Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins announce Kris Letang undergoes successful surgery

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

The Penguins announced on Wednesday morning that defenseman Kris Letang underwent successful surgery to repair a small hole in the wall of his heart. Patrick and Hunter talk about the ramifications of this surgery, why Letang picked now to have the operation done, and what it means for his career moving forward. Then, despite the NHL Penguins not making the playoffs, their two farm clubs, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and the Wheeling Nailers, will be headed to the postseason. They give you the latest for both clubs as they get ready for the first round. Finally, it's the last Warrior Helmet Wednesday of the season, they look back at this year's awards and crown the ultimate Warrior Helmet Wednesday winner of the year. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins! 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.

Today on Locked-on Penguins, Chris LaTang undergoes successful surgery. We take a look at some updates down on the farm ahead of the playoffs. And it is the finale for this season of Warrior Helmet Wednesday. We will get into all of that right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome, welcome, welcome to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp.

You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4 Wet. Joined once again, he is back. Our co-host, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's account a follow at L0 underscore Penguins. And of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube and the Roku channel. Plus, if you follow us on YouTube, go ahead and hit that

notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we jump into it, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new Fandul customers can get $250 in bonus bets if their first $5.00. bet wins. Before we fully get started, just a bit of a programming note for everyone, you may notice this episode today is in your feeds much later than usual. Unfortunately, I am back to a different working schedule. So we'll be back to a schedule we had for quite a while where on Monday and Tuesday, we'll be up around noon. And then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, it'll be closer to three or four o'clock.

Unfortunately, this is the work schedule I have, so this is what we got to work with. Given that we're near the end of the season and we're heading into the off season, Hunter and I are kind of workshopping some ideas for a more optimal schedule. When we figure that out, we will obviously let you know. But Hunter, with all that said,

welcome back, my friend. We certainly missed you. And we both kind of looked at today's episode and thought outside of Warrior Helmet Wednesday's finale and maybe some looks at the teams on the farm, there probably might not be a whole lot to talk about because the Penguins don't play until tomorrow in Game 82 against the Washington Capitals.

Then we got some news this morning that Chris LaTang has undergone successful surgery to repair a hole in his heart. Now, that sounds very harrowing because it absolutely, is. Our listeners know, I would imagine, if you don't, Chris LaTang in his career has suffered two strokes. And both times it was known that part of the reason he suffered those strokes was because of a small hole in the wall of his heart. Now with the penguins not qualifying for the playoffs this year, he has finally opted to undergo the surgery. to repair the hole in his heart.

It has been repaired. His recovery time is four to six weeks. So this likely will not affect his training camp and next season. But Hunter, little bit of a surprise to hear that this morning. Yeah, we've known that he's had a hole in his heart pat for what the last decade plus at this point. And the fact that he did undergo surgery to fix this is obviously very good. he's only out four to six weeks. And we know, Pat, like, I've already seen a lot of takes on Twitter and other places like,

oh, you know, it could be time for him to retire. You know, he's already been through enough. And I get those takes. I truly do. He has been through the ringer for his career with all the injuries he's had, the multiple strokes that you mentioned. But this is a player that, Sidney Crosby said it's immediate today. Lettang wants to play until he's like 50 or something like that.

He wants to keep going until he can't. anymore because that's how he's wired. He's always been wired like that ever since coming into the league. But, you know, he's going to miss a meaningless game on Thursday. But what's more important is obviously his short and especially his long-term health. And with this procedure, I can only hope that his long-term health is going to continue to be really good. Just because, again, he's been through the absolute ringer throughout his career. I did also want to say one thing. Yes, people, I am back. My uncle passed away on Saturday at the of 64 after a 23 year battle with aplastic anemia, which turned into leukemia these last three years.

Last thing he said to me on Friday was how much he enjoyed the show. So always listened. He was one of the biggest inspirations of my life. It's been a tough few last few days. But I know he would have wanted me to record on Monday and Tuesday. Obviously, I had a couple other things to deal with with the funeral and stuff. But I'm glad to be back. I love doing this show. And I hope he's smiling down. So love you, Uncle Eric. Love you very much. And I have to, as always, give a massive shout out to our community, to our audience, because if you broke the first role of the internet, which is never read the comments,

which I frequently break, looking at our previous two episodes, it was nothing but love for you. It was nothing to love from our community. We appreciate you guys so, so much. riding with us and being part of this fantastic community that is locked on penguins. And with that said, a little inside baseball again, I was the bad guy for Monday and Tuesday. Hunter was pushing me extremely hard to do the show. And I said, absolutely not. Spend time with your family.

