Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins are bringing back the Penguins HALL OF FAME!

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

For the first time since 2013, the Penguins Hall of Fame is back, and over the next three years, 10 new members will be inducted! Patrick and Hunter start the show discussing the news that the Penguins will be bringing back the team hall of fame, and players such as Tom Barrasso, Ron Francis, Scotty Bowman, and Jaromir Jagr will all be inducted and honored over the next three years. Then, the NHL's national TV schedule was released on Wednesday, and the Penguins remain a big-time draw for national audiences. The Penguins will play 16 games on national TV this year, and a lot of them will be big-time rivalries with games against the Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers, and New York Rangers. Finally, the Penguins hired Evan McFeeters as their Roving Minor League Coach, they break down what this means for the rebuild and what his role will be in the organization. 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.

The call is coming from inside PPG paints arena. The Penguins Hall of Fame is back. Hunter and I are going to talk about the 10 new inductees, as well as a day full of news that we got in the Pittsburgh Penguins land. All that coming up right after this. Your Locked on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to 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 as always by the freshly haircut Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's Twitter a follow at L-O-U-U-U-Square-Penguins. And you can now find us on Instagram at Locked-on underscore Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you make making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we're free and available, wherever you like to 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, which will kick back up here quite soon as we get closer to training camp. But for now, we're still on the three days a week schedule. before we jump into all of the news for today, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Football season is right around the corner. Visit the Fandul app and start planning your future bets today. Hunter, the hair looks absolutely immaculate today.

You're going no hat. I'm going no hat. And that seems like the right call because we got to be a little bit more formal because the Penguins Hall of Fame is back. And there will be 10 inductees over the next. couple of years for this new yet old type thing that they're doing, there will now be in the coming years a physical Penguins Hall of Fame at PPG paints arena and the 10 inductees that will be put into the Penguins Hall of Fame over the next couple of years

include some all-time greats for the players. We've got goaltender Tommy Barrasso, Center Ron Francis, center Yarmier Yager, winger Chris Kunitz, defenseman Larry Murphy, and winger Kevin Stevens. Joining them from the coaching staffs and front offices are Scotty Bowman, the legendary Eddie Johnston, Jim Rutherford, and the late Ray Shiro. Just going to start it here. Of these 10, I can't argue a single one of them. all of them are giants in penguin's history, especially in let's start here, because it's been a big celebration of him the last couple of years. Number retired, he's been seen around Pittsburgh, bobbleheads, number 68, Yarmir, Yager.

Very easy one there. And honestly, for the entire 10 that will be spread out over the next three years, I think the voting committee did a tremendous job. You can't argue against any of these 10 individuals, players or builders. Yager, he was just here a few months ago. He was meeting with the front office right around the draft. It felt like got to see PBG Paints Arena. He'll be back again, I'm sure, later this season again, Pat, to see another game just

because he's been in the city quite often this last, you know, year and a half and all that stuff. the 2025 class, Pat, that's going to be announced next month. And then whoever is in that class is going to get honored pregame ceremony, October 25th, PBG Paints Arena against the Columbus bootjacket. So just want to put that that out there for everyone. But it's awesome that Tom Barrasso is also getting honored here. He's going to be finally gone out of his home because he just chills.

He played in the league for so long, Pat. He's like, you know what? I'm going to go disappear, live my life. That's what he's been doing for so long. So I'm glad that they're able to pry him out of the retired life just because he's really stayed out of the spotlight ever since retiring. Ron Francis, very easy decision, one of the best players in the franchise's history. Chris Cunitz, everything he did during the Crosby era, just tremendous.

