Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins reportedly set to hire David Quinn as Todd Reirden's replacement

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

We've got some news! The Pittsburgh Penguins, according to a report from Arthur Staple, are hiring David Quinn to replace Todd Reirden on Mike Sullivan's staff. Hunter and Patrick discuss what this hi...ring means, why they have reportedly landed on Quinn as a replacement, and if he can help the power play. They also discuss how Quinn can help Erik Karlsson after Karlsson had the best season of his career under him during the 2022-23 season. They look at if he can unleash Karlsson a bit more on the power play and also whether he can help some of the younger players. Finally, the two discuss Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final and how the Florida Panthers smothered the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night. They also look at how Evan Rodrigues continues to play his tail off for the Panthers after a two-goal performance and how the Penguins continue to look foolish for letting him go. All of that, plus much more, is on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.Ultimate Hockey GMEver dreamed of becoming an NHL GM and managing your hockey franchise? Ultimate Hockey GM is completely free and playable offline, play on the go, as you want and when you want to. Locked On listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo LOCKEDONNHL in the game store. To download the game just visit hockeygm.app or look it up on the app stores. Ultimate Hockey GM - Start your dynasty today! PolicygeniusCheck life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonnhl to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET. That’sTWO HUNDRED BUCKS you can use to bet everything from the Finals MVP to who's going to hit one out of the park!Visit FANDUEL.COM/LOCKEDONand add a big win to your summer bucket list!  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.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 The Pittsburgh Penguins are reportedly set to hire David Quinn to the Todd Reardon's replacement. Is that a good hire? Pat and I are going to discuss that right after this. You're Locked-on Penguin. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunts or Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my host,
Starting point is 00:00:34 Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Send him for Wet, and you can follow the show's Twitter at L.O underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by. Fans will make every moment more right now.
Starting point is 00:00:53 New customers get $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. Visit fandal.com slash locked on to get started. So we do have some news to cover to start off today's episode as Arthur Staple of the Athletic. He covers the Rangers and the Islanders for the Athletic. He has reported that David Quinn will be joining the Pittsburgh Penguins coaching staff and take the place of Todd Bearden. So I can't lie.
Starting point is 00:01:22 When I first saw that news, when I woke up this morning, I was a bit underwhelmed. I kind of had the meh reaction. I still kind of have that reaction. But I'm still very much going to give this a chance. I'm not just going to write them off, even though as an NHL head coach, he has not done a good job with both the Rangers and the Sharks. With three seasons with the Rangers, he went 96, 87, 25, and then obviously two seasons with the sharks. They were one of the worst teams in the league, especially this year they were the worst team in the league. 372 games as an NHL head coach, 137, 185, and 50.
Starting point is 00:01:58 Thankfully, though, Pat, the Penguins aren't hiring him to be their head coach. He's going to be an assistant. but the one thing that I will take as a positive from his tenure with both teams is his power play work. With the Rangers, two of those years, that unit was right around league average the other year. It was a top 10 unit. This past year with the sharks, it was a little bit below average. It finished at 20.2% their power play. That's good for 21st in the league.
Starting point is 00:02:27 I mean, I would take that for the Penguins as you're considering how awful their power play was. So again, I still am feeling a bit meh about it just because I don't think he's someone that's going to put a lot of pressure on Mike Sullivan. I also think there were better options available, but I'm still very much going to give him a chance. I will too. I, you know, like you, I'm not overly excited about this hire. It's fine. If it's true also, because it is a report from Arthur Staple. That's the only one I've seen as of about 11 o'clock Tuesday morning.
Starting point is 00:03:00 So this could all be for nothing, but Arthur Staples a pretty reliable source when it comes to news. So I'm willing to believe this one. At the same time, there's really not a whole lot to lose here with Quinn. I know that he's not a very good head coach. You went over his record. It's 137, 185, and 50 as a head coach in the National Hockey League, which is decidedly bad. but at the same time, we've talked about this a lot on this show when it comes to re-hires, retreads, whatever you want to call them.
