Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins’ Development Camp WRAP UP show!

Episode Date: July 3, 2026

The Penguins wrapped up development camp on Friday, and some prospects stood out during the multi-day camp! Hunter and Patrick close out the week by giving their thoughts on the Penguins’ development camp. (1:20) They talk about some of this year’s draft class and how they looked, some standouts, and more! Then,  a listener asked, “What is the Penguins' and Kyle Dubas’s vision?” (13:20) They dive into that question and try to figure out what, exactly, the Penguins’ medium- and long-term plan is. Finally, it’s the last Friday of daily episodes, so they take some questions and react to some hot takes in Fan Take Friday! (24:30) Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Decagon Ready to transform your customer support? Go to decagon.ai/LOCKEDONNHL to get a personalized demo and see what Decagon can do for your team.   FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. From the opening whistle to the final kick, Let There Be Goals on FanDuel. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started 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.

Penguins Development Camp wrapped up with their annual tournament on Friday, and I'm going to get into Who Played Really Well coming up 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. Hello, and welcome to the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Send Unfor Wet.

You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And you can find us on Instagram at Locked On underscore Penguins. 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. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandall. The biggest stage in world soccer is here. Let there be goals on Fandall.

Visit fandle.com to get started right now. A bit later on the show. going to get into your takes and your questions for fans take Friday get into dubus's vision for the team what else they can do this off season all that good stuff but to start off today's show we're going to discuss who really stood out during the skirmages to end penguins development camp excuse me on Friday I do want to stress this to everyone no you can't take too much just because not everyone is going 100% I am just going off of okay this player played decently but

I would still want to see how all these players would play if they were giving a full 110% because let's be real here, Pat. They're probably only going about 60, 65% in this. Still a lot of fun. I like a good three on three scrimmage, but these players weren't really giving it. They're all, but I still want to give some observations. However, the Pat, we just saw a really big offer sheet before we started recording. The biggest rival of the Penguins, the Flyers, have offered sheeted Leo Carlson,

five years, 18 million per year, real quick. I think the ducks are matching this, right? I don't see how they can't. I mean, they've got more than enough space to do it, as do the Flyers. And I said it to you before we hit record. We won't spend too much time on it. This is a ducks and flyers thing. But I don't think there's a bad outcome for either team.

The Flyers aren't that good yet. They're going to be. They have a lot of young talent coming up and they have some good. talent already there. But they're not like a contender yet. So if you're Anaheim, you've got all your guys locked up. You're on the come up. Snatch four first round picks from the Philadelphia Flyers.

Or you just keep Leo Carlson. Like there's not a bad outcome for either team here. I think they will match it. I know it's a lot of money, but the ducks have so much cap space. And it's over 30 million right now. Yeah, it's going to go down quite a bit if you match this. But I'm sure Pat Burbique is. fuming because just yesterday he said that he would match any offer sheet and then the flyers come

out here and do that at least leo carlson doesn't have to negotiate with pat vervig we've seen him be tough on some of his players before this is just an easy yes or no however i do think pat barvick matches this and i think leo carlson will stay in anaheim just want to talk about it because that will be a big deal to the metro and the penguins especially if leo carlson does go to the philadelphia flyers and the ducks don't decide to match it but i believe they will anyways Let's get into development camp for today, Pat. A couple really big standouts to me. Number one, Zampplant.

I know he was in the headline this the last two days, Pat. You saw that tampering, of course, but he was very good in this. He was the fifth round pick in the 2022 NHL draft, spent this past season in the NCAA with the University of Minnesota Duluth. This was the second season there. 20 goals, 50 points in 40 games. And even though he was not going 100%. I can't lie, man.

He was just knifing through. players left and right felt like he was almost twing with a lot of these players in these scrimmages. And I'm not too surprised because a lot of these players he's playing against are CHL players. So he's better than a lot of the players here on the ice. But he was showcasing some nice vision, some nice goal scoring ability. His skating was on point. I will be curious to see if the Penguins do sign him to an ELC because he is still unsigned right now.