Larry Murphy, one of the best defensemen in the franchise's history. Kevin Stevens, also just a tremendous player during his time. And then the builders. Scotty Bowman, one of the best head coaches, not just. in Penguins history, Pat, but NHL history, Eddie Johnston, I mean, you don't need to say anything else. It's Eddie Johnston here, people. And then Jim Rutherford, the architect of the back-to-back cups, and then Ray Shiro, everything he did for the Penguins, especially the 2009 Cup, even stuff. After very, very obvious choices here. I'm excited to see who will get in after these next

three years, Pat, once these 10 are fully in. I do think at some point we'll talk about, this a little bit that Michelle Brierre probably needs to get in at some point. He's one of three people to have his number retired by the organization. I do think that has to happen at some point after these next three years when all 10 of these individuals are inducted. That's my opinion. For sure. We were talking about this before we hit record. And I want to be careful on how I say this because I don't want it to come off as disrespectful or anything like that. But I look at Breyer's number being retired as more an honoring of the tragedy that happened in remembering the tragedy that happened to Breyer because he did only play one season for

the club. But when he did, he was genuinely great. He was Mario Lemieux before Mario Lemieux. And you could see just if you talk to people. who were around the team during Breyer's one season. He wasn't going to be a one-year rookie sensation. He was going to be a long-term mainstay for not just the Penguins, but the NHL. He was a genuinely great player, and it would have completely altered the history of the franchise

had he not died so tragically. But I agree with the other sentiment. He should be in the Penguins Hall of Fame. We were both genuinely stunned to find out that he's not part of it. And there hasn't been an inductee to this Hall of Fame since 2013. So a lot of credit has to go to Kyle Dubus and the ownership for reviving this, because we know that ever since Mario Lemieux became a Pittsburgh penguin. This is a franchise that has both been incredibly successful when it comes to championships.

but has been known for its star power. So this is not just some organization, trying to do some marketing and some promotion. You go through the history of the Penguins, and it is just full of superstars and great players. So this is not something that, you know, once we get five, six years down the road,

you're just calling up guys you like because, you were fun for a couple years. There is a long list of great players who have called Pittsburgh home. 100%. I completely agree with you on that. And I know, Pat, there were some people that were confused. Why isn't Mark Andre Fleury there? What the heck?

Well, the rule is you have to be retired for a full year. So once these next three classes get inducted this year, 2026 and 2027, and again, people, we will find out who will be in the 2025 class in September. I'm sure it'll be the same thing in 26 and 27. Once these 10 players are fully induct in the Penguins Hall of Fame, I will assure you that Mark Andre Fleury will probably be in the next class in 2028 or whenever they decided to do this again, but I'm going to assume that it's going to be 2028.

So someone like that going to be just fine. I do think also, Pat, you could see Sergei Gonshire get in at some point. That is also an option. Again, these are just two people thrown out there. at you, but you said a man, like there have been a lot of outstanding players that I've come through here throughout the franchise's history. And it's awesome to see this being revived again. You can tell when I was reading Kyle Dubas's statement how much this means to him. It's really important to honor these people. And heck, heck for October 25th this year, that game against Columbus,

it's going to be one of the best crowds of the year, man. It will be because it's going to be a celebration of all things, Penguin. And before we had to break, I got to add two quick things about the Hall of Fame. One, I have to say it every time Kevin Stevens is mentioned. Lemieux and Yager got me into hockey. Kevin Stevens, man, he made me love hockey. What an unbelievable player in his prime. And I got to give a shout out to a good friend of mine.

He was a good friend of my dad's, my buddy Joe. He said this to me the other day because he's a frequent listener of Locked-on Penguins. Tom Barrasso was Mark Andre Fleury before Mark Andre Flurry because Tom Barrasso understood he could let up four goals because he knew the team in front of him was going to score five or more. And we know that has been the Penguins M.O. For pretty much their entire existence since drafting Mario Lemieux. So congratulations to those 10 nominees. excited for this over the next three years. And because it's what we like to do on this pod,

over the next few years, Hunter, you and I can speculate about who should get in next. So thank you again, Kyle Dubus for providing us with content. We love it. But that is going to do it for the opening segment. When we come back, Penguins may be mired in mediocrity, but you know what? They still bring ratings 16 games on national television for the Pittsburgh Penguins. We will let you know about those and who they'll be playing right after this. But first we got to tell you about today's first sponsor and that is Monarch Money. Most people can't name all of their financial accounts or even what they're worth, whether that's 401Ks, properties, or investments, and when you don't have the full picture,

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Before we jump back into the show, we have an important request for you. Locked on wants to hear from you. We've put together a survey to learn more about our listeners and make your favorite podcasts even better. This is your chance to tell us what you like, what you don't like, and answer questions about our advertising. Go to Lockedon Podcast.com slash survey to get started. Everyone who completes a survey will be entered for a chance to win one of 10, $100 Amazon gift cards. Again, that's Lockedon Podcasts.com slash survey.

