Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Part One of opening up the mailbag!

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

Hunter decided to open up the mailbag for the first time in quite a while on Thursday and some great questions were asked! To start the show, Hunter dives into all of the Erik Karlsson questions, including whether this deal will get done by August 1st and what may have to be included for a deal to work. He also takes a question about what the best food is in PPG Paints Arena before looking at if Mike Sullivan could be on the hot seat if the Penguins stumble out of the gate. He also looks at what an ideal Jake Guentzel contract extension looks like before ending the show with some talk about new front office hires and how he got into hockey at such a young kid.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsGo to birddogs.com/LOCKEDONNHL or enter promo code LOCKEDONNHL for a free Yeti style tumbler with your order. You won’t want to take your birddogs off we promise you.AG1If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine, then try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/NHLNETWORK.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.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) 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.

It's Mailbag Thursday for this edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm going to be answering the questions that you asked me on Thursday. 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 edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember, follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L0 underscore Penguins.

and 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. So I haven't done a mailbag-centric episode in the last few months, but I was blown away by the amount of questions that I was asked earlier in the day on Thursday. So this is probably going to be a two-part edition of the mailbag. I'm going to get through as many questions as I can on Thursday, and then I'll try to answer the rest of them on my Friday episode heading into the weekend. And also, I apologize about Wednesday.

I was traveling all day. I'm still not back home yet. I get back to Pittsburgh on Saturday. I was trying to have an episode out. But I apologize about that. That's really the first episode I think I've missed outside of the 4th of July in well over a month. So again, I apologize on that. But let's get right into the mailbag here and waste no time.

This entire segment is probably going to be all about Eric Carlson. So here is your warning on that. But getting into the mailbag, we'll start with QG Collectibles, 87. And in an Eric Carlson deal, what do you think the penguins would give up in the trade? Also, how do you think the cap would work? And would a third team have to be involved? You also get into whether the penguins are the front runner for Carlson. I'll get into that a little bit later on.

But in terms of your first couple of questions here, what they would have to give up. I think it starts with Jeff Petrie, whether he's going back to San Jose or he is flipped to another team closer to where his family is in Michigan. I just don't see a world where the penguins are having a right side of Chris LaTang, Eric Carlson, and Jeff Petrie. Two of those players make over $6 million per for this season. And another is probably going to be in the $7 to $8 million range depending on retention. Maybe the penguins can get it down to below $7 million if another third-party broker wants to help with the salary. But I just don't see how that's going to work. So I don't think Petrie will be on the team if this Carlson deal goes through.

You also have the McHall-Granlon situation. If he is included in this deal, the Penguins may have to retain a couple million of his salary. Remember, Kyle Juba said during his press comments that there are more creative ways to shed salary than buying someone out. The buy-out is going to be a last type of resort because the Penguins have a second buy-out window, thanks to Drew Conner filing for arbitration so far, a contract has not been signed when it comes to that. arbitration date is set for August 4th. But with Granlin, maybe he goes to the sharks, maybe he goes to another team. I think one or both of those players would have to be in the deal.

I also do think the Penguins would have to send out one of P.O. Joseph or Ty Smith. I would lean towards them sending out Smith just because I think P.O. Joseph has a higher ceiling right now. He was really good offensively this past season. Defensely, he gave it back a little bit, but I think there's room to grow. in that department. I think one of those two would have to go, but again, I think it's Smith. Outside of that, I think a lottery protected first-round pick could be in play. And obviously, for the protection, it would be if things go really, and I mean really south for the penguins this year. Prospects-wise, maybe Owen Pickering, but I don't get the sense of the penguins

want to give him up in a trade for Carlson. So those are the assets that the penguins are working for when it comes to the Carlson deal. No, they're not as good as what the hurricanes could offer because they have a better prospect system. They have better players, I think, to offer. They have more salary cap space. But the penguins can still make a deal here. Despite being over the cap,

a third-party broker can easily come in and help the penguins with this. So I hope I answered those parts of your questions. In terms of penguins being the frontrunners, yes, that has been widely reported by several outlets. I think Robert Ross from the Athletic. was one of them. I'm honestly not too surprised, even though the hurricanes are seen as a Stingley Cup contender heading into the season, do not. And I repeat, do not underestimate the notion of

Carlson playing for legendary world class players in Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, and Chris Lattang. That matters a lot more than what some people will tell you. And also, you know, Pittsburgh, it's a little bit of a different city than Raleigh. Let's just, it is people. If you've been to Pittsburgh and if you've been to Raleigh, it's way different. But trust me, with the star caliber players that Carlson can play with in Pittsburgh, I think that weighs on him a lot. So that's the first question for this mailbag edition of the show.

