Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Should the Penguins consider bringing back Matt Grzelcyk?

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

Matt Grzelcyk started the season pretty rough, but rebounded to the point where he set career highs, so should they bring him back? Patrick and Hunter begin the show looking back at Matt Grzelcyk's 20...24-25 season and how, despite the rough start, he turned in a career season and was valuable on the power play. Then they get into the UFAs the Penguins will have heading into the summer, including Grzelcyk, and discuss who is worth bringing back and who is worth letting walk. Finally, the Penguins will have several decisions to make when it comes to RFAs. They talk about how there are a few they should seriously keep for this rebuild. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to Indeed.com/LOCKEDON right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. UpworkVisit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free to connect with top talent and grow your business today! 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!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.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! Amazon Fire TV Stick 4kDid you know your Fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV Stick 4K devices — no console required. Head to Amazon.com/firetvlockedon to get started. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and compatible controller required.UpworkVisit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. With Upwork, you can find specialized freelancers in marketing, development, design, and more—experts ready to help you take your business to the next level. 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.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Today on Locked on Penguins, we look back at the season that was for Matt Grizzlic, as well as give you a rundown ahead of the off season on the upcoming UFAs and RFAs that the Penguins will be looking at and whether or not they should hold on to them. We'll do that right after this. You're locked on penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Welcome in to another 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 4Wet. Joined once again, he has returned by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.
Starting point is 00:00:54 You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at L0 underscore Penguins. And of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube and the Roku channel. Plus, if you're following us on YouTube, make sure to hit the notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes before we get started. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on NHL at MonarchMoney.com for 50% off your first year.
Starting point is 00:01:33 more on them later in the show. So Hunter, welcome back from your quick excursion down to your alma mater to see Enter Sandman played live on the football field. I got to say, man, I don't have a lot of regrets in my life, but one of them is definitely not going to a Division I school to witness the atmosphere of a football game at a D1 school. I said to you before we hit record, I went to IUP. I'm pretty sure my college football stadium was smaller than my high school football stadium. So didn't really get to experience that. I'm sure that was an out-of-body experience for you. It was unbelievable.
Starting point is 00:02:18 That's probably one of the best nights of my life, if I'm being honest. This has been 25 years in the making for Metallico to come to Virginia Tech and play at Lane Stadium. and a good chunk of the crowd were heavy metal fans. The other half, I would say, we're just pure Virginia Tech fans. So I'm lucky that I love both. I love heavy metal music, and I love Virginia Tech.
Starting point is 00:02:40 And they started with a quick pre-recorded EnterSame Man to kick things off, which got the crowd really juiced up. And then they ended the show with a live version of EnterSameen. The stadium showed up on the seismic graph, so the Earth literally shook each time. Enter Sandman played. And, hey, it's, It's so awesome that we can pack this place like this to hear Enter Samman.
Starting point is 00:03:03 I love Virginia Tech. I always will. And hey, we might have some West Virginia fans that listen to this show. It's a lot better than Country Roads. Isn't it, Pat? Isn't it? As a purely unbiased observer who has no loyalty to either, I will take Enter Samin over Country Roads.
Starting point is 00:03:20 But I will say, did spend a few years of my life living in West Virginia. When you get close to closing time at the bar, and Country Roads comes on. It's a pretty good time. I won't lie. But we are here to talk hockey. We're not here to talk music or college football. So let's dive into it.
Starting point is 00:03:38 We're going to continue our season in review series today. And we're going to do that with defenseman Matt Grizzlick. I want to begin with this hunter. I kind of said this last summer when they signed Grizzlic. Obviously, we know how this season went. we kind of expected him to be signed in order to be traded at the deadline because he signed a one year deal. He looked like a perfect candidate to flip for whether it was a young prospect who maybe isn't working out but isn't quite a blue chip or at the very least draft capital.
