Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins make MULTIPLE signings on day two of free agency!

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

Kyle Dubas kept it mostly quiet on July 1, but was a busy businessman on July 2. The Penguins made a flurry of signings on day two of free agency, and Patrick and Hunter give you all the latest on the team's day two signings. They begin with the biggest of them all, which is forward Anthony Mantha, another reclamation project and likely to be trade deadline fodder for the Penguins' rebuilding efforts. They also dive into a couple of the depth pieces the team signed to low-money, short-term deals. Now, with several signings made, multiple prospects looking to take the next step, it's clear the Penguins will need to make some moves on the trade market before training camp. They look at who is pushing and who could be moved out before the team reports to the Lemieux Complex in September. Finally, while all reporting says that this could be Evgeni Malkin's final season, Kyle Dubas may have thrown some cold water on that idea. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get $150 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.

It may not have been a very busy July 1st for Kyle Dubus. July 2nd, on the other hand, well, he had some business to take care of. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4. Wet.

Joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. And of course, once again, don't forget you can follow us on Instagram at Lockedon underscore Penguins. Of course, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine because we're your team every day.

We're free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as YouTube. Plus, if you follow us on your daily routine, you're free and you follow us on. YouTube. Make sure you've hit that notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Hunter, July 1st, bit of a quiet day for Kyle Dubus. July 2nd, he's been a busy boy that Kyle Dubus. He's made quite a few signings. Most of them, depth signings, some reinforcements for the AHL. And let's start with the biggest one, which is somebody who I imagine we're going to see at the NHL level for most of the season

and that is Anthony Mantha signed to a one year $2.5 million deal with reportedly $2 million in bonuses added to the contract so it could potentially be a $4.5 million deal spent last season with the flames only played 13 games due to knee surgery and he actually did pretty well in those 13 games, four goals, three assists, seven points. He spent time with the Capitals, the Golden Knights, Red Wings.

He was drafted and broke into the NHL in the 15-16 season. He has hit the 20 goal mark three different times in his career most recently in 23, 24. This is essentially another piece just like last year with Anthony Beaville. If you play as well, come the trade deadline, you've got yourself a nice movable asset. That was exactly how I described it this morning when I wrote that piece up for the hockey news. Anthony Mantha is this year's version of Anthony Bavillier. And if he produces a little bit better than Bavillier, I think the Penguins could get potentially a better return back than a second round pick. I didn't expect a second round pick back for Bavillier.

The seller's market was kind of nuts this past year. But say, Manta goes out there, scores 15, 20. goals and then get slipped you could ask for a little bit more than a second round pick in return in you look at those bonuses pat per puckpedia he'll get 250 000 for each 10 games and then that will be up to 2 million max at 80 games played for this year so there you go for the bonus structure and that situation but 2.5 million in salary slam dunk deal for me this is someone that you can play in your top nine i would expect dan mus to experiment with him with either Evgeny Malkin or Sidney Crosby

really doesn't matter which one you put him with. The Penguins were kind of doing both with Boveillier last year before they kind of settled in on Crosby playing a lot of minutes with Bavillier. But I think they're going to give him those type of matchups in the top six. You can also put him again on the third line if you want to. And if he goes out there, scores 15, 20 goals, also plays on your second power play. Boom, you'll have an exact situation like we had this past year with Anthony Bavillier, I really like this move from Kyle Dubis.

I do as well. The thing I wanted to kind of bring up about the Manta deal is I saw this take a couple different times from people. And that's it doesn't really fit with what the penguins are trying to do. And I'm going to have to push back on that because it does in a realm fit with what they're trying to do. Yes, he is 30 years old. It's definitely not the youth movement that Kyle Dubus,

has spoken about. Obviously, we talked about the coaching staff at length in multiple episodes and how there's a big emphasis on development. So that means there's going to be a lot of focus on the young players, the prospects, and bringing in those second chance guys who are in their early to mid-20s. But you kind of also have to remember that part of this rebuild is going to be for the next year or two, maybe even three, if it gets to that point, you're going to see these guys in their late 20s and even early 30s that they signed to one or two year deals for not a lot of money. And the express goal of signing that player isn't to keep him.

It isn't so he can help you win. It's so he can get an increased role on a roster where in around the rest of the league, or especially with contenders, they probably wouldn't get that kind of role. They probably wouldn't be given that time, that ice time. Here in Pittsburgh, you're going to get your Anthony Malthas. You're going to get your Anthony Baviliers, who on the surface, you're going to look at that signing and scratch your head.

