Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Protocols set for the potential return in early August

Episode Date: July 7, 2020

The new CBA extension it looks like will be agreed to and have to voted on by the players and Hunter is here to talk about what that means going forward for the league! Is there going to be finally a time where there is labor peace? Hunter also touches on some of the protocol for phase 3 and phase 4 of the NHL's return to play plan and what that will mean for the Penguins. Also, with the salary cap at $81.5M next season, who stays for the Pittsburgh Penguins and who goes? All that and more on this episode! 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 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-U-U-U-Square-Penguins. Of course, this show is brought to you by Rock Auto. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need to visit rockado.com and tell them Lockdown sent you. We are back this week. I hope everyone had a very safe and happy 4th of July weekend.

I hope none of you guys pulled a Jason beer haul and just blew your finger. off while doing fireworks or, you know, it's like some other idiots that do every year and they develop head injuries because they like to put fireworks on their head. Yes, I read about that every single year. There are a lot of idiots that don't know how to do fireworks, but the show that I saw this past weekend, I mean, I was down at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia. If any of you guys are ever planning a trip down to a lake or a lake that's surrounded honestly by the mountains, please do this. Smith Mountain Lake is absolutely beautiful this time of year. The water is very clear. It's very hot.

Well, I shouldn't say hot. I would just say it's warm. It's just absolutely gorgeous. I put a bunch of pictures and videos on my Twitter. It was a ton of fun. And like I said, so the fireworks show that I saw personally, it was to the diagonal of the house

that we were staying at was more of my mom's friends. And these people must have spent two to five grand on these fireworks. They were going off for probably about 40 minutes. They either went down to the Carolinas. They went into West Virginia or they went up to Ohio and got a bunch of fireworks because these guys put on a show

that some of like the neighborhoods put on it's it's honestly better than that it was a hell of a show and he basically he started around like nine o'clock and he like i said he literally went to about 950 so absolutely awesome jet skied for the first time this weekend i got that thing up to 80 85 kilometers an hour that was the first time i had ever been jet skiing i also didn't know that you had to get a boaters license to do it but still jet skiing is a lot of fun and you can just fly going over the waves is absolutely awesome oh i fell out one time My friend that was on it, you know, we did like a little bit of a short turn and we both just, we fell. And we fell out.

I think people that were watching us kind of started laughing, but still, jet skiing is so much fun, went on the boat that was at the house that we were at. I'm a sucker for a jet ski in a boat. Maybe some point in the future, I'll save up some money to actually buy a jet ski or two because, like I said, jet skiing is just a lot of fun. But still, there was my weekend recap for the 4th of July. Let me know what you guys did for your 4th. of July weekend after I tweet out the episode or whatnot. But we have a lot to get to today for a lot of hockey talk. The Anshel and the Player Association have agreed to a return to play phase three and phase four.

It looks like they're also, I've also agreed to a CBA extension. It looks like it's going to be four extra years added on to the two that this one currently has. So six more years of this CBA. You know it is a weird time, especially in the year 2020, where so much shit has happened, when the NHL is not going to go into a lockout in six years, especially when they were negotiating a new CBA. Usually they always go into lockouts when they're negotiating a new CBA with the Players Association.

And it's just, I am stunned that they did not. But 2020, it is weird times right now, but still, very happy that the NHL and the Players Association were able to come to an agreement there. It is going to have to be ratified. I think it has to go through the Board of Governors and the Players Association reps, and then I think it's actually going to do a full player vote for it to pass. There are also some of the key dates were agreed to.

July 13th is when training camps start. Well, tentatively, right now, there was more tests that came in today. A few more players tested positive from the test that were conducted throughout the week. But still, July 13th is the day that the NHL would like to start training camps. And then I believe it's July 26 that the teams that are in the qualifying play in, well, honestly, all the 24 teams that are going to be in the playoffs. They will be going to the Hub Cities,

which of course is Toronto and Edmonton. East will be in Toronto. West will be in Edmonton. And then the qualifying round for the Stanley Cup playoffs is expected to start August 1st. So absolutely monster news. It was always funny this weekend.

