Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 1/30-Jeff joins for trade talk!

Episode Date: January 31, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, one of Hunter's very good friends from Penguins twitter joins the podcast to talk trade season as the NHL trade deadline is almost three weeks away. They discuss Jason Zucker, Chris Kreider, what a fully healthy lineup will look like, and much more! 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 and welcome to this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-Score Penguins. As promised, today we have another special guests coming on the podcast. I've been trying to get them on probably since I started doing this last year, but we haven't really had the time to get him on, but now we finally do. He is Latang Colt on Penguins' Twitter.

He is one of my very dear friends, Jeff. Jeff, how are you doing tonight, my friend? Pretty good, Hunter. How about you? I'm not doing too, too bad. I know it's your favorite time of the year now, is the trade deadline is about three and a half weeks away, and I know you wanted to get into a lot of trade possibilities and all that. Absolutely. Jeff, who do you see the penguins getting at the deadline?

Is it maybe Jason Zucker, Chris Kreider, or maybe someone else? Well, I try to follow the insiders as closely as I can, and I thought for the longest time that Jason Zucker was a foregone conclusion that he was the number one target. But the more I listen to people talk, the less I believe that to be the case. I think he's the number two to the number one, which is that Chris Cryer. Josh Yoey came out with his piece about a week ago that talked about how Rutherford was willing to move futures for a player to help them win now. and he talked about an apprehension of move to the first round pick, but he didn't quite roll it out. And that piece was followed up by Yowie and Gentilly's podcast penultimate on the athletic,

which had them talking more about Crider as the primary target. Yeah, I did see that. And then I saw, of course, Rod Rossi had his mailbag come out today. Apparently, it sounds like the asking price, the starting asking price might be of course, pick for Chris Kreider and you know it's not hard to see just how good of a fit he would be in a penguin uniform considering the way he plays just how fast he is you can pop 30 goals in a full season if he had a full season on Cindy Crosby's. No doubt.

Yeah and it's just it would it would be I know it there's some Penguins fans obviously have some bad memories with Chris Kreider since he's played in a lot of games against the Penguins but you know who cares if you get him because he's just he's a heck of a player though I know you're going to have to give up a lot to get him. The Rangers traded Kevin Hayes last year to Winnipeg, and they got actually a first-round pick and another roster player in return for that. So I think that's the thing,

maybe the starting point that Penguins would have to go to get Chris Crider, but it could be a little more because I think Crider is better than Kevin Hayes. I mean, I think it all depends on whether Rutherford truly believes that Criter is the guy that pushes them over the top. Like he said, he's trying to win. win this year. So I'm sure he and his scouts have identified players that would give them the profile that they would want. In replacing Jake Gensel, I mean, I guess you have the luxury of being able to say, okay, well, you know, Jake's great at scoring for us, but if we want a

player that's maybe a little bit tougher or something like that, they have the luxury of being able to go out now with the LTIR space and acquiring a player that fits their mold. And perhaps Crider does. And I think, you know, if the price for Crider is a first round pick, consider two, who's going to be in the bidding war for Crider. He's a rental. So I highly doubt he's going to go to any teams that are out of the playoff picture who are going to have the higher first round picks.

Maybe he'll go to a team on the bubble. Maybe somebody like Minnesota, if they decide not to trade Zucker and they try to make a playoff push. I think a mid-round first would be more alluring to them, but I think the penguins would probably have to part ways with the top prospect. And if Rutherford and his scouting team truly have zeroed in on Chris Crider, you know, I don't see a problem with dealing a top prospect with him, even if it's Kail and Addison, just because if you win the cup this year,

four or five years down the road, it's going to be a lot harder to win the cup with Hornquist getting older and Tanna and Crosby and Malkin getting older and and Kaelin Addison will just be coming into the league so the window it's a little murky right now to see where Kailen Addison's going to be coming in and even though he's a top prospect if they were sure it's the right player that's going to help them

they think push them over that plateau then go for it Yeah, you bring up an interesting point there, you know, with trading Kalin Addison, who many people regard, of course, as the Penguins' top prospect, even though, you know, the system is not very deep and really never has been under the Crosby-Malkan era. I was listening to the Penulton podcast from the Athletic yesterday, and Joshio basically said it sounds like the penguins really wouldn't want to move Kalin Addison. That's apparently what he's been talking about,

