Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Presenting my NHL Awards Ballot!

Episode Date: June 19, 2020

This is usually the time when the NHL Awards would take place so Hunter went ahead and made his ballot for who he thinks should win, plus lists the other finalists as well. He also talks about this day in Penguins history, plus looks at some league updates from Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman and The Athletic's Pierre Lebrun. He then ends the show by shouting out Josh Yohe and Rob Rossi for their spectacular "inside free agency" stories this week on The Athletic with the story behind #JagrWatch and how Sidney Crosby an Evgeni Malkin came about signing their contracts! 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.

Hello, welcome to this Thursday night episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins, this 18th day of June, as we are now in the second half of the month, this much closer now to the 4th of July. And also, looking forward to another weekend. It just blows my mind how these weeks just fly by. We're into date, whatever, now, of this pandemic. And, yeah, I hope you all are doing well. You guys are safe and everything's good.

I really always appreciate you guys taking 20, 25 minutes out of your day to listen to me ramble by this hockey team or whatever else I have to ramble about. Today on the show, we'll have my NHL award ballots. This would be my ballot if I had a vote on the PHWA chapter. Of course, I do not. I hope so. At some day, I can get one. But I think I'll just release who my finalists would be.

You guys might be surprised who I have winning the heart. I'm definitely not putting two Edmonton Oilers, though, in there. I saw Gordon Miller had that in today and his ballot. We'll talk about that when we get to it, but yeah, his ballot was definitely a little bit interesting. There's been some interesting ballots out there. We'll talk about Elliot Friedman's ballot. I kind of was just looking at a bunch of those ballots, you know, just seeing how my ballot stacks up. But, you know, I mostly just looked at, you know, how much they meant to their team, the numbers they produced, all that good stuff.

And, you know, there was definitely some tough decisions. So, you know, we'll have the Calder, the heart, the Selke, the Norris, and the Lady Bing trophy. But as always, this show is brought to you by, oh, wow, well, today it's actually different. It is not brought to you by Bill Farr. Today is brought to you by rockouto.com. Amazing selection, reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Yeah, I have not said that one too many times this last month.

This sucks all been Bill Farr, so I've had that stuck in my head. I absolutely forgot that today's was brought to you. to you by Rock Otto. So, you know, that's the big idiot day for me. So I guess there's not a lot that has happened today in Pittsburgh Penguins history. We can also just look at stuff that happened for Pittsburgh hockey history made today on June 18th. Doug Bodger was born today on 1966. Happy birthday to him on this day in 1994.

The Pittsburgh Phantoms, so a different team. They won a 10-9 shootout over the Atlanta fire ants in front of a 7,347,000, crowd in their first game at Melon Arena. I had no idea that Pittsburgh Phantoms were a thing. On this day in 1952, Pittsburgh Penguins' gold tender Dennis Heron was born today. So happy birthday, Heron. I called him Harron like a fool. Dennis Heron's birthday was today, so happy birthday.

And on this day in 1906, Pittsburgh Hornets right winger, Joe Lamb, was born. So that is all that happened on this day in Penguins history. You know, we should be in the offseason. So, yeah, so not too much, but still, some interesting stuff. that happened today in Pittsburgh Hockey history and Pittsburgh Penguins history. But let's get to my NHRA awards ballot. So like I said,

yes, these would be, if I had a PHWA ballot, so let's just get on into it. So my winner of the Hart Trophy this year, for me personally, is Artemian Panarin. He is exactly what the Rangers needed at exactly the right time. You know, they were going through a little bit of a retool

or kind of, I guess, a rebuild on the fly. He absolutely tore up a league on the Rangers this season. There was always questions with him when he left Chicago, went to Columbus. You know, oh, yeah, you know, can he be the breakout player that everyone is expecting him to be? How can he produce without Patrick Kane? Because we all know how Patrick Kane is one of the top five best players, I think, in the league. But, you know, all those questions coming in, you know, how can he be on his own line?