I will yammer into this camera and microphone by myself. I will let everybody roast my bad takes. you spend time with your family, let me handle this, get back when you get back. So all that said, we appreciate you guys hanging with us through all this. And then now back to the topic at hand. I think this is a perfect encapsulation in a way of who Chris Latang is. Obviously, you had the Crosby comments where he said, I think the guy wants to play until he's 50.

Right. this team you look at the last two years they were pretty much in the race to make the playoffs right down to the end the penguins have been pretty much out of it for the last two weeks and then officially out of it and letang wants to play last two months honestly yeah but they were officially eliminated a couple of weeks ago and at this point I think somebody whether it was La Tang himself, his loved ones, the medical staff, whomever said, listen, it's time to go get this fixed. It is time for you to get this done that way. When you come back next year, you will be 100%. This risk has officially been mitigated. And again, I know that the logical side of my brain

looks at this situation and goes, how did you not get this done years ago when it was discovered but then the competitive side of my brain goes you know what these guys are wired differently this is their trade this is what they love this is what they do and they are going to do it regardless of the risk so i totally get it and i'm glad that it's finally fixed yeah and then the last thing i want to end on it might be a little bit cold it might be a little bit of a down playing however you want to put it i set it on a a show earlier this week. Le Tang has struggled this year.

And I said it could be an injury. It could be something to where maybe he's not 100%. This issue isn't that. I think we unfortunately are starting to see a decline of Chris La Tang's game. Maybe he can have a good offseason and a good training camp and come back better. But this is going to be a massive challenge for him to get back to a better level going into next season. I hear what you're saying. Obviously, again, his overall health is the biggest, most important component here.

But I do hope that a full off season gets him at least a little bit back on track. Because at least going into next season right now, even outside of this procedure that he just had, I don't think he should be commanding the top pairing minutes on the right side for this team next season. Obviously, that can change it because all there again, has a really good summer, gets a better partner because I think you're going to see a lot of chance. changes to this defensive group for next season, rightfully so, because, I mean, there's just not many truly good defensemen on this roster right now. I think Kyle Davis is going to make quite a few changes to that unit, whether it's

free agency or more likely via trade of the offseason. But I think the biggest thing with him is, again, getting to be a bit more consistent, working on his skating a little bit. And those are just the main two for me. Obviously, father time is undefeated for basically everyone. But I also think putting him out there against some of the not as good competition, I think we'll help him as well. Because I think right now with what we've seen this year,

I don't know if he's good enough to handle top pairing minutes next season. I think if he's on your second pairing, that's a little bit better for me. Third pairing, obviously, you know, with his age. But again, you can't be throwing him out there 25, 30 minutes a night right now. I think that's just the ship has sailed with that with his age. Agreed. I also think you hit on a very important point there.

He's going to, they're going to have to find a better partner for him going into next season. I think that was also a catalyst for his struggles this year. I think there was a lot of overcompensating. And he's unable to do that anymore. He used to be able to, granted, his best days were with Brian Dumlin when Brian Dumlin was in his prime

and he was as solid as they come, he also could make up for certain deficiencies just because he was that good of a defenseman and a player, but those days are gone. He has to have a more consistent, more stable partner. He had multiple partners on defense this year, and I think that really was part of his struggles.

You couple that with his game declining a little bit, and this is what you get. So I do think there's a world, because he has shown in spurts this year, that he is still effective. You find him a better consistent partner. And I think he can still be a valuable piece of this team, just maybe not as significant of a contributor as he's been in the past.

But we will see what happens with all that. We wish him a speedy recovery, a successful recovery. We're happy to see the surgery went off without a hitch. And now this problem has been solved for Chris LaTang. But that will do it for our opening segment when we come back. Yeah, the Pittsburgh Penguins, they may not be in the playoffs, but the baby penguins are, and so are the Wheeling Nailers. We'll get into some storylines for both of them when we get into that in our next segment.