Starting point is 00:04:16 That did not happen. He stuck with the team through the duration of the season. But what I said last summer was they were also kind of taking a bet on Matt Grizzlic that he struggled in his final year with the Boston Bruins to the point where he was actually taken out of the lineup and was a healthy scratch both down the stretch and into the playoffs. But I kind of said that I felt like he could bounce back because you saw his body of work in the lead up to that last season in Boston and he was pretty much the model of consistency. Wasn't a superstar defenseman, wasn't a top pairing defenseman, but a guy that you could
Starting point is 00:04:57 rely on to provide you a little bit, but he would never really be a liability for you. In Pittsburgh, got off to a rough start the first month or so of the season, but I think throughout the rest of the year, he bounced back really well. I thought he was a solid contributor. He obviously stepped in and helped the power play, which as we know, finished sixth in the NHL in the regular season, which was a massive improvement for the team. So I think on the whole, as a penguin, Matt Grizzlick had a pretty solid season. He plays all 82 games, 40 points, one goal, 39 assists, was really good on the power play. So at the end of the day, for what they paid him for one year, I thought it was a solid season for
Starting point is 00:05:43 Matt Grizzlic. He started out really poorly. I mean, we came on this show end of October into November. actually it was right around the Thanksgiving break, man, where he was about to be scratched. He was that bad to start the year, couldn't defend to save his life. He was contributing a little bit offensively, but he was out to lunch every time he was on the ice in his own zone. But then, thankfully, he stabilized a little bit.
Starting point is 00:06:09 They started putting him in advantageous situations, especially on the power play. We jokingly called him a power play merchant patent throughout the year just because he was doing a good job quarterbacking that top unit, and the Penguins PowerPlaying's Powerplay was top 10 unit this year after being one of the worst power plays in the league during the 23, 24 season. And you look at just his counting stats this year. Sure, one goal, but he did have 40 points. And that is a career high. Before this season, he had never had even 30 points in a season. So the fact that he had 39 assists, that's good. So a nice little bounce back in that department. We'll get to whether they should bring him back in the second second because I don't want to spoil my answer.
Starting point is 00:06:49 You know, you look at the underlying this year. He played all 82 games, almost 1,500 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time. He was dead and even for shot attempts when he was on the ice, minus 3 and goals 4-gose-goals against. 47% expected goals 4 percentage, 48% scoring chances, and then 46 high-danger chances. Now, he kind of flip-flop throughout the year. He played part of the year of Carlson,
Starting point is 00:07:11 played part of the year with Chris LaTang. And to be honest, at the start, he was really bad. with Carlson. He stabilized him a little bit. I still, I wouldn't, I don't think I would want to see that pairing again for next season, especially if they do bring Grizzly back again. We'll get into that in a couple of seconds. But to start the year, the underlyingings are really bad. They stabilized just a bit down the stretch, but I still don't think he's a top four guy anymore. He's probably a bottom pairing defenseman at this point in his career. The reason why he had a crew year was because the penguins gave him top four minutes. Like when they
Starting point is 00:07:48 signed him and Anthony Bovillier on July 1st of last year. That should have told everyone, yeah, they're not serious about contending for the Stanley Cup, let alone the playoffs spot for this past season. Like, they played Grizzly top four minutes all year. I'm sure they looked around to try and trade him. But, you know, sometimes if teams don't want to meet that price, even though these prices were pretty high, like you saw what Brian Dumon went for, man, like that was a pretty high price.
Starting point is 00:08:13 Maybe a team didn't want to meet the price that Kyle Dubas put on him. So again, I was definitely, I guess a little disappointed that they didn't move him, but I understood it because they probably didn't get the value that they were looking for. He's a UFA now. I'm sure he'll have talks. But yeah, I'll give this season for him, but kind of going back and forth, maybe a B minus just because he started out the year really poor, stabilized a bit down the stretch.
Starting point is 00:08:41 Honestly, I'll say C, average. I think he was fine. I was going to go B minus. I think it was you can't discount how rough the start of the season was for him. It did really get to the point where he looked pretty much unusable. Yes. But you compare the way he finished the season to that. It was a really solid bounce back.
Starting point is 00:09:02 And you brought up a couple things that I want to build upon here before we have our discussion on what the off season is going to bring for UFAs and RFAs. First, the power play point of it all. he only had 15 points on the power play. So he really didn't get the bulk of his points on the power play. Just under half of them, because he gets 15, has 20 points or 40 points in total, excuse me. And realistically, I also want to come back to the trade aspect of it. Like you said, teams out there probably didn't match the price that Kyle Dubas had in his head.
Starting point is 00:09:40 and you bring up the Brian Dumlin acquisition by the New Jersey Devils. For the Devils, that was, I don't want to say a desperation trade, but given all the injuries they had and everything else, they needed a body. And maybe the Penguins could have found a way to move him to say New Jersey for something, something that they would have liked. But at the end of the day, New Jersey was not the team with any kind of leverage. So you kind of go back and forth of could they have gotten something more?
