Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Is there a chance for Evan Rodrigues to still return?

Episode Date: July 30, 2022

Happy Friday! This is the final episode of the month and Hunter starts the show by thanking all of you for another record-setting month of listening. He then jumps into the meat of the show and gets into John Klingberg and how he finally came off the market on Friday. Was this a good move for the Ducks? Could he be a rental at the deadline? Hunter then moves into JFresh's Fan Survey and where Jake Guentzel landed in the top left wingers in the league. Was he a bit too low? If so, who would Hunter put him above? He then looks at the same list for the right-wingers and analyzes where Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell landed. How far up could they be next year if they have good years? Finally, Hunter ends the show with some talk about Evan Rodrigues and what a contract could look like if he decides to return to the 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 “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! 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 a fresh new episode, the Locked-on Penguins podcast. As you all can see, I'm sure. Not at my normal desk inside my house down in Richmond. For the next week, I went to my girlfriend's mom's house who has a beach house, not even a block away in Kerala. So that's the Outer Banks for those that do not know. So that I will, for next week, most of my episodes will be from this exact spot Friday. if I record, you know, I'll either be back home or also we haven't really decided when we're leaving it.

But today's episode going to be a little bit different. We're going to get into some free agency stuff, John Cranberg. It's time today I'll give my thoughts on that. Or also again, I'll give my thoughts on Jay Fresh's list where the fans vote where Jay Kensal ranked in the top 10 left runners, where Brian Rust ranked and the top 10 right wingers. Give my thoughts and analysis on that. See if the fans got that right after what we saw with Chris the Tang the other day. and also circle around a little bit too, Evan Rodriguez,

as he has still not signed yet, but could the Penguins circle back at some point, even though they're over the cap? I'm going to get to that on this episode as well. So that's all coming up right after this drop. Your 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 your host, Hunter Hodes. We're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O.Rswell Pinguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen to the day. This is the final episode of the month of July, another record-setting month for this show.

Just past 600 subscribers on the YouTube page. Thank you all so much for subbing to that. As my goal right now, let's get to 1K. And then obviously, as high as I can go. But that is my short and long, well, I guess a short-term goal, but also a lot. little bit of a long-term goal since, you know, 400 subs. I'm maybe going to take a little while, but, you know, I can't thank everyone that subscribe to that channel, and I can't thank everyone enough that listens to, you know,

the show on Apple and Spotify and all that stuff. I'm just so amazed at how, you know, the show has continued to grow over this month. So let's get right into the meat of this episode. So we did finally see one of the top free agents come off the market today, and that was John Klingberg, to the Anaheim Ducks one year, $7 million. Basically, that's the Taylor Hall deal. I mean, he's going to a team. They're trying to be better next year.

But I think also at the same time, you know, they know if they're not that good by the deadline, they can just sell him all for picks and prospects. You know, I mean, Buffalo, again, they literally did that with Taylor Hall, trade him to Boston. And then, Paul, you know, he got, he got basically paid by the Boston Bruins. So I think that's probably what Klingberg is going here for. apparently i mean elliott freeman and jeff meymyrk released a nice 302 thoughts podcast episode today and um you know they were saying that he was looking at the darnel nurse contract

set jones contract and it's like wow you know no wonder why he fired his agent i just don't think his former agent um knew the market very well because it's just the flat cap is really affecting everything right now um you know yeah it you didn't really see it last summer because the vanjean team that came in which means a lot more money and all that stuff but right now i mean it's just just it's coming to a standstill, you know, just because teams are, they're hesitant to get out a lot of money. But, you know, I like that deal for Klingberg and the Ducks. You know, I think it's an opportunity for him to potentially, you know, get some of that value back. Anyone that was thinking of signing him, like five times seven, six times seven, seven, even seven times seven,

that would have been ridiculous, you know, his even strength defense is not the greatest. You know, what you're going to get with him in the offensive zone. But, hey, you know, maybe a change of scenery, you know, gets his defensive capability. back on track a little bit. So was definitely a little surprised by it, but when I took the time to look at the move, I think that was a good decision by Cleanbird to go to the docks. Now, getting to a little bit of fan surveys from Jayfresh here.