And then you realize, okay, they're going to give this guy middle six, maybe even top six minutes. They're going to let him cook. And hopefully he takes advantage of those minutes. And when you get to February in March, and teams are going to need to complement rosters when they're getting ready for a playoff run, you're able to extract maybe a B or C level prospect out of them or some kind of a draft pick return. And that aids in your rebuild.

So while I understand that on the surface, this doesn't look like it fits with what the penguins are trying to do, if you only sign one or two of these guys, guys and not three, four, five of them, this absolutely fits with what they're trying to do. 100%. And you go back to his last full season in the league, 23, 24 before he had his 20 ACL this past season where he only played in 13 games for the flames, four goals, seven points during that time. He spent most of the 23, 24 season with the capitals. He had 20 goals in 34 points in 56 games before he was traded to the Vegas golden night. So again, you get that type of production and a top six.

middle six role, there will be plenty of teams that come calling around next year's trade deadline. Pat, teams are always looking for more depth scores right around the trade deadline as they try and bolster their lineup heading into the playoffs. You can never have enough scoring going into the playoffs because sometimes your stars, they're not going to have it on a given night. That's the case for every Stanley Cup champion throughout my lifetime, where some of the top players, they'll have a bad game or two, but they'll need their depth players, those depth lines, to really step up. Anthony Mantha, classic case of that, teams will be coming and calling for him, just like they did for Bavillier this past year. So of the signings that were announced today for the

Penguins, that one is by far the one I'm most excited about. You have Phil Kemp to a two-year contract. I think he's kind of going to be a tweener. He'll get some AHL minutes. Raphael Harvey Pinnard. That one is interesting to me when you look at some of the numbers for him throughout his career. his best season came in 22, 23 with the Canadians. 14 goals, 20 points in only 34 games, though I will stress to everyone. He shot 24% for the Canadians that year. So that's not going to be sustainable for the Penguins going to this year. But he's also a potential solid depth option.

But we're going to discuss this coming up here in the second segment. All of a sudden, they have a surplus of forwards. And they have a lot of young guys that are pushing for full-time roster spots going into this season. Pat, I think we could be getting some trades here fairly soon. I do too. Real quick before we head to that segment, though, I do want to talk about Harvey Panard real quick. This is on the other end, if we just talked about how Manta fits one category of what

they're trying to do in this rebuild, Pinnard fits another. This is a very low risk, potentially high reward signing. He's 26 years old. You brought up his best season, and obviously that is a complete outlier with his shooting percentage. You're not going to see him shoot that well again, more than likely. But you can see there's upside there. You sign him to a league minimum deal. He's been with an organization that's kind of been back and forth as of late.

They've had some good times, mostly bad times. But again, it's another player that you take a bet on. Does he work out? Great. If not, you didn't give anything up, and it's a league minimum deal, like I said. So you're not spending a lot of money. You're giving him a shot. If he does well at the AHL level, when injuries inevitably happen, when trades inevitably

happen, it's a player that if you want to bring him up and give him a little bit of time to try to see what you got, it's worth, it's at least worth trying in the short term. So pretty happy with that signing. As for Kemp, it just feels like depth. It just feels like a guy that he's going to help you mostly in the HL. When injuries happen, it doesn't seem like he'll be a total liability. You can hold on to him and let him play six, seven games. But if he's playing more than that for you, you're probably already in a bad spot.

So really, the Manta's solid. I like the Pinnard chance, giving him a chance. chance and then as for Kemp, it's just a body, another guy that can help you out. But as Hunter said, all of a sudden, we're looking at a log jam on the Penguins forward depth chart. We'll talk about that and what it could mean for the rest of this off season when we come back right after this. But first, we got to tell you about today's first sponsor and that is Monarch Money.

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I'm not jumping between my banking app, a bunch of credit card apps, saving apps, and everything else. It's all right there for me in one spot, a great one-stop shop that's helping me keep my financial house in order. So take control of your finances with Monarch Money and use code locked on NHL at Monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That's Monarchmoney.com code locked on NHL for half off your first year. We're back here on the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes. It's a Wednesday so you know that I've put a little bit of gel in my hair today. And there's Hunter Hodes with a vintage Pittsburgh Steelers hat.

If you're watching us on YouTube, absolutely beautiful. So that's how you know it's a Wednesday. But let's get into this hunter. We just talked about all the signings that they've made over the past couple of days. And if you go to Puckpedia, this only tells you half the story. Right now, you look at their breakdown, there's 14 forwards on the NHL roster. And that's a little bit of a log jam. And we know this much.

