Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Should the Penguins trade for Alex DeBrincat?

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

Happy Monday! Hunter is back after a wedding weekend and first discusses the first firings that Kyle Dubas made when he became President of Hockey Operations. He looks at the three people that were let go and if Hunter was surprised by any of them not being there. After that, he gets confused as to why people are criticizing Dubas for coming into Pittsburgh and making quick changes since there were always going to be changes at some point. After all, he does have to bring in his own people, right? What's the difference if it's now vs a week or two from now? Following that, Hunter debunks the thought that there's a "rivalry" brewing between the Maple Leafs and the Penguins before pondering a thought about which team the Penguins may want to copy regarding the front office structure. Finally, he ends the show with some Alex DeBrincat content and discusses whether the Penguins should give the Senators a call about the speedy winger.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsGo to birddogs.com/lockedonnhl and when you enter promo code, LOCKEDONNHL, they’ll throw in a free custom birddogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit is only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go to FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire 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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, it's a new week. Happy Monday, June 5th. Coming up to start the show, we're going to get into a few changes that Kyle Dubus made and why the outrage surrounding it is completely wrong. That's coming up right after this. 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 your host, Hunter Hodes. In order to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes follow the shows, Twitter at Eleanor Shorghumans. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this. You were first listening to the day. We are free and available on all platforms. So let's jump right into it.

I'll say this. I was offline for a good chunk of this weekend. I went back home. Well, I shouldn't say I went back home. Went back to Northern Virginia where my folks are celebrated my dad's. 60th birthday. I also went to my best friend's wedding. I apologize about Friday.

I had intended to release an episode on the afternoon, but we had to leave a little earlier than expected in terms of going back down to Nova, and then we just, we're slam with so many things. That's my fault, and I'm not going to miss another episode for the remainder of this month. So I just wanted to put that out there. But with that, I was offline for a good chunk of the weekend. I wasn't on social media too much. I just wanted to go to the wedding and hang out of my family and just take a break from everything.

But when I was online, I was seeing some very weird. outrage when it comes to Kyle Dubus making some staff changes within the Penguins organization. If you missed it, this came out a few days ago, Kyle Dubus, it was first reported by Josh Yoey and Rob Rossi of the athletic, he was Yoi's article with Rossi contributed to it. And this is on day one or day two of the job where Dubus let go of three hextall hires from the last regime. He let go of Alex Schall, who is the director of hockey strategy, also let go of Kerry Huffman, who's the director of pro scouting, and Tina Murray, who was the senior vice president

of sports science, Sasha Homer. So there's one firing that, I guess, kind of caught my eye a little more than I thought would. It was Tina Murray because she was brought in, like, not even a year ago. And, you know, to really advance the sports science division just because the penguins have been almost cursed in terms of injuries. And this season was their first one, I feel like in quite a long time where they weren't top five, the top 10 in Man's Games lost.

And for God's sakes of getting Malkin and Sidney Crosby. both played a full 82 game season. But that one, I guess, caught my eye a little bit. But when you really think about it, Kyle did a really good job with the sports science division with the Maple Leafs. He will want to bring in his own people. So I'm not really too upset about that. Alex Hall, that was Ron Hextall hire.

And then Kerry Huffman, Director of Scouting, also a Ron Hector Hector Hustall higher. He goes back with Hextall to the 80s, back to Hextall's playing days when he was in Philadelphia. So, and then I saw all this outrage. Like, oh, why is he firing these people, not even 48 hours into the job? And you got least fans say, I'm like, oh, Brad Trey Living didn't do that on his first couple days of the job. And it's like, I don't understand where these takes are coming from, but they've got to stop.