and Jim Rutherford always prefers to move picks over prospects. So I would be curious to see if he would want to move a player like that. I think he would be willing to move a prospect, maybe like a Hallander or like a Bjorkwist kind of player. But I think if you're moving Kalyn Addison, who apparently has, you know, opened a lot of eyes, you know, around like the league and, you know, organization and, you know, he could be ready a couple years. I think it would have to be, I think maybe for a higher placed player. I just don't know if Rutherford would part with him in just a trade for Chris Kreider. What about Pallene? Would you trade Pallene?

That's a good question, too. I think you could, that's more 50-50, I think, for me. I just, I think Kailen Addison would be more off limits than Pooleon is. I know Poulene has been tearing it up lately with his, I think a couple of people from Penguins who have been posting his stats. He's been tearing it up lately, but I maybe have to think long and hard about that one. I think, you know, maybe if you get Crider, you do it. But, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if Rutherford would be, he wouldn't want to move those top two prospects, and he would move basically anyone else.

That's all I'm saying. Right. Yeah, I saw a blog post by Ryan Wilson of Hockey Buzz, and he does a great job breaking down, you know, the advanced stats, the analytics. he also does a great job at predicting prospect success based on previous examples. And he was pulling up like, okay, John Sebastian Day in the Quebec major juniors had an outstanding season. And so did Daniels strong. And we know what happened to both of those players. Neither of them panned out like they were supposed to.

So if Palline has some perceived value that's higher than his actual value and that helps you get Chris Crider, oh, by all means, do it. Because if Palline ends up being a third-line player in the NHL, two, three years down the road and you still win the Stanley Cup this year, isn't it worth it? Yes. Yeah, I mean, I think so. Yeah, no, I definitely agree with that.

Yeah, I just, I think the main, just the main prospect I would have is mostly off limits. You can maybe move him in, for like a really, really great winger would probably be Kailen Addison. Poulin is more, it's more manageable.

I don't really, you know, I'd move Hallander in most deals. Sure. you know, Bupryorquist. Ligary, I think, you know, he's come up the ranks a little bit. You know, we still know what's happening with P.O. Joseph, who Josh Yolly also said that the organization seems to really like who they got into Phil Kessel trade. So Jim Rutherford has a lot of options for trading way prospects for a high-profile winger.

He seems to not really care if it's a rental or if it's a player with term. Though usually he has targeted players with term. but, you know, it sounds like this year he really doesn't give a shit if it's a rental. And sometimes he actually said he even prefers it because he comes off the cap right away. The level of a specificity that Rutherford used in the YOWE interview was kind of intriguing to me because usually when he is not specific about what he wants or what he has his eye on, you know, he's locked in and history has shown that he's kind of in the advanced stages. of talks.

So I wouldn't be surprised to see him pull in somebody within a week's time. Now that's no guarantee things could fall apart and other teams can come in and make the move on the player or the organization could decide to keep the player. But the fact that this interview came out that indicated that he's a lot closer than we'd think as well as the fact that he's getting his ducks in a row in the sense that he signed Patterson to that extension, it indicates that he's ready to make his move. No, no, absolutely. And, you know, he always tends to strike early at the deadline.

You know, he's done the Carl Haglund trade. He did the Pedersen trade last year. You know, the Bukstad-McCand trade, I think, came right after the Super Bowl, if I'm not mistaken. That was very, very early February. Sure. He just loves to strike early. He doesn't usually like to wait all the way up until the deadline. And honestly, I just wouldn't be surprised if it came as early as next week.

