Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - How far can the Penguins go? (with Chris Mack)!

Episode Date: October 17, 2023

Hunter and Pat teased a guest for Tuesday's edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast and they came through. They're pleased to welcome back Chris Mack to the show to discuss the first three games and what he has seen from the team thus far. He goes into the positives and the negatives before looking at what he expects from the team for the rest of the season and how they have a big opportunity this month to really rack up some points. They also discuss the ESPN article and how Evgeni Malkin was snubbed yet again before letting Chris go and discussing the trade that Kyle Dubas made on Tuesday. Are Hunter and Pat surprised by the move? Could they have something in Jack Rathbone down the line? All that, plus much more is on this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Jase MedicalGet $20 off these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.BirddogsGo to birddogs.com/LOCKEDONNHL or enter promo code LOCKEDONNHL for a free water bottle with any order. You won’t want to take your birddogs off we promise you.AG1If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine, then try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/NHLNETWORK.eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime.Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS - GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.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) 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.

The penguins are still off for one more day. And with that, Pat and I are pleased to welcome Chris Mack back to the show to dissect the penguin season so far. Plus so much more. It's all coming up right after this. 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 back to another episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes, joined as. always by the best co-host on the planet. Patrick Damp, you can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow Pat on Twitter at Sinem for Wet. And you can follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. Ornswer Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first list and slash watch of the day.

We are free and available on all platforms. And today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, Crane account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. So as we teased, we're pleased to welcome back. Chris Mack from 93-7th-the-van and Fifth Avenue face-off. Chris, it's great having you back on the show. Thanks for having me back, guys.

How are we doing? Doing pretty good, Pat. Anytime I get a chance or an excuse to talk hockey with Mac, I'm taking it right away. It's just, it's always fun. He came on the show before Pat was the full-time co-host, and I got to say it was probably one of the best episodes in the show's history. So, Chris, glad to have you back. Pengins have played three games so far.

two and one in those games, they've looked really good in these last two. What are your overall impressions from this team so far? Even though it's only been three games, it's a small sample, but what are you seeing that you're liking? What are you seeing that you're not liking? The four is yours. I like the fact that early on we're seeing the top two lines generate offense. Now, the immediate counterpoint to that is wonderful.

When are the depth guys going to generate some offense? But I contend, and I said this yesterday on the latest episode of Fifth Avenue faceoff, plug, plug, that as long as those depth lines start the year out playing 50-50 hockey, I'm okay with it. And to this point, the results at least have proven to be 50-50 hockey. Now, if you dig into the numbers a little bit, you do the natural stat trick thing, you can see that that may be more the work of Tristan Jari and Alex Nadelcovic in helping them out those depth lines because they have been outchanced

by the opposition. But you also consider things like, hey, those are the lines that are always going to start out in their own end. They're always going to be asked to kill off the difficult chances. They're always going to be asked to work against the opposition's top two lines. So I think what I take hard in is, okay, Gensel looks like he hasn't really skipped the beat, despite not really getting any preseason, significant preseason work. He and Cros, and Rust, who had a couple the other night, even if one was an empty netter, look like themselves. They'll have their dominant moments.

They'll also have their moments where, you know, they're a little less dominant because Cid's not a spring chicken anymore. Gino looks like he's got a bottle rocket shoved up his butt, which is lovely. I absolutely, not just the concept of a bottle rocket shoved up someone's butt because that's kind of weird. But the idea of, Evgeny Malkin looking like classic 2009 against the Carolina of hurricanes of Genie Malkin. Like the galloping Gino that we absolutely love.

And other than a couple moments late on Saturday night, I thought, we haven't gotten the emotional kickback of that version of Gino, right? Like, I'm not big on guns because they scare me and I'm a wee little man who's afraid of things that can hurt me. But when you shoot a big gun, it kicks back. And to use that analogy on Gino, we haven't had the kickback at all. It's been nice and smooth. He's like a sniper out there, both in how he's setting up Riley Smith and how he's playing himself. So I like the fact that we're getting that.