For the next question keeping with the Carlson stuff, Flav Dave 410 asks, how do you think the penguins would balance the workload between Letang and Carlson, assuming the trade is made? Okay, two things. Number one, Lettang is going to get the top pairing minutes. Despite Carlson being able to handle those minutes,

LeTang is the better all-around defensemen, and that's why you're going to see him keep those minutes. He's also been the number one defenseman for this team for well over a decade at this point. you're not just going to take that away from him, even though you're getting Eric Carlson. Now, outside of those minutes, especially at five on five, I do think you could see Lettang have his power play quarterbacking duties taken away

because Carlson is a better power play quarterback at this point in his career. And maybe you have Carlson won it from the point and you move Latang over to say the Phil Kessel spot along the left half wall where he is a, great shooting option and a great passing option. That's where Kessel was so deadly during his time in Pittsburgh and why the Penguins had one of the best power plays in the league. So I think you could see both of those things occur if the Penguins are able to get this deal done. Now, Fletan gets hurt, which obviously that's a big possibility because he's been banged up throughout his career. Carlson can step into those minutes, even though you're not going to get the best

defensive impact out of him. But that's the way I see. it right now, Dave. Latang remains the team's number one defenseman. He gets those minutes. Carlson becomes the team's power play quarterback, and you see Latang maybe on the left half wall at the Thilkestown spot. And also, you can maybe have Latang quarterback the second unit. That would be a lot of fun as well. One more question before we head off into a break. Jess Belmosto of Locked on Flames asks, how you've got the offseason so far? Do you think Kyle Dubas will get the Carlson deal done before August 1st? What is the best food to order at a penguins game?

Okay, starting off with your first question with the offseason so far. I would give dubus about a B minus to a C plus. I know some people may not like that grade, but I still think the bottom six is lacking a little bit right now. I've been talking about the bottom six way too often on the show, and I apologize about that, excuse me. But I still don't think there is enough offensive oomph down there. Now that can change if Andreas Yonsen gets back.

to the player that he used to be, Vinnie Hino Strosa as well. Maybe Drew O'Connor takes the next step this upcoming season. But I still don't think there's enough offense down there. At least the Penguins have a plan with their bottom six. They want it to be more defensive-minded. Mike Sullivan wants to be able to send out that unit late in games to shut down the opposition. He couldn't do that this past season because the bottom six was bleeding goals against every single game.

So they got better in that aspect down there. I don't think they have enough offense. Jari, that contract is obviously a big gamble, but if he does stay healthy, I think it could turn out to be really good. Ryan Graves, I like him. He'll bring a lot of offense to the blue line. He's really good in transition, decent defensively.

So I think he's had a little bit of an above average offseason, but I don't think he's blowing it out of the park or anything like that. He's doing a lot better than I think what Ron Hextel would have done. So I'll give him a massive W when it comes to that. In terms of the Carlson deal, if it's going to get done, I do think it gets done before August 1st. San Jose is playing a very dangerous game right now. They don't have a lot of leverage. They seem to think that they do.

They don't. Carlson controls this thing. He has the no move clause. When your options are limited when you're trying to trade a player, you're not going to be getting that high of a return than you normally do. And I know the sharks may be willing to say, hey, maybe we can take this into training camp. Let's take this into the season, try again at the trade deadline.

That's risky because Carlson has made it clear that he doesn't want to play for the sharks. He wants to go to a contender to chase a Stanley Cup. He's come close to winning it all before. He wants to have his name on that trophy. But if I think there is a deal to be made, it comes before August 1st, especially because the Penguins, they have that O'Connor Salary Arbitration case coming on August 4th. I'd like to think it's going to be settled before then, but you don't know. That said, I think in the next two weeks we're going to learn a lot more when it comes to the situation.

Lastly, Jess, about the best food at Penguins games, there is a elite, and I mean an elite Hobocchi place right outside of section 104 or 105 at PBG Paine's Arena. you can get chicken and fried rice, get some yum yum sauce on it. It hits the spot every single time. I get it every time in that games. My girlfriend absolutely loves it as well. It's actually decently cheap when you look at some of the other stuff that's there, like Permanis, chicken tenders and fries, all that other stuff.

