Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins prospects SHINE in Buffalo with a tournament victory!

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ prospects had themselves a solid weekend, earning a three-peat at the prospects challenge! Hunter and Patrick begin the show with the two biggest standouts from the Penguins' performance at the prospects challenge: Avery Hayes and Tristan Broz. They break down their play, what it means, and where it puts them in the Penguins’ pipeline. Then, they dive into a couple of more players who looked good at the camp, including a feisty defenseman in Quinn Beauchesne, and a few others. Finally, Sidney Crosby spoke out at season ticket delivery on Monday, giving a pretty heated rebuke to his agent and the trade rumors.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/lockedonright now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. 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.

For a third consecutive year, the Pittsburgh Penguins have won the Prospects challenge. Who stood out during these three games? Pat and I are going to discuss that right after this. Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes.

You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by the birthday boy himself, Patrick Dam, you can follow him on all social media platforms at Senator Mruwet. You can follow the show's Twitter at L.O. Understore Penguins. And you can follow us on Instagram at Locked On underscore Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first lesson slash watch today. We are free and available on all platforms. So Pat, the Penguins finished the Prospect Challenge with a 2 and 0 and 1 record, good enough to win the event for the third straight year.

We got to give a round of applause, a small one for that. and we're going to get into some of our big standouts. And I think the main two that come to mind right away, my friend, Tristan Brose and Avery Hayes. Avery Hayes just dominated this competition, was very much a man against boys. He was living in the offensive zone. Literally every single shift he was getting chances. Every single shift he was scoring at will, had four goals in these three games, seven points total in these three games.

It was clear to me that he was too good. for this competition. He had a good season in Wilkesbury this past season. And I know I'm not trying to overreact to this type of tournament just because it's only three games. They're kind of like exhibition games, but they still mean more than development camp. But he's going to try to really ride this momentum going into training camp to show the management and the coaching staff that I'm here and I'm going to try to push for an NHL job. He may not get it. I don't think he will, but he may be able to potentially show everyone that I will be deserving

of a call up at some point during this upcoming season. The same goes with Tristan Brose to me. He looks like he has his entire confidence back after watching these three games. Obviously, we all know he had a really bad case of Mono last year that knocked him out for a bit. He was able to come back, get nine points in his last 10 games, was really good in the playoffs. He's able to carry that over into Prospect Challenge, Pat, and he has all this confidence. he looks like he did before he got Mono last year where he was playing really well in the AHAL.

And I put him in the same category as Avery Hayes where he's also going to try and show management the coaching staff that I have what it takes to make this team. And like Hayes, I think it's a little bit of a long shot right now just because of a lot of forwards ahead of him. But also like Hayes, I think he can show that maybe he can be a call up option during the season. But these two, definitely my biggest standouts of this prospect challenge. By a mile, they were.

both on another level for all three games. It was clear they were three of the best players, or two of the best players, excuse me, on the ice for those games. And this is something that is going to be a big part or needs to be a big part of the Penguins rebuild is finding these diamonds in the rough. Now, I'm not going to crown Avery Hayes as the next one yet, but when you're an undrafted, 22 year old, he'll be 23 right as the NHL season gets going. And you dominate a tournament like this when you're surrounded by a bunch of homegrown draft picks in the organization. That's a big, big step.

And it's how you rebuild an organization like the Penguins, where we're still waiting for that top five-ish pick in the NHL draft, that they're definitely lacking right now. So you look at his game and the way he played, really making a name for himself, rising his stock within the organization. And then for bros, this is a guy that you and I have been excited about for quite a while now.

And you could see that there was a bit of a before and after when he went down with mono, because if you've ever had mono or known someone who has mono, it damn near paralyzes you. You don't do anything. There's no like riding the bike while you get back from injury. There's no working out where you're not injured while you have mono. You're bedridden basically because it zaps you of all your energy and you're really not able to do anything.

And you could see it was a bit of a long road back for him. But to see the way he performed in this tournament over three games is a very positive sign. and you look at who's going to be on the fringes going into training camp and throughout the season. If these guys perform well in training camp, they're going to be very close to the top of the list for guys who are going to get a call when injuries are underperformances happen throughout the year. Right. I agree with both of those.

And again, I'm excited to get to see them at camp, which starts this Thursday. Another player that especially caught my eye today after he was a little bit quiet. to start the camp was first-round pick Ben Kindle. I thought this was the prototypical Ben Kindle game where he's using his hockey IQ to his advantage. That's probably my favorite part of his game. There was one sequence where it looked like he had eyes in the back of his head, no look past a spring of two-on-one where the Penguins almost scored.

