Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Marc-Andre Fleury and the Penguins 2026 HALL OF FAME class!

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

The Penguins announced their 2026 Hall of Fame class, and the legendary goaltender is going in! Hunter and Patrick begin the Thursday edition of Locked On Penguins discussing the four new inductees to the Penguins Hall of Fame, which include Marc-Andre Fleury, Larry Murphy, Jim Rutherford, and Jack McGregor. (1:25) They talk about the impact the four had on the franchise's history and success, and what they mean in the history books. Then, they react to The Athletic’s prospect rankings, and while the Penguins find themselves right in the middle of the pack, the actual ranking of the team’s prospects was…puzzling, to say the least. (13:30) Finally, the NHL made it official that all 32 teams will receive “Hometown Remix” jerseys this season, prompting speculation about what the Penguins' new alternates might look like. (23:45) Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COM to play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who’s hitting a homer this MLB season.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced their 2026 Hall of Fame class on Thursday, and Pat and I are going to discuss that coming up right after this. 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 to the Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-exam. post, Patrick Damp, you can follow him on most social media platforms at Sinam for Wet. You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins.

And you can find us on Instagram at Locked On underscore Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first listen slash watch the day. We are free and available on all platforms a bit later on in the show. Pat and I are going to discuss Corey Promon's very strange prospect rankings for the penguins. A lot of hot takes in there. We're going to react to it.

And then to end the show, looks like the penguins are getting a new jersey for the 26-27 season. And based on the rumors, I don't like it. And you'll find out why coming up to end the show. I'm sure you all probably are aware of the likely color of the jersey. I don't like it. Pat, we'll get your thoughts on it a bit later on. But first off, congratulations to the four new inductees to the Pittsburgh Penguins Hall of Fame, Mark Andre Fleury, Jim Rutherford, Larry Murphy, and Jack McGregor.

they were all announced today, and Pat, they will be inducted November 14th right before the game against the Ottawa Center. It's also the day before my 29th birthday. So a cool little birthday celebration. There, they'll be honored with an on-nigh ceremony prior to that game and all four outstanding picks by the Penguins. Mark Andre Fleury, we all know. Number one overall pick in 2003 was here for 13 seasons.

Three Stanley Cups ended his career with a 9-12 save and a 2.5A. well, his penguin senior, I should say. 9-12 save, 2.5A goals against average. He was spectacular for this organization. Very much appreciated by everyone, fans, media, front office, coaches, players, you name it. I don't think there is a single person around the NHL pat that does not like Mark Andre Fleury. But this is obviously very, and I mean very well deserved. We can start there.

That's the best place to start. But I think that's just because. of a little bit of recency bias, in my opinion, because we all know. We have gushed about Mark Andre Fleury on this podcast about how great of a goaltender he was in his time with the Penguins, everything he did for the organization, both on the ice and off the ice. But the place that, and I'm sorry to upend this on you, Hunter, but the place that I want to start is Jack McGregor.

Yeah, because here's the thing. without Jack McGregor, there are no Pittsburgh Penguins. Agreed. Listen, this is due respect to Mario Lemieux, both the player and the owner, Sidney Crosby, all the fans and everything that has kept this team of rolling into its what will be its 60th season this coming year. But Jack McGregor is the reason the penguins exist. And I'm not going to pretend like the Penguins Hall of Fame is the Hockey Hall of Fame.

this is a fan service type deal, but the fact that he wasn't in an inaugural class is a little bit absurd because he got the idea rolling. He managed to get in front of the Rooney family to help them use their influence over the sports owners of the era to convince the NHL to pick Pittsburgh as an expansion city. He helped get all of the investors together to make the team possible. He helped name the team. And without McGregor, the penguins do not exist. So this is an absolute giant in franchise history.

So this is well deserved. But for Flurry. Was also the team president, Pat, from 1967 to 1970. So I'm with you. Very well deserved for him. And I will admit this being the almost 36 year old man that I am, until the Penguins did their 50th anniversary documentary, I did not know much about the early, early years of the franchise. So I did not know the Jack McGregor story.

