Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins' young guns IMPRESS in preseason opener!

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

The Penguins may have lost 2-1 in the shootout to Montreal in their preseason opener, but the young guns showed a lot of promise. Despite the Penguins dropping their first game of the preseason, Patrick and Hunter begin the show discussing two of the Penguins' top prospects, Harrison Brunicke and Tristan Broz, both of whom turned in solid performances to start the preseason. The question now is, how much of it is real, and can they continue to capitalize on the momentum? (0:00) Next, the word being used to describe new head coach Dan Muse is "prepared," and that is showing in how he conducts training camp practices. Hunter shares his thoughts on day four of training camp. (13:53) Finally, on October 25, the Penguins will welcome Ron Francis, Kevin Stevens, Scotty Bowman, and Eddie Johnston to the team hall of fame. They react to the class of 2025. (27:09)Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/lockedonright now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelDownload the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Pittsburgh Penguins dropped their preseason opener to the Montreal Canadiens 2 to 1 in a shootout, but don't let that score fool you. There were plenty of positives to take away. We're going to get into those on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins. Wins 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. We'll see if our honorary third member of the show Teddy likes to join today, but you're going to have to stay tuned for that. But of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you your podcast 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 daily Monday through Friday episodes. As I said in the open, the Penguins lose their opening preseason game at the Bell Center to the Canadians,

two to one in a shootout. But we don't need to worry about the score because as we have always said on this show, as we will continue to say on this show, unless the score is something absolutely crazy, you don't really need to concern yourself with the outcome of the game. It's all about the process and everything that happens within that process. And that is where we have to begin with two of the biggest standouts from last night's game, forward Tristan Brose, and defenseman Harrison Brunich. We will get to Tristan Brose, but we got to start with Brunich.

Shout out to him for listening to our Monday episode where we spent quite a bit of time talking about how it feels like the team is almost daring him to take a roster spot going into this season. And last night, he took yet another step. He was more than likely the penguin's best player on the ice for the majority of the game, led the team with six shots on goal, gets an assist on Tristan Bros's opening goal. The skating looks so much better this year than it did last year, which is saying something because he wasn't a bad skater to begin with, but it looks even better this year. And just the decision making and everything in between as far as preseason games go. For Harrison Brunich, that was an incredible performance. The skating was still the biggest thing that stood out to me last night.

Like that is an NH already trait that he has. There's still a couple of other things that I want him to fine tune a little bit. And they're not bad. Like I want him to bring a little bit more offense to his game. I think he has more to give in that area, even though he's been developing that part of his game for the last couple of years. I think defensively as well, he's already fairly solid to me in his own zone. If he can develop a little bit more in that area, I really think he can be a very well-rounded top four defensemen in the future. But I don't want some people to really get carried away.

was he arguably the Penguins best player last night, a million percent. And this is what he needs to do on a consistent basis if he wants to steal a roster spot from a song like a Matt Dumba, Connor Clifton, Jackson, Iivony in play behind Eric Carlson and Chris LaTang. However, there were some crazy takes that I saw on social media last night, Pat. People were already saying, like, is he already the best Penguins defense on the roster? You can't be saying that yet when the guy hasn't even played an NHL regular season game.

I just don't think that's fair to the player. and especially, and people are going to roll their eyes at this, that's not fair to someone like Eric Carlson, who again was elite offensively for the Penguins last season, tied for fifth among all defensemen, the league in five on five points. Like you just, you can't make that type of statement yet.

I think he has a very bright future ahead of him. I thought he was lights out. The skating, again, was awesome. The way that he was able to be so nifty with a puck on his stick was really fun to watch. But again, you know, it's one game. He has had a good camp, he played with Owen Pickering.

and I like that pairing quite a bit. But we see a lot of overreaction sometimes in the preseason. So I just want to temper those a little bit. But again, man, he was fantastic. Tristan Brose, what a rocket of a shot that was to open the scoring. Really nice play by both Brunich and Pustodin to get that puck eventually to Tristan Brose. And again, Pat, he's on a heater right now.

He comes back from Mono, takes him a little bit to get going again, has a nice end to last season, Wilkesbury. I think he's easily one of their best players in the playoffs. and then he comes out here in the Prospects challenge, one of the best players. And then so far through four days of training camp, I just got back today. He's been very good.