You can also find that link in the show notes. Thank you for helping us out, fill out that survey and get entered to win one of those $100 Amazon gift cards. All right. Back to the show here, Hunter, the Penguins. We talk about it on this show endlessly. We know they're retooling. We know they're probably not going to make the playoffs again.

But I don't matter to the National Overlords because 16 times this year the Penguins will appear on ESPN, ABC, Hulu, or TNT, beginning with the main event. October 7th, opening night, 8 p.m. at Madison Square Garden on ESPN when they take on the Rangers and former head coach, Mike Sullivan. Yes, getting on there right away. And the penguins 16 total ESPN slash ABC slash TNT games that's tied for the third most in the league this season. Everyone's going to say, oh, the penguins are going to be good this year. And you know what? They are probably not going to be that good. But this just goes to show how important Cindy Crosby still is to a national audience. We as local people, you know, we follow this team religiously.

We do a show on this team literally every week. Everyone that listens to this pod, you guys follow this team religiously as well. You guys know the importance of Cindy Crosby. But for the national landscape, it goes to show that he is still insanely important. at age 38. And also, Pat, Pittsburgh usually delivers some of the best hockey ratings

in the country every single year. This is a fairly big market. Like, even when the playoffs are ongoing, you look at the markets where their team is not in the playoffs, usually Pittsburgh is still fairly up there. Like, this is a city that still watches a lot of playoff hockey.

I will still say that this is a football town first. No one is going to argue against that. Hockey is right below it, but it's still a very big hockey. county town and you're seeing why with an announcement like yeah so someone tell uh chris carter over there on lock on steelers that the penguins are pretty cool send some of them listeners our way we're we're good at this too i promise yes we well we we try our best that that's for sure but i'm just messing around now chris you do an amazing job steward's season's coming up you haven't

go check out his pod please go do it right now again he does a really nice job but you look at some of these games this year pat all of the games against washington are nationally televised games. I wonder why, because it could be Alex Ovechkin's potential final season in the league. They are really trying to capitalize on that and get every single Crosby-Ovechen-Ovechkin matchup, excuse me, left until there are no more. And with it being the final year of this contract, it's no wonder they are going to put every single Crosby O'Betian matchup on national television. Also, the final game of the season for the Penguins against the St. Louis Blues on April 14th, That is an ESPN game in St. Louis.

Kind of an odd decision. I don't know why you're just televising that game against the blues, but okay, whatever. I would say not to interrupt you, Hunter. We do know that there's been a lot of chatter that this could be of Genie Malkin's final year. So if things go, how we kind of expect them to go this year, and the Penguins don't make the playoffs. If it's of Gennie Malkin's final year, you're probably going to put his, potential, again, potential. None of this confirmed.

He has not said this, but there's a lot of speculation. But if it is, that final game, they probably want to put that on national television. That's at least fair. I can get it from that perspective. When I saw it was the blues, I was like, seems a little random. But from that perspective,

I get what you're saying. Of course, Pat, the game against Edmonton, they're going to want to do Crosby, McDavid, at least one of those matchups every single year on national television. You'd be a fool. to not schedule at least one of those games, considering how those two players are still giants. The other game against Edmonton is not on national TV.