The fact that they opened it with that and told his entire story, it blew me away. And I have been in that man's camp since I watched that. May he rest in peace because this will be a posthumous inductation because he did pass away early last year. but at the end of the day, this is a huge one. And then back to your original point. I mean, Mark Andre Fleury has pretty much every goaltending record for the franchise. Three Stanley Cups did everything you want a first overall pick goaltender to do. And then on top of that, Larry Murphy, listen, the 90s penguins that went back to back were cheat code teams.

You look at the names on it. It is Hall of Famer. after Hall of Famer after Hall of Famer, and they were genuinely an unfair team for the era. Larry Murphy did not get the love that he deserved. The stat that stood out to me about this was when the Penguins were in the back-to-back championships in 91 and 92, they played a total of 10 Stanley Cup final games.

Larry Murphy had at least a point in eight of those 10 games, and the only player who had more points than him in the Stanley Cup final those two years, little guy you may have heard of named Mario Lemieux. So Barry Murphy, pretty damn good. Yeah, very deserving. I mean, one of the best defensemen in franchise history. And just to take it a step further, Pat, 23 points in 23 games in the 91 cup run. In 92 came really close to a penny bat.

Six goals, 16 points in 21 games. When there was a big game, he was there every single time. Yeah, we all know how great his regular season numbers were. They were fantastic. But when push came to shove in playoffs, he always, and I mean always showed up in those big moments. And boy, the way that he could walk the blue line, the way that he played. I know, again, I know I wasn't alive for those two Cups, man, but I've gone back and watched those games. The thing about Larry Murphy Hunter was this.

you especially for the end of the 80s and into the 90s we're not in the dead puck area yet this is still goalies are just figuring out you're allowed to go down to your knees players are putting up video game numbers you look at larry murphy's playoff numbers you brought them up they don't jump off the page but if you got the time today go game by game in those stanley cup runs in those playoff runs. They were in the biggest moments when the penguins needed goals. He either scored them, assisted on them, set them up. It's a line from one of the, I can't remember if it's the 91 or I think it's the 92 Stanley Cup movie where the narrator says, when it matters, Larry Murphy is there. Yeah, I agree. So very well deserved again, only five seasons, Pat. That's also the crazy thing.

and he's still easily one of the best defensemen of franchise history. He should say, though, for Jack McGregor Pat, passed away earlier this year in January, not last year, but still very well deserving. And then finally, Jim Rutherford, also very deserving, gets hired June 2014, leaves abruptly in 2021. But he was part of the architect of the two Stanley Cups in 2016,

in 2017, went on a massive 18th month heater where he was just hitting a whole. run after a home run was the architect of the trades, including Phil Kessel, Carl Haglin, Trevor Daly, Justin Schultz, Nick Benino. I can keep going down the list here, if you want me to. He did such a great job when he first came in. Did he lose his way at the end of his tenure at times? Yes, he 100% did, but I still feel like this is a very deserved nomination, considering the job that he did to build those Stanley Cup winning teams. Yeah, the hard part was in place with the core players, but the way that he was able to build around them, that was what

really set him apart. No general manager has a 100% hit rate. It's just a fact. And we all know, and we have talked about the end of the Jim Rutherford era with the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was not pretty. But I will say this much for Jim Rutherford. He was the perfect general manager at the perfect time for the Pittsburgh Penguins because no disrespect to the late Ray Shiro, he did one hell of a job, especially coming on right as Sid and the gang were starting to come into their primes and making sure that this team was ready to roll with both new and old talent. But it got pretty stale by the end of the Ray Shiro era in Pittsburgh. And Jim Rutherford was the guy who came in and said, I don't care about a draft pick who might play in five years.

I don't care about a role player that you guys like. This is a team that has the bones of a Stanley Cup champion. We just need to put it all together. And I am going to take massive swings to make sure that this team is in the mix. It pays off in 2016. It pays off in 2017. and listen, we can play counterfactuals all day, and I'm going to do that right now. I feel pretty confident in believing if they get past the capitals in 2018 for the third straight year,

they have a damn good chance at three-peating as Stanley Cup champions, but he did what he needed to do to shake the penguins out of their malaise and make them a Stanley Cup champion for the first time since 2009. And he said it in an interview with our pal Josh Yohei a couple years ago. Rutherford knew he had to leave.

It was more or less the pandemic really zapped him of all of his energy and all of his passion. He needed a refresh. And there are a lot of stubborn people in the professional world, not just sports, that will not recognize that. and I will give Jim Rutherford credit, not just because of the way things were going, but the fact that he had the self-awareness to go, I am just not 100% in anymore. So it's time for me to leave. And we know what happened afterwards.