He got a couple of goals in this game as well right around the net front, which he utilizes his release pretty well when he wants to, but he does have that ability to go to the greasy areas and get some dirty as well. He also had a couple of assists. He finishes the tournament. Two goals, five assists, at least by my stats that I had written down in my notes. I thought those was by far his best game.

And I know some people don't notice some of the things he does on the ice, but that's by design because his hockey IQ is just beyond, I think, anyone in this system. That's the biggest standout for me away from the numbers for Kendall watching these three. of games is that he processes the game very well. He sees the ice very well. And there's not a lot of panic in his game. And you know that in a prospect challenge where you're playing three games with a bunch of players that you don't know, you're not all that familiar with.

There's some familiarity for a few of these guys on all teams because they've been together either with the AHL clubs, the ECHL clubs, or some of them are together in junior. But at the end of the day, this isn't a coherent put together team that you're spending all your time with, you're practicing with, you're playing games with, you're developing together. So for Kindle to take what should be a pretty chaotic type of game in a pretty chaotic type of tournament and to play a calm game and to play a good game where he's, seeing the ice well, he's distributing the puck well, he's rarely out of position.

You couple that with his junior stats from last year of 99 points, and you see the makings of what could be a pretty solid NHL player should he continue to develop because, like we said, when we were getting ready for this last week, you obviously don't want to read too much into it, especially the stats and the game results. Like we're going to give some snaps and some claps for them winning this for the third year in a row. But can't really do anything with three straight prospect challenge wins. It's really nothing. But you see these individual performances,

especially for somebody like Kindle, and you see the way that they control the game, the way they play the game. And it shows you that they made a smart pick for now. If he continues to develop, it's a player that we're seeing a lot of upside for. Right. And I want to see him also carry that momentum into at least a little bit of training him before he gets sent back to his junior team for this year.

And I'm excited to see what he can do at his junior team this year. 99 points last year. Does he hit the 100 point mark this year? Does he continue? Excuse me to build on that. I'm going to be really trying to tune into some more of his games this year just because when he's on, he really is a blast to watch. Again, the hockey IQ people, it's out of this world, in my opinion.

But I think that I'll do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to discuss a few more players who we thought stood out, including defenseman Quinn Bouchain, because he almost had a Gordy Howe hat trick in the first game. And I think he's going to become a fan favorite pretty quickly. So stay tuned for that coming up here in the second segment. Before we get to that, though,

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Just go to Indeed.com slash Lockdown right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, Indeed is all you need. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host Patronamp and Pat. Quinn Bouchain was so fun to watch during the prospect. challenge. And as I teased going into it, just with the snarl that he played with, the skating ability, and some of the offense that he can create, I think if he develops properly, I think he could be a fan favorite if he reaches the NHL. This is a player that I think was taken two to three rounds

later than he should have gone just because I think some teams felt like he was a bit undersized. You watch him skate. It's breathtaking. I don't mean that as an overreaction. It's just he's that good of a skater kind of reminds me of Harrison Brunick a little bit in a way. He absolutely unleashed a canon of a slap shot during today's game after Sergey Muroshov made a really big save to keep it at 4-3 before the Penguins kind of ice the game with that Bouchango, goal, excuse me, he got in a couple of fights. He got an assist again during Friday's game. He had an assist in a fight.

Just one goal shy of a Gordy Hal Hattrick almost scored a goal later on in that game. We didn't really get to talk about it that much just because we were going into the weekend. but I was a really big fan of his game. He wasn't out of position in his own zone. He was skating well. He brought the offense. He brought the skating ability. And he showed that he could really fight when he needed to.

He answered the call when Ben Kendall got a bit roughed up along the boards. He said, hey, you're not going to hit my teammate like that, especially a prospect that was picked 11th overall. And he had the player that hit him answer for it. So again, I know some of my takes on fighting fans disagree with, and I get it. But I did like that he stood up for his teammate there. and I think he had a really good camp. I have to reference our good friend, Jesse Marshall, here,

because not long after the draft, Jesse was doing his thing where he's breaking film down of all of the Penguins picks. And I get a text from him on Sunday, June 29th. I have it pulled up on my computer here so I can make sure I get the date, right? He texts me at 1130 at night and says, as I am watching this Bouchain video, for some reason, I keep thinking Pat is going to love this guy.