The penguins are eventually going to have to make a move now because they've got the log jam, but also because they have got a ton of leverage. We talked about it yesterday. A lot of teams probably swan, and missed, whether it was they made some signings they didn't want to or Florida gobbling up all of their guys, Marner going to Vegas. Now all of a sudden, penguins have a lot of skaters, not a lot of room, and teams are looking for some scoring after missing out on some of the big free agents. I will say, you're right. Puckpedia, it doesn't tell the full story here.

You know, it shows Vasily Ponomerov is still here. And yeah, they're keeping his rights, but he's also going to the KHL to play. It doesn't have the equivalent on. here even though we think he is going to be on the roster. And then you got to think of guys like, you know, Philip Hollander, Tristan Brose, like those two players are also going to be making pushes. Pustin's going to be making a push. Sam Poulan, we think may make a push for the roster. So there is a pretty big surplus of forwards right now on this team. And I think you might see multiple forwards potentially get moved at some point. This is, you know, does someone like Noachari get moved before camp? Does someone like Kevin Hayes,

potentially get moved before camp. Does someone like a Brian, Russ or Rickel get moved before camp? I mean, they also could get moved during the season if they take both to camp, but there's still a chance that one or both of them could be gone before camp in the preseason starts. So there's quite a few forwards here that are going to be jockeying

for some roster spots during camp in the prezies. You know, I said last year that camp was going to be really competitive than it was. I think this year's camp might be even more competitive right now, especially because again, it's only July 2nd, Pat. You know, we're still kind of in the early beginning days of the offseason. It really got into high gear right around the NHL draft. Now with free agency, it really underway. There's still some players that haven't signed yet,

but it feels like we haven't seen some of the bigger trades that could happen yet. I know some teams aren't fully up against it right now just because the cap is going up, but I still think we could get some big trades later on this month. So as right now, again, a lot of forwards. And we didn't even get the Caleb Jones. signing yesterday. Again, another depth piece we think for the Penguins. He'll have an opportunity to make the team out of camp, but if he is on Wilkesbury to start the year, totally fine depth. And it looks like the Penguins have also signed former Capitals defenseman Alexander

Alexiev to a contract. He played only eight games this past year for the Capitals he played in 39 the year before that. The underwings, you know, they're okay. He had a 58% expected goals percentage this year. Also for scoring chances, he had a 54% scoring chances for rate, 35 high danger for 20 high danger chances for rate again all those numbers are for this year only eight games small sample but he is someone that if he has a camp i could see him maybe getting a you know number seven job on the left side maybe number six we know that parker weather spoon is going to be on this team eating up second or probably third pairing minutes but i also would not sleep on alexia you know he was fairly decent this past year albeit a small sample for the capitals and then last year 39 games i also

thought his sample was decent as well. So he's someone that not going to be making a lot of money, but he can potentially push some of these veterans on the left side, Ryan Graves, Ryan Shea. We know that Owen Pickering is going to be involved as well. We also know that they are not close to being done finishing what they want to do on the left side. Don't worry people. This is a multi-year thing in terms of revamping the left side of the defense. But Lexiev, he has at least some competition for one of those thoughts on that side. And the Capitals GM, basically said about Alexiev that he's ready to take on more of a role at the NHL level, but with the capitals right now, there just isn't room for him.

So they basically said we want to get him either in a position where he gets a shot here this year or we want him to go somewhere where he will get an opportunity to play at the NHL level. And that looks like it could be with the penguins, especially where they are in their rebuild right now. as for camp i mean this is going to be better like i think like you said it's going to be better than last year because last year it was mostly a lot of veterans battling one another this year you add in the factor that this team wants to get younger this team wants their prospects to take a step they've still got quite a few veterans on the roster so you add that in you got veterans battling

with one another and then you got the young guys pushing to make the roster out of camp. It's going to be a very competitive training camp for the penguins, but to the point of this segment, you look at what the penguins are doing, you look at what they have both in the system on the NHL roster, they are putting themselves in position to help other teams fill holes. And whether that's Rust or Raquel, who I continue to say that don't be disappointed if they're still here come October and they start the year on the roster and on the penguins because you are under no obligation to move them right now. You are you can live with keeping them on the roster and letting them build their value. Have another good year in hope that one of the teams that

