Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins getting set for a MASSIVE Alberta back-to-back!

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

The Penguins are reportedly interested in swinging a MASSIVE offseason trade for a young superstar! Before Hunter and Patrick get into that, they get you set for the Penguins vs. Calgary Flames game tonight and how the Penguins can get some payback for a loss earlier this month. It’ll require a good start and staying on the Flames for a full 60 minutes. (1:50). Then, reports have surfaced that the Penguins might find themselves in the market for Dallas Stars’ young superstar Jason Robertson. (18:30). While unlikely, the possibility does exist for the Penguins to get him out of Dallas - but how likely? Finally, it’s Wednesday that means it’s time to hand out the MVP of the week in Warrior Helmet Wednesday! (27:00)Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/lockedon right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. So before tip-off, check the FanDuel app and see what’s dropping during NBA Happy Hour — every Friday from 6 to 7:30 PM Eastern. A little basketball, a little action, and a whole lot of Friday energy.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 Penguins will look to get some revenge on the Calgary Flames after losing to them two to one about a week and a half ago. And Pat and I are going to preview that game for you all 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 hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Joined by my co-st, Patrick Damp, you can follow him on all social media platforms at Sending for Wet. You can also follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. And you can follow us on Instagram at Lockdown, 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. Pat, we got some more late night hockey in action tonight.

Penguins Flames comes your way, 9.30 p.m. It's not 10 o'clock or 10.30. I love those even later start times where you're staying up till 12.30, 1 a.m. watching those games like a sicko because I stay up that late, basically every night, but I'll still take a game going to about midnight. But it starts at 9.30. Pat's going to be in bed because he has to wake up at 4 a.m. for work. He'll be watching the tape probably tomorrow during work or maybe a bit before. Who knows, but I know he's going to watch the game back and we're going to have the recount for you all tomorrow. This will be the Penguins second to last game in the Scotia Bank Saddle Dome,

which makes me sad because this arena has been around for so long, and you look at pictures and videos. It's just such a cool arena when you get to see those pictures and videos. So two more times playing there before the Flames new arena opens late in 2027. But for this game, Pat Penguins and Flames played earlier this month, January 10th in Pittsburgh, Flames won that game. Two, one, it was a game that the Penguins. You know, I said at the time, I didn't feel like they were close to their A game.

were, you know, just turning the puck over way too much. I just felt like it was too sloppy. Devin Cooley also played really well when the Penguins did have chances in that game. But, you know, the flames, they turned the game into a little bit of a slog. And, you know, when you look at their roster, it gives them that advantage just because they like to play more defensive. I mean, you look at some of their metrics, Pat, they don't score a lot of goals either. So you might be in line for something similar tonight.

Though, I will say for the flames, they are without Rasmus Anderson because he has just been traded to the Vegas Golden Knights, which is a big loss. He has been their number one defenseman this season with 10 goals and 30 points in 48 games. No one has more points on the blue line than him and no one has more goals on the blue line than him either. Dustin Wolf will start Annette, not Devin Cooley. Wolf, I know some people will look at the numbers, his 2.98 goals against average and his 900% and his 100% and be like, oh, that's not really that good. That's true, but don't let the numbers fool you. This is still, in my opinion, one of the best young minders in the league and he can get hot at virtually any point.

Stuart Skinner will be in goal for the Penguins tonight, which I do think is the right call. You want to try to bank the two points against, you know, the easier teams when you can because Edmonton is coming up tomorrow. But it's real important for the Penguins to especially get off to a good start tonight. Last one against Calgary, Pat,

just not a good start at all, especially that first period. They did not play well. That's the key for me in this game against Calgary is you, there's a really interesting way for me to look at that last game against the flames. And it's a mixture of a couple things. One, they started very poorly. They just, they were not ready to start that game.

A couple early mistakes. They fall behind. But then you also mix it with they were able to come back, mount a little bit of pressure, mount a little bit of a comeback, but they can't finish the job. So I look at it this way. They played a Calgary team that's not very good. They played a Calgary team that isn't exactly filled to the brim with talent. And in what wasn't one of the Penguins better efforts, they still stuck with them.

