Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Johnny Gaudreau to the Penguins rumors? In this economy?

Episode Date: June 9, 2022

Hunter didn't think he'd be starting out the show talking about Johnny Gaudreau, but that's what happens when there is silly szn stuff. Hunter goes into Hailey Salvian's article from The Athletic where she mentions the Pittsburgh Penguins as a potential destination for Gaudreau. Is it realistic for the Penguins? What would a contract for him look like? Hunter discusses those questions, while also touching on if he would make the team better with him and Sid as a dynamic duo, compared to Sid & Geno moving forward. He also gets into who the Penguins would likely have to move out to make that happen, plus how many years the Penguins could get out of both him and Sidney Crosby playing together. After that, Hunter breaks down Jeff Carter's season and what fans should look to expect from him next season. Was it the right call to give him that extension during the season? What else does he provide outside of scoring? Will the scoring start to dry up more next season. Hunter dives into those questions, while also looking at who Carter could play with next season (and no, he CANNOT be the team's second-line center if Malkin walks. Finally, Hunter ends the show by recapping Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final and how the Penguins certainly could've been a team to give the Lightning fits.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!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Athletic GreensAthletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK. 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 there, as Opio-1 Canobi says, well, after all it is an Opi-1 Canobi Wednesday with episode four out today for all my Star Wars fans out there that listen to this show. Probably a little bit of a mediocre episode. I like the first three a lot better. But through it, I would start all your day out with a nice hello there that Opi-1 does much better than me, to say the least. But we're actually almost through all of the forward season reviews. I have done it's very competent, but with how much I've already talked about him, I think you all know where I stand with him and how his season was. I think the thing we should do with him.

Today's will be Jeff Carter's, and I believe that wraps up all of the 12 forwards, all the top 12 normal forwards. I can maybe do Drew O'Connor or Redeems the Horner or something like that before we get to the defenseman and the three goaltenders that played this year. So we'll go over Carter's season, what I liked, what I didn't like, what the team should do with him heading into the 2020-22-23 season, even though he basically is under contracts. There's really not much.

I don't think he'll be getting traded, but still, you know, how many minutes he should get, line mates, all that good stuff. We'll also get too interesting article I saw on the athletic today with Haley Salvin, the Flames beat reporter, say, and if Johnny Gujarro leads to Calgary, where could he sign five potential landing spots? She does list for Pigsper Penguins,

so I'm going to get into that. How realistic that is. And then we'll also go into a couple of other things. to end the show. That's all coming up right after this drop. 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 your host, Hunter Hoadies. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. Cornwall Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first list in the day. It's been basically almost a month now since the penguins were eliminated by the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup. I was definitely weird to say that we said it's been almost a month if I can go down here and find this.

Yeah, we're about five to, yeah, five to six days away from a full month. It's crazy how fast the off season is already flying by before you know it. agent friendies is going to be there here, which is July 13th. We're almost a month away from that, and that's going to be a blast to cover. The podcast is going to be five days a week until that point. They don't be good after doing three days a week for the full off season. But start on today's show, let's get into these weird Johnny Goodrow rumors, because, yes, it is silly season.

I am going to talk about this because I did read this today. And Haley says, you know, in a perfect world, for Ron Hextall, Malkin and Lattang would hire his bids or penguins, but he certainly has limits on how much and how long he's going to sign them. He obviously has that, she has that quote, excuse me, from the press conference. She suggests that, you know, talks have been ongoing and all this stuff. But then she goes on to say this. If Malkin goes elsewhere, do the penguins try to find another second line center?

Or does the team move Jeff Carter into that role and use Malkins previously earmarked $9.5 million cap hit to sign a third line center in a top six swing. whether that's bringing back Ricardo, Raquel, or maybe looking at like someone like Godreau remains to be seen. There's a reason to believe Guadro could be a fit. He'd be going east, although to a Philadelphia rival, and it could be the face for a renewed push for contention in Sidney Crosby's window. Okay, definitely an intriguing explanation or just, I can not speak today.

I don't know what is going on. fascinating, I think, is the word for it. I'll say this. They go into next year with Jeff Carter is their second-mine center. Ron Hextall should be fired. That is unacceptable. I don't think he is that stupid to do something like that. I mean, the team would be really fighting for a playout spot at that point.

And I usually don't bet against the Penguins under Sydney Crosby to not make the playoffs, excuse me. but they would be up a creek. I think of that way. I'm sure they would have him, Jake Ansel, potentially Chris is hanging back if he signs, Shishanjari, some other group forwards.