missed out on Mitch Marner missed out on Sam Bennett, whomever, you will have the ability to use that leverage to move them to one of those teams. As for Eric Carlson, we brought up Alexiev. We brought up the fact that they have made a couple depth moves on the blue line. They've obviously made a couple draft picks. You've got some players in the HL who are going to want to come up to the NHL this year. Now with his bonus already paid, you have even more leverage potentially to move Eric Carlson, especially if it's a team that he wants to go to. You're clearly going to have the caps space available to do a bit of a retention slot on him if you have to do that. So I look at this log jam as it's actually a pretty good opportunity for Kyle Dubus to do

some wheeling and dealing. Especially throughout the course of July. Again, they have veterans that I think some teams will at least consider looking at. There were some noise about Noel Charley during the NHL draft of the Penguins who look to move him. I'm sure they're going to keep exploring that throughout the month of July, potentially into August again, Kevin Hayes, I think someone could potentially take a flyer on him before the season. If not then, potentially during the season right on the trade deadline, you can never

have enough depth going into playoffs, as I said earlier this episode. But again, there's going to be some good competition for a lot of these spots. As of right now, you know, the top six, it's mostly set in stone, but you know, you got Connor Dewar coming back now, Philip Thomasino coming back. You have that, you know, Bernard contract that was just agreed to. Boko Imam obviously just came back as well. Philip Hollander is coming over. Tristan Brose is going to be pushing for a spot. We already discussed Rucker McGority, Billy Coivan.

Pat, there's going to be a really fun camp here to see who gets these spots come October because there are a lot of players going for them and there aren't that many open spots, especially in the bottom six. There's some, but there's not as many. One other thing to keep an eye on here as well that I wanted to add before we end the segment is speaking of the log jam, even though the penguins traded Alex Nadelcovic to the San Jose Sharks, log jam still a little bit built up because it was announced today that despite not qualifying goaltender Taylor Godier, he was signed to a one-year deal, an AHL deal with the Wilkesbury Scranton penguins. so you still have GOTIA in the system. We'll see what happens with that. It does kind of feel like he'll probably spend more time with the nailers

than he will with the baby penguins. But the log jam and net still a little bit backed up, but we will see what happens out of camp with that because there's also rumblings that they may make a move at goaltender for the NHL level, but help me a little bit. little bit skeptical about that. It does feel like they don't want to take on some salary and some of the goalies that are out there. It's probably better to just let Blumquist come up and be the backup goalie. Yeah, I'm on a hundred percent agreement with you on that. I don't really think there's a

reason to bring in another veteran. The free agent goalie market this year was really bad. You already saw the John Gibson trade. There's not too many other goalies out there right now that are available for trade anyway and I'm not really too interested in spending assets to go get another goalie to add to the system after you just freed up a little bit of that log jam on Tuesday with the Ned trade. So if I were the Penguins, I would just roll with these two going into the season, Jari and Blumquist, again, I know people are going to be upset that Jari is still here. It is a little bit annoying, but I still don't think he is going to finish this contract here in Pittsburgh. At this rate, though, with Blumquist, you just got to get him some more. And I

time. See what he's learned after his second sit in the NHL, see if he can be a bit better with the blocker side and just improve on his all-around game. And then below Blumquist, you can ride a Murashov-Larshan pairing in Wilkesbury, maybe make Murashov the 1A there. Larson could be the 1B. And then for Gaudier, even though he's probably better than the ECHL right now, that's still probably where he's going to play as of right now going into next season. That's how I see it sorting out right now in terms of the goal. in the system. That's pretty much where I am at this point, but it is interesting that they opted to bring him back, despite kind of seeming like they were going to really start to open the

route for these young goaltenders to take the next step, but we'll see what happens with that. That is going to do it for our middle segment. When we come back, something that kind of slid under the radar amid the draft as well as free agency. maybe this isn't going to be of Gennie Malkin's final season. We'll talk about that when we come back right after this. We're back here on the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes.

And like I said before we threw to break, it kind of flew under the radar because there was a lot of news to talk about 13 draft picks, the opening of free agency, and Alex Nadelcovic trade. And Kyle Dubus was at, about Evgeny Malkin and if this upcoming season will be his last and if there's been any decision made on Evgeny Malkin's future and his answer was two letters in one word. No.

So people will hear that and think, oh my God, they're going to let Viggeny Malkin leave. He's going to go play somewhere else. It's not the case. he clarified it after laughing and saying no, saying, I talked to Gino at the end of last year. I get it. It's the last year of his contract, and it has been a topic of discussion.

We'll meet at the Olympic break this year, excuse me, and see where Gino is at. And we'll meet at the end of the year. It's strange. He'll be 39 at the end of July. Still playing at a very high level for that age. Means a great deal to the community.

