Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Should the Penguins call Vegas for an upgrade on defense?

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

The Penguins have quite a few needs this offseason, chief among them is defense, and there's a Western Conference team that could help. Patrick and Hunter open the show by talking about defensemen, who the Penguins could or should have an interest in this off-season to upgrade their blue line. First, they talk about Nicholas Hague, who is reportedly on the trade block in Vegas and would be a good fit for both the present and the future. Then they discuss a couple of names, including Ryan Lindgren and K'Andre Miller, and whether or not they're worth a phone call. Next, Mike Vellucci moved on to Chicago, but his exit left some questions about the penalty kill. Was he responsible for the struggles of the past couple of years, or was it the personnel? Finally, they end the show discussing the future of two young goaltenders in the system, Sergei Murashov and Joel Blomqvist. Both have bright futures, but patience will be necessary in their development. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires 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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins, they need quite a lot this summer. So why not go shopping on the free agency market and in the trade market? You're Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp.

You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4 Wednesday. joined as always once again from the beach, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. And of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine because we're your team every day. Don't forget, we are free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as YouTube. And if you follow us on YouTube, make sure you've hit that notification button to make sure you're

among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes, Hunter. Let's dive right into it. We are still awaiting the announcement of a hire of a coach. It's June 3rd. The June 1st self-imposed deadline is long in the past now for these Pittsburgh Penguins. So not a lot to talk about on that front. So we're not going to talk about that today. So let's have a little bit of fun.

The Penguins, they are a team in transition as Kyle Dubus likes. to say. That means we're going to see a lot of moves over the next few years that range from head scratching to exciting to even downright bad. But as I often say on this podcast for this moment in time for the Pittsburgh Penguins, you got to remember they're not trying to be good. They're not trying to win right now. They're looking to build towards a future where they can be a consistent contender. And when you do that, you're going to get a lot of draft picks. You're going to try to pick high in the draft. You're going to take a shot on second chance guys. So let's start with one that is reportedly on the trade block. And it is a team

that Kyle Dubus has dealt with as the Penguins president and GM in the past. And that is the Vegas Golden Knights. And that is defenseman Nicholas Hague. This is a guy who if you are the Pittsburgh Penguins should be on your list. Well, Pat, I do got to say, hopefully we don't see any more head scratching moves or just flat out bad moves. I know not every GM is perfect, but I still want to keep those at a minimum going forward, even though the Penguins are rebuilding for this year. But yes, Nick Kag is definitely someone who I have been keeping my eye on over the last week, just because his name has really surfaced in trade rumors.

We've discussed Bowen Byrum a little bit and why, you know, I be a fan of acquiring, but you'd have to do it at the right price, and you also have to get the right partner for him. So again, a little bit of buyers beware there, even though I still like the player, not as much as some other fans do. But Nick Hake, even though his underlines were a little bit down this year, I still feel like when you look at his first few years in the league, this is someone who can be a really steady, reliable two-way defenseman. He can play in the top four.

That's one of the penguins' biggest needs during the offseason. And the penguins can kind of help out the Golden Knights a little bit here while also helping themselves. You saw that or the penguins tried to do this a couple of years ago, Pat, when they acquired Riley Smith. That was the summer where they were trying to give this score. One last push for the playoffs before obviously didn't go well. Then they pivoted to what you're seeing right now.

But they traded for Riley Smith to also help out Vegas because Vegas wanted to sign Ivan Barbachev. That summer they were able to get their wish. They traded Riley Smith here, open up some cap space. And I think with Vegas here, they have some cap space this summer, but not nearly enough. I think they want to be fairly aggressive this summer. I'm sure they're not happy with the way they went out against the Oilers. And I see them as a team that could be a. strong contender to sign Mitch Marner this summer.

Again, I know they don't have the cap space for it right now, but trading someone like Hague, trading someone else that opens up the necessary cap space to sign someone like Marner. And then in turn, for someone like Hague, it gives the Penguins a, at least a second pairing defenseman for next season. They don't have a true top four defenseman on this roster right now. So he would very much fill that need. He's good in his own zone.

You can bring a little bit of offense. And I really like his two-way play. His underlying these last few years, they are a big. down below 50% in terms of shot attempts. But the three years before that, he was well above 50%. I think that's more in line of the player that he is than what we've seen a little bit lately. And this year, again, I'm not going to sit here and say he was bad. I just think he does have a little bit more to give.