And I mean no disrespect to the three people here, Alex Shaw, Kerry Huffman, and Tina Murray. I'm sure they are fine individuals, great people. It obviously stinks for them that they lost their jobs. but Kyle Jubis never hired them. So of course he's going to cut, it sounds harsh, of course he's going to cut bait with them at some point. Obviously it happened a bit earlier than some expected it to,

but he didn't hire these people. He has a good sports science division in Toronto. He will want to bring in his own people. Kerry Humpin, he was the director of post scouting, right? He was Ron Hextall's guy. Kyle wants his own director of pro scouting. Alex Shaw, again, that was a Ron Hextal hire. But maybe it's things for him because he was part of the interim period

where he was there for seven weeks and then he, they caught bay with him right after Dubas was hired. Maybe you can say, okay, that stinks. But still, it was bound to happen at some point. The same thing is going to happen with Nick Pryor. And for those who don't know who Nick Pryor is, he's the director of amateur scouting, the penguin's Chris Pryor's son, who of course is not.

Chris Pryor's not here anymore because he was fired. alongside Ron Hanksdal and Brian Burke about two months ago. But he's not going to turn his resignation until after the draft or probably after free agency. Or, you know, unless Kyle parts ways in it because I'm sure Kyle's going to want his own director of amateur scouting. But the draft is coming up. Like, why would you let him go? So I just, I don't understand where this outrage is coming from. And I know it's a lot of Lee's fans doing it because they're mad that Kyle took the job here.

I don't think it takes a genius. Just go on social media, go on Reddit and all these things. It's ridiculous. These were changes that he felt like he needed to make. He wants to bring in his own people. There's nothing wrong with that. Brad Shrew Living, if there are any Leafs fans listening to this, Brad Shrew Living, your new general manager,

he is going to gut out some of that front office too. Maybe it won't be Brandon Pridim or Wes or anyone like that. but he is still going to cut bait with people who Kyle Dubas hire. That is how this goes when you go from one front office to another. That's just that is how this works. So I don't understand all of the outrage that's coming towards Kyle Dewas. There is going to be more changes again that are made. Elliot Freeman said on the 32 Thoughts podcast that people in the organization are honestly bracing for him to make more changes.

And I'm all for it. again, I'm not sliding any of these people individually. I am sure they are great human beings. But in terms of a Kyle Dubus front office, they don't fit. They do not. Especially Kerry Huffman again. He went back to Ron Hextall's playing days. What are we doing here, people?

Like, if people want to get mad over him firing people within 48 hours to taking the job, you know, people, they can go ahead and do that. But I'm sorry. This was going to happen soon rather than later. Rather to do it now so you can search for the replacements, whether it's in the house, which probably is funny. That's probably not going to happen. Or more likely outside the organization so you can bring people in.

But want to discuss those. Again, I do think Nick Pryor is going to be gone after the draft. I do think Ron Hextall's son also works here. And he's probably going to be gone in your order if he hasn't resigned already. So those two definitely will be gone. I'm not really sure what that means for the other members of the front office. I do think Katerina Wu and some of the analytics team, they are going to stay on even though they were brought on during the Hextall tenure,

just because I think the Penguins want to build out their analytics department. But that's really what I wanted to say on that. Just to finish up the segment, I was listening to Elliot Freeman's 3,000. It was interesting to hear him say that he thinks they are going to bring in a GM that is a bit new and a bit fresh. And when I heard that, I kind of thought back to how Colorado runs their team now, right? Joe Sacko was a general manager, but during that time, he was kind of grooming Chris McFarlane for the role, right? McFarlane was a finalist for the Penguins' GM job a couple of years ago, didn't take it.

They gave it to Hextall, obviously, but Jasak was grooming him. And then once Sackick, I think, thought he was ready, he moved up to president. on hockey ops. McFarlane moved into GM and now it's McFarlane that makes the moves while Sackick is still there to support him. I think that style or that mold is what the penguins are going to want in future years. Right now, it's going to be Kyle that makes the decisions, even after he hires a GM, but during this time he's going to be grooming him, getting him ready for the role, whether it's like a cap guy, someone who can help negotiate contracts, whatever the role is. And then maybe once he and the organization feels like he's ready, they will give

total power or at least some of the power to him to make roster moves while Kyle is still up there to support him because remember Kyle's going to be here for the long haul was reported on Saturday night that he got a seven year term I heard today from a couple of people he's getting seven years six million per year that's what I heard from a couple people close to the team I mean that's a great payday for him and that's easy way to convince your wife and your family to move down right but that was I guess the first original thought that came to my head when it comes to that was, you know, a style like Colorado where it's Sackick at the top, McFarlane. But McFarlane right now is obviously making decisions while Sackick is there supporting him.

