Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Should the Penguins kick the tires on an RFA defenseman?

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in need of a left-shot defenseman, and one intriguing candidate is reportedly on the trade market. Before Hunter and Patrick get into that, they first talk about the exclusive club that Sidney Crosby could join if Canada wins gold at the World Championships. Then, they discuss the prospect of the Penguins going after Bowen Byram from the Buffalo Sabres. Is it worth giving up assets and signing him to a long-term contract? After that, they continue their season in review series with Owen Pickering. Is he ready for the NHL full-time?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.

Sydney Crosby continues to dominate at the World Championships, and he has a chance to join a very elite club if he can captain team Canada to another gold medal. Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes,

joined by my co-host Patrick Damby. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Send Them for Wet. And you can follow the show's Twitter at L.O. UnderSore Penguins, of course. Thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms.

And yes, people, we apologize. This episode is coming out a bit later than normal today. We usually are episodes from Wednesday through Friday come out between 4, 430, and 5, especially now that Pat is back on his very annoying work schedule. hopefully we can change that a little bit going into next season of course but pat had to go get his buzz cut today he has his brand new haircut for everyone that's watching on youtube or roku tv and all that stuff me well i still have my mop here it's not it's long but i still want to grow it out a little bit

more before i go and get it trimmed again and by the way if you guys hear any booming sounds in the background it's thunderstorming here again in pittsburgh it's been kind of storming here all afternoon just hoping that i don't lose any power or anything like that there's been some nasty storms have been rolling through here these last few weeks. But getting to the first topic of today's show, Cindy Crosby Pat continues to dominate at the World Championships. We have given out a few updates when he's had some really big performances, though we haven't given an update in the last few days, at least this week. But so far, going into the knockout phase, which starts on Thursday, it'll be the quarterfinals. He has 11 points, four goals, seven assists. He is also plus seven

in those seven games. He's second on Team Canada in goals and assists. is also third in points. He led Canada to a 6-0-1 record in the preliminary round, and Canada will play Denmark on Thursday at 2.20 p.m. Eastern Time with a win. Canada will advance to the semifinals. But Pat, I know you really want to talk about this. Crosby can join a very, and I mean a very elite club, if Canada wins gold here.

This is one of the most exclusive clubs Sidney Crosby could ever join. if Team Canada goes on to win the gold at the IHF World Championships. He will become, and I promise I'm not making this up. This is what it is actually called. It is called the double triple gold club. This would be a club where Sidney Crosby has won gold at the Worlds, gold at the Olympics, and the Stanley Cup. And he would also be the first to captain.

in all of those teams to those titles. He would join a club that includes just three players. And you're listening to this show. That means you are a massive hockey nerd like we are. Listen to these three names that he would join should they bring home the gold. Peter Forsberg, Igor Laryonov, and Slava Petisov. that is a murderer's row of unbelievable talent that have been in the NHL and on the world stage. And the fact that Sidney Crosby could join that, it's just another data point in the case that since becoming the superstar that he is,

in the expectation that was put upon him once he was drafted and all the way back to when he was a teenager and a preteen, He's not just lived up to that hype. He's exceeded it. The other thing that's very fun about this, another player we've done some updates on and discussed at the world championships is Mark Andre Fleury. If Canada wins gold, he will become the first goaltender to join the Triple Gold Club, excuse me,

because this is his first time ever playing at the World Championships. So if he can do that, he'll have obviously won the Stanley Cup. Yes, I know some people are shaking their heads. He has won a gold medal at the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010. Never dressed, but he was on Team Canada. So he was there to get a gold. And if they win here, he'll get World Championship gold.

So for Mark Andre Fleury, what a way to go out. Oh, 100%. And I hope you read Joshi's article today on Mark Andre Fleury and Cindy Crosby because it was a beautiful read. And for those listening slash watching, if you haven't read that article yet, please do it goes even more in depth to Crosby and Fleury's relationship.

And it shows just how much fun they're having playing together again. Like Fleury says, yeah, I know I'm done in the NHL, but I wanted to play with Sid one more time before I ride off into the sunset. And there's a little tease in there, Pat, about potentially doing something special

to honor Mark Andre Fleury for everything he did for the Penguins, whether again, that's maybe signing him to a one-day contract. ring of honor, something like that. But it was a really good story. I encourage everyone to go check it out. But yeah, man, and there's been so many videos out there on social media too of

Sid really being amped at some of the officials overseas during the World Championships. He's been really arguing with them, just bickering for calls and stuff like that. Like, I know it's the Royal Championships, but he takes this very, and I mean very seriously. As we always expect him to do. but it's funny you bring that up because I've seen all those videos, whether it's on TikTok or YouTube or wherever they're putting them out. And given we have been part of the Sydney Crosby experience for as long as we have, I'm just used to it.