He has played two collegiate seasons so far, Pat. But he was my biggest standout. We'll get to a couple more. but really liked the way that Zan Plant played and we'll have to see if the penguin signed them here soon. I liked a lot of the film I saw from Plant. Again, we have said it a million times. This is glorified practice.

It's not something you can glean too much from. You want to look more into the specifics of the player. And his skating was really strong. His shot, and there's another player we'll talk about from the draft this year, whose shot really shined in development camp. But I liked a lot of what I saw from Plant. And I am like you curious to see what happens with him because there was that kind of soft tampering he had with his brother and the Red Wings. So I'd be curious to see if the Penguins almost precautionary lock him up just to keep Detroit from plucking him from the Penguins.

So that'll be curious to see. But overall, I did like his game quite a bit. And I know you're itching to talk about this one. one of the Penguins draft picks, one that both you and I like, he had himself a nice couple of days at development game. Yes, you know where this is going. Pierce Buoy was really good today during the scrimmages. And you saw his release, if you were there today,

you saw his release in what Pat and I have been talking about over the last week on the pod. His one-timer is absolutely disgusting. He can fire it from all over the offensive zone. the second goal that he scored in the final game, just a rocket of a shot. Again, even though he's not going 100%, that puck exploded off his stick. Hell, he almost scored a hatcherick in that final game,

which would have sent that game to overtime, but he was robbed literally as time expired with a sprawling save by the netminder. This is someone who I am pretty excited about. He's going to go back to his junior team for one year before heading to the NCAA. So I'm not going to see him, Pat, for probably at least three-ish years,

maybe a bit more. But I thought overall, even in just the regular drills before the scrimmages, he was doing well. And I want to see if he's in the Prospects Challenge later on this year and see how he performs there because I think this was a nice start to his Penguins tenure, even though, again, not going to be in the NHL for a bit. But in terms of just being drafted last week, I just little start for him. I really like his game. The way the puck was exploding off of his stick at development camp showed you why the penguins took a chance on him, why the penguins picked him, because when he gives himself time, when he gives himself space and gets a lane, he can fire the puck. It is an absolute weapon of a shot.

And again, doesn't mean he's going to turn into a superstar. Doesn't mean he's going to be the next big thing. But when you have a shot of that magnitude, we can work on everything else. We can make you a little bit stronger. We can work on your skating. We can plant you in the film room and make you watch the games that you need to watch so you can adapt to the style of play that you're going to have to have at higher levels. But shots like that do not come around very often. So getting a player like that, especially like him who he is a fearless player as well. You're not going to get to see that at development camp because it's practice. But if you watch his film from this past season, This kid battles.

He doesn't just hang out in the soft areas and wait for the puck to get to him. He doesn't just go to shooting areas when he has the puck. He is a warrior and he's got a great shot. So if this is a guy that the penguins can develop, I like his potential quite a bit. I'm with you. And just again, looking at his film right after he was drafted, I was pretty surprised that he lasted that long,

considering how talented this player was. again, he was the OHL rookie of the year in his first season. Comes back for his second year. Plays really well. Now he's going to do it for a third year. I want to see him dominate before then going off to the NCAA and then continuing his development there. But so far, so good for him.

Also want to say Carter Sanderson, I thought he was pretty solid today as well, scored some really nice goals in the scrimmages. He was a sixth round pick in the 2025 NHO draft by the Pengman. Spent this past season in the USHL, 17 goals, 34 points, and 55. four games. He's going to the Calgary Hitman next year in the WHL before he goes to North Dakota the following year. So excited to see how his development keeps tracking. Also, Tommy Galvis skated, skated like the win today. Excuse me. You could really see how shifty he was during those scrimmages. Played really well. Had a nice goal in one of those games as well. So just a couple other

players, Pat, who really stood out to me. Those were the main ones. And I should say Gabriel Digg as well, had some really nice saves. I know his team didn't. make the championship game, but in the games that he did play, I like some of the saves that he made. I thought his movement was solid. I'm excited to see what he can do behind a much better defense this upcoming season to say the least. Yeah, dig to me, I want to see especially if he ends up in the ECHL this year or even gets a cup of coffee in the A depending upon injuries and performances. He strikes me as the kind of goalie that to echo what you said, we got to see what he does with a team that has at least a better defense because everywhere he has been since he has been in juniors, he's been on a team where he might as well be both defensemen as well as the goalie.