You know, can he produce? I mean, he answered those questions pretty quick in Columbus, and then he answered them even better this year with the New York Rangers. He's the most valuable player to his team. He has the points, the production to prove it. I mean, 32 goals, 95 points in 69 games. This guy was easily going to be over a 100-point player this season. And, yeah, I mean, he gets it for me. I mean, I don't think a lot of people expected the Rangers to be anywhere near

playoff contention this season. I think even the most optimistic Rangers fan was probably thinking next year is going to be their big year. But, you know, they were able to make it this year thanks to the 2014 playoff format. Hell, I think if this pandemic didn't happen and we had a regular. regular 16-team playoff. I think the Rangers were, they had a very good shot, I think, to get in. The Islanders were not playing well towards the later stages of the season. Columbus was, they were treading water a little bit. I think the Rangers could have made a big

push to get that last wildcard spot. Would they have gone up against Boston and probably lose? Yes, that's most likely, because Boston is just so damn good. But the way Artemey-Penneran played, like I said, he was going to be a 100-point player, almost a 40-goal score or two with that, with them. He's everything the Rangers needed and more. He is their franchise player and he's going to continue to produce for them throughout that whole contract. That contract, I think, is going to be a steal for the Rangers, in my opinion. I know he gets paid a lot of money with his high salary cap, but he is worth it and so much more. I think he definitely earned the heart trophy this season. At number two, I think I'm going to have to go with Nathan McKinnon, you know, 35 goals,

58 assists, the way Colorado is able to play this year. We all know how good Nathan McInnan is anyway. He's also on a steal-up contract. I don't even think Nathan McKinnon makes $7 to $8 million per year. I think it's like $6.5 or something like that. I'm going to have to double check, but I don't think he makes $7 to $8 million per season. I remember when

his agent negotiated for him, and people were like, wait, what? He gets paid that to score 100 points. It's pretty crazy. You know, the Adelands were also making a push for you to be the number one seed. McKinnon was just a monster this season. Oh, he also had Niko Vanton was out for a while.

so he had to do that without one of his best players on his line. He usually plays with him on his line. Nathan McKinnon, I think, is one of the top three best players in the league. I think if you're ranking the top three players in this league, it goes Crosby, McDavid-McKinnon. And I have no problem saying that. Nathan McKinnon has turned into a superstar. His career did not always start out like that.

He was never a 100-point player to start. He was kind of scoring in the 50-to-60-point range. And then all of a sudden, just a couple of seasons ago, He just shot out of a cannon and just became the superstar that a lot of people pegged him to be. I remember people were calling him a bus just a couple seasons into his career, and he was like, okay, chill out. You know, he's still really young. He's been a monster these last few seasons, and he definitely deserves to be a hard trophy finalist. If he wins, I don't think anyone is going to bat an eye.

I think he is more than deserving, but for me speaking, I don't think he had a better season than Panera, I don't think he was worth more to his team than Pinaran was this season. Coming up at number three, my last finalist is Connor McDavid. I know people were probably going to be weird that I did not put Leon dry-sidal on here, considering how good dry-sidal was this season. But McDavid was also really freaking good to, 34 goals, 63 assists, and 64 games. Arguably the best player in the world. Of course, he's the most valuable player on the Oilers.

It's crazy that dry-sidal has really come into his own, too. And honestly, if you want to flip-fop dry-sidal for McDavid on this Hart Trophy ballot list, I don't think anyone would bat an eye to you. But it's stuff like Gore Miller did. I think he put both Drysidal and McDavid in there. And it's like, no, that just discredits what both Paneran and McKinnon did for their respective teams. And I think both of them need to be on there for what they did. And then you can just put one of Drysidal or McDavid on there, considering they were both absolutely outstanding.

I'm going McDavid just because when he's on, you know, he's a one-man-wracking crew. I said, he's arguably the best player in the world with Sidney Crosby. You can make an argument for him. You can make an argument for Cindy Crosby. I would listen to either one, to be honest with you. But, you know, that's my heart trophy ballot. Those are the players that I think are most deserving of the heart trophy. I think if either one of those three win, I don't think anyone would bat an eye to that.

