Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins Prospects Challenge roster released, who are we watching?

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

On Wednesday, the Penguins released their roster for the annual prospects challenge in Buffalo! Patrick and Hunter begin the show talking about the Penguins' prospect challenge roster that will head to Buffalo this weekend! They dive into who they're excited to see, who has expectations going into the tournament, and what the expectations are as they play three games. Then, they continue the summer catch-up series by discussing the Penguins' new coaching staff. With Dan Muse at the helm, and a good mix of new and old on the staff, it's a well-balanced coaching staff that could both help develop the young players while getting the best from the team's veterans. Finally, a familiar voice will join the Penguins' in-studio radio team. Pierre McGuire will be a member of the pre- and post-game crew on Penguins Radio. 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.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.

Ladies and gentlemen, at long last, we will finally have some sort of meaningful hockey this weekend. And most importantly, we know who is going to be suiting up for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Your Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome back to another 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 4Wet. 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 Twitter account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. You can also find us on Instagram at Locked On underscore Penguins. Of course, we appreciate you making this show part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available, wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube.

And if you follow us on YouTube, be sure to hit the notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we dive into everything today, today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel. Download the Fandul app now by visiting Fandul.com and you could win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. More on them later in the show. Hunter at long last. The Prospects challenge is set for this weekend.

The Penguins prospects will play three games and they are as follows. They will play on Friday, September 12th against the Boston Bruins prospects at 3.30 p.m. They will have Saturday off. And then on Sunday, September 14th, happy birthday to me. They will take on the blue jackets at 3.30 p.m. And then they will round out the Prospects Challenge on Monday, September 15th against the Buffalo Sabres at high noon. Most importantly, when it comes to this Prospects challenge,

we have been refreshing our social media feeds, tracking all the Penguins accounts, tracking our emails, because we have been asking for the better part of a week now, who the hell is going to be on this penguin's prospects team? And before we get into some of the players that we're going to have a close eye on, there's two, maybe three on this roster that are a bit of a surprise and we're kind of curious why they're there. And it's as follows.

It is Ville, Coyven in it forward, Owen Pickering on defense, and in net, Sergey Murashov. I'll start here. I think that you can understand Sergey Murshov being there. He is third, but technically fourth on the organizational depth chart. Obviously, you've got Jari and Shilovs, as we expect to be in the NHL. Then you have Yowell Blumquist, and then Sergey Murshov. Even though Murshov kind of looks like he's going to be NH already in a year or two,

given his position in the organization, you get why he. he's there. But then you look at covenin and you look at Pickering and think they're both going to very much compete for roster spots out of training camp. So you're curious as to why they're headed to the prospects challenge. I'll say this much and then I'll pass it off to you. I think at this point it's not so much to evaluate their play, but it's to say to them, you guys are looked at as future leaders in this organization. Maybe not captains or anything with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but they're near the top, if not completely at the top of the Penguins prospect group.

So now they're going to take this next crop of prospects and lead them into the prospects challenge. Right. And Sergey Mirosha, I actually totally understand why he is there. He played most of last season with Wheeling. He did have a sample size with Wilkesbury. And he definitely looked at the part like he looked like he was ready for a full season. in the AHL, but he doesn't have any NHL experience yet.

So I am totally fine with him being there. The main two, it was the first two that you mentioned. Coivinen and Pickering. I don't really think they have anything left to learn in a tournament like this. In my opinion, Coivinen at the end of the 24-25 season, he looked apart to me. I think he showed that he is basically ready for the NHL. He was right around a point per game.

And yeah, people, I know. The sample size was not very big, but his playmaking ability was really good. the vision was very much there. The skating could use a little bit more work, but it felt like to me when he was on PowerPlay 2, when he was getting top six minutes, he looked like he was basically ready for the show. So even though he's there,

I still want to see him dominate. I want him to show that, hey, I'm too good for this. I'm going to be one of the best players, if not the best player on the ice. Same goes for Owen Pickering. He had a nice sample size last season where I felt like he was basically ready for the NHL as well. And I think for something like this,

