Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins TOP 25 of the 2000s: Let’s remember some DUDES!

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

The Locked On Penguins Top 25 of the 2000s continues today, and we’re gonna remember some of our favorites! Patrick and Hunter continue their Top 25 of the 2000s, and today’s edition is remembering some dudes that we just like who played for the team in the past 25 years. They go over Martin Straka’s amazing few seasons, how Mark Recchi helped Sidney Crosby learn to be a professional, the speed of Carl Hagelin, and more! Then, to close out the show, it’s another Fan Take Friday, Patrick and Hunter answer your questions and react to your hot takes, including one prediction that has the Penguins in the playoffs!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get $150 in Bonus Bets if your first $5 bet wins!FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today on Locked-on Penguins, it's a Friday, and we're going to continue our top 25 of the 2000s. And in the honor of our amazing draft live stream, we're just going to remember some dudes. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome into the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet. Joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

You can give our shows Twitter a follow at LO underscore Penguins. And you can also follow us on Instagram at Locked On underscore Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your. podcasts as well as YouTube. And if you follow us on YouTube, be sure to hit the notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our episodes and when we drop any of our posts, including a call for Fan Take Friday, where we take your hot takes,

your questions and everything in between, which we will get to later on in the show. Before we get started, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime, download the GameTime app, create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Hunter, always love finishing up the week with a fun episode. And that's exactly what we're going to do today. We're continuing our top 25 of the 2000s. And like we've been saying, we're not doing this in a traditional way where we're just ranking players 1 to 25.

We've taken players in five player chunks and put them in our own little categories. And today, it's really finally time to pay homage to our awesome first round draft live stream that we did about a month ago, where we spent some time just remembering some dudes. So we're going to do that today. This is the top five dudes of the last 25 years that we just like. Were they the best players of the last 25 years? Probably not. Would they make it into a traditional top 25? Some of them might, but they're just guys that we got to mention when it comes to the 2000s.

And let's start with a guy who was not here for very long, but boy, did he have quite an impact on the Pittsburgh Penguins. And that is one of the fastest skaters we have ever seen here in Pittsburgh. and that is Carl Haglin, a guy who went from being a thorn in this team's side when he was a New York Ranger to spending just a little bit of time with the Anaheim ducks. And then in a trade, former general manager Jim Rutherford makes Carl Hagelin a penguin.

And he was everything this team needed as they began their ascent to become back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. number one he was a great vibes guy but number two he was such a great fit on the third line with with nick benino and phil kessel i still remember one of the nchon nbc ads and it was going to commercial and it was just him flipping his hair and i'm like well that's going to be on twitter here momentarily that flow man i'm sorry it is gorgeous i wish i had hair like that my hair i won't like it's a bit of a mop right now i just i wish i had a flow like that and there was that whole video on YouTube, you can look it up of, you know, Sean Michaels, just kind of seeing it with him,

Benino and Kessel, just as the HBK line. And it's awesome. Like the moments that they had in the 2016 and 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs, but especially 2016, were absolutely unbelievable. No one could stop that line, but especially no one could account for Hagelin speed when he was going up and down the ice. And you can see how close he got with players. that locker room specifically Patrick Hornquist. I actually remember he did an interview, and he said, yeah, they just traded for my best friend. Like, they were really, really close.

And I still remember to this day when, you know, Rutherford made that move to trade Hagelin. That sent like a pretty big jolt to the locker room because that was someone who was very respected, very well liked. But then I think you probably remember this, Pat. Later on that season, they tried to trade back for him, but couldn't just because of the salary cap rule. And it was just like, Jim, why did you deal him in the first place?

Obviously, the injury that ended his career, Pat, just awful. I really hope that he is okay, especially with his eye situation that made me so sad. But man, when he was here, he was so fun to watch. And again, just seemed like such a great dude both on and off the ice. And he was part of so many big moments in both of those Stanley Cup runs, including hits the empty net in Nashville to seal the win. to get them their second straight Stanley Cup. And you brought up a player that is going to be in our top 25,

just not this episode. So make sure you're tuning in every Friday for that. It was such a great story that what you said about Patrick Hornquist saying that, oh, we just traded for my best friend. He didn't say that to a reporter. He didn't say that to a camera. He said that to Jim Rutherford. He said to Rutherford.