Starting point is 00:03:37 I want to see what a guy does when he gets put in a lesser role, because the Rangers, they took a chance on a guy who was fairly successful at the collegiate level with Boston University. He makes the jump, doesn't do all that well. And then he goes to the San Jose Sharks, who were just, flawed right off the rip. I mean, that was a team that really had no actual direction. They had Eric Carlson, a couple other players, and really nothing else to write home about. And I got to give a shout out to Dan Hopper for this one, a great follow on Twitter.
Starting point is 00:04:17 Very cold-blooded move by the sharks this year, whose stated goal was to tank and get the first overall pick to get Macklin Celebrini. they successfully do that and they go thanks for the tank David see ya I do find that hilarious that they just totally canned him after they had the goal he accomplished that goal and then like oh we're going in different direction we're going to go hire a new coach it really is funny to me that they did that is the one thing I will say that is a bit confusing for me when it comes to the sharks portion of it he was a fairly solid collegiate coach which tells me he's not bad at working with young talent.
Starting point is 00:04:58 And that's what San Jose is about to be for the next few years. They're going to be a team that is trying to develop and bring along young, good players into their system. Does that mean he's the guy to get them over the hump? Who knows? Probably not. But it's weird to me that they let him go for that. But bringing it back to the penguins, I'm curious to see what he does.
Starting point is 00:05:22 Like you said, I mean, most of the time he's been in the NHL. the teams he's been with New York and San Jose, they've hovered around league average except for one year on the power play, which as we know for the penguins this year would have likely got them into the playoffs if they were just average on the power play. So we'll see. And I'm not going to get upset about this. I'm not going to do backflips over it.
Starting point is 00:05:47 It's a fine hire. And we still don't know what the penguins are going to do with Volucci. His contract is expired. and while they fired Reardon, they have not said anything of what's going to happen with Volucci. So there may be another opening on the bench. That's true. It is weird that they really haven't announced anything when it comes to Volucci at all. But as long as Quinn just brings in some fresh, new innovative ideas for the power play,
Starting point is 00:06:14 I'll be happy about that. I'm not going to get so upset about this move or anything like that. There were some interesting overreactions on social media when I saw this move. And again, people, I know, I'm a little bit underwhelmed. I feel kind of me about it, but I'm still very much going to give it a shot. I'm not mad or anything. I just felt like the penguins could have done maybe a little bit better. But you know what?
Starting point is 00:06:35 It seems like they've made their choice and everyone's going to have to live with it. And also, I'm going to give a shout out to you because when Reardon was fired, you brought up David Quinn as someone who could replace him on the staff because of his ties to Mike Sullivan. And they go back quite a long way. and that brings up my reference here. You've seen the Phantom Menace Star Wars, right? Yes.
Starting point is 00:06:58 Do you remember the scene when Viceroy Newt Gunray is talking to Darth Sidious and then Darth Maul shows up and he's like, this is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them. Well, that's basically what we have here because Mike Sullivan and David Quinn, they both look alike and they sound alike. So I had to bring a Star Wars connection into this. But overall, I did have to give a shout out to you
Starting point is 00:07:20 because you kind of called this a little over a month ago. I mean, we know how the NHL operates at this point. A lot of it, and this isn't just the NHL, it's really professional sports in general. A lot of it is who you know. A lot of it is what connections do you make. And I mean, realistically, that's the way of the world at this point. It's who you know, not what you know. And we know how well respected Mike Sullivan is in the NHL.
Starting point is 00:07:50 You can have your opinions on them. You can have your thoughts on them. God knows we do. But when you talk to players in the NHL, players who have played for them, other coaches in the National Hockey League, they have a lot of respect for Mike Sullivan. And it's no secret that David Quinn and Mike Sullivan are friends. Back when the NHL rights were still with NBC,
Starting point is 00:08:13 they did a feature on how these two go back. They played for BU in the United States. the 80s together. They were on one of those really good Boston University teams. And then when Quinn was looking to make the jump from the NCAA to the professional ranks, his confidant was Mike Sullivan. Mike Sullivan gave him a lot of counsel on what he needed to know, what he should expect and what happens when you become an NHL coach.
Starting point is 00:08:43 So these guys have deep ties together. And I know that annoys a lot of people. And I understand it. I get it. It is annoying that there is a lot of, I don't want to say nepotism because that's not the right word, but a lot of, hey, if you know this guy, it can get you jobs.