And he's still able to play very well behind defenses like that. So I want to see what he's capable of when he is on a team that plays better defense because he's already a very talented goalie. the raw athleticism is there. And much like I was saying about Pierce Bowie, it's the kind of player where when you have that kind of athleticism as a goalie, we can work on everything else. We can get you better at positioning. We can get you better at vision.

We can get you better on decision making. But if you have that natural inherent ability to just button mash, so to speak, and make those desperation saves, that has value as a young goaltender. So if you're able to build around that and develop him correctly, we keep bringing it up. Of all the things that the Pittsburgh Penguins need to do in this rebuild, retool on the fly, one thing they kind of don't need to do is get more goalies because they've got quite a few of them.

Yeah, I may just drafted another one this year. So I think we're good on goalies for a while here when it comes to the Penguins. But I'm with you on all those thoughts. overall those are just my main observations from development camp mainly just today because you can't really take too much also from the little skating drills the little stretch drills they do with their arms and such but hey we at least got a little bit of scrimmages today from the development camp and then we'll get the prospects challenge of it later on this year before training camp starts that's where you can take even more out of it and I'm curious to see how many of these prospects are

in that one as well but pat that's that's going to do it for our first segment coming up in the second segment we're going to get into fan take friday a couple of questions about kyle dubus's vision for the penguins and a whole lot more that's coming up right after this but before we get to that we have to tell you all about our first sponsor which is fandle the biggest stage in world soccer is here and every match feels like it has the potential for a memorable moment one goal can completely change the energy of a game shift momentum and alter the outcome in an instant that's what makes torment soccer so exciting from the opening whistle to the kick. Now, Fendell is giving fans another reason to stay locked into every match with every

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All right, we're back here on the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunters, Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Damp. And Pat, you wanted to dedicate this segment to a couple of questions and takes about Kyle Dubas's vision because Drake was one of them in our YouTube channel who says, I don't see a vision from Dubis. Magic Al Good says, I give Dubis a D, odd moves. I don't like trading Watherspoon

for another right-handed defenseman. This makes a claw get right defense and then blocks our top prospect, Harrison Brunick. They've been failed to address the left side defense in free agency on July 1st for the most part. The Robertson trade is all right, but I don't think it's anything special. I don't see a commitment to a direction,

and I think that will bite the penguins. They should be clearing room for all the young guys in playing them. It is that simple. I think with this, I do want some of these, younger players from Wilkesbury to take strides, make the team, but also at the same time, Pat, I don't want them just given jobs. Like, you have to go out there and you have to earn it.

Like, yeah, I was saying that Avery Hayes, he has the inside track for that fourth line spot before they made a couple of these moves because I liked what I saw during the regular season. He stills to go out there in camp and preseason and prove that he can beat out some of these other players. They're going to also be gunning for that spot that Nolichari had on the fourth line. That was one of the biggest reasons why we felt letting a charie go was fine because they had really an in-house replacement for him. And Avery Hayes, if you want to argue, Soda Blom, that's fine too. But Pat, they're not just going to hand their young players spots.

They got to go out there and earn them. But I still do think there is a legit vision here. It's just more long term. And you also wrote about this on your subset yesterday. So I'm going to give you this time to really cook. So I want to address that first part about the young guys. I'm going to meld two things that our listeners at this point have been making memes of me saying. And it's a melding of shiny new toy syndrome in quad A players.

This is kind of where those two thoughts are converging. The penguins have much better prospects now. There is zero doubt about that. This isn't five, six years ago where everybody just saw a player under 25 and thought, oh my God, Mike Sullivan and Rutherford and Hextall just hate these guys. They're not giving them a chance. They weren't very good. They were not drafting high.