Our focus now is on treating him right, pushing him to continue to be at his, best this year and do right by him by continuing to communicate with him where he stands. We're all of the mindset that this is going to be his swan song, but I have brought up this this possibility multiple times on the show. If he has an above average year finds a little bit of a form, I can see a world where he comes back. Now, if it's similar to last year and he wants to retire. Not going to fault him for that either. But realistically, you got to see how he does this year and go from there. Right. I mean, I have felt that it's probably his last year,

but it felt like when that report came out before Dubas talked about it, it was maybe a little bit premature just because the season hasn't even started yet. We haven't even gotten to camp. We got to see how his legs are feeling, how his overall health is, how he's producing. And then you know, we'll go off that. If he's having a better than expected year, then by all means, let's see if he goes out there, signs another, you know, one year contract, for example, because, you know, Sid only has one year left on his contract after this upcoming season. He has two years left overall in this extension, but after this upcoming season, he will have

one year left. If Gino were to re-up, him and Sid would go out together going into 2027, 2028, where they would both be free agents. Of course, Gino expected to be a free agent in 20, 20s. 26, 27. But again, I just did a little bit of elementary school math right there for everyone. But I had the same take a couple weeks ago when we talked about that report from Josh. I just think it's a little early. Like if I had to make a guess, sure, probably it's going to be his last season. But for in terms of 100% accuracy, I still think it's a little bit early. Let's just see how this upcoming season goes.

because I am excited to see what he can do with better wingers. I think this upcoming season has the potential for him to have some really talented wingers around him, whether that's the equivalent. They played really well together down the stretch, whether that's someone like an Anthony Mantha, Brian Rusk would potentially be on that line if he's not hogged up by Sid. Rickel could be on that line, if he's also not hogged up by Sid. So he will have some fairly good linemates around him. And I also think that could really help him this upcoming season as well.

So in terms of 100% accurate, Let's just see how the season goes, people. Yeah. You also brought up something that I think actually is maybe the, I don't want to say most likely, but more likely scenario is that he plays out this season, signs of one year, whatever, who cares how much deal next year, just to be able to go out with Sid. Yeah. Because if, and I also don't think, and this is looking way too far into the future,

I don't think this is Crosby's last contract unless he gets hurt unless he has a sharp decline or there's some unexpected breakdown of communication or relationship with the organization, which I think is wildly unlikely, that last one. So having those two kind of tied together for the rest of their careers, really to me, I think is what would happen overall is it would be rolling one year deals where, okay, we feel like we still got a year left in us. Let's try it. And if they play well, you can do it again, you can do it again until they want to retire. And you look at what both of them have done, both professionally and financially, they both have enough money to last three

lifetimes. So they're not going to, if they do those rolling one year deals, it's going to be extremely little. It's not going to, it's not going to be league minimum, but it's also going to be, you know, two and a half, three, three and a half million. It's not going to be eight point seven, seven point one, nine million, whatever it is. So I think you brought something up that I hadn't thought about until just now. And that's, there's probably a world where Gino sees Crosby's extension coming to an end and says, I'm going to extend one more year, and then we'll see what happens. I love that thought. I mean, it would be kind of poetic, right?

And ticket prices, even though, you know, we'll have to see how the penguins are at that point in terms of the rebuild. But I still think, you know, fans are really going to come that season, especially when both players are potentially going into their final dues. Obviously, this is assuming Evgeny Malkin reups for one more year. And yes, if there's anyone that's concerned about a potential cap hit for another one-year deal for Gino, please don't be. He's almost 40 at this rate. He's not going to be making 6 million on that potential one-year extension. I don't even think it's going to be 5 million.

I think it's going to be $3,000 at the most for someone who is pretty old at this rate. And the Penguins also have a boatload of cap space going into next summer. As I right now, it's about 50 million. It's going to be a little bit less going into July 1 once we get closer to that point in 2026. But as of right now, they have more than double the amount of cap phase that they had going into this year. So a potential cat pit for Gino not going to be a problem. And after what Dubus said, let's just see how he does for a good chunk of this season. And we'll leave it at that, my friend. Nothing more for me to say on that topic then.

So that is going to do it for the Wednesday edition of Locked on Penguins. Thank you all for dealing with me losing my voice as this show continued on throughout all of the episode. appreciate that. And Hunter and I will be back with a brand new episode for you on Thursday with any more news. And we'll also take a look at where the franchise is right now after two days and then by tomorrow three days of free agency. So thank you as always for tuning in for Hunter Hodes. I'm Patrick Damp. We will be back with a brand new episode on Thursday.