Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Imagine if Jim Rutherford got a promotion like Stan Bowman did today!

Episode Date: December 17, 2020

Locked On Penguins is back this week and there's a whole bunch to talk about when it comes to the Penguins and around the league. Hunter talks about the news with Chicago today and how Stan Bowman somehow got a promotion. How would Penguins fans feel if Jim Rutherford got that same promotion after his last few years? It's also Sidney Crosby's season review and Hunter looks at how he'll do for this coming 56-game season. Is 80-90 points attainable for him in that timeframe? How will his underlying numbers look next season? All that, plus much more on this new episode of Locked On Penguins.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 “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BuiltGoVisit BuiltGO.com and use promo code “LOCKED,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. 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, welcome to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, so all the shows, Twitter at L-O-U-U-Score Penguins. Today's episode is brought to you by Bilbar.com. You can go to Bilbar.com and you'll get 20% off your next order at Bilbar. So I apologize for the last few days of not having episodes. We're going to have one.

Today, of course, we'll have one on Thursday, then we'll have one on Friday. And then I think for the rest of the month, it looks like, the week after Christmas week, we'll have three episodes, and then for New Year's Eve week, one, three episodes. And then I think we're going to be going back to full-time starting in January if Ancel ever comes to this agreement with the PA because it looks like it's going to come at the end of the week. Pierre LeBrun had a tweet.

I think it was on Monday. Yeah, on the 14th, he said the PA in the league went nonstop all weekend. It continued go back and forth on season protocols, transition rules, critical dates. The hope is to have it racked over the next few days to set up a vote on each side by the end of a week. But as we saw in June, these things can drag. So it's already been two days.

mean, their hope is maybe to have it done by tomorrow, Friday, have a vote in by the weekend or something. I guess that's what they want, but, you know, we'll see, as Pierre LeBrun said, I mean, these things can drag on. So it looks like we're getting closer to the start of hockey. January 13th is still the date that everyone is circling about, what, 28 days away now, 56 game season, it's probably going to be a bunch of back-to-backs. I think it's going to be, we've probably talked about this as well, all divisional games, which is just probably going to bore me to pieces. just because, you know, Penguins fans, you know,

they can't even handle four games against the Flyers or four games against the Capitals. Now you've got to have seven to eight of them against those teams and the Islanders and the Rangers and the Bruins. So it's going to be something else for this season. But for this first segment, we are going to talk about an interesting article

that I came across yesterday from Mike DeFobo with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, he talked to Jim Rutherford, and he basically explained to Mike why he didn't mess with the Penguins quarter in the off season. I mean, I think the obvious answer was because, you know, you probably would be fired

or, you know, I would fire him if he did. But we're going to touch on that. In the second segment, we are going to continue the season reviews. We're actually getting close to being done. Today's will be Sydney Crosby's. Thursday, we will have Brandon Tannett. And then on Friday, we will do Zach Aston Reese's. So we're just getting to the bottom six now.

Sid was just, of course, magnificent this season, even in 41 games. But we'll touch on that in the next segment. So this article, I really did like it from Mike Defobo. It was a really good interview with Jim. He basically said, you know, why I didn't trade them? They're future Hall of Famers. They've had great success in Pittsburgh. They still have a lot of good hockey in them.

He also said about Sid. He's still the best player in the league. When you look at his overall game, a lot of people just look at points. I'll play against 100 points. They're in the top ten in scoring. They identify them as top players, but I don't see anybody playing the all-round game

and bringing what Sid brings game in and game out. I will say, you know, for as much as I like to shit on Jim Rutherford and a lot of the fan base does too, and rightfully so is some of the moves that he made this off season. I do got to agree there with him. I still think Sidney Crosby is the best all-around hockey player in the league. I know Connor McDavid is up there. I mean, it's honestly 1A-1B with both of those guys.

I think right now offensively, I'd give the nod to McDavid. But, you know, when you look at both their all-around games, I mean, I would take Sid. It wouldn't be in a heartbeat over Connor, but I would still take him just because I think he's more defensively responsible. I mean, you've been seeing Sid plays top 10 in the Selki voting for the last few years. I mean, his defensive game has just really come around. these last few years. I mean, I think he finished top five in the Selke one of these years. So a lot of people have been putting him in the Selky Trophy finalist. I don't know if he'll ever get to be a Selky Trophy finalist from the PHWA.