Starting point is 00:09:01 But that makes for a little bit better of a working environment. And these are two highly competitive people. They're not just going to sit together in their office at the Lemieux Complex or PPG paints arena and just agree with each other for hours at a time. They're going to challenge one another. They're going to have different ideas. You look at the way San Jose in New York played under David Quinn and you look at the way the penguins have played under Mike Sullivan.
Starting point is 00:09:26 They are not all that similar. They play different styles. They were different types of teams. So this is going to be a different perspective on Mike Sullivan's staff. Yeah, I agree with you. And he'll also get to work with the defenseman on this team, including Eric Carlson, who he worked with for a season before he got traded to the penguins. And I'm legitimately excited about that just because of how.
Starting point is 00:09:48 how great Carlson was under Quinn during the 2022, 2022, 23 season. Carlson had the best season of his career, over 100 points, won the Norris. Now, what can he do under Quinn once this hire becomes official? And we're going to continue more of that discussion in the second segment and how maybe Quinn can unleash Carlson a little bit more on the power play. But before we get to that, we have to get to our first sponsor, and that is policy genius. A lot of life is unpredictable, but a good life insurance plan gives your family a financial safety net to protect against some of the unknowns. PolicyGenius is the country's leading online insurance marketplace.
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Starting point is 00:11:07 of five-store reviews on Google and Trust pilot from customers who have found the best fit for their needs. Get peace of mind by finding the right life insurance with policy genius. Head to policy genius.com or click the link in the description to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you can save. That's policy genius.com. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hodes joined by my co-host Patrick Damp. So, Pat, as I tease to end the first segment, I am excited about what Carlson can do with David Quinn, considering how Carlson played under him during the 2022-2020 season. Yes, I know the sharks really only had offense when Carlson was on the ice. It's not going to be like that here. The Penguins,
Starting point is 00:11:49 obviously with Crosby, Malkin, Latang, et cetera, et cetera. But I do think if this hire gets made official, Quinn could unleash Carlson a little bit more on the powerplay. One of the things that was really wanting to see a bit more of on the power play this past season was Carlson not be so hesitant on the power play. He never fully wanted to be that quarterback at times. I mean, he was the de facto quarterback, but he never really took charge on that unit. I want Quinn to go in there and have Carlson take charge and have him be like, okay, this is going to go through me at the point and I'm going to run the show. Because it also felt like at times he was too hesitant to shoot it. He was too hesitant with a lot of his decision making.
Starting point is 00:12:37 I want to see a little bit of that cleaned up heading into his second season with the Penguins. And I do think Quinn could unlock him a little bit more on that power play. Clearly this hire, should it become official, tells me more so than before, that they are very committed to making Eric Carlson work with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Because like you said, the Norris winning season in San Jose for Eric Carlson was transcendent. And yes, you can say what you will about the whole, oh, he was the only source of offense they had. that's totally fair but even though he's the only source of offense you don't accidentally stumble into a hundred point season
Starting point is 00:13:23 that doesn't just happen you don't because there's the old adage in hockey of with bad oh well somebody's got to score on the bad teams do they because they're bad teams like there's not some minimum amount of points or goals that somebody has to hit on a team every year for it to count. There are bad teams who have guys who barely break 30 to 40 points. And Eric Carlson clearly had some sort of a good working relationship with David Quinn.
Starting point is 00:13:54 And David Quinn was able to unlock something even more in Eric Carlson in San Jose to the point where he wins another Norris trophy. He has his best statistical season of his career. So clearly there's something here that works. And I'm with you on the power play thing. If nothing else, David Quinn or whomever else they hire as an assistant coach to work on the power play needs to just go in and say, it is Eric Carlson's show. He runs this power play. He is the quarterback. It goes through him. And then they need to sit down with Carlson himself and say, you do not need to be deferential to anybody else on the ice.
Starting point is 00:14:37 If you have a shot, take a shot. If you have a chance to carry it, carry it. If you see a look, take it. Don't sit there and think, I've got to distribute the puck to Crosby X amount of times. I got to get it to Malkin X amount of times. I got to get it to Rust however many times. No, take charge, run the power play, be the general. In all honesty, go talk to your locker buddy, Chris LaTang, and ask him what he did when the Penguins' power play was humming along.