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That's monarchmoney.com code locked on NHL for half off your first year. All right, welcome back to the Wednesday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp once again alongside Hunter Hodes and big, big night coming up for the Wilkesbury Scranton Penguins. Just a couple hours from puck drop here as we record. They play the Providence Bruins tonight at 705, and it is a big fight feel in northeastern Pennsylvania because right now both the Bruins and the penguins are tied in the Atlantic division with 86 points huge implications for playoff seating and if you've been following

Wilkes bear a little bit they have tailed off a little bit over the past couple of weeks granted they are in the Calder Cup playoffs they have no chance of falling out of it but now their seating is a little bit suspect. And this is a team that now is really going to have to focus up, earn it, and really dig in if they want to go on a run. I agree with you. The biggest thing, though, with Wilkesbury is that they do have a game in hand on Providence right now.

They've played 69 games. Providence has played 70. They're both tied right now. So if Wilkesbury wins this one tonight and get a clean points, they should be able to get top three in the Atlantic. unless something very strange happens here down the stretch, but they have to take the clean points tonight. Also, Wilkesbury is two points out of second place right now.

If you can get the two points, you'll tie Charlotte. But again, Charlotte has to also drop one of their remaining games as well. So there's still a lot that has to happen here. And it looks like as of right now, you know, Wilkesbury and Wheeling kind of made some moves over this week, sending Sergey Murashov down to Wheeling, Plumquist and Larson are the main guys in Wilkesbury, and then Taylor Godier also came up from Wheeling. I saw a lot of takes about it, and for me, I know I said on the show a couple weeks ago

that, yeah, I think it's time for Murashov to get the net in Wilkeshire for the playoffs. I think he has shown more than enough in Wheeling. I 100% still grew up that statement that I made a couple weeks ago. I would still if I were them start him, but I also get to a degree what the Penguins decision makers are doing here. And their logic is, we want both these netminders, Yoel Blumquist and Sergey Murshov to get meaningful games here in the spring playing playoff games, seeing how they do. I think their thought process with this one was, yeah, we can start Marashav and Wilkesbury

for the playoffs. But do we want Yowell Blumquist just sitting there on the, bench not learning anything. So they were kind of like, okay, Sergey, we know that you're probably too good for the ECHL. We saw it this year, Pat. He was lighting up that league like a Christmas tree. He is better than the ECHL goalie.

But I think they want both those goalies playing games and keeping their development going because they want Blumquist to get reps. He was out for a while. He didn't have a good second sit in the NHL. And they want him to get the reps. So again, as much as I still have wanted Mershov to get the net for Wilkesbury and playoffs, I still get the thought process from the penguins here. Yeah, and that is a bit of an offshoot of the take that I had about it yesterday, where

I said the same thing just differently. Basically, what I said is they want Murashav to be the guy. They want him to take the net. If he were to have remained with the baby penguins, chances are it would be a lot easier for the coaching staff to pull him after. a bad start or two because you have both Yoel Blumquist and Philip Larson there, who have very much proven that they can be starting goaltenders in the AHL. You put them in the ECHL as well as send Taylor Godier up to the AHL.

That is Murashav's net. They are going to have him command that net, hold that net, and he's going to have to either soar and be the best guy or work his way back from a tough start. Yeah. Because that is a good place for us to transition here. Kelly Cup playoffs for the Wheeling Nailers kick off tonight in Norfolk as they take on the admirals. Have you seen that the schedule, by the way?

Two games there. The last five games are in Wheeling. Who makes that type of schedule? Well, Hunter, I will say this. If I recall correctly, and I just got to make sure I have this year, because I do have it pulled up on a different tab. This is kind of how they do seating in the ECHL because it's very weird. Normally they do two three two.

Right. And when you get home ice advantage in two three two, you start the series on the road and then you get three home games. Right. But imagine how difficult it is to do arena availability in the NHL. it's even more difficult in the minor leagues. So this is probably just a factor of there was probably certain arena availability issues and things like that. But they do kick off tonight in Norfolk.

It is a back to back. They will play game one tonight. They will play game two on Thursday. And this is a pretty good matchup for both teams. and what we were just discussing, it is a goaltending gold mine for these two teams. Murashov, DeVicentis, and Millick for Norfolk. Castor is also on Wheeling,

who has done pretty well in his time. But for the nailers, all eyes are going to be on Murashav in the organization, because as we were just saying, he's probably too good for the ECHL, so he really has to help back. backstop this Naylor's team to a Kelly Cup run. 100%.

