Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - MORE Penguins Olympic talk with a special guest!

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

Parker McLean from On The Fly joins the show to talk about the Penguins at the Olympics! Hunter and Patrick ask Parker about the team Latvia goaltending situation and if Arturs Silovs will get most of the starters reps since Elvis Merzlikins is also there. (1:19) They also discuss the impact that Erik Karlsson and Rickard Rakell will have for Team Sweden, and a ton more! After that, they get into what Sidney Crosby has meant for Team Canada and if he will fit in well with Mark Stone and Mitch Marner. (13:31) Finally, Hunter and Patrick get Parker's predictions for who wins this tournament before ending the show by highlighting a Penguins prospect who has been lighting up the WHL!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!QuoMake this the year where no opportunity — and no customer — slips away.Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go tohttp://Quo.com/lockedonnhl. FactorHead to http://factormeals.com/lockedonnhl50off and use code lockedonnhl50off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/lockedon right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelThe Winter Games are on. And there’s no better way to follow them than with a bet on FanDuel. FanDuel - Play your game. 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 men's Olympic hockey tournament kicks off on Wednesday, and Pat and I have a special guest to preview that entire tournament 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 back to another episode 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 host, Patrick Damp. follow him on all social media platforms at Cinderfrewette. You can also follow this show's

Twitter at L.O. underscore penguins. And you can find us on Instagram at Lockedon, underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And today, Pat and I are joined by a first-time guest, Parker McLean of the on-the-fly podcast covering everything international hockey and with the Olympics, the men's Olympic hockey tournament that is about to start on Wednesday. is the perfect time to bring on Parker. So again, man, thank you so much for coming on. We really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for having me. Looking forward to talk a little bit of international hockey today. Yeah, so let's get started with team Latvia, because Archer Shulov's of the

Penguins is there. And it feels like it's kind of been back and forth between who is going to start and goal between him and Elvis Merslikens. I've been on the show saying that I think it's going to be she loves. I think, you know, when I look at both goalies this year, I think Shulov has been the better goalie. I think he's also played really well internationally for team Latvia. Parker, who do you think is going to get the start in the first game for Latvia? I actually think it's going to end up being Elvis Mergelikens. And for him, I think it's more so the fact that it's an attitude thing more than anything else. At the end of this, at the end of the day at this tournament, both goaltenders are going to get an opportunity

to show their stuff for when the games actually do end up getting important for them further down the line. That's when you're going to ride with the hot hand of whoever plays better early on in the tournament. But just because of the attitude problems we've seen with Mers Likins in the past with respect to the starter role versus a backup role coming off the initial game, I do expect him to go with Mers Likens off the top, and then Shilov likely gets that second game. Yeah, I think that's also a really underrated point.

And for our listeners that tuned in yesterday when we went down kind of our whole rundown and preview of this upcoming men's tournament, And something that both of us failed to mention is that it's a unique setup this year with the three groups where everybody is going to make it out of the group stage and into the playoff rather than somebody has to get knocked out after the group stage. So there's going to be a lot of an opportunity for these teams, especially your non-United States, non-Canada, Sweden, etc. Those teams that are looking to make a little bit of noise will have some time to get things figured out. and figure out the matchup. But I look at that difference that you brought up in the attitude of Merslikins and Shilovs. This is kind of going to have to be Latvia's biggest strength in this tournament is goaltending.

It's not a terrible roster, all things considered, but it's not exactly the nation that you look at and think, okay, this is a hockey powerhouse. But I always on this show called Goaltending the Great X Factor because it is, when you have those two, like you said, Parker, it's just going to be a matter of who is the hotter hand. So let's just do the total cliche sports talk radio thing. And if you had to put money down on it, if you had to predict it, when Latvia finds themselves out of the group stage, who is going to be in the net?

Yeah. And for me, I do think I'm going to go with the other side of this now with Archer Shilov. And you look at his game, whether it was at the recent world championships, and he was one of the biggest reasons why Lafiel went ended up going as far as they did. And I think that's one of the biggest factors that people might not really consider. And I know you can really speak of that to any team. And one of the main reasons why certain players are on teams like Canada in the U.S. is because of their performance at these international tournaments,

where we haven't really seen the quote-unquote best on best in quite a while. But we'd be getting closer, especially at the World Championship. where there are enough NHL players to really make an impact. We've seen some players take big strides at those tournaments. And so in the end, I think you look at kind of that big game mentality, I think Shilov is going to be the guy you're going to go to. That's also totally fair. I think for Latvia, just in general, they're going to really have to try to turn games into a slog.