They were barely drafting at all, let alone drafting high. And I understand the sentiment. Your Harrison Brunix, your Avery Hayes, Rutgers, Ruckerman Gros, you want those guys to be on the team. I want those guys to be on the team. But it is a combination of what you said, Hunter. They've got to go out there and earn it. and a few of them have yet to earn it.

Yeah. And then on the other end of it, a couple of them aren't ready yet. They're just not NHL regulars. It doesn't mean they're failures. It doesn't mean that they're bad. It doesn't mean that they won't eventually become that. But to bring this all to a fine point, I am going to use four words that were the headline of my substack article yesterday.

And they are four words that Kyle Dubus spoke. brick by boring brick. This is going to be a while. This is not going to, and the one thing that can make this rebuild go a little bit faster is if they do get Jason Robertson. If they find a way to get Robertson, this kicks this into high gear.

And suddenly we're talking about finding extra pieces and making some bigger swings. So you can get Robertson as your key guy. You can start being a player in the East again. but if that doesn't happen, this also gets into what our pal Adam Gretz at Pensburg wrote, not long after I wrote what I did. The penguin's vision right now is to take every swing imaginable.

They are, this is going to sound crazy to say, they're taking the Carolina approach. They are going after young players who either were in a sheltered role with the team they were with and look like, they're ready for a bigger role, but they were never going to get it with the team they were playing for. That is what I think you can say about guys like Carlisle, who they signed on Free Agency Day, looked ready to take the next step, wasn't going to happen in Tampa. Same thing for Corsack in Vegas. He wasn't going to take that next step and get that larger

role with the Golden Knights. So you go out and get those guys. It was the same thing when they got Tommy Novak. He wasn't going to move up in Nashville's lineup. Igor Chinakov fell out of favor with the Columbus Blue Jackets, came here and thrive. It's not always going to work. There are going to be guys who don't work. Think Philip Tomicino. They tried it with Tomasino. It didn't work. The Penguins vision right now is it is what I think is going to become the norm for most rebuilds in the NHL. It's not going to be stripping everything down to the bone and starting from scratch. it's going to be identifying a couple of veterans you can hold on to finding castoffs, finding second chances, finding young players who are stuck, and drafting good players in the draft

and making good trades. So it's something that we're not going to see the fruits of it right away, but in a season, two, three, even four, you're going to start to see this start to work. You're going to see these draft picks turn into NHL regulars. You're going to see these second chance guys become what people thought they were going to be. You're going to see these younger players they acquire via trade or free agency who couldn't break through in the other lineups start to take on larger roles. Again, not guaranteed to work, but that is the penguin's vision right now. Yeah, I can see that.

And also when it comes to all this, yes, they'd all. have that next big high-end guy in the system yet. I know the easiest way to get that is at the top of the draft, but as I always say, it doesn't matter how you get the high-end talent. It just matters that you get it by any means necessary, top of the draft, via trade. It's rare when someone like that goes to free agency. So I'll kind of put it in there, but again, it's mainly via trade-bat. Like, that's where you're seeing a lot of these moves made is via the trade market, where teams are getting a lot more aggressive in terms of building their rosters. Yeah, a lot of these contenders, they have at least, you know, one top I pick, usually multiple, but a lot of these teams are

also trading for more of their players and getting more aggressive on the trade market. And you have a very aggressive GM here in Kyle Dubas who loves two wheel and deal. He's been doing that throughout his career. And yes, it could be a bit boring at times when you bring in these types of players, but I do think the time is coming when he is going to take some more swings. And he is going to try and get those better players in those early to mid-20s who become available. Because as the cap keeps going up, my dog agrees with me downstairs, as the cap keeps going up, you might see some of those trade requests and you might see some of these players want out.