I love that habachi at Penguins games. But that will wrap up this first segment of the mailbag edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to get into a question regarding Mike Sullivan, another one about Radin Yeager, and a whole bunch more. Before we get to that, our next partner is AG1, the daily foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole body health. I drink it literally every day. Usually when I wake up in the morning between 8.30 and 9.30, I actually usually drink it while I'm making my coffee as well, and it is so freaking good. All great athletes have one thing in common. They take care of their bodies,

and a huge part of that starts with optimizing whole body health. A lot of them also drink AG1, and it's why I am a huge fan with every daily serving. I'm setting myself up for success with 75 high-quality ingredients that give me key daily nutrients and support energy, recovery, focus, strength, and clarity. It's a micro-habit that delivers macro benefits and helps just about everybody take great care of their health every single day. If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine, then try AG1. and get a free one-year supply of vitamin D

and five free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkag1.com slash NHL Network to learn more. That's drinkag1.com slash NHL Network. Check it out. And I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L-Lenstor Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first list and slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. So let's continue the email bag here with a question about Mike Sullivan and how hot is the hot seat for him if they struggle out of the gate.

This comes from Pittsburgh Guy in Virginia from Penguins Twitter. Here is what I will say about Mike Sullivan. And yes, I figured I would have to get a question about him for this episode. Sullivan has not one, not two, not three, but four more years left on his contract as Penguins head coach. His three-year extension that he signed before this past season hasn't even kicked in yet. This upcoming season is the final year on his deal that Jim Rutherford signed him to a few years ago. After that, then his three-year extension that Ron and Hextall signed him to during the 2022 all season kicks in.

So overall, you have that combined with how the Fenway Sports Group and Kyle Dubas feel about him, they absolutely are enamored by him. There is no chance Sullivan gets fired, even if the team stumbles out of the gate unless they win 20 to 22 games during the season and they finish with a bottom 5 to bottom 10 record league-wide. outside of that, I don't expect Sullivan to be fired. He is going to be the head coach for not just this season, but for many seasons after that as well. That could change.

I could look like a complete moron for saying this right now, but that's just how I see it when it comes to Mike Sullivan and his status as Penguins' head coach. This next question comes from Salt 2 Pep, aka Cameron, who says, Hunter, do you think the penguins can make it to the playoffs this year and win a series? And if not, where do they need to improve upon to do so? Starting with your first question, Cameron, yes, I do think the penguins can make it to the playoffs this year. I have them as a playoff team right now. I have them fourth in the Metropolitan Division. I have them getting one of the two wild card spots.

I just don't think the teams below them right now have done enough to pass the penguins in the standings. And I'm also not fully sold on a team like the Islanders, especially with what they've done this offseason so far. Now, in terms of winning a series, that's a tricky question. Say they draw a team like New Jersey in the first round, how are you going to beat a team that skate circles around you? The penguins are going to have to get a bit faster as a team this season. Now, if you play a team like Carolina, and I think the Hurricanes are also going to be a top contender for the Metropolitan Division, they play a little bit differently.

They're very stingy defensively. The Penguins are not going to, to get a lot of chances in that series. And when they do get chances, they're going to have to make the most of them. But still, it's not the best matchup because the hurricanes are so good in their own zone. Outside, though, of getting faster and, you know, finishing more of their chances, they need the bottom six to step up when the star players are having maybe a game off or something like that. And this team especially, and I can't stress this enough to everyone out there who is listening and watching, this team needs better goaltending in the playoffs. Goaltending has screwed the penguins so freaking badly over the past few seasons that I don't

think it's talked about enough. And no, it's not just this lame excuse. You go back to the 22 playoffs against the Rangers. The penguins were dog walking that team in that series and they couldn't even get 900, even a little below average goaltending from Louis DeNig. yes, I understand he is a third-string goaltender, but he couldn't even do the bare minimum to win one of those final three games. You go back a year before that, against the Islanders,

I want the Penguins badly outplayed them for most of that series. I would say in four to four and a half of those six games, the Penguins were the better team. The main difference, Tristan Jari stung, especially in games five and game six. So that I think is one of the biggest reasons why the Penguins have not won a series since 2018, and that has to turn around.