And I think with the way that he has played this year, he's going to give them every chance available. I mean, you saw some of the saves that he was making before he got called up to Wilkesbury and went on that run. He was honestly kind of toying with some of these players in the ECHL, proving that he is too good for them. Like he had really worked on his rebound control.

He has been doing that even more so in the HL with Wilkesbury. But as long as he keeps playing. at this level, he will give them a shot to win every single night. It'll be up to the regular contributors, especially up front, to help out Marashav. And I think they will. As long as you have a goalie that gets hot like this, you will have a shot to go deep. And I will, I expect willing to win this series. As do I.

And not breaking any new ground here with analysis or anything because it's very cliche, but there's a reason cliches exist, because they are often. true. This is a series that will come down to special teams. Wheeling's power play during the regular season. 7th overall in the ECHL at 21.5. Norfolk's penalty kill, 10th overall in the ECHL with 82%. So somebody is going to have to break through on that. And then it's kind of the same deal when you flip it. Norfolk's power play, excuse me, 14th overall at 19.7. And then the nailers penalty kill 81.9% 13th in the ECHL. So realistically, you are going to have two very even units going up against one another in this series.

I think when you stack up that the nailers have been obviously very good in net this year, especially when they've had Sergey Murshov coupled with, they've been a pretty good offensive team this year. I do think that couple all that together with the nailers having the biggest home ice advantage we've ever seen. This is a series that really favors the nailers going into the first round. 100%. And again, going back to the HL, hopefully Wilkesbury can avoid that small series to start the playoffs. Pat, I want them to get beyond where they were last year where they didn't avoid that small series. And then they got eliminated because small sample sizes can be very fickle.

Yeah, we really don't want to see a repeat of last season where they end up having that very point flip best of three opening series. We want to see them avoid that, but we'll keep an eye on them. We will obviously keep an eye on what happens with Wheeling in this first round series against the admirals with no Stanley Cup playoffs in Pittsburgh. We do got two playoffs to track. But that is going to do it for our middle segment. when we come back, the regular season comes to an end tomorrow. And that means Warrior Helmet Wednesday has reached its conclusion. We will talk about all the Warrior Helmets from this past year,

as well as tell you who got the most Warrior Helmet Wednesday awards for the 24-25 season. We will do that when we come back. So stick with us. We got to tell you about one more sponsor, and that is Fandul. The NBA playoffs are almost here, and Fandle is giving new customers. an incredible way to get in on the action. Right now when you join Fandul and place your first $5 bet,

you'll get $250 in bonus bets if your bet wins. From three-pointers to steals to assists, Fandul has so many ways to bet your favorite player props. So don't miss out, head to Fandul.com and clam your $250 in bonus bets today. We're back here on the Wednesday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp, alongside Hunter Hodes.

And for one last time in the 24-25 season Hunter, it is Wednesday. That means it's time to give out our MVP of the week. And we're paying homage to the 2016 Stanley Cup winning penguins, who gave out their in-lockroom player of the game MVP award as a Warrior Helmet. So paying tribute to that team, we give out our weekly MVP as part of Warrior Helmet Wednesday. day. It's going to be a little bit different today because the season has come to a close.

There weren't that many games this week. So let's take a look back at all of our warrior helmets from this past season. I had to pick one for the last week, though. I would give it to Evgeny Malkin. I thought he was the best player on the ice against the devils. He was phenomenal. I was one of the five best games he has played this season. Bruins game, no one really played well in that game. But still, when you combine those two, if I had to give one out pat, I would give it to him getting Malkin, who I believe that would be his what third of the year? That would actually be. So let's jump into it.

His second of the year. Malkin only got to Warrior Helmet Awards this past season. And Hunter, here's what I'm going to ask you as a little bit of a quiz because I tallied these up and only told you the winners before we hit record. But looking at my list, I'm looking down at the list that I compiled of all of our Warrior Helmets from this year. Can you name the players who got Warrior Helmets this year that are no longer with the Pittsburgh Penguins? Ooh. I'm going to say Yassie Poo-Yarvey got one.

That is correct. I think Michael Bunting got one. That is correct. Did Marcus Pedersen ever get one? Pedersen did not, but that's a good guess. and you are on the right track of somebody who we had pegged as a good trade deadline candidate. Interesting. Did we give one to Anthony Beauvillier?