My first thought, and it's one that I can't believe I have, maybe I've had it in the past, but it cropped up this time, it has to suck being friends with him, right? Because you know if you grew up with him. And granted, he was so in the hockey world that he probably didn't do a lot of normal kids stuff. Like he wasn't, you know, playing video games or, you know, playing all the random games that you play with your friends. But like, growing up with this guy had to stink because it didn't matter what you were playing, what you were doing. You know that he was just so intense.

For my 90s kids out there that listen to this show, if you were playing around a gold n-eye on N64 and he lost, you know he broke some controllers. You know he was throwing some temper tantrums if he didn't win. 100%. And I love that you brought up the very exclusive list of the double triple gold club. Peter Forsberg was my favorite player growing up. I absolutely loved watching him play.

And I'm so glad that Sid would be on that list if he were to join. and Captain Team Canada to another goal here in the World Championships. Outside of that, you have Macklin Celebrini and him really finding some great chemistry, by the way, at the World's Pat. Like, they have been great together on the same line. You have the video of Celebrity saying, like, yeah, I called him Mr. Crosby when I saw him, but Cid's like, nope, you don't need to say that. Just call me, Sid.

Just all these really funny moments of some of these really great young players in the league, getting the chance to play with Sid, who's obviously a lot old. now and they have stories for days. Like I've listened to so many podcasts like about the Four Nations about that as well. And there were players that were coming back apparently and saying like, yeah, it was such a joy to play with Sidney Crosby for Team Canada. And you're going to get that again at the Olympics. Like it's really just an awesome moment for some of these younger players.

One of the coolest things about it. And I know that I joked about the whole, oh, growing up with him and competing with him had to suck because he was just into always winning no matter what it was. But the other side of that, in Yohe's article kind of touched on this, and it's rubbed off on a lot of the players on Canada, is that there is just such a basic love of the game that they talk, Yohei talks about it in his article that, you know,

essentially the rink staff had to kick them off the ice so they could, you know, bring the Zamboni out and get ready for the next team to practice. but talking to the younger players on team Canada, they're just like, he just loves hockey, man. It's not, you know, obviously it's rooted in competition. It's rooting in motivation for him wanting to be the best. But he just loves doing it. If he had his way, he would just be playing hockey forever and ever

because he gets so much joy out of it. And you could kind of see guys like Celebrini, even guys like McKinnon, it was almost like this mini recess. for them where they were like, yeah, this is just kind of a really cool job and something that we really love and really enjoy. And you can see that coming through with him as a leader at the world championships for Team Canada.

100%. And again, the quarterfinals will be on Thursday and then the tournament will wrap up this weekend. And then Tal Dubis will head back to Pittsburgh and probably cut this list down of coaches that could be in the mix for the Penguins head coaching job. And then I'm sure a decision is also coming in the next couple of weeks. right around that June 1st timeframe that we discussed earlier this week. But that I would do it for this first segment.

Coming up in the second segment, a defenseman that Pat and I have talked about before has apparently hit the trade market. Should the penguins be in on him? Well, we're going to give our thoughts on that coming up here in the second segment. Before we get to that, though, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor of the day, and that is wonderful pistachios. Looking for a snack that's both delicious and nutritious, cracked into a good source of protein with wonderful pistachios.

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or just need a quick protein boost, they are always my go-to. And if you love cracking open every shell for that satisfying crunch, the in-sell options are a classic favorite. Get snacking and get cracking with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit wonderful pistachios.com to learn more. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Pat Damp, and Pat. We have discussed this player a little bit at times during the offseason.

Not as much as we're going to today. We're going to do a full breakdown on whether the Penguins should trade for him. and that is Buffalo Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram. So this was a small talking point during the latest edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast where Elliot Freeman reported that the Sabers are kind of gauging his market a little bit, just trying to see what he's worth, like what teams would want to pay for him and all that stuff. Contract situation-wise, Byram is an RFA. He's not scheduled to be a UFA right now until the 27, 28 season.

