Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins swing a BIG trade for Yegor Chinakhov on Monday!

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

The Penguins acquired young forward Yegor Chinakhov from the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday! Hunter and Patrick break down the trade that saw the Penguins send two picks and forward Danton Heinen to Columbus in exchange for the 24-year-old forward (1:20). They also discuss if this was a bit of an overpayment for a struggling forward or if the cost is worth the risk. Then, the Penguins will welcome Metropolitan Division rival Carolina to PPG tonight for the first of their four matchups (12:10). They go over lineup notes, keys to victory, and more!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. So before tip-off, check the FanDuel app and see what’s dropping during NBA Happy Hour — every Friday from 6 to 7:30 PM Eastern.A little basketball, a little action, and a whole lot of Friday energy. 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.

The Pittsburgh Penguins made a surprise trade on Monday, acquiring Igor Chinataw from the Columbus Blue Jackets, but did they overpay for him? 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 my host, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Send them for Wet. You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O underscore Penguins. And you can follow the show's Instagram account at Locked On 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. Pat, yesterday I thought, hey, we're just going to preview this game against Carolina. I can talk about how much I hate watching Carolina Hurricanes hockey. And then Kyle Dubos was like, you're also going to discuss a big trade because the Penguins acquired Igor Chinikov from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for a second round pick in this next year's draft, a 2027 third round pick, and forward Dayton Heinen.

And this is a player that we were actually asked about during a fan take Friday episode back in mid-July. I went back and listened to part of that episode to see what I had to say. And, you know, I did say at the time that I think Kyle Dubus should look into us. Obviously, he did because he got the player. But I also did say that Columbus is going to try to get as much value as they can, even though they were kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place because Chinatoff had requested a trade in mid-July. And I kind of low-key warned, like, they're still going to try to get a lot of value out of this.

And in my opinion, some people may come out with their pitchforks for me. That's okay. I think it is a little bit of a slight overpay for Chino-Cobba. I like the player when he's fully on. He has a blistering shot. He's very fast. He's good defensively. But the injury concerns are still there.

And the consistency concerns are also still there for me. So I'm just not sure I'm fully on board with giving up a potential top 40 pick. You know, that blues pick is probably going to be in the top 40 of this next year's draft. I'm fine with giving up that pick. but maybe for someone that's a bit more reliable, just maybe a bit of a better player, in my opinion. Now, I would love to be old takes exposed on this. He goes out there, you know, scores 10 to 20 goals.

I'm out here looking like a complete idiot behind the microphone. But I always pride myself on being objective. And to me, Pat, this feels like a little bit of a slight overpay. I would not have given up a second. If you wanted to do a third and a fifth, a third and a fourth, and Danton Heinen, I would be way more okay with that. I just really keep coming back to giving up that second for him out of just feels a little rich for me. I know you're going to disagree because you and I have been talking about it and it's going

to make for a really good discussion. So I'm going to hand this over to you. That's my take on it. Well, here's the thing. I'm not going to disagree with you so much as I'm going to take what you're saying in spin it a little bit because you look at the Penguins draft coming up this off season. They've got a first round pick. They've got two seconds and they've got two thirds. They don't have any picks in the fourth. They don't have any picks in the fifth, but then they've got the sixth and seventh. Yes, this was a slight overpay for Shinikov. But here's the thing about that. The Penguins had the capital to pay that price. That's true. If they would have just had one or two picks in those rounds, I would have looked at

this trade today and gone, you should not risk that for this much of a wild card because the shot is there, the speed is there, the talent is there, but the questions remain, can he put it together for extended stretches, and can he stay healthy for stretches? But when you compare the amount of capital that the penguins had to what they ended up giving up for who they got. This is also exactly what Kyle Dubus said he wanted to do. This is a huge part of what his plan was. He wasn't going to hoard draft picks like a squirrel going into hibernation with its nuts and just hanging out in its tree all winter. He was going to compile a lot of draft picks. And yes, he was going to use a ton of them because, as I say on this show quite a bit, he went to the Bill

