Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Slam dunk GM hire...but what about Brian Burke?

Episode Date: February 9, 2021

The Pittsburgh Penguins are never boring, that much we know. Today, they announced two massive hires for the organization as Ron Hextall has been named general manager and Brian Burke is the President of Hockey Ops. Hunter dissects both moves and starts with Hextall as that's a slam dunk. What kind of general manager will likely be with the Penguins? Does he have it in him to be more aggressive? Hunter then gets into the Burke hire and if he's going to be involved with the day-to-day operations or mainly just be an advisor. If it's the advisor, the move will likely be a lot better since Hextall will have free reign to do what he wants. Finally, Hunter gets to the listener's takeaways for both of these moves.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 “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. 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 Tuesday afternoon episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins.

And what a day has been across the National Hockey League, especially in Pittsburgh. As you know, this team is never boring. boring guys. I mean, you know, late last night, Elliot Freeman put out the report. You know, Ron Hextall had his second interview. We'll see where this goes. And then this morning, Piero Brun says, it looks like Hextall's

the favorite for the general manager drops. It's like, okay, you know, we're getting somewhere, but then he did add, you know, they saw up to some second interviews to get to. Rob Ross, he said Chris McFarlane was going to be getting another interview, Patrick Alveen, etc., etc. But then, nope, about an hour later. Elliot Friedman says Pittsburgh started negotiating with Ron Hextall to

be the general manager, and then it was confirmed about, what, 30, 40, 40, minutes later that he will be the official general manager was announced, but also Brian Fricken Burke will be the president of hockey operations. In case anyone does not know who Brian Burke is, he was the president in Toronto and Calgary, most recently Calgary before working on Hockey Night in Canada as an analyst. I'm going to break it all down for you guys on this very special episode of the podcast. Let's just start with Ron Hextall. I mean, I think this is a slam dunk hire. I put it on both the Lockdown Penguins Twitter account and in my Twitter account,

my personal one. I'm just, I'm a really big fan of Ron Hickstall. No, I don't care that he chased Robbie Brown around the rank when Mary Lou got his seventh point in that game all those years ago. I mean, obviously he hated the Penguins. It's a big rival. But, you know, I'm just, I'm here for the revenge tour. But, you know, just in all seriousness, he's really good at drafting.

I mean, he drafted Ivan Proverroft. He drafted Carter Hart. He drafted Travis Seenheim. He drafted Joel Farabee. Travis Kinechnie. Oscar Lindblum, who, of course, you know, came back from cancer this past. season and just he developed the flyers in a way I mean they weren't ready to be that contender when he was there I think they kind of canned him just because he was being a little too patient with

them with here with this team though I don't think he's going to get that luxury of being you know as patient as he was with Philly this is a contending team they're at the end of their contending status of course as crossy mall can get into their late 30s having Hextall be here as the team continues to you know phase out of their contending phase and into a bit of a retool rebuild I think that's going to pay huge dividends as for right now I think he can adjust from what he did not do in Philadelphia. He didn't make as many trades to get them to being a contender. I trust that he can make the moves this year for this team for them to just have a shot, of course, at getting Crosby and Malking in that fourth Stanley Cup. What does that entail? What are

his three biggest things that he has to do? In my opinion, he has to go out and get another top nine forward. How will he do that? I mean, maybe you trade Marcus Pedersen for it. I personally would not do that. I would trade Mike Matheson. That's another one of my things. It's in the top three. You've got to find a way to move that contract if a team will want it. Just because, because P.O. Joseph is ready. I mean, this is a top four defenseman right now. Him on a pairing with John Marino is probably one of the best second pairings in the league. And then you can just put Pedersen with Ruehiel Pedersen with Cece. On the third pairing, and that's not even a bad third pairing. It doesn't make a lot of money.

But just there's no spot for Mike Matheson on the team right now. And that's going to be interesting to see what happens with Hextall as he just continues, as he just gets to know the team, I think is the best way to say it. And then for goaltending, you know, he's a goalie, one of the best goleys that I've ever watched. I always found that he was just an underrated goal. You know, what's he going to do with that position? He obviously knows goalies better than any position. As a general manager, you know, what does he think of Tristan Jari?

