Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Season review of John Marino: What to expect moving forward with him

Episode Date: November 2, 2020

In the first episode of November, Hunter goes over some of the latest news around the league and that starts with former Pittsburgh Penguin Dominik Kahun signing with the Edmonton Oilers. Hunter talks about the value that the Oilers are getting with Kahun as he's one of the most versatile players in the league. Where is he the best fit in their lineup though? Hunter also imagines a third line with Jared McCann and Dominik Kahun next season since the Penguins could've signed him at $975K instead of paying Cody Ceci or Evan Rodrigues. After that, Hunter gets into NHL.com's top 20 defensemen article and looks to see if they made any errors. Why is Drew Doughty the most overrated defenseman in this league? Did they finally give love to Kris Letang. Finally, Hunter starts this new segment where he'll be doing a season review for one player each episode. Today we started with John Marino and Hunter goes into how outstanding his rookie season was and what to expect from him moving forward.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BuiltGoVisit BuiltGO.com and use promo code “LOCKED,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. 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 Monday afternoon episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show is Twitter at L-O-U- underscore Penguins. A couple things before we jump into this episode. This episode is brought to you by Bill Pard. It's a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. You go to billboard.com and use promote code locked on, and you'll get 20% off your next order. You know, also, guys, please, if you listen to this podcast in the United States and you're from the United States,

please go out tomorrow, exercise your right to vote. This election is probably one of the most important elections of our lifetime. Tomorrow is going to be a shit show. There will not be a podcast tomorrow for obvious reasons, but I'm not going to get political or anything on this podcast. I never like to. But, you know, just please go out tomorrow and exercise your right to vote. And finally, over the weekend, you know, I did make a big mistake on the Thursday

of Friday episode of Thursday or Friday episode of this podcast. You know, I didn't notice it at first. and then King Clarkie sent it to me, and then I half noticed it. And then when I really looked down and read it, I was like, wow, you know, I really fucked that one up. Yes, Austin Matthews would be on Team USA, not Team Canada. The fact that I said that he would be on Team Canada's roster is absolutely embarrassing. It's probably one of the worst mistakes that I've ever made on this podcast. And even though I thought it was kind of funny, you know, it was also pretty embarrassing.

I have no idea how I messed that other. So again, I apologize for that. I totally just fucked that one up. But the point still stands with Canada at the next Olympics week. They can run Cindy Crosby, Connor McDavid, Jonathan Taves, Jamie Ben, the list goes on at center. John Tavares, if they want. Hell, you know, those guys are all Canadian players. So I'm glad I got that one right.

But, you know, for this segment, we'll touch on us a little bit of news that came out from the league around the weekend. Dominic Cahoon, Reesley signed yesterday with the Edmonton Oilers. We're going to touch on that. Also, touch on how the Oilers are having a good offseason. Also, I think it was today. NHO.com ranked the top 20, their top 20 defense. around the NHL. Actually, I'm a mistake.

So we're just going to go through that, see if they embarrassed themselves with the list, and just see if the top five was okay. See if they put someone on here, like Drew Dowdy, who was probably the most overrated player in the league. He has just not been good for a few years now. And, you know, people just like to hype him up, you know, when talking about Team Canada's rosters,

you know, to hype him up on EA Sports. NHL, I think he's like the third highest ranked defenseman on there or something like that, which is pretty pathetic. So we're going to touch on that in the next segment. And then for the last one, you know, I'm going to start this, you know, series. Just it's going to be every episode, just one segment per episode. And, you know, we're just going to do player-by-player season reviews. Today we're going to start with John Marino.

You'll look at his season. You know, look ahead to next year for him. And we're going to continue to do that in each episode with one segment. But remember, guys, there are only three episodes a week now due to the offseason. We still have no idea when the NHL is going to come back. I would imagine it's going to stay the same into December as well. But anyway, let's get into this episode. So Dominic Cahoon last night, Elliot Friedman tweets it out.

