Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Say NO to John Gibson, plus it's time for Penguins season reviews!

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

Happy Monday! The Stanley Cup Playoffs continue to roll along and so does the Locked On Penguins podcast. Hunter starts Monday's show with rumors about John Gibson that surfaced over the weekend and why it's nothing to worry about since the Penguins don't even have a GM right now. He then discusses why he wouldn't make sense to trade for if the new regime were somehow interested in him. He looks at his contract, along with his numbers, and discusses why he would be a worse option than even Tristan Jarry, who is set to be a free agent when July comes around. He then finishes by giving a potential option that would be much better, (thanks to a YouTube commenter) before going to Sidney Crosby's season review. He looks at how he continues to turn back time and did all he could to carry the Penguins into the playoffs. Will he get top 10 votes for the Hart Trophy? What should expectations for him be next season? Finally, he ends the show with a discussion about how the two wild card series in the East are going as he expected them to (and no, the Penguins would not be doing any better), before discussing the other series.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let’s ride. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORKFanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go to FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire 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) 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.

Happy Monday. It is a new week here for the Locked on Penguins podcast. And yes, we are officially starting player season reviews this week. You won't be surprised who I kick off for today's players review. But first, we're going to discuss John Gibson, the rumors I saw over the weekend and why, to me, it does not make any sense to trade for him. You know, of course, he is from the Pittsburgh area. That's coming up right after this drop.

You're locked on penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm, of course, your host, Hunter Hodes, and know to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, all the shows Twitter, Ellen Shepenuins, and of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. We're free and available on all Platform and this episode is brought to you by Game Time. You can create an account if you download the app and use code lock on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. So let's jump right into this.

I saw a couple of rumors over the weekend about, you know, Penguins trading for John Gibson. And, you know, at this time of year, people, it's just catnip. That's really all it is. It's just fallacy stuff. You know, could have come through? Sure. But like people, the Penguins don't even have a general manager right now. talking about these kind of rumors,

there's honestly just no point. People writing about them, they're doing it for clicks, I think, at least. I haven't really seen anyone actually credible, you know, link the penguins to John Gibbs. And yeah, I don't expect that to happen because, again,

they don't have a front office right now. They have a bunch of interim dudes running the show alongside Mike Sullivan who's doing like the player exit interviews. He's not really running the show. He's just assisting in something else. But, you know, we're 10, 11 days into the search, you know, this is all a bunch of crap. But, you know, say the new management comes in and

they would be interested in training for John Gibson, that would be a little bit of red flag for me, because Gibson, he is not the guy you want to spend quality assets for to come in here and start 50, 60 games for you. You know, this is, you know, if this were John Gibson from, you know, 2018, 2019, okay, okay, but not the John Gibson right now. Let's get into the numbers a little bit. played 53 games for the ducks this season. You know, he gave up 200 goals. Expected goals against was 188. He gave up basically 12 goals more than he was expected to give up this season.

Not good enough at all. 899, save percentage, 3.99 goals against average. Basically, he was giving up four goals a gain. He was below average and say percentage, below league average, I should say, say, percentage. And he ranked 100 out of. So there were a hundred seven goal tenders who played five on five minutes this season. He ranked 100th out of 107 in terms of the goals saved of expected.

And I'm not saying that's the end-all be-all stat. I like it overall to use. I think it's honestly better than goals against average in all this. But that is not good. The goal is ranked below him. Felix Sandstrom, Dili Huso, Jonathan Quick, Jack Campbell, Spencer Martin, Capo Caccan, Elvis Merzleekins. Certainly not good company there, to say the least.

He is also signed for four more years at $6.4 million per season. Why would you want to give up assets for someone like that? He is a worse version of Tristan Jari. And oh yeah, he's older than Tristan Jari. If you're saying what are the options between Jari and Gibson, I would rather than bring back Chari and then get a new backup for him. that shouldn't even be a hot take. That should just be a lot of logical take.