Starting point is 00:15:05 Because if you remember when the Penguins had a great power play, yes, it ran through Phil Kessel. but Chris LaTang was not afraid to take a shot. Chris LaTang was not afraid to take a risk. And having those kind of threats on your power play make it better. So you need to get that same energy out of Eric Carlson. Right. I felt like he was too nervous at the point throughout this season. He would always give it off to Cid, give it off to Gino.
Starting point is 00:15:30 And again, I love a good Gino bomb from the circle. I mean, that's his spot. But I felt like too many times he was just deferring to them and not doing what he needed to do at the point and take more one-timers, just more shots in general. So I want to see more of that from him heading into this season. I think another thing with Quinn overall, can he take Chris Lange's game to an even higher level next season?
Starting point is 00:15:56 We obviously know Latang was a bit hurt down the stretch. Can he get back to the level that he played at during the first half or potentially even higher? Can he also develop P.O. Joseph some more if Joseph returns to the Penguins. We all know Joseph took a big step towards. the end of this past season, can Quinn get his game up a little bit as well? So there's a lot of really intriguing questions about this hire. As you said, he has shown an ability to work with younger players in the past.
Starting point is 00:16:23 Joseph obviously fits that category for the Penguins. And we can also throw someone like Jackson and I haven't in there. If he's able to win that number six job, I want to see if maybe he can take that next step developmentally wise under Quinn, too. That's my biggest thing. like that is probably outside of Carlson, the one thing I'm most bullish on when it comes to this potential hire is that clearly he has an ability to work with younger players. I've been saying it all episode.
Starting point is 00:16:53 He had a solid amount of success at Boston University. Now, to be fair, that's not all that difficult to do because that is just a hockey hotbed in a staple and one of the best programs in college hockey. the name alone attracts talent. But anybody can say, oh, I'm the coach of Boston University, players who are going to want to come here. When the rubber hits the road, you actually have to make it work. And clearly he had an ability to do that.
Starting point is 00:17:20 So like you said, I want to see what he does with POJ because he had a solid run at the end of the season last year. Same thing with Jack St. Ivany. Can he get these guys to another level to help the depth on the defense of this team. And one other player, I'm curious to see what he does with is Ryan Graves because we heard talk forever. And there was ample evidence to back it up that Todd Reardon was the defenseman whisperer. A lot of the defensemen who have come in and out of the Pittsburgh Penguins and had success had a lot of good things to say about Todd Reardon in his two stints with the penguins.
Starting point is 00:18:01 can he find a way to get Ryan Graves back to looking like a top four defensemen in the NHL? Because again, is he a flashy top four defensemen? No, not at all. But does he have a track record of being a solid three, four defenseman on your roster? He did it in Colorado. He did it in New Jersey. And for whatever reason, it did not work last year in his first season with the Penguins. so can Quinn get him to a level to where, yeah, maybe he's not playing up all the way to that deal,
Starting point is 00:18:37 but can he at least make him not a liability and a solid contributor on the back end moving forward? Yeah, I mean, they just got to get him back to being at least a serviceable defenseman at first just because of how awful he was during the 2020, 23, 2024 season. I mean, you would hope he can't be worse than that. So they just got to get him back to being at least a bottom pairing guy because I don't even think he played at that level this past season. Once you get back to that, then we can start talking about him, hopefully being the top four defense and that a lot of people were hoping that he was going to be
Starting point is 00:19:08 when he signed that contract, me especially. But I think that I would do it for this segment. We'll definitely let you all know once that hire becomes official. As Pat said, Arthur Staple, very credible reporter in the NHL business overall. But again, that would do it for this segment. Coming up in the final segment, we're going to discuss game two of the finally cut final on how the Florida Panthers smothered the Oilers on Monday night and how Evan Rodriguez continues to make Ron Hextall, Brian Burke, and yes, Mike Sullivan look really foolish after they let him walk for
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Starting point is 00:20:11 All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Hunts or Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick Dam. So the Florida Panthers, they're up two to nothing in the Stanley Cup final after dominating the Oilers on Monday night. And I warned you, the Panthers were not going to play
Starting point is 00:20:27 that poorly again after game one. Bobrovsky stole that one, but in game two, they demolished the Oilers. They opened up a can of whoop-ass. The Oilers didn't generate a thing at five-on-five throughout that game, especially in the third period. And with how the Panthers played in the third period, it reminded me very much of how Mike Sullivan would deploy his one-two in 2016 and 2017 and how the opposing team would get nothing offensively.