I kept waking up to the tweets from Bob McKenzie because, of course, I have his notifications on. He's the Bob bother. And, you know, it was like every day. You know, oh, the Angel and the PA, they're getting close. Oh, they're getting closer. we're not going to have an agreement tonight, maybe tomorrow, oh, we're going to have an agreement

tomorrow, oh, then another day passes. And then tonight we finally get the tentative agreement, which, of course, like I said, has to go through the board of governors to ratify it, the players of executive board, and then a full player vote. My question is, you know, with this, with the return to play phase three and phase four, what players are going to opt out? I think you are going to see some players opt out. You're already seeing some with baseball.

There's some more. Excuse me, Nick Markakis of the Atlanta Braves is opting out. Freddie Freeman of the Atlanta Braves, who I think is their best player. He might be opting out because he actually got diagnosed with the coronavirus over the weekend. There's the potential that Mike Trout with the Angels. He might opt out. He's had some pretty correct to comments. I'll be curious to see if any of the Canadians players opt out because, of course, as Elliot Freeman said,

they had a pretty, pretty raucous call. So that's going to be interesting to see you over the coming days. I think Bob McKenzie said the players have until Thursday to tell the teams that they are going to opt out or not. actually wait no excuse me had the wrong tea day it's uh t-day it's uh christ johnston initial players have until 5 pm eastern on t-m t-murday to notify their teams that they're opting out of participating in phase three and phase four under the protocols agreed upon by the nchl and the hl pa there's no penalty for doing so of course you know why would there be a penalty for doing so the nash i think they sent out this big 47 page memo after they kind of agreed to it uh chris

johnson had some more last night and hl coaches will not be required to wear face coverings on the bench if they choose to remain behind the bench. What I'm going to be curious to see if any of the coaches, if they're going to stand maybe like in the stands, like or are all the coaches going to be behind the bench? You know, there's room for some weird stuff. So who knows? But I will be curious to see if all the coaches will be behind the bench. And also, I mean, the coaches won't be, of course, required to wear masks. But I still think you may see some of the coaches wear masks just for their own safety, especially some of the elder ones who, you know, where this virus, like the elder population is where it really affects those people.

So I'm going to definitely be watching for that to see if some coaches, despite not being required to wear masks, see if they still wear the masks anyway. Elliot Freeman also had a bunch of stuff last night. The return to play to apparently the stage four states, individuals leaving without permission. So, of course, leaving the bubble, they may be subject to consequences up to and including removal of the playing. In addition, violations will result in for clubs, significant.

penalties, potentially including fines and or loss of draft choices. Totally get where the NHL is coming from them that. Please do not leave without permission. You know, don't be an idiot. You know, stay in the bubble. We don't need this virus being worse than it already is. There's a few other things from Elliot Freeman. For stage three, all players will have to go under,

we'll have to undergo a pre-participation medical exam. Players who, after consultation with a doctor who conducted it and the club's infected disease expert are determined to be a substantial risk of developing a serious illness as a result of exposure to the novel coronavirus shall be deemed to be unfit to play and shall not be permitted to participate either in phase three or phase four. So, yeah, that's, I mean, that's self-explanable right there. Well, self-explanatory, I should say. Here's a big one here. This is honestly the last one I'll read. In the event of that a player is diagnosed with the coronavirus, the player shall be deemed to have sustained an illness arising out of the course of his employment as a

hockey player for such period as he may be removed from training, practice, or play in his condition shall be treated as a hockey-related injury for all purposes under the CBA unless it is established based on the fact it issue that the player contracted COVID-19. So yeah, there you have it. So just a few updates from Elliott Freeman where the NHL and the Player Association came to agreement for the return to play situation for phase three and phase four and the protocol that goes into it. So yeah, a very, very busy weekend for the HL, a very, very busy day today for the NHL. And I did forget with the CBA negotiation, this, this. This, this. This will include Olympic participation for the NHL players in 2020 and 26,

bearing an agreement, though, with the IOC. I'm sure they'll be able to come to agreement with the IOC, but still, it is absolutely incredible that the NHL and the Players Association and were able to come to an agreement for the CBA. And, of course, it comes while we are in a global pandemic in the year 2020, which has been nothing short of ridiculous. And, you know, as I said last week, it is pretty crazy that it also took a global pandemic for the NHL and the players associated to come in agreement to

send the players to the Olympics because, you know, they were being a bunch of babies in 2018 and they didn't send them up or who knows why. But, you know, now they're finally going to get to go the Olympics. So really great news on that front. We're getting closer to hockey folks. It looks like right now. Let's let's see here. My math is correct. That's about 26 days, so a little less than four weeks until the play-in. If it all goes well, fingers crossed that we get to potentially see some hockey playing this year. And, you know, training camp will start a week from today. But with that said, it is now talking. to talk about rockado.com. It's a family business serving auto part customers online for 20 years. You go to rockado.com to shop for auto and body parts from hundreds of manufacturers.