I think just when you look at their forward group, their defense group, compared to other countries, obviously Canada, the U.S., Finland, Sweden, even Germany, of course, with Leon and Stutzla, it's just going to be hard for them. I think to really generate a lot of offense when you compare all the rosters. So I think if they can turn the games into a slog and also get saves from either netminder, they're going to have a chance to be in these games. Again, I don't think they're going to beat a lot of these top teams, but I think they can make things at least a little challenging.

Pat, you go back to 2014, for example, when they play Canada, that was a tough game, even for Canada. I know Canada had a lot of the better of the play, but Latvia's goalie was standing on his head. It felt like that entire tournament. So that's something that's going to be fascinating to me. Switching gears a little bit, Parker. So the tournament kicks off tomorrow. We got two games for this one starting off with Slovakia versus Finland.

It stinks that Sasha Barkov is not going to be there for Finland, considering how great of a player he is. And then after that at 3.10 p.m. Eastern time, Sweden versus Italy, obviously for the two penguins on there. Eric Carlson and Ricard Raquel. I did see that Raquel is skating on a line with Mika Zabinajad and Elias Pedersen, which I think is interesting. you know, Pedersen, really good defensively, doesn't have all the offense like he used to. Zabinajad, he's having a really good year for the Rangers, really strong playmaker and also has a great one-timer. And then for Carlson, I saw he was skating on the third pair with Philip Roburg.

Do you expect those pairing slash lines to stay the same throughout the game and throughout the tournament, or do you think they're going to move things around a little bit for those two? I think that's kind of the beautiful part about these tournaments is that there's such a tight time frame to kind of work players through. And so a lot of it's going to be experimenting inside the game outside the tournament at practices. But because it's so tight, we tend to see a bit of a scramble off the start. You can kind of look at even the other, like I even look at the Canadian squad whose

lineup is in a bit of a shamble right now. And they just had a closed door practice the other day. And so we'll see whether or not as the tournament moves onwards, whether or not a team like the Swedes continue to shift their lines. obviously you kind of look at those world championships as well, where the suites have had a lot of those players playing together at, especially those tournaments. And so whether that has any implication on kind of the end result of who they finish with

the lines as they had in the playoff rounds, I think it's going to be a lot more malleable than that, especially with who's riding hot hands in the tournament, and if there's anything they see at practice that they really like. For sure. I also think another really underrated part of this Olympic tournament is the IHF rule that you can dress 13 and 7. You don't have to do the NHL four lines, 12 forward, six defensemen, two goalies.

So there's a, I think when you look at all of these nations for the most part, especially the ones near the top of the table, you are going to see lines in a blender. You're going to see defensive pairings in a blender because there's also the chance that some of these players that you dress, whether it be the U.S., Canada, Sweden, you name it, they're going to be able to technically really bring a specialist on. If you want your 13th forward to be exclusively a penalty killer or exclusively a power play option and so on and so on, that could really play a big factor.

But I look at Sweden and I think that, and you kind of brought this up, Parker, is that this is one of the teams where I look at their lines and I look at their lineup up and I go, what we're going to see in the opening game is not what we're going to see once we get to the metal round or the playoff because there are a lot of different players and there are a lot of different combinations that I think you're going to see some players rise and fall. And then you mix that with internal team politics of, hey, this guy was here at world championships. This guy was here at the last Olympics. But once the rubber hits the road, things are going to change. Yeah, and for sure. And I think especially with the team like the Swedes, they are legitimate gold medal threats this year.

And I know a lot of people go, hey, Canada, the U.S., you know, they're the best team because they got all the NHL guys. But realistically, that's not what wins you championships. It's how does the team gel? And you even look back to the four nations tournament. And you look at that Swedish team, they've said it quite a bit, but they've had the best, worst tournament that they could have had. They took Canada to overtime, they lost. They took Finland overtime.