So if you were to bridge him on a two-year contract, that would expire and then he'd be a UFA. Obviously, though this changes if you just sign him to a long-term contract after that, then he will be a UFA. So he's looking for more money right now. He's looking for a better opportunity. And that begs the question, should the penguins be in on Boe environment, especially when you look at their left side on the defense?

And I'll start with this answer. Yes, they should be in on him. But I do think we need to have a conversation about how truly good Boe, when Byron is. Would he be an upgrade on the left side? 100%. When you compare it to Matt Griswick, Ryan Graves, Ryan Shea,

even Owen Pickering, who will get to a bit later on in the show, yes, he would be an upgrade. He's very young, still in his early 20s. Counting stats-wise, his season was good. Seven goals,

38 points in 82 games. His seven goals are the third most he's had in the league. So far, his 38 points are the most that he has had in the league. So far, he was the fourth overall picked by the Colorado, Avalanche in the 2019 NHL draft.

And then, of course, he was traded to the Sabres recently, of course. Now, this is where it gets a little bit dicey for me. I would be in on him and I would offer up a package that feels right. But I'm not willing to overpay for this type of player. You're probably wondering, well, why? Like, he's going to be a staple in the top four. Yes, he would be. But Bowen Byram needs the right partner to succeed.

He played really well with Rasmus Dahlene this year, who is a bona fide top 10 to top 15 offensemen in this league. They played 73 games together on the top pairing about 626 minutes of 5 on 5 ice time. When they were together, they had a plus 20 goal differential at 5 on 5, 54% of the expected goal share, 51% of the scoring chances, 52% of the high danger chances, and 54% of the shot attempts. Pretty good, right? Well, without Dahlene, Byron, that's 82 games, 880. minutes for Byron without Rosemis Dahlene. When Byron was on the ice with anyone else, he had a 45% shot attempts rate, minus six goal differential at five on five, 42% expected goal share rate, 42% scoring chances for a rate, 42% high danger chances for

rate. Again, man, he's good, but I'm not willing to overpay for him. You have to get the right partner for him to succeed, because Dahlene kind of carried his coattails a little bit, year don't get me wrong people dalien is talented he would be a good fit for the penguins but the price has to be right and you don't want to overpay him on this next contract and the end you also got to get the right partner for him so with all that said i would be in on him but i don't want to overpay when you don't have to i'm of two mindsets here first is everything that you said about rasmus daline being Byram's partner in Buffalo and how good they were together. Obviously, that speaks to how good Dahlene is and how much value he has.

I also think it would be a little bit of the wrong move by Buffalo to get rid of Bo and Byram at this point. For no other reason, you have Dahlene's partner there. And Byram is all of 23 years old. He'll be 24 when next season begins. and as we know, outside of the elite of the elite, defensemen take a little while to develop. They're not going to be in top form at age 23.

They're usually going to be into their primes at 25, 26, when they've got a lot more experience under their belt because it's a much more difficult position to play. So if Buffalo's shopping him, absolutely Kyle Dubas has to make the call. The other set of mind that I have here, is there has to be a Buffalo asterisk on breaking him down. Yes, Rasmus Dahlin's great,

and he is going to be a top-tier defenseman in this league for quite some time. But look at the rest of Buffalo's roster. If he's not with Dahlene, it's pretty bad. And he was pretty good in Colorado. I wouldn't say he jumped off the page. They did a good job of protecting him as he developed, and then obviously a multitude of reasons they're going for a Stanley Cup there in win now mode you can maybe sacrifice a young guy in a trade to get that piece

that pushes you over the edge now. But I always caution people on being hesitant about defensemen from really bad teams. Because if you're a defenseman on a really bad team that has some potential and some talent, it's going to drag your numbers down because it's just a bad team. team. Now, that leads into the last part I have. Penguins aren't a very good team. There's talent there, but their defense is a problem right now. And you have to find upgrades just about anywhere you can because we know that they're going to draft. They're probably going to draft pretty well. They've got a good scouting staff in place. Kyle Dubus has a good history of drafting players who get missed

and turn out to be very good. So you got to figure that's going to include some defensemen. But in the immediate, Bowen Byram checks every box. He's 24. He's young. He plays the left side. He's got a lot of potential. And he can be part of the solution moving forward.

All that said, I completely agree with your point that they should be in on him, but you can't empty the vault for a guy. like this. He's not a sure thing yet. He very, because, again, to connect everything that I said, away from Dahlene, he was not very good because the Sabres aren't very good. Penguins aren't very good right now. So that might hurt his development. It might show that he's not as good as you might want him to be.