But you're telling me that you're only going to bring back Jeff Carter as your second line center and then who's going to be your third line center? Who's going to be your fourth line center? It's just going to be Cindy Crosby and a bunch of dudes. That's not good to say the least. You know, I would love Guadro on this team. And if Malkin were to walk, you know, sure they would potentially have the cap space

board, because, you know, that is $9.5 million right there. Even if they did bring back Chris LaTang at $8 million, you know, they would still have the space available to bring in Godreau. But the big thing is, how do you fit it under the cap when the season begins? Who are you moving out? You know, they're going to have to finagle the cap somehow, whether that's Brian Dumlin, whether that's Jason Zucker, you know, maybe. it's another four on the team like Brock McGinn, you know, something like maybe,

maybe Evan Rodriguez walks too. He doesn't come back. Dantan or Crosbury Capon, they don't come back either. It would be a very tall order for the Penguins to sign Goodrow. I personally do not think it's going to happen. It would be a lot of fun. You know, he can obviously, he is an elite player in his own right. It would be funny, though, going from Crosby and Malkin for 16 years,

from the two Crosby and Goudreau for at least the next three for Sidney Crosby. And when he's under contract, probably will be a little bit more. And then after that, probably, you know, four to five more years for Goudreau because he would be signing a, he would be signing a seven to eight year contract for the Penguins. As for his cap hit, he would be getting way more than of getting him all against 9.5. That's, you're probably looking for Johnny, you know, well over 10. I would say, you know, the ballpark I'm looking at is maybe Paneran's number, which I think is 10.5, maybe 11, something like that.

I don't think he's going to get 12 or 13, but I think the ballpark, you're looking at 10 million plus per year. Would the penguins commit to that? Who knows? It would be definitely a good backup plan, but there's going to be a lot of teams in on this player outside of the Calgary Flames. You know, Haley writes in her story. You know, she has the Philadelphia Flyers.

I mean, that's the hometown thing for Goodrow. He's from the Philadelphia era, excuse me. she has the New Jersey Devils in there, the New York Islanders, the National Predators, all of those teams, I think, you know, make a lot of sense. And she also does out for the Penguins of new ownership, which wants to keep Glittang and Malkin can't get that done. It would certainly want to start to replace Malkin, given the market expectation for multiple star offensive players in Pittsburgh.

Haley is right about that. You know, it kind of reminds me a little bit of, you know, when Daniel Alpherson left Ottawa to go to Detroit. And I'm not comparing, you know, the talent level between Daniel Halbertsin do of Guinea-Malk. And I know who is more talented. I know who had a better career and all that. I'm just talking about from like the franchise icon perspective, sort of speak. When Alfredson left, Senator's hands, you know, they had to bring in someone to really fill that void, right?

I remember I think I was like, you know, 16 or something at the time. They brought in Bobby Ryan. They brought in a couple other players to try and, you know, make Senator's fans happy. sure, Ryan was good for a few years before he ended up leaving the senators, but it still didn't feel right. And he obviously was never going to fill the void that Alfredson left. And I think if they were to sign Goodrow, he would probably, I mean, probably he would put up better numbers than of getting him all.

That's probably one of the only players that's on the market right now that the Penguins could sign that would put up better numbers than Gino. It would just be very difficult for the Penguins to do, which is why I'm just not. not thinking it's too likely because, you know, they want to bring Malcon back. They want to bring Lattang back. They don't want to have to go to market to drive up the price on other teams to get him or have other teams in turn drive on the price. So Pittsburgh would have to pay something that maybe they don't want to pay.

I think Ron Hex only speaking up about the Brock McGinn contract last year. And then, uh, Bramutherford with Brandon Tana. He even said, yeah, I didn't want to go five to six years, but, you know, teams just kept pushing and pushing. and you know you have to you know give a little bit to get the player you want and you know that's probably not not a good reasoning to go six years for a bottom six player and you know same with brock begin for four years but you know that that's how the ufa market works you know agents are going to do everything they can to drive up the price for their clients and you know he will one you know

gudrae's agent will 100% do that for him because you know he's in my opinion he's the best player uh going into the market this year so right now right now I do think it is a bit unlikely if the penguins get him. It was pretty cool to see him the penguins listed, though I think Gujar is going to go to a team that can actually pay him the money that he wants. You know, the penguins, I think, are too invested in a lot of other things right now. I know Hexel said that if they can't get Malkin done, they will look to the open market to bring him in.

But I think at that point they're probably just going to look at someone like Trocheck. You can get for a lot cheaper. Definitely not nearly as good as Gudrow and is not as good as. Malkin, but they'll try to sell the hometown storyline thing and all that. So I want to spend the first segment touching on those rumors. And my thoughts on that, again, I love Johnny Goodrow. He's one of my favorite players. He just coming off a season where he had 100 plus points.