They still stayed in the game. So you look at it and think, all right, if the Penguins team that we've seen for the last couple of weeks decides to show up tonight in Calgary, they should be able to beat this team pretty handling. The other thing is, I'm with you on Dustin Wolf. When you look at this Calgary team, the problem is his number is, his number of are going to be a little suspect. You see his record 15, 19 and 2, 2.98 goals against, 900 even save percentage.

This is a Calgary team that doesn't score a lot, but also doesn't give a lot up. They're a very defensive team simply because you look at their, again, you look at their roster construction. They can't play a high tempo, high flying game because they're not built to do that. So they don't give a lot up. So essentially, if Dustin Wolf gives up two or three goals in a game, it's going to hurt his save percentage because they're not giving up a ton of shots. They're not giving up a ton of looks. So a goalie like that is going to get his numbers deflated because of the way they play.

So for the Penguins tonight, you have to start on time and you got to play a full 60 because this is a very beatable team that even though you look at the Western Conference standings, they're still. within sort of striking distance of a playoff spot, but you look at that trade with Vegas, and they're pretty much conceding this year. They're waving the white flag a little bit, especially when you trade someone like Anderson, who again does it all for them at the blue line, especially offensively.

That's going to be a huge loss for them for the rest of the season. You mentioned as well how they haven't scored a lot this year. They rang 20th at 5 on 5 in expected goals here, 27th and actual goals for only Chicago. Nashville, St. Louis, New Jersey in Vancouver are worse in terms of actual goals. Goal share, excuse me, at five-on-five per money puck. So again, putting the puck in the back of the net has been a challenge for them this year. However, this is a team that still has some good players.

Nazim Kadre, I know he only has nine goals, still has 34 points in 49 games. Michael Backlin still has 12 goals and 31 points. Matt Coronado, who scored the game-winning goal. It was a really nice shot, by the way, from him in Pittsburgh about a week and a half ago, does have 13 goals in 26 points in 48 games this season. I really like him as a player, still only 23 years old. He was really good last year, 24 goals, 47 points in 77 games. So he can strike at any time.

Touched on Connor Zerry, who I think is also having, he's having an all right year, but, you know, Joel Farabee is there still. Blake Coleman is still there, Jonathan Huberto. So there's still players that can put the puck in the back of the net. But again, as a team, they're just not. as dangerous. So I do want to see the penguins try to take advantage of that, like how they were doing for a lot of the game against Seattle at five on five. Yeah, I know Seattle still scored

three goals, but I still felt the penguins outside of a few loals in the second period did a good job defending at five on five. So I want to see them bring that over into this game against Calgary, a team that also, just like Seattle, has trouble scoring goals this year. It's the type of game that should play into the Penguins favor because you look at their roster and it's essentially if you can shut down their top line, they're not going to get a lot of help anywhere else. I mean, like you said, Cadry leads their team in points at 34 and their goals leaders are Blake Coleman and Coronado tied with 13. And then you go to their defense and nobody on the back end is scoring. There are exactly two players on the back end with double digit points. So this team doesn't get a ton of offense at all.

So you have to really hope that your depth can take over against the team like Calgary. I will say this just in general about Calgary. I know a lot of people have looked at their moves for the last couple of seasons, the trades they've made, what they've done, and they're kind of scratching their heads at what Calgary is doing. What I will say is sneakily, they're doing something very similar to what the penguins are doing. Obviously, they did not have near the level of success that the penguins have had over the past 15, 20 years. But they're moving a lot of assets out to bring in a lot of young players, a lot of second chance players and their stockpiling draft picks.

And because Calgary hasn't really done a whole ton in the present, people are kind of scratching their heads and thinking, what is this team doing? They're turning their roster over slowly but surely. And they are hoping that these picks and these prospects turn into contributors and we'll see what happens. But in the present, this is a team that the penguins can and should take advantage of. Right. And they'll also be without Coleman tonight.