Now that the team is back, they're getting more healthier. We'll touch on the injury situation later. I think, you know, especially with the call-ups, now they have 13 forwards, and those two that they called up are going to be out of the lineup when both of the forwards come back in Bukstad and Cahoon. So I feel like, like I said, I feel like by next week it could be coming just sooner, you know, rather than later. Right. The only thing that really concerns me in terms of getting the guy, sure, you have the prospects. you don't have a second round pick

but you do have the first round pick and dealing the first round pick again I have that mentality that okay help the team now because sometimes prospects don't pan out if you look at all of the people that the penguins have drafted with their first round pick

and if you take a look at all the first round picks and the penguins have traded that have been late round that other teams have made the pick because they traded for a gimla or whoever almost none of them have panned out I mean it's at the end of the first round, I think people are drafting

based on like, okay, this player is not a blue chip prospect, but they've got the talent to really be a top line winger or a top-paring defender, and either they just, they don't pan out. And so it's really worth the risk getting an impact player for a first-round pick.

I don't understand why it's not done more. And that being said, you know, the penguins do not have a second-round pick this draft. They traded that to Vegas and the Mark Andre Fleury. expansion draft. It wasn't truly a trade, but they gave away the second round pick in order to ensure that they took

Florida. And I really don't think they have a lot of movable assets on the roster as it is, because everybody is either an asset or doesn't really carry value. I mean, I think Alex Galcheneck is probably going to be traded for peanuts because he hasn't produced, and he's kind of an enigmatic player. And Buxtad hasn't shown in a... ability to stay healthy. He's produced decent when he's played, but he really hasn't fit in, and as another general manager really going to trust his health. I mean...

Yeah, that's a big one, too. I feel like he's been more likely to stay now, now that he's getting healthy. And I mean, if you really think about it, you know, when the team does get fully healthy and, you know, God forbid they actually do, you know, you can put that winger up there with Crosby and Jared McCann. You can leave the Cahoon, Malkin, Rust line alone. of your third line, and of course you have the Aston Rees-Tanev line, which is just unbelievable. I always credit to you with the TANF signing because you proved me

wrong time and time again with that. So thank you. But you can have your third line be Dominic Simone, Nick Bukstad, and Patrick Hornquist, and you know, that's a formidable forward lineup. I mean, you just have to get Bukstad back to producing and have them stay healthy.

That's, I think, the big key for it. Okay, so here's my next question. If Buxtad does stay healthy, how's his confidence going to be? Because here's a guy who came to the Penguins. He was injured in late last year. He played a number of games, but I think toward the playoffs, he got injured.

I'm not sure if he played in playoffs or not offhand. And then this year, he, of course, has his core muscle injury. And I mean, it's not like he's injury prone. It's just he's ridiculously unlucky. Yeah. Yeah. He doesn't. He did play against the Islanders in the four games sweep. I think he was with Simone and Hornquist.

I don't have to go double back and check to make sure that he was on that line. But if I remember correctly, I think that line was probably one of their, probably their best line of the playoffs with actually getting scoring chances. The Penguins just, you know, they couldn't score. But, I mean, yeah, I do think that's a really good question is, you know, how is his confidence going to be? Can he get back to scoring the way he used to? Because, you know, this is a player who came from Florida.

and he's had 20 goal seasons before, but it's just, it just hasn't been the right fit here. And I think they prioritized McAnne in that deal, and then they just said, okay, we'll take Buxtad with him. And, you know,

it looked like it was going to be, starting to be good with for Bukstad, but then, you know, he's just battled so many injuries. And, you know, with this hernia that he's had that's kept him out with the past couple months, it's just,

it's going to be hard for him to come, just to come back and just produce. I mean, I hope he does. You know, you stick him on the third. line with Patrick Hornquist who's had a rejuvenated season. He's just looked outstanding when he's healthy. And then Dominic Simone, who's probably one of the more crafty players on the team.

I've said time and time again on this podcast. I think he gets a ridiculous amount of hate. Just, you know, sometimes he's just because he can't finish. But man, is he a great pastor? I think they would work really good together. Oh, absolutely. And he comes at a very cheap price. Yes.

