Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Sign Tyler Bozak to replace Sid for a bit?

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

There's never a boring day with this franchise. Hunter dives into the latest news as Sidney Crosby will miss all of training camp and likely the first week of the regular season as he underwent wrist surgery. Why did the team wait until now? Was there any good logic in doing so? Hunter then goes into how the tea will proceed from here and what the center depth will look like for camp and start the regular season. First-line Jeff Carter? Third-line center Evan Rodrigues? After that, he shares his thoughts on both PTO's as Boyle looks to have a great shot at making the team. Could he play his way into an every-night role? What's the ceiling for Bartkowski? Finally, the show ends with Hunter pleading for Ron Hextall to sign Tyler Bozak as extra center depth. He can still play & then some.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.StatHeroStatHero, the FIRST Ever Daily Fantasy Sportsbook that gives the PLAYER the ADVANTAGE. Go to StatHero.com/LockedOn for 300% back on your first play. 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, everyone, welcome to this Wednesday afternoon episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Honor Hoodies. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Honor Hooties and follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins.

So, you know, awesome day. You know, September 8th. I'm getting ready to. You know, just start recording my episode. I have the things I want to talk about. And then, boom, the Pittsburgh Penguin's Twitter account puts out the tweet, in case you all have not seen it by now, that Sidney Crosby will be out for six weeks,

or a minimum of six weeks due to a wrist surgery that he had today, according to Ron Hextall. It is an injury that he has had for the last several years, it sounds like. So he's going to miss, it looks like, all training camp, and he'll probably miss at least the first week of the regular season as well, considering six weeks. I mean, training camp starts in a couple weeks. Regular season, I believe, opens up five weeks from tonight,

if my math is correct, 35 days. So that begs the question here. Why in the hell did Sidney Crosby and the Penguins wait to have this surgery only a couple weeks before training camp opens up? I really don't understand this. I get any announcement or the press release, excuse me, that they were exploring all other options, that this was basically the last resort, you know, that's what it sounds like. But did it really take that long to come to this conclusion that you need surgery?

Why couldn't they have done this in early August, even mid-August, heck, even late August, I think that would have put them. Well, late August probably would have been bad. You know, late August was basically like last week or a week and a half ago. But even mid-August or early August would have been final. as well. I think he would have been back, you know, right when training camp was getting ready to start. So I really don't understand the timing behind this. And for those that are keeping track, the Penguins will now be without both Sydney Crosby and of Gennie Malkin for probably all of training camp and at least for the first week of the regular season. So, yes, the Penguins injuries have reared their ugly head yet again and the season hasn't even started yet. I'm not even surprised with the franchise at this point with how the injuries are.

It's just ridiculous at this point, I think. But that's honestly my main question that goes into it. Now, if you're looking at who's probably going to be the opening lineup top center, probably Jeff Carter. That's going to be a lot of fun to see how he does against top line competition. No, he's probably not going to have close to a clip of 16 points and 20 gains. 20 games, excuse me, going up against the elite elite talent. You know, obviously he was eating up third-pearing,

third line minutes last season where he was just kicking names and taking ass, as they say, from Guardians of the Galaxy. But it'll be interesting to see that. I think second-line center, you're probably looking at Teddy Bluger. Third-line center, I mean, Evan Rodriguez, I guess. And then I think for the fourth-line center, you will probably see Brian Boyle make this team. And we're going to get into that in a little bit because, of course, he signed that professional tryout last week with the penguins.

And then Matt Barkowski as well. But I guess that was the big reasoning why Hextall decided to sign Brian Boyle because it didn't really make a lot of sense of the time. You know, it is a nice story. He's been through a lot throughout his career. He's always been a fun player to watch. He's always also been a penguin killer as well. But now I think it makes a lot of sense why he was signed. is that, you know, I think Hextall at that point knew that Sid was going to undergo surgery,

and he wanted, I guess, a little more center depth until Sid comes back. So as someone, I think, in my mention, say, you know, pens and wraps, yeah, I think Boyle would need to really suck to not make the Penguins opening night roster. I mean, I think he'll be fine in camp. I don't really think you're going to see anyone else make the team that's a center. I mean, you know, what do they get to slide? Brock McGinda Center. I don't really think that's going to happen. there really aren't a lot of other players in this forward group

that have a lot of experience playing center. I mean, you look at Jason Zulker, that guy's not going to play center. I mean, Jake Gensel, I know has played center, but you know how good he is on the wing. You're going to keep him there. Brian Ross is not going to play center for you. Kesperik happening is definitely not going to play center for you. Neither is Zach Ashton Reese.