They lost. And then they beat the U.S., which most people kind of forget about because it was kind of a meaningless game at the end of that tournament. But they still beat a U.S. team who's bringing a lot of the same players into this year's tournament

that they did at four nations. And so that is definitely something to consider because they're not just going to have, you know, three games, then the qualification round, and they're going to be bounced. They're going to have the three games if they don't win the group, which they should end up winning the group, if they end up in that quarter final round, they'll have that game,

the semi-final game as well, and the eventual medal game. And so there's lots of time still for the Swedes to figure out who they want to mess around with as far as into those playoff rounds go. Three games is a lot of games, especially at these kind of tournaments, where you can really put out three different lineups, depending on who you're playing. Obviously, a team against Italy, you're probably going to have a little bit more creative freedom, not really worrying too much about the final result of the game.

but especially when those games get important. Look at the games against the Finns, a little bit on the Slovak side as well. You're going to look for them to kind of tighten up that lineup and really start to see, let's play some defense, let's play some offensive side, and let's see which guys work together well.

Right. Pat and I were talking about Sweden a lot on our Monday show. That's a team that I think some people are sleeping on and they shouldn't be. Like you look at that defensive group especially. It's nasty, man. It really is. The left side, Forsling, Headman, and Broberg, the right side,

the Arrasmas Dalene, played like a top five defenseman this year. Rasmusanderson, who's been really good. And then you have Eric Carlson on your third pair. Eric Carlson has been tremendous for the Penguins this year. So, and you have Gustafson. He should start over Marks. Marksher. Marksum just hasn't had as good a year this year compared to years past.

That devil's team is also in just pure hell right now. They're not going well. And then their four group is also really good as well. So Pat and I also discuss this, Parker. Whoever gets them, I think in the semifinals, because I think all of Canada, the U.S. and Sweden will get for the semifinals, whoever gets Sweden, that's going to be a really tough game. It's going to be a lot of fun to see how this all goes out.

And with that, that's going to do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to get Parker's thoughts on Crosby potentially being on a line with Mark Stone and Mitch Marner, plus who some of his sleepers are for this tournament. 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 Factor. Cold days, packed schedules, and big goals.

That's winter. and when there's not a lot of time to cook, eating well can feel like another thing on the to-do list. That's where Factor comes in. Factor makes healthy eating easy with fully prepared meals, designed by dieticians and created by chefs, so you eat well without the planning, prepping, and the cooking.

Factor meals, they're always fresh, never frozen and ready in about two minutes. The ingredients stand out. Lean proteins, colorful veggies, whole foods, and healthy fats, no refined sugars, no artificial sweeteners, no refined seed oils.

Tons of variety with a hot, 100 rotating meals each week, so it never gets boring. It's also perfect for busy weeks when you still want meals that support your goals without the stress. Head to factormeals.com slash locked on NHL 50 off and use the code locked on NHL 50 off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. Eat like a pro this month with Factor. New subscribers only varies by plan. One free breakfast item per box for one year while subscription is active. All right.

We're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my good friend and co's Patrick Damp and our guest today, Parker McLean of the On the Fly podcast. Parker, I want to start off this segment with more Cindy Crosby talk because, of course, he's going for his third Olympic gold. He hadn't been playing as well going into the Olympic break, but I'm not concerned. Pat's not concerned. He's going to be totally fine for the Olympics. And then we both think he's going to light it up for the Penguins after the Olympics. And because that's just how he is.

I mean, after the Four Nations last year, he won it on an absolute tear, even though the Penguins were basically out of the playoff picture. But right now, they're second in the Metro, and they have a lot of very important games coming up. So he's going to be totally fine. But I want to get your thoughts on him being the third line center, at least practice lines-wise, with Mitch Marner and Mark Stone. Kind of feels like to me this is a shutdown line,

especially with how good Mark Stone is defensively, how underrated Mitch Marner is defensively. And yeah, Crosby's not what he used to be defensively, but he still has two really good 200 foot wingers who are also really great offensively. So just want to get your thoughts on that. And the fact that he's a third line center on this team. This goes to show how deep Canada really is. Yeah.

And what I'd say too is, yes, he's starting as kind of that third line center. But as the tournament progresses, the games actually start to mean something. Because yes, it matters a little about seating. And you kind of mentioned it kind of towards the end of that last segment about how you want to go up against the Swedes inside that semi-final. But the alternative to that is going to be the U.S., especially when you look at the goal differential, they'll end up as that top seed going into the semi-final round. So in reality, you are either playing the U.S. in the semis or the Swedes, depending on where you end up placing within the group and assuming you end up winning it.

