Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins' first-round pick Ben Kindel continues strong preseason!

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

The Penguins lost their second preseason game, but that doesn't mean it was all negative. Hunter and Patrick begin the show discussing the play of 2025 first-round pick Ben Kindel (1:30), and how another strong outing could continue his time at training camp with the big club. They also break down the play of newly-acquired goaltender Arturs Silovs (7:17), who had an up-and-down game. Along with Kindel, a couple of other prospects had worthwhile performances on Wednesday night. Finally, the Penguins have only made two cuts so far (22:00), and the reason could be so that the young players can see the kind of culture Marc-Andre Fleury, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang have built in Pittsburgh.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelDownload the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 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.

Despite the penguin's second loss of the preseason on Wednesday night, there were still some good individual performances from certain players. And Pat and I are going to highlight some of that 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. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my.

coast, Patrick Dampe, you can follow him on all social media platforms at Sendin for Wet. You can follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And you can follow us on Instagram at Lockdown underscore Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandle down the Fandle app right now by visiting fandle.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Pat, the penguins are still winless in the preseason. Oh my God, this guy is falling.

Not really. It's totally fine. All I look at is individual performances. And speaking of that, I wanted to start with 2025 first round pick Ben Kendall. Pat, he was all over the ice in this game, getting a good amount of quality scoring chances, including a mini breakaway where he forced a turnover at the opposing blue line comes in, and is able to actually put on a nice deke on the goalie

just didn't get the elevation on the puck. I even tweeted this. If he was able to get just a smidge of elevation on that puck, it's easily a goal. But I felt like his skating was very good throughout. He was, again, getting quality chances. I thought his hockey IQ was very apparent. He's played really well in these two preseason games.

I thought in the first one against Montreal, it was really his skating that stood out. In this one, it was his ability to create and get good goal-scoring opportunities. I know it didn't show up on the score sheet, but I still felt like he was arguably the best player on the Penguins in this game. And we all know he's eventually going to be sent back to the Calgary Hitman to try and dominate in the WHL again this year. But I think in my opinion, he has earned himself a third preseason game. I would agree.

And again, we always have to make sure we add the caveat that it's preseason. It is glorified practice. Yeah. It's nothing that. serious, but still, when you look at the fundamentals in the way that Kindle played last night, you start to see what the scouting staff in Kyle Dubus saw in him, leading them to taking him in the first round. Again, to reiterate what you said, the first game against Montreal, you could see the

skating was there. It still needs work, but you could see it's a little bit further along than once expected. like a lot of prospects in Kindles, in Kindle's mold. I would put them at half ready when it comes to skating. You can see moments where it shows up and you're like, okay, this guy, he can keep up. And then you have a few shifts where you're like, all right, he's got to work on it a little bit.

But it's something that we know can absolutely be worked on. This game, his shiftiness was there. He was able to get to open spaces. he was able to create offense. And it was a really good performance by him. You look at the official game tally. He had just under 17 minutes of ice time. And I would say in most of his 19 shifts,

he was pretty noticeable when he took to the ice. And for a kid who definitely needs more development, definitely needs more time, both in juniors and likely the minors as well once that time comes, He is on a good track. This is a very good start. And I said it to you before we began recording, not a one-to-one comparison, but I do look at it kind of similar to Harrison Brunich last year to where he's showing he can keep up.

He's showing he's got some skill. And it's not going to hurt him to stick around for a little bit longer. Obviously, we know where this ends. He is going to be back in juniors because he's not an NHL-ready player yet. but give them another couple days, give them another preseason game, let them really experience what it's like to go a little bit deeper into an NHL training camp,

take that experience with you back to junior, work on your game, come back ready to go next year. And also Pat, I just want him to dominate engineers this year too. He had 99 points last year for the hitman. I think he has the ability to hit 100 plus this year, considering how good he's going to be after he was drafted.

He played in the Prospects challenge. He's been through at least a week of training camp. He's earned at least one more preseason game, whether it's this Friday or the Saturday. And then once next week comes back, because training camp ends next Wednesday, October 1st. You know, a little bit before then, you can say, hey, we like how you did at camp.