I mean, I think people would also potentially put on a hellabook on the ballot. You know, he had an absolutely monster season. I think his say percentage was absolutely through the roof. I need to double check what his save percentage actually was real quick, because I know he did save the Winnipeg Jet season. Yeah, 920. Actually, I have 922. That's 922 for his career.

But, I mean, he also was 922 this season, 2.57 goals against average. Also had six shutouts this year that ties a career high for him. Yeah, would not be surprised if he's on a lot of people's ballots. His goal tending towards the end of the season was absolutely spectacular. He definitely deserved. I think he would come forth on my. ballot if I had one. So moving on, we have now the Norris trophy. My winner is John Carlson. He had like a one, his points per game was over one. I know he plays a lot on the power play,

but he also plays a bunch on the penalty kill. He's good at even strength. He has a booming shot. He put up the points to get the Norris. I know, you know, people make the joke, Oh my God, you know, Carlson should have his Norris trophy taken away from him because of what Evgeny Malkin did to him. And if you guys don't remember that, please look it up. Fgeny Malkin, it was during that next game against Washington when they lost to them in D.C. Evgeny Malkin just put a move on John Carlson. He basically ate his lunch on the ice. And he burned him bad.

Then I think that was a game where Brayden Holby started. He beat Holpey, which tied the game. And, of course, the Penguins, I think, got scored on just a few minutes later to lose the game. But yes, please look up that goal if you guys do not remember seeing it. Evgeny Malkin literally ate his lunch and everyone should say, you hope John Carlson should have the Norse taken away. But no. And also, he says John Carlson was absolutely outstanding this season.

You know, 15 goals, 75 points. You know, he was on pace to get, well, be over a point per game defense. I mean, he had 79, 79, 75 points in 69 games. Very nice, by the way. So John Carlson gets the Norris and my ballot. Number two, Roman Yosey. we all know how good Roman Yossi is the number one defenseman on the Predators. He was absolutely outstanding.

He was doing everything in his power to get the Predators into the playoffs again this season. The Predators were really, really struggling this season for a lot of times. I know Pecorina was not at the level that he usually was. I mean, UC Soros was not bad, but still, you know, they had to make the coaching change, of course, with Peter LaVuillette getting canned. But, yeah, the Predators, for some reason, this season, they were just not doing that well. I mean, I know they lost in the first round last year to the Dallas Stars, but yeah, things were trending a bit downward for a lot of this season,

but still Roman Yossi, I thought, was just absolutely outstanding. And then third, on my ballot, Alex Petrangelo. We all know how good Alex Petrangelo is coming off that remarkable Stanley Cup run with the St. Louis Blues. I still can't believe the Blues won that Stanley Cup. It just boggles my mind. How there were to be, Boston in seven games, but also the way they were playing before the new year,

to just go on and tear kind of like how the Penguins did and just kick everyone. Everyone's ass was just awesome. But yeah, Alex Petrangelo would be number three on my ballot. So John Carlson, Roman Yossi, Alex Petrangelo for my Norris ballot. For the Calder, I mean, everyone knows who my top two are. I'm going to give it to Cal McCar. It's between, of course, him and Quinn Hughes.

Quinn Hughes will be second on my ballot. But, you know, 50 points in 57 games for Cal McCar. His possession numbers, 53% for Corsi Fenwick percentage. It's just absolutely outstanding through the roof. McCarra is going to be a star in this league. He already basically is a number one defenseman. He, I think, deserves the Calder Trophy. I remember when he got called up for the playoffs.

I think it was last year. And my buddy Marcus texted me. He was like, finally, the avalanche, we called this kid. I'm like, who are you talking about? He goes, you don't know who Cal McCar is? I'm like, no, shit. Oh, yeah, you're going to hear about him next year. Well, sure enough, yeah, he's going to win the Calder Trophy.

He was absolutely spectacular. Quinn Hughes, like I said, comes in at number two. honestly, you can give either one of them to Calder. How give both of them the Calder. Quinn Hughes was absolutely outstanding as well. 53 points in 68 games. His possession numbers. Yeah, I mean, his possession numbers, 52, 53% absolutely outstanding.