Heck, you even go beyond that. 2020, COVID bubble against the Canadians. Matt Murray wasn't good in that series. And by the time it was too late, the Penguins looked like they had already checked out. That was the game that Tristan Jari started, the game four of that series, and he played really well,

but it looked like the team didn't even want to be there. So they need better goaltending there, better finishing from the bottom six, and they need to be faster as well, if they want to win a series. But I do think this team is a playoff team heading into the season. Switching gears a little bit. Let's Go Pins 8715 asks Hunter, when do you think Braiding Yeager makes it to the NHL

and what do you expect for production? So heading into the draft, for those that did not really follow me during the draft season, which was a couple weeks ago, I had Braiding Yeager 7th on my draft board. I thought he was a fine pick. but I thought this at the time, and I still do now, that there were better options than Yeager at the time. That said, now that he is the pick, if he does make it to the NHL is going to be because of his shot.

I think he has one of the five best releases in this class. I think at minimum, he's three years away from making it to the NHL, so probably when Cindy Crosby and Evgeny Malkin and Krista Tang are almost 40 at that point. if not 40 years old, at that point, maybe four years. In terms of point production, I have him in the range of 20 goals, 25 assists, 20 goals, 30 assists, somewhere in that 40 to 50 point range as a middle six winger. I don't think right now he's going to be the two-way center that they think they're getting because I'm not that enamored with his two-way game.

Obviously, that can change a lot for this junior season coming up. if he's able to score a bit more and still continue to, you know, get better with his two-way game, my thought I think will change a little bit. But right now, I see him as a middle six scoring winger that can give you 20 to 25 goals a season and maybe 45 to 50 points. That's where I see Brady-Yager right now, three to four years away. Still big, totally fine pick. But he's still a little bit ways away if you ask, if you ask me, excuse me. Now, the next couple of questions, they're kind of just two-fold.

G-Tots, who on YouTube asked me this, Hunter, what would be the ideal Jake Gensel extension? And then Jay Foster of Locked-on Blue Jackets asked me, Hunter, when will the penguins be trading Jake Gensel way? Because I am tired of him crushing the Columbus Blue Jackets. Well, sorry for you, Jay. The penguins, I don't think are going to be trading Jake Gensel. I think they are going to extend him. And in terms of what a contract could look like, I'm firmly of the belief.

That it's going to be, if they do it this offseason, they don't wait until next year, eight years times eight million per season, that's the ideal one. If you can get him below nine, that would be awesome. Eight times eight, eight times eight point five. That's what I'm personally looking for in a Jake Denzel contract. But sorry, Jay, Denzel is going to continue to torment your franchise for as long as he is a penguin. So that wraps up this second segment with more mailback questions coming up in the final segment. We're getting to more of your questions, including whether or not the penguins will hire some new front office executives during this off season.

But before we discuss that, bird dogs make you look really, really good and they stretch khaki shorts are designed to fit slimmer for the thigh and leg, giving you a truly sculpted look. They fit way better than regular shorts that are made of a stiff or restricting cotton. and they fix this issue by inventing cloud knit fabric that looks just like khaki but stretches, so you get a way slimmer fit without having to sacrifice movement. To get your hands on some right now, all you got to do is go to birddogs.com slash locked in NHL or Endropone code locked in NHL for a free Yeti style of tunnel with your order. That's birddogs.com slash locked in NHL or promo code locked in NHL for a free Yeti style timer.

You will not want to take your bird dogs off. We promise you that. All right. I'm back here in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows Twitter at L.O.Ns for Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this,

your first list and slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. So 10th underscore pod six asked me for the mail band today, what other hires are coming to the hockey operations department. I think that's all predicated on whether or not Kyle Dubus decides to hire AGM. I am still of the belief that the penguin should hire someone to be the GM that can learn on the fly and be groomed into the role where this person can have the final say on hockey related decisions. Kind of like what Joe Sackett and Chris McFarlane do in Colorado. Sackett was the guy running the show for a long time. He then handed the keys over to Chris McFarland, who's the GM and who learned under Sackick, and look at him now.

he's one of the best general managers the sport has to offer. That's what I think the Penguins should do. And whether that's someone like Matthew Darsh getting hired, Steve Greeley, Eric Tolski, Brandon Pridham, Haley Wickenheiser, Alexander Mandricki, there are plenty of great options for this rollout there. And I'll be curious to see if Kyle does go down that route. He made it sound like he wanted to hire GM during,

his introductory press comments, but he also did put the word if in there. So if he wants to go down that route. Remember, he is the GM and the one calling the shots, at least for right now. We're going to have to see if that changes. Outside of that, I do think he will see a couple of assistant general managers be brought in. Jason Spetsa is not going to be the only assistant general manager on the staff by the time the season rolls around in October. I also think there's a decision being made when it comes to the director of amateur scouting.