And I think he could definitely show that here in Pittsburgh. So yes, I would at least make the call to the Golden Knights to see what they're looking for when it comes to someone like Nick Hague. still also Pat relatively young. So I would be all in favor of going out and getting Nick Hague, even though again, some of the underlyings this year were a little bit concerning, but I think he can rebound. He's 26 and he is currently an RFA.

So essentially you would be trading for his rights, which you have to figure wouldn't come at that big of a cost because essentially kind of situation. And essentially if Vegas is doing what they always do where they're trying to free up cap space to make the big splash. Getting in RFA's rights would not exactly cost you a ton. You look at the way Nick Hague plays. Again, he's 26 years old. Doesn't light up the score sheet, but plays very responsible two-way hockey. You don't see a player like that costing a whole lot, especially when you go, if you go to arbitration with him. He might get a little bit of a pay bump, but where the penguins are right now and for what they need wouldn't be a particularly bad option

to help them out. And I look at a player like that, it's exactly the kind of player that you want to take, take advantage of because 26, he's played a lot of very good hockey. He was obviously part of their, a lot of their big runs. The other thing I think that wouldn't be that big of a deal is the Riley Smith thing. He didn't really want to leave Vegas. He's obviously back there now. That was a big problem. Maybe Nick Higgs dedicated to Vegas, but he's, he wasn't an original Golden Knights misfit like Riley Smith was. That was part of his biggest problem was he was part of that first group. It was really special.

And then getting traded in that ruthless way didn't sit well with him and he wanted to go back. I don't think you would run into that problem with Hague. And it would really help your blue line. Another RFA, I don't want to say would be on the penguin's radar simply because it's in division. there's obviously a lot of history between these teams. But if there's a possibility, I want to get your thoughts on this because I feel like you'll have a pretty solid take on it. Is a guy like Keandre Milk.

We will see what happens with him and the Rangers, but it's another player where you look at his body of work. He's been in the league for a few years. He's been up and down. He's had some solid moments. He's had some not-so solid moments. But again, 25-year-old defenseman, an NHL experience.

And while he's had some tough moments, you can see the potential there for him to be a building block moving forward. And that's the thing. The potential is there, but he has too many consistency issues, at least for me right now. When he's on, bona fide top four defenseman has a great long reach,

really good with his stick, good in the offensive zone, can break up plays in the defensive zone. Again, that's when he's on. But when he's off, eating too many chances, he's way out of position. he's not driving any offense.

He's not good in transition. And you kind of saw a lot of that this year with the Rangers. And don't get me wrong, people. I know how rough of the year it was this past year for the Rangers. They were a mess all over. A lot of their guys from last year that had career years were not nearly as good this year. They made the coaching change for sure he got extended. They hired Mike Sullivan.

They wanted to take another snap at this next year. But I feel like the Rangers are still going to look a lot different. There's been a lot of rumors out there that the Rangers are kind of open for business and that they're ready to wheel and deal to try and make another run at this with their core for next year under new coach Mike Sullivan. And they also don't have too much cap space right now. It's going to have to be dollar in, dollar out, or they're going to have to open up some cap space to sign some of their pending RFA.

So you mentioned Conrad Miller, Will Cooley Pat. He's also an RFA there. He had a really good year there. He's not going to be too cheap for next year for the Rangers. So again, I would at least make the call if I were Kyle Dubus, but the biggest thing for me with Keandre Miller, like the player, but I want him to be more consistent. That's the biggest concern I had.

When it comes to the UFA market, I'm sorry, man, this market stinks. It's really bad. It's kind of like last year. And if you want to say it's worse, I would not disagree with you. Brent Burns is out there, but again, he's old. The Penguins aren't going to be in that market. Dermitri Orlov had a terrible playoffs for the hurricanes. Aaron Echblot is at least interesting.

I can maybe see the penguins being in on that, but I think it's also going to be too much term, too much money. I think he's going to get a lot more money elsewhere. Ivan Provarov, no thanks. Jeff Petrieg, no thanks. We've done that experiment. You know, Ryan Lingren, you were talking about him today to me. He kind of is what he is at this point, man.