And yeah, all of his underlying numbers are just through the roof. And yeah, even without the pandemic, I think the Canucks were going to be a playoff team. They're going to get their chance to get into the 16 team playoff if everything keeps going well with the numbers and if the league can come to an agreement for phase three and phase four. Like I said, you can give either one of those to Calder Trophy. I don't think anyone would bat and I. It's coming up with a third spot that's pretty damn difficult. You know, you have Dominic Kubalik of Chicago, Victor Oliveson of Buffalo, Adam Fox of New York,

John Marino, you know, Aaliyos Samsonov, Nick Suzuki. Number three for me is going to be drum roll, please. Dominic Kubolik, you know, he was a 30 goal score in his first season with Chicago also had 16 assists, so a 46 point campaign in 68 games. Chicago always just finds these players that they can just turn into 30 goal scores. It's absolutely crazy how they've done this so many times. Originally, I was going to put John Marino on this ballot. I think if I had five players for the quarter, he would be at my number four, number five

spot. So, of course, you know, that injury just kind of screwed him, man. that three-week injury. I mean, everyone knows he doesn't have the offensive numbers that Quinn Hughes and Kelmokar have, but his defensive metrics, his underlying numbers are just absolutely insane. He defends as well as any young defenseman in this league.

He shuts down teams when they come into the zone. His pairing with Marcus Pedersen was absolutely awesome with the penguins and how they were just able to shut down any player that just came into the zone, like I just said. And just his puck-moving ability is just, I can't wait to see how he develops. I think he's going to be a star in this league. But same goes for Kubolik, you know, 30-goal season.

I mean, that just can't go ignored. It was hard to, I guess, decide between him and O'Lawson and Adam Fox. Adam Fox was a stud for the Rangers this season, you know. He had a 42-point campaign in 70 games. He's going to be also a star like Marino is going to be. They got him from the Hurricanes. I think it was for a draft pick. I wasn't want to give it to a second I'll pick.

I'm not sure. Obloff saying, you know, it was close, but, you know, it's just the Buffalo Sabres are just so freaking bad. So that's why I really didn't do that. So the Selky Trophy, I mean, number one, I have Patrice Bergeron. I mean, you know, it basically you can just rename it to the Patrice Bergeron Award, just because of how awesome he is as a two-way player. You know, he always wins this trophy. He absolutely deserves it.

He's not only a great player in the offensive zone, but his, defending is just through the roof as well. Number two, Sean Kuturier. We all know how good Sean Kuturier is defensively. He's been a finalist for this award before, though he's never won it. But I do think he does have a really good chance to potentially win it this year, but I think Bergeron is ultimately going to get it. And then number three, Ryan O'Reilly. He's just, he's absolutely outstanding in his own zone. You know, 51 point campaign with the Blues in 71 games. He's always just been so underrated throughout his career. I'm going to dump on Buffalo again, but what a horrid trade that they had with the blues,

and the return they got was just absolutely atrocious. So real quickly, though, because I know this has been dragging on for far too long, the Lady Bing trophy. I'm going to give it to Alex Petrangelo, and then number two is going to be Jacob Slavin, and then number three, Miro Heiskenen. I know that's going to be a bit different for some people, but that is my award ballot for this year. If I had a vote, I wish I did.

Of course, we don't get to vote on the Vezina because that is voted by the general managers, which, you know, I've always hated that. But, all right, so it's time to talk about rockado.com. It's a family business serving auto parts customers online for 20 years. You can go to rockado.com to shop for auto and body parts and hundreds of manufacturers.