But you obviously have the one against, you know, there's Toronto, Detroit, there's regular rivals, Philadelphia, the Rangers, the Islanders, there's one against Vegas on here. Colorado, Sid, versus Nate. That's always a good ratings draw. So I like this national game schedule. Again, Penguin is tied for the third most among all teams for nationally televised games goes to show how much the national audience loves watching Sid,

especially these two platforms, and B, Penguins have still a pretty good market. And one thing to note, there is one game. I know this has caused some annoyance and frustration for people over the past couple of seasons, especially since the ESPN deal kicked in in America for the NHL. the November 6th game against the Capitals, it's 730. That is an ESPN Plus slash Hulu exclusive game. So to see that game, you will need ESPN Plus and or Hulu.

I know that eventually I think Disney Plus is going to be taking over that at some point. I don't know if that's going to happen between now and November 6th, but just so people are aware, that is the one game the Penguins have this year, It will be a streaming only game. So be on the lookout for that. But to build on what you said, Hunter, I do think even putting to the side the draw that Crosby still has for a national audience, the schedule makers did a really good job of the national games because these are games you would want to see because they are rivalry games.

You've got the Rangers, the Flyers, the Caps. That's the first three nationally televised games for the penguins. And then you get into the new year of 2026 and it's Flyers, Rangers, Islanders, Rangers. Then you've got a couple others in the middle. Vegas, they're a draw on national television regardless. Same goes for Boston. Then you brought up Colorado, Sid and Nate.

There's all that there. That's also going to be in and around the Olympic time and right after. so you're going to have all of that, whatever comes of that at the Olympics. And then to end the season, you have back-to-back national games on the 11th and 12th because it's back-to-back games against the capitals. So again, to also build off of what I said about it potentially being Malkin's final year, if it does turn out to be, they're also acknowledging that even if they're going to play a couple more years, we only get so many more Crosby Ovechkin games.

So you want to capitalize on those before they both hang them up because we've talked about it on the show. It's been written about ad nauseum. Those two had sky high expectations when they came in the league together. And they didn't just meet them. They surpassed them by a mile. 100%. Again, you know, Cindy Crosby, top five player of all time. Alex Ovechkin, my opinion, I think he's the greatest goal score ever.

Other people will debate that if they wish. I totally get it. That's just my opinion on that. And you've seen Ovechkin's quote. He's even said, like, you know, Sin and I, we saved the league. And technically, he is right. So I think they're, what's the word I'm looking for? They're preparing for it to potentially be Ovechkins last season.

And same for beginning of Malkin. So they didn't want to risk missing those. matchups, I think is the way to say it. And you just can't. And I'll say this. Ovi's quote, you can argue with a wall. He's right. Those two lit a fire under this league.

It's not as good as we want it to be. But from where it was when those two came in, they absolutely helped elevate it. So you got to get those back on national TV as there's only so many left before their careers ride off into the sunset. But that is going to do it for our middle segment. When we come back, Kyle Dubus, man, blessing us with news on this Wednesday. The Penguins have a new staff hire and it's a pretty unique hire.

We will talk about that when we come back right after this. But before that, we got to tell you about today's final sponsor and that is Fandul, the NFL season. It's just about a week away and Fandul is making sure you're ready for kickoff with a can't miss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just. $5 and if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Fandul makes every game more exciting whether you're watching your favorite team or just keeping an eye on your fantasy lineup.

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What are we talking about here? So basically, to put it simply in an elevator pitch, he works in the hockey operations department as part of player development, and he will have his hands in both the Wheeling Nailers and the Wilkesbury Scranton Penguins. Essentially, he will spend time with both teams as part of player development in making sure these guys are on the right developmental track rather than spending games and practices. consistently with one team. He'll be back and forth between both the AHL and the ECHL. A lot of driving, that's for sure, going from Wheeling to Wilkesbury.