I'm trying to actually go find the tweet right now. One year, I think it was 975K to the Edmonton Oilers. I mean, that's a nice deal for Cahoon. I mean, I don't know why the Buffalo Sabres were so hell-bent on not giving him that. I thought Cahoon was good for Buffalo in the little bit of games that I watched him play. And, you know, he's a very versatile forward. You know, he can play anywhere in the line. And you can put him in the top six with if there's injury.

You can put him in the bottom six in a perfect world. And he's a good goal score, good playmaker can play on the PK. You can play them on your second power play unit if you want. And, you know, this is another really good move by the Oilers. And Ken Holland is honestly killing this offseason for them. I know their goaltending situation is not good going into next season. I think they brought back Mike Smith again for Lord knows why. I guess they didn't get Jacob Markstrom, even though that contract was going to be pretty bad as well.

Then I think they brought that other guy back. Cuscanin, I think is his name, and he really didn't do that hot either. So, you know, besides that, I mean, I think the Oilers have had a good offseason. They signed Tyler Ennis to a cheap deal. He's been fine throughout his career. I'm trying to go through their other signings here. I believe they also signed Kyle Turris. I think it was two years, not even two million or something like that. Okay, I just actually brought them out. I mean, Tyson, Barry one year, $3.75 million. If Barry can get his value back up, he's going to get paid next year. So, again, that's a great deal. We already talked about Mike Smith. They brought Jesse Poo Jarvie back two years, 1.175 million per. Seth Griffin, Adam Cracknell, Patrick Russell, Anton Forsberg, and no baby little cheap minimum one-year deals. But, you know, they're not spending a lot of money on these deals. And, you know, a player like Barry, Tyler Ennis, Kyle Turris, Dominic Cahoon, those are valuable players that you can put in your bottom six. And, you know, Turus is going to be the big one there. I mean, it's only one point, what is it, $1.6 million for two years.

if he can get his value back up again, he's probably going to get paid as well. But going back to Dominic Cahoon, this was a player that I wish the Penguins would have brought back. You know, his rookie seasoned in Chicago, 13 goals, 37 points in 82 games. I mean, I was actually reading a piece from Matt Larkin of the hockey news. And he put some very interesting stats in here that I figured I would share with you guys. So he says, you know, during this stretch, you know, from Chicago to Pittsburgh, 340 forwards have played 1,000 or more minutes at even strength. Cahoon ranks 60th out of those 340 and points for 60, which easily rates him as a top 6th forward.

He's 25th and primary assists per 60 minutes, indicating he's a high-end play creator. His team's outscore opponents, 87 to 64 with him on the ice at 5V5 so far in his career. I mean, obviously he played a lot of Chicago with Alex DeBrenica and Jonathan Taves, and then he also played in Pittsburgh with Gennie Malkins. So, I mean, if they want, I mean, you can put them with Connor McDavid and Leon Drysaddle, and you would probably get pretty good results with him. but I think they were probably just going to put him on the second line maybe with Ryan Nudjit Hopkins.

I mean, put him in the bio and bottom six with Kyle Taurus, Tyler Ennis, something like that. But a player like Cahoon has always gone under their radar. I mean, you know, 975K, I would have much rather seen the Penguins do that than throwing money out the window to Cody freaking Cici. I mean, like, that's just the reality of situation there. And honestly, I mean, I would rather have him at 775K than Evan Rodriguez at 700K. I mean, I think if your offseason was bringing back Cahoon,

and you bring in Jankowski, I think that would have been better than Rodriguez and Jankowski because I think a third line of Cahoon with McCann and Jankowski would be, it would just be an upgrade because Cahoon actually brings much more goal-scoring ability than Evan Rodriguez does. I mean, hell, he brings more goal-scoring ability than Mark Jankowski does and playmaking ability for that matter. And, you know, you combine that with Jared McCann, who's coming off a really bad second half of the season, and that is, I think, grounds for a big bounce back year for both of those players. So I would have much rather preferred that, but, you know, Jim Rutherford wanted to do his own thing, bring back Kevin Rodriguez, and Sinja and Kalkowski, you know, who are more defensive-minded, you know, who are more defensively-minded, you know, who are more defensively-minded. I mean, I personally, I do want my third-minded than defensively minded. I understand why teams want their third line to be, you know, more defensive. But, you know, that's what you have your fourth line for. You know, the penguins, well, the penguins won those Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017, they had three scoring lines. You bring back Dominic Cahoon. You bring back Dominicahoon.

