Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Is Jim Rutherford big-game hunting again?

Episode Date: August 18, 2020

As we continue to get further and further into the offseason, that means more and more rumors will come out. Today, Hunter touches on the Dave Molinari interview he had with Jim Rutherford and talks about how it looks like Rutherford wants to make many more changes this offseason than he did last offseason. Hunter then touches on how the Nashville Predators could be a prime trade target for the Penguins, plus will the Penguins sign any of their free agents back? Hunter also talks about the surgeries for Evgeni Malkin and Zach Aston-Reese and how the surgery for ZAR in particular could impact the Penguins far greater than some think. Finally, Hunter gives his thoughts on the playoff series' going on. 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 Tuesday edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. We are back this week. We're going to have four episodes this week, as opposed to five. Of course, yesterday I didn't have it because, well, came back from vacation.

Then I actually went to Shenandoah National Park for the night with a friend. But that would be the last time. I honestly do any kind of vacationing for a while now. I kind of just want to, you know, just be at home and just not really do anything. I'm vacationed out on at this point. But before we get today's episode start, I do want to say my thoughts and prayers are with Dale Howard, Chuck's family, as news just came in, that he has passed away at 57 years of age due to cancer. You know, he's one of the greatest to ever do it. I know he started playing back in the 80s, played a lot through the 90s.

He was playing well before I was born, but I've gone back and watched a lot of his highlights before. Just an outstanding goal score. I mean, over 500 goals, 1,400 points, and 1,200 games played. all over a point per game player. I know he never won a Stanley Cup with the Winnipeg Jets or the Buffalo Sabres. I know he also ended his career with the Flyers. But really great player in the playoffs too, 97 playoff games overall, 30 goals and 99 points. So a point per game player in the playoffs, he always showed up when it matters and it's

it just really, really sucks that the Jets or the Savers, they just could not win a cup with him. Like I said, you know, one of the greatest to ever do it. He was just super, super underrated. Scoring over 500 goals and getting over 1,400 points in the NBA. is not easy and the fact that he was able to do it just you know really showed just how awesome he was so like i said my condolences to harlchuk and his family he's gone just way too soon i freaking hate cancer and i just wanted to send my condolences out to his entire family during this very very tough time but to move on from that we are going to have josh yewe of the athletic on the show tomorrow i'm just

going to talk about you know that of course the penguins early playoff exit what's next is jim rutherford we're really going to make a big trade to potentially shake things up for this roster. You know, what's going on with the salary cap situation? We're going to get into that later on in this episode as Dave Molinari of DK. Pittsburgh Sports. Kind of had a conflicting report from what Josh and Rob had as Jim Rutherberg wants to just leave $3 to $5 million in cap space during the season just for like wiggle room. So it's just a little bit different because I think Josh and Rob reported that they wanted

to cut back even more salary than that. So like I said, a little more conflicting reports going on. about that. I'll be asking Josh about that and just a whole bunch more tomorrow. So that will be coming tomorrow afternoon. Just want to let you guys know about that. But for this first segment, you know, we're going to talk about the latest Penguin's news from yesterday. I actually totally did not know until dinner time yesterday that Zach Aston Reese is now going to miss the next six months with shoulder surgery. I don't really know what the surgery was for. Was it a torn labrum or something like that? I didn't really see that in the release, but I'm just kind of

speculating on that. But yeah, that's not good. So if the season starts back up in December, he would be out until around February. So he would miss it. It looks like the first couple months of the 2020-2020 season. It's a pretty big loss, even though it's just for a couple of months. I still don't think some people realize just how good. Ashton Reese is defensively. His defensive metrics are just off the charts good.

I mean, they are absolutely outstanding. I want him to be a little bit better offensively, but just his role on that Bluger Antenad line is just really, really big. and they just form a shutdown line that not a lot of teams can go at. I know Montreal was having trouble going at them, but still, you know, and they also were forced to play with Jack Johnson and Justin Schultz for a lot of their time. So that didn't really help matters that if they were pinned in their own zone at times.

