Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Season 3 time? Season 3 time

Episode Date: September 21, 2021

Season 3 of this podcast is out as we are back to daily episodes! Hunter starts out the show with some BOLD predictions for this season, and 3 of them (1 of them being a bonus) involve players with what Hunter thinks they're going to do. Could they be a bit too outlandish after what happened last season? Where does Hunter have the Penguins finishing Metro wise this season? After that, he recaps development camp as JD Forest spoke to the media to wrap it all up. Who was he impressed by? Could Cam Lee be a sneaky choice to make the team out of camp? What about Josh Maniscalco? After that, Hunter goes over the training camp roster and adds some thoughts on some of the players that were invited, which include Sam Lafferty as he's just never been able to put it together.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, everyone, welcome to this Monday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes and follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins.

We are finally back to full. daily episodes for this podcast. Welcome to season three of the Locked on Penguins podcast. This is probably the most stoked that I've been coming into a season. Honestly, ever since I started it, I have a lot of things that I'm planning for this podcast this year. For those that did not listen a lot during the off season, welcome back. I appreciate you all coming back. For those that stuck with me through each episode in the off season, thank you all so much for sticking with me through that as well. I know sometimes the content was a bit barren, but you know, we got training camp starting this. week I'm so excited to have hockey back.

We are now just about, I believe, 23 days until the start of the penguin season, and it cannot come soon enough. That's your damn sure. On today's episode, we're going to go over my three big, bold predictions for the penguins. The season two of them involve players, another one involves where the penguins will finish. Those are all the only hints that I will give you all. We will also go over the training camp roster, and if I'm surprised by anything that are and also talked about some stuff with regards to development camp

as that has finished up today. I believe today was the last scrimmage for development camp. But we did see some great news this morning from Dave Molinor. I just throughout the show. Sidney Crosby is working out on the ice. As Dave writes here, he was working out at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex before the start of the day three of the Penguins Development Camp. The session clearly was intended to be low-profile

because of the blindings that are lowered during the playoffs to prevent people from watching practices at ice level were drawn. and Building Security Force Reporter to leave the rank while Crosby is out there. Yeah. So they're definitely trying to keep this on the DL. Obviously, you all know that he's expected to miss at least the first week of the regular season. But, you know, it's great to see him back on the ice. I'm not sure if he's doing a lot of stick stuff right now since, you know,

the surgery is still really fresh. But to see him already back out on the ice, I think tells you that he's only going to miss a week of the regular season at most or maybe even a bit less. I think it's probably going faster than expected. You know, I'm also no doctor, so who knows at this point, but still, really good news regarding Sid. But, you know, now that I talk about that, let's go into my bold predictions for the penguins this season. You know, I've thought a long and hard about some of these. I've talked about one of these players a lot on episodes during the off season. First one, I will say, I think Jason Zucker is scoring 25 goals this season.

I'm going to tell you why. You know, how he played in 2019-20, next to Sade, was basically a point-per-game player in the regular season, was basically point-per-game in the playoffs as well. That is who I think Zucker should be playing with when Sid comes back. I think a top line of Gensel, Sid and Zucker would be freakishly good. I think you can just move Brian Russ down to Hvgeny Malkins line, and he would not miss the beat. Yes, I understand the Gensel-Crosby-Rust line has been really good, but the underlying numbers with Zucker there are also pretty decent as well. And this data comes from actually a natural stat trick from the 2020 season.

So when Zucker was on the ice with Sid 95 minutes at 585, their expected goals for was 3.60, expected goals against 2.1, and the expected goals for percentage overall rounded out to 63. You know, if you go to Micah's stuff from HockeyViz in the Pittsburgh 5V5 offense, there is a whole blob of red all in front of the net going right back to the right hash. The expected goals for per 60, 96 minutes again, 5B5, 3.98, that's plus 60%. I understand that it's a small sample size. Well, that's still really good for someone who had just come over from Minnesota. You know, they played a completely different system that year. And then in the playoffs, he was also really good as well.