I know I mentioned him on the stat sheet pad, but he is on injured reserve right now. So he is not going to be playing in this game again, has 13 goals. But for the most part, just looking up and down this roster, you know, they are relatively healthy, at least with their best players are healthy, again, outside of Coleman, who is banged up right now. So outside of that, again, Stuart Skinner, he's going to start a net tonight. So breaking up the goalie rotation a little bit, I do think this is the right call from Damuse. You want to get the two points tonight so that you don't feel as much pressure trying to get them tomorrow in Edmonton if you lose. You want to put

for your best full roster tonight against Calgary just because of their struggles overall against Edmonton. Yeah, I know. The homecoming storyline with Stuart Skinner is a lot of fun. But I think it's the right call to start in tonight against the team, at least on paper, that is worse than the Oilers. Oh, for sure. And I think that you can go with that plan now since you've got to clean two points out of Seattle.

Right. You started the road trip. Well, if you can get back-to-back victories, I'm not saying we're not going to want them to win in Edmonton. You want them to win every game. You want them to get as many points as possible. But if you can win tonight against Calgary and you've already got four points in the bank, it's not as much pressure to win in Edmonton, especially when you're going to have two days off after the Edmonton game.

And then you're going to play the worst team in the National Hockey League in Vancouver over the weekend. And so you have an ability to turn this into a really productive road trip if you can get two points tonight. Right. Again, two of the last three games on this road trip are against two not so good teams, especially Vancouver. Now, now you've got the win against Seattle, if you can still go three and one on this trip, you are sitting really pretty going into the final two games of the month against Chicago and New York. Again, mentioned Skinner. Chris LaTang, game time decision.

He missed practice on Tuesday with an injury. called him day to day. They have not ruled him out for this game. He said he is still being evaluated. And I know everyone is excited about Eric Carlson. He is not yet ready to return yet. He is going to miss his fifth straight game. Tonight will have to see if he's ready on Thursday against Edmonton. If not, I think he's going to return against Vancouver on Sunday. So we'll just have to see for that one. But Pat, do you have anything else when it comes to this game? No, I mean, it's an opportunity, like I said, to really make this a productive road trip. It's obviously not a must win, but I'll put it this way.

It's a very should win game because you do this. You can split the next two and it's not that big of a deal. You lose tonight. Edmonton becomes a lot more important and Vancouver becomes essential because while you have your struggles against Edmonton, there are not a lot of excuses to lose to Vancouver. Right. And even with Edmonton still without Leon right now,

that's going to be a very tough challenge, especially when you have to stop Connor McDavid, probably playing half the game at this point with Leon out and just with the way the Penguins have really struggled to defend against the Oilers over the last few years. It's just still not a good matchup on paper at all. So you do really want to win this one against Calgary, but that'll do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Penguins made a little trade on Tuesday. Pat and I are going to discuss that. Plus, a potential blockbuster in the summer.

We'll discuss that as well. coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, which is Indeed. If you have ever hired someone who looked good on paper but wasn't the right fit, you know how important that is

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Just go to indeed.com slash locked on right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply hiring. Do it the right way with Indeed. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I, one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my good friend in coast, Patrick Damp, Pat, the penguin surprised everyone with a little trade on Tuesday, sending Valetari Pustin in a 2026 seventh round pick to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for a defenseman Ilya Solov. I believe that is how you pronounce his last name.

I am going off how Kyle Dubas pronounced it on the GM show. I was listening to it before we started recording. That is how he pronounced it, and that is what I'm going with on the show. Hopefully, both of us aren't wrong on that one. But Pat, I was also listening to him before. We started recording here, and he said part of the reason why they did trade for him is because Caleb Jones is still banged up. Remember, he had been recovering from that injury he suffered at the beginning of the season, came back for the conditioning stint in Wilkesbury, got hurt again,

and we still don't know when he's going to be back. So they decided to add some more defensive depth to the organization. He has played 16 games with the avalanche this year, Soloviov, that is. One goal in three points. He has also skated a little bit with the Carl out of no, Eagles. Time will tell if he plays tonight, he was on the ice for the morning skate. If Latang plays, I don't know if he's going to play tonight. He might be scratched. If not, I think he may come in at least for a game until especially Eric Carlson's ready to come back. But Pat, your overall thoughts on this move. I think it's totally fine. It's a depth trade. And I mean, I'll give some credit if he turns into anything because

Pustinin found his way into being what I often describe as a quad A guy. He had his moments where you thought, okay, maybe there's something here, but he really couldn't find a way to stick at the NHL level, but he was definitely probably too good to be at the AHL full time. So one of those guys that just really couldn't carve out a niche with the Pittsburgh Penguins. So getting some value for him, not a bad move.