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All right, so we're back on this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I figured for this segment, since apparently the salary cap is going to be at 81.5 million next season, I think it's going to be like that for the season after that, too. I'm going to have to double check on that, but I know it's going to be 81.5 million. For the next season, I thought it would just be a, let's do a quick little game to see, you know, how that's going to affect the penguins, you know, who's going to be on the team, who I think is going to be on the team next season. So we all know, Cindy Crosby of Gunny Malkin, Chris Latang, locks.

I would say Patrick Hornquist, he's probably a lock as well. Jake Gensel, Jason Zucker, Brian Rust. Those are all firsthand locks. Brian Dumlin as well, John Marino, Marcus Pedersen. Those guys are really, really not going anywhere. I think Jared McCann, he's going to resign. That contract's going to be an interesting situation. think for the penguins.

You know, he started out, he had a really nice hot streak to start out the season. Then he went cold a little bit. Then he regained it a bit. Then he was like from January onward, mid-January, somewhere around there, all the way until March when the season paused, just really, really was not feeling it. I think he had like one goal in his last 25, 30 games or something like that. He's hitting a bunch of posts, but he was just not scoring. This was not contributing a lot offensively.

So I'm going to be curious to see what McCann is going to ask for as a restricted free agent. I mean, of course, I think the penguins are going to sign him. I don't think it's going to be anything long term. I'm maybe going to go, like, a three to four-year deal, maybe a few million per year. I mean, he's not going to get, like, $5 million or something like that. Maybe, like, you know, three, three, $3.25 per I think is probably in the range that he could get maybe four. I wouldn't really go that high for him, to be honest. I mean, I do like him a lot.

I think he's a really good player. But he's not worth, like I said, like $5 million. Nick Bukstad, he's going to be on his way out. I really don't see how Jim Rutherford keeps him, especially with all the injuries that he's had the last couple of seasons. There's no secret on this podcast. I have felt so bad for him so many times. It's just, it absolutely stinks what's going on with him.

He's going to be a salary cap dump. There's probably honestly no way around that one. Patrick Marlow, that's going to be a very interesting one as well. I think he might retire, but I also think he might go to a different team. I really don't see the Penguins resigning him. Evan Rodriguez, who of course they are required in the trade with Buffalo when they sent Dominic Cahoon there and got Connor Sherry. We'll get to Conor Sherry right after this, actually. Dominic, I must say Dominic Cajun, geez.

Evan Robigas, I think he will re-sign back with the Penguins. It's going to be a shooting to see if he gets in some games during the qualifying round. I'm not really sure there's a spot for him right now in the four-line lineup when they're the 12-4s that can roll out because, you know, you have Gensel with Malkin. Gensel with Crosby and Sherry. Then you have a sucker with Malkin. and Russ, where he can flip-flop against one Zucker. Then, you know, you have Patrick Marlow with Jared McCann and Patrick Hornquist, and then you have the Aston-Ree's, Teddy Bluger, Brandon Tannadne line.

So I think Rodriguez is going to be on the outside looking in, but still, I think this is a player that the Penguins really want to take a good look at next season. You really haven't seen too much of him. I know he had at least one goal during his time as a penguin. I think it actually came on the last game of the regular season against New Jersey. Don't quote me on that, but I know he did score one. but like I said, I believe it was against New Jersey. But still, I expect Rodriguez to be on the team next season.

For his contract, I don't think he's really going to ask too, too much, I don't think. You know, maybe, what, a couple million for him? But, you know, he just really hasn't been used a lot, especially even his time in Buffalo. I think he had wanted out for a very long time. So, like I said, look for the Penguins to use him a bunch next season to get a good look at it. Maybe he'll be assigned to a one or two-year deal. That's just my take on that. You know, you get to the fourth line.

You know, Zach Aston Reese. He'll be back. Brandon Tanna. You know what you all know, he'll be back. There's interesting comments from Brandon Tanev this morning. I saw on Penguins' Twitter. You know, people, you know, not hyping him up as much as the media has. And I do agree. I think some of the Penguins media has hyped Brandon Teneb up a bit too much. But this is the thing about Brandon Tanev that I will say. I think I ate a bunch of crow on that contract. I think a lot of people that maybe listen to this show or that are fan of the Penguins that don't listen to the show, fans on Twitter or whatever. I think they've ate a lot of crow too. We all know he's good defensively.