Starting point is 00:10:13 Could they have talked New Jersey into paying a premium for him? But we'll never know that option. At the end of the day, though, I do think my quote unquote prediction for him going into this season ended up coming to pass. Because again, you look at all of his seasons in Boston save for his last. Very consistent. Kind of brings you that second or third. third pairing value as a defenseman. And it was a blip on the radar for him, at least for now, because we don't know what's
Starting point is 00:10:46 going to happen over the next however many seasons he plays. But I was a little bit more bullish on him going into the season, if for no other reason, like we said, it didn't happen, but he was signed to be traded. And part of when you sign a guy like that to trade him, you don't put him on the bottom pairing. You don't put them in the bottom six, unless it's a bottom six forward, obviously, but a defenseman like that, you're going to showcase throughout the year. And as they showcased him, especially post Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving break, he really showed that he could, at the very least, on a contending team, be a good depth asset, but that obviously never came to pass. So
Starting point is 00:11:31 the season is behind us, obviously, and he is a UFA, and that is going to take us into our second segment. When we come back, we're going to talk about the pending UFAs and who is worth holding on to and who is worth letting walk. And we will get into that when we come back. But first, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is indeed. You just realized that your business needs to hire someone yesterday. So how can you find amazing candidates fast?
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Starting point is 00:12:16 Obviously, I've said it plenty of times as we've done the Indeed ad on this show as long as they've been riding with Locked on Penguins. Never had to use it as someone looking to hire, but I have definitely used it as someone looking for a job, including my current place of employment. It is one of the best out there. I cannot recommend it enough.
Starting point is 00:12:35 So now you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 sponsor job credit. Just go to Indeed.com slash locked on right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this very podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, all you need is Indeed. All right. We're back here on the Thursday edition of Locked on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside the one and only Hunter. so let's just kind of keep the first segment rolling into the second segment.
Starting point is 00:13:06 One of the Penguins' first UFAs this offseason is Matt Grizzlic. I go back and forth on this one because I do think he played quite well to end the year quite well relatively to what he is. We're not going to pretend like he was a superstar. But if you can kind of try to run back what you did this year with Matt Grizzlick, one year deal, you're obviously going to look to move him sometime in and around the deadline or in the lead up to it. And it's an affordable deal like it was this year. I wouldn't totally be against bringing him back because if he can continue to show that he has value on the power play and can play second pairing minutes,
Starting point is 00:13:54 next year with the rising cap and everything, you could probably get a return for him. but if you're considering more than a year, I will absolutely pass on that. So if they were to bring them back one year capacity, sign them to trade them, I'm on board, but it can't be any more than that. See,
Starting point is 00:14:15 I understand what you're saying, but I would just move on, I think at this point. And Kyle Dubas, I feel like he kind of hinted at that. He was like, yeah, we're going to talk during the offseason here,
Starting point is 00:14:28 but he didn't exactly sound like someone who was really eager to sign him to a new deal. The thing with Gryslich, you don't need to bring him back. You just need to replace him and get someone who is a bit better at five on five. Like, yeah, he really helped the power play. He was a good quarterback better last year than Eric Carlson and Crystal Tang. But you can find someone like that, but is also better at five on five than Gryslic was. And hopefully someone who is a bit younger. I would not bring him back just because,
Starting point is 00:14:57 you have the whole idea of getting younger and do we really think that Grizzlick is going to repeat the season that he just had for the Penguins, at least in terms of, you know, counting stats. Again, Pat, 40 points. The highest before this past season was 26, 22, 23 with the Bruins. He paid 75 games that year, had four goals, 26 points. He had never been over 30 points before this year. I don't think it's a good idea to even sign him to a one-year deal just based on what he did this
Starting point is 00:15:26 past year. I would let someone go overpay him during free agency, sign him and do a two to three year deal, something like that. I think the penguins are better off finding someone younger and especially better at five on five. And Chris like, once again, I'm not trying to harp on him or anything like that. He was
Starting point is 00:15:42 serviceable this year. I gave him an average grade for the season that he had. But the thing with him is it's all about learning from this experience, but replacing him with someone better, especially at even strength. That's where I would go with this one with Matt Grisly.