I also want him to go out there and be like, hey, I'm too good, and I'm going to also go out there and dominate this because he is going to be an option for the penguins on the left side this upcoming season. And I'm not going to say I'd be disappointed if he didn't make the team, but also at the same time, I feel like if you're him, he's got to be licking his chops a little bit because the left side is not very good going into the season. And we've talked about that quite a bit. Like we know Parker Weather is going to be on the team. Outside of that, you know, who is going to take those other two spots is Ryan Graves? going to get one of those spots. Ryan Shea, Alexander Lexiev, Owen Pickering, etc, et cetera, Caleb Jones, of course, too. So if I'm Pickering, again, I'm looking at my chops

a little bit being like, hey, I have a really good shot of locking down on a roster spot if I can go out there in Camden preseason and really approve my worth. So I want him to go out there as well, really dominate in this. So Pickering and Coyvenin, those were the two that kind of made me scratch my head a little bit just because I don't really think they had much to learn. You see Rucker McGroorty is not there, Pat. He's a bit banged up. But even if you, If he wasn't hurt, I wouldn't want to see him there anyway, just because I think he's basically ready for the NHL as well. As for some other players that I'm personally excited about,

keep an eye on Keldock, people, late round pick for the Penguins in 2025, lit up the BCHL this year. He's going to play in the WHL this year. Really curious to see how he plays. He'll also go to Penn State for the 26, 27 season. Excited about him. Also, Finn Harding. So he played last season for the random steelheads in the OHL,

seven goals, 57 points in 67 games. His offensive game has really developed over the last couple of years. He's going to be turning pro for this season. Going to be in Wheeling or Wilkesbury, TBD, but I want to see how he does here. Obviously, Quinn Bouchain, who of the defenseman that they picked, I think I'm, again, slightly more excited about him, in my opinion, so I want to see how he does as well.

Tristan Brose, a potential call-up option later on this season for the Penguins. If they get a slew of injuries, I want to say how he does here as well. And then Jordan Sharon, who I thought out a couple of decent days at development camp, but I also know at the same time, you really can't glean too much from that bad just because they're glorified little practices. So this is a much better opportunity to see how these prospects do in like a game environment against some of the other teams, best prospects. And also, Pat, one more, email Pianemi, Nemi, turning pro this year.

that's also a big one too because I think he's going to start the season in Wilkesbury and hey maybe if the Penguins have a slew of injuries defensively this season on the last side you can see him make his debut way later in the season but he's turning pro this year excited to see how he does in this challenge our our brains are becoming way too similar on this show Hunter because you teed that up for me perfectly because that was going to be a player that I said, I'm going to have a close eye on in PN and Emmy. Because here's the thing. I don't want to put undue expectations on him.

I don't want to be unfair to him. But what is all the reporting we have heard about him? That the penguins are in love with this kid. They think they got an absolute steal. You read a lot of the prospect writers and analysts they talk about, they can't believe that this kid fell to the penguin. And granted, that's all well and good. And maybe it's a little bit too much of a hype around him, but I want to see some of that hype start to manifest. I want to see him go out and play very well.

I don't want to put undue expectations on him. I don't want people to think he has to go out there and dominate, but I want to see a good showing. I want to see him live up to all this hype that we're hearing about him. Does it mean he's got to suddenly be like Harrison Brunich where you think, oh my God, this kid came out of nowhere and he might be able to make the roster? Not exactly. But I do want to see him play very well. I want to see him conduct himself as if he is one of the top prospects in the penguin system.

Because even though the penguins haven't been in this position for nearly 20 years, when you start to hear about a player like this who everyone, is excited for everybody thinks has a really high ceiling. You want to get some breadcrumbs for it. You want to see some moments, some plays, or even some full games in this prospect challenge where you go, oh yeah, I can see it. Doesn't mean he has to dominate.

Doesn't mean he has to be the best player on the team, but you want to see some of that start to materialize. Another player we got to mention before we had to break, Penguin's first round pick, Benjamin Kindle will be there. We talked about him in our summer catch up yesterday. 99 points in the WHL last year. Really good showing.

Again, very similar to what I was saying about PN and Emmy. I don't need to see him dominate. I don't need to see him be one of the best players. But I want to see the potential there. I want to see him have a few good moments. I want to see how he fits in the system among the other prospects. And I just, at the end of the day, I could care less if they go 3 and 0, 0 and 3, 1, 1, 2 and 1, whatever.