And I love this quote from Solovov from just a few minutes ago. The Penguins put this out on their social channel. said I was surprised and excited to get traded. I was already in the locker room with one of the greatest hockey players of all time with the abs. And here it's true legends, Crosby and Malkin. So it's unbelievable how life is going. And right now I'm just excited and can't wait to step on the ice with these guys. So I think there's some potential here.

He's a 2020 pick. He, you know, I have long believed that the 2020 draft is the ultimate crap shoot because that was a COVID year draft. it was all virtual. A lot of things were shut down. A lot of guys weren't able to get real scouting reports on these players. So some of these guys are hitting later than expected because they're on a different developmental track. So there's potential there.

And really, he didn't cost you much. And I wouldn't be surprised to see him get in the lineup either tonight or tomorrow, whether they want to give someone a rest, whether they just want to see what they got in him. And then I think at the end of the day, he's going to be somebody that plays a lot of the season in Wilkes Bear. So it's a perfectly fine trade, nice little bit of business by Kyle Dubas. You didn't really give up much and maybe you get something in return. Right.

Totally fine for depth. He's also a big boy, 6 foot 3, 209 pounds. I'm going to be curious to see how he is as a skater once he gets into the lineup, how he is going from defense to offense. But, you know, I like the roll of the dice on it. I at one point thought that Pustin was going to be, you know, at least a contributor. on the fourth line, but he just never was fully able to amount to that. Like, I really liked his release when he was able to showcase it.

But Pat, again, just was too inconsistent at the NHL level. He was always a good depth option in Wilkesbury. He was playing really well in Wilkesbury, by the way, this year. But Penguins opted to give him a fresh start in a new organization. I also think he was behind the eight ball, even though, again, he was playing well in Wilkesbury. I think he was still behind in the pecking order in terms of, you know, Tristan Rose, Avery Hayes, Willie Covenant, Rucker McGority, those four especially were higher up than him.

So I just felt like the Penguins were probably like, all right, we'll just give you a fresh chance with a new organization. We'll take a chance on this new young defenseman. So totally fine on that. But let's get to the topic that I think Pat and I both know everyone wants to discuss. And that is Jason Robertson because, yes, friend of the show, Josh Joey, dropped a piece yesterday on the athletic detailing about, you know, Jason Robertson, the penguins interest in him and all that good stuff. I will say this about Jason Robertson. I think he is one of the most underrated and underappreciated players in the NHL,

and that's very much on display when you see how Team USA just doesn't even have him on the Olympic roster. It is an absolute joke. I still don't understand it. I mean, you saw that goal that he scored last night, Pat, that wicked release that he has. Literally, there was no room. He still found a way to go top cheese last night. has 29 goals and 58 points in 50 games this season. He is a two-time 40 goal score.

His best season came in 22, 23, with 46 goals and 109 points in 82 games. This dude's an elite goal score. And yes, the Penguins could very much use a player like this. I do think it makes sense. However, a trade like this has to be on their terms. You cannot overpay. And what I mean by that is,

Dallas is going to ask for the sun and the moon, So when you're doing a trade like this, it has to be, again, like what you want to give up, not like the stars asking for everything because I just think the package is going to be a bit too much that the penguins would want to pay. This is something that would happen in the summer, by the way. People, this isn't going to be an in-season trade. I'd be stunned. The stars are going all in for the Stanley Cup, them, the Wild, and the avalanche are taking turns,

beating the ever-living hell out of each other in the central division. they're all in this year. So this will be a summer thing because he's an RFA this year. He'll be a UFA the year after. But again, my main point is, though, Pat, for as much as I would love to have Jason Robertson on this team, I think it's just going to be too much price-wise to get it done. Could be wrong.