So let's start with the, if I can find this here, the left wings. So that came out on Thursday. And number one, Girorel Caprisov, Johnny Padreau, Artemmy Panera, and Alex Lvechkin, Brad Marshan, Jonathan Nieburodeau, but Jake Denzel came in at number 12. And honestly, I don't have that much of a problem with it. I think, I mean, in my humble opinion, he's a top five-year goal score in this league, scored 40 for the second time.

He's the only player outside of Crosby and Malkin in this era to score multiple, to have multiple seasons of 40-plus goals. You know, that just goes to show. a special talent he is but you know you look at some of the players ahead of him and i'll list off all them here i already list off some of them caro caprice off it's fine he's a electric talent johnny godreau it's fine arsan panarin yep alex a betchen greatest school score of all time bryan marshand i think that's fine too jonathan hubertoe okay matthie good chuck yep that's very arguable alex de brinkett you know i think that you can go either way i would take jake gensel over

Alex De Brinket, in my opinion, Philip Forsberg. Okay, you know, Kyle Connor is very good. Jason Robertson's awesome. I would probably put Gensel over Robertson and De Brinket. Maybe Forzberg. Otherwise, I think the players above him, you know, they either deserve to be or, you know, they have very good cases to be above him. I would probably not put him higher than number nine in terms of the best left-wingers in the league,

especially just because, you know, some of those players that I mentioned, you know, They're not just great goal scores. You know, they're great overall, like, playmakers, too. And I'm not saying that Gensel is a bad playmaker by any means. He's not. He's freaking electric when he has the puck on his stick. But, you know, look what someone like Caprisov can do with the puck on a stick. Look with someone like, you know, Johnny Goodrow could do with a puck on a stick.

Panarin is so good even though he wasn't back right against the Penguins in the playoffs. Marshand, Hubertos coming off from 100-point season. Kachuk, 100-point season. And again, you know, Kyle Connor, I would probably put above him too just because he's a great goal score. And he can also do electric things with a buck. But, you know, Robertson, I think he's going to be a top 10 winger, left winger in the league really soon. But, you know, I don't think at this point, you know, he is that. And I would take Gensel over him.

And, you know, Phil Forsberg, you know, coming off a great year, very deserving contract extension as well. But, you know, when you stack up Gansel and Forresberg, when you look at the numbers, you know, I would have to take Jake with that. So, you know, I'm mostly fine with him coming in at number 12. I think the fans did a mostly pretty good job with this one, in my opinion. I'm looking to see if there's any other penguin players, even in the top 64 here. No, that just goes to show that, you know, outside of Jake Guns, you know, the left winger depth is not that deep. otherwise you know zucker came in at 68th i think that's a fine spot for him you know when fully healthy he's a but better than that number you know it would have been nice it was number 69

but um something for another time but um again when healthy he's probably higher than that but you know that's just been the biggest thing for him um it's just not being able to say healthy um dan heinen came in at 87 that's fine brothman again at 91 i would have put him again um down a little bit more But that's basically it when it comes to the top 100 left-winger's that was in Jay Fresh's survey results. Again, you know, Denzel, very deserving for being in the top 15. I would have him as a pure left-winger when you count in defense, five-on-five even-strength offense, goal-scoring, all that stuff. To me, he's easily in the top 10. Again, I'm not going to say he's in the top seven.

I think a lot of those players that I name are better than him. and that's no slight to him. I have all the respect in the world for Jake. But, you know, when you look at some of those other players and what they've accomplished, you know, it's hard to put him super higher up on that list. But want to give my thoughts on that. Coming up in the next segment,

I'm going to get into the right winger's list and look at to see where the Penguins had, where some of the Penguins players ranked with that one. But before I get to that, If you haven't tried the Bill bar puffs yet, you are depriving yourself of one of life's greatest joys. And guess what? There's a new flavor. You know, you're ready for this?