He's going to put a lot of miles on that car, a lot of gas, but joking aside, this is a pretty cool hire. And again, it goes right in line with a lot of the other hires they've made, especially to the main coaching staff. Development, development, and more development.

that has been their main focus when hiring coaches throughout this offseason and it continues here. I feel like in one way he's going to be like a liaison, again, going back and forth, working with each coaching staff, making sure that every player is up to date. They're doing what they need to do. Their development is progressing. And if a player is not developing property, what do we need to do to get that back on track? That's the type of role that I think he is going to have with the Pittsburgh Penguins he has over. 15 years of coaching experience at various levels. He spent last season with the Prairie Hockey Academy's U18 prep squad.

He's also been in the WHL. He's coached Tanner Howe before. So Pat, he has a lot of experience coaching and in development. And I really like this type of hire. It's a new position, which I know caught a lot of people off guard, including us. But if he does his job right, we could see more players develop potentially. even quicker than we thought they were going to before. But still, we'll have to see on that.

This is still a good hire to me. For sure, not to put too high expectation on him or to over hype it, but he's 37 and he's got 15 plus years of coaching experience. So I don't want to call him a wonderkin or anything like that. But you look at his coaching experience. You look at the Penguins release. and information about this. It is a lot of major junior,

a lot of AAA junior, minor junior hockey. So yeah, you look at those teams. And obviously, anytime you play on a elite competitive team, the goal is to win. But the reality is, if you're on that team, the goal is to go to the next level, whether that's major junior, whether it's the minors,

whether it's the NHL, college, you name it. The point of those organizations is to prepare those kids for the next level, and that's where he has cut his teeth as a coach. So this falls, like you said, right in line with what the penguins are trying to do. And the other thing I'll add, after spending a good few years with the nailers, here's something that you would see a lot of, and it was especially true when Billy Garron was the Penguins director, of player development, it was not uncommon to see Garen at West Banko Arena watching Nailers games,

as I'm sure people who worked for the Baby Penguins at the time would tell you was probably not uncommon to see him at Mohegan Sun Arena to watch Baby Penguins games. The problem with that is you're asking that person to juggle a lot of different things at one time. And when you're an assistant GM, when you're a player development coach or a player development manager, you not only have to focus on the AHL and the ECHL. You've got to focus on juniors. You've got to focus on the NCAA. You've even got to focus on some minor junior for guys who you have drafted that might not quite be in the CHL or the NCAA yet. So asking that one or two or three people to consistently do that for seven to eight months is going to become

incredibly taxing and some things are going to get left in the dark. So now you can see this working as a lot of the Penguins player development staff is probably going to focus on the guys who haven't made it to the professional level yet. They're going to be going to be going to the NCAA. They're going to be going to juniors. They're going to be watching those players in those leagues while McFeeders will be probably focusing and not probably will be focusing mainly on the AHL guys and the ECHL guys to get them ready for the next step.

So you look at how he'll fit into the process. And this actually is going to be very beneficial for those guys looking to move up from the ECHL to the AHL and the guys looking to move up from the AHL to the NHL level. Yeah, I agree with you. And I think this could also speed up some of the development of the guys that have turn pro to maybe get here a little bit quicker. But again, development is not linear.

Like sometimes players take longer than others, not necessarily a bad thing. That's just how it is when you look around the NHL. So I'm also going to be looking for that too. For sure. And like I did to put a fine point on it, it does fit in line with the desire for the penguins to get back to competitiveness and playoff contention.

and even cup contention a little bit sooner rather than later, because those guys will have a focus as they're in the pros, rather than having to send your staff all across North America and even Europe, when you can have one person who says, all right, listen, these guys have made the transition to the professional level. Now it's on us to get them to the next level of professional hockey. So this is a really good hire. I think it's really going to help this team in what,

they're trying to do. We'll obviously keep an eye on that. You just saw us last season. We kept an eye on the nailers. We kept an eye on the baby penguins. Because guess what? That's where the penguins are right now. And we got to get excited for the future.

But we're still in the present. And that is going to do it for the Wednesday edition of Locked on Penguins. We will be back with a brand new episode for you on Friday where we're going to close out our top 25 of the 2000s with the top. five of the last 25 years, as well as fan take Friday will react to your takes, answer your questions, and everything else. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always for tuning in. We'll be back on Friday.