And that's where I think Caldubis could potentially swoop in as you keep building up your prospect pool, building up your pick picks, all that good stuff. So while that's not finished yet, I think that's coming at some point here. And the thing I will also add to that is, yeah, they do eventually have. have to find that next guy, whether it's a big trade, whether it's a big signing, whether it's somehow luck in your way into a high pick. If that's wheeling and dealing on draft weekend, if it's acquiring it. Because I think one of the under the radar things that Kyle Dubus is going to try to do

that I think some people might scratch their heads at and not realize at the time is he might target some of these top-at-the-table teams, whether it's Vegas, Colorado, Florida, probably not Florida now because of the Kachuk deal, but some of these teams that have Stanley Cup aspirations over the next couple of years in sending them something, whether it's a depth guy, a defenseman, even a goaltending prospect for a first-round pick

that's a couple years away. because when they made the trade with Winnipeg with Shen, everyone went, that's all you're getting for him? He kind of looked at Winnipeg and went, I don't think they're going to have the same kind of season, and it led to them having multiple picks within the top 100 of the draft this past year. So that is going to be a sneaky way for them to do this. And then the last part I want to add on this,

and I know it'll be maddening to a lot of people who want, this team to take a step. I certainly want them to take a step as well, but I get the temptation to want all of these young guys to play. I don't want them to play on a team and in a system that is good and cool with losing. Because say what you will about this past year, oh, they were better than people thought. It kind of put put them behind the eight ball, E, et cetera, et cetera. I would have rather Ben Kindle, Igor Chinikov, and a couple of those guys gotten playoff experience,

then get to Game 82 and go, well, you guys sure did try hard and wasn't that fun. I want them in the locker room with Sidney Crosby, Gennie Malkin, Chris LaTang, Eric Carlson, as they get ready for the playoffs. I want these guys to look at it and go, this isn't just going to be make the NHL roster and we're good. It's make the NHL roster and contribute

to a successful team. And that's another thing because, you know, you've seen like the takes about bottoming out and stuff. I don't think they will truly actually bottom out as long as Cindy Crosby is still on the team. Like this, like, I just don't think they'll be bottom five level bad or anything like that.

And heck, we saw last year, we had lower expectations. I kind of had them in that range, you know, seven to 11, kind of similar to where they were the previous season, Pat. I kind of pushed back a little bit on the bottom five stuff. they're not going to be that bad until the core is done here. And then you might really see a lean year or two where, yeah,

they're picking top five in the draft and all that good stuff. But I think they are content right now without really bottoming out in doing it this way. Your Carolina mention is interesting because Kelsey was also talking to me about this day at Devcamp, and I think she's going to write a piece on it. So you are not the first person to talk about that type of model as well. But that's going to do it for the second segment coming up to end the show. We're going to get into more of your takes and more of your questions coming up right after this. All right.

We're back here on the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunters, Hodes, joined by my co-Pattredamp. And Pat, another someone on YouTube, he says, grade I. It's incomplete unless they have zero faith that everyone in the HL is no shot to make the opening it roster. and Brazil and LaPierre are going to be extras. I do think it is incomplete because we have not seen everything yet this off season. Heck, Chris Johnson just tweeted out as we are recording that there could be another offer sheet coming today.

So we'll have to see what happens there. I figure there's going to be plenty of other moves to come as well. But I would agree that right now it's pretty incomplete because I don't think this roster is going to look the same as it will come early September when training camp starts. No, for sure. And you look at their puckpedia page right now in their. depth chart. They've got 13 confirmed NHL forwards. And then that doesn't mention the likes of Bill Zonan, who I don't think he's going to make the team, but he can make a push. You've obviously

also got Tristan Brose. You've got Tanner Howe. You've got Philip Hollander, if he's healthy. You've got Villei Kovinen. You've got so many other guys who are going to push for a spot. And you've been saying it all week. I'm good for the competition. I want these guys to battle for it. As much as we liked when these guys were contenders, I'm not saying they shouldn't be contenders. They absolutely should be contenders. But the mid and early 2010s, training camp was a formality. You knew who was making the team.

You knew who the team was going to be. It was basically three weeks to a month of, hey, we're going to get these guys back in shape and these couple new pieces we added are going to get familiar. There's not going to be any intrigue. It's just workouts. now you're going to have a bottom of the lineup that has to battle one another and has to earn spots. And this will be another year in a row.