Starting point is 00:20:55 that's how good of a job the Panthers did of smothering the Oilers in the third period. Dryside all in McDavid, absolutely nothing from them in this game. They're going to have to get to a much higher level if the Oilers want to win four out of five against the Panthers and take home the Stanley Cup. But the big hero in this one for the Florida Panthers, former Pittsburgh Penguin, Evan Rodriguez, who they let walk for absolutely nothing. That was a big failure of Ron Hexel, Brian Burke, and yes, my friends, Mike Sullivan. I said on this show last year before you joined that I had heard that part of the reason why they didn't bring him back was because of the penalty that Rodriguez took in game six of the series against the Rangers. I also put a tweet out there April 14th, 2023 in case you all want to go check it out. But I said it on Twitter.
Starting point is 00:21:48 I've also said on the show last year. I had heard that part of the reason he did not come back was because of that penalty. And that's ridiculous. If you ask me, Rodriguez was always a great depth player. And you're seeing why he was great last night. He still has one heck of a shot. He's also great around the net. He's just a great depth score overall.
Starting point is 00:22:08 Is he a bit streaky? Sure. Does that make fans a bit frustrated? Yes. But I mean, do you all think the penguins could have used someone like Evan Rodriguez this year? I especially do. So I'm just so happy that he's getting his flowers, just how good he was for the Panthers during the regular season, how good he's been during the playoffs. He's always been such a great stand-up guy.
Starting point is 00:22:30 It always seemed like he was great to the media, just a great player to have in the locker room. So I'm great that he's playing well. But man, it just continues to sting that he is not a member of the Penguins. I know, my friends, it's been a couple of seasons now, but it still stinks. You know what Mike Sullivan should have been most mad at in 2022? against the Rangers, his goaltending. Yeah. That's what he should have been mad at.
Starting point is 00:22:53 He didn't have a goaltender. He had Louis Doming, who great story, fun memes, great times, L.O.L. Spicy pork and broccoli. What a meme. What a time. But make a damn save. I was saying it to a friend of mine who I play hockey with on Monday nights last night while we were watching the game two of the Stanley Cup final after our game. It lives on repeat in my nightmares in game six when the puck hit,
Starting point is 00:23:18 Louis Doming's shoulder and bounced into the net behind him. That will play in my nightmares forever. And to everybody who is yelling at me on Twitter about, oh, LOL, this is revisionist history, LOL, whatever, whatever. Evan Rodriguez's best season of his career was 21, 22, where he had a career high in goals in 19, the second highest amount of assists he had in his career with 24, and the highest amount of points he's ever had in his career with,
Starting point is 00:23:48 43. You can't look me in the eye and tell me letting a 43 point score who is going to play on your third or fourth line walk out the door is revisionist history. That's just stupid. You don't get 43 point scores on affordable contracts anymore. No. And they could have gotten him on an affordable contract. Colorado did it. Florida has done it.
Starting point is 00:24:12 And in the last two years with Colorado and Florida, with Colorado, 16 goals. 39 points with Florida this year, 12 goals, 39 points. In the playoffs this year, 19 games, 6 goals, 5 assists, 11 points. That is good depth production. In letting him walk was just beyond dumb. And you can get mad at the penalty. It's actually a fair thing to get mad at. You should not take a dumb penalty in high leverage situations.
Starting point is 00:24:40 That's a discipline issue. But when you look at his production, that is a player that you need on a championship winning team because eventually you need someone to step in for your stars. Bringing it back to the Stanley Cup final now, Connor McDavid has one assist in two games. That's a problem for Edmonton because nobody else is stepping up. But guess what?
