Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Philip Tomasino clears waivers, plus could the Penguins swing BIG this summer?

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

With the Pittsburgh Penguins on a mini-break thanks to their international games, we're talking a potential big summer trade! Patrick and Hunter are taking this little break from game action to talk about the 2026 offseason (2:10). With the Penguins expected to have a lot of cap space, and not many big-time free agents available, could they target Jordan Kyrou from the Blues? They discuss that before getting into some practice notes from Wednesday's practice. They discuss how Philip Tomasino cleared waivers (15:03) and what the next steps are for him before looking at Sam Poulin getting an opportunity on the third line. After that, they give out their warrior helmet for the last week! (24:35).Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!RugietVisit https://rugiet.com/LOCKEDONNHL to get 15% off your first order. 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.MonarchTake control of your finances with Monarch. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at https://monarch.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.

While we're all enjoying and excited over the start of the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2025, 2026 season, it's never too early to look ahead at the 2026 off season. Hunter and I are going to do that and more right after this. You're 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 podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4 Wet,

joined as always by my partner in crime, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at L-O- underscore Penguins. You can also find our show on Instagram at Locked-on underscore Penguins. as well as TikTok at Locked-on Penguins. And 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 get your podcasts as well as YouTube. And if you're following us on YouTube, which you should be, make sure you hit that notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we jump into it, this episode is brought to you by Fandul. Download the Fandul app now by going to fandul.com, and you could win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. More on them later, because it looks like Hunter's about to fall asleep with this intro.

So let's perk him up with a little bit of talk about the upcoming off season. Now, before I get into what I'm going to deem the potential summer of Dubist, I want to add some caveats. Yes, a lot can change between November 19th, 2025, and June and July, 26, whether it's injuries, trades, roster moves, retirements, anything in between, this is all obviously a fluid situation. but with the penguins still on their little mini break after their trip to Sweden, I had to do a lot of dig in today. And I went to Puckpedia and thought, you know what? Let's start planning the 2026 off season.

And as we have talked about on this show, going into this upcoming off season, the penguins are going to have a ton of cap space. They're going to have just under 49 million. dollars in available cap space. And then I looked at who they have coming off of the books. And if you look at their

Puckpedia page right now, they've got 12 unrestricted free agents right now, assuming there are no trades, assuming there are no other moves. As of today, they are going to have 12 pending UFAs and they include Gennie Malkin, Kevin Hayes, Anthony

Mantha, Danton, Noel Achari, Blake Lazot, Connor Doer, Yona Copan, Sam Pullam, Matt Dumbah, Connor Clifton, and Ryan Shea. So we'll start with this. I look at that list and I see two of the three, two, maybe three of them that you're probably going to bring back. Evgeny Malkin, Blake Lazot, and potentially Ryan Shea.

Everybody else at this point, Hunter, and I'm going to ask you this, I think everybody else on that list, you're either going to trade or you're going to let walk. I would agree. And honestly, I still think even with Blake Lazade, there's maybe a chance that he comes back, but also I could see them looking to move him at the deadline, depending on where they are, you know, of course. Ryan Shea, I think it's likely that he comes back. He's fairly cheap for what he does, even in a top four role.

I don't think he's going to command too much of a pay raise, in my opinion. They're going to have that conversation in February during the Olympic break. And Pat, I retweeted that article. the other day where he said he doesn't want to go anywhere, doesn't want to hear about, you know, Florida, Colorado, all those other places. So if he plays again, which there's a good chance potentially, it's going to be here,

and I assume it's going to be a one-year contract and it's not going to be much money. So even if they sign, you know, one or two of those guys, they're still going to have quite a bit at Caperman. That doesn't take into account, you know, other players that potentially get, you know, moved off the roster at some point, just, you know, overall so they're going to have a lot of wiggle room they're not going to use all that cap space

next summer that's just not realistic special with where they are in this rebuild i still think it's better for them to look at hockey trades in general just because you know pat it's funny everyone's like oh look at that 2026 reagency class looks so good right and then connor mc david resigns and then you know adrian kempa re signs and then kyle connor resigns and then you have all these other players wanting to re-sign with their teams. And you look at the best free agent right now, UFA-wise, just strict UFA, it might be what Alex Tuck, Artemi Panarin, it's not great. And who knows, I think Alex Tuck might resign up in Buffalo.