But that's going to be a bigger loss than I think some people are making it out to be. So best wishes to him on a speedy of recovery. He definitely didn't look right in the playoffs, and that's also going to lead to the next surgery that was announced yesterday, and this was for Evgeny Malkin. So he's going to miss three to four weeks with a minor elbow. surgery. Rob Rossi of the athletic actually wrote a piece detailing just how, you know, significant of an injury Malkin has had to his elbow and why he's had this surgery to delay the

inevitable, excuse me. It sounds like when he had that elbow injury, I think this was during the 2015-16 season, it just really, something really, really just got screwed up in there. I think it would be the equivalent of a pitcher needing Tommy John surgery. Rob actually wrote in the article that Malkin has decided to delay. this big, big surgery that he's going to need on his elbow till after his playing days are over. So apparently in the article, Rossi actually wrote, Malkin met with several specialists regarding how to proceed.

Malkin's left elbow was damaged. Similar to, but not as severely as a baseball pitcher requiring complete reconstruction of the UCL. So basically, that's the full version of Tommy John surgery. You know, I'm glad he doesn't have to have that Tommy John surgery now. In the article, Rob does say that if he were to have a major surgery now, he would probably be out for over a year. Because I think Tommy John, it's around what, 16, 18 months or something like that. It's well over a year. So yeah, he would

miss about a year and almost a year and a half of his playing career. So yeah, it's definitely not surprising that Gino wants to wait until after his playing career is over. You know, you won't really have to worry about missing so much time when this is all over. And, you know, you could definitely see Fulgeny Malkin was not right in that series against Montreal, was not firing as many, you know, we always love those geno bombs on the top power play unit that we're used to seeing, was hardly doing that, just wasn't carrying the puck into the, into the zone, like we're used to seeing from him. He just, he just looked a lot different, not anything like we saw from his regular season where he was just completely dominant. So it looked like the elbow did flare up,

but it's good that he had his minor surgery and that he will only be out three to four weeks. So he will be good to go once Penguin again starts back up, whether that's sometime in October, November, who knows, at this point. it for Penguins news that came out of yesterday. Over the weekend, Mike Sullivan, he did seem a bit disappointed that the three assistants were let go. I don't think this was Sullivan's doing. I think this was just Jim Rutherford saying, hey, you know what? We need new fresh voices in the room. They may, I think maybe they'll go for experience for this time around. Paging Peter Lovillette. That would be a total Jim Rutherford move. He has history with Peter Lovillette. I could totally see them hiring

Lovulet. To be like that kind of Rick Talket kind of coach that can push Mike Sullivan at time. I remember reading that Yoie and Rossi article, and hockey executive said to both of them that, I mean, Sullivan likes people better, yes, me. He doesn't like to be pushed around a lot in that room, but Rick Tocke was that kind of coach that could push him around. So having a kind of coach like that back in the room, I think could really help Mike Sullivan,

especially with his roster decisions, which were, to say, they were pretty pissed poor in the playoffs, especially we all know with Jack Johnson, Justin Schultz. I mean, the memory thing you can spend that any way you want. I'll still die on the hill that. was the right to start him in game one. I don't think he was the problem in that series against Montreal. Although other moves, I definitely will think that's his fault.

But coming up in the next segment, we are going to discuss this Dave Molinari exclusive interview with Jim Rutherford. I guess I had some conflicting reports other than Josh Yale and Rob Rossi from the athletic. My good buddy, Jeff, who has been on this podcast for was able to send me some stuff that was in the article that I'm going to talk about for this segment. But before we do that, there's two things. One of them over the weekend, Tuka Rask, of course, decided to leave the bubble, is not going to play for the Boston Bruins again this season. He will be back next season during some unforeseen trade, which is probably not going to happen. For those of you that are very mad at Tugarask or any player that would do this in the situation, eat shit. That's, I think, the most blunt I can be about it.

If you're really mad about that, I mean, you just need to reevaluate your opinions, re-evaluate your life, delete your account on social media, log off. there's just really no reason to be mad at Tukraass, especially with the very young childhood he has at home, his wife, I mean, it's just a lot different in this pandemic right now. And I've just, I've said it many times. I'm never going to blame a player

for wanting to go home, be with their family, and, you know, just focus on the more important things that are going on right now in this world than hockey. You can sit here all day and be like, oh yeah, man, that's a chicken shit move by Rass. He shouldn't have done that. You know, I hate Tuka Rass now. Let's be real, guys.