Starting point is 00:25:02 Everybody else is stepping up for the Florida Panthers, including Evan Rodriguez, who has three goals in the Stanley Cup final already. This is a player you have on your team when you win championships. I agree. I mean, it's, really weird to see how bad the bottom six has been the past couple of seasons. But you look back at the end of Ron Hexel's tenure, this team had a pretty sound bottom six
Starting point is 00:25:29 for two of those seasons. I mean, you remember someone like Freddie Goodrow was on there. Heck, Brandon Tanna was there for some time. And I mean, I still miss him a little bit to this day. But, you know, someone like Freddie Goodrow, I mean, I know the Penguins could use him right now as well. Those are just a couple of examples, my friends. This team's bottom six just a couple of seasons ago.
Starting point is 00:25:49 I would say it was one of the best bottom sixes in the league. And these last couple of seasons, it has been the complete opposite. And it's been a major problem. I wrote this, I wrote a column back at March on KDK, Penguins Perspectives that was like a 1,500 word column about examining what has gotten the penguins to this point. And a big part of it was letting players like you mentioned, Frederick Goddrow, Evan Rodriguez, and yes, even Brandon Tanev, I know that was a salary cap decision in the expansion draft, but since those guys left the Penguins, these numbers are going to be a little bit outdated
Starting point is 00:26:26 just because I wrote this in March. It's now June. But since Freddie Goddrow left the Penguins, 36 goals, 57 assists, 93 points. Brandon Tanev, 30 goals, 29 assists, 59 points. Evan Rodriguez, 25 goals, 49 assists, 74 points. You're telling me that those guys would not have been good in-depth roles because that's extrapolated over two seasons because they've been gone for more than two seasons. But even if you have put, even if you whack those in half, that's still production that you could have very much used in your bottom six. And it would not have cost you a lot of money. It's not like these guys went on to get high money deals. Tanev is a Tanev's deal. Yeah, it's a little inflated, but that's the cost of doing
Starting point is 00:27:11 business sometimes. Freddie Goddrow and Evan Rodriguez, they're making, next to nothing. And you're telling me they couldn't afford that. They absolutely could. Oh yeah, 100%. If they really wanted to, they would have made the right amount of cap space to afford players like that.
Starting point is 00:27:30 They just decided not to. And as you've seen the past couple of seasons, they have not had the right mix in the bottom six. And it's one of the main reasons why this team has not made the playoffs, these last two seasons as well. But I think I'll have one last thing here too. the penguin's current president, his hands are not clean of this either. No.
Starting point is 00:27:50 Because there was a time when he was with Toronto that Toronto acquired Rodriguez's rights and did nothing with them. So Kyle Dubas has some guilt in this as well. This is a guy who for whatever reason, a handful of teams have decided, I don't know, there's something about him. We're not going to take them. And yet he just continues to hum along and produce. And again, I know he's not a superstar.
Starting point is 00:28:13 I know he's not lighting the world on the league on fire, but for what he's making and what he produces, that is a really good depth player. And that is how you win in the modern day NHL is with good depth players. Running four lines, lines that can score, lines that can, you know, get after you, all that. That is how you win in today's NHL. And just to go back to what you said about Dubus,
Starting point is 00:28:39 I mean, I agree, just look at the moves he made for the bottom six last off season. Most of them really didn't work. I mean, Lars Eller, I know that one did. Obviously, Drew O'Connor had a big leap. But outside of that, you know, Molachari, Matt Nietto, Jansen Harkins, you know, Vinnie Hino-Straza, some of these other players that he brought in, they didn't work. And now he has to try again for the most part this year to fill out a bottom six
Starting point is 00:29:03 that can actually help out the top six when they go cold at time. So, again, I'll be curious to see what he does. But I think that might do it for today's episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. really curious to see how the Oilers respond being down O2 now to the Pampeters. And also, hopefully, Sasha Barkov is healthy to play in game three. He took a nasty hit from Drysidal in game two. I just didn't really like that hit from Leon at all. I think he's better than that.
Starting point is 00:29:29 I don't want him throwing that type of hit out there overall. But again, I think that will do it for today's episode. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another episode for you all on Wednesday. But until then, for Patrick Damp, I am Huntser Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll be back on Wednesday.

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