It won't be like that to start, but we'll be curious to see who do this goes after for the GMJ. You know, whether it's Cam Lawrence, whether it's Alexander Mandrake and Elliot Freeman actually wrote that in his 32 Thoughts blog that he thinks that maybe they could hire a woman for the role. And I've said this on my show numerous times throughout that search, the time is. coming when a woman is going to be a GM in this league. You know, people can either accept that or they can't, even though it's coming. I can tell you that right now. And I think there's plenty of qualified women out there who are ready to be GMs in this league, Manricke is one of them.

So that could be an option for the Penguins or, you know, again, maybe Camp Lauren, Sam Ventura, a couple other young people that they interviewed during the process. We'll be curious to see when it comes to that. But Dubis, in the process of making his own change. bringing in his own people. I also expect Jason Spitzer to come in some capacity. Let me know your thoughts on Debus making those staff changes. Do you agree with the timing?

Or do you think he should have waited a little bit in terms of that? Let me go down the comments. You also send me a DM and all that. But coming up in the second segment, we're going to get into why there is no rivalry with Toronto, even though the Toronto media and their fans, sure way to think that there is. So that's coming up right after this commercial break. but before we get to that, for a championship team,

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So even though again, I was not online for much of this weekend, I still keep seeing this weird stuff from the Toronto media. If any Leafs fans are listening to this podcast or watching it, one, hello, by the way, I'm Hunter, but it's a little weird, whatever. The biggest thing I can say, though, is this. There is no rivalry with the Toronto Maple Leafs. There just isn't. I'm sorry.

You know, I'm sure Dubis maybe took this job to try to say, you know, it's an FU to Toronto say like, oh, you want to fire me. I'm going to prove you wrong. Okay. I mean, that's just him being competitive. But in terms of play on the ice, nothing is going to change. I'm sorry. Like, you really think Sidney Crosby and Austin Matthew is about to line up across from each other and being like, oh, yeah, man. You stink, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

No. No. Even if they play in a playoff series, I mean, I'm sure you can see the Toronto media go after Dubus and all this stuff, but there's no rivalry there. They play each other three times a season, if that. And if you're looking for rivalries from the Atlantic Division, I would put Boston way ahead of them. I would put the lightning way ahead of them.

like what are we doing here? I would probably say Buffalo's a big arrival because Buffalo's closer to Pittsburgh. So there is no rivalry. I keep seeing this. I saw James Merle wrote something in the Athletic this weekend. Actually a lot of really interesting info in there about how Dubus could be making some,

I guess, wild decisions for the Penguins. This aren't because he has total control and loss to get into those a little later on this week. I have a full episode dedicated that coming up, I guess Tuesday or Wednesday, one of the two days. But still, there is no rivalry. Case closed. Again, Cindy Crosby and Alaston Matthews are not going to line up across with each other

being like, oh, yeah, man, you stink. I don't think, I have Genie Malkin and Mitch Marner are going to do that either. I don't think Mike Sullivan and Sheldon Keith are going to do that. Brendan Shanahan, Kyle Dubus, Bradtray Living, anyone you want to put in there. They're not going to be just hating each other. That's not a thing. This is not a rivalry. And if people think it is, well, no one here does.

