Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - OFFSEASON CATCH-UP! Who did the Pittsburgh Penguins sign and trade for?

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Welcome to season seven of the Locked On Penguins Podcast, and today, with training camp on the horizon, we're catching you up on all things offseason! Patrick and Hunter are back to daily Monday through Friday episodes, and this week, we're getting you ready for training camp with a summer catch-up series beginning with offseason transactions. To begin the show, we discuss the signings of two forwards, Anthony Mantha and Justin Brazeau. Are these players just trade deadline fodder or are they future contributors to the Penguins? Then, with the Penguins needing serious help on the blue line, President of Hockey Operations, Kyle Dubas, brought in several defensemen, including Parker Wotherspoon, Alexander Alexeyev, and Caleb Jones. They talk about where they fit, what kind of role they'll play, and how it could help some of their fellow Penguins. Finally, Dubas didn't make a lot of trades this summer, but the ones he did make affect the goaltending and the defense. They analyze the Arturs Silovs trade and the acquisition of Matt Dumba. We’ve put together a survey to learn more about our listeners and make your favorite podcasts even better. Go tohttps://lockedonpodcasts.com/survey/ to get started. Everyone who completes a survey will be entered for a chance to win one of ten $100 Amazon gift cards.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.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.

Ladies and gentlemen, season seven of the locked on penguins podcast begins today. And if you have been enjoying your summer, we're going to make sure you're ready for this upcoming season all week, starting today with the transactions made this off season. You're locked on penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on all social media at Synonym 4Wet, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Our Twitter account is L-O-U-U-Square penguins, and we are also on Instagram at Locked-on

underscore Penguins. And, of course, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. And if you follow us on YouTube, be sure to hit the notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. And that begins this week. We are here on a Monday morning and we are back to daily episodes. We will be here Monday through Friday all the way through the Penguin season, the Stanley Cup playoffs, and up to the draft. So get ready because it's September 8th. And that means

we get some hockey this month. Next week is the, well, this weekend technically is the prospect challenge. We will obviously get you ready for that later in the week. And then at the end of this month the preseason gets going and we are not too far away from penguins training camp. But with all of that said, this week we are taking it as our summer catch up series. If you have been enjoying your summer and you have been kind of checked out on hockey, we're going to make sure you're ready for everything that you need to know in the lead up to training camp. Today, Hunter, we will start with all of the transactions, well, most of them, because

there were some on the margins that aren't that important, but some of the big moves that were made this offseason by the penguins and general manager Kyle Dubus. We begin with one of the bigger signings for them this off season, and that is forward Anthony Mantha, a one year $2.5 million deal. And he's coming off of knee surgery. But when you look at where the penguins are with rebuilding, retooling, whatever Kyle Dubus decides to call it this week. This is the exact type of player that they're going to be targeting for the short term right now.

Getting a little bit older has been a solid NHL contributor for the majority of his career, signed to a one year low money deal, has some upside. If he plays well, he's going to be great trade deadline fodder. if he doesn't, it's $2.5 million for one year. And when the season comes to a close, you can let him walk. Well, first off, Pat, I just want to say, welcome to season seven, my friend. We have officially made it. We're back to Daly's training camp should probably start next week, if I had to guess.

We're going to have the Prospects Challenge this weekend. Pat, I don't know why they won't release the roster. It's only a few days away, and we don't even know who's going to be playing in the Prospects challenge. the penguins are taking their sweet time with that. Also, I think we should be expecting, hopefully an announcement on a third jersey for this year. We'd love to see that at some point before training camp.

They're taking their sweet time with that as well. So they're just being very patient with some of the expected announcements, it feels like, before the regular season starts in early October. The ownership change could potentially happen before then. We have to see. But as for the Anthony Manta signing, as we rehash that one, to kick off dailies.

I mean, I loved it. You're taking a chance on someone who is coming off ACL surgery. He should be fine for the start of the regular season. Before last season, he had a 23-goal year in 23-24. This is someone you can play up and down your lineup. I expect him to get top six minutes like Anthony Bavillier did last season. I also expect him to get third-line minutes. So you can play him on either line.

