Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins sign Sergei Murashov to his ELC, does this mean a move is coming?

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced that Sergei Murashov has signed his ELC on Tuesday and while that has Hunter and Patrick excited, they're still left with some questions. To start today's episode, they get into how giddy they are about Murashov before discussing if this could mean a goaltender gets shipped out. They also discuss where Murashov will start playing this year and how his game could look in North America. After that, they discuss the roster that came out for the prospects challenge and how the Penguins top prospects will be playing in that. They dive into how this is probably the best the Penguins have looked prospects wise heading into that challenge since it started. Finally, they analyze ESPN's new top 25 NHL players list from the 21st century and give their thoughts on it.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 eBayMotors.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.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. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM and 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.

Another Penguins prospect signed as ELC on Tuesday. And while it's very exciting, Pat and I definitely have some questions. You're Locked-on Penguin. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguin. 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'm one of your hosts, Hunts or Hodes.

You can follow me on Twitter at Hunts or Hodes. And back from getting cooked on the beach and getting too drunk every night. Night is my coast. Patrick Gamp, you can follow him on Twitter at Cinderm 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 Fansul make every moment more as the playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, Fandul is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily. That's right. There is something for everyone every day

all summer long, visit fandul.com to get started. So, Pat, I discussed on my solo episode that the Penguins signed Braden Gager to a three-year entry-level contract. Well, they signed another player to an entry-level contract on Tuesday, signing top goalie prospect, Sergei Murashov to a three-year entry-level contract, and that is going to begin this year because he is officially coming over to North America to play in the Penguins organization. And while I am very excited about this, considering how good he has played in

Russia. I definitely have some questions about what this means for the Penguins' goaltender situation in general. Pat, you look at this organization as a whole. Oh, boy. I mean, look at the depth. You have at the NHL level, Tristan Jari and Alex Ndilkevich. In Wilkes-Ber, you have Joel Blumquist. You have Philip Larson, Taylor Gaudier. And now in Wheeling, you have Sergei Muroshov, who I think is at least going to be playing in a platoon-type role for Wheeling. But what does this mean overall for the Penguins goaltender situation? And is something going to have to give at training camp in September? Yeah, damn shame that you can only play one goalie at once because it'd be cool if they could

go four skaters and two goalies. And maybe they would just absolutely dominate with all this goaltending depth. So, but you're right. This raises a ton of questions because like you just, you just said, you just rattled off a bunch of guys who can be, you have two guys at the NHL level who, let's just, because it's July 30th, as we record this, could theoretically be starters at the NHL level. I know we've got our questions about Tristan Jari. We've got our questions about Alex Nadelcovic. I get it. I get it. I get it. It's July 30th. And then you

you rattle off three names that could theoretically start in the American Hockey League. And while you also now have Murshov, who is likely just by pure numbers game, probably going to start in Wheeling, I look at it this way, right? And I think I brought this up on a prior episode when we talked about, it might have been a mailbag episode when we got a question about Murshov. The thing I said was the good news for these guys for this log jam is when you play at the HL and ECHL level, it is extraordinarily rare that you have the kind of starter that you have. in the NHL where they play 50 to 60 games because a lot of your games are condensed into weekends, especially in the ECHL, there are three game weekends. You will play Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So you can't have, let's go with calling it a bona fide number one,

because if you're going to play three games in three days, you're going to be burned out by the time the calendar hits January. So the good news for these guys is being in a platoon role in the American Hockey League or the ECHL means they're going to get a ton of playing time, but they're not going to burn out. So at the very least, we're going to get a chance to see outside of Joel Blumquist, who I think has more than proven himself after what he did last year, what the rest of these guys can do. Right. I hear you on that, but I still wonder, is Philip Larson really coming over from Sweden to play in Wheeling for a full season,

I don't know, considering how good he was over there this past year. Also, when it comes to Taylor Godier, he has nothing left to prove in Wheeling. He's the ECHL gold tender of the year, especially, again, his numbers were fantastic throughout this past season. What does he have left to do down there? Absolutely nothing. So you have to put him in Wilkesbury no matter what.