I don't really think Powell Dubas is going to go after him in free agency. And he's kind of the opposite, Matt Briss. He's not really going to quarterback your top power play. He's not good at five on five. He can play a little bit on your penalty kill. But his all-round game has just gone downhill these last couple of years. If you want to go out and get a bona fide defenseman, it's going to have to be be a trade, you know, on the RFA market or just a trade in general where a player has a

little bit of term that's coming over. The UFA defensive market, man, it's not good. Once again. Lindgren was the only one that stood out to me. And it connects back to what I said at the beginning to where there's going to be some head scratcher moves that you kind of look at and wonder what the hell they're doing here. Lindgren is the kind of defenseman. that super hockey men love. He's 27 years old, he's big, he's physical, he plays hard on the penalty kill. And if there aren't a lot of prospects for him on July 1, that first week of free agency, and he's still out there, you could probably lure him into a two to three year deal,

but it would not be a deal that you would see the end of. It would be a deal that you put him in sheltered minutes, You put him in those areas where he succeeds, which is PK, bottom pair, and you build up his value in some team that thinks, oh, boy, we got to get grittier. We got to get more sandpaper. And Kyle Dubus can go, hey, I got a guy. If that's the approach for it, I can absolutely be talked into a guy like that. I don't want them to pursue him to keep him.

he would fit into another player that you have him on your roster, he's going to be trade deadline fodder, and you can just treat him as a rebuild, a restoration, brand restoration, and then ship him off and make him someone else's problem. Well, I wouldn't do a two,

well, I wouldn't do a three-year deal. Two years still, like a one-year deal is probably as far as I would do. I just don't think he's that good anymore. I play a lot of hockey recently. He's been banged up. pretty a lot as well.

I just don't think he solves a lot of the Penguins problems on the back end going forward. But again, that's just my opinion. So I disagree a little bit, but I do very much see your point. I think it's valid. Yeah. And again, I don't want it to get miscommunicated that I think, oh, this is a can't miss guy. They got to go out and get them. But if you're going to do UFA defenseman shopping, especially left-handed defensemen

that you need, it's a guy that if you're using him in service of the rebuild, retool, not a bad option, but if you're identifying him as someone who can be a solution, that's a problem. Because I agree with your point. He's not that good. But if you can read him like a restoration project and pawn him off on someone else, not a bad option. But that is going to do it for this first segment.

We actually are going to keep the penalty kill talk going in our second segment because a now former Penguins assistant coach moves on to be an assistant coach elsewhere. We will talk about that when we come back right after this. But first we got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is Wonderful Pistachios. If you're looking for a snack that's both delicious and nutritious, crack into a good source of protein with wonderful pistachios. Wonderful Pistachios is one of the highest protein nuts with each one ounce serving, giving you six grams of protein, giving you over 10% of your daily value.

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I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodey's, the beach bum himself. And it got announced yesterday after we finished our show that Penguins assistant coach Mike Volucci has moved on from the organization. He is now an assistant coach with the Chicago Blackhawk. Now, got to give a little bit of background on Mike Volucci. He spent about 13 years as an OHL head coach and then five seasons with the Carolina Hurricanes organization winning a quarter cup in the HL with the Charlotte Checkers. And then in 2020, he was promoted from the Wilkesbury Scranton Penguins to Mike Sullivan staff

with a focus on the penalty kill. In his first couple of years, the penguins had one of the best PKs in the league. But over the last couple years, it has started to falter. Overall, you look at the Penguins penalty kill in his entire tenure. It averages out to about 11th overall in the NHL at just about 80%. And this is kind of a chicken and an egg discussion for us, Hunter. Was it the coach? Was it the personnel?

To me, man, it's a bit of both. You saw the personnel this year. They struggled quite a bit. Achari Nyeta were out there quite a bit on the penalty kill. they didn't work out. Even someone like Brian Ross, who usually is one of the better penalty killers, he wasn't nearly as good on the PK this year.

I know Chris LaTang has been getting a lot of PK minutes recently, but he also wasn't playing nearly as good on that unit as he used to. And I feel like coaching was a bit part of it as well with the lead sheet. It felt like he was asking some of the players to be a bit more passive on the penalty kill, a bit more conservative. They weren't being as aggressive this year as they normally were. They finished this year, Pat. 18th in penalty killing. You're probably hearing that people. You're like, oh, well, that's not too bad.