And then he gets the goal last night. He is very much pushing for a roster spot. I am still unsure if he is going to get one. If I had to say right now, I'm going to go no. I'd love to be proven wrong. But even if he doesn't, I expect him up multiple times throughout this season.

and I actually expect him to be the first call-up in the case of an injury or something like that. But if he does earn a roster spot and he keeps his consistency up, he will have very much earned it. I agree with you on all points. I do want to clarify a little bit. I'm not saying Harrison Brunich's NHL ready.

We still don't know. Let's be honest. You look at the Canadians roster last night. I'd put it at 50, maybe 60%, if that of, what their NHL roster is going to look like going into the season. So it's a really good first impression for this year with this game because it wasn't a prospects challenge game. It wasn't a bunch of guys who aren't going to see NHL time. There were plenty of players on both rosters that

will, but it was not an NHL regular season game. So it's good progress. As for Tristan Brose, here's something that I noticed watching back the game this morning. His game is simple. There is nothing flashy. He doesn't do anything that, and I say this in a very complimentary way. He does nothing too flashy. Nothing stands out above anything else. It's not like he's one of the most talented, one of the strongest,

one of the fastest players on the ice, but he does everything with a purpose. He does everything simple. and he puts himself in positions to succeed. You look at the power play goal that he scored last night. He saw the way the play developed. He got himself to a one-timer position. And when the puck came to him, he made the right decision.

And the other thing about that, he is going to make your Yinser uncle very, very happy. Because if you have a Yinser uncle who screams shoot at the TV, Tristan Brose loves shooting the puck. And we saw that last night. we saw it in the prospects challenge. We've seen it with him in Wilkes Bear. When the guy has an open look, there is no hesitation, there's no second thought.

He shoots the puck and an absolute rocket from him last night. Another player we should touch on quickly before we had to break and talk about day four of training camp. Sergei Murashov comes in in relief, quote unquote relief because they were splitting duties. but it was a tale of two games last night for the penguins. When Yoel Blumquist was in, the penguins were carry in play. Blumquist had not much work to do, made the saves he needed to make. And then when Murashav comes in, it's almost like Dan Mews went, we want to see how Murashav can do here.

Let's take our foot off the gas a little bit. Gives up a goal, but nothing you can really do about it. It was a pretty solid goal. made a lot of really nice saves, was able to stop Demadov in the shootout with a good poke check. Really, really strong showing for Sergei Murashav. Before I do get to Murashav, I do want to give you Al Blumquist his flowers.

He wasn't tested that much in the first half of the game, but he still made the saves that he needed to make and pitch a shut out in the first half. And he really needed that because I still feel like even after today's practice on Tuesday, Archer Shilov is a little bit ahead of Blumquist, but I think Blumquist started to cut into it after Tuesday's game. Like, this is still very much a competition. We still need to see how Sheelov does during the preseason, how Blumquist does in other

games as well. But I really think Blumquist needed this, and he has started to cut into it a little bit. But I would still give it the slight edge to Sheelov right now. As for Miroshov, you said it, Pat, I felt like DMUs was like, let's play at 60% for the second half of the game. And let's just see how many 10 Bell saves Sir Giams. Miroshov can make. He was amazing in net. And I was tweeting this during the game to some people. Look how calm and composed he is. Even when facing all that pressure, especially in the third period,

he never got rattled. He kept challenging shooters. He was playing aggressive. Look at the agility that he had while in net. The side to side movement was unbelievable. A couple of saves that he had in overtime. Those were 10 bell saves, especially to end it. the Demadolp-Poke check in the shootout. You know who that reminded me of, by the way? Mark Andre Fleury. Yep, that was a little bit of shades of flurry there. And, you know, one of the shootout goals that he gave up,

he made the save pad, had no idea that it popped up and went into the net. He looked around after like, what the heck just happened? But, you know, again, he was so locked in when he got in the net. And again, it makes me, you know, after I keep seeing some of these performances. And I don't want to jump the gun just because, again, goaltending is so voodoo. But after each performance that I see, whether it's in the preseason here at training camp in Wilkesbury, in Wheeling, I'm like, there actually might be a potential franchise goaltender building here for the Penguins.