But if that means Larsen is down in Wheeling, he's probably overqualified for that. So there still could be a move that is made here at some point. Maybe one of these goalies gets shipped out for some immediate help for, I don't know, a winger for Cindy Crosby or something like that. I'm just spitball in here, people. But it just feels like something is going to have to happen during camp because I'm not sure you're going to be able to take all of these guys heading into the 2024,

2025 season. I mean, technically you could. You could have a wheeling tandem of Moroshawn and Larson if you want, which would be really good, by the way. I mean, that tandem, I think would be fantastic. You could also do Gaudier with Blumquist in Wilkesbury and then Jari and Adelkevich at NHL level, but I'm just not sure the penguins want to go down that road

because you're making at least one, if not two goalies, upset there that really want playing time. I mean, the only thing that is coming to mind for me right now is the scene in the dark night where the Joker pops out of the trash bag and cracks the pole queue in half, goes, our operation is rapidly expanding and we've only got three spots. So make it fast. So I do think outside of a move being made for these guys, you're going to have a competitive camp. Yes, we know that Jari and Nadelkovic, excuse me, barring some kind of catastrophe

will be the NHL goaltenders come October. But who knows if one of these guys starts knocking at the door in one way or another, let's not roll out moving Jari or Nadelcovic. Now, I think that's going to be a lot harder to do simply because we're getting closer to the start of the year. The draft is behind us. Free agency is a month behind us. So teams are in much more of a bind. I think Jari comes to mind as the one that could get moved. But as you're saying, Pat, I just don't know what type of market is out there for him right now, considering how basically all the teams I feel like have made their main moves, you're probably not going to see that much movement in August. You might see a few moves made, but I don't think you're going to see anything

Blockbuster type, which is why, again, it's just going to be tough overall. Right. And that's what I was building towards is you look at all the teams that prior to the draft and prior to the opening of free agency had questions and goal, pretty much all of them have answered that question. And you look at the teams that might still have questions in net. They're not teams that are gunning for a Stanley Cup this year. So the idea of making a big move to get Tristan Jari or Alex Nadelcovic doesn't really fit into their timeline of their plans. So you kind of think about it from what you might have suggested earlier, which is, okay, is it Philip Larson? Is it Joel Blumquist?

Is it Taylor Godey? Do you move one of these guys to get some help for the NHL. roster and then go get a career AHLer to fill another spot in net or a career ECHLer to fill in in net for wheeling. I don't know. But this is one of those things where if there's one position where you want to have more than you need, it's goaltender, both because if it doesn't work, you've always got somebody back there.

And if you need to make a move, goaltending prospects are very, very enticing for a lot of clubs. So you have that trade chip sitting right in your stack. So it might not be the worst idea to just have all these guys and just tell them, hey, listen, somebody's going to get moved. Just Kyle Dewis be straight up with them. Like, hey, somebody might get moved. And we don't know who it is. Play your best. Do what you can. And maybe we can move you to a better situation where you might be able to climb the ladder faster. But that depends fully upon you putting out the best performance you can. Right. And yeah, I definitely hear you on that. And I do think this is a very good problem to have because a couple years ago, the Penguins really didn't have that much

goal-titting depth when they were playing in that first round series against the Rangers. If they had the goal-tending depth at that point that they do right now, I would have liked the Penguins chances. You know, you would have had someone like a Joel Blumquist be ready to go in there and potentially steal the series. And you would have had other options behind him as well. But they really only had Louis de Ming and again, not really much else after him, considering both Jari and Casey DeSmith got hurt. But as for Murashov, man, I am stoked that he's coming over to North America. I'm really fascinated to see how he plays in North America, specifically in wheeling against some of these top prospects in the ECHL. I'm really curious to see how he also adjusts his game

to North America compared to Russia. We kind of lost the thread by playing armchair GM there throughout this segment. But yeah, I'm right there with you. I'm excited to see what this kid can do. Now, again, it's the cautious optimism that I've said to everybody about Miroshov, but it comes along with the idea of you look at the fact that he's only 20 and we know how long it can take goaltending prospects to develop. And if he's doing this well in essentially the KHL's AAA League, so to speak,

that's a good sign. He's doing that at 20 years old. So him coming over and adjusting, if he finds a way to adjust and play similarly to the way he did in the MHL, we might have a future starter on our hands. It might be time for the Penguins to have their own star Russian goaltender at some point here. But his ELC will start this year once again just because he will be playing for the Penguins organization overall. But now do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to continue the prospect talk as the Prospect's Challenge roster has been announced for the Penguins they will be participating in. that once again later this year, Pat and I will discuss who was on that roster and how

excited we are to see how the Penguins' top prospects do against some of the other team's top prospects that will be participating. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is Fandall. I love sports. I love them so much that I never want them to stop. But as the playoffs wind down, we get fewer games and the sports aren't sporting like I want them to, but Fandul lets me keep the sports going whenever I want. All I have to do is open the app and dream up bets anytime I'm in the mood. In this summer, Fandul is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily. That's right.