It really doesn't matter. I think he is still going to produce. and he's kind of going to have that Bovillier role where if you can get 15, 20 plus goals at him around the trade deadline, you can flip him into a contender and hopefully get a solid return. That's exactly what the Penguins did with Anthony Bavilli. They gave him top six minutes. They gave him power play two time, but mostly a lot of top six minutes, especially on Crosby's line, by the way, and they were able to flip him to the capitals for a second round pick.

Manta is Bavilliers' replacement. And I do think he can have some solid production on this team. Yeah, that's where I sit with him. It's a savvy move by Kyle Dubus because as I said, he either comes in, kind of reclaims what he had five, six years ago when he was hovering around. Like you said, 10 to 15 goals, 45, 50-ish points, a good fringe top six player on a non-contender, but you flip him to a contender, and he's solidly a third. contributor that helps you with depth scoring as you make a run towards the playoffs and into

the playoffs. And where the penguins are right now, that's the exact kind of player you want to target because come March, you're able to flip him for younger prospects, picks, whatever, depending upon his performance and what the market shakes out to be once you get towards the trade deadline. And obviously, we'll see what happens with that when you get to that time a year. So I like that signing. Another signing I'm a big fan of. I've talked about this if you've been paying attention to us this summer, this offseason. And that's Justin Brazo. Two year deal, 1.5 million AAV. He is a very good in my, well, has the potential to be a very good middle six forward in my estimation. He stands at six foot six. He's got some, he's got some concerns when it

comes to skating, but it's not bad skating. You look at the way he's played. He had 22 points last year between the Boston Bruins in the Minnesota Wild, 11 goals, 11 assists. And this is another player kind of similar to Mantha in the sense that if you feel like you're still a little bit further away from contention or playoff contention, you can flip him at the deadline this year or next year. But if he turns out to be a productive middle six forward, he's in his late 20s, but hasn't played a ton of NHL games. If you can see him being a part of your bottom or middle six over the next four to five years, it's not a bad guy to take a bet on. It's kind of like Blake Lazot in a way, right? Like, yeah, you could have flipped him last year.

He's going into a contract year this year for the penguin. So they didn't really have to flip him. but I think this year they probably will. Brazil, kind of the same thing. I don't think you have to flip him at the deadline, but if a team gives you an offer, you can't refuse, you at least have to take a look at it. And again, if it's really good,

you can just make the call to flip him, even though he'll have another year left on his contract. I see Justin Brazzo as a better version of Nollichari in the bottom six. I wouldn't say middle six for him pat. I'd just go mainly bottom six, third, fourth line player. I don't think he's going to be playing higher. than that in the lineup, but he can give them some depth scoring.

Defensively, fine, but he'll bring a physical presence, which we know Dubas and company have felt that that's been lacking for the Penguins these last couple of years. And I will say to an extent, like, they've definitely been really soft in front of their own net. So I get that as well, but he'll bring the physical element, he'll bring some depth scoring. And that's really what I'm looking for from him.

Like, again, a better version of Achari because Achari, he can't really defend his own zone well, can't really score that well, not a good penalty killer. If Brazzo is the upgrade over that, I think the Penguins are totally fine there. He was really solid last season for both Boston and Minnesota. So I like that timing. I think it's one of the better signings they made during free agency.

I do too. also look back at he is familiar with Kyle Dubus. He was in the Toronto system for a while. And a lot of people in Toronto were kind of upset that he was able to walk and go to Boston simply because he is kind of at least used to be when he was with Toronto a B or C level kind of prospect where you could see the potential there, but you knew it was going to take a while. It was a guy that you had to develop. It was a guy that he wasn't going to instantly make a difference with the big club. You give him some time in the minors.

You give him some time to really round out his game because he's a bigger player, but he's got some skill, he's got some snarl. And if you are patient with him, when he gets his shot, he'll take advantage of it. And you look at what he did last year with both Boston and Minnesota, and you can see that starting to blossom. Now, I don't want to pretend like he's going to be a superstar because he isn't. But if the penguins give him good opportunities, which I think they will this upcoming season, I'm not saying he's going to become a second liner or anything, but a mainstay on the third line who can also occasionally fill in when there's injuries or under performances in the top six.