you combine him with Jared McCann, maybe Mark Jankowski, if he red discovers his scoring touch from a season ago, that's a good third line, especially if it's scoring. Then you can have your fourth line with Teddy Bluger, Zach Aston Reese, and Brandon Tana. That's a good shutdown checking line. They don't allow a lot of chances in the defensive zone. They also clog up the neutral zone like it's nothing.

So I would much prefer that than to what the penguins have right now. And even this past season in Pittsburgh, I mean, this guy had 10 goals, 27 points in 50 games, he went over to Buffalo, played six games, two goals, four points. I mean, he was almost at a point per game pace up in Buffalo, and they were one of the worst teams in the league this past season. So, I mean, Cohoon in just a couple of seasons, I mean, 13 goals in his first year with Chicago, then, you know, 12 goals this past season.

So he'll chip in 12 to 15 goals in Edmonton, and honestly wouldn't surprise me if he gets close to 20, especially if he's playing top six minutes with McDavid and draw aside. Although I wouldn't expect that. I would expect him to maybe start with Ryan Nugent Hopkins or on the third or fourth line with that. So it's not the end of the world that the penguins didn't bring him back, but, you know, at that asking price of not even a million for the value that he brings, if I were the penguins, I would have brought in it back and not have signed someone like Cody Cicier or Evan Rodriguez to bring back.

Because they didn't even play Rodriguez in the first place. But that's just my opinion on that. But before we get to trashing NHL.com's defensive rankings, because I'm sure they're going to be pretty bad. It's time to talk about Bill Barters. 18 amazing flavors, six new flavors, care, crack, apple, almond, almond, crisp, lemon, almond, cheeks, cake, and cream. The 12 original flavors, a few of them, orange, toffee, almond, coconut, peanut, peanut, butter, brownie. The bars are covered in 100% chocolate.

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So let's just get into it. NHL.com ranked the top 20 defenseman in the league as is right now. So we're going to start. So first up, they have Morgan Riley at 20. I don't really mind that. I think Morgan Riley is definitely one of the best defensemen in this league. I mean, 20 goals last season, 72 points. He's really coming into his own as a number one defenseman.

And it won't be long before he cracks a lot of people's top tens. I mean, he probably already is a top. top 10 defensemen, according to a bunch of people. Ryan Ellis, this guy does not get as much love as he should. I think he's honestly one of the most underrated players in the entire league, at 38 points last season, but he's really good defensively. He only played in 49 games. Ranked second on the Predators in Ice Time.

He usually drives possession. He's great at what he does, and I'm glad that NHL.com actually put him in their top 20 because, I mean, you can honestly make an argument for him being in the top 10. he's just that good already. I'm going through this list. Eric Carlson at 18 is kind of a joke. I would still have him in my top 10 when fully healthy. Hell, I would probably have him in my top three to five when fully healthy. I know last season, 56 games, he had six goals and 34 assists.

I know he's been really banged out the last couple of years, but like I said, when this guy's healthy, he's a top three defenseman in this league. I mean, what he did with the senators in 2017, which, I mean, is not that long ago, was nothing short of a miracle basically played on one leg for that entire playoff. run and was still producing almost like a point per game, I think. For them, outside of Nick Lidstrom, I think he's the best defenseman of this generation. He was on so many bad Ottawa teams for so long. I mean, it was so awesome that he finally got out of Ottawa.