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how did you hear about us, Fox, so that they know we sent you. Amazing selection. Reliably low prices. That's rock auto.com. All right, so we're back here for this episode of Locked On Penguins. We'll probably just do quick, just a quick two more segments before we'll call it an episode. Peter LeBron had a big update today for the athletic where basically they were talking about how the Player Association Executive Board has had calls about

what's going to happen with the phase three. There's a lot of health concerns apparently, according to Pierre. There's a group of players that have been vocal about the reluctance to come back and play until they get more better answers to their questions, then that could change their mind. I know that's happening in the NBA as well. I think Kyrie Irving has been leading calls where players are kind of reluctant to come back and play

because the NBA, of course, is going down to Disney World for their essential location. I also think they're going to be wearing like a ring or something like that if I can tell them like their test or something like that. I have to double-check that to make sure. Pierre also said that hits his understanding that the Players Association they intend to negotiate agreement stuff that protects the players who feel uncomfortable with playing this summer,

basically the idea that they could opt out if they choose. So that's going to be interesting to see moving forward if some players do decide to opt out. My prediction, I think you might see a couple that do decide to opt out, but I don't think it's going to be a relatively big number. I think a lot of players definitely do want to play, but of course, you know, they want to make sure it's safe. I did find this very interesting from Elliot Freeman's 31 thoughts today

where he posted this. I think it was talking about how the NBA Players Association executive director and Michelle Roberts told the Boston Globe, It isn't a matter of if a player will test positive in the bubble, but when, apparently, the full quote was, that's only the realistic mindset you can have really going into this. It's not any more of this if. It's when and what I can do to meditate against the when.

So I would not be surprised if the NHL came out with something like that. I agree, you know, I think it's a matter not if, but when another NHL player test positive. We already have, of course, had someone from the Penguins who tested positive. We've had players, I think, from the senators test positive. I think just this week we had some players from the university. of Texas football program that tested positive for the coronavirus. So, yeah, I mean, even though they are more likely than not to start back up, you are going to see, I think, more than one player test positive for COVID-19.

I would be stunned if that did not happen. Another interesting thing that came from, we'll go back to Pierre LeBron's article here, the answer to they're getting closer to naming the Hub Cities, but this line in particular really, just really, really stump me. I even tweeted about that, if you guys saw it, whatever, But, you know, while the cases in Nevada are spiking, a source suggested Thursday that Vegas remained a strong frontrunner to be a hub city. I just, I'm confused as to how that's a thing, considering that a lot of the numbers that

I see online from actual reliable sources say that like the numbers in Vegas are going up. But, I mean, I understand the N.N. Chil's position with, I know Vegas offers a lot of amenities, you know, without having to leave the hotel. You know, there's plenty of stuff to do there. but it's just weird how that is one of the big frontrunners when there's a spike in cases going on in that state and in that city from everything that I read this week. So we'll be curious to see.

Apparently, Pierre also said that there could be two, the two hub cities could be in the West, but preferably they want to do one in the East and one of the West. But apparently this was interesting too. So he said, let's say it's Vegas and Toronto. They would prefer Vegas to not play in Vegas, so they would send the Western teams to a like tomorrow and the MET East teams to Vegas.

And it's just like, that's just not necessary. I mean, like, what home field advantage are they going to have? I mean, seriously, like, what home field advantage are they going to have without fans? Oh, so, you know, the boards better a little bit. Ooh, yeah, okay. I mean, I don't really see the big issue with Vegas playing on their home rank. Same at Pittsburgh. I know Pittsburgh's numbers have been trending in the right direction for a while.

Say if Pittsburgh gets one of the hub cities, are they really going to have to fly to, like, Vegas, Edmonton, or whatever, with the rest of the East teams to play in a different time zone. I mean, to me, in my opinion, I think that's just silly. So those are some of the updates from both of those articles that I wanted to share with you guys. But also, folks, please remember this. The Lockdown Podcast Network stands against racism and social injustice. That's why we, the host, are making personal donations to local and national organizations that are fighting for change. And in this month of June, Lockdown is matching the total of all host donations up to an additional $10,000.

to make your own donation along with us, please visit Lockdown Podcast.com slash Black Lives Matter. I will put that link in my Twitter and on the Lockdown Penguins Twitter when I officially tweet out the episode so you guys can go to that. Also, for you guys, it is time to hear more about Bill Bar. They are a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar, 16 amazing flavors, 8 chocolate nut flavors, 8 chocolate nut-free flavors. Bars are covering in 100% chocolate, soft and easy to chew.