I don't quote Ryan Wilson of Hockey Buzz too much. You know, I've disagreed with a bunch of his takes, but I will agree with this take. You know, this is not a Jack Johnson situation where his $3.25 million cap hit is like really bad. He's actually really good defensively. His offense, you know, I agree with Ryan. You know, it's not as good, but still he was producing a good amount for a bit this season. I do like that he draws penalties even though it kind of regressed a bit as the season went on. But he just reminds me a lot of how, what a young Carl Hagelin looks like.

and I think a lot of that he, that was really, really lacking in the Penguins lineup, especially the last season against the Islanders where, of course, they got swept in the first round and just honestly during that whole season, the Penguins just did not look fast. They looked really, really old. But, you know, made some moves,

and they definitely do not look like that anymore. So I think I covered all the forwards here. Well, no, not all them. Dominic Simone. That's going to be an interesting one. I'm not really sure what the Penguins are going to do with him. I know Mike Sullivan really likes him a lot, but I'm just not sure if Sidney Crosby likes him on his line.

line. I do know that Mike Sullivan likes to put him on his line, but still, Simone is going to be out for the rest of the season. If it does resume, I think he had that torn labrum in his shoulder. I think that game was against the sharks where that happened. He looked very slow coming up. And then apparently he was going to try and come back if the season didn't pause and he was actually going to play. But when the season paused, he just basically thought, you know what? I guess it's a good as time as any to just have surgery. You know, Connor Sherry, that's going to be also a very, very interesting situation, I think, for Pittsburgh. he makes $3 million at the end of this season.

Well, he's making $3 million, and then he's going to be a UFA the next season. Not really sure if the Penguins are going to re-sign him. I really don't think he's going to be asking for too much more. He's already 28. You don't want to give a player like that too much term, too much of a cap hit because he's just honestly nothing more, I think, than a fringe top sixer.

He's a good bottom six forward, I think. But there's my thoughts on that. That's going to be interesting. He's kind of in an in-between, I think, for me, for coming back next season. Anthony Angel, he's going to be an RFA, but he's also an emergency loan. So is Sam Lafferty, he's going to be an RFA, so they're going to have to get new contracts. I don't expect them to get too much.

Like I said, Dominic Simone, he's going to be an RFA as well. You know, look for him to get at least a couple million per year for his cap hit as well. But still, if the Penguins are already able to trade Nick Bukstad, that'll be $4.1 million off the salary cap going into next season. Because right now, looking at cap-friendly, they only have, they hardly have any cap-futable. real room. Yeah, it is not a lot of cap room. I will say that. Let's see. Justin Schultz, guys, I mean, he's basically a goner. He's 30 years old. He makes 5.5 million per. I think the Penguins would definitely want to be signed him, but not for the price that he's going to want. You don't pay defensemen like that, too much money. And also, he just has not been the same defenseman as he used to be

a few years ago. And of course, why I mean by that is 2016, 2017, where he had over 50 points. And going in the next season, I actually thought he was pretty decent, too. Then, of course, he had that injury, and then it all just went to straight up hell. So, yeah, I don't think he's definitely going to come back. Yuselma, that's an interesting situation, I think, for me. You know, he makes only 850K against the cap. He's going to be an RFA next season, only 26. I really think the penguins are honestly going to try and trade him.

For some reason, he's recently because he's always been in Mike Sullivan's doghouse. I've never understood. I've always thought he should get the chance to play over Jack Johnson to show that he is better than Jack Johnson. and we'll get to Jack Johnson in the second because who knows what's going to happen with his situation. He's 33. He still makes $3.25 million for three more seasons after this season. But yeah, Rikula, that's just, I think honestly he's going to be the one to go. I honestly don't think they're going to trade Jack Johnson.

I think they're going to keep Jack Johnson, though. We all know what my opinion is on that. Should they trade Jack Johnson? Absolutely, I would put Yucla in there, show him what he had, show what he is made of. Good Lord, man, I just, I really cannot speak today. So, yeah, that's what I would do. So, like I said, I guess we'll just talk about Jack Johnson. Now, yeah, he should be out.