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Let's get to. Let's get to, I don't know what the heck that was, the top right-wingerers from Jay Fresh's fan survey where some of the Penguins stacked up. So Brian Rust was not in the top 15. I'll listen to him off here. Nikita Kutrov, Mitch Marner, Miko Ranssenin, David, Hoppinai, Patrick Kane, Stephen Stamco, Mark Stone, Jordan Kairu, Kevin Fiala, William Nealander, Teresanko, Nikolai, Eilers, Yelich,

Yelper, and Kehlir, Jek-Eler, Jek-Eyler, Julesk, and Kevich, Brian Ruff, and Kovovskyi, Tavre, Tavre, Tarew. and Ryan Rust. When you look at a lot of these players, I mean, I think this is certainly a fine place for Rust. I mean, who are you really going to move him above here? I mean, maybe you could make an argument for Zuccarello, but he also just had one heck of a year.

So I guess probably not when you look at what he did this year. I'm sure people are going to scheme to me, oh, you take on Tom Wilson doesn't really do anything. You know, I'm not Tom Wilson's biggest fan. I know any Penguin fan will say that too, but he is a very good power forward. And he has actually been really good these last couple of years. You know, he's really developed his game.

There was a time for a while that it looked like he was just going to be, you know, a typical plug. Not anymore. You know, he scores a lot of goals, puts up a lot of points. He is a very good right winger in this league, especially when he's not being an idiot on the ice. You know, Alex Tuck, you know, maybe I put Brian Rust above him, Tara Vinen, I think I would probably put Rust above him.

Lucas Raymond, you know, he's still young enough where, you know, I can see it even because he's had good production. Blake Wheeler, I think at this point, you know, he's probably on the downside of this career. I think I would put Rust above him, to be honest with you. Besser, and I think that's fine. Drake Batherson, he's pretty good. Pavel Bouchnevich, that's fine. And so honestly, you know, I think top 20 to top 25 is fine. I mean, that that just goes to show that, you know, he is a first-line winger in the week.

And, you know, he was absolutely electric again this year for the Penguins. Just another 20-goal season, 58 points in 60 games the year before that, 42.56 games. You know, this is the third straight season. that he has scored over 20. And the second out of the last week season is that he's almost had 60 points in a season. Also, in the second out of the last three seasons, that he's been out of point per game, which is very hard to do. That's for sure.

You know, I don't think he gets enough credit for being one of the best right winners in the league. Sure, you know, he gets hurt. Yeah. I mean, that's, he usually has his typical, what, two, two and a half week injury, something like that. You know, he was really good again this season. You pull up the numbers here. I've discussed them in his season review.

But, you know, the underlying is very kind to him. When he was on the ice, the Penguins had about 51% of the shot attempts, 53% of the actual goals for 53% of the scoring chances, 52% of the high danger chances. You know, he was awesome with Crosby in the playoffs, along with Gensel. I mean, the Rangers had no chance to stop that line, basically. It was just crazy to see how they dominated.

Any line the Rangers throughout them, boom. And, you know, Rust, he was big game, Brian. You know, he even had a goal in game six, Mr. Elimination. They went up to nothing with that goal. I know they weren't able to win that game, but, you know, how they probably have gotten better goaltending. I think he, you know, he would have lived up to his nickname. Mr. Elimination.

So I'm totally fine with Russ ranking there. Would I move him up a couple spots? Yeah, but I'm not like super, I guess, mad about it. Coming up, after that, Ricardo, Raquel, at number 37 behind Victor Arvinson, Travis Kenecki, Jacob Vorich, Anthony, Manta. I think that's fine too. You know, Raquel, you know, he stacks up to all those players that I just mentioned pretty well.

After Russ, you have Bjork, Dr. and David Perrin, Connor Garland, T.J. O'Shee, K. Madigan's and Tyler DeFoli. You know, Raquel is right up there with all those guys. And in my humble opinion, if Raquel has a really good year this year, he's going to get into the top 30. I think when Jack runs this list, when runs this fan survey again. Actually, you know, that's the big thing, you know, and I know I took some heat when I was discussing the Raquel contract because, you know, I wasn't that big of a fan of it. I mean, I have to give my objective opinion about it because, you know, it's a long term. It's a big, it's a big ticket.