And so for a team like Canada, yes, the games are somewhat important now, but it's still, you have to go through both teams to get to where they want to be. So if that means kind of experimenting right now, especially when you look at kind of what's to come for them at this tournament, I think they'd be okay with losing games in the short term or not playing as well as they potentially could if that means they find something that ends up working down the line for them at the end of this tournament. But for guy like Crosby, obviously, Captain Canada,

a guy who you can always count on for that big moment. And I think he's going to be a guy that this Canadian team is going to look to in those big moments, especially what we saw World Championships too. We'll see if they put McKinnon and Celebrini together. I think that's another line that they will experiment with at least once at this tournament. But we'll see, of course, as it progresses in the game start to become more important. This is, and our listeners know I do this a lot. Hunter will often set us up with the X's and O's, the stats and all of that.

I'm always a fan in someone who likes to lean into more of the narrative side of it. And, you know, if for anybody who's listening right now and not watching us on YouTube, you haven't noticed, Parker is all decked out in Canada gear. He's joining us from Canada. So forgive us for that. But being that you are up there, being that this is your home country, that is your home country. And you get Sidney Crosby on an international level. The thing I always want to ask people, especially our friends up north, is what has it been? like knowing that you've basically got this super weapon for your country when you go to these

international tournaments, whether it's the Olympics, the world championships, last year with four nations, just what exactly does it mean and what has he meant to the Canadian hockey program? He's been just about everything you could have asked for and more. And he's been one of the biggest parts, he think, to the 2010 run, where, of course, he scored the game winner. But it's not only what he does on the ice that's so impactful. It's also what he does off the ice, especially as an ambassador to the game. And I think that's one of the things most people kind of forget about is he's someone that takes care of the community. He knows what he's doing, especially off the ice and does a really tremendous job with that. But as far as the on ice performance

goes, I think the accolades kind of speak for themselves. He's the kind of guy that you look to in these tournaments to be that X factor type player, the guy that you're going to go to and when those moments get big, whether it's power play minutes, whether it's PK minutes sometimes as well, especially early on in that career. He's a guy you're going to go to, especially when those moments get big to kind of pull through for the Canadian team. Right. And I've already seen that super weapon, Death Star, first power play unit that Canada keeps

rolling out there, Pat, you know, Crosby, McDavid, McKinnon, you can put McCarr out there, Sam Ryanhart with his release of his one-timer. I mean, not that good. Come on. Oh, yeah. I mean, literally, it's just the peak super weapon. I can't wait to see that in action during the Olympic tournament as well. Parker, before we let you go, though, who are some of the sleeper teams that you're watching for this tournament?

I said on Monday, for me, it's kind of a tie Switzerland and Germany. I'm all very stoked to see Leon Dries on all this tournament. So who is your big sleeper team? Yeah, so when you look at this tournament, I'd say it's probably one of the most competitive we can remember in quite a while. you look kind of as six teams that are legitimate gold medal threats this year with Canada, the U.S., Sweden, Finland, Czechia and Switzerland. I'd say those six teams could very well pull off the gold at this tournament. Obviously, the Swiss and the Czech's kind of on the lower end of that likelihood,

but still legitimate gold medal threats, and that's what we've seen in years past. And then you can also look at, I'd say there's probably three or four more teams in there, depending on what you think of the Danes this year. There's some injuries as well to take note of. for the Danish team, but that could very well end up meddling at this tournament with a little bit of luck and some good seating. Could very well pull off one upset and find themselves in that bronze medal game.

Of course, with Germany, Slovakia, Latvia, and then Denmark, if you want to throw them in there as well. And so it's going to be an interesting tournament, I think, more than anything else to see, are those underdog teams going to kind of find their way up? For me, the Czechs are always a team that you have to keep an eye on. You look at their team, it's a lot of guys that, once again, North American fans look at and go, well, there's not a lot of NHL guys, so they're not going to play well. But winners of the 2024 World Championship, they're looking to try and repeat that success into this

year's Olympic tournament. And we'll see whether or not they're going to be able to do it because they got guys like Roman Chirvanka, who once again, to the North American fan, who doesn't necessarily follow the double IHF or any of those kind of international tournaments, he's arguably the best player, one of, if not the best players on that check team, despite them not being in the NHL. And so those will be guys who look to kind of surprise with the Swiss. It's kind of Sven Ender Ghetto and Dennis Malgan, who consistently put up record points at these tournaments whenever they don on that, the Swiss check or a plus sign. And so we'll see whether or not they're going to be able to do that yet again at this tournament.