But hey, we're in an okay spot now. And Jim Rutherford, man, along with his playing days too, because he was a Pittsburgh penguins goal tender. We do sometimes forget that, very deserving of being in the Penguins Hall of Fame. Right. And you know what, Pat? The move that started at all, his first off season, June of 2014, trading for Patrick Hornquist, really started to change the identity of the team. And from then on, it was hit after hit, after hit, especially during the 2015, all season, going into the 2015-16 season. And then, of course, during the season as well. So had to point that move out, such a massive move for the franchise. And we also how. it played out in both Stanley Cup runs. But that's going to do it for our first segment. Coming up in the second segment,

yes, Pat and I are going to react to Corey Promondon's very weird prospect rankings for the Pittsburgh Penguins. That's coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, which is Fandall. Lockdown Penguins is brought to you by Fandle and baseball fans. If you think you know who's hitting a home run today,

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We have not been able to talk about it yet, but we will now. So the Penguins, they were ranked number 16 in the NHL podcast. pipeline rankings for 2026. That is fine. I don't really have a problem with them being 16. They have really done a good job at adding to this prospect pool. I mean, remember, this thing was dead last for quite a while. So the fact that at least to the athletic, it's up to league average, that's a good sign. If you want to argue, it's above league average, that's totally fine, too. My problem is the rankings of some select prospects here, because number one, Rucker McGority, I have him third.

I would not put him above Harrison Brunick or Sergei Murashov. I still think he's a good prospect, but I just would not have him number one. They also have Ben Kindle, Pat, ranked number two behind him. If you're going to include Ben Kindle in this type of article, I don't think you should, but if you're going to, he needs to be number one and it should not be close. Now, we don't really classify him as a prospect anymore because he has played a full 82 game season. he's going into his second NHL season now. He has not a prospect anymore.

So I don't really see a reason for why he's on this list. But if you're not going to put him on this list, he needs to be number one. After that, let's keep going down here because this is hilarious. Harrison Brunich 3, he needs to be at least number two. You know, Liam Rock, Will Horcalf, 4 or 5. I disagree. I think you can move, you know, Liam down a little bit. Peyton Kettles at 7.

I disagree. I have him outside the top 10 a little. little bit. McHale Leon at eight, that's fine. Tommy Galvis at nine, that's fine. But the one that really just doesn't make any sense, how are you putting Gabriel Deg at 16 and Sergei Murshov of all prospects at 17? And that was the last prospect he ranked on this list was Sergey Murshov at 17. I'm a fan of Gabriel Dake. I think he is going to be a solid netminder. And I think you're going to see that for the next team that he plays for. He's not going to be on, you know, a bum junior team that's giving up chances out the wazoo.

But Sergei Moroshov just lit up the AHL this past season. He's probably going to be on the NHL roster this year. Having him number 17 here does not make one bit of sense. It feels like he's just trying to be different for the sake of being different. And one last thing.

You know you've done something wrong. When you have pissed off not one team, but every single team in the NHL. Yeah, it was, the thing is, when I first read it, I didn't put a lot of stock into the actual list. I just kind of went in and read the description and analysis of each prospect. And a lot of it is pretty fair. A lot of it is kind of what I and you have said multiple times about a lot of these prospects.

But I texted someone that I know that works in pro hockey. and I just asked them for a reaction to Prawnman's rankings about the Penguins. And the way they put it to me, and this is a, I'm paraphrasing this, this is not a direct quote, but they basically said, it seems like Pranman writes down notes in a prospect's draft year, and then doesn't update them. It's basically what he has you as in your draft year gets solidified in his announcement. So I think there's a lot of that going on because there's like here's one that stood out to me. At number five, he has Will Horcoff and he has written down shot above NHL average, compete, NHL

average, hockey sense, NHL average, puck skills, NHL average, skating, poor. Now, listen, I'm not saying Will Horcoff's a great skater. He's okay. but you don't basically become a point per game player with Michigan if you're a bad skater. He has a lot of room to improve. Don't get that twisted. His skating is nowhere near NHL ready. But he's not a poor skater anymore, much like we talked about with Rutger McGority.