And Panarin, I think he has the best chance of like the top ones to get to market. I'm not sure the Rangers are going to want to bring him back. And I think he can get a pretty good payday elsewhere. But again, it's starting to look like. you know, this past year where, you know, sure, Mitch Marner got really close and, you know, they traded his rights. But you look at this past year's class, it wasn't the best to say it the least, you know. So that's not really where you want to spend all of your money. I think they'll still maybe make some depth moves. But I think trades, pure hockey trades,

if you want to really get aggressive with a cap space, I think that might be their bread and butter for attacking things next off season, no matter where they finish in the standings. And that's a good place to pick it up because this is what my morning Puckpedia project was about. So I talked about all of those players, the UFAs. You're only going to probably bring back Gino and Blake Lazott. Again, working under the assumption that here on November 19th, these guys are still going to be on the roster, you're going to bring those two back.

You're going to bring Ryan Shea back. And that's going to cost you, if I would imagine, around $8 million, probably about five for Gino, two and a half for Blake Lazzott, maybe three. And then when you go to the RFA side, there's not many of note there. The four that I would say are Philip Tomasino, who given the way this last 24 hours have gone, would be shocked if they bring him back unless he really turns it around. Arter Shilovs, Yoel Blumquist, and Velae Coimbenin. Obviously, Coivinen, you're going to keep.

That is a no-brainer. We'll see what shakes out with the goaltending situation, with Sergei Murashov, Tristan Jari, and all of that. So I don't know what they'll do with that, but at the end of the day, let's get into what you said about potential trades. You make all these moves and let's operate under the assumption that they're going to spend about $10 million in house to keep their people around. You're operating with about $39 million of cap space now. So they're going to have to, or not have to, but they could make hockey trades. And I'm going to throw out one big name that I think the penguins could target this summer if the opportunity presents itself. Jordan Cairo out of the St. Louis Blues, because as we have talked about, the Blues are a heavily disappointing team right now.

they've got absolutely no goal tending to speak of they are not high in the standings whatsoever and there are a lot of calls around that team for them to hit the reset button if not fully rebuild and then you add in that when the n hl and its people go to the olympics in february Doug Armstrong is part of Team Canada's management team, so is Kyle Dubus. If I'm Kyle Dubus in February and these trends continue where the penguins are looking like they're taking a couple steps forward with their young guys, there's some potential there, they've got to really try to maybe make the next step in this rebuild. I'm nudging Mr. Armstrong just about every day in Italy and going, what you want for Jordan Kairu there? because with him he's 27 next season 26 27 he will have four years left of a 1 8 million 8.15 million dollar contract remaining and in the last three years he has eclipsed 30 goals if you end up moving ricard recel at the deadline there is your rickechel replacement that is true though the jury is still out on what they're going to do with those big three names at the deadline

Ross, Carlson, Raquel, you know, and at least in February for the Olympics, Pat, it would be Doug Armstrong that he would be kind of nudging because he will be stepping down as the GM after the season. And then Alexander Sr. is going to be taking over. By the way, we are all old because I remember Brian Alexander Steen in my teenage years. And the fact that he's now going to be the GM of that team, time just moves so fast. But anyway, with Jordan Cairo, he does have a full no trade clause. So you have to take that into consideration.

he doesn't have to go anywhere if he doesn't want to. You are correct about how disappointing they have been. Now, there's still time we're doing this, you know, in the second half of November. They can still turn it around. Excuse me, remember last year, it had a really nice end to the season. They got in the playoffs and they were really close to getting to the second round. They probably should have beaten the Winnipeg Jets in the first round. But this year, everything has been really disappointing.