I like the fact that Eric Carlson has been a big part of things in setting things up, but we haven't yet got the point generation, which I think is interesting because when we do get the point generation, what's that going to mean for how much more he's involved? Like the ceiling is the roof, Michael Jordan with Eric Carlson right now. And it feels like there's a lot more to go once he really starts to build some chemistry with the power play and the top two units who he's going to be skating with more often than not. I like that Ndilkevich looked really solid the first two period, really the entire game on Saturday night, but helped them maintain against Calgary the first two periods when they weren't quite looking their best. There's a lot of reasons I think to feel really

good. The reservations still include the fourth line. I don't know how long you can keep Niedo, Carter, and Achari together because you can see that, like I said, the natural stat trick numbers bear out that they are being outchanced. And eventually, unless they do start to produce some offense, it's not going to be 50-50 hockey. It's going to start to tilt the ice too far against them. But I think that's stuff that still, you know, three games in, I'm not that worried about it. I do think, and this would be my last sort of assessment of where they stand or the last part of my assessment on where they stand early on in this first week is the first 11 games

are built for them to figure some things out. If you look at the schedule other than the stars in the avalanche, the other nine opponents in the first 11 games or eight opponents in the first 11 games, because they play the ducks twice, are games they should win if they play the way they're capable of playing. They should get a nice start to this season. They blew the Blackhawks game. Okay.

The rest of these points are opportunities to stack points because 11 is a totally arbitrary number. But when you get to the second set of 11 games, that's where you start to see a whole lot more stringent set of opponents come in but you can't screw around against. Take the opportunity this first month, month and a week of the season to build that chemistry, figure some things out, and launch into the body of November, as it were, really playing your best hockey.

Yeah, it's like you listen to the show because we've talked about all of that already. But I joined your show Fifth Avenue face off back in March when we were still in the doldrums of the hex doll days. And we were still waiting to see if this team was going to keep its playoff streak alive. So I want to take it back. just a little bit to the off season and get your thoughts on what Kyle Dubus, who kind of did the whole assistant to the regional manager thing and made himself general manager when he was president and just get your assessment on what he has done with this franchise in just a couple short months after what it looked like could be a disastrous end in seeing this group kind of

go off into the sunset without another championship. I love that analogy, too, to the office, because now I need a, I need a little Kyle Dubus bubblehead on my desk that I can just tap and he wiggles around and a trade pops out. I love the fact that he was aggressive, obviously, in completely rebuilding the bottom half of the roster. And parts of the top, you know, half of the roster too. Look, you weren't going to get rid of Jeff Carter. And does he still hold a little bit of value? Yeah, if all he's doing is playing wing on a fourth line and occasionally taking a D-Zone draw,

you can live with Jeff Carter, right? He did everything else you could possibly ask him to do, I think. He did not necessarily make the team younger, still the oldest team in the league, but he made him faster. Like, you don't get younger when you add Achari and Eller. But in Achari's case, especially, you do get faster than the options you had at those spots last year. You do build a little bit of depth. I think obviously the Carlson deal, that alone is enough to crown him for his offseason. When you add in those other moves,

perhaps getting a backup goaltender who can do exactly what Nadelcovich did on Saturday night in that I don't know if that's a game where Casey DeSmith doesn't give up a goal in the first two periods and leave you, you know, a goal that he shouldn't give up in the first two periods. And you're left digging out of a large hole when you get to the third period. Now, five goals in that third period, they probably would have dug out of it anyway. But I think the point remains that Deltkovich is a slightly better backup option who maybe wins you one or two more games this year. And that's all you need.

Malkin said it in the off season. We win one more game. We're in the playoffs. And look, Eric Carlson is enough to, win you three or four more games probably alone. But then you start to make those other tweaks around the Carlson move. And I think that's why the expectations should not just be, okay, let's get back to the playoffs. It should be, no, let's get back to the playoffs and win at least a series.