I want to see good showings from these players over three days. The performances are really what matters, like the individual performances, that is. And one more, Pat, I do want to say Harrison Brunich have a really good tournament here. I'm not going to sit here and say that, you know, like Coivin or Pickering, that he's too good for something like this, excuse me, just because he hasn't played in the NHL yet. But I still want to see him go out there and have a,

good tournament and also kind of show that, hey, I'm still rock solid and I'm going to go into camp with a lot of momentum. So I'm also obviously going to have my eye on him as well because, well, I love watching him play. Yeah, you and me both. So we'll keep an eye on that as we get deeper into the week. Obviously, when we get back next week for our Monday episode, we will probably record a little bit later than normal come Monday so we can get the final game of the challenge out of the way and then give you a full recap of what we saw over the weekend for these penguins prospects. But that'll do it for this opening segment. When we come back, our summer catch up series continues because if you weren't a sicko all summer,

you enjoyed the beach, you enjoyed life, you didn't follow hockey. You might have heard the penguins have a brand new head coach. We'll talk about that as well as the rest of the coaching staff right after this. Before we do that, though, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is Monarch Money. Most people can't name all their financial accounts or even what they're worth, whether it's 401k's, their properties, savings, or investment. And when you don't have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That's why there is Monarch money. It's an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial

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Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes and our summer catch-up series continues today, not to be confused with Heinz ketchup. It's just us getting you back on track as training camp and the preseason approaches. Dan Mews is the head coach of the Pittsburgh. penguins taking over for Mike Sullivan after a decade. And this one, if you kind of forgot or you didn't know, this was a bit of a surprise. There were a lot of names being floated to replace Mike Sullivan. And Dan Mews was not one of those names that was floated.

We were all kind of taken aback by this. But the 42-year-old head coach comes to us, ironically, from the New York Rangers where Mike Sullivan is now the head coach. He was on Lobby-A-Lette staff. He has been mostly an assistant coach in the NHL with the Rangers as well as the Nashville Predators. He's also got a very solid development background with the U.S. National Team Development Program. And at first we were confused. We were like, Dan Muse, who's Dan Muse? Then you read his background, you figure out where he's been, everything he's done, it fits right into the model of what Kyle Dubus and the penguins are trying to do right now. Development, development, and more development. Like this

broke during my beach trip to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. And it was a blast pad. I got to go on my balcony, have my sunglasses on, talk to amuse with you. One of our better episodes of the summer, I feel like, in my opinion. But yeah, his name kind of really came out of nowhere. It first was referenced by Elliot Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast where he had heard that Muse had interviewed in Pittsburgh with the Penguins. That was the first time that he had heard that. And then a couple of days later, literally he was like, oh, yeah, there is words today that Dan Muse is going to be the head coach. So his name came in. It felt like really late because you remember, you know, Mitch Love was one of the big candidates. DJ Smith was another one of the big candidates.

And neither those two got hired. It was Dan Muse. And again, they really want Muse to work with a lot of the young players. He's worked before with Rucker McGority. I'm hoping to see a lot of working together between those two this upcoming season. I want to see him work with Ville Coyvin. I want to see him work with some of these other young players during Trankham, especially, you know, Harrison Brunick, Owen Pickering, Tristan Brose, you know, Archer Sheelaws, etc, et cetera. So there's a really big emphasis on development. And, you know, you look at the staff here, you know, Mike Stothers, he is going to coach the penalty kill for this upcoming season. You have Rich Clune on the staff as well.

Very good development hire, in my opinion. Nick Benino, someone who has been there with the Penguins before, won the Stanley Cups with them. He knows Crosby, Malkin, Latang, and Brian Rust very well. So I like that one a lot. That's his first coaching hire. And then you have Todd Nelson, a very experienced coach, both in the HL and the NHL, who's going to run the power play.

I've said it before. I'll say it again here. It's like a nice mix of variety, right? you have some of the inexperienced coaches that are going to be getting their feet wet for the first time. You know, like a Nick Benino kind of Rich Clune situation. Well, Benino for the first time, Rich Clune has been in development for a little bit, but he's not like super experienced. So I'll kind of put him in that category.

You know, Mike Stothers, he's been around coaching for a long time. So you have a veteran there. And then you also have Todd Nelson, who has also been coaching for a long time as well. You combine all those with Dan Mus who has been coaching for a while but hasn't had an NHL head coaching job. I just think, again, it's a really nice mix of inexperience and very experienced. And I think it forms a nice cohesion for the staff. I want to build off of your point there. Because on paper, before we've had a single whistle blown at training camp,

before we've had a single puck drop of actual hockey, on paper, you hit the nail on the head with this coaching staff. because a lot of teams that are rebuilding will do something like this, where they'll take the chance on the first time head coach, and then they will kind of give the first time head coach autonomy over their staff. We don't really know how much Dan Muse was involved in the process of building out this coaching staff. I assume he was a big part of it because you don't hire a head, coach like this and say, no, no, take a seat. We're going to do the rest of this.