The Germans this year, I am less high on. I know a lot of people are extremely high on them, especially with kind of that high end start talent that they do have. But then it's just going to come now to how well can their defense hold up. That's always kind of tends to be a question mark. Their goaltending in that with Gru Bauer is going to be relied upon heavily, the star of the X factor that Pat, you're talking about earlier, about the goaltending and net could become a very important part of this team.

And if they can find good goaltending, they are a legitimate metal threat as well. The Slovaks, I'd say, are kind of the offensive side, a little bit lacking on the defensive side as well, but they have the guys. kind of shut it down. They're forward through a lot of two-way guys, the goal tending, a bit of a question mark, heading into the tournament. But we've seen Lavae kind of pull off

some pretty impressive performances at the World Championships as well. And then Lathia is a team that's kind of come up the last few years and has been kind of a thorn in people's sides, whether it's at the world, the juniors especially as a fellow Canadian. I can very much attest to that as I was unfortunately watching that game in Ottawa.

but you kind of look at it and you know those are the kind of teams good goal tending is always a recipe for good things at these tournaments you look for kind of an offensive punch and it's a team that can play really solid defensively and that's always a recipe for success of these kind of tournaments real quick Parker before we let you go we're recording this on tuesday february 10th little after 2 o'clock eastern time the big game is in about 10 minutes the unise United States versus the Canadian women's teams. And there will be no Marie-Philippe Poulan. She is out for this game.

We're hoping, yes, I'm going to say it as an American. We are hoping when inevitably these teams meet in the gold medal game that she is back. Because when you want to be the best, you got to beat the best. But real quick, I can't let you go without giving us some quick thoughts on the women's tournament so far. Yeah. honestly, I'm happy the tournament's gone onward, especially after that first day with the neurovirus outbreak on the finished team, which ended up postponing games.

We weren't even sure if this tournament was going to keep going. And what I'd say about the tournament so far is it has been a little bit subpart of the expectations. Coming into the tournament, obviously can in the U.S., two teams that are those clear-cut favorites. This year in particular, we talked a little bit about the competitiveness on the male side. the woman's side is just as competitive, especially with the addition of the checks this year, who have been a red-hot team. They haven't played all that well at this Olympic tournament, but even at the women's worlds, where they almost beat the U.S. in that semi-final, the U.S. pulled out a two-to-one win

of the most recent women's worlds in that semi-final matchup. But they've been getting closer and closer as these years have gone onward, over in the group B, because they do work with the Stager group still. You have the Swedes who have been red-hot, and they're looking to pull off and upset at this tournament. they've been a red hot team for years at the Olympic games kind of fell off over the last couple but are now back as kind of that predominant force on the group B sides. We'll see if they're going to be able to kind of pull off that upset, beat the third seed in group A coming out in the quarterfinals.

But realistically, as far as I know this is kind of where it's leading to is who am I taking today between Canada and the U.S. And I'm going to take my Canada clothing off and say the U.S. Hey, we'll take that one. And on Monday, Pat and I were kind of predicting who was going to, you know, win gold, silver bronze. I picked Finland for the women for bronze,

but I don't think that's going to happen now. They've already lost their first two games. So that takes going to age like milk, I think, Parker. But the other two, I picked Canada to win silver, and I picked the U.S. to win gold, at least for the women. I got to end with this, though. Who wins gold in the men? Is it Canada going to do it again,

or does the U.S. win gold for the first time since Miracle? I am going to take the U.S. for the first time since Miracle. And you look at this team, especially since four nations, there's two major additions. And you think about what went wrong at four nations for them is they couldn't really score, but that wasn't that wasn't kind of that overarching problem for them. It was the fact that they didn't have two of their best defensemen at the tournament. And you look at Charlie McAvoy, you look at Quinn Hughes, who has Canada really added on this team?