Belichick School of Asset Management, of where it's more likely you're going to hit on a prospect if you draft four or five of them rather than three or four of them. And it also creates that competition. But at the same time, you also use a lot of those picks as a way to go get younger talent that has fallen out of favor with another team. And that is exactly what happened with Chinikov. And the last thing I'll say about him, and this is a little bit of, of copium, a little bit of me twisting the knife at a divisional rival. Columbus hasn't exactly

been known for breeding and keeping elite talent. We have seen so many players who had flashes, had moments, and then they went elsewhere and got better. And there was clearly a rift between the organization and the player here. Now, this doesn't automatically mean that he's going to to show up to Pittsburgh and put it all together. But I think given the fact that A, he wanted out, and B, he has now gotten out. He has the ability to turn that corner because he does deserve credit that he could have held out. He could have not played. He could have thrown it in the tank. And yeah, he hasn't had the greatest of seasons so far, but he deserves credit for still showing up he could have very easily jumped over to russia he could have held out

he did none of that he stayed with columbus he tried his best to make it work and the organization eventually was able to get what they needed for him i do agree with that aspect of it and i do think he's going to have a big chip on his shoulder to try and prove a lot of his doubters wrong i mean you look at some of his numbers for this year pat only 29 games three goals six points during that time last year plays in 30 games seven goals 15 points his best season of his career came in 23 24 16 goals 29 points in 53 games most games he's played in the season came in his first season in league 21 22 where he played 62 games it's funny you know if you just do a side-by-side comparison of him and philip tomasino again i'm not comparing them overall as players just their raw production and pat

i sent this to you chinikov in 204 games 37 goals 77 points He's played in 218 games, 34 goals, 95 points. Tomasino, 24th overall pick in the 2019 draft. Chinakov, the 21st overall pick in the 2020 draft. It's actually fascinating how similar just some of the raw totals are and just where they were picked. One player goes for a fourth round pick. The other one goes for a second or third and a rostered player.

So that part to me, it was just very interesting. I also do think you have to add in the caveat that Don Waddell is a pretty good GM, as we're finding out, Barry Trots is not a very good GM. Waddell did well here, I think. And I think the penguins did well, too. Just I don't, I'm not going to give Kyle Dubus an A plus plus and start tweeting about fleecings and dunkings and all that stuff. I think at the end of the day, and then I'll toss this back to you, I think both teams did well here. I think the penguins got the kind of player that they have been trying to get and that they

are going to have to continue to try to get for the next couple of years. They paid a bit of a steep price, but you moved a guy who you kind of were expecting to move and you had a surplus of pick. So you were able to toss a couple extra in. And the Blue Jackets were able to move on from a player that didn't want out and they got value for them. So I think it's a mutually beneficial trade. And for the penguins, they have the potential to become the winners if Shinikov really finds game. But at the end of the day, one year left, RFA, we'll see what happens.

And that's the thing. I think they have the ability to come out as a potential winner in this trade if he does well. So I guess what I'm trying to say is right now, I do think this is a slight overpay. I don't think I would have included the second to get this player. But if he goes out there, falls out, gets a bunch of goals, starts producing, starts looking like the player that, you know, we saw in 23, 24 when he almost had 20 goals and you can have a good second half of the season. Okay, I'm going to warm up to it more. And maybe there's a chance, Pat, that he stays on the team for the next year or two, just because, again, he's an RTA at the end of this season, makes $2.1 million on the

salary cap for the rest of this year. So those are my main takes on it. Let me know what you think about what I think about the trade, what I think about the trade down in the comments. You can send us a DM and all that too. So again, people, I am very open to being wrong about this. I think it's a slight overpay, but if he goes out there, plays extremely well. I think he can, he's probably going to be on the third line if I had to guess. Maybe him and Ben Kindle, perhaps. I know Billy Coivinen

has struggled, just eye test-wise, his underlyings have been fairly good, but eye-test-wise just hasn't fully been there. Maybe you put Chinatov's blistering shot, his full steaming speed with Kindle. I think you could potentially see

them have some chemistry with Rucker McGority. We'll see. That's my guess as to where I think he's going to play. Seth Rorbaugh just reported at the morning skate that he walked in while the team was skating. So time will tell he plays tonight. But again, let us know what you think about this straight down in the comments. You can send us DMs as well. That would do it, though, for this first segment.

Coming up in the second segment, Penguins are going to try to beat the Carolina Hurricanes after being swept by the hurricanes last year. Pat and I are going to preview that game for you all right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, which is game time. There's nothing like being near the ice during hockey season, the speed, the hits, the atmosphere, it's unmatched. Watching at home is great,

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Terms Apply, again, create an account and redeem code Locked-on NHL for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. 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 host, Patrick Damp. And Pat, Penguins Hurricanes, round one,

comes your way tonight. 7 p.m. Eastern time from PBG Paints Arena, the final game of our Year and Lord 2025 for the Pittsburgh Penguins before the calendar flips to 2026 in a couple of days with the Penguins, of course, we'll be hosting the Red Wings in the first half of a home and home against them. They'll play them again on Saturday. Penguins went 02 and 1 against Carolina last year, lost all three meetings against them. They have also lost four of their last five to the Carolina Hurricanes or last win against Carolina coming. March 26th, 2024. That was a 4-1 win.