We're going to send you back now. But we want to see you dominate on your junior team this year. And then let's see what you can do at next year's camp and all that stuff. And you looked at some of the underlyingings last night. per natural stat trick, you know, almost 10 minutes of five on five ice time when he was on the ice, 55% of the Sean attempts, 82% expected goals for rate, 60% scoring chances for rate, which is very good. And then three high danger chances for no high danger chances against. The numbers very much match the eye test for how good he played last night.

And he really, he, he comported himself pretty well last night. And the thing I want to add to is again, obviously it's preseason. but the Columbus broadcast made it a pretty, pretty important point that the Blue Jackets lineup last night, that was a lot of NHL regulars that you're going to see in the Columbus lineup this year. And this isn't the Columbus Blue Jackets of the past few years. This is a team that is looking to take a step. This is a team that missed the playoffs by all of two points last year and is looking to take that next step. So while it still was preseason, it was a, the last.

two games for the penguins, they played a good few NHL regular talents. So for Kindle to have that kind of performance against rosters like that is a very encouraging sign. I like that you brought that up. Our minds were thinking alike there because I was going to say the fact that Kindle played like that against grown men, aka NHL veteran players and good NHL players, that is, I think that's a good sign for him in his development. So excited to see if he gets another game. and I'm also excited to really follow his junior season this year.

Trust me, people, this is going to be a very good player once he's 21 and 22. And if he fully hits his peak, he'll be a top six player on this team for many years to come. So we're going to part of that conversation there. Pat, we also have to discuss Archer Sheloves, the Penguins Netminder, who I have felt that he has been the second best goaltender in camp only behind Sergey Miroshov. He got the first half of last night's game. Philip Larson got the second half. And for Sheelov's the first goal, I want to see him make a save there.

That's an uncontested shot from Chinathev from 35 to 40 feet out. You and I were texting about it during the game. That's kind of been Sheelows' MO though at the initial level. He'll make like the really big saves at the big moments, but he'll also give up howlers like that. I think you got to have a save there, especially if you want to win this backup job because I know Blumquist is hurt right now, but I felt like he really started to cut into the lead that Sheelov's had

going into the preseason, Plumkus was really good in the first half that game against the Canadians. She loves though, I just want to see a little bit more considering how consistent he's been at camp. So I feel like he's going to want to have that one back. He gave up another goal after,

but the first one was the goal I wanted to focus on. And again, I know it's preseason. I still want to save there. I said it to you that I put it at kind of a 60, 40, got to have it because that was an absolute rocket by Chanikov. that let's not pretend like that was a total stinker it wasn't like a muffin from the top of the circle that somehow beat him it was a genuinely really good shot but again 30-ish 35 40-ish feet out no screen you do want to see that save what i will put in his in the positive category for him is that he challenged it he came out he played the angle well you want to see that save but I do have to always come back to we have to remind ourselves as analysts and as fans that other there is another team playing the game.

The penguins and our favorite teams don't only beat themselves. The other team often has a hand in it. And it was a really good shot. But again, it was one that you can very much make a case that, yeah, he probably should have had it. it, but you don't want to make it sound like it was a muffin that he let up. It was a good shot. Probably should have had it. But like you said, that is kind of she loves MO.

He'll make a pen bell save that has you retweeting it and putting the finger down emoji, this tweet with it. And then he'll give one up where you go, what the hell was that? How did you not stop that one? And if he can clean that up, which I think given the way he's played throughout this camp, I'm not too worried. Because like I said, there are going to be games where on the surface you look at a goal like that and go, save would have been nice.

And then you watch the replay and you go, yeah, still would have been nice, but also a good shot. Right. And I don't know what his long term future is going to be in the NHL. He already has shown the ability to make some of these big saves. But I just want him to be more consistent with. the ones where you're like, okay, you got to have that because I think he can, you know, turn this into a, you know, fruitful NHL career if he's able to clean a little bit of that up. So after one preseason game for each of Blumquist and Sheelves, even though Blumquist is day

of day right now and after about a week of camp, I will say she loves is ahead of them, but Blumquist is still very much cut into that, especially now after we saw Sheelves play the first half of Wednesday's game. It's going to be close, I would say, over the next week. I'm excited to see what happens here. But I think that's going to do it for the first segment of today's episode. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to discuss a couple of other takeaways that we had from Wednesday night's game. That's coming up right after this.