Boston sports fans are pretty dumb. general. So it's not really surprising that they're going to hate on Tuka Rask. For this, they've hated on Tuka Rask for far less than this. So, like I said, if you're mad at Tuka Rask for doing what he thinks is best for him and his family by leaving the bubble and giving the duties over to Yarsall of Hulok, who is a pretty good playoff gold tender. We don't need to remind Penguins fans or Capitals fans of that. You just need to re-evaluate your opinions and just re-evaluate your life because there's just no reason to be mad at Tuka Rass in this situation. So, I mean, I just, I had to get that out. Second of all, it is time.

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with Ren Rutherford. And the information in there was pretty, pretty interesting to me. I think the biggest thing that came out of that article, to be honest, fellas, is he wants to shake things up. And I think it's going to be

more of a shake-up this year than it was last summer. We all know we had the big Phil Kessel trade. That was a pretty big shake. makeup, but I think it's just, I think it's going to be a lot more deeper than that. He kind of alluded to he wants like a James Neal for Patrick Hornquist kind of team culture trade. I mean, I think they traded James Neal when he first got here because Neil was kind of an ass in the locker room.

I don't really think it was because, oh, he scores a lot of goals in Hornquist. Obviously, wasn't bad, but you know, he just brought like a different personality, I guess, into that locker room, a different edge, you know, I guess intangibles and quotes. If you want to use that, I hate using intangibles that one talking about. this sport. I think it's the most overused word when people just talk about hockey. But, you know, he definitely seems like he wants to make that kind of move, just change up the culture, bringing in players that fit the speed and skill game that Mike Sullivan likes to preach to his players. It's how the Penguins, of course, won the back to the Cubs. You don't need to bring in someone

like Ryan Reeves or whoever else who just really is just not that good. They can't really score. They can't put up points and then their underlying numbers are just terrible. So I think you're going to see that. And guys, the team I keep coming back to that I think you're going need to pay attention to is the National Predators. I can totally see Jim Ruther for calling up pal, David Poyle, who, you know, they made that James Neal for Patrick Hornquist trade in 2014, being like, hey, David, you know, I know you also just lost in the qualifying round to Arizona.

You guys have been trending down a lot lately. Yeah, you guys poking around a little bit. You know, you guys are going to trade a core player maybe? I can totally see Jim Rutherford for doing that. I mean, I really don't think Nashville is going to trade a Victor Arvidson, you know, maybe not Philip Forsberg, but Ryan Johan. Maybe could see that. David Poil is not happy. He's promising major changes. Could see the Penguin signing Craig Smith out of Nashville. I was wrong last week. I thought

Craig Smith had one more year left on his contract. I did not know that big he was, his contract was up after the season. So, you know, I'll take the L on that one so I can totally see Jim Northford going after him to fill that third line center role if the team is not sold on Jared McCann. Also, you know, I think Mikhail Granlin, he's not going to be picked up again by Nashville. I can totally see Jim. going after him. So just keep your eyes on that predator's situation. I think Jim is definitely call up oil to see if he can maybe snag one of their pretty good players. I mean, you know, their defense is also reloaded. I know they're not going to trade Roman Yose. That's a pipe team. Ryan Ellis is probably a pipe dream as well. I think he was their second best defenseman this season. But, you know, maybe Batheas Ekholm could definitely see that, I think. If the predators are really, really trying to change up their core, at home has been one of the best defensive in the league, I thought. For the last few seasons, he plays a lot of minutes. He'd look great on that

left side. Him with John Marino, that is a sexy second pairing. Guys, you move Marcus Pedersen down to the third pairing, if you wish. Maybe put him with a cheap player who plays the right side, you know, whether it's Chad Roodle, maybe go out into free agency and get someone. You know, that's definitely doable. But, you know, to get a player like that, you have to give up something. And I know Jim Rutherford is not going to be shy about giving up pieces this off-sings. He's definitely eyeing some major changes. Another thing that looks like, you know, as I got sent a couple things from the article from a good buddy, Jeff, who of course has been on those podcasts before. You know, it looks like he's probably not going to ring back most of his unrestricted free agents.

And that's not really a surprise to me. And I think it really shouldn't be a surprise to most of you guys have listened to those podcasts. Patrick Marlow, it didn't work. You know, it reeked of a little bit of the Jerome McGinnla. I mean, I'm hesitant to compare it to the Jerome McGinlet thing because Jerome McGinla played on his offside, which really, really just screwed him up. And also, Jerome McGinla could still play at a high level. at that point, Patrick Marlow just had really nothing left in the tank, I don't think.

