moves like this one. I don't think a second round pick and a third round pick is a lot for Victor Arvinson, especially he gets back to the level that he displayed from these last couple seasons of just looking up his counting stats right now from hockey reference. This is a former 30 goal score from 2017, 61 points, 80 games, 48 points in 58 games during 2019, where he had 34 goals. the season before that, 61 points in 78 games when he had 29 goals. Last year did go down a bit, but still, 28 points and 57 games.

I mean, that's half a point per game. I know this year, it's the lowest that it has been since he came into the league, but I would look for that to rebound next season, and I think Rob Blake is looking for that as well. He's been a really good general manager ever since taking over for D. Lombardi, who always made a lot of weird moves. I really like this move for Los Angeles. And if they continue to make moves like this,

I could really see the Kings potentially contending for a playoff spot next season. I mean, the Pacific Division, like I said, is a flat-out joke. But there's still probably going to be a lot of movement coming. I'm just waiting for the Penguins to do something so I can talk to you all about this on the podcast. It has been very quiet with Ron Hextel and Brian Burke. But, you know, July, I don't expect it to be quiet that much longer. I think in a few weeks, we will have some topics to discuss when it comes to Penguin's moves. Again, I appreciate every one of you listening to this podcast.

we'll have another one of these. Tomorrow we'll have a season review of one of the players and a couple other things as well. So look for that then. Hope you all the great rest of your evening.