Is Nick Pryor going to hold on to this role heading into the season? It looks like him and Dubus get along pretty well. But usually when a team has a new hockey operations leader, that person likes to bring his or her own people with them. So far Dubis has done that with least Jason Spetsa. But when it comes to the director of amateur scouting, the one who's running it right now, Nick Pryor, that's a Ron Hextall guy. That's not a Kyle Dubus guy. So maybe he goes after someone like Wes Clark to run that. Who knows? But that's what I'm looking at right now when it comes to new leaders in the hockey operations department. Moving on to the next

question from Donna 66, who do you think will take the next step this upcoming season between Sam Poulan, Larry Terry Pustin, Alex Nealander, or someone else? This is a great question. I'm rooting very hard for Sam Poulan, especially coming back from dealing with his mental health issues, but I'm not really sure how much time he's going to get with the penguins this year. Pusinin, same thing, except obviously without the mental health issues.

I'm not really sure he's going to be on the team full-time unless there's a lot of injuries. Alex Neelander, though, I'm really intrigued about. I liked his sample when he was playing on the second line with Ugany Malcon scored that really nice goal against Detroit late this past season, also almost had the game winner against the Rangers late in the season, had a really nice wrist shot on a two-on-one,

which was just a better save by Yarsov-a-lock. I do think in a perfect role, he is on this team to start the season, but he's going to have to earn it. I really like him, but the big one I'm really excited about is Drew O'Connor. Five goals, 11 points this past season. It's time to see what the penguins have in him. You know, we have to see what the new deal is going to be when it comes to his arbitration case. Again, I don't think it's going to go all the way to arbitration on August 4th, but you never know.

But it's time to see what this player can do in a full-time capacity over an 82-game season. Neelander and O'Connor are the two young players that are really looking at for this upcoming season. And finally, I will end the show with a really fun question. This comes from a listener named Brian. He says, Hunter, can you give us a quick about Hunter bio for us newer listeners? I would love to hear about how you got into how you're doing what you're doing right now. Really appreciate that question, by the way. So, yeah, for those that haven't been listening to me that long, I'm 25, I'll be 26 a bit later this year.

I got into hockey when I was very, very young. I remember my first game was up on Mount Washington at the Georgetown Inn, a restaurant that is, sadly, no longer there anymore. It was in 2003. I forget the exact date because my memory is good, but it's not that good. But I remember Rico Fada was playing. And I know the team was so bad at the time. But I absolutely loved watching him play when I was watching the game at the restaurant. And I was hooked from then on.

My mom taught me so much about the sport. I then just started really digging into everything relating to hockey. To be honest, I would look up old videos. I would watch games or try to as many nights as I can. I even played hockey when I was a teenager. I wasn't really any good at it. I'll say that right now. But I still had so much fun doing it.

And it helped me appreciate the game even more than I already did at the time. I mean, again, I've been watching this team for 20 years at this point. And content-wise, I started doing things in middle school as I really started to learn more and more about the league. I wrote for eDraft.com. I then wrote for Fanrag Sports. I wrote for Laswear on hockey. I then got into this podcast in 2019 when I was a senior in college, had never done a podcast before. But I am super grateful that Sean took a chance on me.

And now almost four years later, I absolutely love making comments. content for you all. There is not a day goes by that I don't feel blessed to do this. I work my tail off with the show, with the prep that I do, the film that I watched or watch, excuse me, the numbers that I look into. I absolutely love doing this. And before this, again, I was writing a bunch of just blogs for websites. Most of them, I was unpaid. I had to work really hard to get to where am I? And heck, I'm still not even close to Sassad. But yeah, I've been watching this team for 20 years at this point. My earliest memory was at the Georgetown Inn watching Rico Fada play for the team in 2003.

I then really fell in love with the team. Obviously, when Cid got there and then seeing them make the playoffs for the first time in the Cid era, see them get waxed by the Ottawa Senators with something else. And then their first full run to the final in O.A just got my attention right away. but I've been around this game for a long time. I really have to thank my mom, to be honest, for really getting me into this sport. She is the reason why I love the sport as much as I do.

And I cannot thank her enough. She is one of the best people out there. So that's a little about me and why I choose to do this show and how long I have been a fan. I really appreciate you asking that. and I would always love to chat anything regarding hockey or just anything in general with you all. But that will do it for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I really appreciate all of you listening to slash watching this one.

I'll be back with another episode of the podcast on Friday. We'll do part two of the mailbag, a lot more questions to get to. So without further ado, I will talk to you all on Friday.