That's got to be the make or break expectation for this season. And then if something great happens, you know, like your starting goaltender actually stays healthy in the playoffs. If something crazy like that happens and you're actually able to steal another series and you look up and you're in the conference finals, then that's, yes, that is more than enough success for me this season in particular because my stated expectation, my stated desire since they decided to keep the big three together was always one more run. And that doesn't mean you got to win the cup because you never know what's going to happen. But just get me to the final one more time.

made of the cup final one more time so that this group can go out after 20 years together and say, well, on average, we went every four years. And on average, we won every six or seven years. That's, that's better. Everybody keeps comparing them to Jeter, Rivera, and Petit. That's, and Posada. Everybody keeps comparing them to that big group that the Yankees had together for 17 years. Right. That's better than anything those guys ever did. And so, That really puts the icing on the cake of those three going out as the greatest trio, in my opinion, probably in sports history, to play together as long as they have. If they get one more good, deep playoff run and you look up and say they went five times and they won three,

that's enough for me. Yeah, I think before the season, Pat and I were discussing like, what would a successful season for this franchise be? And the bare minimum for me, they have to win a playoff series. They haven't won a series since the Flyers won in 2018. Getting back to the playoffs is not enough for me. And they will have an opportunity, I think, to win around whether you play, say, the New York Rangers and that rematch will be crazy, second time in three years if that happens, whether it's Carolina and New Jersey, say you win the Metro and shock some people and you play a wild car team,

you're probably going to play a metropolitan team overall, though. But they got to at least win a series. If you can win two, obviously great it. You go all the way. That's obviously the crown jewel here. but getting back to the playoffs is not enough, I think, for me and most people at this point. I want to go back to something that you said earlier, and that's of getting him all. And before we had to a break here, you're right.

He's been absolutely fantastic this season. It feels like he's galloping a lot more this year, even compared to last year. He was awesome last year. I know most people that are probably listening to this saw the ESPN article today that did not have him as a top 100 player in the NHL, which is a complete and utter joke. it's an embarrassment. It's pathetic, to be honest. And I think it just continues to show why he is one of, if not, the most underrated and probably most honestly one of the most disrespected stars in NHL history with how good

he's been. And he's been phenomenal this year. Yeah, it's, you're right. All those adjectives you used, Hunter, perfectly described this omission of, of Genie Malkin from this top 100 players in the game currently list. I also think, look, and Greg Wosinski, the few times I've interacted with him, has been a great guy. Everybody at ESPN, who I've interacted with, to be quite honest, who covers the NHL has been really awesome.

You know, Ray Ferraro has been nice enough to come on the podcast, Sean McDonough. And so they're good people who I think are working under the umbrella of a company that doesn't know how to handle hockey really well. Dan Kngerski wrote about this over the weekend. Credit to him at Pittsburgh Hockey now. They screwed the pooch when they put Penn's caps. Maybe one of the final times you get to see Ovechkin against Crosby and Malkin on streaming only. Look, this is not a boomer take to talk about cord cutting and all that and I got to pay $200 a month for cable.

No, it's more about understanding what you're still trying to do with the game. TNT and Turner have done infinitely more for the game and their presentation of it and their appreciation for it since they, you know, co-purchased the national rights to NHL broadcast than anything ESPN has done. And that's a disappointment, a massive disappointment for people of my age and my generation who remember even when they were. shuttled off to ESPN 2 more often than not, the warm embrace they got over the years from what was back then Bouchagros and Melrose, the recently retired Barry Melrose and Ray Ferraro and NHL tonight. And what was I think one of the best, if not the best national announced team ever in Gary Thorne and Bill Clement. I still remember Gary Thorne's call of Mary Olamy's final goal in his first before his first retirement against the Philadelphia Flyers and the

goosebumps it still gives me. They did a good job of even though they knew it wasn't their bread and butter and was never going to be embracing the game and letting people who loved the game embrace it. And they don't, they simply don't do that anymore. They don't give people the opportunity to love the game as much as those of us who are fans do love the game because, well, to be quite honest, they just want to get it out there. That's all it is. Just get it out there. Get it out there on Hulu. Get it out there on plus. Get it out there on. Get it out there on. on the stream somewhere and somebody will see it hopefully maybe i don't know go crosbie ovechkin who what yeah i don't know it's it's a friday night we got a we got a mountain west game to get on the air sorry um