Lost 4-1 against them last year, 5-1 against them, and then 4-3 against them in Raleigh. This Hurricanes team, I've said it a couple of times already. They are a very tough watch, boring watch. I don't like the way they play. Cycle point shot, repeat,

but I've said this key a lot of times on the show, I repeat it here. If you can box out their forwards from the front of the net, you will have an opportunity to really win this game. They pride themselves on a lot of those point shots, looking for deflections from the net. If you can box out their forwards to prevent all of that,

I think you will have a good opportunity to win this game. But again, we've seen how the penguins have been defending this year, especially as of late, has not been pretty. So I question their ability to do that on a very good basis tonight. But again, that's the key. That's one of the keys, at least, if you really want to win this game. Carolina, always very stingy defensively. So when you get a really good chance, you're going to have to bury it.

That's just the way things go with Carolina. we look at their stats this year. Sebastian Ojo, 14 goals, 35 points in 38 games. He's been very good. Seth Jarvis, he's played in 34 games, has 19 goals. But the biggest thing for him right now, Pat, is he's hurt. He's on injured reserve, which is a really big loss. I feel really bad just because he's been awesome for them this year. Jacob Slavin, who I think is the best defensive defenseman in the league. He's also listed as outs, Kachecoff, their goaltender. He is going to be out for a while. Bear is also listed as Elt. Also, one last thing, they are playing on the second half of a back-to-back with travel. So the penguins, they're sitting here, they're waiting for them. Hopefully that comes in handy here against the hurricanes. But again, man, some of my keys,

boxing out their forwards, when you get a high danger chance, you better convert on it. And another thing, Carolina, they usually have a very good penalty kill. They're one of the penalty kills that is kind of like a power kill with the way they can be very aggressive when you get power plays tonight better make sure you're converting on those as also those are just a few of my keys also making sure you're slowing them down because every shift is like game seven to them they're very aggressive along the boards down low so again just three to four keys for the penguins to potentially win this game tonight this is a part of the program where i know our audience is going to wince because i'm going to say something that you

hinted at there hunter when you play the carolina hurricanes you have to win the front of the net You have to win the front of your own net because they play hockey the way I play EANHL ultimate team when I first download the game. I know that I have no real skill. And I'm not saying the Carolina Hurricanes don't. I'm just saying this is the type of game I play when I have an ultimate team that isn't very good. You possess the puck down low.

You get it up top. You look for shots. You look for deflections and rebounds and chaos in front because that is. is their game to a T. And if you are able to win that net front, and it doesn't have to be elite net front defense, it just has to be good defensive awareness. Don't let their forwards behind you to set up a screen,

to get there for the rebound. Hell, you don't even have to really do the best job boxing out. You just have to be aware of where the puck is, so you can clear out those rebounds. You can give Skinner, if he is indeed the starter tonight, at least a little bit of a look at the point shot. And that is really the key to beating the Carolina Hurricanes because they love that greasy net front game.

And if you're able to neutralize that, it doesn't guarantee that you're going to win because you listed off some names. There still is a ton, a ton of talent on this Carolina team. But you take away their biggest advantage, which is that type of game, you can get a win for them. brought this up as well. It is another advantageous moment for them,

just like it was against Chicago. You're playing a team in a second half of a back-to-back. They're going to have to travel. You've got to jump on them early, just like they did against Chicago. And much like Chicago, doesn't have to be a perfect five to ten minutes. When you get your opportunities,

put them in the back of the net. When you get your opportunities, hem them deep, play a little physical, really show them that they're going to have to truly grind out a win because, again, against this Carolina Hurricanes team, I know we in Pittsburgh love our fast, skilled, top-level hockey, but to beat a Carolina team like this, you're probably going to have to put your pride to the side for a game

and play a disciplined, boring kind of game and outweigh them. Yeah, it's not going to be fun to watch. I'll tell you all right now. This team is never really fun to watch even when they're in high-scoring games. I'm still, it's a lot. I remember when they would play the Islanders in the playoffs. And I'm like, yeah, that's not a series I really want to watch too much of, especially, you know, when Lou was still there and all that stuff.