Again, I'm not ready to 100% say that. I think that will be premature. But this kid has a lot of talent. And again, he's been the best. best goalie at camp. He was fantastic in the second half, plus the overtime, plus the shootout last night. So we all have to give him his flowers. I do also want to say Ben Kindle, I thought had a good game. There were a couple of people saying that I saw on Twitter, oh, his skating wasn't that good. I thought he skated totally fine. You can see his hockey IQ was very much out there, had a couple of chances. He was totally good to me last night. And one more thing before I send this back to you. did you see how physical they were to start that game?

I don't think that was by accident. So I think you're going to be seeing hopefully a lot of that during the regular season. Last thing I'll add because I have to address a lot of something I saw a lot of both during and after the game. Everybody understandably is going to get after Ryan Graves for the penalty. and I totally understand it. He did not play well. Like, let's not get carried away.

But if your focus is on the penalty, it was a good penalty to take. His defensive partner blows a tire. He's the guy who's going to the net's going to have a clean look. You don't give up the clean look. You take the penalty and hope you don't get called for a penalty. They call a penalty shot. So again, there was a lot of meat on the bone for Ryan Graves' performances last night. and I know people like, why are you defending Ryan Graves?

Not defending Ryan Graves. I'm just saying if we're going to critique the guy like we continually do, there were a lot of things in last night's game to critique him for. Penalty was not one of them. That was actually a rare good, quote unquote, good play by Ryan Graves. But that'll do it for our quick recap of the Penguins preseason opener against the Montreal Canadiens. When we come back, day four of camp is in the board.

books. We got to find out what Hunter saw at the Lemieux Complex this afternoon. We will do that when we get back right after this. But first, we got to tell you about today's sponsor, and that is Fandul. The NFL season is here, and Fandul is making sure you're ready for kickoff with a can't miss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5, and if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Fandul, it makes every game more exciting whether you're watching the Pittsburgh Steelers early on Sunday morning when they head over to Dublin, Ireland for a game against the Minnesota Vikings, or you're just keeping an eye on your fantasy team. It's quick, it's easy, and it's the best way to add a little bit more

excitement to your NFL Sundays. So if you're ready to play, download the Fandul app now by visiting Fandul.com to get started. That's Fandul.com to place your first $5 bet. Back here on the Tuesday edition of Locked-on Penguins, I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes. And usually when you come back from a preseason game or when you come back from a game in general, the practices, they don't have that much intensity, but there's still nearly 70 people at this training camp for the Pittsburgh Penguins. So that means the energy continued into today in Hunter. As you said on the show yesterday, During training camp today, I was busy celebrating my mother's birthday.

Happy birthday. To Mama Damp, we love you. So I didn't see a whole lot from training camp today. Let us know what you saw on the ground. So they kind of started to combine some of the groups in a way. So they started out, usually of getting Malkin is in the second group. He was in the first group today. Crosby was there.

Brian Rust was there. So some of the big done. you know, Eric Carlson was in the first group. They had Chrysletting on a little bit later, but you started to see them combining a little bit of the groups. There was more three-on-three work today, especially, Pat, when you have one rank near the boards, the other rank at the other side of the boards.

And it's funny, you see the coaches, once a puck goes out of play, they give a puck right back to the other team, and it's like, hey, we're going to continue to do three-on-three. And there was also kind of like a very mini version of a three-on-three scrimmage, kind of from one opposing blue line to the other opposing blue line. And it was fun to watch. Like, these little mini-scrimmages were pretty competitive.

I wouldn't say the intensity was as high as it was the first three days, but it was still a fairly competitive practice. It wasn't also as long, like a lot of these practices went for 60 to 65 minutes, and then some players stayed on to work on some one-timers, work on some of their playmaking ability, you know, worked on some tips. So it wasn't as long of a practice, excuse me. I think part of that was just because the coaching staff got in probably late last night and then didn't get a lot of sleep.

So they're probably like, hey, we'll at least get an hour of working for each group, but we're not going to be able to probably do the full 90 minutes. The players that played last night were at the end that they had, where the group C today from 2 to 3 o'clock. And I will say this. In terms of players that I thought stood out, we all know Marashav was very good again. I thought Blumquist had a good day.

Rolfo Harvey Pernard, though, I thought had a really good day. He was signed over the offseason by Kyle Dubis. This is someone that is also flying a little bit under the radar. I don't think he was really good for the Penguins on Monday night, but he had some really nice snipes today during practice, had a couple of really nice, like, passes. I liked his camp today.