Maclin Celebrini for Braden Point. I don't know if that's that much of a significant improvement for them. They get a goaltender in Logan Thompson, who probably isn't even going to start for the team. You have Binnington likely going to end up still being the goaltender. And so you think about how close the U.S. came to winning four nations. You consider the fact that they beat them on home ice in Montreal. It's very hard for me to go against the U.S. team this year, especially with the talent pool they're coming in, and the relatively easy track as well to that final game.

Well, Pat and I, we're both taking Canada until the U.S. does it. So if the U.S. does it, that's obviously great for us. But we both have Canada winning gold because they've been the gold standard for a while now. And until the U.S. actually beats them, I am going to take Canada to win gold. I have the U.S. winning silver and I actually have Sweden winning bronze for the men. Parker, this was great. Thank you so much for coming on for these first two segments. Let everyone know where they can.

can find you on social media and where they can find the show for sure so you can find me on any of your platforms apple spotify as well as the youtube where we're doing majority of our content we just uploaded our prediction full prediction video for this tournament we do predict every game of course had the u.s winning as kind of a spoiler to that video uh but i'll let you keep guessing on the bronze and so you find us any of you find us on twitter instagram ticot as well at on the fly 1515 you search that in just about anything we should hopefully come up But yeah, please do come on over. And thanks for having me today, guys.

Of course, Parker. We appreciate it, man. And it kind of feels like the Americans are picking the Canadians. The Canadians are picking the Americans. So at least we're getting along there. But again, we appreciate it, man. Thank you so much for this. Can't say thank you enough.

Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, this was great for these first two segments. Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to discuss a Penguins prospect that has been lighting it up in the WHL. that's coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our second sponsor, which is Indeed.

If you've ever hired someone who looked good on paper but wasn't the right fit, you know how important that is. When you want candidates who truly match what you're looking for, trust Indeed's sponsored jobs. Hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job posting on other websites.

Indeed's sponsor jobs, put your post at the top of the page and help you reach the right candidates fast. If I needed to hire someone to produce the show with Pat and I, I would go straight to Indeed and be very specific about what I mean. Real experience, not just a resume buzzword. Instead of struggling to get your job post seen,

Indeed's sponsored jobs helps your listing stand out and reach quality candidates fast. According to Indy data, sponsor jobs post directly on Indeed are 90% more likely to report a higher than non-sponsored jobs. Spend more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes with less stress, less time, and more results using Indeed's sponsored jobs. listeners of the show, you will get a $75 sponsor job credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at Indy.com slash Locked On. Just go to Indy.com slash Locked On right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply hiring. Do it the right way with Indeed.

All right, we're back here for the final segment of the Tuesday edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Amp and Pat. There is one Penguins prospect in particular who has been lighting it up for his team in the WHL, and that is 2025 seventh round pick, Kail Dock. For the second time this season, he has been named the WHL rookie of the week, six points in four games. Four of those were goals, and he has been fantastic for the Hitman this year. He was a big part of that road trip last week,

the Hitman went four and O and O. He now has 27 goals and 48 points in 45 games. He spent last season with the BCHL, the Sherwood Park Crusaders, finished that year with 22 goals, 87 points in 54 games. He was well over a point per game in the playoffs with three goals and 13 points. This year for his only WHL season, again, well over a point per game. He's on pace for over 80 points. And, you know, I know he was a late round pick.

We still have to see what he can turn into, but Penguins may have found a potential diamond in the rough year. Obviously, he's going to face better competition next year because he is committed to Penn State University for the 26-27 season. We're really excited about that. And while it would have been cool to see him and Ben Kendall team up for Calgary this year, I am way more thrilled that Ben Kendall is doing what he is doing in the NHL already is one of the Penguins' best players.

But if Kendall had not been ready, Pat, he was going to go back to Calgary. And him and Caldok probably would have been on the same line just when you see what Caldoc has been able to do, what you've seen Ben Kindle been able to do at Junior before, obviously making the jump to the NHL this year. But Kel Dockman, again, very late round pick, but they potentially may have found something here. A long way to go for his development, but off to a really good start this year.