And there's also a whole blob of red in the left hash as well. He was getting chances basically everywhere on the ice. And it's something that Pittsburgh needs to continue to do next season when Sid comes back. And I really do think that Zucker will do it just because he'll be more consistent this season. That's the biggest thing with him. I understand a lot of people in this fan base are still not happy with what they gave up for him. I have a couple buddies that they'll text me from time to time about it. I would have given up that price every single day of the week, 365 days a year.

I mean, that's just, that's how it is when you are in win now, though. You don't really give a damn about a prospect like Halen Addison or a lot of your protected first round pick or whatever else they gave up in that trade. Those were obviously the two biggest things they gave up. But you don't care about that because if you win another Stanley Cup, that's what lives, forever. We all know the team is going to stink after Sid and Gino retire. You deal with that then. So I had no problem with what they gave up for Zucker. Obviously, he has not provided the best value since coming over from Minnesota, but I really do think he can still get back to that level.

And if he actually finishes his chances and shoots the puck a lot more on that, that was the biggest thing that I realized with him last season is that he was way too tentative with the puck. There were so many odd man rushes where he would come in with the puck and force a pass when there was not one they were to make or, you know, just he would wait too long and then the defense would make a great play and then the chance will be wasted. But if he gets back to being that consistent player that he was in Minnesota and during the 2019-20 season, especially with playing with Sid, he will definitely score a lot of goals for next season.

I think that's the biggest reason why I have him scoring at least 25 this season for the Penguins. My second bowl prediction, I think Danton Heiding gets back to the level that you saw when he was with the Bruins, and I think you see him get 40 to 45 points this season. I am really high on this player coming to Pittsburgh on this cheap one-year deal. I think it has the potential to be one of the biggest steals of the offseason, at least in my opinion. This is a good player. And, you know, he's proved that time and time again throughout his career. The biggest thing for, you know, why his value dips so low these last couple of seasons,

he played with the freaking Anaheim Ducks. I wrote about this for full press hockey. You're not going to get a lot of good results when you're on one of the worst defensive teams in the league and you're playing meaningful minutes with Adam freaking Henrique and Jakub Silverberg. I mean, I'm sorry. That's just, that's not going to cut it when you're still a bit of a younger player season. But, you know, he'll have Brock McGinn here who had a great season offensively with Carolina last year. Zach Ashton Rees had a good season offensively.

Obviously, we all know what he does defensively. Teddy Booger's really good. Heck, he can even play in the top six with Jeff Carter. Maybe he's elevated to Gino's line when he comes back or even said somehow if there's even more injuries. But I'm really high on Heinen coming out here. I think he's a good playmaker, and I really think he's a good goal score as well.

I would not be surprised to see him steal some second power play minutes away from a few other players. but I have Hinen scoring at least 40 to 45 points this season. Bull prediction number three. I think the Penguins finished top two in the Metro. I know that might not be the sexiest pick right now just because of what's going on with the injuries. But I am not a believer in the Metropolitan Division. At least that's just my opinion.

I think there's a lot of very mediocre teams in that division. I don't really like what the Rangers did this offseason, just doubling and tripling down on grit and sandpaper. I don't like what the Flyers did. I know they made a lot of moves, but I feel like Chuck Fletcher was just throwing crap at the wall and hoping that it sticks, I think is my take on that. I don't think Columbus is going to be very good. I think New Jersey improved, but they're still a little bit ways away. Washington is good, but I mean, how good are they?

You know, Ovechkins is 36 now. Backstrom's a little bit younger, but, you know, they have a lot of bad contracts, I think, on that team. Carolina, you know, they're going to be really good. Again, obviously they're going to be a favorite to win that division, the Islanders as well. You know, at the end of the day, I still think Pittsburgh will get top two in this division. I would not be surprised if they win it, especially when Sid comes back after that first week. They can survive at least a decent portion of the season without Afghani Malcolm. They actually play some of their best hockey when one or both of the two-headed monster are not in the lineup.