You can temporarily put him on the second line again if he continues to develop, which is always the biggest question mark. But like you, I'm a big fan of this signing. He has been my dark horse candidate all summer long as a player that we might look at come midseason and go. That was a really good, really savvy signing. So we'll see what happens. But big fan of that one. We still have a few more signings to go through.

So we're going to do that when we come back here. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, a couple more signings the Penguins made this offseason. We'll dive into those right after this. Before we do that, though, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor. And that is Fandle. The NFL season, it's back and in full swing. And Fandle is making sure you're ready for each and every kickoff with a can't miss offer.

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All right, Hunter, let's jump back into it. I said this to you before we started recording. We kind of felt like the penguins weren't that active this summer. And then we were preparing for this show. And we went, you know, Davis was a little bit busy in early July. Made a few signings. Made some trades. Let's keep it with the signings.

Let's start with one that I'm, I'm interested to see what happens with this one. And that's defenseman Alexander Alexiev. One year, 775,000. dollar deal. 25 year old defenseman first round pick in 2018 hasn't totally panned out as an NHL defenseman but only 25 he was kind of a victim of the numbers game with the capitals because we know that there are a few years ahead of the penguins when it comes to their retail on the fly the potential is there and the capitals kind of said when he walked it wasn't that they didn't want to lose them, but they wanted to see him go somewhere where he'd get more of a shot.

Yeah, I mean, he's going to be given every opportunity to make this team out of camp and try to be a mainstay on the left side. There's definitely a lot of intrigue here. Some of his underlying numbers, and I wrote about this for the hockey news last week when I was talking about, can he earn a full-time role? A lot of his underlines are pretty intriguing. Like, I know this year he only played an eight NHL regular season games, no goals, no points. We'll over $120, three five on five minutes. Small sample size, but when he was on the ice the capitals set, 58% of the expected goals, 54% of the scoring chances, and 55% of the high danger chances. Look, I don't know if those numbers would stick for a full season. I'd probably doubt it.

I think they would, you know, fuck's your way, go up, down. But they're at least intriguing enough to be like, there might be at least a little something there. Heck, the season prior to this one, in 23, 24, he played in 39 games, just don't. over 500 minutes of five on five Icim. So a Muchburger sample. Expecting goal percentage was 49.7, so a little bit below water. High danger percentage was 51.5. His scoring chance percentage was 51.2.

So the latter two numbers, not as good as this past season. Of course, this is a very small sample of size. But there's definitely, again, some intrigue there. I think he skates fine, in my opinion. He's able to break the puck out. But it's all about getting him to be more consistent in all aspects of his game. Like you can definitely see there is a talented player here. And if you play him more, I think that's how you unlock him.

But he's still going to have to earn it. Like that's the thing. We don't know how good he will be in Dammeus's system. Like, I think he's totally fine to take a chance on him. But still, we have to see. But I like that they're bringing in like a low risk move here to sign Alexiev, just to see if he can maybe earn a spot here. on the left side. The competition isn't exactly that fierce, Pat. You have Parker

Weatherspoon, who we'll get to in just a second. You have Ryan Graves, who we know who he is. Owen picturing, who I love to see make the team. Ryan Shea, we kind of know who he is at this point and number seven, number eight. I mean, does one of Matt Dumber or Connor Clifton play on the left side? Who knows? But again, the competition isn't exactly that good on the left side. So he'll have opportunities. The perfect, you use the perfect word for Alexe of, and that's intrigue. I'm going to say this and I don't want it to come off as insulting, but it might to some. It reminds me a lot of them taking a chance last year on Kulia Chonok. And obviously we don't know what Dan Mews' system is going to be.

That's going to come out during camp. It's going to come out during the preseason and as we get into the regular season. But with Kulia Chonok, it was the same kind of deal. The intrigue was there. You could see something of a good defenseman, but the inconsistencies. were constantly there, whether it was in the small sample he had here in Pittsburgh or his time in Arizona slash Utah. He was, he seemed unable to put it together for multiple games at a time. He would go two, three games where you'd think, okay, we got something here and then two,

three games where you didn't notice them. So I'm curious to see what happens with him. Again, the opportunity is there for him to grab a spot. So we'll see what happens. You brought up Parker Wetherspoon. Let's go right to that. Two-year, $1 million AV deal. There's not a lot to say about this one overall. He's a depth defenseman played 55 games, one goal, seven points, maps out as a bottom-parring guy. He can play responsible defense when you need them to.