Starting point is 00:15:57 Now, no, I will say this in spoiler alert, the majority of this segment is probably going to be focused mainly on Matt Grisleck, because when you look down the rest of the UFAs on Penguins list, it's a lot of hard passes. But I hear what you're saying. And for the most part, I agree. If they were not to re-sign him, I'm not going to come on the show when he signs elsewhere and say it was a failure by Kyle Dubis. but the point I may the thing that I would push back on is this the point you're making about you go find somebody to to play the same role right better a little bit better at five on five maybe younger kind of the similar underlying underlying numbers when you're in a contention window I agree with that statement I said that all throughout the 2010s where
Starting point is 00:16:49 Ray Shiro may he rest in peace Jim Rutherford you name it would fall in love with depth players who had a big year, and then they would hand them money at the end of the season and say, you did so well, we're going to keep you, and then they never meet that standard. When you're trying to win the Stanley Cup, that's a fatal mistake. Right now with the penguins,
Starting point is 00:17:11 they're obviously in transition, retolling, rebuilding, whatever word we're using this week. You can live with one year of Matt Grislich again, especially if he comes close, which kind of hovers around his career average of 30-ish, 25, 30-ish points, and then you flip them. You don't re-sign them to keep them. But again, at the end of the day, it's not going to be make or break if they don't bring him back.
Starting point is 00:17:38 But I kind of look at it that way is if they were in the contention window, absolutely. You let you say thank you for the 40 points. Thank you for being good on the power play. Go get paid somewhere else. You can't give him more than a year. But if he walks, not going to. cry over it. No, again, I think it's best for both sides if he finds a different opportunity
Starting point is 00:17:58 and where he can get, I think, a bit more money and a bit more term instead of just a one year kind of prove it deal that he had this past year with the Penguins Square, he got top four minutes. Otherwise, when you look at the UFAs for this year, Nat Nietto, you know, happy trails, I don't think there's any reason for them to resign him. That experiment really didn't work out. If I'm Kyle Dubas, I would wish him the best of luck. Boakley Mama, that one's a bit interesting to me if they want to bring him back on a two-way deal for one year, I guess it's not the worst thing in the world. He's obviously very popular in the locker room.
Starting point is 00:18:31 His thing is, the vibes are off the charts with him, Pat. Like the vibes very much there in the locker room, very much there on the ice. I still probably wouldn't want him playing every single game. But even if they let him walk, I'm not going to, it's not the end of the world or anything like that. You can find someone who is a better player than him for that role, in my opinion. that one's still up in the air if it's up to me honestly i'd probably let him walk if i had if i had
Starting point is 00:18:58 the say but i'm not obviously not going to be upset if they gave him a one year two-way deal or something like that you know copanin that's whatever to me if they want to bring him back on a two-way deal that's fine too but if i had a guess right now i don't think he's coming back where i discuss grizzlick you have some of the other ufas i think that's actually it unless i'll have my notes wrong No, that's pretty much it. And I'm in the same headspace as you when it comes to Imamma. If it's a one or two year, two way deal, not going to be too upset about it. Like you said, great vibes guy. Great story too, because definitely somebody who has worked their butt off to become a professional hockey player. And again, the theme is going to continue to be this is a team
Starting point is 00:19:46 in transition. So you can burn a couple spots on good vibes guys or projects or however you want to classify them. And listen, you still have to put an entertaining product on the ice to an extent. And listen, we, we're not going to have the discussion about physicality and fighting and all of that today because it's just not the day. But we all do enjoy when the gloves get dropped. And the person, the DJ in the arena hits the ring bell when there's a fight on the ice. And there's really nobody in the penguin's organization other than a mama who does that. And every now and then, seeing him work hard, seen him throw some hits, seeing him drop the gloves every now and then. Makes for an entertaining product. He's a popular guy in the locker room.