But if you can get him for a prospect you're not really that much more interested in or a package of picks, because again, they still have 30. over the next three years. They're not going to use all third. So if you can call up Buffalo and see if you have what they're looking for and it's not too expensive, I'd absolutely take the chance on Bowen Byron. Yeah, I would take the chance. I'm not trading a first round pick or anything like that for him.

Maybe a second plus a prospect, something like that, second plus a roster player, something like that. But, yeah, I mean, Byram's been in the league, you know, since the 2021 season with the Avalanche. I just have a small fear. Like, I just don't want, like, where he is right now, I just hope that's not like his true ceiling. Like, I, he's still only 23. He'll be 24 in June.

He definitely, I think, has some more room to grow. I think he can be a really good staple top four defensemen, but he still has to show improvement in a few areas for me. And again, the Penguins have to get the right partner for him too. Like, we probably think Eric Carlson's going to get dealt at some point this office. season. If he's gone, that crosses him off the list. Chris Latang on the right side, again, I love Latang, but this last season was really rough for him. I just don't think a Byram-Latang pairing would be that fruitful at this rate. I think if Latang was a bit younger,

I think it would be. But I think they would have to bring in someone. I mean, obviously they could bring back Timmins and maybe try that one out if they feel like it, but I feel like they might have to bring in someone else to play on the right side, especially obviously with Carlson, potentially being dealt in that scenario to play with Byram. So to sum all this up, yes, Caldibis should make a call. Pat and I both believe that. They should at least make an okay offer, but we don't want them to, A, overpay on that trade and then B overpay Byram, and then they're stuck with that long contract, just because,

again, I'm a little bit spooked by some of the numbers with Byram away from Rasmus Daly. The one thing I will say that I think works in his favor, if we can get away real quick from like intangible talk about this is he's a very good puck mover. And depending upon what coach the penguins go with, that could really help this team's development along because we saw this year that there was a lot of struggle on the back end moving the puck. And he has a really good first pass. and he does seem to read the game pretty well.

So that is something that has been missing quite a bit for the last few years from the penguin's back end outside of Carlson in moments and Latang in moments. If you can get another guy like that in your stable and it's not overly expensive, I like the idea of putting him back there, especially at 24. You find him the right partner and he can blossom into a number one, number two defenseman for the penguin. in a few years. Not sure if it's going to be a number one at this rate, but maybe best case, number two, number three, something like that.

Yeah, I don't think he's a number one, in my opinion right now. That could change, but I think at best he's a number two, number three guy. They still might have to go out and get a true bona fide number one guy at some point over the next couple years, especially again with Tang aging, Carlson probably going to get dealt this summer, all that good stuff. The Byron at least would be if you can get him for not that much and then get him for kind of a steal of a contract, it would be kind of a step in the right direction towards reshaping the blue line.

But again, people, a little bit of a buyer's beware on him a little bit. But that would do it for the second segment. Let us know what you guys think about Bowen Byron. Down in the comments, you can send us DMs and all that stuff. But coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to continue our season in review series with Owen Pickering and why he probably will be on this team for most, if not all, of next season. All right, we're back here on this episode of the locked on penguins podcast.

I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Hampton, and Pat. We are continuing our season in review series with Owen Pickering, who played 25 games for the Penguins this year, a little over 330 minutes of five-on-five ice time. Counting stats-wise, one goal, two assists for three points, and the goal that he scored, celebration that he had just was looking like, it was just awesome. Like, he was over the moon that he scored that goal. because he was so surprised at the puck went, and I think all of us were surprised. But in the limited sample that we saw, were there a couple growing pains?

Yes. But as a whole, I think he is ready for the NHL. I'm not going to sit here and say he's a bona fide top pairing guy because he saw us a long way to go to prove that to everyone. But I think as of right now, he can very much play third pairing minutes for next season and has the potential to grow into a second pair defender. based on what we saw in the sample size. Again, 25 games, 330 minutes. When he was on the ice, the Penguins had almost 50% of the shot attempts, minus 4 goal differential at 5 on 5, but again, I'm not really reading into that that much.

50% expected goals share, 48% scoring chances 4 rate, 53% high danger chances for rate. So some fairly fine numbers throughout the season for Pickering. He was very good to me in his own zone. The skating was fairly good for me as well. if he can bring a little bit more offense, I think I'll be even happier with his play going forward. But I know a lot of people were upset that he didn't come back up to end the season, but I think he's going to be just fine.