We'll see what happens here, but this is just, you can see a little bit when you look at the parents. penguins offseason moves. They want there to be competition on the defense because we know it's not very good. So rather than throwing up the white flag and saying, okay, we're just accepting that our defense is going to be bad, you get a bunch of people who, while they're not overwhelming or great, you make them all compete against one another to pick up a spot. Right. And just one more thing about Alexiev, I didn't want to interrupt you there while you were cooking. He has some size, six four so I know the penguins have been looking for a lot of that over the last couple years

they want their defensemen to be a bit bigger a bit tougher to play against again he has some offensive capabilities but I just want to see him use it more effectively and I think he could be a bit more physical along the boards as well but as for burger weather spoon you did say it he maps out as a bottom pairing guy but pat he would be a bottom pairing guy on a sale make up contender if they ones are not exactly contending this year so in my opinion I think he needs to be on the top pairing, you really have no choice at this rate, unless Owen Pickering goes out there and just wows everyone to a degree that none of us really see coming where you can put him in the top pairing with Eric Carlson.

But I think to start the season, or at least as I right now going into the camp, Parker Weatherspoon should be the favorite to get the top pairing minutes with Eric Carlson. I know that is going to scare some people, and I totally get it. The defense is not exactly good heading into the season. I wouldn't even say it's okay heading into the season. It's flat out bad still. but Weatherspoon will at least let Carlson do his thing in the offensive zone.

Weatherspoon will be able to, to a degree, clean up some of his errors. He'll be a steady presence on the pairing, be able to break the puck out, go from defense to offense, skate well, defend his own zone. And I think that's all what Carlson can ask for with his defensive partner. You saw last season, it just wasn't working out with really any of the partners that he had outside of Marcus Pedersen. So getting into that with Marcus Pedersen last year, it worked for a little while,

then it didn't, then it worked again, then it didn't. There was no consistency there. But yeah, I like what you're saying about that. I think that there's an opportunity there for him. Right.

No, I agree with you on that. Again, like with Weatherstone, I like really a lot of aspects of this game. He can defend his own zone really well. He can skate. it doesn't really bring that much offense. There's room for improvement there, but I still think it's okay,

not at the level that someone like Eric Carlson is, but I still think it's fine. And he can also be a little physical. So I like that aspect as well. Again, a lot of these signings, they're really just low risk to potentially, you know, medium reward. I'm not going to go high reward.

Well, maybe Anthony Manta. I would say that's a high reward one. Justin Briseau. maybe medium. And then for weather spin, I would say medium as well. I don't think he's going to turn into a, you know,

crazy top four guy. But with the options that Penguins have right now on the left side, they kind of have no choice but to play him in the top four. And if I had to say right now, I do think he's going to get those minutes. He could become one. He very well could become one. So we will see what happens with him on that one.

But that's not all that we have to talk about. Yes, Kyle Dubas did make a bunch of signings. He also made quite a few trades. Did you forget Caleb Jones, Pat? We didn't get the top. No offense. I think we're all going to forget about Caleb Jones. No, I don't mean that in a negative way.

He's been an up. I'll say this real quick. He's been an up and down guy. He really was only able to stick with the Chicago Blackhawks when they were really struggling. He's mostly an H.L guy. He'll be eighth or ninth defenseman. When there's injuries underperformances, he'll get a shot. he's usable, but if he ends up on your blue line full time,

their problems are a lot bigger than we once thought. Again, no offense to Jones, but he has kind of shown to be mostly an AHL defenseman, and he'll be a depth, depth option this year. So like I was saying, we also got to talk about the trades Kyle Dewis made. A lot of that is going to involve, the goal tending. We will dive into that when we come back right after this.