Danton Hine, I know, is probably not going to play center for you either. You probably maybe you call someone up from Wilkesper, as your 13th forward. Maybe a Sam Lafferty or something like that. But I think that's probably what you're looking at for your centers to open the season. Jeff Carter, Teddy Bluger, Evan Rodriguez, and Brian Boyle. And is that bad, everyone?

It's not great, that's for sure. So definitely not the greatest news to start out your Wednesday here with the Penguins. And again, everyone, this team will be short. Both franchise centers going into the opening night regular season. game against Tampa Bay Lightning where they will be raising their banner up that night. I feel like this is the injury for Sid. I don't know this for sure.

You know, I'm kind of just speculating at this point. I've not been told this. But I have a feeling that this is the same wrist injury that he's had since 2014 against the New York Rangers in the playoffs. If you all recall, he was struggling pretty bad during those playoffs. It felt like he really couldn't grip the puck on his stick. Even shooting the puck. he had that goal. I think it was game three

of the Ranger series. He just did not look like himself. I think it actually came out afterwards that he was playing with a pretty bad wrist injury. I don't know if he underwent surgery for it. I don't think he did. I guess he's just maybe played through that

since then. So I'm wondering if this is the same injury that he had surgery on right now than it was from seven years ago. Again, that's just me speculating. I remember that just because he was not himself during the playoffs and it came out after that he was battling a wrist injury. So that's my only logical conclusion at this point, at least in my opinion, though

it could have happened at any point of the last several years. Hextall did say in the press release that this is not a new injury that he has been going through this for a long time now. That said, you know, as Justin Pittsburgh fan 24 says in my mentions, I also would not be surprised if Sam Poulin makes the team as well. I mean, if he has a really, good camp. I could see him squeezing onto the team as a 13th, 14th forward. You know, I definitely think the Penguins will want that extra security going into the season just because they likely will not have both sit and Gino, at least for the first week. There's really been no update on the Genni-Malkin status. I read something yesterday that the organization doesn't have this doom and

gloom-type feel about Gino's injury, but we really have not had a big update on it since he had a surgery. I mean, at the time, it said he was going to miss all of training camp. There was no indication whether he was going to miss regular season games. I'm sure we'll have an update as training camp gets closer or when training camp gets underway. I don't know if he's going to miss the first week of the regular season. I mean, I think that looks very likely right now. I don't know if he's going to miss the first month of this season. You know, that's kind of up in the air, same with two months, three months.

I don't know if they're going to LTIR him. But they better hope that both of those players come back as fast as they can. can't because if they stumble out of the gate without both of them there, this team is going to be up quite a creek to start the season as they try to make their push for the playoffs, you know, starting in like November or December or something like that. So yeah, terrible news. Did not expect to see this today. I thought Cindy Crawley was completely healthy. And of course, we all thought wrong as he will be out for a minimum of six weeks. And just so everyone is clear, so six weeks from today, October 20th, opening night for the Penguins.

is October 13th. So at least potentially he'll be back, October 20th. But we will see if it goes on longer than that. Of course, as the host of Lockdown, Panthers says, you know, the cats will play their opening night game versus the Penguins, and it's looking likely that Sid will be out for that game as well. You know, every time I think of Sid and Gino being out together,

I just go back to 2011 when they, you know, they almost won that series against Tampa Bay. They probably should have, but it was just some, obviously it's not the same to watch this team without both of them on ice or even one of them being hurt but their depth is going to be tested right away they have some really tough games to start the season with so we'll be curious to see if mike sullivan can pull something out of his butt for at least the first week or you know two to three of the season depending on when both of them come back but okay enough negative talk about cindy crosbie i think i'm just going to keep getting

more sad, the more I talk about it. But before we do get to the next segment, we'll touch on my thoughts on the professional tryouts that were signed last week. Let's talk about Stap here. Did you know that 85% of people who play daily fantasy sports lose? But is it really that surprising? The game is raided against, you're playing against thousands of other lineups, not to mention experts who have more tools and more time. You don't stand a chance, but introducing Stap Hero. It's the first ever daily fantasy sports book that puts the player in control and winning within reach. Here's how it works. Stata Hero shows you their lineups and dares you to beat them. It's you