But, you know, if he does, you know, it would be very well earned. But, you know, I do got to give it to Jim with that. I think that's a great comment about Sid. He also talked about Gino. He said, I like to see him carry over what he did last year. He came and determined he was in good shape. He looked really good. Again, that's nothing out of the ordinary Gino was their best player, I thought,

last year. I mean, especially when Sid went down, we talked about that in his season review. I mean, he was just carrying the penguins on his back. It was even better than his 2017-18 season where I think he had just about 100 points that season. I mean, I thought he should have been a heart trophy finalist that year, but I guess, you know, the PHWA had other ideas. And then, you know, talking about Latang, he said, I think it's more about playing him in the right number of minutes in the right situations. It's hard for a coach when you're looking down your bench and important parts of the game to bypass Chris. then at the end of the night you look and you say he played 27 to 20 minutes and that continues

game after game after game. He also said with Dumo coming back and healthy and being able to play with Tanger, we know Tanger will be ready to play. He takes care of himself. He wants to win. I expect him to continue to play at a high level for a few more years. I mean, I am definitely pretty excited to see how Todd Reardon can find Tune-Latang's game a bit more.

I mean, we all know he's the best defenseman on the team. I think he's a top 10 defenseman in the league. When he's really on his game, I wouldn't say there's not five defensemen. been better, better than him. I've had that take, honestly, for as long as I can remember. And hopefully, Dumlin is not going to be hurt next season because, you know, just when Dumlin went down, you can just see Chris LaTang's level of play go down as well. They just, they feed off each other so well. I mean, I think it's one of the five best top hearings in hockey. You can honestly make the case that it's the best top hearing in hockey. I'm dead serious about that, too.

I really, you look at the underlying numbers. You look at how good Chris LaTang is in the offensive zone, his own entries per 60 minutes, his 5-5 points per 60. the way he plays on the power play. And then you look at Brian Duelan's impact in the defensive zone, the way he suppress his shots at an elite rate, the way, you know, the zone entries per 60 allowed against. I mean, he's pretty high up there. And they just, they're so good together.

And hopefully they can be on the ice together for every game before however long this season will be 56 games, if it's 60 or something like that. Although I think it looks like it's going to be 56 games. So, and this all comes back to my original plan when we first started this off season, you know, Jim Rutherford definitely did make some mistakes. mistakes, but going into it, it was like, just don't be stupid and trade a core player. You don't need to trade someone like Jake Gensel.

I know they did trade Traffle Quince, but like, is he like a core player for the Penguins? I mean, some you, you could definitely argue it, but I could also argue against it because he was only here since 2014-15. I wouldn't say he was a core player. I think the core players for the Penguins, you know, the big three, Jake Gensel, I would even put Brian Duman in there. John Rorino, I would even put in, well, I think it's a little too early to call him a core player, but he's going to get to that point, and then, you know, one of the goalies, obviously.

But, you know, the big three are obviously untouchable. And, you know, if they were to trade one of them, I mean, you would just be virtually signaling to everyone across the league that, oh, we're rebuilding. I mean, we're just not even going to try going into this season. I mean, that's almost what Chicago did. Even though they didn't trade any of their core players, they basically said, yeah, you know, we're going to throw in the white towel almost for this season. I mean, Stan Bowman, I think the president also talked to Mark Lazarus of the athletic,

And we're going to talk about the Blackhawks later in this episode when we go around the league. But, you know, they basically said, you know, we know we have our core players, but we got, we want to get younger. We want to get faster. We want to give them the last few good years, but we're still going to rebuild. And obviously, you know, the core players did not take too kindly to that. You know, you saw what Jonathan Tave said. I think Patrick Kane had some comments as well. But, you know, I'm definitely, I'm just, I'm glad Jim Rutherford didn't do that for all of his stupidity.

I'm just glad that that did not happen. But also going away from that point, right before we do get to our. first commercial break. There was an interesting tweet from Frank Seravelli. He says, as the league and the P.A. worked tirelessly on protocol and the logistics, I'm hearing the league has designed a three-night double header, well, three-night double header, a three-game double, I mean, a three-game triple header. I just cannot speak today. Wow, it has been since Friday since I've done this podcast, so I apologize. So basically a triple header for opening night on the 13th, if possible, set around the bolts raising their banner perversus Chicago potentially with also a big

Eastern Conference Clash, the Rangers versus Boston perhaps, and then a Markey Western Conference matchup late with Colorado versus St. Louis potentially. The question is, can they pull it off on January 13th? He then says, of course, all details in matchup in teams are subject change. The answer is neither side truly knows whether they can get everything done in time for the 13th. That's the target, but they aren't beholden to the date. Could be a week later.