There is something for everyone every day all summer long. So head on over to Fandual.com and start making the most out of your summer. That's Fandul, the official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-coast Patrick Dam. So speaking of the Prospects Challenge, the Penguins will participate once again in the 2024 Prospects Challenge in Buffalo. It'll be from September 13th through the 16th of this year. So if you want to go up from Pittsburgh or wherever you're at along the East Coast or if you're

in the West Coast, different country, well, you can book your trip to Buffalo and stay there from September 13th through the 16th. It's a pretty short drive overall from Pittsburgh. And you look at this roster, Pat. This is easily the best roster that Penguins have brought over for that competition ever since they started participating in it. I mean, for God's sake. Baniyager, he's going to be there. Owen Pickering, he's also going to be there. Harrison Brunick, Tanner Howl.

They will both be there as well. Sorgia Murshov will also be there. Trestor Godier will also be there. Tristan Brose. This is a quote-unquote, I would say, stacked lineup for the Penguins. And I'm super excited to see how these guys do. Yeah, me too.

And to our listeners, if you're looking to go up to that, I highly recommend it. I did a preseason tournament when I was a coach at the Leacom Harbor Center. and it's a really nice rink. It's really cool. It's worth checking out. So definitely worth your time to go see that. And if you want to catch some hopefully future penguins, go check it out.

I will say, though, to your point, this is one of the best prospect rosters that the penguins have ever sent to this challenge. The downside is they go and play teams like the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Ottawa Senators who have deep prospect pools. Oh, to the people who are going to watch this, the sickos like us, manage your expectations a little bit because what you want to look for here more than anything, rather than wins and losses, is individual performance. Kind of, you know, change your brain and hockey watching brain a little bit when you watch this, rather than seeing how the team plays as a whole and how the outcomes are. Watch how these guys play individually because they're going up against a couple of teams

that are on the up swing of their rebuild. So there's a lot of good players, especially for Columbus and Ottawa, who are poised to take the next step into being actual NHL players, which I would say is a step or two ahead of a lot of the guys on the Penguins roster, but you're right.

You look at the names. I mean, Yeager, we know we have bond over this guy on this show. If I'm the head person, the chairman of the Jeff Carter fan club, This podcast is leading the charge of the Braiden Yeager fan club. And Owen Pickering, it's time for him to make a next step. He's got to look great in this. The same thing goes for Taylor Godier.

I really want to see him have a couple big performances. Granted, yes, it was the ECHL, but this is the kind of goalie who you need him to take a big step. Same thing goes for Mershov. You're going to get your first real look at North American hockey. So let's see how he does there. But overall, like we've been saying, exciting to actually have prospects to want to watch and care about. Right. I'm super excited to see if Brayden Gager can continue his dominant form that he has been in over the last year plus at this point. Obviously, he was great in the WHL this past season. I discussed it during my solo episode.

He was tremendous throughout rookie camp. The biggest standout, him and Sergey Muroshov, I think, were the two biggest standouts from there. and it'll have an opportunity to back that up at the prospects challenge. How does Yeager look compared to some of these other top prospects that will be there? And I'm glad that you did bring up Pickering when it comes to that because he's been talking it up like, oh, I want to make the Penguins team this year. That's what I see. Well, it's time to go out there and prove it.