I text him back in the morning because I was sleeping. And I said, oh, now I have to know why. He never got back to me. But no big deal. He's a busy guy. I mean, that's sincerely. He's one of the busiest people we know. Sometimes his phone is in a metaphorical ocean because he's doing a million things.

But watching him in the prospect tournament, Jesse, you're damn right. I love this kid. And I'm right there with you. on all the fighting stuff. I am vocal about I don't like that players will fight and jump players for clean hits. But what happened in that moment was not a clean hit. That was boarding. And Bouchain, no hesitation to say, you're not going after my guy like that.

But it's not all that he does. He plays with an edge, but he's a very good skater. He's got solid vision. And he has that added element. And I say this all the time. You have to have a thing, right, to become a mainstay in the NHL, which obviously that's so far down the road for Quinn Bouchain, but it's a good starting block of, okay, so we know this guy can skate well.

We know this guy has some okay vision. Just about everybody has that these days. The way the game is trained, the way the game is taught and coached. You have to be a good skater. you have to be able to see the ice. But what else can you do? The way he played, he didn't back down. He was willing to fight.

He was willing to be physical. That's a good thing to have in your game now. We see the way the game is trending. You're going to have to have some players who, quite simply, are psychos. They're not going to be afraid to go into the corner. They're not going to be afraid to step up. They're not going to be afraid to go after guys when they need to.

And for Bouchain, he's all six feet. By NHL standards, he's not that big. But the fact that he had no fear, he was playing with an edge, and he was standing out in a weekend where you have to stand out, he certainly did. 100%. I also thought Villei Kovinen was good enough in the two games that he played. I don't really think he had much to learn there just because we kind of know,

mostly, like we saw how good he was at the initial. level at the end of the year. And yeah, I know that was a small sample size, seven points and eight games, but I still felt like he is too good for this type of competition. So he very much looked apart. It wasn't as dominant as, say, like a Tristan Bros or every ace, but he still made some plays with the puck, especially during Friday's game where I'm like, okay, he's kind of just toying with some of these players on the ice. So I felt like he was, he looked apart and he's going to have obviously a great chance to make this team. I think he should make this team coming out of training camp. And a couple more I do want to get to. I discussed Harrison Brunick a little bit, patis skating.

is just breathtaking the way that he can, you know, walk the blue line, the way that he controls the puck on his stick in the offensive zone when he jumps into the play. It's really nice. I thought his tournament was totally fine to me. But I'd also want to focus on the two goalies before I hand this back to you. We wrap up the Prospects challenge. I thought both Sergei Murashov and Gabriel Deg, I think that's how you pronounce his last name, by the way. I thought both of them were fairly solid. I know Dade gave up the five goals and the overtime loss on Sunday.

I'm not really going to blame him for a lot of those goals. they were just bad circumstance, bad luck. He made a lot of big saves in the third period when the Penguins were trying to protect that lead before the Blue Jacket scored with a little over three minutes left, I believe. But you can see the talent is very much there. His movement is very good. It just sucks that he plays on a really bad Victoriaville team in the QMJHL.

His team won 17 games last year. They were one of the worst teams in the league. If you put them on a better team, I think his numbers would improve quite a bit. Goleys are very voodoo. know that. I'm not saying that he's going to make it to the NHL. Like, let's pump the brakes here. But I do think this is a more talented goalie than the numbers show.

And I thought like he was good. Sergei Moroshov, he did his thing, started the first half of Friday's game, Pat, pitched a shoutout, 11 saves. And then today gave up a few goals, but thought he made some really big saves, especially in the third period on Healyannis before Bouchain got the, basically the game-clinching goal to make it 5.3. I thought Maroshaub was also good today. And we know that he's going to be in contention to starting Wilkesbury this year.

So those are just a few more. players they don't want to highlight. Not a lot to say about Coivinin or Mershov. They looked and were the part that we expected them to be when we previewed this last week. You could tell Coivinen was probably the best player on the ice. And it feels like the coaching staff was kind of like, in regards to his talent, like he obviously had players that were performing better, but it kind of felt like the development staff and the coaching staff were like, we know what you are. We just wanted to make sure, have fun out there. And then same with Maryshov. He was a very, he was very, very good. For Deg, I look at him the same way you do. I think he's a complete victim