Oh, you just traded for my best friend. And for, which is so funny because it shows how well respected he is and how goofy Patrick Hornquist was because we know how intense Patrick Hornquist was. And there he is talking like a middle school kid like, oh, my best friend's going to be on the bus today. This is going to be so fun. But Carl Hagelin, huge part of two Stanley Cups. big, big role player in the mid-2000s, excuse me, one of the fastest skaters we had ever seen in the NHL. So it was really cool to see him as a penguin keeping it moving here. Another one who a lot of people will associate more with the 90s, and I totally understand that.

But he was also a pretty big part of the start of Sidney Crosby's career. and that is the one and only, the reckon ball, Mark Recky, was here for the start of Sidney Crosby's career. He ultimately would get dealt by Craig Patrick to go chase some Stanley Cups elsewhere because the penguins were still figuring things out, but he was a good veteran presence for Sidney Crosby. And when you break it down and you look at his career numbers, just a quietly really, really good hockey player who is in the Hall of Fame. And again, when you look at his numbers, not a surprise at all. 100%.

And part of this career was definitely before my time. But I still think back to one of my favorite goals of this era. And this was his second stint with the Penguins Pat. When he had that really nice feed to Sid during his second season, it was the sliding goal against Tampa where Sid somehow scores at the back corner while sliding into the net. Recky had a beautiful feed to him for that goal. Again, I know part of his career was before my time,

especially his first stint with the Penguins. You know, he comes back a bit later on as a coach. The power play was, let's say it, up and down during his time as a coach because he was running the show with that one. But still, as a player, both early on and then later on, he was also a great vibes guy, had some really good production for the Penguins. So he was someone who I think was very universally liked among the fans. So this felt like a really good spot to put him on.

And we have another 90s player coming up here in the second segment, who we know a lot of you guys are going to very much like. Yeah, but about Mark Recky, I mean, you look at his second stint, essentially second stint, because he was kind of all over the place at the end. of his career, but Crosby's rookie season plays 63 games, 24 goals, 57 points. The next season, 0607. 24 goals again, 68 points. And then in 0708 before he eventually gets dealt, 19 games, only eight points. But he ends up that season with 14 goals and 48 points. And he goes off to a pretty woeful Atlanta Thrashers team. So you look at, Mark Recky just had an incredibly

long career starting in 88, 89, and going all the way through the 2010, 2011 season and plays more than 1,600 games, puts up 577 goals, 1,533 points in total. Just a model of consistency. And it's funny to see where the league has gone and where it's been with Mark Recky, because if you go back and look at when he was drafted by the penguins and started his career with the penguins, the narrative around him and be still my heart on this, is that all anybody ever talked about was this guy's small.

He is small. And you look at his metrics on NHL.com, and we know that athletes lie about this all the time, listed at 510, 195. Like, yeah, I mean, by pro athlete standards, that's not huge, but everyday standards,

not a little guy. Like, might be on the little smaller side for NHL in the 80s and 90s, but still able to carve out one hell of a career, and so much of it was with the Pittsburgh Penguins. But that'll do it for this opening segment. When we come back,

we still got three to go as we remember some dudes. and we will keep that discussion going on the other side when we come back right after this. But first we got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is game time. Have you ever decided at the last minute that you want to head down to PNC Park, catch a ball game with some friends and family? Maybe it's game day and you suddenly realize you want to be in the stands, and that is exactly where game time comes in. It's the easiest way to grab last minute tickets without the stress.

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Last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. We're back here on the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes. And let's just keep remembering some dudes here, Hunter. It is our top 25 of the 2000s in today's edition. Is dudes we just like? Were they the best players? Probably not.

But they're dudes that we just like. And let's keep the, nostalgia going here a little bit with a guy who didn't spend a ton of time with the penguins in the 2000s, but he was a big part of the team at the turn of the millennium in the 2000s with the penguins. And that is the one and only Marty Straca. Big time player played for the penguins for quite a few years in the mid-90s to the mid-2000s. His last season with the Penguins was 0304. Unfortunately, only played 22 games,

had four goals, 12 points. But really, this was a guy who, if I can describe it this way, it's a little cliche sports talk radio, but he felt like a player who was ahead of his time.