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exciting whether you're watching your team or just keeping an eye on your fantasy lineup. It's quick, easy, and the best way to add a little more energy to NFL Sundays. So are you ready to play? If so, download the Fandle app right now by visiting Fandle.com to get started. That's fandle.com to place your first $5 bet. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Damon and Pat. I don't want to spend too long on this player because he's been dominant at camp, which is expected, and he had a really good game last night, which everyone should expect as well.

Ville Coivinen had a really nice pass to get the primary assist on the opening goal last night from Galant, and that's exactly what I want to see out of someone who should be a roster lock. it was an NHO level pass to set up a goal. And he's been doing this throughout camp. Ho-hum, no surprise they did it during a preseason game. And I just want to spend at least a minute or two talking about it because it's stuff like that where it's like almost met against boys for Billy Coivinen. He's doing exactly what we want him to do.

That's the biggest thing. And obviously our expectations don't really mean Jack Squat because we're not Kyle Dubis. We're not Dan Mews. But this is what we were looking. for out of Coyvenin and in the training camp into the preseason is that he needs to look like one of the best players because as we know, most of these preseason games, he will be surrounded by mostly minor league fringe players and guys who are going to go back to juniors. So he has to stand out. He also needed to have a strong camp to build on a strong end of the season that he had last

year and so far he's doing that. The one thing I will say though, Hunter, is I'm not going to go with the word dominant because that's a pretty high bar, but he has looked extremely good. He has looked like an NHL player and that was the biggest thing. Wouldn't go as far as to say dominant, but if we want to put it in context of the penguins only on the penguin's roster, camp roster that is, he is, I don't know, I, I would say in the top percentile of performers for the Penguins. And that is a really, really good sign.

100%. Another player that stood out to me again was Tristan Bros. Again, the skating continues to be a big plus. I like his ability to create when he has the puck on his stick. He's continuing to make a really big push for the opening night roster once it gets officially announced over the next couple of weeks. And again, man, if he wants. to keep this up, okay, I would love to be proven wrong. I've been on the record saying that

I think he's going to come really close, but just miss out. But the more that he plays like this, and the more that he also continues to show out in camp, he has a legit possibility to locking down a spot, especially with Kevin Hayes heard. So I really did notice him last night as well. Unless his performance completely tanks, he has at the very least solidified himself as first. call up if he doesn't make the team right out of camp his his floor now is first call up an instance of injury or underperformance and now his ceiling is making the team right out of camp loved his game last night loved his game against the canadians he he just looks like he belongs and that's the biggest compliment i can pay him because again we know that this team's prospect pool

while improved doesn't have any true game breakers yet. But the best case scenario is a lot of these guys turn into legitimate NHL players. And in the instance of both Covenin and Bros, they look like they are on track to be legitimate, consistent NHL players. Another player I low-key was impressed with last night was Jack St. Ivan. I don't think that he was great. I don't think that he completely stood out, but he looked like the player that we got excited about a little while ago. He was making smart decisions.

He was solid defensively. He threw a couple of hits. He got a couple of looks, even though they didn't make it to the net. But realistically, this is what in the same theme we've been sticking on, so far in this segment, he just looked like he belonged. And that is a big step for him because he again is like so many of the prospects that the penguins have right now where you're hoping that best case scenario, they become

significant contributors. But the realistic expectation is you want them to be legitimate NHL options. And for St. Ivany last night, that was a step in the right direction. I agree, and he's also healthy now. That's the biggest thing last year. Very injury-riddled season where he can never really find his game. Now he's back to being fully healthy, and he is making a legit push for that final spot on the right side.

I've talked about it in some of my training camp observation pieces for the hockey news. We've talked about it on here, Pat. He's had a really good camp so far, and it's been nice seeing that translate over to the preseason. The underlying numbers were also very good for him last night at 5 on 5, a little over 13 minutes when he was on the ice. Penguins had roughly 70% of the shot attempts for St. Ivney himself, 84% expected goals for rate, 71% scoring chances for rate. Again, man, the underlines were great for him last night. And he's going to play quite a few more of these

preseason games so that the coaching staff can really see who is the best option on that bottom hearing. Is it the two veterans in Matt Dunbar, Connor Clifton? Is it Harrison Brunich? Is it Jackson I think it kind of like you mentioned Tristan Bros. Even if St. Ivanie doesn't make the team, I think he is first call up in terms of defense on the right side. I think that's easy for me. Yeah, without a doubt.