Obviously, the Islanders are a lot more fun to watch this year compared to recent years. But when those two teams were going at it, you know, when they were playing both boring, I'm like, yeah. So, as you said, got to stay disciplined. You're going to have to potentially, you know, iron out a, three two win something like that maybe even a two one win potentially with the way carolina plays in their own zone again it's big that jacob slavin is not out there just considering how elite he is in his own zone at suppressing shots just going from defense to

offense he's always out there also against crosbie's line and has done a fairly good job against him at least in the last few matchups so him not being out there pat that is a huge loss again And Seth Jarvis, he has also been great. That's another big loss. So, again, two of their best players are out in this one. Penguins will have to look and take advantage of that. I mentioned the penalty kill. It is weird that they only rank 16th in the league in penalty kill.

Usually this is a unit that's well into the top 10. I still maintain that this is a power kill and that they can run. Only a few teams can do it. Penguins Power Play, I want to see them cook here. And I still want to see the top line cook a bit more, especially one player I want to see really break out tonight, Pat, we're Card Raquel. He's been very quiet since coming back. I think he's been very quiet for a lot of this year as well. I want to see more out of him. I think this hopefully can be a start of it because he just hasn't been nearly as good this year.

I know part of it, he was out for a while, but even before he got hurt, just wasn't seeing the same from him at the start of the year. So I'm keeping my eye on him tonight. He's knocking at the door, I will say. I agree overall that he has to be a little bit better. He's got to start producing more than he has been, but you look at the totality of his game, and I think it's there. He's in the right places. The chances aren't as plentiful as you would like, but it looks like a player very similar to his linemate in Brian Rust, where when the damn breaks, it is going to break for him, because that's also just kind of been the story of his career is when he scores, he scores in bunches. And Sometimes it lasts for weeks on end to even a month.

And there's times where it goes a week or two and then recedes a little bit. But I look at Raquel's game over the past couple of weeks since he's returned. And I see a player that's knocking at the door. And once he finally makes his way through, I think he's going to be all right. But again, the challenge is that first one has to fall. And then you see how he plays after that because we have seen that with so many plays. players where it just feels like they can do everything but score. They're doing everything right.

And the puck just won't fall for him. If he gets one tonight, especially in a big game like this, I think that really will do wonders for his game moving forward. Right. And I'm not trying to make a A to B comparison here. I kind of did say the same thing about Vili Coivin when he got his first goal this year. I was like, oh, they're going to come in waves. Well, I was dead wrong about that.

Again, the underlings are great. It just hasn't translated to a lot of offensive success. For Raquel, obviously, it's different because he's been a very steady to good goal score in the NHL throughout his entire career. So I think there's a better chance that once he gets this next one, they're going to come and wave. So I just want to see a bit more out of them. I like the way he's playing defensively on that line. He's the best defensive player on that line. I just want to see the offense because it just hasn't been there since he came back from the injury.

But I think that's going to do it for the second segment coming up to end the show. Pat and I are going to discuss a few lineup notes that just. came out right after the morning skate from head coach dan muses so stick around for that that's coming up 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 hodys joined by my host patrick damp and pat you hinted at it it will be stewart skinner starting against the carolina hurricanes tonight no surprise there damn news is continuing the one a one b rotation that he'd been doing virtually all season until Tristan Jari got traded.

And, you know, Jari was getting more of the 1A starts towards the end of his Penguins tenure. He was kind of starting to go away from the rotation just because Jari was out playing Chilov. But now that he's gone, you're seeing him rotate the starters once again, which is totally fine. I like the way Shilov played in Chicago, but you also don't want to overwork him.

So Skinner, excuse me, gets the start tonight. And also for Yigor Chinochinov, he will not play tonight, according to Dammu's. He just got in this morning as I touched on, earlier in the show as the morning skate was wrapping up. So I'm sure they'll get him a practice and then he'll play later this week, probably against the Red Wings on January 1st, if I had to guess. So those are a couple of lineup notes.

Also, Eric Carlson, he will be available. He missed yesterday's practice with an illness. Connor Dewar was also back on the ice for today's morning skate. I assume he's going to be in the lineup as well. And, oh, we also did not discuss this somehow. Ryan Graves is set to be placed on waivers at 2 o'clock today. Pat, no surprise there. I saw some people freaking out about this on social media.