so like that's disappointing to me and again credit to dan kogerski who threw this idea out there first that they've blown it they really have uh with with with the way they've handled it and so it doesn't surprise me that an esPN dot com list doesn't include of genny frickin malkin in the list of the top 100 players in league right now. It's really, to be honest, it would be more shocking or surprising if they actually had him on the list because that's the way their hockey coverage rolls. Before Pat and I get back to our talk with Chris Mack for today's episode of the podcast, we got to tell you all about game time. You should not have to worry when you're buying tickets to your next big event. Game time is the fastest and easiest way to buy tickets for all the

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And I gave it a try because I was just kind of tired of taking just supplements in the morning that really weren't that good. And I usually drink it around, honestly, right after I wake up, 830, 9, 930, right before I have my first cup of coffee. And those two combined get me the start to each day that I want. All great athletes have one thing in common. They take care of their bodies. And a huge part that starts with optimizing whole body health.

A lot of them also drink AG1. And it's why I am a massive fan. With every daily serving, I'm setting myself up for success with 75 high quality ingredients that give me key daily nutrients and support energy, focus, strength, and clarity. If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine, then try AG1 and get a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkag1.com slash NHL network. That's drinkag1.com slash NHL Network. Check it out. So, Mac, before we let you roll, we kind of talked about it there in the last segment about

what or where this team can go with the moves Kyle Dubus has made. Now, because we may be a podcast, but you're a radio guy. So we're going to do the old sports radio thing here and say, prediction, expectation. Okay. What do you feel with this team? Obviously, three games in. There's a million things that can happen between now and April.

But when you look at this roster as presently constructed, What are your expectations realistically for how far this team could go this year? I think it's exactly what we talked about, to be honest, Pat. I think this is a, it's got to be a second round playoff team. And that's the way I see it. I think, look, there are going to be times this year where they do look disjointed, where maybe the talent doesn't drag them to wins kicking and screaming. A lot of that will depend, I think, on how the third and fourth lines continue to

their chemistry and develop and what they look like throughout the year because it's not going to be the same six guys on the bottom six all year. It's also one hell of an uphill climb to get through the metro. And then you look at the other side and you may have to be in the top three in the metro just to get in. It could be the three team division on the eastern side. So I think ultimately we're talking about a sixth or seventh seated team with somewhere in the neighborhood of, you know, 95 to 100 points. And that's, again, all things being equal and guys remaining healthy most of the year. And you're talking about, you know, as Hunter alluded to earlier, a first round matchup against maybe a rangers or an islanders, something like that. And you work your way through the first round. It's difficult, but you get to the second round. And at that point, you run up against the devils or the hurricanes. Or if you somehow end up flopped over to the Atlantic side, you, run up against a Toronto or maybe even a Tampa and you do get bounced in the second round.

My dream scenario is they get to the Eastern Conference finals and we get to see them to take on Toronto in the Eastern Conference finals. But I'm not going to, again, that's not the expectation. I think that would be great if they get there. My expectation is get to the second round and maybe at that point we finally see the legs on these guys maybe give out because I think they will have. I've done a lot to get there. And we'll ask ourselves the questions in the offseason. Was the goal tending enough? Are they getting too old?

Can they keep up? But I think that's, if you're asking me to make a prediction, this is a 95 to a 100 point team that finishes probably third-ish in the metro. And that means third or fourth in the metro and is looking at like a sixth or seventh seed, for lack of a better way to put it, even though we're not one through eight seed playoffs anymore. Yeah, I said it in my season preview when I kind of ran down everything for KDCA. I think that this team does see their season end in the conference final just because the Metro division and just the Eastern Conference playoff field is going to be such a dog fight that if you get out of that first round,