Jari's had better numbers since he came into league than Gibson. I mean, that's just a fact. And again, you know, there was a time when, you know, John Gibson was a quality goaltender. We can dig into the numbers here a little bit. You know, before this season, he was 904 last year. Eh, but, you know, going back to 2016, 920, 2017 924

2018 926 2019 917 these last four seasons though 904 903 904 899 those are in terms of save a percentage and yes have the ducks been really bad these last couple of seasons absolutely they have stunk and maybe that pays into it a little bit

but it's also a very valid point that he has not been the same gold tender that he was to start out you know for his first six years of his career. He's just not. No, he's, you know, he's 29 now, cool. But, no, I'm not giving up premium assets for a guy who just had the war season of his career to date. Best past season. I think that would be a really foolish move by the Penguins. You know, is he going to potentially get traded this all season? Yes, because I think the Ducks

may want to get him in a winning situation. But the Penguins, they shouldn't be giving up, you know, first round pick, second round pick, top prospect. whatever in order to get a goalie who's not that good. I'd rather them go out there and honestly try to offer Sheikh Jeremy Swayman. I'd throw everything at Nashville

to try to get UC Soros. I saw someone in the YouTube comments I think last week's mentioned Aiden Hill. That actually would not be that bad of an option. I believe I have his numbers up here in terms of on I'm just making sure.

Yeah, I have the numbers here. So he's invasive. right now. He ranked 48th out of 107 in terms of goal saved above expected. He saved one goal above expected. This year, play 27 games. 914, save percentage, 2.5 goals against average. That's someone who I would think will be a pretty stellar backup if you can get either a new starter or if you

do bring back Trishon Jari on a short-term deal. Aidan Hill, that's someone who I think the Penguins could really go after. I'm glad that YouTube commenter mentioned him. I didn't realize how good his numbers were. And he's been in some pretty bad situations. I believe he's played in. San Jose. I believe he was also in Arizona, if I'm not mistaken. He's in Vegas now.

He's put up some good numbers for them. And I don't know, 27 games, not all of them were in Vegas. Playing on some of those crappy teams, even though they weren't good, that's someone who I would definitely be looking forward. Definitely, I'd be looking forward to seeing if they could, um, acquired during the off season. But just powing up a lot of assets to trade for a goalie who is just wash at this point, who has four more years left,

and is almost making 6.5 million. He's not it. And I know, I believe Ryan Wilson from Hockey Buzz wrote about it. I believe Nick Brulanski of the, to the Iceberg podcast, touched on it on his show on Monday morning. I probably feel like the broken record. I'm like probably the last one to get to it. You know, he and Nick Horwock do quit work. I'm sure they have the same take I do.

But, yeah, just makes no sense. You know, you want to get a new goaltender, new goaltenders, I should say. I think you've got to go elsewhere and look to other goalies who are either similar in terms of numbers of Jari or had better numbers than Jari and the Smith for this season. You know, Gibson, hard pass. But again, you know, all these rumors right now, it's total capnip. They don't even have a general manager people. We don't even, they haven't even started interviews yet because the first round's not over. Like Rob Rossi reported last week, they've been gathering names.

They haven't even interviewed anymore yet. So this process, it's going to continue to be like this, I think, for the next several weeks. So again, you know, John Gibson, throw out in the trash, not really worth getting into at all. So that wraps up this first segment of the show coming up in the second segment where you get into Cindy Crosby's season review, how good he was and how good I think he can be next year. Plus, to end the show, we'll get into some Stanley Cup playoffs talk and how, no, the Penguins would probably. not be doing better than the islanders or panthers right now, but why, you know, this was always going to be the case when it comes to those two wildcars teams sticking in. But before we get into that, we do have to discuss game time. You know, buying tickets to your favorite events shouldn't be stressful.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. I'm back in this episode of the Locked on Banglons podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter, Hunter Hodes, follow the shows, Twitter, Eleanor, South, England. and of course, thank you so much for making this your first list of the day. We're free and available on all platforms. So kicking off our player season reviews today, Sidney Crosby, what another outstanding year from him.

33 goals, 93 points, 82 games. His 93 points were the most points that he has had since 2018-19 when he put up 100 points. It looked like he was going to get to 100 this season, but he had a little bit of a cold stretch, you know, towards the end of the season. wasn't able to get it, hopefully next year he'll be able to do it. Overall has 1,152 points. We're going to touch on that a little later on. He was stupendous. 18 of his 60 assists came on the power play.