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You know, Chris LaTang is just being a total badass because that's who Chris Lantang is. Oh, we did see today. The NHLN NBC, they had the face-off bracket champions as the best, like the starting players in franchise history. The Penguins were able to win that against the Edmonton Oilers because, you know, what other franchise can chart out, Mario Lemieux, Yarmier-Yer-Yager, Sidney Crosby, Chris LaTang, Paul Coffey, and then the goalie, Mark Andre, Floree, of Guinea-Malkin.

Basically, no, no. Edmonton had Gretzky and Messia in Granfri. They even tried to claim Paul Coffey, of course. And that was just basically a wash, I would say. But, you know, Curie's on there. He's just absolutely awesome. But, you know, going up against Yarmier-Yager, that's a no. Crosby is better than McDavid, I think, in my opinion.

You're just looking at, like, the last one now. Lemieux, Gretzky, I take Mario Lemieux, because I think he would have shattered his records if he had been healthy. I think he had more talent than Gretzky. Gretzky just has all the records. Coffee, coffee, coffee. I said is a wash and then LaTang and Lowe. I'm taking Chris LaTang any day of the week. So the Pittsburgh Penguins were able to win the best starting lineup in franchise history. They won the poll. And of course, you know, you love to see people just get very, very mad

online with this kind of stuff. I also will say, if you guys have not been checking out the athletic for Josh Yoey and Rob Rossi's inside free agency stories, please do check it out. Josh's story today of the inside story of Yager watch was just, man, just really, I really Those memories were just something on. I wasn't on Twitter at that time. I think I came a year later. But I remember just, you know, I would always wake up to like check ESPN every morning

and check my sports apps to see like, oh my God, like did we sign Yager? Did we sign Yager? And then when you went to the Flyers, of course, I was just really, really pissed. But seeing the quotes from Dan Bilesma and that story, that was just awesome. You know, it's a great story.

Rob Rossi. I know his takes are sometimes a bit out there, but you know, he really is one hell of writer. I will give him that. And also shout out to Rob Rossi for following me on Twitter.com. So, Rob, if you listen to this podcast, your story on Cindy Crosby and Evgeny Malkin's contract situations was just awesome. He talked about how at the start, you know, Malkin wanted to be the same paid with Cindy Crosby. I kind of had the same cap hit.

But then when their last contracts came up, you know, was not going to be as nice. Of course, the Penguins gave him the $9.5 million per deal. and I think his deal expires in just a couple of seasons while Cindy Rosby I think has four to five years left. But one interesting thing I did read in that article that Rob said was that Gino would like to sign, I think, a three-year deal when his two-year deal, when his current contract that has two years left on it, I should say, is up to retire a penguin. And, you know, Mario, he does not want to have a repeat of what happened with Yager,

where Yager ended up leaving and being traded and then, you know, just went to all the rivals and just went to all the teams that, you know, he wants to keep Crosby, Malkin, and Pittsburgh forever. I think that's ultimately going to happen, unless Malkin just bolts to the KHL for one season before he officially retires. But still, I think they'll probably have another story on something free agency-wise coming tomorrow. Definitely check out those stories.

Those are really fun. And yeah, it's great seeing the team skating. Jake Gensel looks like he's in full flight with his shot. Sidney Crosby, again, Malkin, posted that picture on Instagram. Sidney Crosby's thighs. Oh, my God. I mean, those things are, I know, I know, it probably just sounds weird to say, but those things are just freaking humongous.

I mean, good freaking lord. I guess that's just what happens when you're a professional athlete. And they were wearing matching outfits too, and it's great to see them spending time together and all that stuff. You know, like I said, great seeing them on the ice and I'm sure more players are going to be

trickling in as we get closer to a potential training camp, which would start on July 10th. So I think that's all I have for you guys for today's episode of Blockton Penguins. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L0 underscore Penguins. We'll be back tomorrow with another episode to close out the week.

So we will see you all then.