Starting point is 00:20:38 they want to bring them back. Not going to be too upset about it, but it can't. And it would never be anything more than two years max in a two-way deal where he can bounce back and forth between Wilkes Bear and the Penguins. So we're going to leave the second segment here because the RFA list, a little bit more interesting when you look at that one. And we want to make sure we reserve a good amount of time to talk about the RFAs the Penguins will be facing. this summer. We will do that when we come back right after this. But first, our last sponsor of the day, and that is Monarch Money. Have you ever checked your bank account and wondered, where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping and entertainment, it's pretty
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Starting point is 00:22:06 for 50% off your first. year. That's monarchmoney.com code locked on NHL for first off your first year. All right, welcome back to the Thursday edition of Locked on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes. And we got to take some time here, Hunter, to dive in to the Penguins list of RFAs because while there's only a handful, quite a few of them could be crucial for the penguins moving forward. Let's start with one of the biggest names, a player you and I have been a big fan of since he became a penguin, and that is Philip Thomasino. Started off very hot with the penguins, played extremely well after coming over to the penguins
Starting point is 00:22:54 from the Nashville Predators, 11 goals, 23 points over 50 games. They're kind of projecting, when you look at a lot of the projections about 1, 1.5 million to bring him back. And he really seemed to struggle down the stretch. But that was more a factor of Vela Kovinen and Rector McGroady coming up. He gets bumped out of the top six. I absolutely think you bring Philip Tomasino back. I think there's a lot of potential there. Once he finds consistency, he can be a,
Starting point is 00:23:32 very good middle six contributor for the penguins. Still very young, a lot of hockey ahead of him, very smart player. What say you? Yeah, that's the thing. If he can just find a little bit more consistency, this is a player who could definitely score 15 to 20 goals during a season. There'd be time to see where it looked like he was all in. There were other times where you could tell he was a little bit of a step slow.
Starting point is 00:23:55 And again, I think that comes with a little bit more maturity, a little bit more consistency. And once he finds those two things for a full age, game season. I think he's going to be totally fine. I would bring him back on probably a bridge contract. Two years, I don't think it's going to really cost too much to be completely honest with you. That's a no-brainer for me if I'm Kyle Dubas in the front office. That's someone who you got from Nashville. He played really well to start, had some ups and downs the rest of the way. But I still bring him back and very much play him in a top nine role for the entire 2025, 2025, 2026 season,
Starting point is 00:24:31 whether it's on Afghani Malkins wing, whether it's on the third line, whatever it is. He needs to play in the top of nine next year. So yes, I 1 million percent bring him back. There's no reason not to. Connor Dewar, why not? Honestly, he's a feisty little fella. I liked his game enough down the stretch to the point where I would probably sign him to probably a one-year deal, see what he can do for a full season.
Starting point is 00:24:53 If, you know, he shows that same tenacity, especially on the forecheck and he, you know, improves his scoring touch a little bit. That's someone that you can extend again. after that season. But I think for him, another one-year proof of deal. Like, I think you saw enough after the trade deadline to be like, okay, let's take a flyer on him for this next season. And if he does well again, okay, but maybe we can look at a multi-year thing for Connor Deer.
Starting point is 00:25:15 But at the very least, for me, in my opinion, I would give it, I would bring him back on a one-year contract. I don't think he's going to cost that much either. Connor Timmins, absolutely. That's a very easy one for me, too. Very much a Ben Lovejoy type guy. You can play him on the third pairing. should be a very easy decision to re-sign him for next season and beyond.
Starting point is 00:25:36 I think also as probably looking like a bridge contract too, probably two years, maybe three if they want to go that far, but I don't think it's going to be a five to six-year term or anything like that. P.O. Joseph, happy trails, honestly, really struggled down the stretch. Obviously, he was hurt for a lot of that time, but even before he got hurt, he just really wasn't playing that well after coming back from the blues. so I would move on if I am Kyle Dubus in the front office. And then Vasily Honamara, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:26:06 I would sign him to at least a one or two-year deal. It's probably going to be a two-way contract just because of the situation. But he'll very much have an opportunity to make the team via training camp. And I'm excited to see what he can do because I like the last couple of games that he played towards the end of the season. Other names, Emil Benstrom, if they want to do a one-year two-way deal, sure. like he was really good in Wilkesbury this year and then Till Argotia. The goal to the situation is very jammed right now,
Starting point is 00:26:36 so they'll have to make a pretty big decision about that. He's an RFA too. They have Murashav, who's going to probably take some minutes in Wilkesbury next season. They have Blumquist, obviously, Philip Larson. That one can go either way, if I'm being honest, because they have a lot of decisions to make there. But those are just my thoughts on some of the other RFAs.