It's a little bit below average. Yeah, but then last year they finished 11th. And as you said, the rolling average since he came on was right around that 10th, 11th range. So when you're a bona fide top 10 team and penalty killing, that's fairly good. But there was a big dip this year and it was both coaching and it was personnel, giving up too many zone entries, not pressuring the puck carrier when the other team was in the zone, giving up too many high danger chances, asking too much of your goalie and the players also weren't executing their duty. So I think, A, maybe a little bit of a new personnel change up for next season, and B, getting a new coach in here to really help that unit could pay huge dividends

because the unit, it started out okay to start the year, but then it kind of really faded down the stretch. There were way too many stretches where they were giving up a goal on the PK again. And again, that's not acceptable at this way. going to sit here and say it was, you know, the Islanders, PK, which is, which had been a problem for the last few years and some of these other teams, but it's still not where I wanted it to be. So, you know, I wish Mike Volucci all the best going forward, but I do think it'll be good to have a new fresh set of eyes coming in here to help the PK and maybe them changing up the personnel

a little bit. Yeah, I'm right there with you in that I look at it as it's a little column A, a little column B. When he first got to the Penguins, the personnel was certainly better. It was a better roster, had more at his disposal, and he used it to his advantage to give them a solid PK, because you look at how well he did the penalty kill did the first couple years consistently in the top 10, if not in the top five, for how good they were. And then you compare it to the rolling average now at the end of his tenure where they end up 11th overall. That's because the last couple of years, it really dragged down the average because they weren't as good. And I compare it very similarly to the power play,

where adjustments needed to be made two years ago that weren't made. What do you know, they make that adjustment this year, and they have one of the best power plays in the league. That adjustment wasn't really made on the other side of it with the PK. It brought it up. They were switching Crosby and Malkin off different units They put Mike Brislik on the top power play unit. They made some tweaks to the system.

I think you got to do something similar here with the PK going forward. And that's exactly what I was getting into. You brought that up that they were a little bit more passive. Now, you wouldn't expect this Penguins roster to be a power kill. They just don't have the personnel to do that. But in reality, they were a lot more passive at the point of attack. You brought up the zone entries. They gave those up very consistently all season long,

just giving teams free passes across the. blue line when that is the best place to attack if you're a PK because if you disrupt a zone entry, even if you don't send it all the way down to the other end of the ice, hell, if you send it to the other blue line, that's a tough scramble for a lot of power plays, even the best ones to get regrouped and back together, whether they're through the neutral zone. You send it all the way back. They got more room to operate and figure things out. They were very passive at the blue line.

and then in zone, they were pretty content to let teams move the puck. Now, on one hand, there's no issue with letting teams play patty cake on the outside because if that's the case, they're wasting their own time. They're not getting good looks, but they weren't getting to their spots. They weren't closing off lanes. They were allowing cross-ice passes into high danger areas. And like I said, it kind of falls on both. the personnel didn't put forth the effort they needed to, whether that's for will or for skill.

And then Volucci, on the other hand, didn't make the necessary adjustments to give this power play a chance to succeed. Well, penalty kill. But yeah, I know what you mean. And I know the penguins don't have the personnel to run this. But Carolina Hurricanes, I know they have their faults. But to me, they are the gold standard for what a penalty kill should look like. I know they're one of the only three teams in the league that can run a power kill. but I was really watching that unit during the playoffs.

And they have all their guys sitting at the blue line waiting for zone entries. They're aggressive with their stick checks. And they don't allow even anything, even when a team is lucky to get a zone entry. They get their sticks into shooting lanes. They get their bodies into shooting lanes. They're very aggressive with their pressure. If the Penguins can even do a fraction of that next season, the penalty kill will improve from 18th to whatever number that they will.

So again, that's what, that's kind of the gold standard. the league. Again, Penguins, they don't have that type of personnel, but I still want them to maybe get as close as they can to somehow running it. Again, be more aggressive, block more shots, get your sticks into shooting lanes a bit more. Don't allow these free passes in the high danger areas and all that stuff. I felt like these were way, way too many throughout the course of the season. And I do think a new assistant coach can really help with that and maybe switching up the personnel like David Quinn did at times this year with PowerPlay can really pay huge dividends.