So 42 of the other, so 42 of this is came even strength. He was an absolute mess with a 5-on-5 this year. You know, if had the Penguins gone in, I would have seriously wanted people to give him some heart votes, not to win it because Connor McDavid is going to win it, but to have him potentially be a finalist because he was doing everything in his power to carry the penguins into the dance. He was their best player this season.

Even at age 35, he's still putting up 93 freaking points. I mean, there's no one else like him. I don't know. He's only had two 100-point campaigns since 2014, but he's still been on a point for game. 93 points this year, last year, 84 points in 69 games. A year before that, 62 and 55, 2019, 20, 479, 89, and 82. he is still kicking so much but that it is almost impossible for him to not be at a point per game. It's going to be a really weird day when he does have a season when he probably is not an

point per game. I think it's going to be maybe when he's 40 or something like that. But right now, ever since he's basically come into the league, he has finished at a point per game or better. There is no one else like him in the league right now. I'd be curious to see, you know what, you know, where he gets in some of the game. the voting for the award. Selke last year was 34th.

I don't know if he'll finish top five in the heart. I would potentially seriously consider having him in the top 10. Selke, maybe he'll finish a little higher than 34th last year. But, you know, he was stupend. As you look at the underlings this season, played in all 82 games, that's the first time he's done that ever. Actually, no, only the second time he's done that ever. The only other time he did that was 2018.

at 89 points in 82 games. So the fact that he played all the two games this year is a remarkable feat for the Penguins captain. 82 games this season at 5 on 5, over 1,200 minutes, and his underlines were tremendous. When he was on the ice, the Penguins at 54% of the shot attempts. They also had 57% of the actual goals for, 67 goals for, 51 goals against 71% of the expected goals for on the ice. scoring chances, 55% of those when the Penguins had when he was on the ice. The Penguins also had 341 high danger chances for 264 against to up to 56%. And then 42 high danger goals for 20 high danger chances against.

And his on-ins was 9%, which goes in line with basically his career average. Another just remarkable year for the Penguins captain. And I expect him to honestly play at this level or close to it again next season. why not seriously i know he'll be 36 by the time that season starts but he has shown no signs of slowing down he has it just go back through all these seasons so far out of 18 seasons they had 18 seasons that he's been in there 18 years i should say and he he won't stop like people really need to if you're not already somehow how long says if you're not already somehow if you're not already appreciating

Cindy Crosby's great greatness, I think it's time you do. Because there will never be another player like this again in the NHHS history. You go to the website where you can see, you know, who has the most points in the national history. Obviously, you know, it's Wayne Gretzky. But, you know, Sid is going to be moving up the ranks next season.

Right now, he's 15th all time points, 1502 next season. He's 29 points away from Paul Coffey. He will break him. He's also 30 points away. from Mark Recky. So he will get at least 2.13th next season. Joe Thorne at 1539. I think he breaks that.

So he'll be at least as high as 12th next season. And honestly, if he gets 77 points, which I honestly expect him to do, he'll be 11th. He'll pass Ray Bork. The big one will be if he can pass Phil Esposito, who finished his square with 1,590 points. Crosby needs 88 points to do that. If he has another season like this where he plays every game

and finish with 93 points, he will be top 10 in NHL history in terms of having the most points of all time. And then he'll have a really good shot the season after and passing Joe Sackick. That's another one. And then we'll have to see if he can pass Mario Lemieux, Steve Eiserman, Marcel Dion, Ron Francis, those guys all have over 1,700 points out. That's going to be a little harder. But I expect it to at least get into 12th in this list next season, potentially 11th.

And by the time his career ends, I think he'll at least be, Ninth all-time in points. I mean, I think he'll pass that by the time his career's done. The big question will be whether he has 200 plus more points to him, where he can pass Mario and be the Penguin's all-time points leader. Because Mario finished his career with 1,723. But he was tremendous. I expect at least another 30-goal seasons from him next year.