And I think he will be on this team to start the next season. You can count me as one of those people who wasn't really happy that he didn't come back up simply because he, for me, is in the mold now of a player that, really doesn't have much left to prove at the AHL level. For you true sickos who listen to this show every single day, it should be all of you, but I see the numbers. I know how it goes.

Listen to us every day. But anyway, I digress. If you remember, we talked about Pickering with Jesse Marshall a good while back. And Jesse basically said, because if you follow Jesse, you know that he loves throwing out his mixtapes on social media for players

that he puts film together for. and he said the pickering one was hard to do because he is such a technically sound defenseman that nothing jumps off the footage for you. Right. He's not doing anything that's going to make a highlight real. He's just always in the right place. His stick positioning is fantastic. He makes the right decision with the puck.

So that kind of is why I was among those who were kind of unhappy that he didn't come back up. because even in the limited sample size, the same thing translated for the most part to his game in the NHL. A couple hiccups here and there. He got caught against a few players, but that's exactly what you expect from a 20, 21-year-old defenseman making his NHL debut. There's going to be a little bit of a culture shock

because the game's going to be a little bit faster. Guys are going to be a little bit bigger. They're going to be a little bit more talented. But once he started seeing some, more consistent time and continued to build on his play, it all started to come together. And one thing I'll disagree with you on, I'm not going to complain if there's more offense from him. I will never complain about defensemen chipping in offensively. But for Owen Pickering, he doesn't have to.

You look at his game, it very much is in the Brian Dumlin mold. He's going to make a good first pass. he's going to be in the right position. He's going to force offensive players to make the wrong decision and force them into turnovers. As long as he's doing that, it's a cliche for old Patty Damp here on Locked on Penguins, but he's the kind of player that if he plays all 82 games, you are rarely going to notice them.

But by the time you get to game 82, you're going to go, you know, pickering. Real solid season out of him. I think I've made this comparison before. four on the show, but he kind of reminds me of a lighter version of Paul Martin when he was in his prime, someone who was very steady for the Penguins, really good partner in the top four before he moved on. But that's kind of the comp I have when I watch Pickering. And again, I think he has a little bit more to give offensively. It would be great if he did, but he's still very good, very active in his own zone. I give him a solid B for this past season. And again,

I do very much think he is going to be on this team coming out of training camp in the preseason. Of course, he's going to have to earn it. But again, you look at where the defense is right now, even after I'm sure they'll make a move or two to address the left side over the offseason. He is still going to have a really good shot to lock down some minutes, at least on the third pairing to start the year. Because I think that's probably where they will start him. And then if he knocks those out of the park, I think they can potentially move him up to the second pair, play him a bit more minutes. and because he was playing some second pair of minutes during this past season. Pat, he was even playing top-parry minutes at times.

And there were definitely times where it felt like he wasn't out of place. Like, yeah, he did have some welcome to the NHL moments. Every player his age is going to have that, especially in his first pro season in the league. But especially at times, it felt like, well, like this moment doesn't look that big for him. So he's going to have every opportunity going into next season to make this team. And I think he's going to do it. Do you have anything else to add before we wrap up? I would agree with the grade.

I give him a B. Only 25 games played at the NHL level. He was extremely good in the AHL. The thing that impresses me about him, and I want to see this continue as he develops, is his skating. Because in no world is it bad. He's a very fluid skater from the things I've seen and from what I remember. But for a guy who is 6, 5, 200 pounds, he moves extremely well.

and if he can continue to build on that, this is a hot take. And again, it's going to be two episodes in a row. I put the cart way ahead of the horse. But if he continues to develop the way he does and develops his skating, I can see him as a first pairing defenseman, but he is that stay at home, put me with the offensive defenseman. I am the safety blanket back there.

We will let him run free and you don't have to worry about it because I am back there. Still has a long way to go for that department, but if he can at least grow into a solid second pair guy with maybe the ceiling of a first pair of player, you know, obviously that's best case scenario. That'd be great. But still, right now I see him more as a second pair guy

heading into, well, the rest of his NHL career again right now. But I think that'll do it for today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all. on Thursday, then we'll close out the week with another show for you guys on Friday. So for Patrick Damp, I am Onter Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in.

We appreciate it. We'll be back on Thursday.