Penguins, in terms of their rivals, they're focused on the Rangers, the Capitals, the Flyers, the Bruins, any of those teams. The Islanders, I'll put in there, obviously, too. Any of those. Columbus, but that's also honestly a big brother, little brother thing. There is no rivalry with the Maple Leafs. I don't care that Kyle Dubus might talk some trash to leaves fans from the press box when he makes his first visit to Toronto since he got fired

next season. He's going to do it. Is that going to make a rivalry? No. Even if by some divine miracle that the two teams have a couple of fights during a couple of the games, is that going to make for a rivalry? No. We've seen penguin players get into fights with players from West Coast teams.

Does that make that a rivalry? No. So I'm sorry to the Toronto media and to the Toronto fans. There's no bad blood in this city. Everyone here is focused on the task at hand, which is Dubas getting this team back to the playoffs season and getting this team back to being a Stanley Cup contender. That is what everyone here is focused on.

No one is focused on him, getting revenge on the Leafs, even though maybe that's on Dubas's mind. The fans here and the media here are, are not worried about that. They want to all make sure, they want to all see if he can get this team back to the house just because there's a lot of work to be done. Ron Hextall left a complete mess

for him to clean up and the inevitable general manager that he hires. So I just, I had to make that point clear for this segment. We can keep going down the list if you want. I mean, is it a decent drive from here? Sure. It's like, what, five hours, whatever. But again, these two teams have never had animosity towards each other. So there's a rivalry. It's coming from up there. It's not coming from down here. I thought I would make that point very clear for this second segment. So that wraps up this second one. A little bit of a shorter one, but I just had to speak my mind on it because I had just been seeing. it way too much as of late coming up to end the show we're going to get into some Alex de Brinquet trade talk whether or not he will be a good fit with the penguins all of that coming up right after this commercial we're back in this episode of the octon

penguins podcast I am your host hunter hoodies and follow me on Twitter at hunter hoodies follow the show where all the show for i'm also penguins and of course thank you all so much for making this your first list in the day we are free and available on all platforms so De Brinkech this season, well, I shouldn't actually start with that. I should start with the report that we saw today from Elliot Friedman, which is that the senators are starting to do some due diligence in regards to trade talks because they're not close on a contract extension with De Brinkeb. Remember, he is an RFA, one year away from an unrestricted free agency, has a qualifying offer

of $9 million so you can kind of understand why Ottawa is a bit hesitant right now because they do not want to get from that qualifying offer. Especially because if he takes it, which, I mean, a lot of players don't take qualifying offers. I think DeBrenica could be wise to do this one because it's just a one-year deal. He'd be getting $9 million.

There are, you know, worse things to do than that. But they're still not close on a long-term extension, and Elliott Freeman today said that they have to be going to do some due diligence in regards to potentially trading him. De Brinkeet spent this past season with the senators.

It was his first season with them. 27 goals, 66 points, and 82 games. That was a little bit of a down year for him. The previous year had 41 goals, 78 points, and 82 games. That's the second time he scored 40 plus goals in his career, first time since 2018 and 2019. If you look, it is player cars, projected wins, rubble placement right now in the 92nd percentile,

even strength offense. 74th percentile, power play, 91st percentile, very good at finishing. Only 7 percent of his peers are better than him in that. penalties only 3% of his peers draw penalties at a higher rate than him goals per 6070% primary assist per 60 61%. But I will say while I would be in favor of trading for Debrinket, some of his numbers have gone down in recent years. What I mean by that is if you look at his wins above replacement percentile rank, in 2021, 2022, it was at almost 100%. Right now,

it's projected to be 92% for next season. But this past season, it dipped well below 75%. It dipped to about 60%, 60%, 65% for this season. If you look at his offense of capability, it was about 75%, oh, over 75% for 2020, 2021. 20% last season it was about 80%. This past season, his offense went down to 50%. half of his peers were better at driving offense than he was. Defensively, if you look at that, really good in last season, about 70 percentile.