You just stay out of the way. But like you said, it's a good mix of experience and inexperience. But at the same time, when you talk about Todd Nelson, Nick Benino, and Rich Clune, those are three guys that in my estimation are in a good spot for where this roster still is. Because this isn't a full frame-off restoration rebuild of the Pittsburgh Penguins. You still have Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, Chris LaTang, Eric Carlson for the time being, Brian Rust, Ricard Raquel.

They aren't young guys trying to make their mark in the NHL. They are veterans. They have been around the block. And as much as we like to believe that, oh, these guys are the consummate professionals. They'll do whatever it takes. and they're just worried about hockey. If you give them a rookie head coach

and you don't give the rookie head coach any sort of experience on his bench, it'll be real easy for them to tune them out. It might not be, it won't be petulant because that's not the style of any of those guys. They're not going to suddenly turn into divas who tune them out and mutiny him and don't listen to them. But they won't take him as seriously.

But then when you have Todd Nelson, who's been in the NHL for a very long, time. You have Nick Benino who a lot of these guys not only played with, but won championships with. And then you have Rich Clune, who is a journeyman. He's been around the NHL. And when you look at where the Clune part of it is a big, big part to me, you have a lot of prospects who aren't blue chips. They're not the big names. They're not franchise altering. They are guys who are going to have to earn everything that they get in the NHL. And Rich Clune was that guy for his entire career.

Up and down from the AHL and the NHL, played on a lot of different teams and a lot of different organizations, really had to scratch and claw to get everything that he got. He also was very open about his mental health and addiction struggles that he had as a player because of all the pressure that comes with being a pro athlete. So you have a guy on your coaching staff who can really show some of these younger guys that might not be franchise altering players, how to be professionals, how to train, how to get better, not just how to make it to the NHL, but how to stay in the NHL. Right. I like that last point a lot just because of, you know, how long he played and it was

always up and down. He's been in development coach before for the Maple believes he was an assistant coach for the Marleys. He spent last season as assistant coach with the ducks. But still, he doesn't have a ton of experience, but it's just enough to the point where, again, he's continuing to build his resume as an assistant coach. And I'm excited to see what he can do with some of the younger talent here. As for this entire staff,

it's just nice that we're getting a full, fresh new staff that can bring in new, hopefully innovative ideas for this hockey team. It felt like for as much as I still respect Mike Sullivan, I mean, I think he's the greatest coach in Penguin's history. It still felt like it was time for a change. And I'm glad that we have a full new staff in here. Who knows how long they're going to stay here? Like, do I expect the staff to be the exact same when they're competing for championships?

No, I doubt it. But it's still nice that we're getting a fresh staff for this year. Yeah, and we're not going to relitigate the Mike Sullivan discussion. have done that so many times. And I'm with you. I think he's the greatest coach in Penguin's history. When he decides that he no longer wants to coach anymore, he will get inducted into the Hall of Fame. But I look at it this way. And this is the last point we'll make before we get into some surprising news about the Penguins organization. Dan Mews and company, you can kind of tell with the way everybody, whether directly,

or on background have been talking about the Penguins upcoming season, they are going to have the autonomy to be mad scientists. They don't have to stick to one certain system, one certain plan. Everybody knows this is a team in transition that is retooling on the fly, rebuilding whatever you want to call it. So they're going to have the ability to try things. They're going to have the ability to change things.

If you see a line combination that you don't, don't like or that you love, don't get too used to it this year. Unless it is a top line of Crosby and whomever else that's really producing, chances are they're not going to be around or together very often because you're going to try a bunch different things. They want to give the young players a shot. They want to give the new guys a shot. So you're going to see a lot of different combinations, a lot of different experiments. And to bring it all together, you have a good mix on your staff of experience, inexperience, new, old, young, whatever you want to call it, it's exciting. I know that this season doesn't have the highest of hopes, but there's a lot of possibilities for

what could happen to this team in this upcoming season. Oh, for sure. I mean, you might have that new coach bump that every team has, at least for a little bit before maybe it goes to practice because I don't expect this team to be that good, but they're still going to be positives this season. It's not going to be a season full of, you know, just negative. negativity and rancid vibes and just, you know, being in the basement and all that stuff, like you're going to see, you know, the best players do awesome things. I think you're going

to see some of the younger players also show that they belong in the NHL. And again, you know, team results wise, it may not be the best, but I'm still really looking for a lot of good individual performances this year as well. So those are some of the positives that I'm going to be trying to take from each game this season, even if they, you know, lose more games than they win. Which I think both of us are kind of expecting to be a thing. But obviously, that's why they play the game. The game's not played on paper. We'll see what happens.