One of the top 10 to 15 best players in the league would make the Penguins a buyout team again, potentially a contender, even if Malkin isn't on the team next year, if you can put Guadro on the second line. But, you know, I really don't see it. to say the least. And again, you know, from a salary cap perspective, Penguins are always up against the cap. They would have to do a lot of, you know, maneuvering around that.

You know, it would be kind of similar to maybe what Vegas has had to do. And in the past, I know they've gotten takers, but, you know, is there a full guarantee that the Penguins will get some takers for the players? You know, it remains to be seen because, you know, they do have some big contracts on their team to say the least. So that wraps up this little silly season segment about Johnny Kudrow. Again, I don't expect it to happen, and I don't think any of you all should either. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to get into Jeff Carter's season review,

what I liked, what I didn't like, and what to expect from him. Next, he's definitely think he's likely going to be on the team next year. He just got the contract extension here, people. But before we get to that, you can save time and money when using Rock Auto. Why she used to spend 30%, 50%, even 100% more from the same part, from a chain store or car dealership. Rock Auto is a family business to renew your selfers for over 20 years. The prices are always reliable low for every customer.

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That is rock auto.com. All right. We're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes for all this show, Twitter, L-L underscore Penguins.

A quick note here. We have a listener survey that we put together. So we have an important favor to ask of each of you to listen to this show. So again, we put together a survey so we can learn more about listeners like you and make your favorite locked-on podcast even better.

This is your opportunity. Tell us what you will like and don't like about Lockedon Podcasts, you go to Lockedon Podcast.com slash survey right now to get started. It does not take very long. And everyone that completes the survey, you can qualify for a chance to win one of $10, $100 ticket master gift cards to take our audience survey. Again, go to Lockedon Podcast.com slash survey. Remember, you can get one of 10 ticket master gift cards if you do that. Thanks for your help. All right. Anyways, that aside, let's get to Jeff Carter's season review here.

We'll go back to natural stat trick. My mouth was getting a little bit dry there. But, okay, let's look at the annoying numbers here. So Carter played in 76 of the 82 games. He was relatively healthy the entire time. When he was on ice, the Penguins had only 47% of the shot attempts. That's his lowest number since 2018, 19, when he was with the Kings. Even last year, he played 14 games with the Penguins.

That number was at 53.6%. even with Los Angeles, it was right around 50, 50 and 40 games. In terms of actual goals for, he was on the ice for 43.6% of the goals. 49 goals against 38 goals for compared to last trip, the penguins in the short sample size, 15 goals for five goals against. I mean, he just fell off a cliff. The 43% is the worst since 2019-20 when he was on ice for 39 goals for Los Angeles, 23, 4.

expected goals percentage this year. 47.5%. That's the lowest number he's had since 2018-19 when it was at 45.8%. Scoring chances wise when he was on ice, the payment said only 48.6% of the scoring chances. With LA last year, it was at 46.4%. When he got to Pittsburgh in 14 games, 57.5%.

I don't think enough people realize just how dominant he was in that short sample size. In total, it was 20 games if you count the playoffs, where he was just a point per game player looking like a prime Jeff Carter and not the player that we saw this year. I think the player who we saw this year outside of his 18 goals when you look at the numbers, I think that's who everyone was expecting to see when he was acquired from the Kings last year at the deadline. It was just, you know, it came a year late. Anyways, going into more of the numbers here, high danger. When he was on Ice, the Penguins had only 48% of those chances.

and then 31 high danger goals against 24 high danger goals four. Shot 7.5% with the Penguins last year in those 14 games. 14.8%. In Jeff Carter's career, he has only shot over 10% once, and that came all the way back in 2010-11 with the Philadelphia Flyers. Again, it is absolutely remarkable how good Carter was after he came over from the Kings. This year, you know, it just wasn't it. I mean, he was a plague when he was on the ice.

And I know I've said this about 500 times this episode and throughout the off season. I get that he had almost 20 goals this year. But, you know, other than that, what was he doing? Playmaking was not there. Defensively, he was a train wreck. He can't play him on the penalty kill. You can't move him up the lineup because he drags everyone else down. It's no wonder that, you know, when he was playing with his linemates,

They had worse numbers with him than they did with other centers. And that includes Teddy Bluger, who I reviewed his season a couple of days ago, and I honestly wasn't super crazy about him there. So, you know, this is only, I think, going to continue to get worse for him as he gets older. I was fine with the extension at the time because it looked like he was still playing. Remember, he started out the season pretty red-hot. He was similar to what he was doing last year when he came over from the Kings. But then as soon as he signed that extension, I think it was about almost halfway through the year.