I honestly do think he gets 90 points next season. Now, he, there's no one harder on himself. you know, there's no one, I just probably screwed that up again. You know, there's no one harder on him than himself. His offseason training is obviously second to none. He is going to be ready to go for next season. And I think he's going to have a massive chip on his shoulder for getting this team back in the playoffs. You know, you know he is not happy with how this went.

Him, Gino, Tanger, they want playoff hockey in the city. I think he's going to take it personally heading in the next season. I think he's going to be in line for another big, big season. But a tremendous year for him, great on the power play, especially good even strength. His two-way game continues to thrive. He is still one of the five best players in the sport, and we'll go down as one of the five greatest players to ever play this game.

So those are my thoughts on the Sydney-Brosby season as a whole. Wingers-wise, I would like to see him play again with Jake Gensel and Ricardo-Rekyll. I know he likes playing with Brian Russ. That's just, you know, from what I've heard. But I still think Raquel is the better fit on that top line. So again, that does it for this segment. Coming up to end the show, we're going to get into some talk regarding the Stanley Cup playoffs.

And why? No, the Penguins would not be doing better than any of these wildcard teams are right now on these. So stay tuned for that coming back for this commercial break. All right, I'm back here in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter, Hunter Hodes, all the shows, Twitter, and Eleanor for Penguins. and of course thank you all so much for making this your first list in the day.

We're free and available on all platforms. So playoffs are really heating up now about halfway through the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And, you know, the Wild Card Series, the favorites are six and two combined. And honestly, I said this on my Twitter yesterday on Sunday. Did you expect anything different? The Islanders are an average team with a top three to five goal tender. They are getting boat race by the games. and the hurricanes are literally banged up.

Now, you could argue, oh, well, the payments could be giving them a better fight. They have more firepower. Sure, but their depth stinks. Their defense wasn't that good down the stretch, and we don't know how good Tristan Jari would be in a full series, especially when he's been banged up. He again, he admitted after the season

that he's been playing hurt all year. So I think in all likelihood to be 3-1, they probably maybe would have been swept. At the end of the day, they didn't deserve to get in because they couldn't beat the Chicago Blackhawks towards the end of the season. And they couldn't beat a lot of these other teams.

but what you're seeing right now in these wild card races is how that wild card or the wild card playoff series excuse me is how that wild card race went towards the end of the season it was a bunch of average to below average teams fighting it into the dance the panthers for example i don't think the panthers are that good they played boston decently those first two games they just got blown out on home ice two games in a row and the brunas didn't even have david creachie or petrieze Bergeron. They got blown to hell. And they had to start Sergey Barovsky and came for.

That's a losing recipe. Panthers have some scoring to Chuck Verhege, Bennett's back, Sasha Barkov, obviously. Ekblad's hurt, though, but he's been good all year. But Paul Maurice is an unsirious coach. I don't think he's any good at what he does. No, Bruins are a juggernaut. The Keynes, that's a terrible matchup for the Islanders

because they are basically the islanders, except, oh, they can actually score and finish their chances. But they play kind of a similar style to them where they can shut them down very easily. That's what you're seeing in that series. The hurricanes are making it very difficult on the islanders to get chances. And then obviously they can't score on that.

Seroquins actually look human, which is weird. He was arguably the best goal turn in the league this season. But, you know, someone's the same. like that can only cover up the warts so much. The Penguins would not be in a better spot right now. They would be at least down 3 to 1 to either of these two teams. Again, they didn't deserve to get it. They were an average to below average team as well.

And that wildcur race showed a lot of flaws with these teams. Whoever was going to get in this race was probably going to lose and potentially lose quickly. Right now, it's shaping up for the Bruins, take care of business in Boston, to not. go back to Sunrise and shipping up for Carolina, which, you know, knock on wood. They don't usually lose it home very often. They will try to end this series down to Raleigh after blowing out the Islanders in Game 4.

So cool. If those two things happen, wow, those two teams that got in the head of the Penguins when they combined two games. I'll say this. Would you all have wanted to watch? I was on the record of saying that I would rather than gotten the playoffs because you never know what can happen. But say this did happen, and the Penguins are down three games to one right now,

would you have rather them gotten in, or would you rather have, you know, be where they are right now, cleaned out the front office, and you're just watching games stress rate. Let me know your answers down in the comments. You can DM me on social media and stuff. I would like to know that. Just using that hypothetical, say they got in, say they're in the same exact situation right now

one of those other two teams. Would you rather be there? Or would you rather be where they are right now where they made some changes and you're hopeful for next season? Curious to see what you all think. But again, I was never high on the Islanders in that series. People thought Sorokin could steal it.