Welcome back to the Monday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp, running alongside the one and only Hunter Hodes. And let's start here, Hunter, when we talk about trades, because there's a couple that we do have to discuss, but let's begin with what happened with the goaltending. The first thing Kyle Dubus did on the trade market with goaltending is on July 1st. rather than making a bunch of sightings, he goes out and makes a trade. Penguins trade, goaltender Alex Nadalkovich to the San Jose Sharks for a 2028 third round pick. Now, we all got really excited and we're like,

oh my God, this means they're going to bring one of Blumquist up, or they're going to give Sergey Murashav a shot. We didn't know what he had coming in a few days after that. But at the end of the day, I will say this. This was a good move by Kyle Dubus in the sense that Nadelcovich was going to be on an expiring deal. You could see the logjam on the depth chart when it came to goaltending. And I mean for the entire organization, not just in Pittsburgh. So being able to get something out of Nadelcovich and sending him somewhere where he's probably going to be a legitimate one B and get better playing time.

You get a third round pick for him. You do right by Nadelcovich, who's been a loyal soldier and a. good part of the locker room for the last couple of years. All in all, I like that deal. Yes, very much. And he was a fine enough backup for the Penguins. He could be a 1B in other circumstances. But once you started giving him, you know, starter minutes,

that's where it kind of went south for the Penguins. I will say he definitely lit a fire into this team at multiple points during the last couple of seasons, especially Pat against the Flyers last year where he literally slams the door, barks the whole team after he was pulled, and the bank wants to be able to come back and win that game, but still, like, I loved that he had that fire in him at times, because you see him off the ice. He seems like he's so stoic, seems like he's so chill,

and then you see him do that stuff on the ice where he's like breaking his stick, throwing it in the corner, slamming the door, telling his team to wake up. And to, to their credit, they listened to Ned. And I do think that they will miss, you know, that locker room aspect for the season. with someone that the penguins could rely on as a leader when they don't have to go to one of the core guys. And I think it's a good landing spot for those sharks. You know, him and a Scarov, I think, can be at least a fine enough duo.

A Scarab, I think is going to get the starters minutes for the sharks and rightfully so. I think he's ready for that. And Ned can be a solid backup to maybe even a 1B for him. And then after that, Pat, we get the Archer Sheel off stray where we're like, oh, they're finally not going to be having, you know, a long jam for the goalies. Caldubis is like, eh, screw that. I'm going to keep doing that. And he trades for Audrey Shilovs. And it'll totally fine price.

He didn't really have to give up anything of value for Shilov. And I've said it a lot during the all season and we're playing catch up now. I think he is the favorite to be the backup to Tristan Jari this year. If he plays well in those stints and Jari struggles during the regular season, I think he could even steal some starts from Jari and be kind of like a 1B or maybe even a 1A. But we just have to see how he does to start the year if he wins out. job over Yoav Blumquist and as it right now again I do think he is going to win that job she loves he was great in the AHL this past season a hL playoff MVP excuse me help the advertsburg

conucks win the calder cup he's also been great internationally help latvia win a bronze medal the world championships a couple years ago when the stakes get the highest he tends to play his best hockey below that it's about getting more the consistency he's also been given up some howlers at the NHL level. Get those out. Get them to be a bit more consistent. I think they can have the makings of a potential decent goalie here. But that's the thing.

His NHL minutes last year weren't very good. He does have some experience with that, like the playoffs against the Oilers. I thought he was tremendous, even though the same percentage, some of the numbers wouldn't say that. But I test-wise, I felt like he was keeping the Canucks in a lot of those games.

And I think he showed that he has the potential to be a solid initial goalie. but it's about him finding that consistency. So I like the penguins taking a chance on him. It's kind of like a dart throw because of their going situation right now with Tristan Jari kind of being he is what he is at this rate. I don't think he's going to finish this contract, but you know who Tristan Jari is. You've had him for this long.

So I'm excited about back trade as well. I don't have a lot to add. You pretty much hit on every point about Ardashilovs. I do think that's his job to take. And I think he's going to push Tristan Jari. You also brought up the price. It was next to nothing. They sent a 2027 fourth round pick and Chase Stillman, a prospect who didn't really have much of a path to the NHL in the Penguin system.

So you get a potential 1B, even potential job stealing goalie out of it. That's a good trade. So we'll see what happens with him. A couple other trades we got to talk about. Let's touch on this one real quick because it's a player that's going to see some minutes this year. This was a draft day trade on day two. The penguins get Connor Clifton from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for Connor Timmons, a Connor for Connor trade.