Again, I don't think they're going to be able to run a penalty kill like the hurricanes, but if you can run it at a fraction of them, like even a small little fraction of it, I think that you'll notice a big improvement. Yeah, that would be absolutely huge. And we're still waiting on the announcement of a coaching hire. So we'll see who comes along with that and what they do when it comes to the PK as well as any moves that they might make this. offseason, giving them hopefully better personnel on the penalty kill.

But that is going to do it for our middle segment. When we come back, we're going to continue our season and review series, but it's going to be a little bit different. We are going to talk about two of the young goleys in the penguin system. You certainly know who they are. We're going to have a discussion about that when we come back right after this. Back here on the Tuesday edition of Locked on Penguins, I'm Patrick Damp alongside Hunter Hode.

and the penguins certainly have their needs at just about every position. But if there's one of them, it's at least in the system that they don't have many needs. It is goaltending. Yes, we know we have the issues at the NHL level with Tristan Jari and Alex Nadalcovic. We have talked that all the way to death, resurrected it, and killed it once again. So we might as well put the focus on the future. and that is the two goalies in the system who have been really rising through the ranks, and that is Yoel Blumquist and Sergey Murrishov.

Let's start with Yowell Blumquist, who had his moments in the NHL this year, played 15 games, four wins, 3.81 goals against average in an 885 save percentage. A lot of that you can chalk up to his second stint in the NHL this year, rather than when he started this season in Pittsburgh due to injury. But as I've said before, don't take a ton of stock into his second appearance because this was a team that was not very good. It was not attempting to make the playoffs.

And it was a brutal defensive team. And it was just the wrong decision to keep him in the NHL for his development. But I like a lot of his game. And before we get into Murashaw, it does feel like he is going to have a lot to prove. And let's keep the focus obviously on Blumquist before you know to Miroshov. But with Murrishav's assent, Blumquist has got someone knocking at his door. So he's really got to figure it out here.

And by figure it out, I mean take his spot back as the top goaltending prospect. Yeah, I would agree with that. And I think with Blumquist, see, I didn't mind him at the initial level. But once you saw him really struggling in his second stint, I was more than okay. with them sending him down to just get, you know, obviously a bit more work in Wilkesbury and all that stuff because we have been talking about it on the show. He was giving up a lot of goals to the blocker side.

And I was like, okay, one, okay, that's fine. Two, okay, I'm starting to notice something here. But once they got, you know, three to four to five, I'm like, okay, there's an issue right now because you can see that NHL players were really targeting that area when he was in net. And I still want him to fine-tune that a little bit, Once he does, I think he's going to be mostly fine, especially as he fine-tunes other parts of his game, too.

His first stint was obviously much better. The game that really still lives rent-free in my head of his this year was the game against the Oilers in Edmonton, when he was the only player that showed out for the Penguins. That was, I think, one of the Penguins' worst efforts of the year. And he was keeping them in that game, period after period after period, shift after shift, shift after shift, just making timely save after timely save. he just wasn't getting any help. And I felt so bad for him because he was showing that, hey, like, I have what it takes to play in the NHL.

Yeah, I know. He was a bit inconsistent in a second stint. But that game, even though it's one game, he only showed that, yeah, I can make NHL quality saves at this level. And he's going to have every opportunity to make this team out of camp this September and into early October. We have to see what they decide to do with Jari and Nett. If they decided to run it back with those two, if they move one of them, via trade, the I went out, all that good stuff. But no matter what happens,

Yol Blumquist is going to have a shot at this team this ball. And I think he has a good shot at making it no matter what. With regards to Murashaw, he proved that he was too good for the ECHL. Yes, people. His playoff numbers, they were not good. We only did not play well in the playoffs. But he also did not get any goal scoring help. So for as bad as they were,

I'm still not going to blame him too much just because he really, got no help in that series. Once he got up to Wilkesbury throughout the season, he showed that he very much belonged in that level. 2.64 goals against average, 913, 7% and 16 games with Wilkesbury played in 26 games for the nailers. And then even in the playoffs, he had a 903 percentage for Wilkesbury, 85% for Willing. And, you know, he's still developing.