I don't know if they get more defensive. It's something, but obviously, you know, you want the team to be fully healthy. I'm not going to sit here and protest for Evgeny Malkin's staying out of the lineup. I have never been like that, and I never will be like that on like some weird yinzers in this fan base, but I still think that they will be able to hold the floor long enough until Malkin comes back, and then once that happens, if the team is fully healthy, God willing, they will make a run at the Metro, and I think they will finish at least top two in the division this year.

And one more bowl prediction. I think Tristan Jari, I'm going to be. I'm going to say, you know, I might look like a full. I think he's going to be 920 or better this year. I know this last season was not the greatest for him. He was very inconsistent. We all know what happened in the playoffs. Excuse me. I don't know what happened with my voice there. But I think you will see him as a 920 goal tender edition. That probably might be my biggest outlandish bold prediction yet. But you know what? I'm willing to die on that sword. And if I do get old takes exposed, you know, I get old takes exposed. It is what it is. But that wraps up.

my bold prediction segment. Let me know what you think on Twitter. You can tweet me at Hunter Hodes or the show's Twitter at L.O. Undersore Penguin. Still have a lot more to get to for this first episode of season three before we do that, though. Let's touch on something that I've talked about around this podcast before. So does this sound familiar? You've got one device that lets you catch the game live. Another that lets you stream your favorite shows. You're watching sports highlights on your phone. And you've got your neighbor's best friends log in for the good stuff. Well, I want to tell you about a simple way to get all the entertainment you love without the hassle and a great way to finally get your TV together. It's called DirecTV stream and it brings your live TV and on-demand favorites together like Never Before so you can watch your favorite shows, movies, and shows all in one place.

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Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at Eleonosaur Penguins. So the Penguins developmental camp wrapped up today. Looks like there were some good standouts with the players that were invited. There are,

Tery Pustin was one of them, and that is a player that I have been high on for at least a little bit here. You know, I've been DMing King Clarkie about it. A lot to actually send him the clip of J.D. Forrest, who's the coach of Wilkesbury, talking about just how good he is. And, you know, he does have the tools to be an effective offensive winger in the league, but he just has to put it all together. And it looks like he was in the scrimmages and the practice and development camp. I don't know if he's going to make the team out of regular training camp when the entire team reports on Thursday.

But I think he has as good of a shot as someone like Coulin, Ligari, or even Philip Hollander. Speaking of Hollander, he spoke to the media after development camp and he said, no, I'm not just coming here to try to be sent back. I'm trying to win a roster spot. He thinks that he is good enough right now to play in the NHL. And again, you know, he's probably the one that I am most excited about coming in training camp. of the young players that is because, you know, maybe he is that John Marino situation where you can't say no to him with how good of a camp he has, because that's exactly how John Marino made

the team just a couple of years ago. No one really thought that he had any chance of doing it. He then comes in, looks amazing in camp, and then plays great in the preseason games, and then Rutherford comes out and said, yeah, we had to move Eric and Branson because I had no choice. John Marino forced our hand. So could we see a similar situation? happened with Ron Hextall here and they have to move out a, you know, fringe number 11, number 12 forward. I could see it, but, you know, we'll just, we'll have to see if Hollander has a really good camp and puts up some good production in the preseason games, I don't know if they can say

no to him being on the roster at this point because he seems pretty hell bent on making it out of camp. That's for dang sure. We'll have to see what happens there. Obviously, Ligari and Sanpulan, everyone's going to talk about them. But I also think the biggest thing here is that. just, you know, reading from the reports from, you know, Taylor Haas of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports and a couple others.