It just, it was fun at the time, you know, his family was really into it. You know, you get him a cup. He rides off into the sunset, but, like, just, he played good for a couple of games, but then just after that, he just really wasn't a fit. So, yeah, that's not a surprise. Justin Schultz, yeah, you can go ahead and walk. I've said that enough times on this podcast. He's not going to come back.

He's not going to come back, especially with the Penguins wanting to cut cash. That's just not going to happen. The other one, it looks like Connor Sherry might not be coming back. You know, that's an interesting one to me, and if he's not going to come back, then, you know, why make the trade for him anyway and just not keep Dominic Cahoon, who was going to be a restrictive free agent? I guess for some reason they didn't like him. I thought at the time the trade was kind of a wishwash. Evan Rodriguez was a player that I really wanted to see more of. I still want to see more, I think, of Evan Rodriguez.

But still, now they're looking at it, if he's not going to re-sign Connor Sherry, now it's basically looking like Evan Rodriguez for Dominic Cahun, which is, you know, more of a mismash, but still, that's just kind of weird to me. Also, the other big thing from this article, so it sounds like, according to Jim Rutherford, they want to be $3 to $5 million under where they normally are for the salary caps, just to give them a little bit of breathing room so they don't have to create all this cap space for when they want to make trades near the deadline. We all know how aggressive Jim Ruther likes to be around the trade deadline. So a little bit of a conflicting report there from Josh Yowie and Rob Rossi, where they reported that they want to cut back a lot more payroll than normal.

So, you know, that's just, that's going to be interesting to see what really happens. with the salary cap situation, we know it's going to be around 81.5 million. And just, you know, we want to see just how much salary is Jim Rutherford really going to dump this offseason with some players. He also really, really did not consider firing Mike Sullivan. He said, I mean, he's won us to stand the Cubs. He deserves to have a fresh star with new assistance. Didn't give an indication of if he could be fired during the middle of next season

if the team struggles out of the gate. And right as I say that, Kerry Price just led in a softie of a goal. Wow, I mean, Carrie Price, I wish you could have done that again. the Penguins in the qualifying round. This goal is just ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly all around. I'm looking at the shot right now. This shot, just a really bad angle goes off. Carey Price's pad, past his stick.

That's a shot. Carey Price saves 9.9 out of 10 times. Just really, really bad from him there. I can't believe that went in. But anyways, yeah, no discussion came up from Jim Rutherford that he was going to fire Mike Sullivan. Also, everyone, sorry around for that background noise. I guess my laptop was overheating a little bit,

but, you know, plugged it in, and it's all good now, it looks like. It also looks like that the penguins will not be bringing back some of the restricted free agents. I think that's the last thing that came out of that article. That's not really surprising at all. I'm Sam Lafferty. I could definitely see him not coming back.

Dominic Simone, that's a big one for me. I'll be curious to see if Jim Rutherford brings back Simone. We all know how his underlying numbers are. We also know how his shooting percentage is usually in the tank because he just, for some, easy, he hits all these posts. And the best what I'm trying to say is that his shooting percentage is just very, very bad. but you know that's what I'm going to be curious to see with that I think they can't move him Jerry McCann we know that's the big one are they committed to him long term

for the third line center role don't know yet um Evan Rodriguez I think they're going to bring him back but I also would not be surprised to see them let him go I think that would be foolish to do that you really don't know what you have in this player yet plug him in the bottom it takes he's a young player looks like he's very skilled with a puck I thought he had a really nice training camp he should have played in the qualifying round so I want to see him get some games next season play a lot more than he did down the stretch and well he really didn't even play that much in Buffalo which is why I think he asked for a trade anyway

but I just I want to see more of this player but I think that wraps it up for this segment in the next segment I guess we're just going to go around the league talk about some of the playoff series that are going on right now and you know just see if there's like any I guess surprises going on in some of these series so yeah so stay tuned for that

all right so we're back on this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast so as I alluded to earlier in this episode so I have been watching the Flyers Canadian series today the game four. I've been pretty impressed by the Canadians in this series. I think they are a lot better than I gave them credit for. I think that's the nicest way I could say about that.

No one really expected the Canadians, of course, do anything in the qualifying round since they were to the 24th ranked team. But, you know, going into this third period right now, they've held the flyers, I think, to five goals in almost four full games. When going into this game, they had them at three goals in three games yet. They're down two games to one. I mean, the Canadian's biggest problem, though, is that they just can't score goals. I know they have that five-goal outbreak in King 2.