But if you can get consistent 25, 30 goal production out of him, at least for the next few years in, and Sid's window, I'm not really going to care what the contract looks like a few years after that because, you know, this is mainly the Penguins window. I'm just concerned with him, you know, is he just going to be a 15 to 18 goal guy and he's not going to hit 20? or is he even hit consistent, you know, numbers like Brian and Ross just did. Last few seasons were three straight seasons of 24 to 27 games, 27 goals, excuse me, where he's almost hitting 30 each of those last three. So, you know, if he does have those kind of numbers and he puts up, you know, 58, 60 points, maybe even more than 60 points, you know, I'm not going to really batten it.

I'll gladly eat the crow with that. So I'm fine with where Raquel landed with that. And then Kaspari Kavana landed at number 57. You know, he's in the same category as Josh Bailey, Josh Anderson, JT. Comfort, Kyle Palmeri, Descarian. Funny enough, Evan Rodriguez ranked at number 50, right there with all those players. I think, you know, Rodriguez is ranked with, you know, some pretty good company, I think, for Kappanin. I would personally slide him down a little bit just because he was really bad this year. but, you know, if he's a bit better next year, you know, maybe he'll justify that ranking.

So, you know, I'm pretty, you know, I was a bit upset with where the fans ranked Chris LaTang when Jayfresh ran that survey and posted results on his Twitter account. But, you know, with the left and right wingers, definitely pretty happy about this. You know, I think all these players are, you know, he's sort of from a penguin's perspective, you know, they're right, I think, where they need to be. And I'm curious to see when Jack is going to do the centers. I don't think he has done the centers. Yeah, so he actually just posted it on his Twitter account on Friday morning.

He said he's hoping to get 3,000 votes. Go, his account is at J. Fresh Hockey, if you're not following him on Twitter. I will post the results where City Crosby and out getting Malkin Land once he posts them. I'm sure they'll be up by money. day or something like that. So that wraps up the second segment looking at where a few of the Penguins wingers ranked up against some of the best. And I'll give, I gave my thoughts on those.

Again, mostly pretty positive with them. Now, coming up in the next segment, we're going to get into a little bit of talk about Evan Rodriguez and if the Penguins could circle back to him at some point during the off-season. So that's all coming up right after this commercial break. All right. I'm back here in this episode of the Lock-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. We're going to follow me on Twitter at Honder Hodes.

You can also follow on the shows, Twitter, at L.O. Arnold School Penguins. So, you know, there are some people that, you know, I guess we're a little upset that the Penguins, you know, did not sign Rodriguez the other day, even though they brought back Hyman in a beautiful captain. I mean, again, I almost feel bad for Dayton because he should not be making that money. I mean, he should be making double that. triple that probably she'd probably make him like T.5 to 3 million this year um at least in my

opinion i'm glad the penguins didn't go to arbitration for him they made the right move of that um but you know when you when you look it in the mirror it's like wow one million for him after what he did you know i i would have you know thinking about it right now i wish they traded a place with cap and you give capon in that hand in the hindus contract and you give you know hindus captain's contract it's like okay no i would have honestly prefer that especially because you know there's a better chance finding and continues his production over, you know, cap and really balancing back in the way, in my opinion. But, you know, it still leaves Rodriguez as one of the Penguins loan

unrestricted free agents that has not signed yet. I think he's still looking for a multi-year deal. If I had to guess, three years, three million, something like that. Three million per. I should, I should clarify. So maybe three years, nine million total. Maybe three years, ten million, something like that. I think teams are definitely interested in him, but I think, you know, they're also just hesitant to really, you know, pay that kind of player right now.

You know, maybe Rodriguez, you know, he's waiting for the penguins to, you know, to circle back a little bit if they can, you know, open up some more cap space. You know, I obviously the penguins, they're not going to offer a ton of money because, I mean, you know, they can't. That's just, look at their salary cap situation here, people. I mean, the only reason they got Hina back is because he wanted to play here. You know, he had plenty of opportunities to apparently go get more money. I believe the Winnipeg Jets were in on him. I saw a report out there on social media about that. So he wanted to come back and chase a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh.