They are trying. My thoughts on that triple header, it's a great idea, but like Rangers Bruins, I mean, is that what everyone wants to see? I mean, the Rangers are a good up-and-coming team, but I mean, they're probably not going to make the playoffs this year, but I mean, I would honestly maybe just do, I remember what they did for opening day after the lockout ended, you know, they did Penguins Flyers, you know, I would be down to do that. You can do Penguins Capitals for the big marquee Eastern Conference matchup. I mean, maybe Bruins, Montreal. I just think Bruins, New York is just kind of a bit

me. I mean, maybe Islanders Capitals. I mean, there's other rivalries in the East you could do. And for the Western Conference matchup, I mean, Colorado, St. Louis, how about Colorado Vegas? I mean, those are the two teams and the best teams. conference, I think, going into this season, everyone would stay up to watch that. I mean, obviously Tampa Bay raising the banner would draw a lot of viewers. But I mean, then playing Chicago, I would personally choose a different opponent for Tampa Bay, make it like a marquee East team or a good team from the West. I think Chicago, I mean, I get it for ratings-wise, but I mean, they're rebuilding this year and they're not going to be good. So I really,

I mean, outside of ratings, I don't really know why you would put Chicago in there. But, I mean, I guess I can see it just for that reason. But, you know, it's good that they're thinking out of a triple header for opening night, I would assume it would be on NBC at Sports Network. There was rumors. I think I saw it from the Sports Business Journal over the weekend that there may be the next TV deal, maybe with NBC and Fox, and the Stanley Cup final would alternate between the two networks every year or the year. That would be absolutely awesome.

You know, I think Fox could definitely pull some really big analysts, you know, away from other networks, and I would still love if ESPN got some of the rights as well and maybe got like a week-day night game. I think that would be awesome, too. So maybe a split between three different networks, you know, as is basically baseball as, you know, with their playoffs, you know, they're shown on TBS, they have Fox, they have ESPN, they have a whole bunch of stuff that they do for their stuff. But, you know, before we do get to our next segment, it is time to talk about Bill Bar. That's 18 amazing flavors, six new flavors, the caramel, brownie, cookies and cream, carrot cake, lemon, almond, cheesecake, apple almond, crisp. We stole the 12 original flavors, raspberry, German chocolate, peanut butter, banana bread, mint brownie, salted caramel, double chocolate, orange, toffee almond.

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That is promo code locked on for 20% off at Billpbar.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. was Twitter at L.O. and Escore Penguins. So, guys, let's go through SIDS season in review. Obviously, it was cut short due to injuries, but he still had, you know, nine goals, total

assist, 18, I mean, 41 games, 600 minutes overall. I mean, if you look at his underlying numbers, he was still great, 53% possession-wise. His goals for, goals against, only 30 to 30, but, you know, you look at a full sample size like the year before, 82 to 43, I mean, 2016, 17, 62, 44, 62, and 23, and 2015-16, it's obviously going to be much better over a full 82-game sample. I'm looking at more of his underlying numbers. His scoring chances for, scoring chances against, 300 to 295. Again, you know, I'm just going to keep saying it over full-game, over full-82 game sample.

It's going to be a lot higher. 653 to 510 the year before. In 2017, 18, 705 to 587, he's always on the positive side just because he's the best player in the world. His expected goals percentage, 51.4%, is high danger. 123 for 120 against 293-4-207 the year before his high-danger chances for 50% his high-danger goals for this season 20 to 16 his high-danger goals for a percentage 55.5% that's still a bit lower than last year but it's a lot better than his 2017-18 season when it was only 50% I mean this guy his

lowest one for his career I think is like 46.1% and that came in 2008-2009 in one of the primers of his career so you know basically what to take away from this. I mean, half a season for him, but he's still one of the best players in the world, drives play at an elite level. It also sucks that he didn't have Gensel for a lot of the second half of the season when he did come back. It just was not the same for him.

And now that Gensel will be healthy for a full 56 games, if that indeed is the schedule, you know, he'll look a lot better. He'll put more points on the board. And he'll look like the Vincenchant Cindy Crosby that we saw the year before where he was just tearing it up. So I'm not worried about Cindy Crosby. Obviously, the decline is going to come. sooner rather than later for him.

The decline comes for every player. Sooner rather than later, it's going to come for Evgeny Malkin. It's going to come for Chris Lattang. It's going to come for every elite player in this league. You look at Patrice Bergeron at some point. He's been around the league for a long time. You know, you look at Jonathan Taves. The decline has basically already started.