I mean, this was a guy in 2015-16, 80, it had literally a point per game player, 82 points in 82 games. The next season after that, like I said, 71 points in 77 games. Even after that, in Ottawa in 2017-18, he still had 62 points in 71. games and that was a absolutely awful Ottawa Southerners team and yeah I know the production has gone down the last couple years because of injuries and he is getting older he's 30 years old but you know he's still in some of his peak years and if he rediscovered some of that form that he had

just a couple of years ago there's going to be a lot of people eating crow on him you know I think 18 for Carlson is just ridiculously low especially if he has a fully healthy season upcoming because he truly is a one-man wrecking crew when he steps out onto the ice Jacob Slavin's on here. That's not a surprise. Shea Weber at 16. I mean, there was a time where I thought Chee Weber wasn't even the top 20 anymore, but he was good this past season, basically almost had 40 points, led the Canadians in Ice Time. You always know he has that booming shot. He scored at least 40 points nine times throughout his career. Had 15 goals this past season. It was almost like a renaissance season for Weber. And yes, I know he's on that albatross of a contract that is going to end when we all die or something like that. but this is still a good player. I kind of look at that Suban for Weber trade a lot differently now than I did just a couple of years ago because PK has also fallen off quite a bit, but I think Weber has gotten better with age than Suban has. That's for sure.

And then, you know, of course, Drew Dowdy being at 15 is just pathetic. I don't care if he had 35 points last season. This guy's one of the most overrated players in the NHL. His production has been going down the last few years. He's also been getting older. He's also signed to this really long contract. I don't know what his exact cap. It is. I can actually look it up on cap friendly right now, but I think it's like nine, 10 million

per something. Let me just check the Kings thing real quick. So I mean, actually, no, it's 11 million per season. He's 30 years old. He's signed for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven more years. So he signed until 37. He's going to be making 11 million per. And he had, what do he have last season? 35 points? Yeah, that's just ridiculous. That's such an overpayment. He's not a good player anymore. There was a time where he was one of the top five to ten best defensemen in the league, but I mean those times that passed, this is not 2012 anymore.

Hell, this isn't even 2015 anymore. I mean, his puck handling abilities up the ice have also diminished greatly these last couple of years. So, you know, anytime I get to dump on Drew Daudi, I'm absolutely going to do that. We're not going to go through all these, but you know, I saw 14 Shea Theodores down there. I mean,

he's probably in my top 10 at this point. I mean, he had 13 goals, 46 points this past season. obviously leads them in ice time. He's great on the power play. He had 19 points in their 20 postseason games, as they almost got to the Stanley Cup final. He is a number one defenseman.

He is going to keep getting better as well. The fact that the ducks let him get away because they had that Kevin BXA contract on there is just nothing short of awful. I'm sure Bob Murray is really kicking himself right now over that. But there was one penguin on list list. I'm sure you guys can guess it. They actually did give a lot of love to Chris LaTang.

They put him at number eight. And I've always said, you know, Chris LaTang went healthy is a top 10 defenseman. Hell, when he is honestly doing his thing at an elite level, he is a top five defenseman in this league. I will die on that hill forever, to be honest with you guys. His 2015-16 season and in the playoffs that year was probably the best hockey I've ever seen Chris LaTang play. Just that whole playoff run by him, which is nothing short of extraordinary. I mean, he had 15 goals this past season, 44 points. I mean, he still drives possession, had six power play goals.

The thing that always annoys me when people like just detract him is just like, oh my God, but he makes so many errors. Like it's time to trade Crystal Tang after just one error during the game. It's like he plays in the most high leverage situations. Of course, he's going to make an error once or twice a game that maybe sometimes leads to a goal. Maybe sometimes it doesn't. But you know what? He still provides the most offensive any defenseman on this team. He's also great defensively in his own zone.

So the people that just like to hate on Chriselang for no reason are just like. Like, those are the sad people I think about the Penguins fan base. I'm going through the rest of year pretty quick. Dougie Hamilton being at number seven, that's fine. He's been awesome the last couple of seasons in Carolina. Kael McCarr, I mean, I'd honestly put him in my top five at this point. He's at number six, but, you know, he's probably going to be the best defenseman in the league in the next couple of years. Seth Jones, yeah, I can see that too.