I think this was by far his best day. I want to see what else he can do in the preseason games just because I think games, they hold more weight than some of these practices. I thought Harrison Brunich had a couple of, you know, bad giveaways, but he also had a couple of moments that made you go, wow, I thought Tommy Novak had his best day at training camp today. He had some really nice goals, some really nice plays along the boards as well. So it's funny, there was a lot more emphasis today on, you know, three on three,

two on two. There was even some five on five drills. but the intensity was definitely not as high today as it was the first three days, I would say. If there's one thing that I kind of want to dive into a little bit here, it's the new head coach again. Because we know that for the most part, especially on the NHL stage, Dan Mews is an unknown. He's been an assistant with a couple of teams. We obviously know how good he of a job he's done with the U.S. development team and everything that he did in juniors and in college.

But if there's one thing I have noticed in talking to you, in talking to a few other people who have been at training camp this past week, it's that the word, in our pal Josh he wrote about this this afternoon, it's that the word people keep using for Muse is prepared. And it's becoming very much stuff of legend that he's in the office early. He stays late. He's crunching film. He's going over plans and everything. But where this is making a lot of sense to me and where this is showing, and this isn't

to say that Mike Sullivan and coaches of the past were disorganized or anything like that. But if you look at a lot of these practices, and I want to get your interpretation of this, it feels like with these practices especially early, everything is building on itself. They start kind of simple. They move on to the next thing. They move on to the next thing. And before you know it, by the end of practice, everything that they have been working on comes to a culmination in whatever the final couple of drills are or the scrimmage or whatever

they're doing. Everything it feels like they're doing in practice has a purpose and builds off itself as the session continues. He's definitely very prepared for every practice. So you see each practice starts out kind of like a three on three, four on four drill. A coach will send a puck to the corner. There'll be three to four players in a black sweater,

three to four in a yellow sweater. And they're all trying to get the puck in play, kind of keep away past it to their teammates, just work on their puck protection skills and all that. There's no nets in the offensive zone or anything like that. Then it transitions to, you know, more two-on-two drills with all. a forward in a defenseman defending or two defensemen defending against two fours,

and then you have some more three-on-three drills. Today, you saw a very many three-on-three scrimmage. Then you have, you know, a five-on-five drill to end practice. So Damuse is very prepared for a lot of these practices. And you can tell that the players appreciate that by, you know, how competitive they are, you know, how much fun it seems that they're having on the ice. So I just wanted to point that out to everyone. As for another one of my observations, you did see Philip Hollander centering Villay-Coyvenin

in Rickel today again. I don't think that's by accident. I think that's by design. Hollander, he's played a lot of wing during his career. He is very versatile, but it's clear to me that they're testing him to see how will you do with NHL players next to you in this camp? We all know Ricard Raquel is getting top six minutes. I would be floored if Villay Covenant does not make this team.

out of camp. I would be stunned. So I like that they're putting Hollander between these two players to see what he can do. And I thought he was once again good today. He did have a couple of nice goals, had a couple of really nice, like, passes during the three on three drills. He's definitely been cooking these last few days to start camp. So I think right now, it's very early. I think he is going to make this team out of camp. We have to see how he does in the preseason games. But I like that musing company are giving him a lot of these opportunities, especially during camp. It feels like we're a broken record at this point because we keep bringing up the same points over and over. But the trend line is there in this camp. It really does seem like their actions are matching

their words that these young players are getting a chance. They're not throwing up roadblocks. They're not saying you have to perform well, really well in a limited role. we're going to give you the spotlight for a while, and we're going to let you go with this spotlight for a while and see what you do. If you pick the ball up and run with it, you're going to get your shot. If you don't perform, well, then we're going to try somebody else there. And you see that with, we talked about it yesterday, the way they're keeping Pickering and Brunick together. Pickering is someone who we know, like he's probably not going to be on the team right away, but he is someone much further along, allegedly, than Harris and Brunick.

So they're saying, hey, we're putting you with someone we have immediate, almost immediate NHL plans for. How are you going to perform with that? And he continues to show up. You brought up Hollander being in a position with two guys, one who is an obvious NHL lock and Ricard Raquel and another who in Ville Coivinen, we expect to make the roster, but we'll see what happens. I'd put him in a 95% chance.