His skating has gotten a lot better, still needs to improve. So that kind of solidified that analysis of Bronman's analysis to me that it kind of kind of gets solidified after the draft year. And as for the goaltenders, hey, I understand wanting to be cautious with goaltending prospects, because there is a list longer than the Bible of goaltending prospects who either have a great couple of years in the minors and then can't do well in the NHL or they have a tremendous rookie season and you think this guy's going to be in the Vesna conversation for years to come, and he never reaches that rookie level again. But having Sergey Murshov, who was pretty close to the best goaltender in the entire

AHL last year as your bottom ranked prospect in the system is a little absurd. It's nuts to me. And I have been a bit cautious about Murshov on the show. I'm excited for having to make the team. But again, the jump from the HAL to the NHL, is so huge. And teams and coaches and management staffs and players are going to have tape on him. And it's going to be curious to see how he adjusted that on a game-to-game basis.

How does he play in this league? I don't want to make unfair expectations for him. But based on everything he has done so far, he is at least the second best prospect in the system. Right up there with Harrison Brunich. And speaking of Harrison Brunich, this is the one that also made me laugh at. Skating, NHL average. Don't know how you can say that about Harrison Brunick after the way he's been playing lately. Puck skills, NHL average.

No, I think his puck skills are better than initial average, at least right now. Hockey sense, NHL average, I would put that a little bit higher as well. And compete level, I would put that a bit higher up as well. See, I would put compete a little bit lower, at least for now, because you saw the way he played in his nine game trial. He was hesitant. He didn't do too well in front of the net. He didn't do too well along the wall.

And to me, that's compete. But at the same time... He did work on all of that down the stretch and... Got better at it. It was way better, way better. Especially in the playoffs. Like, he was, you know, being a rat in front of the net, you know, getting feisty along the boards, getting into some skirmishes.

You know, to me, I put all that in compete level a little bit. So, I mean, if you want to say initial average is fine for that, okay, but especially skating and puck skills, man, that's they're above initial average to me. The other thing that I always come back to with stuff like this, and I don't mean this as an insult or anything to Prawnman or any of the national writers at the athletic or otherwise is way back. And I mean, we're talking more than a decade ago. The original crew at the Penn's blog, all those OGs, Adam, Derek, Rick. all those guys.

They had a theory basically that they put out there when it came to national writers. And it was the sense that they parachute into things. And they don't so much look to fulfill a narrative as they look for the most obvious in most vanilla things to say. And while I know Prawnman is always work in the film, always working the film, always working the scouting reports when it comes to big prospects, especially around draft time. But I also don't expect him to have intimate deep knowledge of every prospect for all 32 teams, all times.

So like, I understand why we're all getting annoyed with this because that's kind of the point of it. It's August 20th. We're about a month away from the season beginning and we need things to talk about. but I do want to caution people at the end of this segment here to just remember that when you're reading national coverage of your team, whether it's the penguins or whatever team that it is you root for, there are things that national coverage is not going to know because they're not in it day after day after day. They're not covering the beat. They're not watching every single game.

They're not getting all the updates from the farm. So as good as Pranman is, I do think there does need to be a bit of grace because he's not going to know every minute detail of hundreds, if not thousands of prospects. Well, you know what? Sometimes it's fine to say, I don't know because I just don't think you have the time to watch all these players. There you go. It is okay sometimes to just say, yeah, I don't know. well that list sucked at the end of the day and that's really all i can say about it i mean he also put uh zach benson 124th on his u 23 players in the n hl zach benson of all people below players who have not even made their n hl debut yet it just it was rough this year it was pretty rough we don't need to be a contrarian for the sake of being a contrarian stop this stuff it's my final

thought on that but that's going to do it for the second segment coming up to end the show. Yep, there's a new jersey coming for the Pits or Penguins this year. And based on the rumors, I'm not a fan, though. I still have to see the jersey when it officially comes out. Pat and I are going to discuss that right after this. All right, we're back here on the Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Damp and Pat. The NHL confirmed on Wednesday that all 32 teams will release new special edition Hometown Remix jerseys for 2026,