We did not. So with that, I will let you know who it was. And that was Lars Eller. Yeah, I should have known. Your helmet this year. That is a player who I have to put it this way about Lars Eller. I know that going into the past two seasons, we kind of looked at him as a candidate to be traded,

just because we knew where this organization was. But I look at him as, man, this guy would have been really nice to have when this team was still contending because he was a very solid bottom six contributor. As our friend Josh Yohi always liked to say, he played a very responsible brand of hockey on a very irresponsible hockey team. he was exactly what this team needed. So with that in mind, Hunter, I know you know the answer. So I'm going to let you tell the audience who got the most warrior helmets this year.

And how many did they get? So the most I know for sure is Cindy Crosby. No surprises there. He's been the best player on the Penguins this season. I think you told me the number before we start recording and now it might be blinking. But did he get in the range of 17? to nine this year. He got at the very end of that range.

Sidney Crosby gets nine warrior helmets from this past season. So he is our warrior helmet MVP of the season. No surprise. He's one point away from 90 points. He's had another tremendous here. Set more records. What do you expect? And here is my last warrior helmet Wednesday trivia,

a question for Hunter. And this is one, dear listeners, that I did not tell him about because I wanted to get his reaction. There was exactly one non-penguine this season who got a warrior helmet from this show. The last hint I will give on this before I ask you to guess, Hunter, is I was the one who gave him the warrior helmet. The non-penguine. Wow, this one had to have been a while back because even I'm blanking on it.

This is the last hint you will get. It happened during the Four Nations face-off. Interesting. I can hear our listeners yelling at their phones and yelling at their stereos and at YouTube because they probably know who it is. Would it be like, is it the head coach, Mike Sullivan? They got it? You are on the right track. it was Team USA. I gave it to Jake Genssel.

Jake Gensel, the only non-penguine from this year to get a warrior helmet. So to give this a nice wrap up here, obviously Sidney Crosby gets nine for the season for another incredible year. Coming in second with five warrior helmets, a guy we have been a huge fan of this whole season. Brian Rust. Yeah. What a great, great season he had. What a great penguin he's been. Tied with three are Ricard Raquel and our dearly departed Michael Bunting. And a handful of players got two warrior helmets this year, Tristan Jari, Alex Nadelcovic, Yassi Poyarvi, and Blake Lazat. So a bit of an interesting year. A lot of Sprintzart. A lot of Sprintzart. spread out MVP's and it can this is how I want to end the show hunter I look at this team and where it is right now obviously we talk about father time it comes for everybody but I can still see some pieces on this team that they make a couple savvy moves this summer some of these young

guys develop the way they want them to develop and I can see a team that's right back in the mix year. Not contenders, not contenders. They're not going for the Stanley Cup. Everybody relax, but a team that stays in the race a lot longer and maybe even sneaks into the playoffs. It's still too late to say to me, Pat, I got to see what the plan is this off season. I still think they're going to mobilize here a little bit. You're still going to see more trades than you do see free agency signings. But I'm still not sure how good, how bad they're going to be. let's see how these next few months play out. I don't think they're going to make all these massively aggressive moves this

offseason to be like, oh, yeah, we're contending next season, especially not in a Gavin McKenna draft. I also don't think that they're going to be that bad where it's like Chicago or San Jose level this year. But, hey, let's see what happens once they get to the draft. Once we get to free agency, there's a lot of time left here, people. But I don't know if they'll even be at that level where they can maybe get in the playoffs.

I want to see the full plan of the offseason, how they're plan to attack it. Yeah, I'm right there with you. I'm the best way for me to wrap it up is this. I can see a route. I can see a path to them getting themselves back into the mix next year, not doing anything crazy, not suddenly deciding,

hey, we're going to be contenders once again. But at the very least, being a team that when we get to this time of the year next year, we might be talking about them sneaking in to the Stanley Cup playoffs. That said, wouldn't shock me again if we're in a similar spot. But like you said, a lot of time left, a lot of things to happen in so many other variables that we simply cannot account for. But that is going to do it for the Wednesday edition of Locked-on Penguins.

For Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always for tuning in. We will be back with a brand new episode on Thursday to get you set for game 82, as well as give you an update on the Wheeling Nailers and the baby penguins. But for now, thank you as always for tuning in. We will be back on Thursday.