versus the house and a head-to-head fantasy matchup. You name your stakes. It's a winner take-all. You have the advantage. Stad Hero is showing you their lineups ahead of time. No one else does that. You are in total control. Stap Hero is DFS the way it was meant to be one-on one. You can go to stathero.com slash locked on. Sign up for free and right now you can get three times back on your first play. They're giving you a 300% match, which, is unheard of right now with Daily Fantasy Sports, go to stathero.com slash locked on one more time stathero.com slash locked on. But of course we can't forget everyone's favorite betting website, which is Bet Online. It's your number one spot for all the pro and college football

action this season. You can get all the latest updated odds, props and contests, including online's biggest half million dollar NFL mega contest and the world's largest $200,000 NFL Survivor contest open now at BetOnline. Be sure to take advantage of their opening day super promo. You can make a bet tomorrow, September 9th with the season opener between the Buccaneers and the Cowboys. And if you lose, your wager will be refunded up to $25 for new customers only when signing up and using promo code NFL 100 from football, basketball boxing, right to your favorite

Vegas casino games. Don't wait and take advantage of all the great offers available for the 2021 season. That has been online, your online sportsbook experts with the promo code locked on. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Honor Hodes. Remember, do follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So let's touch on those professional tryout signings that were announced last week.

I talked a little about Brian Boyle in the earlier segment, but I'll go a little more in depth on him now. It's honestly a no-risk move, I think, in my opinion. I saw some people on Penguin's Twitter really just kind of trashing it or saying like, well, this makes no sense. They're just signing him to, you know, for the sake of it. And it's like, I mean, he's just trying to win a job here. If he doesn't win the job, you can cut him. He's going to make, what, $800,000, $900,000. And if he's bad when he's playing, if he makes a team and Cindy Crosby's not playing,

you can put him in the press box and put someone else in over him. I mean, that's the way I see it. It's a low-risk, I guess, medium, high-reward signing, especially if he plays well. I know he's been out of the league. A little bit. I don't even think he played in the league this past season, if I'm not. mistaken. But the last time he played, he was with the Panthers, counting stats-wise, played in about 40 games. Six goals, 15 points in 39 games. This season before that in Nashville,

had five goals in 26 games, and then New Jersey had 13 goals, 19 points in 47 games, 2019, and then 2018, 13 goals, 23 points in 69 games. That was for the 2017-18 season. So he's always been a very strong depth player in the league. He's had multiple other seasons of 13 or more goals. He's even had a 20 goal season back in 2011. That's not the Brian boy you're going to get now, folks. If he scores 20 goals for this team this year, I will literally go live stream and probably eat a hat or something like that. I just, there's no way in hell that's going to happen. But let's see how he does. If he has a good camp, he'll make the team and then he'll be in the opening night lineup. And yes, this is probably a huge Brian Burke signing. He has a lot of size. I mean,

he's what, 6-6-245 pounds. If that is not a Brian Burke signing, then I don't know what is. They've talked all summer him and Hextall about wanting to get bigger, wanting to add more size and juice and pines and grit to the line, whatever other word you want to use for it. But I think Hextall did say at his last media press comments that there's just not a lot of these players available on the open market or on trade. This was probably one of their best options.

They got them for a PTO. We'll see how he does in training camp. And before I do get to the Matt Barkowski thing, Ron Hextall just spoke to the media. Taylor Haassov D.K. Pittsburgh Sports said she asked Hextall about the wrist injury. And apparently this was the same wrist that he had surgery on last summer, which was his left wrist. Apparently it was, let me see if I can actually read this right. Arthroscopic wrist debridement surgery last summer. I think that came in August.

So that is the surgery that this is related to. I guess my speculation about this potentially being related to the 2014 wrist injury that can probably be put to bed a little bit, but that was still the first thing I thought of when this wrist surgery was announced. Hextel also did just say there's no update on Nvgeny Malkin. That's not great. I figured they would have an update by now, but I guess they're probably waiting to hear back from him once training camp rolls around. And Hextel also says this opens up opportunities for Rodriguez, who had just talked about, Radim Sohorna, he is going to have a big shot to make the team.