I look at Marty Strach's game, and he actually did pretty well post lockout with the New York Rangers for a few seasons, but time comes for us all. His final season, being 0708, obviously kind of aged out of the game,

but if he would have been a post-lockout player, I think Marty Straca would have been one of the better players of the salary cap era. I can see that. And though it was funny, Pat, you're like, he didn't spend a lot of time of the Penguins in the early 2000s. And then he said, oh, he actually did.

But I had to mess with you about that a little bit just because you said, I mean, you look at his, you look at his career, the bulk of it. He spent most of his time in the 90s. In the 90s. and then does three seasons with the team in the 2000s. It's 2025, Hunter. 2003 is pretty far back.

I know. I'm just messing with you, but we still wanted to include him just because he was a great vibes guy. And can you name the player who scored the playoff clinching goal against the Washington cap rolls in the 2001 Eastern Conference quarter final series? Oh, it was Marty Straka. Absolutely was. And his celebration to this day is one of my favorite celebrations of any

playoff overtime goals in Penguins history. After he scores, he goes right to the boards. just dives and then all his teammates just absolutely mob him. Still one of my favorite celebrations to this day. The Darius Casparitis one is also right up there, if I'm being completely honest, but that Straca one was great. And I will also say this about Marty Straca.

He was always really good for the Penguins in the playoffs. 19 goals, 46 points in 65 games. During that 2000, 2001 season, again, we just talked about the series country against the capitals, five goals, 13 points in those 18 games. Two years before, in 98-99 playoffs, in 13 games, he had six goals and 15 points. He was always very clutch for the Penguins. It didn't matter which type of Penguins team he was on. He was always there when a big moment was needed.

And especially that one against the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference quarter finals in six games, Penguins were able to win that series in six, when that game four to three. Again, just an awesome over. overtime goal. And you can't mention Marty Strachgo without talking about that goal. And you can't mention Marty Strachau without talking about the 2000, 2001 season. Unreal performance by him plays all 82 games, 27 goals, 68 assists for 95 points. And you got to remember, 2000, 2001, we are dead, dead in the middle of the dead puck era. Nobody's scoring.

is a trap game. There is not a lot of speed, not a lot of offense. And Marty Straca puts up 95 points. Again, I come back to, he was able to put up these numbers in the dead puck area. You put him in the post big lockout era in the salary cap era with his speed, his vision. This guy's putting up 80, 90 points a year because he was a really fleet of foot, really good vision kind of player. And if this, if he's not playing in the dead puck era, we're talking about a guy who he played 954 games, only had 717 points. I think you era adjust him to this, this type of hockey. He's going to do

a whole hell of a lot better, but a great 2000s guy to remember. Let's keep it going. One who doesn't have the flash of some of the last couple guys we talked about. But, Just a steady soldier, huge part of the 2016-2017 Stanley Cup championships. And that is defenseman Brian Dumlin. Dumo, he is the archetype for the guy I talk about on this show all the time. The guy who throughout an 82 game season, you rarely notice him night in and night out. But by the time you get to game 82, you go, who Brian Dumlin, man.

Just the model of consistency. Him with Chris Latang was such a dynamite pairing when both of those players were in their primes. You had Latang, who could do everything offensively, and he was also still good defensively at that time. I don't care what his haters say. He was still good defensively, not what he is now, defensively in his own zone.

But then when he would have some screw-ups, Brian Dumond would be right there in his own zone to help clean those up and kind of save the day, if you will. Because, yes, every top offensive defenseman or just every top defenseman league is going to have screw-ups. And sometimes that our partner has to bail out that player. Brian Duman would do that for Chris Lange. I still get that throwback picture sometimes on my Twitter of him drinking the three beers

after winning the Stanley Cove. Just a dude being a dude, fat, just an unreal photo. And, hey, score a big goal in game six. of that Stanley Cup final against the San Jose Sharks. Like, he didn't score often, but when he did, it was normally a fairly big goal for the Penguins. It's like clockwork with Penguins Stanley Cup victories,

whether it's a defenseman you never think of or a forward you never think of, whether it's a cup clinching game or a game to stay alive. It's always somebody in Penguins on the Penguins roster that you're like, wait a minute, he scored? Because I think of Wolf Samuelson in 19, 1991 when they beat Minnesota in the final. He's the one who kicks off the scoring in that absolute route in the cup clinching game.