And it just went straight down nose dive. It was unlike anything I've ever seen, just playing like a player who has definitely almost reached the end of his initial career. Signed a two-year extension. And it's looking bad right now. It's looking like one of Hextall's worst moves. I think in my opinion, it's not good enough for me. And honestly, the more I think about it, you know, I think Ron should have just waited until after the season to really decide on this player.

I think he let loyalty cloud his judgment a bit, you know, thinking that, oh, I know this player and he knows me and we've been together for so many years. I'm going to sign him to this extension because I think he's going to keep playing in this level. and I don't think he's going to be trailing off anytime soon, but didn't want to see how the rest of the season played out for someone who was almost 40 years old. I just, I don't like how he went into it. And especially with that's your first signing when you have so many other deals to agree to

either during the season or after the season. I know his M.O. is, you know, I don't negotiate during the season, but he kind of did with that Jeff Carter thing. You know, what stopped you from, you know, signing Brian Russ during the season or signing Evgeny Malkin or signing Chris Hattang. Why was Jeff Carter the first one you decided to bring back out of all of those free agents? And I'll even put Evan Rodriguez, Dan Hinen and Kasperi Campan in there, even though the latter two are restricted free agents. I really don't get it.

You know, that's where he really loses me. But that, I know it's been up and down for Hextall with his tenure as general manager. but that contract, going back to Carter, obviously, it's not looking good. I'll get to his playoff numbers here to wrap up this. So played in all seven games, had about 100 minutes of even-shank ice time. He got caved and even worse, this short sample size. Penguins only had 41% of the shot attempts at even-strang. That's the worst of his playoff career.

Three goals for, nine goals against 25% 20%. total there. Expected goals, 51.7%, so that's not bad. But when you go to the scoring chances, the Penguins had only 42% of the actual scoring chances at 5B5 high danger was a bit better,

55.5% of those, and then two high danger goals for, one high danger goals against. But, you know, for shot attempts and scoring chances, he got caved in. And, you know, I said this at the time of the playoff series, and I will repeat this here. You know, the Penguins were up to two to nothing in game five. You obviously all remember that.

We all saw what happened. And Carter came out for Gennie Malkin, a couple of those shifts when Sidney Crosby was in the locker room. He didn't return, of course. And, you know, the Rangers had basically no zone time in the offensive zone for the first 33 to 34 minutes of that game. All of a sudden, Sid goes out. Sullivan does not put Malkin in his spot. He puts Carter in that spot. And what do you know?

One of the goals for that he, that is on natural statutes, one of the goals against it, excuse me that's on natural stat trick, is the Adam Fox goal. It was a minute shift in the Penguins defensive zone that can't get the puck out. They're not getting the save that they need. And, you know, Carter is just, he's not doing enough. And, you know, he then, I think, gets walked by Jacob Truba, who scores the tying goal. Actually, no, not the time goal, excuse me.

He scores the goal to make it three to two before Penguins, made it three to three going into the third period. You know, that's, that's not what a defensively responsible third line center, you know, should be doing it in that situation. I mean, if you're getting walked by Jacob Trubo, you know, who are you going to get walked by next season when you're a year older? That's my biggest thing. And I'm just, I'm sorry.

I'm being so negative about this player. I'm just not high on him going into next season. I feel like this contract that's already aged like milk. It's going to continue to age. like a really sour milk. You know, does he score double digit goals next season? Probably. You know, I don't think he's going to score 18.

You know, maybe 10 to 15 he'll get. I still think he'll have a decent amount of points. That 5E5 this year, if I can go back here to his regular season numbers, excuse me. Geez, I'm almost just, I'm going to go on hockey reference here. actually. But, you know, he's just, he's getting older at this point. And, you know, the production is only going to go down. I'm sorry that I did not have that pulled up. So yeah, 45 points, 76 games, you know, just a couple away from 20 goals. Actually, one away, but, you know, who's really counting.

You know, he's, I don't think he's going to get to that point next year where he's going to score 45 points. You know, I think, you know, maybe they get 35 to 40 from him. But with the way I saw him playing down the stretch, I'm definitely nervous for these next couple of years. That's for sure. So that will wrap up this second segment for the show as we are basically done now with all of the top 12 forwards season reviews. So have a little more to get to for this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast.

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That is been online where the game starts. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguin. So saw what happened in the Eastern Conference Final on Tuesday night, the Lightning.