2027. Details will come out shortly after the season begins. The long-rumored collection will uniquely and authentically celebrate the fans, city, and local culture of each team. So, of course, all the rumors have been coming out about the Pittsburgh Penguins one, and a lot of them, Pat,

unfortunately, have it as a blue jersey, more specifically, a potential Navy Blue Jersey. Ugh! So that. I just, I'm sorry. I'm going to make this very quick. You all know it. I've said it on the show before. I am not a big fan of any of the blue jerseys, especially the Navy Blue. I think it is gross, to be honest. I'd rather go for something else, but probably not going to get my way on this. I still want to see the design once it's fully done. If they go with the logo that I think they're going to go with, the logo would be nice. I'm just not a fan of the blue jersey. jerseys. I'm mostly with you. If they go back to the 2011 style blue that they did at the Heinz Field Winter Classic, I'm out. That jersey was an abomination because it was a weird amalgamation of like three different penguins blue jerseys. It just did not make a ton of sense. The idea that I had this morning in thinking about it was kind of a take on the 2008 Winter Classic jerseys.

If they were to do kind of a cream and powder blue style jersey, basically just inverting what they wore in 2008, the primary color would be white, the shoulders and sleeves and the stripe would be, powder blue, you do the circular logo with the skating penguin in the middle. I would be good with that because I really am a big fan and still am to this day of the powder blue jerseys. When you see those on film and in in pictures, they pop so well. They look so good. And I get it.

There's blue fatigue because from 2008 to about 2014, they just hammered us with blue jerseys. And that was also in the midst of still wearing the abomination that was Vegas gold, those sand yellow colors that- All those jerseys stunk. That were terrible. But then at the very tail end of that, they teased us with what we wear now,

what they wear now. I hate sometimes I say we, but you get the point. But I do think if you can find, Because remember, we've seen some leaks of these jerseys. They're not going to be just throwbacks. It's not like they're just going to take a jersey from the 60s and put a little bit more stitching on it and make it look modern.

They are going to be a little bit different. So if they can find a way to walk the line of doing a good job with powder blue in keeping that skating penguin logo, I'm open to it. But if they're going to do dark or navy blue, that's going to be a profound disappointment. Yeah, I just think it's going to be ugly if they do that. I understand what you're saying about the 2008 jerseys,

and I know they have a lot of fans, and I definitely got a couple people quoting my tweet yesterday. A lot of people are very mad at my hot take about me not liking all the blue jerseys. That's fine if you disagree. I just overall, the 2011-1-2008, I'm just not a big fan. Just when I look at the current jerseys, they have the other throwbacks that they've had over the years where they've been way better. I'm just, I'd like to see something else for. You and I also kind of talked about this off air or off-mic.

And if they do have the skating penguin with the scarf, I think that would actually be a really nice logo. Just make it a better jersey. That's all I'm saying. I think that's kind of where we're meeting here is that there's a lot of good with the blues, but they have to figure out the right mixture. 2008, they got it right. They absolutely got it right. 2011, not one bit.

The other thing that you and I talked about the other day was the other problem we kind of run into is that there's not a lot of Jersey history with the penguins. It's pretty limited to the point where you've got what they wear now, which was the late 80s, early 90s, and now the currents. You have the robo penguin, which I think that's an underrated dark horse of what they might do. Come on, bring back a different jersey for it. I'm sorry. I love that. Here's the thing. If they do the, if they remix the pajama jersey, I'm all in.

That is the one, you guys all know, that is the one robo penguin jersey. jersey I have reverence for. So if they bring that back in some capacity, I will be very happy. But you look at the rest of it. They've already done yellow multiple times. They've done blue. They did Robo Penguin a few years ago.

It kind of feels like in the cycle of the types of juries they're going to do, we're probably headed back to blue. And God help us all if we go back to Vegas gold. Now, they're not doing that. I don't think they would be dumb enough to go back to Vegas gold, but also at the same time, if it's anything like Navy Blue especially, ugh, no thanks. Even the 2008 Winter Classic jerseys, I know you love them. I know a lot of people did.

I just wasn't a fan personally. So even for that, I'd just be like, sorry, I disagree. I'm good. Maybe it's something else, but I have a feeling it's going to be some sort of blue jersey whenever they announced it right before the season or during the season early on. But Pat, I think that's going to do it for the Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much to take the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with a fresh episode for you all on Friday reacting to any news that comes out.

And of course, it's Friday. Fan Take Friday returns will react to your takes and your questions. So again, thank you all for tuning in and we'll be back on Friday.