I don't know if it's going to be at center. Dominic Simone, yep, he's going to have a shot to make the team. And Michael Sheput is also going to have a shot to make the team. So I believe they signed him as a depth signing earlier this summer. Hextall also says, we think we have enough talent to hold the four until Sid gets back, and Gino gets back whenever that is. I mean, that's, what do you expect Ron Hextall to say?

though. I mean, yeah, we're going to stink until they get back. I mean, no GM is going to publicly trash the rest of his team, even though both superstars around. That's just, that's not the way business is handled around the NHL or any sport, to be honest. I mean, you're not going to have someone who runs the team just basically talk crap on the rest of your players when two megastars around. You're going to try to get your team to rally around each other and see if they can string together some results here. I don't think this is the whole doom and gloom that some people are making out to be. I don't think they're both going to be out for like the first month of this season or something like that, but it's definitely not the greatest news again from what I said in the last

segment. I think I want to say that Sid will be back after that first week, but I'm not sure. If it's another week, I don't think it's going to kill them. It'll be just two weeks into the season. I'm sure they could go on a run in November or December once they're healthy and they're rolling if they do indeed get healthy. Now, getting back to Boyle for just a second before I get into the other PTO. His underlying numbers on hockey viz. They're definitely not the greatest. 2020 minus 9.7 expected goals for in the offensive zone.

The season before that, minus 2.7 in the offensive zone, minus 0.6 in 2017-18. So his offensive production has definitely gone down a lot as he's gotten older. His defensive impact the last time he was in the league, plus 6.5% expected goals. Again, there's a whole lot of red in front of the net. That's not what you need. So hopefully he's able to put that. trend in the opposite direction for both offense and defense. And, you know, for Barkowski, he's kind of just jumped around the league a lot. I mean, his underlying numbers are really not

that good either, you know, going from the last three years, minus 10.6 percent expected goals for in the offensive zone, which is basically a sea of really bad blue in front of the net, which is obviously means you're not getting any chances when he's on the ice. 2018, 19 and limited action, minus 6.2% expected goals for a very big sea of blue there. And then in this past year in very limited action minus 4.9% expected goals for. So you're not going to get a lot of offense from him. He's never been that kind of offensive, but he's also been the kind of player in your D-Corps that's usually used as a number

seven or a number eight guy. I think that's probably what you're looking for in this player. When the team is fully healthy, he's not getting ice time, and everyone knows that that follows this team. But I could definitely see him getting that number seven. in the number eight spot, you know, see what he can do in camp. Again, it's another low-risk, potentially medium-reward signing. I think at this point he probably is already higher on the depth chart than poor Yus Oriclo,

who is in Mike Sullivan's doghouse for reasons that I don't think any of us will ever understand. But that's what I think you're looking at with Matt Barkowski this season. Someone that's going to be your number seven, number 8, not as probably dire as a Yannick-Weber situation where he was like your ninth defenseman, but, you know, someone that can come in when some defensemen are hurt. Hopefully that does not happen. But he can play maybe five to six to seven games in a row before exiting the lineup when that defenseman comes back. So those are my thoughts on the professional tryout signings. Both are low risk, medium to high reward. See what they can do in Canada camp. And if they do well, they'll likely make the team. And I'll also be curious to see

how they do in the preseason as well. Even if I think Boyle has a medium training camp, he's more likely to make the team at this point than someone like Barkowski because of this injury situation with both Sid and Gino with Bartkowski you obviously have the five defensemen in Dumlin-Latang you have Pedersen Marino you have Matheson and Ruudel who are going to be on the team then you have Mark Freeman as you probably your number seventh guy right now maybe you're number six

but then after that you got Usa Wigla and now Mike Barkowski so we'll see how the depth chart shakes out for the D-Corps but I think you know, that's what he's battling for, that number seven, number eight job. But I'll do it for this segment. Coming up in the final segment for today's episode, we are going to touch on a player that I do think Pittsburgh should bring in, whether it's on an actual one-year deal or for a PTO going into training camp.

Yes, it is a center, and yes, it is someone that I retweeted on my personal Twitter page prior to recording this. It makes too much sense. He's a bit older, but he still put up, excuse me, some decent numbers throughout each season. Before we do that, let's talk about Bilbar. They have many delicious flavors. There is something for everyone. When you talk to a Bilbar fan, they're definitely passionate about their favorites.

If you don't know the flavor as well, you are missing out with orange. Cookies and cream, German chocolate, strawberry, salted caramel, et cetera. If you haven't tried all the flavors, you can get a mixed box where we get two of each of the nine flavors. Not only are Bilpar flavors the best tasting, but they are very healthy as well. 17 to 18 grams of protein, only 4 to 5 grams of sugar, and only 4 to 5 grams of sugar, and only 4 to 5 grams of net carbs, amazing flavors, all tasty, and all healthy. You can go to built.com and use promo code Locked 15, and you'll get 15% off your order. That's promo code locked 15 for 15% off at Built.com.