I think the organization is a lot more excited about some of these players than the fans and everyone else are. And, you know, obviously they are going to hype up their players. You know, that's what organizations do. But, you know, you know, J.D. Forrest said who ran development camp, there's a lot of young talent up front, particularly some of the guys that we haven't seen in Wilkesbury who have been in our system as draft picks. And then we have some young guys that are returning like Jonathan Gruden. for example, up front of them on the wings with Nathan Legerre, Poussin, Poulin,

who had just talked about, even on defense with Chris Marisier Ortiz out of the QMJHL, we feel like we have a lot of young talent, and that works really hard and that they're motivated. And hopefully in Wilkes, we can teach them the ropes and get them prepared to play for Pittsburgh at some point. So I guess that comment, he's probably thinking that all of them will be in Wilkesbury this season. But again, any one of these players can play their way into a roster spot due to the

injuries that the team currently has right now without Sid and Gino to start this season. And J.D. 4 has talked about Poulin and Ligari, and he says, I thought they were great all week. There hasn't been anyone in this camp that we can say, ah, geez, but you know, with Poulin and they have a lot of talent and so much potential and they work so hard. You can see it that they want to make the NHL so bad, so they've been great to work with on and off the ice. Ligari, his shot is really good. He's a motivated player, and so is Poulin.

So it's just a matter of getting those things to translate. Again, you're talking a large step, and you've got to be able to play with all the players around you. Those guys will figure it out. I don't know how fast they're going to do it. Hopefully it is quick, but we're excited to work with them if they do start in Wilkesbury this season. And then another player who I think is not getting enough love that could do a little bit of damage in training camp and make the organization think about is Camley. You know, Forrest said, you know, it was a good learning experience for him last season because it was his first, you know, real taste of pro hockey and he played well in the HL. And he did say they're hoping to see more of that

in the NHL camp here with the Penguins starting on Thursday. But I really like his game. I think he's a strong 2-8 defenseman who can really move the puck. And he also had decent stats last season as well, 15 points in those 31 games. Before that, played 40 years at Western Michigan, excuse me, his best season. 26 points in 37 games as a junior in 2018-19. Then in 2019-20, before the Paws had three goals in 21 points in 26 games. So he always has been that offensively-minded.

a defenseman, but he is good in the defensive zone as well. So I'm really curious to see how his camp goes. Same with Josh Man O'Skalo. J.E.4 has said he also needs to continue work with how he's doing. Will Riley, you know, he was playing a lot of minutes for Wilkesbury next season. That should be interesting. We all know everything about P.O. Joseph. He is going to make the team this season, I think, for sure.

The Lions at Development Camp today, this was the last full day of practice. Pustin was with John Gruden and Sam Poulin. Philip Hollander was with Nathan Legerry. Felix Robert was with Kyle Olson on the second line. Justin Almeda was on the fourth line. Defensively, Cam Lee was on the top pairing. Josh Man O'Sgala on the third pairing. Ryan McLeary was on the top pairing with Camley.

There's also Isaac Bellevue, Dylan McPherson, Nicholas Almari. So some interesting lines, but I'm also not surprised that they are putting Pustin on the top line with Poulin because they really are high on Pustin coming into training camp. So if I had to rank the list of players, from this camp who have the best chance at making the opening and right roster, I would say Philip Hollander, then Valateri Pustin, then I think Nathan Legeri,

then I think Sam Poulin, then I would have Cam Lee, and then I think it's Josh Manoscalo. I really think Hollander has the best chance just because he's their best prospect in the system right now, and you've seen the results that he's had in the American Hockey League. But again, I would not put it past Pustin to have a great, great training camp to really make the organization think about sending him down. And I understand that when the team is fully healthy, he may not be playing just because

they're so loaded at forward. But you can always just send him down whatever. So we will see what happens with that. I'm really excited to see how a lot of these young players perform in training camp and see. If any of these young players also get on some top six minutes with some of the NHL regulars like Jeff Carter, Teddy Bluger. Jake Gensel, Brian Rust, etc. I'm really curious to see what happens with that.

So that wraps up the development camp segment here. Just wanted to give some updates on that as we get training camp back. Before we get to the next segment, we go to do have to touch on everyone's favorite bar, which is Billed Bar. If you don't know the Billed Bar flavors, well, you are missing out with coconut, raspberry, mint, brownie, salted caramel, cookies and cream, which is my favorite. Most of them have four to five grams of sugar, calories ranging from 130 to 180, only 4 to 5 grams of net carbs, amazing flavors, all tasty, and all healthy.