I mean, we all know he's turning pro this year. He's going to at least start the season in Wilkesbury. I still think that's where he's got to get his feet wet a little bit. I don't think he's ready for the big leagues at this point. But if you really want to show this organization, that you mean business and you want to maybe do the unthinkable and make this team out of camp and go out there in this prospect challenge and play like you mean it. I'm really curious to see how he does. And also just to provide the full clarity, Ponomerov and Coyvenin for the Penguins will also be in

attendance at the prospect challenge. Right. And those are the two names I was going to bring up next alongside Pickering. Those are also two guys who have to go out. And yeah, maybe the Penguins team doesn't do all that well in this challenge, this tournament, but you want to see those three do everything close to dominate because they are all guys who are supposed to be knocking at the door. You don't want them to be passengers on this bus, so to speak. You want them to go out and play like, for lack of a better term, men amongst boys because a lot of what this tournament is is a significant gap.

This is kind of what, this is like a weird science experiment, if you want to go with that, where you have guys who are in their early 20s and guys who are 18 and 19 years old going up against one another. And while that doesn't sound like that big of a difference, the type of hockey experience between those three to four years is massive. So those three guys, Pickering, Potomerov and Coyvenin, have to go out and have a great performance. Agreed. And as we said in the first segment, I'm super stoked to see Marischal against some of the other team's best prospects now. Obviously, Greg during rookie camp, excited that he's coming over. But now, Pat, seeing what he can do against some of the top prospect systems in the league, I'm really excited for that as well. But I think that I'll do it for the second segment. Coming up in the final segment, ESPN has released another top list this time doing the top 25 NHL players of the 21st century.

Pat and I are going to give our thoughts on that right after this. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick Dam. So, Pat, I'm sure you've taken the time to look at this a little bit. But some of this list, I'm okay with some of the other parts. It's kind of meh overall. Just kind of like how I felt about the other big list that ESPN released a few weeks ago. Number one on the top 25 NHL Players list of the 21st century,

Cindy Crosby, no argument there. If you put anyone else over him, I was going to be very mad on mine. Alex Hovecgen, number two, obviously very understandable. Connor McDavid, 3, Patrick Kane, 4, Nick Lidstrom 5, Nathan McKinnon 6, Marty Berger 7, Henrik Monquist, 8, Evgeny Malkin, 9, Patrice Bergeron, number 10. That is the top 10 for this list. Evgeny Malkin, while I understand why he's at number 9, I think you can make an argument for him to be over a couple of players on the

list. I don't mean to offend Nathan McKinnon because I understand he is a world-class player. But if we're talking about 21st century, I am putting Evgeny Malkin over him, considering everything he has accomplished at the NHL level, even outside of the three Stanley Cups. Again, I know how good McKinnon is. I know what he has accomplished individually. But still for me, I am putting Malkin over him when I look at their careers, at least right now. That can change as McKinnon gets a bit older, but that's just one of the players that I would move down a little bit and put Malkin up a little bit more. I personally think Marty Broder is a very overrated goalie in general, but that's just

my opinion. I know that's a hot take to people, but I firmly believe that. But what are your thoughts on this list and the top 10 overall? You gave me a lot to work with, my friend. You sure did. And I will say 26th Friday was when this came out. And that was my first day on the beach. And what do you think my first read on the beach was?

this because I'm a sicko. Before I got out my Game of Thrones book, I read this. But anyway, first things first, yes, Sidney Crosby, he's the best player of the 2000s. There's no question about it. If you have anybody else argue with the wall because he came in and essentially saved the league. Same thing goes for Alex Ovechkin at two. Connor McDavid at three. Listen, he is going to go down as one of the greatest players to ever play this sport. like don't do no one will convince me otherwise unless he somehow gets hurt or just decides to retire Andrew luck style he's going to be one of the greatest players ever play the fact that nicholas lydstrom is five is insane to me he should be third that should be number three he is

the greatest defenseman i've ever watched live i know obviously i'm only 26 i know we have some older people listening to this but nick lydstrom to me is still the great best defenseman I've ever watched, at least live on television. Yeah. And you add in the fact that he essentially had the Norris Trophy locked down for his entire career. It was the same way Patrice Bergeron had the Selke lockdown for his entire career. It was all just a race for second place. And I'll push back on the Marty Broder thing for a little bit here. I get where you're coming from. I really do because at the turn of the century when we came into the 2000s, the New Jersey Devils and Marty Brodor broke.

hockey because of the neutral zone trap and all that dumb stuff. And he was a huge beneficiary of that because he wasn't facing a lot of shots every night. But then the league basically has their lockout, changes their rules. You take the red line out and you can't really run a neutral zone trap anymore because you no longer have a red line save for icing. And he's still one of the best goalies in the league. So it's one of those. And this is a very, very, very, very, very, very loose comparison.