But realistically, it's these younger pieces getting put into a position where we're going to see how you perform with guys we expect to be in the NHL this year. And if you perform well, good shot. You're going to play in the NHL this year. I think that's fair. Again, when this opening night roster gets announced in the next couple of weeks, I expect the Lake Hoiveninan to be there. I think of Rucker McGority is healthy.

And by the way, an update on him. I saw him doing some stick handling from the bench, today after group one wrapped up. He wasn't skating or anything like that, but he had a stick on the ice. He was standing on the bench and he was just doing some stick handling. So that's positive news. Hopefully they're going to get him on the ice soon,

but it is a positive step in the right direction that he's, you know, doing some stick handling even though he's not skating on the ice. However, if he is able to be back in the next couple of weeks, I also hope that he will be on the opening night roster, though we've talked about it, that he might have to start, you know, a couple conditioning games in the HL, potentially. Tristan Rose, he is right there.

And if he keeps it up, he might very well play his way onto the roster, especially with Kevin Hayes being out for at least the next month. Harrison Brunick, TBD, Owen Pickering. I mean, if I had to say right now, I think he should be on the roster. Obviously, we have a little bit more to go for camp, but through four practices in a preseason game, I think he has shown enough to date. But obviously, you got to keep going for the next week

and a half. So we'll have to see on that. There's others. I've discussed Philip Hollander as well. I thought Avery Hayes also played well in the preseason game, by the way, Patty. He almost won it at the end in overtime. What a save by Fowler, the Montreal goaltender who came in relief for, I should even say in relief for Sam Montevot. They did the same thing that the penguins did. But he got the second half of the game. He also played really well. What a save that he made on Avery Hayes. I also thought he played very well. And again, he's also challenging for a roster spot. You know, I discussed Raphael, Harvey, Bernard, he's also gunning for a spot.

Robbie Fabry is gunning for a spot. So there's a lot of meat left on this phone when it comes to these competitions and some of these younger players coming for some of these veterans jobs. It's a very competitive camp through four days. And that is very, very apparent. And Hunter will continue to be there as this camp develops. We will make sure we get all of his observations right here on this show. So make sure you're sticking with.

us for all of your training camp updates. But that'll do it for our middle segment. When we come back, we now know the first class for the Penguins Hall of Fame return. That will happen on October 25th. We will tell you who it's going to be when we get back right after this. But first, let's tell you about today's second sponsor, and that is Monarch Money. Most people can't name all of their financial accounts or even what they're worth, whether it's your 401k, your properties, investments, savings, you name it. When you don't have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That's why there is Monarch money. It's an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy-to-use interface on your laptop or your

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Locked on NHL. All right, wrapping up the Tuesday edition of Locked on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes. And we've got the first four, the class of 2025 for the Pittsburgh Penguins Hall of Fame. And on October 25th, the Penguins will welcome two skaters and two builders into the Penguins Hall of Fame. For the skaters, we will have.

Ron Francis and Kevin Stevens. On the builder side, we will have Scotty Bowman and the legendary Eddie Johnston. I have talked at length about Kevin Stevens, but I will say my piece as I always do. Lemieux and Yager got me into hockey. Kevin Stevens made me love hockey. Ronnie Francis, underratedly one of the best players, not just in the Penguin organization, but in hockey in the 80s and 90s, a truly underrated superstar of the game for whoever he was playing with, an incredible player. Scotty Bowman, I mean, come on,

might be the greatest coach of all time. And he wasn't with the Penguins long, but when he was with the Penguins made one hell of an impact. And Eddie Johnston, man, if there is a man not named Mary O'A Lemieux or Sidney Crosby, Eddie Johnson is the Pittsburgh Penguins. I love that you said that. He's been around the team for basically five decades at this point. He's been the general manager. He picked Mario Lemieux first overall in the 1984 NHL draft. He's been a head coach before. His 232 wins are third all time among Penguins head coaches, only behind Mike Sullivan and Dan Bilesma. He's been an assistant GM.

He's been a senior advisor. Pat, he has literally been around the franchise forever, basically. So I love that you said that. He very much deserves this Scotty Bowman. One of the best coaches, not just in Penguin's history, but might be the best head coach in NHL history as a whole. He wasn't with the team very long, but he guided them to the 92 Stanley Cup championship.