You can go to built.com and use promo code locked 15, and you'll get 15% off your order. That's promo code locked 15 for 15% off at built.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Learn to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So let's go over the full training camp roster. 58 players have been invited to camp, which,

again, starts this Thursday. Forward. Evan Rodriguez, Drew O'Connor, Brian Boyle on a PTO, Zach Ashton Reese, Jason Zucker, Brian Russ, Sam Lafferty, which I really hope he does not have a top 12 spot when the season comes around. That is a player that I think a lot of people in the fan base

have overrated just because of that one good game that he had against the Washington Capitals before the pause where he sniped one pass Sam Sonov. And there's been times where you can see something developing with Lafferty, but then he'll just have 10 to 12. games in a row where it just all disappears and it's like okay what the heck this happened then we'll have another good game it's like okay maybe this isn't start of something new and he's putting it all together again but then he'll just disappear again so i just i'm kind of done with lafferedy at

this point caspere brerquist will be there as well i think he'll be sent down uh to the hale after the first couple rounds of cuts sampool and brock mc mcginn michael shipputn't nathan legger philip hollander casparicampan danton john gruden dominic simone teddy bluger felix Robert Anthony Angelo, who will be one of the big call-ups once there are inevitably injuries with this team. Jake Gensel, Justin Almeda, Jordi, Belaby, Bradim Zohorna, Evgeny Malkin, Kyle Olson, Valteri Pustin, Jeff Carter,

Ravis Anson, Jen Zrogh, Sidney Crosby, and Lucas Shevkovsky. I think that is how you pronounce his name. Defensively, Chad Ruehdle, Taylor Fidun, Mike Matheson, John Marino, Brian Dumlin, Mitch Ranky, Josh Minnescalo, Matt Bartkowski on a PTO. I don't expect Barakowski to make the team. I think they might keep everyone else over.

Well, I'm not sure, I guess, a little bit. I think he might make it over Yuselika, just because Rikula is in the doghouse, but he's not going to be getting meaningful minutes a lot this season, unless there's just a huge amount of injuries. But for right now, I don't know if he's going to make it off of that PTO. Marcus Pedersen, Camley, William Riley, Usa Ricol, Mark Freeman, Chris LaTang, Pierre, Olivier Joseph, Isaac Bellevue, Nicholas Omari, Ryan McLeary, Chris Bigrosse, and Chris Maristair Ortiz.

Goleys, Louis Dominique on a PTO. I think he's probably going to make it as that third goalie, and I think there's going to be a little mini-taxie squad this season, so he'll probably be on that, Casey DeSmith, Philip Lindberg, Alex DeOrio, Tristanjari, and Tommy Napier. I don't really know much about Tommy Napier. I think he might have experience starting in Wheeling. I just don't think he had a lot of experience starting in Wilkesbury that season.

Obviously, you know, a couple of these players will not be at training camp for, well, basically all of it, you know, Sandy Crosby and Evgeny Malkin just because of the surgeries. But, you know, this is still, I think, a pretty strong roster. I think, you know, again, in terms of the PTOs, Brian Boyle is going to make the team. I think Matt Barkowski is going to get cut. And I think Louis Dominique, well, I forgot actually that Louis Dominique was not a PTO. That is a one-year two-way deal.

So he'll be on the team, again, is definitely that taxi squad goalie in case one of Dari Orda Smith goes down. But in terms of the PTOs, again, I have Varkowski getting cut, and I have Ryan Boyle making it squarely just because Sid and Gino are going to be out to start this season. But again, I really like this roster. You know, I know a lot of these players are going to be cut after the first preseason game or two, and there will be some tough decisions once the preseason is over with. But I'm just excited that we're getting hockey back and that the fans are going to be back in the stands watching some practices.

I really think that took some of the spark of beginning last season away just because the fans really weren't allowed to come to practice and watch the players and take pictures of the players and everything like that. But I'm just, I'm so good to be back doing these five days a week. We'll have more tomorrow when it comes to training camp as I'm planning some good stuff, I think, for this week. So thank you all so much for listening to this episode. episode and we'll talk again tomorrow.