And that's kind of what we wanted him to become two years ago when we were really impressed by his call up. We didn't expect him to suddenly become an H.L. regular right away. We expected him to continue on the track of a reliable sixth or seventh of. defenseman when there's injuries. And if and now with him being healthy, being able to get over that hump of injuries last year, which set him back, now you can start to have a little bit more hope for him, whether he becomes a bottom pairing defenseman consistently or if he can even maybe top out at second pair, depending on how he develops. But this is a good track for him to be on.

The other thing I want to add about last night's game, it has nothing. thing to do with the penguins. It has to do with the blue jackets and myself. I'm done making declarative statements about certain goalies on other teams because I have now been burned twice on this show when it comes to goalies. When the penguins got beat up a couple years ago by the ducks and Lucas Dostall had a big game, you remember me on this podcast saying, who is Lucas Dostall? What are they doing? Now we know he's a pretty darn good goalie. And after last night, again, I know it's preseason.

I know that it was a lot of fringe players for the Penguins, but Jet Greaves, man, that kid looks good. That kid looks like he has an NHL future and could top out as a solid NHL starter. And I know last year, I talked some trash about who's this Jet Greaves guy, and I have now been burned twice. So I'm going to shut up when it comes to young opposing goal. least because I keep getting burned. At the very least, I think he's going to be a good backup this year.

The worst time I think I got burned for an opposing goal, he was when Ben Bishop got hurt in 2016. Andre Vasselvesk comes in Pat. And I'm saying to myself, who the hell is this guy? Well, he's now arguably the best goaltender in hockey. So I got burned pretty bad there, considering how good he was the rest of that series. And I was on that same show as you going, who the hell was Lucas Stoll as well. So I'll also take credit for the L on that one too.

One more thing I want to talk about this game, Pat, before we head to break. This was a penalty fest of a game, man. 12 combined penalties, seven power play opportunities for the blue jackets. I love all the NHL officials just want to get these big penalty games out of the way in the preseason so that you don't really see too many of them during the regular season. You get to see some of them during the regular season, but it's not as often as this. So just want to shout out the NHL refs for making this one a penalty fest. It's also preseason.

And I don't mean that in, oh, the refs are in preseason mode, too. It's not the best hockey. There's a lot of mistakes. There's a lot of sloppiness. There's a lot of reaction to bad plays that lead to penalties. Watching last night's game. Yeah, penalty fest. But I don't really remember any of them going, they're calling that.

Most of the time, I was like, yeah, that's, that's penalty. Any way you cut it. Just give me the consistency during the regular season. and then I'll stop talking about officiating in this league. How about that? I will say, Penguins penalty kill got a pretty nice workout, and I like the aggressiveness I'm seeing from that unit under Damuze.

It looks way more aggressive compared to the last couple of years under Mike Volucci, where they were kind of just way too passive, sitting back, waiting for the game to come to them. Right now, you have a guy up top that really pressures the puck carrier, the other three players. They're also a puck counts too, especially when the puck goes to anywhere else on the ice. So I really like the PK structure as of right now,

but I think that I'll do it for this second segment coming up to end the show. The Penguins have made a couple of roster cuts before a bigger roster cutdown is coming. We're going to discuss those two cuts right after this. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. That's my co-o's Padger Dam and Pat. These two cuts, not really surprising. A couple days ago, the Penguins assigned Travis Hayes to the Sue Greyhounds of the W of the

OHL, excuse me. And then earlier today, they cut defense. Quinn Boushain and sent him back to the Guelph storm in the OHL. I want to focus on Bouchain because I actually did think he had a really solid camp coming off a really impressive prospects challenge. I've said it on the show before. I'll say it again here. I think the penguins got a steal in this player.

The skating is so fluid that I think it's by far the best part of his game. He's really good at going from defense to offense. He has a good first pass. He brings that snarl, physicality, he knows how to fight. if he can bring a little bit more offense to his game, I think he'll just be a very well-rounded defenseman overall. He has a lot of work to do to keep developing, but I really, really like where this is going with Bouchain,

and I thought he did have a good camp. As for Travis Hayes, I thought his camp was totally fine. Not surprised that he got reassigned a couple days ago, but those were the first two cuts that they have made, and I am sure the bigger cuts are coming. Honestly, I would say before the weekend, because there is a group A, group B scrimmage coming up on Sunday, Pat. So they've had three groups at training camp practices.