All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hon. Hodey. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow this show's Twitter at L or underscore Penguins. So a player that I do think the Penguins should look into bringing in at least, you know, at least for a PTO, because he is unsigned right now. Tyler Bozac of the St. Louis Blues. Last season, only 31 games, but had five goals, 17 points in those 31 games. The year before that with St. Louis, 13 goals, 29 points in 67 games in 2019.

13 goals, 38 points in those 72 games. He's always had really good counting stats. This was his first season in 2020, 2021, where he did not have at least 11 goals in a season. He's always been a player that scores double-digit goals for you. He can play anywhere in your lineup top six center or a bottom six center. And with Sidney Crosby being out, at least for the first week of regular season, if not longer, and with Afghani Malkin also being out as well, this seems like a slam dunk to me. I mean, he's only 35.

I mean, well, I shouldn't say he's only 35 because that is a bit old. But, you know, for someone who is 35, he's still kicking it pretty decently. If we go to hockey viz here and check out his stuff, I mean, this past season, Obviously the worst season that he's had offensively, minus 8.7% expected goals for. But defensively, he's still good. You know, minus 1.3 expected goals against. There's a little bit of red in front of the net. But, you know, he's still not in the positive, which is really good.

The year before that, though, minus 6.9% expected goals against. Nice number, by the way. A whole lot of blue in front of that. And then offensively, minus 2.9% expected goals for. So a lot better that season, though he does want to be in the positive. The last time he was in the positive for expected goals for was 2018, 2% expected goals for. Now, if we go to Natural Statsrick, which is of course one of my favorite sites. The only number is this season, you know, aren't that pretty, you know,

he was only on the ice for 42.6% of the shadow temps. Though the last season in 2019-20, which was a full season, much better at 51.1%. This past season was only on the ice for 40% of the actual goals for in 2020, 55.5% where, you know, he was usually above 50% his whole career with actual goals for expected goals percentage, only 40.5% this past season, but year before, 51.8%. I guess I'll just mostly go off his last full season that he was in the league. It was on the ice for 50.6% in 2020, 42.8% this past year. High danger chances for 50.6% in 2019, 20, and then 38.4%.

This year, he was also on the ice for 61% of the actual high danger goals for when he last played a full season. So this signing, I think, just makes too much sense. He still has at least decent underlying numbers, and he's been 50% or better on face-offs each of the last four seasons. I know some people are not really big on the face-off stat. And look, I get it. It's not the first thing that you look at,

but they're still very important when it comes to winning a hockey game. I think when it comes to a mainstream stat that people look at or people throw out on broadcast, you know, obviously you have the hits and, you know, time on ice and power plays or whatever. You know, a lot of these broadcasts don't show the underlying numbers. I think face-offs is the one that should continue to stay forever just because they play such a huge role in deciding who wins the game, at least in my opinion. You know, I think people definitely have underrated them the last few years. And having someone like that, that's 50% or above, each of the last four seasons, while Sid and Gino are both out.

that will be pretty big and considering what the center depth looks like right now with Jeff Carter Teddy Bluger, Evan Rodriguez, you know, Redeems O'Hourner or Brian Boyer or something I would much rather have a lineup that consists of Jeff Carter, Teddy Bluger, Tyler Bozak,

and Evan Rodriguez as opposed to, you know, some of the other names I just threw out there, like, you know, Boyle and a redeems O'Hourner. I think at this point, your center depth, excuse me, looks better with Bozac in there than a couple of the, other players who are trying to make this team out of training camp.

So there's a lot to unpack for today's episode. I did not expect to be spending almost 25 minutes talking about Cindy Crosby and how the two-headed monster is going to be out for the first week of the season. But, you know, that's what happens sometimes when it comes to this organization. As the great Josh Yoey has said to me so many times, there is never a boring day or moment with this organization because you just never know when stuff like this is going to happen when it comes to them.

So thank you all so much for listening to this episode of Locked On Penguins. I really appreciate it. We'll have more content coming for you all tomorrow. There's a couple of things that Jayfresh tweeted out today that I want to touch on for tomorrow's episode to show some of the Crystal Tang haters that he's really good at a whole lot of things when it comes to the sport of hockey

in case some people are not made aware of that. at this point and a whole bunch of other things that I saw as well. And, you know, we'll also get to the third Jersey talk, which I've heard a couple rumblings about, but nothing really concrete as to when they're going to announce it or what it is going to be. So, again, thank you all so much for listening to this one, and we'll be back tomorrow with another episode, and then we'll do another one of these on Friday before going into the weekend. And then next week will be the last week, I believe, of three episodes. So thank you all so much for listening.

We'll do another one of these tomorrow.