And Brian Dumlin, man, you brought it up. The perfect partner for Prime Chris Latang, he was able to let Latang play to his strengths because he was such a rock behind him as a defenseman. So it was the perfect pairing for them in the perfect moment when they needed Chris Latang to elevate. So that is four of the five dudes that we just really like. And this is one. And again, even though we're not technically doing this one to five and putting them in any spot, it's just five we can think of.

But if you have to go with a top five dudes we just like, this guy will always be number one, I think, to so many Penguins fans. And that is number nine, Pascal Dupuy. just the ultimate vibes guy for the penguins from the time he became a penguin until he unfortunately had to retire due to blood clots he was i know that diehard fans remember this but a lot of people might forget pascal de puy was acquired the marian hosa trade as just a throw in. And we all thought Marion Hosa was going to be the guy to ride shotgun with Sidney Crosby forever and ever. And unfortunately, we know what happens with Marion Hosa. We talked about him on a

top 25 episode a couple weeks ago. But Pascal Dupuis ended up being that guy who rode shotgun with Sidney Crosby for so long and was pretty good at being Crosby's winger. Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuy. I'll always remember that line. at least for a little bit during my teenage years. Ultimate Vives guy, one of the best teammates you could have around. During those inside the room videos that the Penguins would put out on their YouTube channel,

and I still wish they would be doing that series. I still remember one of his best moments. He comes in the facility. Morning boys, C's Gino. FU, Gino. That wasn't in the room. That was HBO 24-7. But here's the thing.

He also had a great moment during in the, room. It was when he pulled a damn tooth out of his skull on the bench and just played his next shift. Yep. I do remember that one. Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse those two. Just that video of him saying, FU, Gino just still makes me laugh to this day. I remember it because I think the camera was panning to him, even during the live broadcast and him just pulling the tooth. And I'm just like, oh my God, but didn't matter. Just went out there, played his next shift. Also had the playoff. overtime series clinching winner against the Ottawa Senators game 6, 2010. Remember, Pat, penguins were down by not one, not two, three goals in that game.

It looked like it was going to be going back to Pittsburgh for a game seven. Penguins said, the hell with this, we're just going to come back and win the game. And they did. Pascal DuPuy gets the winner in overtime to send the penguins to the second round against Montreal. We all know what happened after that. Don't need to talk about it. Another moment that really lives rent-free in my head, you know, after the penguins, you know, they won the Eastern Conference in 2016 at home.

And Sid skates the Prince of Wales trophy over to the bench right at the end of it. And Pascal DuPlee is waiting right there with a hat on. You can see he's trying his hardest not to cry. He wishes he could be out there. Obviously, the blood clots at the end of his career were really unfortunate. But it was such an awesome moment from Sid to bring that over to DuPlee so that he could, you know, have it, you know, touch it and all that stuff. So that's also something that I'll remember from Dupley's career.

But again, kind of like Shaka, he was clutched for the Penguins in the playoffs at times. And he was always a consistent goal score during the regular season, play player to have in the room. And how could you not root for someone like Pascal DuPlee? Just an incredible human being, man. I won't retell the story because I've told it on the pod multiple times. But I have met him back when I worked in the ECHL, I had to drive him. from the airport to Wheeling. And he's exactly what you think.

He is just an incredibly nice, incredibly funny, incredibly humble guy, just an amazing human being. So he is really just a guy that, like you said, Hunter, it's impossible not to root for him. A great dude, great hockey player, and of course, a great penguin. So those are our five dudes that we just like to continue our top 25. of the 2000s. We're going to have a new one of these next Friday to bring that to you. It'll be another five players with a different category.

So make sure you tune in for that. But we're not done here on Locked on Penguins. When we come back, it's Fan Take Friday. And you guys sent us quite a few takes, quite a few questions. We'll take a few of those. So stick with us. We'll be right back right after this. Back here on the Friday edition of Locked on,

Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp riding alongside Hunter Hodes. Fan take Friday, it's here. And that means we are taking your questions, reacting to your hot takes and everything in between. We do this every Friday. We put the call out on YouTube and on our socials. We take some of the best. You guys are doing a great job of sending us some great ones. We're not going to be able to get to all of them, but we do keep a record. So make sure you're tuning in because we will try to get to as many as we can. And I got to start off with one that unfortunately it might take us the rest of this episode because it is really, really good. And this is from Waldozzo on YouTube.

