Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Now wishing for a Tampa Bay like third line...

Episode Date: October 13, 2020

Rumors about Marc-Andre Fleury continue to be talked about on social media and in articles and Hunter is here to tell you all that there is no reason for this reunion to happen. He talks about how the Penguins would be foolish to waste assets, whether that be prospects or players, to bring him back in a position where he wouldn't even be an upgrade for them. Plus, when is the only time they should ever even think about bringing him back? Hunter answers that, then goes into why Jim Rutherford should've waited out the market a little bit more. Pittsburgh could've had Jesper Fast for $2M per year or even Craig Smith for $3.1M per if they would've moved just a little bit of salary out. Hunter also adjusts his free agency grade a bit after those contracts came out. Finally, in the last segment, he goes around the league and talk about some of the other signings and how some bad teams have gotten better! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, welcome to this Tuesday episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows Twitter at L-O-N-Square Penguins. I hope you all had a wonderful October weekend. At least the Steelers won, though. Of course, they tried to break your hearts at the end and almost blew a 17-point lead to the Philadelphia Eagles.

But Sheets is better than Wawa. In the end, the Steelers get to 4-0, but, you know, my poor Virginia Tech Hokies lost a 56-45 shootout against the number 18 North Carolina Tar Hills. So, I mean, it was a fun game to watch as tech almost came back, but still, you know, when your defense lost 56 points, you're not going to win. That's just not going to happen. But there's been a lot of news that happened over the weekend around the NHL. For the Penguins on this show, we're just going to talk about some moves that they definitely could have made.

I mean, I know I gave them a grade of a B for free agency, but I think I'm going to be sliding that down now to like a C, C-Meyers or something like that, just because of the new contracts that have come in with Jesper Foss, Craig Smith. I mean, Lucas Walmart, a bunch of others. we're going to discuss on the podcast. That's going to come up in the second segment. In the first segment, we're going to talk about some more Marc-Andrex-Flority stuff because Vegas had the big news yesterday with Alex Petrangelo, signing for seven years at $8.8 million per season. I know some people are scared about that contract,

but right now for probably at least the first half of it, I'm saying he's going to play at the level that he's played out for all of his career, then I think the decline could come pretty steeply for Petrangelo. But again, we're going to talk about Mark Andreoy, and why it's just, it's definitely not going to happen now, especially with comments from Vegas as GM last night as he's going to be staying in days. It looks like for the season with Robin Leonard. We're going to touch on that.

Like I said, in the second segment, we're going to touch on just what other moves the penguins could have made instead of these two death signings that they had. And then the 307, we're just going to go around the league and talk about some other signings that happen over the weekend in which teams have improved the most and which teams have not improved at all. Also, for the rest of this week, we are going to be having some guests on the podcast for tomorrow's episode on Wednesday. We are going to have The Man, the Myth, The Legend. Danny from Penguins Twitter.

I know this is a different Danny. It is not Shire Irving. His at is based Otter, but he is absolutely hilarious on Twitter. He's a very good friend of mine, and he knows his stuff. So he's going to be coming on the podcast tomorrow. On Thursday, we are going to have Doug. Oh, my God, I'm going to mispronounce his last name so bad. Is it Glotke?

Glot? I just, I do not know. But Doug, I'm so sorry I have a mispronounce. your last name. We're going to get it when you come on the podcast this week. But his Twitter is Doug underscore G-L-A-T-T-T-K-E. He's a very good follow for Penguins fans. He's going to be coming on the podcast on Thursday. And on Friday, we're going to do just a little crossover with Locked-on Rangers and talk

with John Chicked about Jack Johnson going to the Rangers and how it's going to be a lot of fun to see Jack Johnson go up against the Penguins four to five times next season. So that's what's going on for the rest of this week. But let's get into the topics of discussion for today's show. just get on into it with Mark Andre Fleury. If for those of you that I've listened to this podcast for a long time, you guys know my thoughts on the Mark Andre Fleury rumors for a reunion. But if this is your first episode of listening to me on this podcast or you just haven't

listened in a very long time, I am very, very, very against Mark Andre Fleury going back. We've seen the usual suspects over these last couple days saying, yeah, I mean, there's a mutual interest there. There really is a mutual interest for Fleury and the Penguins to come back. And it's just like, why would you give up? assets to bring him back when you don't even need him. Like, that's the thing. Casey DeSmith is a perfectly fine, adequate backup.