I don't think he is, like I just said. And then, of course, you know, as I go down the list here on Cat Friendly, did I miss anyone? Nope, Krosmalk and Zucker, Hornquist, Pukstad. Nope, I do not think I missed anyone. Wow, we actually got through this. Well, except, well, Chad Roodle, he'll be back too. He still has one more year left at 700K. He'll be another, like, basically, number seven, number eight defense.

And so, with that said, the two-goaltending situation, Matt Murray and Tristan Jari, the two goalies. All right, here's my prediction for how this will impact the Penguins with the cap with $81.5 million. Matt Marie is going to be traded after the season, and they are going to keep Tristan Jari. That is going to be my prediction. I think Tristan Jari will be your number one goaltender for the Penguins next season. Matt Murray, I think, is probably going to ask for a little bit too much money, maybe around 6 to 6.5 million per, maybe potentially seven, if he plays his ass off in the qualifying round.

And if the Penguins go really, really far in the Stanley Cup playoffs, if they do happen. But that's just my take on that. Tristan Jari is the cheaper option. You know, it's kind of like a running back situation. You don't need to overpay for a goaltender. You pay the cheapest one, and you let that right out. So that's what I think is going to happen with that going to the next season. And that is how I think this 81.5 million will affect the Penguins and some roster decisions next season

and who is going to stay and who is going to go. All right, so for this last little, little segment, I guess. I put out a tweet on the Locked on Penguins' Twitter account. If you are not following that, like I said, at the beginning of the show, please do. Just, you know, if anyone has any questions or anything like that. We did have one that I'll end the show with. Comes from Alan T. Yoder, who, of course, has asked a bunch of questions.

Really great that he listens to the show. I'm thankful for all of you to listen to this show. He said, what is your worst call playing the NHL, basically any year video game? Mine was a tripping penalty against Malkin who tripped Sidney Crosby and HL20. Okay, that's actually a pretty good question. The worst call I've ever seen. Oh, yeah, I remember. Someone like flipped a puck into the bench, which is not a delay of game in NHL 20.

But yet they called that delay of game when it wasn't over the glass. And I was just so confused. I think this was when I was being as the Bruins or something like that. But the worst moment that I did have playing that game, I will tell you this story. I was playing an online versus game. This was about, I think, six years ago, I had NHL 14 or something like that. And three seconds left. I'm up two to one.

I'm about to win this game against this. dude, face off in my own zone. Okay, you gotta win the face off back, I'll win the game, right? When the face off back, does the puck does not go off anyone, goes in the net, past my goaltender with literally 1.2 seconds left on the clock. I literally stood there probably for about 30 seconds with my mouth just open, and then all I remember after that was basically just throwing my controller at the couch because I was just so disgusted.

Like, I just could not believe that that actually happened in the game. It's like, how do you win a faceoff act and it doesn't go off anyone's skate and the goaltender cannot make the save? That is one of the reasons that I just have boycotted the NHL-EA-N-HL franchise because they just cannot fix these little problems that should have been fixed by now. Like the goaltending is just so, what's the word for it? It's just so inconsistent, I guess. You know, they make like these insane saves, but then they'll let in like the most easiest, dumbest goals. There's only only a few ways to score in that game, you know, such as, you know, like cross-size pass. You know, it's a complete joke.

Or, you know, I mean, one of my favorite personal favorites, though, is a slap shot from the point to flexion in. Absolutely love that. But, yeah, I just, I hate the NHL franchise. I'm glad that you got to tell me that there's a tripping penalty against Malkin who tripped Sidney Crosby on NHL 20. That is awesome. I haven't honestly played since I think 17 or 18. I just will not buy a game again from that. Franchise, you know, until they basically make some changes.

So, but still, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I've locked on Penguins podcast. I hope you all very much enjoyed it. We'll be back again with a couple more episodes this week. We're getting this much closer guys, training camp, only six days away, and then we have the start of the qualifying round. I think I'm going to start to get more excited as we maybe get to within a week of it, you know, see how this is doing, see if this is really going to happen.

But right now, you know, I guess I'm cautiously optimistic that it'll happen. I'm not as excited as I should be for some playoff hockey. But it also is kind of weird that we're doing this late July, early August. So, like I said, we'll have two more episodes coming this week. Not sure what we'll talk about, but I'll figure that out. And thank you guys so much for listening. Be sure to check out the Lockdown NHL National show that comes out every week. And I will talk to you all soon.