That's how I see it. What say you? That's kind of where I'm at as well. I really like that framing of this is a trade that if the penguins want to do it, it does have to be on their terms. Yes. And we don't want to, I don't want to misconstrue that in the sense that the penguins shouldn't be willing to move or willing to compromise on certain deals because you are going

to have to give to get. I make the joke all the time. This isn't EA Sports NHL. The idea of we're going to trade all of our bad players for all your good players is fantasy. It's not a thing that happens. And when it does happen, it's extremely. extremely rare. Sometimes you do see those trades where you look at a bunch of bad players get moved or below the line players get moved for really good players. And usually that's the first shot of a team saying, you know what? We're done. We're cooked. It's not happening here. And that's not the stars. The stars are all in. You look at their roster. You look at their performances over the past few years. And you look at who they've got in the system. This isn't a team that is,

at the end of its contention window. They're right smack in the middle of it. So losing Robertson would be huge. However, this is how I posed it to you. This isn't a pie in the sky type of thing where we're all sitting here with our little action figures and going. And then Kyle Dubis is going to call the stars and Jason Robertson's going to become a penguin. And yay!

They are kind of up against it. You look at their cap friendly, or not cap friendly anymore, cap friendly's gone, Puckpedia. They have a little over $16 million in cap space this summer. And they have five unrestricted free agents in three RFAs. And there are a lot of impact players that they are going to need to deal with. Robertson being one of them, they're going to have to figure out what they want to do with Jamie Ben as their cap.

in. They've got a couple other players like Nils Lundquist on the back end, who's a pretty solid defenseman. They've got it. So the thing is, Maverick Bork as well, Maverick Bork is also one of them. I look at it this way. You got to figure, Jason Robertson is going to cost you between $10 and $12 million a year for what he does. And then you look at how many other needs that the Dallas stars are going to have. Are you going to be able to resign him and then fill out the rest of your roster? Now, if I'm Jim Nill, I'm looking at a lot of this roster and going, there's guys on this roster.

I can move to free up cap space to make sure that I've got room to do this. That's the thing as well. And I don't mean to interrupt you, but, you know, the good GMs figure out a way to shed cap space to keep a player like this, excuse me. Now, if the stars don't want to do that, you know, by all means, like, again, I would love to have Jason Robertson. I just think you're going to have to pay quite a price to get him. But also at the same time, if I'm Jim Nill, I am figuring out every way possible to keep a player like this. Because I also think what one of their bigger issues might be is, does Tyler Sagan come back?

Like, how bad is his injury? Because if he does come back, that's a little under 10, million that comes back onto your salary cap because he's on LTIR. He's done for the year. He's not coming back. But then he comes back and you're even more up against it. So this, again, I'm of the mindset that this is probably not going to happen. This is probably just a bridge too far. The Dallas stars are not known for letting players like this get away. But it's the, the chances of it happening are not zero. And if I'm Kyle Dubus, I'm calling Jim Nill as much as I can, and I'm just putting that bug in his ear.

Like, hey, if his demands are too much, if you think you're not going to be able to make a deal with him, we will make a deal with you for him. And he's the kind of player that I'm not going to say that they should give up the farm for because they've done a really good job restocking it. But there's a lot of pieces that I would look at and go, you want that for Jason Robertson? Take it.

That's also very fair. Yes, like, I'm not like married to some of these people in the farm or anything like that. But again, I just do think the overall price as of right now is probably going to be a bit too. I've seen some mock proposals out there that like Dallas would easily say no to. Any mock proposal like that that you see people, it's probably too little to say the least. So again, I'd love to have them. I just think it's unlikely. we'll see if both of us are wrong on that one.

But we figured it's at least good to discuss because Josh wrote about it yesterday for the athletic. But Pat, I think that's going to do it for this second segment. Coming up to end the show, it's Wednesday. Yins know what that means. It's time for another edition of Warrior Helmet Wednesday where Pat and I give out our weekly MVP. So stick around for that.

Coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our final sponsor, which is Fandle. Fandle is officially in playoff. mode every game day during the NFL playoffs. Fandall is giving customers even more ways to get in on the action because right now, every NFL playoff game day,

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favorite segment. It's Wednesday. It's Warrior Helmet Wednesday. It's where we give out our MVP of the week in Penguinsland if you are new here. I gave you the quick and dirty rundown. It's our MVP of the week, But the history behind it is us paying homage to the 2016 Stanley Cup winning penguins where throughout that season in the locker room and all the way through their Stanley Cup victory. After victories, they would give out a warrior helmet to their player of the game. So we're doing that here on the show in Hunter. There's a real obvious pick this week. And I think both of us are picking this player to get our warrior helmet for this week. and if you're watching us on YouTube, it's about to get spoiled for you because here comes the graphic.