I do not see the reason to bring Mark Andre Fleary back. And then, oh yeah, guys, Vegas's GM, Kelly McCrimmon said last night that we are going to roll with Robin Lennar and Mark Andre Fleury as our goaltenders next year. But why are they going to roll with Flory? I'm sure no one wanted to take his contract. He's making, what, $7 million against the cap for the next couple seasons? They even, I think, offered to take half of the contract back and even give a second round pick and return to a team who would take it. But teams wouldn't budge on that.

And I just don't think a lot of teams want to help Vegas right now just because of like the heist they pulled at the expansion draft by just getting a lot of really good players very fast. But I mean, you have a couple teams to blame for with that. The Florida Panthers were just very brain dead with giving away Marge So and Smith to protect Alex Petrovich. and then they were able to garner so much assets. I mean, you go out and get Mark Stone, Max Patrick ready. I mean, of course, they traded Nate Schmidt yesterday. That gets them very close to being under the cap.

He went for a third round pick in the 2022 draft to the Vancouver Canucks. That gives Quinn Hughes some help. But anyways, back to the original point. It just doesn't make any sense for Florida to come here. And Tristan Jari, they just signed him to a three-year deal. He's making $3.5 billion for the next three years. You really want. So when Tristan Jari has a very bad,

start. Does everyone really want all the Flurry stands and the Flurry cult leaders be like, oh my God, it's time to play Mark Andre Flurry. He needs to play the whole season. He needs to start. That's the exact garbage that Matt Murray got here for his entire tenure. And I'm sure he got sick of it. I mean, I think almost anywhere would get pretty sick of that. And the other thing as well, guys, he's just not a good goaltender anymore. He wasn't even 9-10 last season. He wasn't even league average. He's getting older and older by the year. It just is not. make any sense to bring him back. The only time they should bring Mark Andre Fleury back people is when they sign them to a one-day contract to retire as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

I would have no problem with the Penguins doing that. I still want them to somehow do that with Yer when Yager just whenever he calls it a career, he's going to be playing till he's 60 at this point. But I would love the Penguins to do that with Yager. I would be perfectly fine with him doing it with Mark Andre Fleury. But now is not the time. You have a cheap goaltending tandem going into the next season. Like I said, Jari, 3.5 million. against the cap to Smith is not even two. So you're spending not even $5 million against the cap with your two goaltenders. And that's the way to do it.

You don't want to be like the Montreal Canadians over here who are spending $14 million to pay Carrie Price and Jake Allen. That's just way too much of your salary cap tied up into two goaltenders. So yeah, that's a hard pass there as well. And also, I mean, Taylor Hasey of DK Pittsburgh Sports explained it the best on her Twitter last night. You know, the first buyout window closed. The second only opens up a team as a player-elect arbitration. Vegas had none elected.

The only option is to trade with retained salary. The max retained salary from the CBA is 50%. Fleury makes $7 million. The Penguins can't take them on at $3.5 million even. She also says if a third team gets involved to retain money, what prospects and players can the Penguins actually afford to move, that it makes it worth it for those teams, especially in a year when everyone is going to be struggling with cap issues.

That is the big point right there. Why would you move assets, whether it's a player, prospect, pick, just to get a player that's really not even going to be that big of an upgrade over Casey to Smith. I'm sorry he isn't. He was a below average goaltender last season and he's only getting older. So why even feel the need to go out there and get him? It's just absolutely not necessary at all. And especially just when you're giving up assets to do it, no thanks. And lastly, I'll just say this on the Mark Andre Fleury stuff. There is a weird segment of the Penguins fan base that just obsesses over anything he does,

you know, the smiles for 60 jokes, the pranks for 60 jokes. I mean, they're all well-talking. documented. They're absolutely hilarious to make fun of those kind of people. But, you know, some of these people are like, oh yeah, he'd be great in the locker room. The penguins are missing that in the locker room. Please, miss me with that garbage. It's really not that big of a deal. The penguins have good leadership in that locker room. Cindy Cross, you have been in Malkin, Chris LaTang, Jake Gansel, Jason Zucker in there, Brian Dumlin, all the veterans that have been there for a while. I mean, I know Zucker hasn't been there for as long as those other players have. They're good leaders. You don't, you're not missing any leadership in

room with Mark Andre Fleury and those little pranks and laughs and whatever. So please stop using that as a reason to bring back flour. It's just, that's just a terrible reason. And also, the best tweet that I saw last night about this comes from Dan Hopper, Dan Hop OPS on Pittsburgh Sports Twitter. The Penguins definitely could have used a leader like Mark Andre Fleury during those 2010 to 2015 years. Yep, I would say so too, especially after he just barfed all over himself in the playoffs.