you're well prepared for that second round, and I think they can run that second round. But like you said, by the time, they get to the conference final, whether it's a Toronto, a Tampa Bay, whoever out of the Atlantic, or even if it ends up being another metro team, it's just going to be, it's going to be similar to that 2012 year where they had that circus with the flyers, where it didn't matter if they won that series. They were just, whoever played the next round was going to be so spent. So by the time whoever gets there, it's going to be the team that's, as your co-host on fourth down in the Steel City, Josh Taylor likes to say, whoever

loses slower. Yes. Yes. That's a good way to put it, I think. Yeah. I mean, the Easter conference is a gauntlet. So if you can manage to work your way to the conference finals, I would. I would consider that a wild success for Kyle Dubus' first year. I agree with that. And just, I would still want to see the city of Toronto melt if the penguins play the Maple Leafs and they won that series. Just inject that right into my veins right here. The Kyle Dubus Revenge Tour. Oh, my God. They wouldn't know what to do with you. themselves the storylines the think of the takes people think of the takes red hot fiery like like a bag of red hot cheetos i mean your fingers come out just covered in red dust with every single take

i i need that steve simmons call them bad please just just give it to me come on but i think that will do it for this second segment chris thank you so much for coming on this edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. Where can everyone find you on social media? Where can everyone find the podcast, all that good stuff? Follow me on Twitter at V-Christ Mac, Instagram and Facebook as well for the boomers out there. And of course, Fifth Avenue faceoff posting all the time inside your Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And on YouTube as well, the 93-7, the fan YouTube page. And if you're still interested in seeing whether the Steelers will learn how to score points on

offense or not the rest of this season. Fourth down in the Steel City is available there as well. Thanks again for having me, guys. Super, super appreciative. That's right. Thanks, Mack. We appreciate it, man. Thank you, Chris. Appreciate it. Pat and I want to thank Chris Mack for coming on today's episode, but we're not done. We still have one more segment to go. And in that, we're going to talk about Kyle Dubas making a trade with the Vancouver Canucks. But before we get to that, we got to discuss Fandle. Snap into action this NFL season with Fandle America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet.

That's $200 of bonus bets win or lose. If you've been thinking about joining Fandul, there's no better time to get in on the action than right now. The app is so easy to use. There's a wide range of betting options, including spreads, player props, over, unders, and so much more. So with that, visit fandle.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season. That's Fandle, the official partner of the NFL and locked on. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hodes, joined as always by Patrick Dan.

You can follow me on Twitter. Hunter Hodes. Follow Pat on Twitter at Send him for Wet. So, Kyle Dubas was a bit busy on this Tuesday, making a trade with the Vancouver Canucks, Patrick Alvin and Jim Rutherford, hooking up with Kyle Dubus to help him out, I guess a little bit of the Penguins send Ty Glover and Mark Friedman to the Canucks. And in return, they get Jack Rathbone and Carol Plastic. I apologize if I mispronounced his last name.

there, but Mark Friedman, our nice Jewish man, goes to the Vancouver Canucks. And honestly, I'm happy for him. He was in the HL. He doesn't deserve to play there. If you look at his underlines and look at how he's played at the NHL throughout his grid, whether it's in Philadelphia, or especially in Pittsburgh, he deserves to be in the NHL and he will get that time, I think, with the Canucks. I don't think he'll be sent to their HL team, you know, whether he's their number

six guy, whether he's their number seven guy. He deserves to be on an NHL roster, and I think he's going to get that opportunity with the Canucks. I'm fine with this move. Yeah, the Canucks needed some short-term blue line help right now. They found out a guy like Noah Julesen wasn't going to work out at the NHL level. Right. So they had a willing partner with Kyle Dubus and an NHL ready guy and Mark Friedman.

So they made a deal. I've also made the joke that Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alviener acquiring penguins like they're Thanos and getting infinity stones. But yeah, again, and I think I don't know if I've said this on the podcast or if I've just said it to you personally, but I'm not worried just yet. But this is one of those things that I heard from Toronto fans about Kyle Dubus that might be a bit of a weakness is that he's willing to do right by guys a little too often in the sense that, oh, okay, so this guy's not going to play here in the immediate.