If things don't turn around this season and they miss, I could see teams, maybe even the penguins going, hey, what would you be looking for for someone like this? You know, with Kyru, he is 27 years old right now. He has six goals, 11 points, and 19 games. This is a three-time 30 goal score. He had 36 goals and 70 points in 82 games last season. One of the best pure snipers in the league that we have right now. So it would take a lot to get him.

I do think timeline-wise, it would make sense. I'm just not sure. Would they be willing to pony up? the assets to go get someone like that especially with the no trade clause but you know we'll have to see but it would make sense for me i like hiru a lot i do too and i think with just the bevy of picks that they have and a couple of other assets depending upon what st louis wants to do like if even if you want to move potentially a shilovs or a blumquist because you know that you have, hopefully, your guy in Sergei Murashov, that you have made those two somewhat

expendable. And if you need to move maybe a B tier prospect or something to get a 27, soon to be 28 year old pure sniper that kind of fits into your timeline without giving up everything, that could be a move to make. But again, as you said, as I have said, all the caveats, supply here. St. Louis could turn it around in the second half. They have been known to do that for the last few years. And maybe suddenly the bottom falls out for the penguins. And they say, hey, forget that. We're going to keep stockpiling prospects and assets. Who knows what happens. But with the penguins off until Friday and basically only practice happening today, they needed something fun to talk about. And who doesn't love talking trades and play an armchair GM?

It's pretty much the only reason I keep downloading EANHL because I love playing armchair GM. It's one of my favorite things in the world to do because it's no risk and it's fun. But that was just some stuff we wanted to get into to start the show to get everybody's antenna up because this rebuild is still in the beginning stages and there are a lot of places it can go. So obviously that's going to be a topic of discussion on this show for quite some time. But that is going to do it for our opening segment. When we come back, Penguins were back at work today, and it was a mandatory work day. We're going to talk about the practice, the vibes, and some other things from the Penguins world today when we come back right after this. Before we do that, though, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor.

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He goes unclaimed by any of the other 31 teams in the NHL. So he is now eligible to be sent to Wilkes Bear and the AHL. that one i am a little surprised by i figured that there would be one maybe two teams taking a chance on philip tomasino with injuries under performances and disappointing as tomasino has been this year the track record and the potential are still there and i really thought between that a very affordable contract his time in pittsburgh was probably at its end but here we are he was at practice today and we'll see if he ends up getting sent to the miners yeah i was watching my practice you could definitely tell by his body language at least to me that he felt a little

deflated i mean who wouldn't you're placed on waivers yesterday you're learning to find out your fate a few hours later i felt really bad just watching him but he cleared waivers and i'm with you i thought maybe a team or two would potentially try to take a chance on him he's still very young relatively cheap contract, could maybe be a depth score on a team that's battling injuries, but a team didn't decide to do it. And now he can be sent to Wilkesbury. If that happens, I expect someone to come up. I know a lot of people are waiting for Tristan Brose.

We keep getting comments about it. And trust me, guys, I'm excited too. Tristan Brose has had a really nice start. He came really close to making this team out of training camp. But I'm going to tell you all what I'm saying to some people in the YouTube comments, you got to be patient. I think he's going to be coming up a bit later this year. and I think he is going to have a bit of a runway.

You know, even when this team gets healthy, I think he is going to come up at some point. So I get all the fans clamoring for him, but I think we've got to be patient. Also, he's now playing with Rucker McGrody. Magrorty just came back. I think they want to get those two some chemistry together. So just be patient.