I'm going to read this one verbatim so everybody has a context for it. So excuse me as I look to my other screen to read this one if you're watching on YouTube. And Waldozo says, I keep hearing that the penguins are setting up to be potential big players in the trade and free agency market in 20. 26 and perhaps beyond. If we are resigned to having a bad team now and better teams have caps face due to the rising cap for the next few years, why would anyone think that players would choose to sign in Pittsburgh? Even if our timeline is longer, don't we run the risk of falling

so far behind that we become a destination that players actually avoid? A lot of things to unpack here. I do think we've talked about it. It does remain true that I think next summer they're going to be a lot more active with free agency and trades, assuming a lot of these players take those next steps and develop combined with a rising salary cap. The thing I will say about that, though, about the risk that why would players want to come here? This isn't an early McDavid-Edmonton situation. It's not a Buffalo situation. It's not an Arizona Coyotes situation. You can see what the penguins are trying to do. I think this summer, you're bang on. They don't have a lot happening right now. There's a lot of question marks. So teams that are players that want to go to teams that

are ready to win, they're not going to come to Pittsburgh. But if some of these prospects start bearing fruit, Crosby continues to look like Crosby, you can convince a lot of players, hey, yeah, this team might not be a Stanley Cup contender in 26, 27, the 27, 28. You can be a big piece to this. And we're going to pay you a nice little chunk of change. You're going to get a significant role. You can be part of Sidney Crosby's Swan Song. That would be an attractive thing to pitch to players, assuming all of this goes right.

Right. And I still don't think there'll be contenders by that point. in any way, I think at best, you know, 27, 28, you're looking at maybe a playoff team. I think the contender status comes, you know, as you get later on into this decade, probably a bit closer to 2030, if not that exact year, in my opinion. But again, that's just the way I see it. The thing with, I get what he's asking, because this is a very fair question. You know, you don't want to run the risk of becoming a destination where players actively avoid.

But you look at the penguin's history, you know, five Stanley Cups. all time. I don't think this is going to become a situation where they become like Buffalo, Detroit, even Chicago as of late. I know Chicago just had their dynasty with Kane, Taves, and Keith, etc. But lately it just has not been the same, especially, I would say, in the last decade, right around there, eight, nine years, I would say. I don't think they are close to that yet.

You know, you still have a court here who has won before. So, say, you know, Sid, we all know he's going to be back next season. say Chris Lange is still here and say, Evgeny Malkin decides to come back for maybe one more year, and then he and Crosby, their contracts will be up after the 26-27 season. I still think you'll be able to get at least a good player or two, or you can at least try to court them to this team

if you really want to be aggressive because that's a lot of the speculation that's out there is that they are going to be aggressive, maybe not for like some of the big free agents, but maybe on the trade market to try and start mobilizing a little bit to try and get back to the way else. But the thing is, you want to do this right. Like, you don't want to rush it.

But I still don't think this is going to take as long as some people think. In my humble opinion, tearing it down to the studs in the cap era as it is right now, especially with the cap going up is foolish. It takes way too long to do it. It takes way too long to come out of it. I just, that's why I think you're seeing a lot of these teams try to do it as quickly as possible. And I think that's where you see the penguins.

They still need to get the stars. but I don't think this is going to be a situation where players actively avoid. Could it happen? Anything's possible. But with the history that this team has, with the core players that are still here, I don't think that's going to be a problem unless things go horribly. And I mean horribly wrong. Like again, like a Buffalo, you know, even like a Detroit,

even a Chicago of the last eight to nine years, etc. That's the way I see it. That's where I am too. You brought up the history and everything like that. And they're not that far removed from still being a playoff team. And the other thing I'll say, and we'll move on to another one here, is this also isn't, at least not yet. We know that there's been all the talk about Mario Lemieux, FSG and all that. Even with all that talk, it's not unstable ownership.

It's not like FSG is poor and falling into bankruptcy. and stripping things down to cut costs. And it's not like this team has a management staff that doesn't know what it's doing and is just slapdash and putting things together and throwing things at the wall. You see a plan. You see an ownership that has at least moderate stability. And they've only really had two or three bad seasons. It's not like this is a team that's been mired in mediocrity for the better part of a decade.

There's still a lot there. Now, like you said, if things go wrong, these prospects don't bear out, things go south, which is we hate to look at it, but sometimes you've got to consider that possibility, then yeah, that could absolutely become a thing. But I think right now, it might not be the most attractive destination, but the penguins aren't falling out of relevancy and falling into a place players don't want to go. So we're still a little far away from that, but we'll keep an eye on it. Let's do a quick one here because it made me laugh.