of circumstance in the queue. He's on a team that he's getting next to no help. And you said they won 17 games last year. If there, if he's not there, they might not win 10 because he was kind of the only stand out on that team. And you could see it in this camp. When he's with more talent, when he's with a better team, you have a better shot to win. Now, he's got a long way to go considering where the Penguins organization is with goaltending between Murashov, Blumquish, Shilovs, and a couple of others. But again, you can never have too many, especially in a rebuild like this, because

either somebody falters and they're not as good as you thought they were kind of like and I don't mean he's bad now so don't take it as that someone like Blumquist who we had a lot of high hopes for then Murashav comes on to the scene they get Sheelovs and it's like okay he's still pretty good but his stock is dropping and if she loves turns out to not be as good as we hope that can be an opportunity for him and then there's always the other option with where we're at in this rebuild. There's only one net and you can only play one goalie. If you need to kickstart a rebuild and you see a team that needs some help organizationally and goaltending, you've got some trade chips as well.

But I liked his game a lot. One other one that I was, I don't want to go too far, but he stood out a bit to me as Finn Harding. I thought he had a solid tournament. again, he was not among the best of the best or a standout, but it was one of those tournaments where I wanted to see a little bit from Harding, and I got what I wanted. I think he's got a nice little future, hopefully, in the organization, should he develop? But overall, I think when, if we want to wrap this up about the development in prospect

tournament, I liked a lot of what I saw from a lot of the big names that were keeping a focus on. and you have to hope that this is both a starting point for them to have a good training camp and for them to continue to the momentum, whether it's in college or back in junior or for some of them in the American League where we're really starting to see some of them take the next step toward being contributors at the NHL level. Right. You know, Finn Harding, stats really popped off in his final season and junior. You know, he's obviously going to take it to the next level, play in Wilkesbury

or willing this year. So I'm just curious to see how that translates just because his offense really popped. So I thought he was okay. Didn't stand out as much as the others, but I don't think he was. Right. Like I said, I don't want it to sound like I'm caping for Finn Harding here. I wanted to see him basically what you said. I wanted to see him take some of what he did in junior and translate it to a quote unquote

pro game because obviously this was not a pro game but he didn't look out of place that was the that was the biggest question i had with him how much of this junior performance is real and how much of it is he's just one of the best players in a league where he's going to have to take the next step and we'll see what happens when he gets the chance either in wheeling or wilkes bear but from what i saw him out of him in these three games there's a flicker of hope there that when he gets to the pro game he's in it all the time he develops and has that time to adjust to it. I think we could see a nice, hopefully one day NHL contributor in Harding. Right.

I hear you. I know I've read from a lot of different places that the organization is pretty high on Finn Harding. Again, we just have to see how his game translates to the pro level before we, you know, get too far ahead of ourselves. But I think that'll do it for the second segment of today's show. Coming up to end the show, Cindy Crosby was delivering season tickets to the season ticket holders today. And it looks like he called out his agent, Pat Prasahn, pretty bad.

So we're going to discuss those comments right after this. Before we get to that, though, we have to tell you all about her second sponsor, and that is Fandall. The NFL season is here. And Fandall is making sure you are ready for kickoff with a can't miss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you will get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love using Fandul because it fits however you like to bet, player props, building a same game parlay, or even jumping in live as the action unfolds. It makes every game more exciting, whether you're watching your team or just keeping an eye on your fantasy lineup. It's quick, easy, and the best way to add a little more energy

to your football Sunday. So, are you ready to play? If so, download the Fandle app right now by visiting Fandual.com to get started. That's Fandle.com to place your first $5 bet. All right, we're back here for the final segment of today's episode. I'm one of your host, Sons or Hodes. That's my co-s, Patch Jam, and Pat. Cindy Crosby, once again, was not happy to feel these questions about his future. I have been saying that on the show, he does not like talking about this, and you could really feel his words while reading it. Like, you can see how upset he was that he has to keep answering questions about his

future. And, you know, one of the biggest quotes that stood out to me, this comes from West Crosby of NHL.com. He says, Crosby on if he was surprised to hear Pat Bresson's comments last week, which we talked about. He goes, I was, and I think Pat knows how much I put into it, how much I love it, and how much I want to be in the playoffs. You know, whether those quotes were taken for what they were, or there was a different

question to get put into those quotes. I don't know. I don't know the backstory. Pat and I didn't have a conversation prior to him, you know, talking when he did. So, Pat, you and I discussed this a bit last week where I kind of put the thought out there that I don't think person would have made those comments if he didn't get the okay from Sid. I will take the L on that.