What does he think of Casey to Smith? Does he think they need to go out and get an upgrade? I've said that I think they need to go out and get someone like Darcy Kemper, like just a veteran presence who can really potentially push Jari for starting minutes or just, you know, a veteran backup who can put up decent numbers. So, you know, I think those are the three big things that he's going to have to sort out as he gets to know this team. and I was looking for other attributes of Ron Hextall strengths and weaknesses. I came across this

and Charlie O'Connor. He's one of the flyers. He writers for the athletic. He does great work. If you guys are thinking of subscribing to the athletic and you want to read some flyers stuff for the sake of reading flyer stuff, his coverage is worth it alone. His positives, he says he always has a vision and plan and sticks to it. His drafting and developing of a young talent is superb. He always says he tends to win trade,

especially when selling talent for futures. I mean, the penguins, they're not going to have to sell some talent for futures unless they sell, this year, but that would be, I think, the first time they've sold at the deadline since non, since, I don't know, like what, before the sitting Crosby era started, basically. So, I mean, it's good that he does win trades. I'm excited to see what trades he makes to help this team win now. For the negatives, though, Charlie says he struggled in adding above-average bottom of the

lineup roster pieces. I mean, Jim Rutherford kind of struggled with that, too, hence Colton-Sever, hence Mark Jankelski this year, and hence Evan Rodriguez, who's barely even played this year because he's out longer term. and then, you know, just last year with Ryan, a couple years ago with Ryan Reeves and all that. Also, Charlie says, he stuck with underperforming personnel for too long rather than aggressively cutting bait.

Again, I thought Rutherford was kind of the same with that, especially with Jack Johnson, with Justin Schultz. You know, Ryan, well, I wouldn't say Ryan Reeves with that because Mike Sullivan kind of cut bay with him. He was never in Sullivan's plans to play in the playoffs. But, you know, it's kind of a couple similarities with the negatives with Rutherford and Hextall. But, you know, people learn from their previous mistakes, guys.

I mean, that's part of being human. You learn from an experience and you take that and you go to a new experience and you just, you apply what you learned, you know, just for this situation. I think that's the best way of saying. If that didn't make sense, you know, I'm sorry, but I just, I tried to say it the best that I can. And then Charlie said he, the last point was also slow on a full pivot to win now. That's not going to be a problem with the Penguins. They're in win now mode.

But I did see this interesting quote after the season, after the media press conference with Ronald Hextall today. He says they're going to try to win now. this year but if they don't they're going to reevaluate where their franchise stands in the offseason I know that is going to scare a lot of people oh my god is the rebuild coming next year oh my god are they going to do a fire sale trade everyone no guys I really don't think so I mean Brian Burke even said you know as long as you have these three we're just going to go for it you know he probably just means that in like a retool phase you know they're just they want to see where the team is going into next year I mean you guys remember guys

he doesn't know this team that well I mean he has to watch the team see how they play, see how the stars are playing, see how the depth is playing, the defense, the goal-tending, and then if they don't win the Cup, which, you know, it doesn't look very likely right now that they will, he'll assess, he'll see how the top players are doing, and he'll see what moves he has to make in the off-season. Do I think that there's still going to be a contender next year? Absolutely. I mean, David Morehouse even said today at the press conference, we're not going anywhere.

This is the Pittsburgh Penguins. We're in win-now mode. Well, we'll see if that changes under Ron Hextall's watch, but I would expect this team to contend next year and for him to make the moves necessary for that to happen. I really don't see them trading a star player for the sake of doing it. I've always been of the opinion that when one of those star players wants to go, it's going to be on their terms. You have a sit down conversation with them and be like, hey, do you want to stay here or do you want to go?

And if they say you want to go, you work out of trade. You're not just going to trade Afghani Malcgan without his approval. You're not going to trade Chris Latang for it without his approval. and we all know Cindy Crosby's retired in a penguin. I'm not even going to bring that up. But, you know, I just wanted to touch on the Latang. And Malkin's stuff is just because I saw that Ron Hextall quote from the press conference today. I would not expect some massive changes this off season.

I know ownership wants to extend Malkin to keep him here for the final few years of his career before he probably goes back to Russia and plays in the KHL when he's like 39 or 40 or something like that. And I think they do want to do the same with Latang as well, but a lower cap hit and maybe only a three to 40 year extension or something, like that. But I just had to share my thoughts on that. I mean, there was really too much out of the press conference that I took away. I mean, we're going to get to the Brian Burke stuff in the next segment. Hextel also said, though, just I guess to bring it up, focus right now is making the pens the best they can begin through the rest of the season so they can make a run for it. Again, obviously