And, you know, maybe Rodriguez feels the same, but, you know, maybe he hasn't gotten that same kind of offer yet. But, you know, last season, again, tale of two years with him, amazing in the first half, knock him in the second half, sorry to light it up in the playoffs again. but, you know, he still, when he was on ice, the penguin still had 57% of the shot of Tim's score, 53% of the actual goals, 57% of the expected goals, 57% of the scoring chances, 56% of the high danger chances, some of the best underlying numbers on the team. You know, he was that freaking good. No, again, I would love to bring him back.

I absolutely love what he brings to this team. His skating is top-notch, you know, he has a wonderful, wonderful. shot just disguises it really well. Even when he has the one-timer from the circle on his strong side, it's just, it's a sight to pull. Again, I go back to the goal that he had against the Blues. That was when they had, I think there was a 3-1 comeback. That game was on TNT, back in about January or February. And he just unleashed that bomb to give the Penguins the lead. And it was just, you know, he was playing like one of the best players in the league at that point. Again, I wouldn't break the bank for him.

I would be willing to do a little bit of term two, three years. I don't think I would do four years for him. I think that's a little much. But, you know, three years, three million, maybe three point two per year. I guess maybe something like Kaepinan's contract will be nice for Rodriguez. But, you know, I think at this point, you know, it's probably a little unlikely that he's going to come back. But, you know, never say never. I think we all thought the same about Dean Hinen, that he was not going to come back.

and then all of a sudden the Penguins, you know, they did end up bringing back on, obviously, a discount, but, you know, they were able to make the money work and all that. And, you know, if they do bring Rodriguez back, that instantly makes the depth even better. Overall, again, I don't think this team is done. I think there's still another domino or two to fall here. I think at least one defenseman is going out the door. If not two, you know, to get one or two more defensemen, I should say, they've already moved out in Marino and Matheson. But again, I do think one or two more D are going to be shipped out here before the start of training camp,

which is set for September 22nd. For those that are not on social media, the Penguins announced it. September 22nd is the first practice, and I'm sure it's going to be open to the public. So put that on your calendars. If you want to go up to Cranberry, see the team practice with training camp, you're more than welcome to do that. If I lived in Pittsburgh, I'd probably hopefully be there every day to give you all the best coverage for that. But, again, you know, they would have to, if they do sign Arbiggas, they would especially have to move at least, I mean, at least one, definitely two contracts out in that case.

But again, even if they don't, I still think there's another move or two to come here so that they can get another four to play in the top six or top nine. I preferably the top six to play with a forgetting Malcol. But again, love to bring my Regas back. that's the contract that I was discussing. You had three times three, three times three point one, something like that. If you can make that work with the cap, if you can find someone to trade, something like that, I say, do it. You know, and I know people are going to come after me saying, well, you know,

you're bringing back a lot of the same team from last, and it's like, you know, yeah, I mean, I kind of am in a way. I mean, just because that team was really good, and they just got screwed by goaltending. I mean, sometimes crap like that happens. I know, I can't cuss on this podcast. This is family friendly. But, you know, crap happens. You know, people say the other word, but, you know, that's just, that that is, that's the nature of the wonderful sport that you all tune in to.

But that will do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Let me know what you all thought about my, you know, Stan Saar Rodriguez. Would you bring him back for that kind of contract? Would you bring him back at all? let me know in the YouTube comments. You know, can also message me on Twitter and something like that. Or, you know, you can find, you know, I guess any one of my social media platforms, or don't find my Facebook.

I just, like, weird. And I don't mind if people find me on Instagram or something like that. I don't even use my Facebook. But can find me through there. You can just give me your thoughts on that. Let me know. Do you think the fans got it right when in terms of the best left-wingers and right-wingers in the league?

You know, do you think Gensel right plays? What about Ryan Russ, Ricardo Hill? all that stuff. So again, thank you all so much for listening. Thank you all for making July another amazing month for this podcast. And I'll be back with another episode for you all on Monday as we start really digging into the dog days of summer as August is just around the corner. So again, thank you so much for listening and I'll talk to you all on Monday.