You would assume that there's going to be more cuts before that scrimmage coming up on Sunday. But just want to give a couple of thoughts on the two players that are reassigned. What say you? I like Bouchain a lot. But I also kind of want to build off of something that you said. You can see the potential there. You can see that they may have actually gotten a pretty nice little steel in Bouchain. but he's still very raw.

They got a steal, but they also got a project. It doesn't mean that he's bad. It doesn't mean that, oh, we're hedging here. You saw a lot of flashes, especially in the Prospects challenge of there might have something here. But then you remind yourself, it's the Prospects Challenge. It's a lot of guys who are going to be in junior, a few guys who are going to be in the minors,

and maybe one or two guys here and there who are going to play NHL games this year and you kind of have to temper your expectation. I like a lot of Bouchain's game. I do think that in a year or two, he can project as somebody that if nothing else can play a significant role for the baby penguins before becoming an NHLer. He just has to continue to develop and the same thing goes for Hayes. It's a very young player. The raw skill is there. He's just got to refine parts of his game. As for the rest of the the cuts. I might be galaxy braining this a little bit, but I do kind of feel like they're going to hold on to a lot of guys through Saturday so they can experience having Mark Andre Flurry

around. And it's not because I think that, oh, they're just trying to do right. They're just trying to do whatever for these players. I do think it's also part of a development strategy. they're going to let these guys know what the culture of the Pittsburgh Penguins is and how loyal this organization can be and what this organization's expectations are because we've said it a lot, especially to the people who want to jettison Crosby and Malkin and Carlson and Rust and Latang so they can hit the rebuild button. They kind of want these guys to see,

look what this group of players built together. And again, I know that they don't have any of those kind of players in the system right now. But it's got to feel a little good when you see four guys who were together for more than a decade, won a bunch of cups together, how that bond lasted and what it did to the culture here. You walk away from that and it's going to be really difficult to not go, imagine if that's us in 15 years. Imagine what they're not. But that's what they want them to learn, especially if they keep a lot of these players through the weekend.

They can see that it's a brotherhood between these guys, Flurry, Malkin, Crosby, Latang. I mean, these are best friends. And to your point, Pat, some of these other younger players, like, you know, like a Ben Kindle, even a little equivalent will have to see if Rector McGority returns to practice at some point. Some of these guys could be going, hey, you know, what if we all become, you know, best friends or, you know, brothers? obviously you have to win together, championships especially, but it's still, I hear what you're saying when it comes to, you know, creating that culture.

And, you know, the penguins, even though they're still an older team, they have a fairly good culture. And I don't think that's going to change for as long as the big guns are here. So I wanted to really add that brotherhood comment just because I think it really adds to, you know, Flurry being back. he's going to practice at UPMC. A lot of fans are going to be there. It's going to be an emotional night at PPG Paints Arena.

And some of these prospects can see, look at this. It's a sold out crowd at PBG for a preseason game. Look at how much he and the rest of these big guns mean to this city. So I don't think that's a galaxy brain take at all. I actually think that's very valid in my opinion. And, you know, one more thing on Bouchain, Pat. I did say again, it's a relative. steal, but it's also, you're throwing a dart at the dartboard, hoping it sticks.

He's still at least a few years away from being NHL ready. I think he does have some good NHL traits that could translate well, but this is still very much a development project. He had six goals and 24 points in 49 games last year in the OHL. I want to see him improve upon that this year. I want to see his defensive work improve as well. So he is also someone I really am excited to track. this year to see how he keeps developing.

And then, you know, once he's ready to turn pro, how does he do against pro players and wheeling and Wilkesbury? And then if that keeps going well, okay, then we might have something at the NHL level where we could see him being a bottom pair guy, maybe even a top four guy. But at least from what I've seen so far, this is going a lot better than I expected, at least for a fifth round pick in the 2025 NHL draft.

But unless you have anything else to add, I think that's going to do it for today's, episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much to take the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Friday as yes people, Mark Andre Fleury returns to Penguins practice on Friday. And then he returns to PBG paints arena for one final sendoff on Saturday. He'll play part of that preseason game right off into the sunset, basically retire at Pittsburgh Penguin. It's going to be a really fun weekend for the organization.

And yeah, I'm excited for that, man. We're going to talk more about that coming up on the Friday show. So for Pounder Dam, I am Hunter Hodes. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. We'll be back on Friday.