that's going to involve trades. I know Hexel didn't trade a whole lot when he was with Philadelphia and when the trades that he made. Usually we're just selling assets off for future so they can build through the draft. He never really made, I think, like, a big blockbuster. I mean, some of the contracts that he signed, I think Shane Gostisbeer was a six-year deal, four and a half million per. I know that looks bad right now, but I don't think anyone saw Gossis bear being where he is right now, especially when he was during when Ron Hextall was there, when he was considered one of the best young defenseman in the league. I think he also signed Radco Goudas to a four-year deal, three, almost three and a half million per. I know that one was bad. It's just because he

fell off a cliff. And then, um, Braden Shinn, that deal wasn't bad, four years, five, 5.1 million per. And then he also, that Braden Shand trade was pretty good. I think he got two first-round picks back to Gordon to Penn's insider. I saw that tweet on Twitter. So, you know, he won that trade and he did good with the Shen contract. The Gossus Spirit contract was fine at the time. Obviously, it looks bad now just because of how bad he's been.

But I trust him with contracts. I trust him with trades. And this is the big kicker here. You know, with Burke being the president of hockey operations, is Hextall going to be doing the everyday operations with the team? And maybe he's just Burke going to be an advisor. that's the big thing here, guys. If Hextall just has the full authority to do whatever he wants,

doesn't have to consult Burke on, hey, I'm going to do this. What do you think? Or, hey, you know, I want your approval for it. Then I would have a problem. Like, I don't want Brian Burke to, like, nick something just because I think of him as an old head or a dinosaur. I want Hextall to do what he wants to do and just, you know, ask his assistant general managers about it.

You know, I don't want him to just go to Brian Berg and say, oh, hey, you know, what do you think about this trade? You know, what about this? What about that? Just because I don't think Brian Burke has a really good knowledge of the game right now, just because I think the game has passed him by. If you don't believe me, look up the William Nealander clip of him just bashing him on Twitter. Well, bashing him on YouTube for just no apparent reason.

So those are my thoughts on Ron Hextall. In the next segment, we're going to get to my thoughts on Brian Burke and why this was just so out of left feel, why they honestly should have just given it to Mike Gillis. And then in the third segment, we are going to get to the listener feedback and the listener takeaways from these moves. But before we do that, it is time to talk. about rock auto auto

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Lock Auto.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow this show, is Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So, you know, it all looked fun and dandy. You know, all the roses were out. Oh, my God, Ron Hextall, that's only going to be one hire. Then we saw the report, though, from Greg Wiginski.

Looks like, you know, there's going to be, like, kind of a cabinet. It's just not going to be Ron Hextall doing everything. So that got me thinking, like, are they going to hire a president of hockey operations? Are they going to hire some other assistant general managers? So then Elliot Freeman of Sportsnet dropped the bomb that Brian Burke will serve as the president of hockey operations. And yes, everyone in this fan base is mad and rightfully so, just because Brian Burke is seen as a dinosaur. Like I said, guys, look up his rant on William Nealander. He also is not a big proponent of analytics.

He thinks that they basically bring nothing to the game. That is just an outdated way of thinking in the game of hockey for 2021. And I'm just hoping that he's just kind of like the buffer between David Morehouse and Ron Hector. There were, I think, a couple rumors stories in the past that, you know, Rutherford didn't like sometimes reporting to Morehouse, that they kind of had disagreements or something like that. I can't remember where I read it. I just know I read it on a couple stories at least a year or two ago or even, honestly, after he was fired. I have to double check from where it was. But that's just the big thing here, guys.

Like, I'm hoping that Burke is just more than advisor and not someone who's going to be involved in the day-to-day operations of running this team. obviously he's going to talk to Hextall about moves and just maybe give his input a little bit, but I want Hextall to have the free reign to do whatever the hell he wants and not have to consult Burke about and have Burke give the final say. I want Hextall to have the final say here. If that is the case, then I think hiring Brian Burke as the president of hockey operations is okay. I think he can build a good hockey operations department. And also I hope this does not mean that Sam Ventura, also known as Statsam, is pushed to the side.

I mean, I hope Hextall uses him a lot. He's still the director of hockey research, and I think he's involved in their salary cup stuff. I mean, Patrick Alvin also uses analytics from what I read in Rob Rossi's piece about a week or two ago. So I'm really hoping that they're involved in the day-to-day hockey operations with his team and making decisions with trades, signings, and just helping Ron Hextall out with that. I'm also hoping that Brian Burke just doesn't shun them to the side or ignore them or

anything like that. And Burke, you know, he surely had an entrance today for just some quotes. I think it was during the 2004-2005 lottery. He's like, you know, I was with the ducks. I didn't get Sidney Crosby. I have Cindy Crosby now. So that was great. He also called Pittsburgh the best sports town in North America.