This past season, it's at about well below 25 percentile. Right now, it's projected to be in the 18th percentile for next season. He is not a good defensive player. His finishing also went down to only 50 percent. It was at once 100 percent in terms of his. peers just two seasons ago. Now it's gone, it's been cut in half. That's kind of a bad trend. And he's 25. So obviously that can go up. But still, that that's not a trend that I'm looking for. I think with that, the price would have to be right for Kyle Dubas to go after the Brin get.

Again, I would be in favor of it, but I'm also just giving you all the stats to say that, hey, he's not the same player right now as he was a season or two ago where he was. really driving offense at elite level. He didn't drive offense as much as he did last season than he did here. So again, that's a little bit concerning. His defensive play also went down a cliff a little bit. In terms of what I would give up to get him,

I think Brian and Russ would have to go back, but the tricky part with that is, you have to get him to waive his new move clause. and is he going to really waive to go to the Ottawa senators? Probably not, right? I do not think he would go to Ottawa. Even though Ottawa is set up to be a bit of a better team next season, I don't think he would waive to go to the after spending all the seasons here.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I just don't see it right now. I think you would have to give up the first Rumpick, considering that Ottawa did it give up one of their first last season to get to Brinket. I think that was honestly, yeah, they gave them just a first to get it. there wasn't really a roster player going back to Chicago in that trade. And, you know, his value, I think, right now, is lower than it was last year when Chicago traded him when they went into the full tank. But would he be a massive upgrade over Brian Rust?

Absolutely. I mean, you can put him on either of the top two lines. And this would certainly qualify as making a splash that Kyle Dubas talked about. During his opening press comments where he definitely hinted that he wants to do something with that top six. Obviously, Jason Zucker is a free agent. We'll have to see how he attacks a negotiation. And I think as the days go by, I'm kind of getting less and less confident that he's going to bring him back. It's just a feeling I have about it, to be honest.

But I do think one way or another, he is going to make a splash for these top two lines. Try to bring in a true playmaker. De Brinickett would fit that bill. But I would also be afraid of some of the numbers that have gone down in recent years and just hope that they don't go down even more for the upcoming season. Obviously, it would make them a lot younger, a lot faster. He's great on the power play. He can score goals very easily. Good playmaker as well. I'm just afraid that his numbers could go down even more next season because, again, you know, he had 12 less points than he did this past season and played a full and played a full 8-2 game season. And honestly, that Chicago team

was not good in 2022. They were the one of the worst teams. ALEB the Ottawa team this year was better. Still, his numbers were not. As good. Again, what I like the move, yes, but there's still some, well, a few hesitations that I would have when it comes to it. But I do think one way or another, my friends, Jeebus is going to make a splash. And if I were him, I would still call Pierre Dorian about this, of course, Ottawa being Kyle's hometown team, see what the price is, so you will take to get him. And then if it's one you like, you can keep negotiating. And it's not, you can try to go focus on another top six winger, whether it's in free agency with Tyler Bertuzi,

or whether it's someone else in the trade market, whatever that is. But let me know your thoughts about Alex to bring it down in the comments section for YouTube or you can send me a DM as well. Would you like that move? Would you give up the pieces necessary to get him? Let me know down in the comments or you can send me a DM. And also, do you think the Penguins will go after a true bona fide top six winger, especially with Jason Zucker,

potentially leaving, or even if he comes back, do you think he was still go after another top six winger because Brian Rush could get traded. I mean, your thoughts on that as well. But that would do it for this full episode

of a lockdown Penguins podcast. Really appreciate all of you listening slash watching this one. I'll be back with another episode for you all on Tuesday. We'll continue our on-season discussions, especially silly season. This is my favorite time going into the draft

and for agency. We're going to start to do some draft talk in the next couple of weeks when the draft gets a bit closer. I'm going to have my big board coming out for you all, who I'll be watching, number 14, who will be my pick, all of that good stuff. A lot of fun content coming for the show. Keep it right here on Locked on Penguins for all that.

So again, thank you all so much for tuning in. Very much appreciate it. I'll be back with another episode on Tuesday.