You know, the Rangers learned a valuable lesson with that one. I'm going to spend a few minutes. You're talking about the Eastern Conference Final. You know, when you have a champion beat down like that, you're about to deliver the knockout punch, you better not hesitate. You know, I almost compared to what the Rangers were doing to what, you know, Rocky was doing to Ivan Drago and Rocky 4, where, you know, he finally

gets a cut on him. It's like, the Russians cut, and it's a bad cut. And that's exactly what, you know, the Rangers were doing to the Lightning at first. You know, they cut them pretty good. And then, you know, unlike Ivan Drago, who lost the fight, you know, lighting, they come stormback. They win Game 3 after being down to nothing in that game and in the series. They come back in Game 4, destroy the Rangers. they had really nothing at even strength in that in that game.

And now it's the best of three going back to Madison Square Garden. And right now it's hard not to think Tampa is going to win this series because they're finally starting to believe again. I'm sure now as I say that, the Rangers is going to find a way to win this because this is the devil's sport and the fact that the Rangers seem like the team of destiny here. But I was really impressed with how the lightning continue to do this. You know, they seem fatigued at times. And they've been down a couple of times.

in these playoffs. You know, they were down three games, two, against the Maple Leafs. They were down a goal. They were down to the final 20 minutes against the Leafs in game six in Tampa Bay. And then they win that game, and then they break Toronto's hearts in game seven. They were down 02 and then a 2-0-0 goal deficit in game three with less than a period left. Come back to win that game. They scored the game winner with 40 seconds left.

That game goes to overtime. Who knows what happens because it's a quince flip. and then, you know, the lightning do what they do. And this is why it's so hard to take out a great champion like this. It reminds me in a lot of ways, you know, to the Penguins from 2016 and 17, why, you know, it took a really good Capitals team, a Stanley Cup champion team to take out, you know, their nemesis and a team, you know, maybe that was gas, but, you know, a team that was just, you know,

giving the rest of the league fits, you know, during those few years. and some of the greatest hockey this league has ever seen. So, you know, the Rangers, they got to get back to the drawing board here. They have a lot of injuries, I think, to say the least. And, you know, just, again, watching these playoffs, man, the East was there for the taking for the penguins. You know, I'll still say, if they get, if they have Tristan Jari for that first round series, they probably move on. I think if Jarlie is also healthy for the Hurricane series, you know, they, potentially win that one because I was not impressed with what Carolina was doing.

And with how the Penguins played against the Lightning during the regular season, I think the Penguins could have given them a heck of a fight as well. You know, I think there could have been a legit chance the Penguins could have gone through the East and gotten to the final just because of how, you know, there's a case or basically any team in the East to really go far, maybe outside of Washington just because they're old and their goaltending was honestly not good during the season. But the other seven teams, I mean, and I was saying on this podcast a lot,

could see I can make a case for any one of those teams. Even Toronto, just because of the talent that they have, you know, at both forward, all forwards defense and goal to-tending. I know their history obviously is choking, but, you know, I don't think it would have really, really surprised you. It was just based on their talent level and what they have on paper, say the least. But it still definitely feels like a missed opportunity for the payments just because, you know, the Rangers are playing them so well.

And they're not big of a 5-5 team. And I know Shasturkin's doing his thing and their power play. is unbelievable. But, you know, how good the Penguins are at 5E5, and, you know, their special teams are usually good. And Jari was really good during the regular season. Man, a Penns Bolt series would have been a ton of fun to say the least. I did pick bolts in six before the series started.

Right now, that's still looking good. I'll say that I'm not trying to reverse things myself here. But, you know, my prediction, still looking decent. Let's see if the lightning can take game five at Madison Square Garden. and hopefully, you know, put the Rangers out of their misery on Saturday so we don't have to see a game seven on Tuesday. And then, of course, we have the Stanley Cup final after that. But that will do it for this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. I really appreciate all of you listening to this one of another episode for you all on Thursday.

We're going to continue the season reviews and get to some other fun topics as well. For all of you that continue, again, for all of you that continue to listen to this show, even though it's been almost a month since the penguins are eliminated. God bless you. Obviously, you know, the show is not going to have the same amount of listeners as it does, you know, during the playoffs and during the regular season because, you know, people take breaks from those sports. You know, they go enjoy their life and, you know, they spend time with their wife and your kids

and, you know, you do other stuff and, you know, think about sports and all that's always very respectably. I think especially from this kind of season, I totally respect anyone who needs a break. from thinking about or just talking about this team with people. But again, for everyone out there listening to this show, thank you all so much. I'll be back on Thursday with another episode for this podcast on this team. And I'll talk to you all then.

Hope you all have a great rest of your day.