Like last year was really competitive for camp, the season before that was too. This year, the way it's at least looking right now, this might be the most competitive camp yet. And I know I just said that last year, but that's the way it's shaking out right now, man. Yeah. And I think it's good. And then the other thing is, that's a great point by another someone on YouTube. It's incomplete. It's July 3rd.

This has only just begun. We just got done with the draft. We have about two days of free agency behind us. Like you said, Chris Johnston saying there might be other offer sheets. We have a long way to go here, folks. Yeah, I mean, this has been so far the craziest off season that I can remember in quite some time. Again, I'll give it to the insiders, everyone. They said it, this is going to be a crazy one.

This is going to be a crazy one. And finally, they're right. So we will give all. all the insiders, their flowers for this because Pat, you and I know a lot of other people have made fun of them for it where a lot of off seasons, nothing has happened. Well, this one so far has been pretty freaking awesome so far. This one is cool, Pat. This one comes from Pascal. Challenge for you guys, can you put together a trade package that the stars would accept including Harley and Robertson to Pittsburgh and Carlson, Russ, and Raquel to Dallas, of course.

Dubus would have to add, I am not the biggest fan of giving up so many futures of Robertson, but in this scenario, I could live with giving up a lot. How much would be necessary, though? Okay, this is pure silly season. We're having fun on July 3rd here. I'll just say this. You're not going to get Harley and Robertson in the same deal. That's just absolutely not happening.

Now, let's just put on our little thinking cap here and say, somehow, some way, in the 0.001% chance that happened. You're looking, you said, Carlson, Rustin, Rakeld to Dallas. You are adding a multiple first round picks, most likely. you were adding B, a top prospect or two, Pat, and I'm potentially looking at two of three of Harrison Brunich,

Sergei Murashov, and Ben Kindle, and potentially even more than that as well. That would be like the blockbuster of all blockbusters. So that's what kind of what I'm adding to the package where Dallas would accept it. Just throwing that out there. Not going to happen, of course, but we're having fun here.

I think you probably have to offer them Harrison Brunich in one of these packages if you're trying to get them. And that goes for both, especially if it's Harley. They're going to want something back like that. Harley and Robertson, you're probably doing Brunick and Kendall potentially. Yeah. In that case, because in that case, you're basically speeding up your timeline and taking theirs backwards.

So you're essentially given, and I know they are not one to one comparison players. They absolutely are not. but that's kind of how you would have to look at it. I do think you got to put a first or two in there, and there's probably going to have to be one of Rust or Raquel because you're going to have to give up production to get Robertson. You're going to have to give up a future because they know that they're going to want to have to try to replace him

either via the draft or with trade assets somewhere else. Again, I do think that, There is a world where Kyle Dubus is working on this with Jim Nill because at the end of the day, it's starting to feel more and more like the relationship between Dallas and Robertson is fraying with how long this is going. Because even for all of the player empowerment we have seen over the past few months, majority of these guys, when they say they're loyal to a team, they mean it. And we see a lot more guys, especially some of these younger guys with your Montreals, with your buffaloes and a couple others, they're signing on the dotted line and staying where they are.

So Robertson dragging this out tells me that he's not going to be afraid to tell Dallas to kick rocks. I feel like both sides just don't want to budge now. Like Robertson, the reports are he's asking for 14 plus million. Dallas, the reports are they're only offering 12, 12 and a quarter, 12.5, somewhere in that range. Neither side wants to budge there to dug in. They're standing there. It's literally just an old-fashioned standoff. Both sides are kind of looking at it.