If I had to pick one guy that would come up from Wilkesbury, I would say Avery Hayes, but he's still day to day right now. But the one player I would say potentially to watch out for is Vokewee Mama. He's someone that is very well liked in that locker room, brings some snarls, some physicality, some toughness. It doesn't bring a lot of the offense, but I could definitely see him coming up for a game or two before being sent back once some of the injured players are able to get healthy. So just putting that out there for everyone. I wouldn't be shocked on that either, just because he is your classic, well-liked, loyal soldier kind of player, where he kind of understands his role that he's going to, to be a mostly AHL guy. He'll get his opportunities from time to time in the NHL. And he takes

that as a positive. You saw it last year when he came up. Everybody was happy to have him on the team. He brought a spark. He brought energy. He brought physicality. And in a long season, that has its value. He's not going to be a consistent full-time NHL player, but he can provide you that little bit of a spark and with as tough as this upcoming stretch is going to be in December, you might just need that. You might need that intangible spark where you bring this guy up. He's happy, go lucky. You put him on the ice. He's throwing big hits. He's not afraid to get into scraps. And that lifts some spirits. That gets the guys going. And wouldn't be shocked if that's something that the team feels it needs. As for the other guys,

aside from the injuries and everything, I'll keep reiterating this. I've said it on the show. I've said it to people on social media in the comments when we're talking about this. When you bring those guys up, you want to bring them up. You want to put them in more prominent roles.

And right now those roles aren't there for them. It won't do them any good to play very limited bottom six minutes. You want to see can these guys come up and perform. And if you're putting them in sheltered, limited roles, it's probably not the best for them. Let them continue to cook in the AHL. Let them continue to get those big time minutes and really continue to develop. And then once they're ready, they are ready. So we'll see what happens with them.

As for the rest of practice, not a whole ton to really get into other than the third line of Tommy Novak, Ben Kindle, and Sam Poolland. Yes. We talked about Poolland yet. yesterday. I don't want to put too much undue expectation or hype on Ben Kindle. But as we have seen, there's a really good job of driving his own line. And with what has ailed Sam Pulland since he's had his opportunities, maybe a little bit of time with Ben Kindle could raise that stock ever so slightly. We'll see. I mean, Ben Kindle, you know, one of the smartest players on the team. It really hasn't mattered who has been on his line. He's been driving it no matter

what. He has really good chemistry with Tommy Novak. So I like that they put Novak back down there after a couple of games with Malkin. It at least shows that Novak and Malkin do have some chemistry that he can go up there if needed. But I do like the chemistry that Novak and Kendall have. And now I'm curious to see what Poulan is able to do with Kendall. So that's a real opportunity for him here. He gets to try to impress the coaching staff. this new staff, that is, to see if he can maybe get an extended stay with the penguins, even when some injured players come back, time will tell. Speaking of that, Justin Roseau was skating once again before practice.

Ricard Raquel was skating before practice, Jackson Ivan, he was before joining the team again. Tristan Jari was back out there for another practice, so he's starting to get a little bit closer. So, you know, some guys, they're not, some of them are not at practice yet, but they're getting closer, which is what you want to see. This team is so banged up right now. and they need to get guys back ASAP, especially with the December that they have coming up. Also, Harrison Brunick spoke after practice. Dan Mews talked about that.

It very much feels like this is going to end up with a conditioning stint in Wilkesbury and then going to the world juniors. Like Mews and Brunich both said, they have a plan for me or, you know, for Mews. I, you know, we have a plan for him and all that. So I would be surprised if it didn't involve that conditioning stint in the HL and then the world juniors you can't just keep having him rot up there i feel really bad he's got to play in some games like right now that is if you're not going to play him here pat now that you have the five games a little loophole send him down to the hl and then you have the world juniors coming

up okay loan him to there and he can play in high stakes games you're you're not having him learn anything by just sitting in the press box i i agree overall that he does need to get into some game action again. I do think I still lean on what I said about both him and Kindle earlier in the year where they don't really have anything left to do or to prove at the junior level. So there is something to be said for sticking around an NHL program in getting that kind of experience. But at the same time, yes, he does eventually need to get into some game action because workouts, practices, travel, all that isn't really doing that much for him. But you can kind of see they're hinting towards this because if they weren't going to do it,