I mean, that trade for Johansson. It looked pretty even for a long time, but as we've gotten further and further away from that deal, it's looking like a much better deal for Columbus. I mean, had 30 points last season. He leads them in Ice Time. Good on the PK. He has that booming shot. Good in the defensive zone.

Drives possession. He's just absolutely outstanding. And he's really coming to his own in the last couple of seasons in Columbus. And, you know, he's only going to get better. He's still on the peak years of his career. I mean, Alex Petrangelo, again, at number four, that's mine.

John Carlson being at number three is kind of annoying. I mean, he obviously he is great offensively. He's really great on the power play at 75. points this last season, 60 assists, but defensively he's trash. He's just really bad in the defensive zone. I remember when Evgeny Malkin just basically took his lunch money in that game. I think it was in February.

I think of a few games before the Pyes, and he just went around Carlson like it was nothing and scored that goal. I think the Penguins ended up losing that game four to three or five to three or something like that. But, you know, when I think of John Carlson's seasons besides the offense, I think of him just getting absolutely schooled in the defensive zone. And he also looked pretty bad in the defensive zone against the Islanders. He just seemed completely lost.

I mean, I saw a member Barzell was walking around him like it was nothing. Anders Lee was making him look bad. Honestly, every time the Islanders were out there against Carlson, they were just making him look bad. So I'd move Carlson further down the list. I'd probably still put him in my top 10, but he's not a top three defenseman right now. And then obviously at number two and number one, that's fine. Victor had been Roman Yose.

These are easily the two best defensemen in hockey. I'm glad that Yossi won the Norris. He 100% deserved it offensively and defensively. since I'm glad the voters looked at both for this year's one. But then, you know, you get to Victor Hedman and, you know, outside of Carlson and Lidstrom, he's the best defenseman of this decade. He still drives possession at an elite rate, had 55 points this past season. He was absolutely ridiculous in the playoffs.

I mean, that was one of the best playoff runs by a defenseman I've ever seen. 22 points, 10 of those were goals. He won the Kahn Smyth, which, I mean, you could have given to a bunch of players on the lightning, but I thought he deserved it the most. But that's basically it, you know, for this list here. I mean, they got it mostly right, which I'm surprised, Headman, Yossi, you know, move Jordan Carlson down to like eight or nine or something like that. Move Patrangelo up into the top three.

Seth Jones and Kel McCar can round out your top five. Then you can put, you know, Chris the Tang, Dougie Hamilton, Charlie McAvoy, yeah. I mean, I'd maybe move him down a little bit. He's at number nine. But Hayskinin is in my top ten for sure. I put Hayskin in over McAvoy any day of the week. Quinn Hughes is going to be a top five to ten defensemen,

probably starting next season. What he did with Vancouver this past season was just awesome. I love watching Quinn Hughes anytime I can. And then also, like I said, if Eric Carlson has a fully healthy season, expect him to produce quite a bit. You know, maybe up to the level that he had just a few seasons ago, even though he's 30 years old. So I really hope he proves a lot of people wrong, especially, you know, the person that made this list and put Carlson at 18. All right, welcome back to this episode of The Locked on Penguins podcast. And it's time to start our regular segment where we do a...

player season review. And you know what? Let's start with the rookie sensation, John Marino, who took everyone by storm. And I'm not just talking about the Penguins. I'm talking about the Holy, because if he was fully healthy for this entire season, he didn't miss a few weeks. I think he would have been on a lot of people's quarter finalist ballots, just because of how great he was defensively, even though the offense hasn't fully