As far as Buxtad goes, I think when we traded for McAnan and Buxtad, that everybody was kind of hoping for like a second coming of Jordan Stahl with that height and that framed it, you know, how Jordan Stahl just so gracefully dangled players and weaved around players and used that reach with precision. And I really, you know, last time Uyxed I was playing, I don't recall seeing that much of that. He plays a much smaller size than he actually is and that kind of concern me. I think when you when you see in the media that Ux's, you know, dad hasn't really fit in. I kind of think that's part of it is that he's not comfortable. And so being injured, I'm questioning how comfortable he's going to be. It might just be better

to send him somewhere else to, you know, let him find his confidence. Yeah. And that wouldn't shock me if Jim Rutherford did do that. You know, people talked a lot about him as a penitial trade chip. It just wouldn't shock me. And, you know, another guy who just, like, we've already mentioned it already, this podcast, who has not been a fit. is Alex Gow Chenyuk. And, you know, with that fully healthy lineup that, you know, I just mentioned, he's the odd man out. And I don't really think that they want any interest in having a player making $4.9 million in their salary in the box every night and just being a healthy scratch. So, I think if Jim Rutherford had a deal in place already, he probably would have made it.

I just don't think so far that there is just a market out there for him just because he's been just so bad. and we all know it's not for lack of effort. He looks like he's trying his ass off out there. Oh, absolutely. It doesn't help that he gets four flying minutes with playing with, you know, Agassino and, geez, I'm forgetting the other player who got called up. He starts with the A as well.

I can't pronounce his last name, so it makes me look like a fool. Angelo. Yeah, Angelo, yeah, and he was playing, you know, with Blan D.C. before, Lafferty. You know, it just hasn't been a fit here. And, you know, you can honestly, you take, You dump them for anything at this point, because I think that's what... I just think that's what Jim Rutherford is going to do before the deadline,

if a team will take them on. What I'm really curious about is, and this is just my speculation, I haven't seen anything confirmed. I know that I think maybe there was a blog out there that might have wrote about this about a week ago. Anaheim, they're confirmed to be willing to take on salary, you know, for teams trying to unload it. I wonder if Anaheim takes a shot at Alex Galcenaeck being, you know, a former 30 goal scorer and, you know, still relatively young because they're kind of in the stages of a rebuild.

And if they want to trade away their assets, if they're going to trade Silverberg, they just signed him to a kind of rich deal. But he's kind of fulfilling his contract there. Or Kase or even Raquel, then they would need to replace that scoring somehow. And I think they would like a player like Al-Chinek who's younger and, you know, who's maybe had some struggles but could find his game with a lot less pressure there. Yeah, I think the ducks are going to be an interesting team.

We know they're not making the playoffs. They honestly should just keep going with their retool, their little rebuild. Yeah, we did see the other day that Kashi sounds like is available. They were willing to put him in the trade for Justin Fulk, which I think they probably want to lost that trait because I don't think Justin Falk is what it used to be but I mean yeah I do think that Bob Murray I mean he's helped out the penguins

in the past you know he took on Eric Good Branson from them earlier in the all season maybe you know he can maybe get the penguins to entice the deal a little bit by maybe including something else you know just you know sure he has to say thank you because we took on Eric Good Branson from you when you guys were trying to put John Reno in the lineup when he had nine

defensemen which you know was very the game of Patterson for Strong too yeah that was that was a steal and a half when a lot of people didn't really think it was, but, you know, with that five-year contract that you just... Oh, the flack I took for liking that trade. Yeah, yeah, nope, I was... I was there with you.

I didn't... I thought it was fine. I thought it was fine at the time. I just didn't think Pedersen would just turn it out to be this good. But, yeah, I think a team like the Ducks would be intriguing for Dalchenya. You know, maybe Ottawa.

You know, they're close to the salary floor. I know... And they've done it before. Look at what they did with Anthony Duclair. Yeah, it's okay. him on and now he's a prime candidate to potentially be moved at the deadline for a very, very good price. They could probably get a good haul for him considering that the season he's had, John Gabriel Patejo. He's going to probably get a good haul out of there too.

You know, for the longest time, I've wanted the Penguins to get him, but he's a center now, so he wouldn't really, I don't think he plays wing. But yeah, I just, I think Penguins have a lot of options going into this deadline. And also in that article from Josh Yelly, apparently, You know, Rutherford makes it sound like he may not acquire just one winger, but it also could be two. I just, I wouldn't be shocked if he did, but I think it might be, probably will be one top six winger, though. It wouldn't surprise me if it was two. And I'm no insider, but I can confirm that because David Pagnota was on the NHL network the other night, and he had a bunch of trade tidbits.