Has he been a bit better since coming up? Yes, but come on, people. Like, the bar is still very, very low. I don't think it's worth freaking out about considering how the rest of his Penguins tenure has gone. Chase and Ivany, I thought we're fairly good in that game against Chicago. At least run with that pairing for a little bit to see if it can be something on the bottom here. I know I said you're kind of just rearranging deck chairs, but at least for one game,

it was good. So you can keep continuing it. It's not worth getting mad about Ryan Graves going on waivers. The contract is bad enough and his play has been mostly bad for his penguin's tenure. I know, I guess since coming up, he'd been a little bit better, but it's not worth getting mad about. Well, I think that was also kind of the tell that Sheenikov was probably not going to play tonight because if Shinikov was going to draw into the lineup, you would probably have sent Koivinen back to Wilkes Bear just because

he doesn't have to pass through. You can just send him right down. You can hit the roster limit. So I think that did kind of tell us that he wasn't going to be ready immediately. So and I think that's a smart call by the Penguins. It's a young player. He's had a bit of a tumultuous

few months with the trade request and everything else. You bring him into the organization. You get him familiar with the facilities you get them familiar with the staff get them a practice or two and then you draw them into the lineup and see what he can do and as for that bottom pair i mean we we did this didn't make it on to our episode yesterday because we had so much to talk about but grave or not graves uh shay and st ivany a couple years ago showed that they had some good chemistry and we're a solid bottom pair now i'm not going to overreact to one game in a small sample

but the history is there that they have shown that they can play well together and they can eat up some bottom pairing minutes and I thought they had a solid game against Chicago and it's nothing but a start but it's a start so at this point I think you give them some room to run you see how they do especially with this upcoming week where you're going to have a ton of really good competition coming up the pipe so really I understand that it's probably not great for Ryan Graves. It's probably not great for them trying to rebuild him into something that they can either just continue to use or try to move on from.

But we know this team wants to get itself back on track. We know this team wants to keep itself in the race and in the hunt. So really, if you're not aiding them in that goal, you're probably going to find yourself on the outside looking in. I want to see what this pair does together for a couple games together. And if they're able to recapture some of that magic from about a season and a half ago, that's good news. But really, like you said, it's rearranging deck chairs.

And hopefully eventually they can stop the sinking ship. And those deck chairs are actually going to get some sun. But we will see. Hopefully you can hit on one. I think that's the nice way of putting. Hopefully you can hit on one of these pairs. And it can be, I guess, stable for the rest of the season. I guess that's the goal for them. And I do like Ryan

Shay more in a third pairing role than I do in a second pairing role. Just overall, again, I think Ryan Shea, he's had some really good games a season. He's also had some really not so good games this year. I thought on Sunday that was the best game he has played in the last three to four weeks, as I said on Monday show. So again, having him in that role, third pair, I just think it suits him a bit more just because again, prior to this year, Pat, he had hardly been playing top four minutes for the penguins. And now you have Brett Kulak, who has a history of playing in the top four, especially on the second pair, get them with Crystal Tang,

see if that can help matters a bit. And I think they're going to give that pairing a bit of a longer leash, honestly. I wrote about that for the hockey news a couple weeks ago when they made that trade, and I still think that's the right call, in my opinion. Yes, I know people. Brett Kulak got walked pretty bad by Max Domi last week, but I still think they're going to give that pair at least a little bit of a long leash,

you're not touching the top pair with Water Spoon and Carlson. So there you have it for the lineup notes. Again, Carlson will play tonight. Connor Dewar, he's available. He left practice a little early on Monday, but he's all good. Chinikov, not ready to play yet. I'm sure he'll play probably Thursday, if not then, Saturday, but I'm going to go ahead and say on Thursday.

And then Stuart Skinner on the hill tonight, as expected. Matt, unless you have anything else to add, I think that's going to do it for the Tuesday edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Pat and I will be back on Wednesday to recap this game against Carolina and of course it's Wednesday. We got to give out our weekly MVP for Warrior Helmet Wednesday

and we're going to get you all set for a pretty fun 2026. This year has been awesome on the pod. We've seen so much growth, so many new people come and listen and watch our show, listen to these two knuckleheads, just talk puck every day and we appreciate it so much.

We really do. We'll discuss more about that on the Wednesday edition. But for Patrick Damp, I'm Hunter Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. We'll be back on Wednesday.