But that'll do it for this portion of our summer catch-up meeting the new Penguins coaching staff. When we come back, one of our listeners from Fan Take Friday put something out into the universe and now we're going to have to deal with it. The Penguins will have a familiar voice on their radio network this upcoming season. Hunter and I are going to talk about that when we come back right after this. Before we do that though, we've got to tell you about today's second sponsor and that is Fandall.

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So if you're ready to play, download the Fandul app now by visiting fandul.com get started. That's fandul.com to place your first $5 bet. All right, closing out the Wednesday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes and our good friend and listener, Maddie NCS on YouTube, asked us this question for Fan Take Friday last week. And we will bring back Fan Take Friday this Friday. It's going to be a recurring segment. we love hearing from our listeners.

But Maddie NCS on YouTube said this to us on Friday. I'd like to hear your thoughts on Pierre McGuire. Haven't seen him in a while. I always thought he stood too close to people during interviews and said odd things. Well, Maddie, you're going to get a lot more Pierre McGuire this season because Penguins Live tweeted that Pierre McGuire will be joining the Penguins Broadcasting team on the radio side for pre and post game analysis multiple times this year joining Brian Metzer and Paul Staggerwald at certain moments.

So Pierre McGuire, welcome back to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pat, I just got to say I got to use that other meme of, you know, Homer Simpson sleeping with his eyes closed on the pillow. I got to use that on Twitter again today. and it's just like, why? Why do we got to do this? Here's the thing. I'm going to reiterate what I said to Maddie on Friday about this question.

This is actually a good format for Pierre McGuire. As a between the benches guy, it didn't work. You're between the bench's guy has to be a relatable personality. even if it's, I know that people get annoyed by the former player just instantly getting the broadcasting gig. But if you're going to do the between the benches thing, you've got to be somebody who has been there, somebody who has been a part of that player or otherwise. And yes, I know Pierre McGuire was a coach in the 90s, but that it was, we can finally say this in 2025. As a millennial, I get to say this. That was a long time ago. So like,

It was past him. But if you go back into the archives and you watch Pierre McGuire, whether it's on Sportsnet, TSN, NBC, wherever, as an in-studio analyst, he's pretty solid. He does his work. He understands the game. He understands context. And it's a bit of a longer form for him because that is kind of always been his problem. is when he was between the benches guy.

He was long-winded. And when you're watching a game, whether it's right before action starts and when action begins, you eventually go, all right, Pierre, wrap it up here. We got to call the game. But when you're in studio doing pre-and-post-game analysis, you get more time to talk about what you saw,

what you think, and what comes next. So we'll see how he works out. But for the kind of broadcast that Pierre McGuire is, this is a better format for him. Better format, yes. Am I going to really take what he says, you know, go crazy about it?

Eh, like, I'm probably going to take most of what he says with a grain of salt, like I kind of did when he was between the benches. You know, I will say, Pat, we're going to get to hear Christopher Latang every five seconds because he kept saying that when he was on the NHL and NBC. And now that he works for the Penguins and he'll do 41 games for, pre and post game shows this season. We are going to get to hear him say that all the freaking time. And I don't know.

I always felt like his analysis when he was the color commentator for NBC was lackluster. Maybe he has learned from that. Who knows? But I just can't bring myself to get excited about this. Like I love Mets, friend of the show, good friend in real life as well. He is fantastic. Staggy. I've met him a couple of times.

He's also really nice. But, you know, Pierre, again, I just can't find myself to get excited about it. But I do get your point, though. I think this is a better format for him. Whether he succeeds, that's TBD. I don't have high hopes. I'm probably not going to pay attention to it that much unless someone,

you know, quote tweets or retweet something. So, yeah, it's, it's the best way to put it. It's fine. I'd rather him do this than being the color commentator next to Joe brand. That's how I see it. Because, I mean, I love Joe. I've met him a couple times as well. really nice, great play-by-play on the radio.

But I'd rather someone else be next to him in the booth during the color commentary than Pierre. So if you're comparing the two roles, I'd rather him do pre and post game shows. Yep. You nailed it. And sure, you've met Joe Brand. Stop. I don't look like Joe Brand that much.

Anyone out there that thinks I do, you seek help. Yeah. But that's going to do it for our Wednesday edition of. Locked on Penguins Hunter and I. We will be back on Thursday with a brand new episode. We'll continue our summer catch-up series for anything you may have missed over the summer as well as anything that may happen between now and then. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp.

Thank you as always for tuning in. And we will be back on Thursday.