Patrick Cain, he's still doing his thing. But I would imagine the decline for him is coming soon too. But, you know, I still expect for this season. If it's a 56 game year, I'm still going to expect maybe 80 to 90 points from Sid. I don't really think that's too unrealistic just for how good he still is. I don't think he's going to be. going to hit a 100 point season for this one. I don't know if he'll ever hit 100 points again.

I wouldn't put it past him just because of how great he is, how he's one of the five best players of all time for this sport. But right now, guys, I'm thinking 80 to 90 points, but probably in the middle, but 80 to 85. For how many goals for him, I'd say 30, you know, maybe 50 assists. I think that's probably a good ratio for him. I don't think he's going to be a 40 goals for next season. I would be, I would love it, but I would be pretty surprised.

If he wasn't honestly, guys, I would be surprised if we had any 40 goal scores in the league next year outside of Alex O'Betchkin, just because he'll score 40 goals in two games if he has to because he's the greatest goal score of all time. But I think that's really it on Sid. I mean, obviously he's going to get a lot of power playtime. He missed a lot of that when he was out with his hernia injury. He also didn't look right in the playoffs. I mean, he obviously had a goal for the Penguins in that four-game loss to the Montreal Canadiens. But, you know, it looked like something was bothering him.

And we obviously saw I think he was missing parts of training camp. Juden, un-disclosed ailment. I mean, I think it was written by a few outlets that. His hernia was kind of bothering him again. Now, he's had almost a full-law season to get that taken care of. Hopefully he comes back 100%. I'm sure he is. And, you know, he had that heartfelt message to all Penguins fans with the Happy Holidays

gesture. And, you know, he's still rocking the playoff here. So I don't know when he's going to shave that. But, you know, maybe he'll just keep it for the whole season, just going into the playoffs next May or June. And then we can just get Cindy Crosby looking like it basically a Wolverine guy. So that would be pretty funny, though pretty unlikely, I would say that that would happen. But next up for the season reviews on Thursday, we will do Brandon Tanneth. I mean,

he, wow, he made me eat a lot of crow this past season with his very strong, uh, sought suppressing numbers. I know his offensive game has not come around you, but, you know, we're going to touch on that in tomorrow's episode. And then on Friday, we will touch on Zach Aston recent, even though he will be out for a portion of this next season, maybe it would be about a month, maybe two into March. He still put in a very strong performance. for the Penguins, I thought, this past season, especially in the defensive zone. And then next week, we will get into Teddy Blugher. Before we get into some of the other guys, you know, like Sam Lafferty, he was probably going

to make the team, and a couple others as well. So we're getting close to the end of the season reviews for the Penguins. We've done basically all the top six players now, done basically all the defensemen. Though we still need to do Tristan Jari, that'll be coming up as well as he's going to be the starting goaltender going into next season for the Penguins. So, you know, get excited, guys. They're about four weeks away now. I'm just ready for hockey to come back so I can start talking about this team overall with you guys and just get back to talking every day about the team with you all and just bringing on more guests just because this offseason has just been going on.

It looks like forever now, basically. But coming up in the next segment, we're going to go around the league a little bit talking about some stuff that, you know, could relate to the penguins such as Stan Bowman somehow getting a promotion in Chicago. We're going to talk about if the penguins could do that for Jim Rutherford at some point. If they decide to move him from the GM duties to like the president of hockey operations and just that type. and then give the GM position to someone else. We're going to touch on that after this commercial break and a lot more, so stay with us. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes.

Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows Twitter at LO underscore Penguins. So in a very surprising move today, I mean, the Blackhawks, they kind of just reshuffled their front office, I guess, and they kind of promoted Stan Bowman to president of hockey operations as well as general manager. Let's just say the Blackhawks fans were not too pleased about that, issue with the moves that he's made over the last few years. I mean, the guy freaking traded Artemi Panerian, Artemi Paneran, excuse me. That's pathetic that I must pronounce that last name. He also traded Brandon Sade for a bag of peanuts. I mean, the Tevo Terra Vinen trade is also terrible. I mean, I think they had to basically move Brian Bickle, I think, just because of their salary cap

situation a few years ago. They were in cap hell for a lot of years just because Dambo Oman was just loyal to some players that he should not have been loyal to. I mean, the Brent-Zibro contract is looking more and more awful. Every day you look at it, I think he's making like over $8 million per and he barely plays now, and his level of play just stinks too. So that contract's bad. I mean, Duncan Keith makes a lot of money, but he's still pretty decent. I mean, that Jonathan Taves contract, I think, is going to start looking worse and worse, too,

just because I think his level of play is starting to diminish as well. And the Blackhawks, their ownership, we're basically like, you know what? We're going to give you a promotion, just for all that work that you've done. And, you know, if the Penguins ever do that with Jen Rutherford, God help me. God help the Penguins fan base as well. That would just be like a total slap in the face if like Mirio and Ron Burkle and David Morehouse were like, oh yeah, let's just promote