year after year after year after year he was just absolutely terrible for all those years so yeah flower if only if you were just average in one of those years the penguins probably have a fourth family cup right now for crosbie and malkin so everyone has that to think about as we move towards the next segment but before we do that we do a little bit of breaking news apparently patrick marlowe has re-signed with the sandos a sharks for one year at 700k so basically league minimum it was always weird with marlowe here he just didn't really seem to fit in i thought he was playing fine before the pause. It looked like he was starting to fin in a little bit, but then, you know, you come back

from that very long break, and then they play the exhibition game, then you have training camp and all that, and then, of course, the playoffs series, he just looked lost in there, looks like he lost five steps. It's good that he's going back to San Jose. He's played there for basically his entire career. He's probably going to retire there. I mean, if the sharks are bad again next season, I can see them trading him again to try and see if he can go get another last run at the cup.

but if not, he's definitely going to be retiring there. But all the best wishes to Patrick Marlowe, especially his family. His family is a great follow on social media, especially as well. I remember that she put the picture of, I think Marlowe and his mullet back in the 90s wearing a penguin's jersey, I think as a kid or something like that teenager,

that was really, really funny to see. So like I said, all the best wishes to Marlowe and his family for going back out to San Jose. But before we talk about some other penguin stuff, it is the first time to talk about rockado.com. It's a family business serving auto parts. customers online for 20 years. You can go to rockout.com, the shop for auto and body parts from hundreds of manufacturers. They have anything from engine control modules and brake parks,

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All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. So there's just a few moves this weekend that kind of made me a little bit upset at Jim Rutherford. You know, I know I gave the Penguins a B in my original grade. on the Friday episode. I'm going to change that now with some of these signings that came out. I don't know if you should have just waited to do my grade. I'm going to go back to like maybe a C or C minus. I mean, we saw Yesper Foss.

Three-year contract goes to the Carolina Hurricanes. He's getting $2 million per season. The Penguins are playing a $1.4 million combined Marchankowski and Evan Rodriguez for next season. They both make $700K. But Foss, he's going to be making only $2 million. And he's better than both of those players combined and does exactly what they do, better and that's the player that I really wanted the penguins to go after it I mean and

especially at two million it's like Jim you really couldn't have done that I mean that's just an easy contract to sign even though it's three years two million per it's six million total so I really don't understand why he felt need to go out in sign jankowski and Rodriguez for 700k when a player like Foss could have been had for two million per season and then you know you have Craig Smith the penguins honestly still had cap space for Craig Smith even with with these signings. Without them, they obviously did. But he goes to the Bruins, I think, a three-year deal barely over $3 million per season with his skill set. He's one of the best shot generators in the league. His goals four percentage is expected goals, four percentage is always very high overall. And

he's just a great playmaker. And the Bruins are getting him for very cheap, like I said, barely over $3 million per season on a three-year deal. That's a player that the Penguins definitely could have afforded. I mean, we were seeing talks about how Smith could have gone in the $4 million. range that would have been outside the penguins price range but you know when he goes for 3.5 3.1 million for three years you know it's just general brother for just i don't get it you know both of those contracts were well within the penguins cap situation i know they really only had four million in cap to spend but they could have afforded one of those guys i would have really liked them to have one of them i think there's a tweet from this weekend i can't remember who was from

i know i saw it you know where if they the penguins could have had both of these players it would have been like the Tampa Bay effect with Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman coming over just because of how well their third line was with how they won the cup and you could have stuck both Smith and Foss on the third line with Jared McCann and that honestly would have been

one of the best third lines in Hockemey. If you had a third line you can put Jared McCann on the left wing, Craig Smith on the right wing and then Esper Foss as the center or you can move Smith to center. I know he hasn't played a lot of center in his career. Hell, you can even have McCann as the third third line center and then put Smith and Foss as his winger's. That's one of the best

third lines in hockey and the Penguins. With those contracts that Smith and Foss signed, they had the cap space to do. I mean, they also could have moved out some money. You know, you look at Yus Oricla, he's not really probably going to be used next season. Colton Severe. I mean, he just kind of seems like a regular guy right now. He's making $1.7 million for this coming season. But is there even a spot for him in the lineup? I mean, maybe right now. But if you would have signed Fost and Smith and have them be like your Goudreau and Blake Coleman's on your third line. You definitely could have found a team that needs to get to the cat floor that would take Cesar because right now it just seems like he's like the Nick Spalling from that Hornquish

trade where of course they traded James Neal down to Nashville and then I think they dumped spalling like less than a year after just because he didn't fit in the lineup. Like that's just what it seems to me right now. But you know Jim Rutherford had to go out and make his two moves as early as possible and sign two players for 700K each who are just defensive players for the most part. They really don't bring a lot of offense. They're going to be banking on Jaynecalsky getting back to the level that he was a season or two ago where he had 17 goals one season and then 14 goals the other season.