Obviously, I was completely wrong. You know, we both were completely wrong about that, I should say. So we apologize to everyone about that. But it was pretty damning here to see Sid really called Rassan out like that. And like, hey, I didn't give you the okay to say that. And I'm sick and tired of these rumors. He confirmed once again, he wants to be a Pittsburgh penguin. He doesn't want to go anywhere.

And that's that. I'm sure that Canadian media is going to try to spin it every which way, is that is what they do. You hear it every freaking time on 32 thoughts. You hear it from pure LeBron and Darren Dregor and all these other places where they just can't get enough of it. He doesn't want to go anywhere. And that's not going to change. If it somehow does, I'll take the L on it, just like I took the L on what I said last week. But you know what? It's probably not going to change. And the outside of NHL people need to deal with it. So I really liked what said today, man. There's a lot more quotes out there. You guys are going to check them out on social

media. I just wanted to discuss the main ones, but he was not happy with his agent today. I'm going to not take an L because I still stand on what I said about this last week. I believe it was our, yeah, it was our Friday episode for Fan Take Friday. And basically the question that we took was basically wasn't even a question. It was a take basically saying that until we hear from Sid directly, I'm not buying into any of this. And what do you know, today we hear directly from Sid. And that is there. He's, he was not happy. Like you said, that the quote was very damning that he basically said to Brissan, I didn't tell you to say this. I don't want you to say this. So that's,

that's something to keep an eye on. But I, I will stick with what I said in part of, I do think there is a bit of a coded message behind it. And it's not the message of, I'm unhappy. I don't like this rebuild. Trade me now. I'm tired of losing. Well, I think a lot of that's true. You know he's tired of losing. You know he wants to be in the playoffs.

You know he wants to compete for a Stanley Cup. I still do think that there is very much a valid argument there of them saying, we need to see some progress in this rebuild. Because the last two years, let's be completely honest here, the penguins have been stuck in neutral. they have been kind of just spinning their tires. They haven't really gotten a lot better. Without a doubt, they haven't gotten a lot better because they keep missing the playoffs.

They also haven't really gotten a lot worse. They've just kind of been a middling team, a middling team that's not really that bad, but also isn't that good. And I think that they are saying to the organization and to Kyle Dubis, the next year or two, we need to see these young, It builds into what you and I were just talking about for two segments. We need to see these young guys starting to progress. We need to see these prospects start becoming NHL players and not prospects anymore.

Because you can see there's some talent there. You can see that there's some potential there. But eventually that potential needs to become real. It needs to become a team that can use some of these guys on Sid's wing, can use some of these guys on maybe not Gino's wing. wing, we'll see what happens with him. But what are you going to do for a second line center if Gino retires? What are you going to do to fill out the rest of the depth?

Because we know that there's a lot of old players forward on the penguin's roster right now. So at some point, I think that, yeah, Sid's mad that basically Brasson kicked the door open to, oh yeah, we could totally demand a trade. And Sid was like, hold on, man, I'm not demanding a trade. but I do think they're in sync of we're getting a little tired of not being in the playoffs. And if we don't see progress toward the playoffs in the next couple years, might be time for us to explore other options. Well, again, I'll believe it when I see it when it comes to that because I know what Sid signed up for.

And I don't think he's going to request out. I just don't see that happening ever. Stranger things have happened. I just don't see it. I'm just glad that Sid talked about it. hopefully this is the last time he talks about it for quite a while again he doesn't like talking about it you can see how upset he was when he kept getting questions about it but this time at least i understood where some of the other reporters were coming from because this was such a big story last

week and this is the first time he's talked to like the pittsburgh media in a while so they kind of had no choice but to ask him about this but hopefully now that this is out of the way we don't need to keep hearing about this anymore again i'm sure the canadian media will try to spin it the way that they want to just because that's how it is up there. I just don't want to hear it about it for a while because I think right now with what he said, it's a non-story until it becomes a story. We don't need to talk about it. Again, I hate talking about this and hopefully this is the last time that Pat and I get

to discuss this for a while. But unless Pat you got anything else, I think that's going to do it for today's episode of a locked on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much to take the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Tuesday. Remember people, training camp starts. This Thursday, it's going to get a lot of fun. It's going to be competitive.

I'll be there for each training camp practice starting on Thursday. I'm going to bring a detailed report to every episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast starting that day. Pretty excited about it. So for Patrick Ham, I am Hunter Hodes. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. We'll be back on Tuesday.