For sure. And there's something kind of funny about this recent Penguin's draft class that has stood out to me when I look back at what these guys did prior to being drafted as opposed to now what they're doing now, especially the other guys who are still in college, juniors, wherever else, the penguins in Dubis and West Clark just kind of did the thing where they were like, how good were his numbers? All right, we'll take them.

Like, there's obviously other considerations and other things that go into it. But you look at a lot of the players that they took in the 2025 draft were guys who produced wherever they were at. They were guys who put up big numbers. And if I'm the penguins, If I'm Kyle Dubus and West Clark, when we're in this portion of the retooling, that's a good place to start to just go, listen, these guys produce in juniors, these guys produce in college, they produce internationally, wherever they are.

We can teach them everything else. I know that there's arguments that, oh, you can teach guys how to score now. Yes and no, there are definitely ways to teach it. But when you have guys like Doc who before they go to the WHL, they're just making a mockery of another league, then they go to the WHL and they're making a mockery of it there. There is something inherently talented about those players. You look at players that have good talent and you have to believe that your system, your team, your culture can mold them into somebody who can fit in.

It's, again, he's not the coach anymore, but there was a really good thing that Mike Sullivan said when he took over in 15, where he said, we don't want to take the sticks out of our best players' hands. You look at the way the penguins are going to start developing some of this talent. They're going to let these guys be who they are. They'll put some constraints on them. You've got to play within the system the correct way. But if you're a guy who can score goals, they're going to tell you, go out there and put yourself in a position to score goals. If you're a guy who sets people up, go out there, put yourself in a position to set people up. And I know I'm getting a little hyped up over Doc, who's a late round pick,

doing well in the WHO, but when you see the pattern of what the penguins have done for the past couple of drafts, it does get you excited that some of these players that might not have been on your radar might not have been the sexiest pick might end up being a lot more productive than said hype machine picks. Yeah, and I mean, not all these guys are going to pan out. You're throwing darts at the dartboard here, but you're at least seeing that this kid has obvious skill. He is a good playmaker, has a nice release. and he's playing really well for his team right now in the WHL. Now,

he's going to face even tougher tests next year when he goes to the NCAA, faces better players, especially in the Big Ten where you're playing a lot of really good teams in the country. But if he plays really well there, Pat, then we can have a conversation about him, you know, coming into the ECHL, AHL,

and all that good stuff. Another quick update on Jordan Sharon also was picked in this year's draft. he was picked in the fifth round. He plays for the Sue Greyhounds. Remember, he finished last season with only 10 goals and 21 points. This year, Pat, 23 goals, 42 points in 49 games. He's already doubled his production from last year. He was someone I kind of keyed in on during development camp.

And yeah, I know. It's glorified practice. But I really liked his release during that time, especially when they had a couple of scrimmages on the final day of development camp. So just at least keep your eye on him a little bit, but also very much have your eye on Kel Dock as well. jury is still out on them, you know, as very long-term pieces for this team. We still have to see if they can, you know, get up to the AHA and all that good stuff.

But so far, early returns, super solid so far for both of these prospects. Do you have anything else to add? No, I was just going to say, like, I wrote about this over the weekend is, it was a quick thought, but with your Ben Kindles, your Horcoves, Zonin, now Doc, in some of the, in Sharon, the way this. this year's draft class is panning out. Like obviously there's no guarantees that they're going to become contributing NHL players.

But at the very least, I'm really, really encouraged to have both Dubus and Clark running the Penguins drafts for the foreseeable future. I agree. West Clark, very good at what he does. And you're seeing why so far,

especially with Ben Kendall doing his thing in the NHL, Will Horcoff lighting up at Michigan, bills on. And now that he's healthy, pat, start for his team in the queue. Remember, this is his last junior season before he turns pro next year. He'll be in Wheeling or Wilkesbury, really excited for that. I really like this prospect quite a bit. But that's going to do it for the Tuesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

Thank you all so much taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with a fresh episode for you guys on Wednesday. Maybe doing a small recap of that Sweden, Italy game might be a bit later on in the day. We'll have to see Pat and I will plan a full episode for you all. then we'll also have episodes Thursday and Friday. Yeah, I know there's no Penguins hockey, but we're still tracking the guys at the Olympics. It's going to be a lot of fun over the next couple of weeks. So again, for Patrick Damp, I'm Hunter Hodes.

Thank you all so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. We will be back on Wednesday.