Okay, which one is going to blink first? At this point, I'm not sure which one is actually going to blink first. And I saw on the sheet today, Jeff Merrick was talking about how apparently he's heard that some of the teammates have texted Robertson being like, what are you doing like this is 12 12.5 million just signed we got a huge team here we're really good we're going to contend and all that stuff but you know we'll just have to see how this plays out i am sure they're still talking to jim nil about jason i know people ask about both no it's not going to be about both him and thomas rley i love thomas harley but uh i think they're really only talking to dallas about robertson and that is still that somehow happens that is going to

also be a pretty wild package. This one comes from Stereo Penguin. I'm a little concerned. Do you see Pittsburgh becoming a place players in our prospects want out or don't want to go to because of all the logjams? No trades yet. And our RFAs have been signed. No, I'm not really too concerned about that at this juncture. I think competition is really good, especially once you get to camp. Though, again, I don't think this roster right now is going to be the final one that you see come early September. You've seen some of the young players that have had successes here over the past couple of seasons. You know, Chinakov comes from a tough situation.

Columbus lights it up here. Heck, I know it's a little bit different, but Ben Kendall, his rookie season, he was so good during Canada, the Penguins. I mean, he literally forced the Penguins to include him on the roster. And then he forced the Penguins to keep him up for the entire season, just because he was one of their best players. So just, I'm just using those two as an example. I know some of the other players haven't fully come up yet and really established

themselves, but I'm not really getting really concerned yet when it comes to that. No. Three, three things that don't really, well, two that don't worry me in one that is TBD about this not being a destination anymore. The two that I'm not worried about are winning in culture. Yeah. The penguins, as much as we may think this is tough, they are not far removed from being a winning franchise that is a place people want to go to in culture.

in culture as long as Sidney Crosby is your captain, there is going to be a healthy culture within the organization. Now, the one that is TBD is culture, but culture away from hockey. Say what you will about all of these teams that players are forcing themselves to, whether it's Vegas, whether it's Florida or Tampa, et cetera, et cetera. they have ownerships that do the most for their teams. They spend as much money as they can on facilities. They spend as much money as they can on research and resources. They take care of their players.

And I know people will roll their eyes when I say that about Vegas. But when you are there as a golden night, they take care of you. So even though they will throw you into the trash bin when they're done with you, while you're a part of it, it's, first class. And it's a destination, by the way. Like, everyone wants to go play in fricking Las Vegas. Come on. And whether it was through the early years of Ray Shiro in the Lemieux group all the way through to the end. And as much as FSG was corporate, they did a lot to make sure that the organization away from just hockey was well taken care of. So if the

Hoffman group continues that, I'm not too worried about that. I mean, Now, if the team starts spinning its wheels, they're stuck in the mushy middle, they have a lot of one and duns in the playoffs or they don't miss or they do miss a good bit, that might become a concern because you can have the greatest away from the rink culture, but guys do want to win. But right now, I'm not worried about the penguins becoming an organization that people don't want to be a part of. Right. I'm with you. And you've seen Kyle Dubus and the organization really pitch the team. to players and press conferences where they've said, yeah, we have a great development staff. We have a good coaching staff that will get a lot out of you and all that stuff.

Management staff, great locker room. And he's really just pitched the organization to players who could be looking to get out of their respective teams. And you've seen the success that players had this past season. I'm not really concerned at all. A lot of the other comments are giving Kyle Dubus letter grades, a lot of bees in here. especially, but I think with that, Pat, that's going to do it for the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. And I should correct myself, this will wrap up season seven of the pod. I said season eight yesterday. It was one year ahead right there. But this will wrap up season

seven because starting next week on Monday, we are down to three shows a week for the rest of July. And basically all of August, I think up until the final week of August, we are down to three shows a week. And I believe, Pat, correct me if I'm wrong, we are doing Monday, Wednesday, Friday. again, correct? That's the idea. I mean, we'll see what happens with our lives away from the pod, our jobs, and what kind of guess we can get when they're available. But ideally, we would like to come to you each week before the season starts, before training camp starts Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Absolutely. So we got some vacations to take this summer. I got my bachelor trip coming on up in a couple weeks to the beach. Yes, he does. Yes, really excited about that. I got other

trips, weddings to go to, but hey, we're still going to be around three shows a week. We'll react to anything else the Penguins do this summer and we'll flex our creative muscles a bit and bring you some really fun shows during the summer. But that's going to do it for the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much to take the time to listen to slash watch this one and throughout the entire season. And we'll be back on Monday, but only three shows a week. Talk to you all then.