We keep getting some comments on our YouTube channel. We even get some DM saying, like, man, like, I want to see Marishaw play, you know, 30 to 35 games at the initial level this year. I think we've got to pump the brakes a little bit here. I think he's going to start next season with Wilkesbury. He's going to be very much in consideration to be the starting netminder for that team, especially if Blumquist makes the Penguins out of camp. And that's where I want him to be.

I want him to get a starter's workload if he wins that gig, see what he can do. And then if he really blows away expectations with that, then okay, maybe a little later on in the season in the second half when the penguins are probably out of it. you can maybe bring him up for a small sample size and see if he sinks or swims at the NHL level. But I think for the most part next season, he still needs to be in the AHL unless he really, and I mean really blows you away during training camp. But I don't think that's probably going to happen.

I think still for next season, you've got to keep developing him in Wilkeshury. You hit on the biggest question mark that I have for Sergey Mureshov. Fair or not. And I understand that it's one year and we will see what happens. But yes, he did not get much run support, if any, during Wheeling's playoff run, which was the undoing of the nailers was they just couldn't score. But you also look at some of his numbers down the stretch, whether it's in Wilkes Bear or in Wheeling.

And he starts to fade a little bit, not a lot, but he fades a little bit. And the question I have to see now for the next step in his day, development, again, might be fair, might not be fair, is can he handle the grind of a North American professional season? Because we have seen this with multiple goaltenders over the last decade or so in Pittsburgh is they start off hot. They start the season looking like they should be in the Vesner conversation. They should be, you know, an all-star. And then once you start getting into the dog days. You start getting into February in March. They start tailing off. And you wonder, okay, does it need to be workload management?

Is he just not ready for a full-time starters gig? And Murshov is going to get that opportunity at the AHA level because of how good he was. And if we get into late season in the HL and he's still putting up very good numbers, we probably have our answer. But I know everybody wants to get their shiny new play thing right here, right now, but we got to let this guy develop because you don't want him to completely flame out because you brought him up after one good run, especially when you look at the timeline of this organization right now. They want to be good in contenders in two, three, four years, not this year.

If you needed that sugar rush and you think he could do it, going into next year, you're trying to win. worth trying. Right now, you want to find out if Blumquist and or Murrishav are your long-term answers in net when you get to contention. And there's still a couple hurdles for both of them to clear before you have that answer. And don't forget about Phil Barson either. I thought he had a really strong year for Wilkesbury too. I'm going to be curious to see how his camp is with the Penguins in September and then how much runway he's going to get in Wilkesbury this year, you know, if all goes according to plan and, you know, Blumquist makes this team potentially.

You have Murshov and Larson as your Tannen in Wilkesbury, and they're kind of, you know, maybe low-key 1A, 1B version or Mershov is getting the starters reps and, you know, Larson's getting the backup reps, whatever, however it shakes out. But still, people got to remember, this is a process. You don't want to rush development. That's the worst thing you can do when it comes to young prospects. Again, I know a lot of people want to see a lot of these young guys right away, but you've got to get the development of them right.

And then once you do, then you're going to see them up here full time. Think about it. Ruck and McGority wasn't ready to start the season. They sent him down to Wilkesbury, fine-tuned his game. He was more than ready to end the season when he came up. The like Coivinid. He worked on his game throughout the season in the HL. He was almost a point per game player, albeit a very small sample size at the end of the season.

He looks ready for the NHL. Again, those are just two examples, but they go with the thinking that got to get the development right. And then you can put them up here to see if they see if they see. sink or swim and if they obviously swim, you know, then you've done this right. So for Moroshoff, again, I know people want to see him ASAP, but people got to pump the brakes a little bit. I think he's going to spend most of the next season, if not all of it, in Wilkesbury and people, it's not a bad thing. No, it's not at all.

And you said it. It's a process. I know it stinks. I know we're so used to win now, but we're in an era where we got to have a little bit of patience and see what happens. Speaking of patience, we're running out of. of it. We need to know who the coach is. So Kyle get to getting, but that is going to do it for our Tuesday episode of Locked on Penguins. If they decide to announce a coaching hire today, we will hop back

on here for a quick 10 to 15 minute episode to talk about the hire and then do a full breakdown on Wednesday. But regardless, we will be back with a full episode for you on Wednesday. So for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in. As I said, we will be back on Wednesday.