they probably would have sent him back to juniors at this point. So it really does feel like it's trending toward sending him to Wilkes-Barre for a few games, then giving him to Team Canada for the world juniors. And then after that, you reevaluate. If you want to keep them around, get him into some games, fantastic. If you do want to send him back, you've at least put him on a really good path to see what it's going to take to not only make the team, but stay on the team. So we will see what happens with him, but that is going to do it for our middle segment. When we come back, my favorite segment on Locked on Penguins, it's Wednesday, and that means it's time to give out our MVP of the week as part of Warrior Helmet Wednesday.

And there are going to be two winners this week. So stay tuned to see who's getting the Warrior Helmets this week. We will do that when we come back right after this. But first, we've got to tell you about our last sponsor, and that is Fandul. The NBA is back, and there is no better place to get on the action than Fandul, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed hip-off or you just want to ride the hot hand, Fandul has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks.

Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. Fandul keeps every game exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. Right now, Fandle is offering new customers $300 in bonus bets if their first $5 bet wins. So head to fandual.com to sign up and play your game with Fandul. the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Welcome back to the Wednesday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp, running right alongside my good buddy Hunter Hodies. And if you're new here, welcome to Warrior Helmet Wednesday.

This is where we give out our MVP of the previous week. And in doing so, we pay homage to the 24th. 2016 Stanley Cup winning penguins where throughout that season, the team would give out their player of the game award in the locker room via a warrior helmet. And we are going to keep that tradition alive here on the show. So Hunter, I will give the floor to you. Who gets your warrior helmet this week? Mine is going to go to Sergey Murashav for his first shutout on Sunday.

Was he tested that much? No, the penguins did a great job, keeping Nashville to the outside, only giving up a limited number of high danger chances. However, when he was tested, he made it look so easy. He was so calm, composed in that. He showcased his agility. His rebound control was not really an issue, even though it's crept up at times throughout his development, but I think it's been a lot better this year.

If you ask me, he played a great game for the penguins and was very stable in net when the penguins really needed to win. So he gets my warrior helmet for this week. And Pat, I know who you are going to give yours to. It's also an excellent pick because he scored in both games for the penguins. But mine goes to Mr. Sergey Marashev. That is a very good pick. And yes, you are correct. I am giving my warrior helmet to number 71, Evgeny Malkin. If you're checking us out on YouTube today, you can see the graphic on your screen. Hunter, appreciate your pick, but you kind of took away what I was going to say about Miroshov, not to take anything away from his shutout of the Nashville Predators in Sweden.

He played extremely well, but the Penguins as a team did a really good job limiting the chances. So his job was not that difficult, but it is still a monumental achievement for the 21-year-old goaltender. As for my pick, Ifgeny Malkin scores goals in both. international games. And as you said on the show, in Sweden, Evgeny Malkin said the bank is open because both goals were bank shots. But he was also just a tremendous player throughout both games. He continues to have a really strong start to the season.

So I am giving mine to Hvgeny Malkin. And if you're keeping score at home, you can see our tracker here on the screen of who has our warrior helmets throughout the season. If you are listening on audio, leading the pack this season with two warrior helmets is Justin Brzoe, Benjamin Kindle, Evgeny Malkin, and now Sergei Murashov. Getting one each is Sidney Crosby, Kyle Dubus, Eric Carlson, Dan Mews, the penalty kill, and the power play. We're obviously keeping track of it better this season because at the end of the year, when we get to whenever it is, maybe the, after game 82 maybe after the playoffs who knows how this season's going to go but either way at the end of the season we will give our season long warrior helmet awards to maybe a couple

players maybe one who knows we'll see how each week of this season goes but thank you to everyone who tunes into this goofy show each and every day we appreciate you and that is going to do it for the Wednesday edition of Locked on Penguins. Hunter and I will be back with a brand new episode for you on Thursday. So for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in and we will be back on Thursday.