The Warrior Helmet this week for both of us goes to Connor Dewar. Three goals in three games this week, had arguably some of his best performances as a penguin this past week. And I just got to come back to something that you said on one of our shows this week. this guy was kind of an afterthought trade last year where we kind of all went that's a nice little depth move he's you know he'll he'll be in and out of the lineup it's good to have them if you need them played 48 games this year up to this point 11 goals eight assists 19 points and he has been a really good part of the fourth line and this week scores against the flyers gets two against the crack in just been a really good week for Connor Dewar

Yeah, he's been fantastic, man. Already has 11 goals in 19 points this year. He has 11 goals tie a career high for a single season. One more goal sets a career high for an individual season. And yeah, I remember last year when they made that trade, I'm like, oh, okay, he'll play a few games, probably walk into free agency. Ho-hum, this is just a little bit of a move to give a player at least a small opportunity, but I didn't really think anything of it. A few games into it, I remember coming on the show multiple times,

he being like, this guy's a feisty little player, already a really good forechecker, a few games in. And that is very much carried over into this year where, again, I think he is the glue that fourth one go, the straw that serves the drink, as I say on here, a hundred times. He continues to play so well for this team. And, you know, two goals against Seattle, one, the empty net, the other one on the short-handed, gets also the goal in Philadelphia as well. He has been awesome in that role. And he continues to gel so nicely with Blake Lazot and Nochiari, also really good on the penalty kill too.

I can't say enough about the job that he has done this year. This is a player who at the end of the season is going to be a UFA. He's making $1.1 million. And if the penguins want to extend them, I'm not going to be upset about that. Now, obviously, we don't want to fall too much in love with a fourth line player. but when you look at the stats for this year that we've gone over, 11 goals, 8 assists, 19 points, for bottom 6 production, that's pretty good.

If you want to bring him back at 1.5, 1.75 for a year or two, I will certainly not protest to that idea because you need players like this. And he's only 26 years old. So it's not like he's a longtime vet who has a ton of miles on him. you can get some good value out of this guy in your bottom six, should this performance continue? Because let's be honest, with fourth-line players, they take streakiness to a whole new level.

So this was a good week for Connor Dewer. We might not be talking about him for another few weeks, but the way he's been playing really, really encouraged by the way he has performed for the Penguins, especially since he joined the team. Now, let's pull up our season-long tracker for Warrior Helmet Wednesday. If you're watching us on YouTube, you can see this on your screen. If you're listening to us on audio, here is the rundown.

The captain, Sidney Crosby still leads the pack with four warrior helmets so far this season. Evgeny Malkin and Justin Brizow right behind Crosby with three, big old log jam at two and one. With two, we've got Kyle Dubis, Ben Kindle, Eric Carlson, Dan Mews, and Sergey Muresh. with one. Connor Dewar joins the list with Anthony Mantha, the special teams, both the power play and the penalty kill, Arter Sheelovs and Stuart Skinner.

As I joked last week, the list was getting long. Tristan Jari was on the one list, but can't win it again this year because he's not a penguin anymore. We'll keep that in our hearts. He has one on this list. I also almost gave my helmet to Chris LaTang this week.

He's going to get on there eventually this season. and I was this close to giving it to him because of how well he has played. Very good runner up candidate for this week. He really stepped up in the absence of Eric Carlson. We're hoping he'll be able to play tonight and can keep this strong play going. But right before we close this out, we're keeping the tracker up because this is our segment. We can do whatever we want with it. And at the end of the year, whether it's after game 82 or maybe some playoff games,

we'll hand out our season long warrior helmets and have a little bit of fun with that to end the season. But that is going to do it for our Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Hunter and I will be back on Thursday to both recap this game against the Calgary Flames and get you set for Penguins Oilers on Thursday night. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in. And we will be back on Thursday.