But other than that, they just can't score. We all knew that. That was their big struggles going into this series, well, going into the playoffs, honestly. So it's not really surprising that, you know, that they're struggling to score. But I will say, like, Montreal's, like their defensive structure, their ferocious sport. It's definitely given the flyers some fits. I don't really think Philly has looked that good in this series, but I do expect Philadelphia to close this one out. They're up to two nothing going into the third period to go up three games to one.

they will most likely win this series. I think I picked them in six games. The other series today, it looks like the Washington Capitals will be going out to the New York Islanders. I don't know if they'll sweep them. But hey, guys, remember when all those Caps fans talked all that shit to Penguins fans when, oh, yeah, you guys got swept by the Islanders. Oh, yeah, you guys lost Montreal Canadians. Yeah.

Pepperidge Farm remembers that one, folks. I just find that really, really, really funny to see all the Caps fans just squandering now. But, yeah, I mean, the Capses have not looked good in these playoffs. I mean, they're getting outplayed really, really, really funny. badly by the Islanders. Barry Trots. Top five coach in this league. He honestly might be the best coach in the league right now. That's just how good he has been with the Islanders.

I mean, the Capitals expected goals score percentage in this series, guys, has been below 40% in every single game. They have been getting caved in on a nightly basis in these three games. They are just getting so outplayed. It's not even funny. It's just a whole different Capitals team. Would not be surprised if Todd Reardon

is fired after tonight if the Capitals lose and, you know, the nightmare of them hiring Gerard Valant. Just does not sit well with me. hopefully the Penguins can somehow snag him. But yeah, the Capitals just look really, really, really awful. A couple other series that have caught my eye and we'll wrap up this podcast. The Stars Flame series is honestly my favorite series to watch so far. The Stars have been a lot of fun to watch.

I know they're not that offensive running gun team that they used to be, but still, when they put up offense, it's a fun show. I know Jamie Ben still has it at times. John Klingberg, Tyler Sagan, Alexander Radulov, Murrow, Hayeskin, and is turning into a stud in Norris Trophy or multiple Norris Trophies. are in his future. And I mean, they just took it to Calgary in that third period. And in that overtime, Cam Talbot was basically standing on his head.

And then I think it was Klingberg that had the overtime winner to tie up that series. I picked Dallas and Seven for that series, I believe. I'm going to stick with that prediction. I really like the stars there. And it's just really fun back and forth hockey. You know, the flames, but more of a running gun team than Dallas is just that defensive team. It just likes to clog up the neutral zone and just not let a lot past them. So that's just been a lot of fun to watch.

This St. Louis Vancouver series has been a lot of fun. in Vancouver. We all know jumped out of that 2-0 series lead, but the Blues have roared back, winning 2 in a row to tie it up. I did say I thought the Canucks were going to scare the Blues, but I picked the Blues and Six. It's looking better right now.

It looked a bit scary when the Canucks went up 2-0 on them, and then also the Canucks almost went up 3-0 on them. Braden Chen had that big overtime winner, which may have tilt the series in the Blues Sabres. It's going to be interesting to see what happens in Game 5. Ryan O'Reilly was absolutely spectacular last night for the Blues and just proving just how bad the Pugulas are, up in Buffalo for running the Sabres because they just botched that trade so, so bad.

And then finally, you know, Boston looks like is woke up out of their slumber, even without two garats, Yarslav Halak has been really, really good. It looked like they were going to lose last night to Carolina. They were down 2-0 in that third period, but then they just roared off four goals in a row. James Reimer looked bad on a couple of them. They're now up three games to one. Carolina looks like their magic has ended. I would be pretty surprised if they beat the Bruins three times in a row to win that series.

and also, Tampa Bay. Lightning will not strike twice. Tampa Bay, I think, will be moving on there. So, I mean, the East almost looks like it's pretty sad, especially if the Flyers win today's game. I mean, we could be looking at, you know, Flyers, Islanders in the second round since I think the lowest sea, we play the highest seed. And then Bruins Lightning, baby, who wants another round of that?

That would be absolutely amazing. So that'll be it for this episode of Lockdown Penguins podcast. Like I say, we will be having Josh Yoey on Tomorrow Talk, all things regarding the exit and the big article with Rob Rossi and just so much more. so stay tuned for that. Hope you guys have had a good start to your week, and I will talk to you all tomorrow.