So I'm going to send him somewhere where he can. And while I think the penguins have enough organizational depth of defense right now, losing Mark Friedman's not that big of a deal. But I don't want to see this become a similar trend in Pittsburgh as it was in Toronto with Kyle Dubus where he does this whole like, ah, you know, he's a good dude. I like him. He's not playing. Trade him away.

And then in two, three months, you suddenly don't have depth at that position. or you don't have quality depth at that position. So while this doesn't concern me at all right now, it is something that is, you know, in the back of my head. I understand what you're saying. I think for this, though, I guess I disagree with you a little bit just because he really wasn't going to find his footing in Pittsburgh just based on the roster right now.

It's obvious that Ryan Shea and John Ludwig passed him, even though Freeman had been there longer than those two players. And you don't need to keep a player like that. Donald Wolksbury playing against players who, let's face it, he's better than a good chunk of those guys, I think, at this point. And he'll have an opportunity to go out there in Vancouver, prove his worth and all that good stuff. The one player that they did, the Penguins did get back,

Jack Rathbone, intriguing. 24 years old, he was once thought of as a pretty decent prospect. If you look about some of the underlying numbers, he had a probability chance to make the NHL at over 50%, which is pretty good, honestly, for a prospect. That's not a top five pick or anything like that.

his age on numbers a couple years ago were really solid 21, 22 had 10 goals, 40 points in 39 games last year, five goals, 14 points. So went down a little bit. But he's been a point per game player in the HL before was assigned to Wilkesbury when the trade was made official. Intriguing ad, I think, from Kyle Duboisia. I don't expect him up with the penguins here considering the amount of defensemen they have on the team right now. But maybe a fresh start for him is what he needed, especially with him being only 24. It reminds me a lot of when they got P.O. Joseph. At the time, not that big of a move, something you don't really think of a ton, even though that was the Phil Kessel trade. But it's a player that he's young, he's on the blue line, he's got a lot of potential. We're not going to think about him this year. We might not even see him next year. But maybe in two years, all of a sudden, he can be an impact player on the Penguins Blue Line who develops nicely and becomes a nice little piece for them to have as. as I said before, defensive damage.

Right. And I actually saw a couple people comparing it to the John Marino trade. I'm not going to go that far, considering how good Marino has been in the NHL. But it was still interesting when I looked at some of the underlines for him and saw that he had an NHL probability percentage rate of over 50% for someone who's a fourth round pick. That's intriguing. And as for the other player in the trade plastic, he's been assigned to Wheeling. So he's still a bit of a ways away at this point. What's the word I really want to use for this trade?

I guess this was just a depth trade overall for both teams. Nothing really serious, nothing that's really going to have your eyes jump out at you. But it was still, I guess, a little surprising that Freeman was dealt today. But I guess if you really look into it with how many players have passed over him, it shouldn't be that surprising. I guess it was when I first saw it. Yeah, I agree.

And it again shows what we've been talking about with a bit of an organizational philosophy shift under Kyle Dubus to where they're putting a lot more emphasis on making Wilkes-Barre competitive again. That way, like I've said, and it's been shown in a lot of the moves this off-season and into the season that they believe that if the guys who are playing in Wilkes-Bair are playing meaningful competitive hockey, they'll be more prepared if and when they have to come up to Pittsburgh where you're definitely playing meaningful competitive hockey. Yeah, I agree there.

I really have no rebuttal for that or anything. they definitely want to make Wilkesbury better this year. I mean, we've been saying that a lot on this show, to be honest. But I think that I'll do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for listening to slash watching this one. Also, thank you again to Chris Mack for coming on for the first two segments. Really appreciate it. Pat and I will be back on Wednesday to preview the game against the Red Wings,

and then we'll recap it Thursday, and then Friday we'll preview the game against the St. Louis Blues. Penguins trying to get a couple of big wins this week, try to get to four in one. overall. But again, thank you all so much for tuning in. Really appreciate it. We'll be back with another episode for you all on Wednesday.