come for him yet. But still, you know, what a rookie campaign he had, six goals, 26 points in 56 games, possession lives, basically 51%. But, you know, the best part about his game, like I just said, was how great he was defensively. I mean, there are so many clips from almost virtually every game it looked like that Marino was making a great play defensively, you know, one-on-one against a player, two-on-two, even on the penalty kill, and he's just shutting them down like it's nothing. And just to put some of these stats in perspective for you all, you know, just going on natural statrick and looking at him, you know, his goals 4 percentage was 56.4% through the regular

season. His expected goals percentage, 54.4%. Scoring chances for 374, scoring chances against 3506. So on the positive side of that, you know, you go on over to high danger. His high danger chances for 155 in the offensive zone, his high danger chances against 130. Again, way on the positive for that. His high danger chances for percentage was around 54.3%. For on the ice, though, for high danger goals for 26 to 16. Again, just outstanding numbers. That just goes to show that he's creating a lot of offense in the offensive zone despite the only 26 points that he had last season and that he's really shutting things down defensively as he's on the plus side of virtually every stat that I just mentioned. Perhaps his best stat that I saw here is high danger goals for

percentage, almost 62%. He's controlling 62% of the high danger goals for percentage. That is just an elite number. That's not something you see around the league pretty often. It's just not, especially for a rookie defenseman who made his season debut. I mean, that just doesn't happen very much. But, you know, as for his playoff numbers, we really don't need to look at a four-game sample size for him. I mean, he was still one of their better players in that.

I know a lot of the players stunk it up, but for him, I mean, 52.8 possession numbers. Every time it seemed like he had the puck on his stake, you know, the penguins were creating scoring chances. I can't say the same for virtually almost any other defenseman. I mean, maybe Chris LaTang, probably at Brian Dumlin, but I think that was basically it. Marcus Peterson, Jack Johnson, Justin Schultz, absolutely stunk in that series.

But, you know, what to expect moving forward for his sophomore season? I might go bold here. I'm expecting 40 to 45 points offensively. I think we're going to get the big offensive explosion that a lot of people want him to have while also continuing to be elite defensively with his shot suppression numbers. He's going to continue to drive possession like it's nothing.

But I'm expecting, you know, maybe somewhere around 10 goals, 30 assists next. season 10 goals 35 assists offensively and then you know defensively you know I think his expected goals against while he's on the ice is going to be pretty low I mean he's probably going to control the expected goals at an elite level I mean you're probably going to expect at least 55 to 60 percent you know for his goals for and for goals against with how he suppress his shots you know it's it's probably going to be one of the lower marks in the league so I'm really excited for him going in the next season he's obviously going to be playing with Marcus Pederson full time unless Pederson gets her you know

then maybe they'll sign they'll slide but Matheson up, which hopefully that does not happen. I really don't need to see Matheson with Marino. But, you know, for this full season, he's not going to be strapped to an anchor like he was for parts of last season with Jack Johnson. Once they finally realized that Johnson was kind of dragging him down, they put Pedersen with him, and it was just smooth sailing the rest of the way. So I'm really excited to see how that pairing goes and how Marino plays for his sophomore season. I'd honestly expect him to get a lot of power play time, too. Outside of Prisletang, you're probably going to see Marino get the bulk of the second powerplay duties.

If Chrysletan gets hurt, I would probably put Marino on that top powerplay. He moves the puck on that unit better than any of their other defensive options. I know Matheson did it in Florida, but I would trust Marino far more than him. I know Dumlin could do it, but I think Marino is more offensively gifted than Dumlin at this point because I just don't think Dumlin's offensive game is going to be coming. We know what Dumlin does well. He's an elite shots of pressure as well. Great in his defensive zone.

we just don't get a lot of offense from him, playmaking wise or goal scoring wise. But that will wrap this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast up. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I hope you guys still want to listen to me after I somehow mistaken to Austin Matthews being on Team Canada instead of being in the USA because that was just easily, like I said, one of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen on this podcast. Probably the most embarrassing thing. But we'll have another episode coming out on Wednesday.

Go out and vote tomorrow if you listen to this podcast. I'm from the United States. I hope you all have a great rest of your day, a great Tuesday, and I will talk to you all on Wednesday.