And his voice was, again, it echoed through that locker room. And you have to say this about Scotty Bowman in the 1992 Stanley Cup championship. That team in the organization was obviously reeling from the death of Badger Bob Johnson. Because Badger Bob Johnson was not only a great coach, he reset the culture of the Pittsburgh Penguins. For as good as they were before Badger Bob came along from when they drafted Lemieux to when they inevitably win in 1991, the question around the penguins up to that point was, okay, they're Mario Lemieux, but what else? What are the penguins?

Who are the penguins? Yeah, they've got Mario Lemieux. They've got their big superstar. but there wasn't really much of an identity. And there wasn't a lot of belief or even, I don't want to say motivation because it's pro athletes. They're always motivated. But Badger comes in, resets the culture,

brings this team to a Stanley Cup championship, and tragically passes away. And it would have been damn near impossible for any coach to step in and become the head coach of the. penguins because even though it was one season, Johnson was beloved. He was the catalyst behind it. And he was both beloved and respected by the players and the organization. And it was such a massive loss. The fact that Scotty Bowman was not only able to step in to that role, but guide them to a championship that was dominant in 1992.

deserving unlike, unlike so, I want to say there people were undeserving, but extremely deserving of this honor. Oh, 100%, Pat. And again, like the way that, the way that, sorry, 5,4, 321, the way that his word just echoed throughout that locker room after taking over, it was extraordinary. That first round series against Washington that year was tough. They then go down two games to one against the Rangers.

another tough series at the time, Pat. And then what happens? They smoke them three straight. They smoke Boston and four. And they smoked Chicago in four. They won 11 in a row to end the Stanley Cup playoffs and win that Stanley Cup in 92. Again, Scotty Bowman, man.

One of the best of the best. Just again, what an incredible run also. The way that he was able to get those players night in, night out, especially after going down to 1 against the Rangers to just light up these teams, it was unbelievable. And one last thing to note before we wrap the show up here with Eddie Johnston, because you obviously know that he's still around the organization.

He's still basically a consultant. He's there every night at every home game. He is still used for counsel for everybody in the organization. But obviously, everyone loves to talk about the Lemieux draft. because he was offered the entire world by just about everybody leading up to that draft. He even had pressure from ownership to take all these trades, get all these pieces, do all this stuff. And he held firm and said, no, this is going to be one of the greatest players of all time.

We are taking Mario Lemieux. But you look at his track record. And I'm going to throw out some names here of people he drafted. Only one of them stuck long term with the team. and that's Bob Airy. But here's some other draft picks he hit on. Doug Bodger wasn't with the Penguins long, but guess what they used Doug Bodger to get?

Tom Barrasso, Craig Simpson. He's used in the Paul Coffee trade. Zarli Zalapski eventually traded for Ron Francis, who's going into the Penguins Hall of Fame this year, and Chris Joseph, excuse me, who was also used in the Paul Coffee trade. So Eddie Johnson does not get, because he's such a giant in Penguins history and has done so much for the organization, underratedly, a really, really good general manager for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Very much so.

And if I could quickly add just a couple of things, you know, about Kevin Stevens and Ron Francis. Ron Francis is one of the best players in NHL history. Kevin Stevens very much up there too. But, you know, Ron Francis, Patty's fifth all time and points for the NHL history, 1,790. obviously won the back-to-back Stanley Cups after being acquired from the Hartford Whalers. He also won a Selke trophy as a member of the Penguins during the 94-95 season. 533 games with the Penguins, 613 points. Again, just a one-man wrecking crew.

When he was on, good luck stopping him. Kevin Stevens, again, also when he was on, good luck stopping him to. 260 goals, 555 points in 522 games. Two different sense with the Penguins. Obviously, the main one was from 1987 to 1995. His best season of his career, individual, that is, came with the Penguins in 91, 92. 54 goals, 123 points in 80 games. Pat, like I said about Francis, when he had the puck and when he was on his A game,

there was no one touching him. Kevin Stevens, an absolute force. So was Ronnie Francis. So were all these guys. Saturday, October 25th against the Columbus Blue Jackets is when they will honor the first four of this three-year class of the reintroduction of the Penguins Hall of Fame. But that is going to do it for our Tuesday episode. We will be back on Wednesday to get you set for the next preseason game,

which is tomorrow against the Columbus Blue Jackets. We will also talk about anything that happens between now and then. but for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in. We will be back on Wednesday.