So here's to hoping they can do that, but I really wish they could have gotten one of Foss or Craig Smith. Hell, even both of them, because I know they could have afforded them. They could have moved out some money to make it work. So that just really, really frustrated me throughout this weekend. I mean, we also saw Troy Stetcher. I think he signed for just one year. Actually, excuse me. I think it was a two-year deal with the Detroit wedrings,

and we're going to get to Detroit coming up in the next segment as we go around the lead because Stevie Eisenman is having a great off-season. But still, his cap hit is very cheap. I think it's below $2 million per for these next couple seasons. That would have been a great fit on the Penguins sort of pairing with Mike Matheson. But, you know, that's not to be they're going to roll into the season with Chad Ruehdle. Again, I'm fine with that, but I think Stetcher would have been an upgrade over Ruehdle if Jim Rutherford was able to snatch that.

But I really don't see Jim Rutherford doing a lot. before the season starts. I think he's fine with the team right now. I know he said he wanted to take a few days and see how the team looks and see if he wants to do anything else. But he also did say if the move comes along that he thinks makes the team better, he won't hesitate and do it. But I just really don't see the Penguins doing much more for the rest of the offseason.

Could be wrong. You know, if I am, I'll eat a bunch of crow. But I just don't see Rutherford making a lot more moves, especially as free agency is just very slow right now as well. But coming up in the next segment, we're going to go around the league, talk about some contracts and some team signed that were not so good, but also talk about how, you know, some of these bad teams are making some smart decisions during this free agent period. So stay tuned for that. All right, welcome back to this

episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. And for this segment, you know, we're just going to start with the Detroit Red Wings because, you know, Red Wings fans, they've just had nothing to root for for these last four to five years. It's just been an endless cycle of just being awful, honestly. But, you know, ever since Steve Eiserman got hired, you know, he's preached about this plan that he has. You know, it's going to be a long, painful rebuild. But it's starting to come together. It looks like, you know, they have a lot of young players. But he went out and signed Thomas Grice in Free Agency.

That's a big upgrade over Jimmy Howard, who I think was there for an eternity. It had to been like a decade or something like that. Grice, I think, was better than league average last year. He's going to give them good goaltending for the next couple of years. You know, yeah, they had the Troy Stetcher signing. Again, that's a great signing for them. And, you know, it's almost like they're putting NHL caliber players on their roster. in the next season and not just a bunch of

HL call-ups. I mean, they also side Vladislav and Domestikov. I think that's what a one or two-year deal for cheap. You know, if the Red Wings are bad next season, which they very likely will be, they can fetch something for him at the trade downline as well as Troy Stetcher. But you know, they also signed Bobby Ryan. Again, what a story for Bobby Ryan

this past season. I'm sure he's going to kill it in Detroit. So yeah, they're actually feeling an NHL caliber roster that's not filled with a bunch of Garlet's players. So, Eisenman's been killing it. I'm really liking the all the season that the Red Wings are having. He's going to have them back into contention at some point, just probably not for the next few years, I would say. We also saw Taylor Hall, you know, goes to the Buffalo Sabres.

I was laughing at it. I know a bunch of others were as well, but I do get it for a financial standpoint and for a long-term standpoint as well. I mean, he definitely wanted money. I mean, he's going to get $8 million for one season with the Sabers. They're probably not going to make the playoffs next season, which is going to frustrate. I go, I would bet, but he's also just trying to get his value back up. You know, this is a big prove-it deal for Hall. He's going to try to get, I would say, what, 85 to 90 points in the full season playing next to Jack Eichol. And if he can do that, a lot of teams are going to be lining up to give him a seven, eight-year term for maybe nine to ten million per season. He's one of the best pure left-wingers in the league. There's probably

not ten that you can name that are better than him. Hell, I honestly go up there and say there's maybe not five or six that you can name that are better than Hall. And this is also the best line that Eichol will have played with on his line, so I'm really excited to see how they mesh together. Obviously, the Sabres want this to be a long-term fit. I mean, why wouldn't they? But I don't see it happening for a long-term fit. I think Hall is going to want to cash out after this deal.

I mean, he definitely wants to win. The Sabers have not won for a very long time. They have not made the playoffs in nine years. I still wouldn't expect that to change next season. I mean, they also signed Cody Eakon this off-season. So one step forward, two steps back. Eakin has just been very bad. and I'm not really sure what their plan is in goal.