And while he didn't bring the penguins up online, I tweeted out, no pens. news from at the fourth period, his Twitter handle, and he actually tweeted at me, the penguins are looking for top six winger to replace Jensel, and they're looking for a depth forward. So, um, independently, that's, that's been confirmed by David Pagnoda. Yeah, that'll be interesting to see. So then, you know, and especially if they traded Galchania, like that would be, you know, there would be some really big

roster decisions that they acquire, um, two winners, considering that the lineup right now, um, is, when healthy, it's, it's very, the, with whole. lineup is very daunting. It's probably one of the deepest group of forwards that we've seen. And then, of course, the defense, I think it's, when everyone's back, I think it's manageable. You can hide Jack Johnson on the third pairing.

You can put Justin Schultz there. We've talked about, you know, Justin Schultz a lot. I don't think that they're going to move him by the deadline. Would I be surprised? I think a little bit. I think they're going to kind of want to keep him as, you know, kind of a rental, you know, for this playoff run. You get the last playoff run with him, see if you can play some good sheltered minutes on the third pairing

because you're not going to touch the top four of Good Dumlin-Latang and Pedersen Reno. Right. And, you know, I consider the source, of course, but Eklin was talking about how, you know, of course he says that the penguins are going after Palmerie and Vertanin. And Vertanin is another prospect, he's a journeyman, I think 28 years old on expiring contract.

But I think Vertanin is a more offensive version of who Schultz is supposed to be. So, you know, I didn't hate the idea of bringing in Palmyrian and Vertanin. Of course, I don't think it's really a real thing because, of course, Eklon. But I thought that was intriguing if the devils would make that trade. I don't know how speedy I would consider Palmeria to be. but he certainly has that offensive touch the penguins can use. I've better a chance of being right than Eklund at this point, but not I understand. There's always a running joke with Eckland.

Oh, absolutely. Because it's just a... But I like this, I like this train of thought. If you're going to trade for sure, you're going to trade Schultz, maybe find another offensive defenseman that maybe produces a little bit better. The first year, Schultz was here. He was incredible, and then he just hasn't been able to find that level. since it's kind of disappointing.

That's 2016-17-year was his best year. I thought, you know, he had 50 points. He actually was playing pretty good. And then just been a slippery slope, you know, ever since those first two seasons when he was rewarded with that big contract. I'm going to laugh my ass off when the team gives him some term this off season because I can see it coming with teams on July 1st. You know, Washington loves former Penn's defenseman.

Yeah, they did pay Matt Niskin and Ann Brooks, And Brooks Warpick. They paid Brooks Warpick. Oh, my God. They paid them. I still can't believe that. Quite a money. They somehow got a Stanley Cup out of them and that whole team.

So I just... Oh, there's hope for Jack Johnson. Yeah, I hope Jack Johnson, you know, scores the game winning goal in the Cup final for the Penguins. So the Twitter can just melt down because I think that would be absolutely hysterical if that actually happened. Yes. Yeah, but...

Probably the first time the couple would have been in a cardboard box. Jack Johnson takes it home. Yeah, that would be absolutely right. But yeah, just a quick injury update before we wrap things up. Justin Schultz, yeah, does look like he's coming back tomorrow, so that would be nice. Brian Dumlin and Nick Bukstad, I think they've been skating, but they did not skate today.

They've been working off the ice, and then Dominic Cahoon has been skating. So he's working his way back, too. So some decent news on the injury front. But Jeff, thank you so much for coming on today. This has been a long time coming. I'll definitely have to have you on as the deadline gets close. because I think Jim is, you know, he's getting, he's always candid at this time of year, and I think he's getting a bit antsy to make a move.

Oh, yeah. I would definitely expect maybe within the next week or two, well ahead of the deadline. Yeah, absolutely. That's just the way he works. So, you know, I have another episode coming tomorrow, probably after the game against Philadelphia, and then this is just a big weekend for the Penguins, as they'll play the Capitals for the first time in D.C. on school Sunday, 12.30 p.m. start. So thank you guys so much for listening, and I'll talk to you guys.

tomorrow.