Maddie NCS on YouTube. What flavor gum was Mike Sullivan chewing all of those years? I am going to go with the classic, not double bubble, but if real ones remember, bubble yum, those big square pieces, I think that's what he was chomping on behind the bench. That's good. I'm just going to go the classic insane. And, you know, Maddie NCS, he was always commenting on our channels. I'm tired of seeing Mike Sullivan chewing gum behind the bench.

And then once he was let go, haven't seen him around too much. We all know you're probably still listening, buddy. He's working on a new bit. And I'm looking forward to seeing what it's going to be this season. Let's keep it going here. This one is from Drake Barrett on YouTube. Hot take. Sid will lead them to the playoffs.

and they will win around. Okay. This is what we ask for, Hunter, is a part of Fan Take Friday. We ask for Hot Takes. And here's the thing I will say. This is like when you run probabilities, this has like 1% on the probability,

not even meter. But here's how I'll frame it. Literally everything, and I mean everything, would have to go right. Crosby would have to have to have, have an unreal year again. Malkin has a renaissance. La Tang has a renaissance. Either Tristan Jari or Arthur Shilov's become damn near Vezna level. A bunch of the young guys take an even bigger

step than expected. It's highly, highly unlikely, but at the very least in my head, I can game out a scenario where it could happen. I'm not going to go there. that far. I think it's 0.000, 0.01% that it happens. But I agree with you that literally everything would have to go right. You got to get the depth scoring. All your stars have to have insane years. And I know the Eastern Conference is not very good. Let's be real here, people. But the defense is going to have to be better than any of us expect. And they're going to have to get legit good goal tending from both Jari and Shilov's a little bit more confident than Shilovs. But Jari, we've seen the inconsistency.

So I appreciate the optimism. Just do not think that is going to happen, just with the team that they have around them. And then from G-Tots, which former Penguin would be the next person to be hired onto the Penguins' management staff in honor of Benino? Well, Benino is kind of a assistant coach.

He's kind of going to be like those eye in the sky. I think that's how they're kind of framing it with him. He's not really working with the PK or the property. He doesn't have like a strict duty, but he's just going to be like an eye of this guy, you know, working on some development and stuff. In terms of management, I could see them hiring Sid once he's done playing.

Honestly, I think as someone thinking about it, I just think he works better in management than he does as a coach, in my opinion. But that's what I have to say on that. And then from Penn 68, just to round this out, he asked about Brian Russ for Carl Rakel Eric Carlson.

I still think one of them gets moved before camp, but honestly, I'm kind of tired about talking about this. Let's just see what happens over the next month and change just because everyone's on vacation right now. You want to hear, well, I'll address the last one first. I just think of those names. If anyone's moved in August, it'll probably be Eric Carlson

because you'll have a little bit more time to focus on making the deal. You're not worrying about training camp and everything else that comes with it. And I think that deal is going to require a lot of focus and a lot of pieces to get done. Yeah. As for former penguin, here's one for you. When his career is over, I think this is where he's going to want to go. Maybe not Pittsburgh, but as a coach, I can definitely see him doing it.

Jake Gensel, because his dad's a coach. I've said it about him, written about it, talked about it with Jake Gensel. He plays like a coach's kid. And I mean that in the best way. Sees the game really well, thinks the game really well. He isn't the biggest guy. He's not the most talented, but he just has a mind for the game. And unlike those true blue superstars, his talent and his ability come from his ability to think the game.

And those are the players who become good coaches. Your top line superstars, they're rarely ever good coaches because everything they have is just a gift. you know, Wayne Gretzky trying to coach the coyotes. I know he would never admit to it. I know that he probably didn't say these exact words verbatim, but you know he looked at a lot of players and went, well, just go do it. Like, well, guys, we're not all grets.

We can't just go out and do it. We don't have that ability. You got to show me how. So I think Gensel would be a pretty solid one to go into coaching after his career. But thank you all for tuning in, sending in your takes. and hanging out with us here on a summer Friday on the Locked-on Penguins podcast. That is going to do it for us. We'll be back with a brand new episode on Monday.

So for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. Have yourself a great weekend. And we will be back on Monday.