I honestly don't even know who their starting goaltender is going to next season. Is it all mark still? But if so, you know, I feel like they could potentially use an upgrade. I mean, they could be a spot. If Kelly McCrimand decides to change his mind on Mark Andre Fleury, that could be a prime landing spot for him, and he would get all the starts there for Buffalo. Obviously, we already talked about in Vegas getting Alex Petrangelo.

I mean, they're absolutely loaded now. They have him, Shea Theodore, Alec Martinez. I mean, those are three rock-solid defensemen. You have two Superstar events been there to go along with Mark Stone. Max Petrariety, Jonathan Marchstow, Riley Smith. I know they also traded Paul Snastney, but I mean, this is a juggernaut Vegas team. William Carlson, of course. This team is really freaking good.

They're the favorites, I think, in the West next season along with Colorado. I mean, I think teams need to, like, stop answering the phone when Joe Sackett calls. I mean, they sold Devon Taves from the Islanders yesterday. The Islanders' cap situation is just pretty piss poor, I would say, right now. They didn't have to lose Devon Taves, but because you have Andrew Ladd signed and a bunch of, you know, Cal Clutterbox and a bunch of other garbage signed for so many years, you lose a player like Devon Taves and now you still have to pay Barzell. And I think it's Pelik that's the RFA. I think it's Pelik or it's Pollock, one of the two. But, you know, I'm still hoping a team offersheets Barzell, so that screws over the honors cap situation even more.

We have the Brandon Saad trade that happened. Really don't understand what Chicago is doing there. You know, I saw the article about the Blackhawks on the Athletic. Mark Lazarus. Jonathan Taves is not happy with the direction of the franchise that's going, you know, Cory Crawford, of course, also left to go to the New Jersey Devils. The band is breaking up up there in Chicago

and, you know, Stan Bowman is just totally lost at these last few years, but Colorado's top six is pretty sacked. It's going to be them or Vegas that wins the West next season, but Joe Sackick has just really turned this around these last few years. I remember there was a time when Sackick would just keep losing trades and he was considered a very bad GM, but you know, he hired

some smart people and he must have changed his direction for where he wants to go with the team because it's just been smooth sailing ever since he just fleeces every team. He trades with him along the metro yesterday. I think Eric Gustafson went to the flyers. He's not really that good. He's just basically a power play specialist. His defensive numbers at 5V5

are very bad as well. I don't really think anything else happened along the metro this weekend. We did see there was this funny quote, I think, from John Davidson of the New York Rangers of going to try to find the tweet on my Twitter. Right now they were talking about the Jack Johnson signing and how, why they signed him.

Apparently, he says Jack Johnson was signed to help with a PK, plus Jacques Martin recommended him. So in case anyone was unaware of who the biggest problem was with the Penguins and their coaching staff in playing Jack Johnson, it appears to be Shaq Martin. And, you know, I don't really think Sullivan was ever, you know, pressed for his lineup decisions. I remember reading, I think it was a few months ago,

I tweeted about this on my Twitter yesterday as well. Sullivan needs to have, like, an assistant coach on his staff, like a Rick Tawket, who will actually press him for his lineup decisions and we'll have good conversations about it because he definitely seems like he wants to have some yesman around and be like, oh, yeah, I'm going to put this guy in the lineup and they're like, oh, okay, you know, they're not going to just voice their opinions on it.

So I'm really hoping Tarr Reardon and Mike Belucci actually, you know, have a discussion with Mike Sullivan and not just be like, oh, yeah, yes, sir, that sounds great or whatever. But, yeah, the fact that Jacques Martin recommended him and how he was in charge of the defense for the penguins and the penalty kill, that's pretty bad. That's embarrassing. his PK numbers, that's Johnson's that is, are just awful.

They're some of the worst in the league. If you look at J. Fresh Hockey's chart for Jack Johnson, for PK, for a percentage, he's in the 10th percentile. That's absolutely awful. Even straight-th offense, 11%, even strength defense, 8%. His projected wins above replacement is minus 0.9. That's one of the worst marks in the league. So, yeah, I don't really know what film John Davidson and Jeff Gordon and Jokhmartan

are watching on Jack Johnson. I would love to be a fly on the room for watching his film with those three guys and just hear what they're talking about because it's honestly just probably a bunch of vomit. Jack is just not good in anything he does and we're going to be talking about that with John Shake later on this week on Locked on Penguins. But that'll do it for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I really appreciate you all listening to this episode. We will be back tomorrow with Danny on the next episode of Locked on Penguins podcast and I hope you all have a good rest of your day.