Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Pittsburgh Penguins add Dmitry Kulikov for McGinn & a 3rd-rounder | INSTANT Trade Reaction

Episode Date: March 3, 2023

The Pittsburgh Penguins continued their curious set of pre-deadline moves with the addition of Dmitry Kulikov from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Brock McGinn and a third-round pick. Hunter Hodies of Locked On Penguins joins Gil Martin on Locked On NHL to break down the trade from the Penguins side of things. Will Kulikov even crack the Penguins' top six? Does Ron Hextall have any plan for the Pens at all? All that and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gil Martin here. The locked-on road to the NHL trade deadline continues. The Pittsburgh Penguins now making a move. They acquire defenseman Dmitry Kulikov from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for forward Brock McGinn and a third-round pick. Hunter Hodes of Lockdown Penguins joins us again. And Hunter, let's start with this. What does Kulikov add to the Penguins lineup, if anything?

Great question, Gil. You know, I think he gives them some added defensive depth to this team. If you're asking me right now, I don't think he's probably better than any of the six they have icing. They have on a nightly basis, I should say. Maybe you can argue Brian Dumlin

on the top pairing because he's had a bit of a rough year. Outside of that, though, the other five guys have definitely been a lot better than him this year. I just don't know how many games he's going to play down the stretch. That's my big thing because you now have eight defensemen on this roster. Traver-Reedles are number seven.

Kulukov, you add to that. And the pairings that they've been doing, Dumont-Latang, Pedersen with Petri, and they've been doing Pio Joseph with the honorita. Right now, I probably wouldn't take any of those guys out. At some point, they may want to give Kulikov some games. See how he does. I know he had a little bit of a better year in Minnesota last year.

He's playing some tough minutes for the Ducks this season. I've just never really been a fan of him for as long as he's been in the league. But I will say, Gil, this deal is more about them getting out of Brock McGinn's contract than getting Kulikov in. I thought they were just trading Kulikov and getting just trading a pick for him. that probably would have been more clueless, but once the return came in, my judgment on it changed,

and I think it definitely changed into more of a win in my eyes than a loss. So getting rid of McGinn and his contract, does that, in your mind, open the door for possibly another move? And if they deal a defenseman, is that maybe where Kulikov fits into the lineup? They should have at least one more move coming.

Elliot Friedman, freaking woke up at 637 just tweeted out that the penguins are working to acquire Nick Benino. They haven't had the trade call yet. I don't know what's going on with that. I haven't heard anything on it. But that's who I think they're expecting to bring in. I think period of run said they're trading a fifth and a seventh for him. But one of the other, one of those picks is going to a broker team.

So I think there's going to be a lot of money retained. Outside of that deal, if it goes through, I'm not really sure what else they're going to do. They could deal a defenseman. I would really hope they don't deal Marcus Pedersen or P. Joseph, I think that would be very foolish. They both have been very good this season. But it certainly would appear, Gil, that they could have a defenseman trade lined up at some point, though, I'm not really sure because you have eight guys right now. Kulukov has played most of the games for the Ducks this season. Is he just going to really sit on the bench for 20

games? That's, it's a, it's a curious decision. But again, you know, this deal is more about them getting out of McGinn's contract. It's funny, you know, two of Ron Hextall's biggest blunders in the last couple of years, that was very competent contract and the Brock Begin contract, he's somehow found takers for both, which is two big wins in my book. So actually, as compared to earlier in the week, you actually do feel there was some logic behind this particular trade. Hey, you know, if they didn't do that Granlin trade, they would have, I think they would have over seven million in CapSays right now.

They could really even go after, you know, a bigger fish. but, you know, they got Granlin. He had a fine debut last night. Nothing too bad. Nothing too good. They will also have some salary cap space for the deadline. If they do want to do anything over the next 90 minutes or so. But this move is also about the summer because they're going to have more cap space to open up.

They're not going to be giving McGinn almost $3 million. They're not going to be giving a cap in over $3.2 million. You know, getting rid of two players who were really just not scoring that much this season. You know, again, that's a win in my book. And also, you know, the Teddy Bluger trade. I know it set up the Grambling one, but that's three guys out that we're really not doing much in the bottom six this season. Hextolle said a lot of his press conferences that, you know, the depth has not been performing as I would like. And, you know, he certainly decided to change that up in a big way.

Half of the bottom six to start the year, Gil, is out the door. Yeah. So change is the byword in Pittsburgh. Be sure to check out Locked on Penguins for more on this. other moves made by the Pittsburgh Penguins and keep it dialed into Lockdown NHL all along the road to the NHL trade deadline. This is the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.