He's not been good so far. They can't score. Barzell's been invisible, but Horvatt hasn't done anything. That's a team that I think can make some major changes this offseason. I think they need to decide what direction they need to go in.

They got in the playoffs, good. They kind of they got in because the penguins screwed up. The penguins take care of business. The islanders probably don't even make it. Or there's a good chance. There's a chance they don't make it, depending on what happens with the Panthers and the Hurricanes game. But, you know, that's an organization that's going to be, I'll be curiously what they do.

And then the Panthers, you know, some people have the most absent potential, but they're going up against a jug or not. The Bruins are the best team in the league. I would have been stunned if they, you know, if this series was two, two or three, one Panthers right now. I expect the Bruins to end that series. series in five. I predicted it was going to be a quick one. I'm going to stick by that. But, you know, those are just two right now. But again, you know, at the end of the day,

Penguins isn't deserved to get in, but the two teams in front of them were really not much better than them. Again, there's a path for the Penguins to definitely make the playoffs next season. Some of these other series, Dallas, Minnesota has been so much fun to watch. If you are not watching that series, please tune into it. It has everything. Goals, beautiful passing plays, great goaltending, great defensive work. physical play. There's a true hatred between those two teams. The Seattle, Colorado series is incredible.

Colorado really turned it on in game three. Nathan McKinnon and Kelmachar, when they go into God mode, there's nothing you can do. This series has been great. The devil struck back. Be curious to see if they can do that again tonight. In New York and Madison Square Garden. I'll also say that Vegas series,

great comeback by the Jets. They just couldn't win in an overtime. Vegas is an interesting one. Let's see if they're. can finish that one off. Toronto Tampa's been great. Kyle Dubas giving it to some Tampa fans in the stands. Love to see it.

I'll be really curious to see what happens tonight in that one as well. But these playoffs have been a lot of fun. There's one thing that's been annoying. It's been the officiating. It's been total dog crap. And it gets worse every single year. And the league doesn't do a damn thing about it. They don't give a crap.

They don't. They get asked about the officiating at press conferences after the season, and Gary Bettman's like, oh, yeah, they're the best in the league. You don't have no problem with them. It's like, but man, gets worse every year in the playoffs. And the officiating that I've seen in the playoffs, that should debunk any stupid conspiracy that any dumb rival fan has of, like, any team. Whether it's the Penguins, whether it's like, any team in the league,

where it's like, oh, this team is favored by the rest. They get more calls than my team and all that. job. It's never been true. You are seeing that in this year's play, especially. The angel officiating, they stink at their jobs. I think every team that has made has gotten screwed in some way. Bad calls, calls that should have been made. The intent to blow that Tampa, Toronto game was ridiculous. That was a classic national situation there where they blew the whistle way too early. A lot of really bad calls being made around these games. And it's not a good

look for the league. They need to do something bad at it. Do I expect them to? No. I think they should. That's just the one main thing that I don't really like what's going on with these playoff games. But they're still been fun to watch. Again, I've been reading here to the Empire, just getting married for the Osaka series. I have the other two back there, but I'm going to start as well. But, you know, been doing that and watching the games and just been keeping track, and it's been a lot of fun so far. So again, thank you all so much for listening and watching. I really appreciate it. I'll go back with another episode for you all on Tuesday.

We'll have to see if maybe some GM stuff comes out in terms of interviews. We'll also continue our players' season reviews. So look for that on Tuesday. Again, thank you all so much for tuning into this one. I'll talk with you all. Did I just say Wednesday? Wow. I might have just said Wednesday.

Tuesday. I can't even remember at this point. I was two seconds ago. Tuesday, for all tens of purposes, we'll have another player season review and potentially some updates on the GM search if there are any. So, again, thank you so much for tuning in. Talk to you on the next one. Thank you.