It reminds me a lot of a guy like Brooks Orpick. If you remember Brooks Orpick pre-lockout, he was the prototypical pre-lockout defenseman. Big, couldn't really skate. He would hit you. He would hook you. He would impede you. Lockout comes completely changes his game. Fitt gets more into fitness, becomes slimmer, learns how to become a better skater,

becomes a more versatile defenseman in plays for another, you know, 15 years. Rodor, same kind of deal. He went from being one of the best goalies when it was all defense to being one of the best goalies when it was not all defense. So I'll push back on that one. And then there was one that really, like, had me scratch in my head more than anything. And it was Jerome Ginla at 20. Now, I get that he never won the Stanley Cup.

I get that he, you know, was chasing it at the end of his career and never got there. but this guy is the model of the power forward in the modern NHL. If you are a power forward, you modeled your game after Jerome Ginnla. And that's like the point of this list. Did you change the game? Same thing goes for Pavel Datsuk. I mean, 22? Like, this guy has moves named after him.

This guy like broke the shootout in addition that changed the game. And he's 22nd. So I don't know. And then my last thought on it is this. again, holy God, are we spoiled as Penguins fans? Because how many of the guys on this list have worn a Penguins jersey at least for a little bit? So again, golden era of Penguins hockey. Damn, has it been fun?

Oh, 100%. And you want to know what they call Pavel Dotsug, or at least what I called him, the Magic Man, baby. That's what I always call him. But another one that I think people can at least argue, and I would be here for it, is maybe moving Malkin above Patrick Kane. And I understand. Kane is arguably the greatest American-born hockey player ever. He's accomplished so much throughout his career.

He was absolutely unbelievable when he was with the Chicago Blackhawks. But when you compare their numbers overall, you look at their individual accomplishments. It's close. You can definitely make an argument, and I would be very nicely seated for it on why of Gunny Malcon should be over Patrick Kane. I think those two are coin flips. You can put one ahead of the other or the other ahead of the other and it's correct. Because I think the one thing I will say, though, that Patrick Kane has going for him over Evgeny Malkin is he's one of the best players of all time from his country of origin.

Now, Evgeny Malkin, top five, I would say Patrick Kane. I'll go higher than that for Gino. I think it's top three to the first. But Patrick Kane, I mean, you can make an argument. He's the best player to ever come out of the United States. Yeah. Now, once you really dig into it, he's probably not the best. But when you have the conversation, he's in it.

And I think that kind of puts Kane above Gino, but by like just a hair. Because like you said, you compare their accomplishments. There is not much daylight between them. Right. I really think you're just splitting hairs overall. you can go either way, but again, I would definitely be here for that argument when it comes in Chino. I just think, I wouldn't say he was snubbed on this list. I just think you could easily move him above at least a couple of players on the list.

Oh, for sure. I think at the end of the day, you look at this list. I think you can put him above Henrik Lundquist, although I do think Henrik Lundquist would actually go ahead of Martin, Martambrador, just because of how good Henrik Lundquist was and how there at least, there's at least one Rangers. team that he dragged kicking and screaming to a Stanley Cup final. And listen, I love Nathan McKinnon. Again, similar boat as Connor McDavid going to go down as one of the greats.

But he's only been, he's only won one Stanley Cup and he's still got a lot of hockey ahead of them, not as much as McDavid, but still has a lot. So then like that kind of gets you into, all right, are you going to put him in the top five or is he just going to be seated right outside of it? Right. No, I agree with you on that. You can really interchange some of this top 10 any way you want. But at the end of the day, it is mostly a very good top 10 overall.

And I'm glad ESPN at least got, I think, for the most part, you know, the 10 players right for that top 10 on this list. But I think that'll do it for today's episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this episode. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Wednesday. and that is also Evgeny Malkins 38th birthday. So we'll have some Gino content for you all on that day, plus a couple of other things Pittsburgh Penguins related. But until then, for Patrick Damp, I am Hunter Hodes.

Thank you all so much for tuning in. We really appreciate it. We'll be back on Wednesday.