Starting point is 00:26:53 Yeah, not to go full point counterpoint here where I just run down the list like you did and respond, but that's kind of what I'm going to do here is the first one I want to start with is Connor Dewer. I look at Connor Dewer and on the whole, I agree that he is something the penguins have sorely lacked, great on the forecheck, plays really hard. I thought he was great relatively, obviously,
Starting point is 00:27:20 when he came over at the trade deadline. But you look at this penguin's roster, and who is still under contract going into next year, they're pretty well set in the bottom six. And we'll obviously see who they move on from this summer, because I do think we are going to see some moves by Kyle Dubus in the trade market, either right before the opening of free agency or right after it. So I do think they want to hold on to him.
Starting point is 00:27:52 They probably should. But you look at who's on the team right. now and there's there's a lot of bottom six forwards and i would like him to take the place of at least one of them because he's younger has a little bit more potential and he could be part of the solution once this team eventually rounds the corner connor timmons same deal young defenseman played well he's got potential obviously he's not going to become a superstar but definitely a good depth defenseman that you can plug in on your bottom pair and in the case of injury would not be the worst player to have on a second pair
Starting point is 00:28:32 for a short amount of time if somebody's out. P.O. Joseph, we tried. We tried. We tried. Unfortunately, it's just not going to work. Ponomerov, no-brainer. Have to bring them back. A lot of potential there. The most interesting one to me, though, is Gaudier. Because we know how jammed up, like you said, the goaltending is in this pipeline. And you've got to figure a player like Gaudier who has done really well the last two years, I don't think this is going to be so much a Penguins decision as it is a Gaudier decision. Because he looks like a guy who in a different organization could rise up their depth chart
Starting point is 00:29:16 and their organizational depth chart because he's played really well. But I'm not going to place him above Blumquist or Murrishaw. I think both of those guys have NHL potential and could realistically take a starting job sometime in the next two to three years. Probably not the same to be said for Gaudier in this system. I think he does have a higher ceiling than most would expect, but he probably wouldn't reach it here. So I do think when you look at Kyle Dubas's career in his body of work, he usually does write by players. and if you're looking at Taylor Godier, you probably want him to go somewhere else
Starting point is 00:29:58 and get that opportunity. Yeah, I could see them doing that just because obviously of what we've been talking about how jam-packed this pipeline is right now. And I don't know if it would be fully fair to him to start him willing once again, even though he's been great in the ECHL these past couple of years. I do think if they make the decision to not bring him back,
Starting point is 00:30:18 there will be multiple teams out there interested in making him they're number one for their AHL team because I do think he is ready for that opportunity in the AHL. I think he has shown that he is, he's, I think, better than the ECHL right now. Excuse me, I mean, he's been dynamite down there these last couple years.
Starting point is 00:30:35 We also saw Sergey Murshov is better than the ECHL right now. It probably deserves to be in the AHL full time for next season. I mean, he was ready for the HAL. Once he got called up, I mean, he had obviously that outstanding winning streak, played in the playoffs a little bit, and for wheeling in the playoffs as well. But I do think, again, if they decide not to bring Gaudier back, he will be scooped up fairly quickly by a team that could use a number one
Starting point is 00:31:01 or even a number two in their farm system for their HL team because I think he is more than ready for that opportunity. I can't really add much more to that. I've loved his play the last couple years. And it's funny, you look at where the Penguins organization is at this moment, and you wouldn't expect goalie to be the, the most stacked pipeline, but it really is. It is a complete logjam away from the NHL.
Starting point is 00:31:27 So once they can figure out how to get away from Tristan Jari, how to move on from Alex Nadelcovic in the next year or two, the future is very bright in net. And I say it all the time, whether it's rebuilding or retolling teams, usually the hardest position to figure out when you want to take that next step is goalie. A lot of teams really struggle to find that guy. And obviously, Blumquist, Miroshov, they might not pan out, but I think the chances are a lot higher that they do than they don't. So that puts them in a really advantageous situation as they navigate
Starting point is 00:32:07 through this retool, rebuild transition, whatever we're calling it. But it's going to be a very interesting summer, Hunter, because a lot of decisions to be made, whether it's the draft, whether it's who's going to be the coach, whether it's who they're going to trade, who they're going to sign. So make sure that you are sticking with us here on locked on penguins. But that is going to do it.
Starting point is 00:32:31 For today's episode, we will be back with a brand new episode for you on Friday. We will likely continue our season in review series and catch you up on any news we may have missed or that may happen between now and then. So for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always, for tuning in.
Starting point is 00:32:47 We will be back on Friday. Thank you.

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