The Penguins also got the 39th pick in the NHL draft, which they used to take defenseman Peyton Kettles. So Connor Clifton, another player who is going to get a shot to take some minutes on the blue line this year and he's got some size he's got some potential it's a good chance worth taking i think for the penguins and the defense but trying to get him to bounce back maybe be able to flip him at the trade deadline he wasn't good in buffalo last year but buffalo was also as usual a mess so they're going to try to see how he is in a new system i think when you compare him to matt dumbah i think clifton is kind of the favorite for that spot right now on the bottom pairing also unless

Harris and Brunich goes in there and blows everyone away again. We'd have to see, but right now, again, to be determined. But just for Clifton, I'll say this, both him and Dumba were really bad last year. If there's one, I'm more confident in bouncing back, even though I'm not too confident in either player, I would lean towards Clifton. But I'm open to be wrong about that. So they'll give him opportunities to bounce back. They will give him minutes, and if he's able to be a bit better,

maybe a contendant will come calling for him at the deadline. As for Matt Dumbah, they traded for him to help out the Dallas Stars. That was really the last big move they made earlier this offseason in July. It's been very quiet these last couple of months. Dumba, healthy scratch in the playoffs, did not play. He was a little bit banged up last year, but still played most of the season. but the thing is Pat, he looks mostly cooked and he's in his early 30s. That's concerning because normally you would see this type of level level from a player in their mid to late 30s.

But he's. But you got to also look at it from this way because here's the trade for Dumba, the Penguins, Sen, defenseman Vladislav Koliachanuk to Dallas. In exchange, they get Matt Dumba in a 2028 second round pick. Yeah. This is what you do at this stage of a rebuild. You extract some value out of a team that needs to get rid of a bad deal. And here's the thing.

Dumba, you're right. Like he was a healthy scratch on a Dallas team that had Stanley Cup aspirations last year. Obviously, they fell short. But he's got one year left on this deal. You tell Dallas, hey, you send us a second round pick. We'll send you a mid-tier prospect and we'll take that money off your hands. So you can work towards getting to the Stanley Cup final. And at this point, I'm with you that I think Dumba is who he is.

I don't see him bouncing back, at least not in any significant way. But you look at it from this perspective. Either he doesn't bounce back. He's kind of cooked, but he's an expiring deal. You let him walk at the end of the season. If he has any kind of bounce back and rebuilds any kind of value, come the deadline. teams are always looking for defense. And if they want to take him on,

they want to put him on a bottom pair and use him his depth because he balances back, you've turned that into something. So that's really what the penguins are looking at when you take on Matt Dumba's contract. Right. No, I 100% agree with you on that. Like the big thing is you're getting the second round pick. Like that's what you want.

And as you said, that's what rebuilding teams do when you have all this cap space. you're not trying to contend, you'll be like, hey, we'll help you out here. Just give us a fairly good asset. And the penguins are able to get a decent asset at that trade. Anything more, I think, is a bonus. Like, if he's able to give you a bit of better play, even though he looked cook last year, and a team comes calling for him and even trades a late round pick, Pat, I will take that

any day of the week just because of how he played last year. 100%. And Clifton are going to get minutes on the right side, maybe even one of them plays on the left side, for example, at times his upcoming season. So there's going to be some healthy competition down there. But hey, even if he's still not very good this year, you let him walk. It's not the end of the world. He comes off your cap hit.

It's totally fine. So I am totally good with that move. I just hope people don't expect a lot from him or even Clifton, to be honest. No, the expectations for both are extremely low. And that's where they are right now with this rebuild. You're going to take on some projects. You're going to take on some bad. money. That way you can get some assets to help you down the road. But that is a good place for us to

leave the Monday edition of Locked-on Penguins. Like I said at the top, we are back to Dailies for season seven of the show. We're going to continue this summer catch-up for those of you who enjoyed good weather and vacation and weren't absolute sickos like Hunter and I. Tomorrow we keep this going. We're going to recap the Penguins performance at the NHL draft, get you a a little bit more familiarized with some of their picks, who they were able to come out of the draft with, in who we see as a potential future NHLer. So make sure you join us for that.

But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in. We will be back on Tuesday.