Jim Rutherford to like president of hockey operations and give, even though he's done a really bad job as general manager, like just let him retire after he's done. I mean, they're obviously probably not going to fire him just because he's brought the franchise to Stanley Cups. So that is past history. This is now and he's just not being a good general manager the last few years.

But, you know, the reality of the situation, guys, they're just not going to fire him because, That's just not who Mario and Ron are. And besides, you know, the Penguins organization has some other issues to worry about, especially with the ownership when it comes to Clark Donatellis, the allegations against him and how, you know, the organization kind of said, or Billy Aaron, I think, basically said, you know, just to forget it or whatever. It did not paint the Penguins organization in a good light.

I mean, it honestly painted them as a shallow organization. So that's really all I'm going to say about that. I know it was last week's news, but I didn't really get a chance to talk about it on the podcast. just, you know, it's a bad look. That's all I'm going to say. It's just the story that I read, you know, and please go read. I think it's on TSN from Rick Westhead, I think, is the one who wrote it. It was just a lot of the stuff in there.

It's real hard to read, but it's a necessary read just because, you know, it's people need. I think a lot more people need to start taking that stuff more seriously. And like I said, you know, it painted the penguins in a bad light there. But moving on to some other stuff around the league, it looks like there's been some a lot of Vegas trade rumors. Max Patcher Reddy's name has been brought up a lot in the last week. Apparently, I think Dan Kongerski at Pittsburgh Hockey now, I mean, say what you will about his sources or whatever. He did say that the penguins are linked to it. I mean, if that is indeed true, I would move heaven and hell to go get him. I mean, you have one of the last few years in the Sydney

Crosby, getting him all in the era when they're in their prime of their careers, move out whatever it takes to get them. I mean, obviously not someone like John Marino or some shit like that, But, you know, if you have to eat some salary, you have to eat some salary. I mean, Vegas is definitely going to have to do that just because I think Patcher Ready makes $7 million against the cap for however many years. He's a great player. I wouldn't say he's an elite player, but he's still a great player. Would instantly make the Penguins top six. That much more awesome.

You can probably put him next to Crosby with Gensel, and that would afford moving cap in and down to play with Jared McCann. I would love if Jim Rutherford did it. I don't expect him to do it, but, you know, I think it would be kind of a peak Jim Rutherford move. if he actually was able to pull that off just because, you know, I do that the penguins are lacking another elite winger. And, I mean, you know, just picture this top six. You know, Jake Gensel next to Sid and Max Petcheretti, and they'd Jason Zucker next to Gino and Brian Rust.

I mean, that's just not fair. You can move Jared McCann with Casperry Caput, and then on his left wing, you can put, I mean, Mark Jankelski. I mean, in the fourth line, you can have Brandon Tannove, Zach Aston Reeves, Teddy Blugher. I mean, that is a elite forward group, in my opinion. And you have one of the best fourth lines in the league. Outstanding Top Sakes, and then the third line, that is better.

Well, I should say a hell of a lot better this season than last season. It was just three players who just really did not know how to play together. So I would absolutely love that. And I don't really think there's too much more else to touch on. I mean, I did see The Penguins released a video yesterday of a lot of the players back on the ice just doing skates. I mean, I think Gensel's back. Duman is back. It looks like KDC.

DeSmith is there. Tristan Jari. I'm honestly just watching the video as I record this. I think Sid is there. The only player I know I did not see was Fgeny Malkin. It looks like Brian Rust is back. Jared McCann is back in Pittsburgh. I think the last one was Chad Roodle, though I'm not sure.

I know the only player that's not back in Pittsburgh is Fgeny Malkin because he's back in Russia. So I'm sure he's going to be coming back there in the next couple of weeks. But that'll do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. We'll be back again tomorrow with another episode and then Friday, of course, and then three more next week as well. So stay tuned for that. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your evening. I'm definitely snowed here. slop and ice and rain and all that.

So, you know, it really feels like we're in hockey season, even though the season's not underway yet. So thank you guys so much for listening, and I will talk to you all tomorrow.