Hard to argue that. You know, a lot of people will say Boston, but, you know, I'll take Pittsburgh 100 times out of 100. He also said that this was basically a dream job for him, that he wasn't going to go to any other team. But when David Morehouse called and offered him the position, he just said he couldn't say no. It was also reported during the media press conference on Zoom. this was a Mario Lemieux hire. And this is not surprising. Mario will do what he wants.

It's his team as much as Ron Burkle's, but Mario was more involved, of course, in the search than I think Berkler was. He handles the business side of it, while Mario handles more of the hockey operation stuff. And it was said, Morehouse said, that he actually went to Brian Burke for some GM options. And then when they set on Hextall,

Mario said he wanted to find a role for Burke in the Penguins Run office. And that's when he came up with the president of hockey operation stuff. I mean, reported about a week or two ago that the Penguins were looking at making a hire for the president of hockey operations. I just didn't think it would be Brian Frickenberg. I would have preferred Mike Gillis, especially with that application. I mean, I think if you had Mike Gillis as your president of hockey operations and Ron Hextall is your GM, a lot of people are looking at today just a lot differently. I mean, even the same if you had Ron Hextall as your president

of hockey operations and potentially Chris McFarlane as General Manager, again, a lot more people are happy about today. Obviously, that didn't happen. We have Hextall's general manager and Brian Burke as the president of hockey operations. And like I said, guys, Burke passed his first test today. You know, we'll do a little bit of golf collapse there. Apparently, someone asked about sit in the Penn's current core. He said, you've got to think as long as we have those pieces, we've got to try to win.

So, you know, that doesn't sound like someone who wants to trade up Gennie Malkin for a bag of peanuts, Crystal Teng for a bag of peanuts, or God forbid, Sidney Crosby for just junk. So they're obviously going to finish their careers. Well, Cindy Crosby will finish this career here, and I'm really hoping that Evgeny Malkin and Crystal Teng will finish their careers here as well. as he said, you know, they want to go for as long as they're going to continue to be great.

And also, you know, guys, the big thing with Brian Burke, I hope he proves me wrong. I hope he makes me eat crow. I think he's terrible with analytics. I think he's an old head of dinosaur. If he proves me wrong and he helps Hextall with some really good trades, I will be the first one to praise him. And I hope you all will be as well if you guys are negative about that. If you're positive and you're just hoping for me to eat crow, you know, I'll understand that too. But like I said, guys, if he helps this organization win another Stanley Cup and he is in the

decision-making process of making good trades and signings and helping Ron Hextall with stuff if he is doing that, you know, I'll praise him. I will be the first to do it. And, you know, we'll see what happens. I'm very excited for Ron Hextall to be this team general manager, less optimistic about Brian Burke, but, you know, we'll see what happens. This is going to be a wild ride. The big thing here, guys, though, is this. They have the three Stanley Cups. They've been to four Stanley Cups. Let's just go on a wild adventure for the last few years of Sid and Gino's hurrah here. And, of course, Crystal Tang. I just, I want to see what moves are going to make. It's going to be fine. It's going to be wild. It's going to be interesting that this team, like I said at the beginning of the

podcast, guys, they're never boring. And they show that today with making two pretty big splash hires with their general manager and their president of hockey operations. And there was also another interesting quote that I did see from Ron Hextel going back talking about him. Someone asked about his reputation of being like a team builder who loved to acquire but not move assets. He said, I know I was kind of looked at as a voter as my time in Philadelphia, but I'm not a one-trick pony. That's the money quote right there. It shows that he can be a win now general manager and that he can make the trades that this team needs and the moves that they need in order to be a Stanley Cup contender and get them out of some contracts that they don't need, like a Mike Matheson, and also maybe make some forward changes to the bottom six to ensure that they have some more depth down there and maybe go out and get, you know, maybe a bona fide top nine, top six winger or, you know, even a goaltender.

So those are my thoughts on Brian Burke and Ron Hextall. And coming up in the next segment, we will get to the listener takeaways and the listener reaction to both of these moves made today by the Penguins. But before we do that, it is time to talk about betonline.ag. Bet online is the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Football may be over, but the NBA, college basketball, and the NHL are in full swing and even covers awards, TV shows and reality TV. It has you cover for all the news, scores, and odds. it's the best way to place your bets and it's free to sign up for. You can head to the website right now or use your mobile device sent up today

and receive your 50% off. Welcome bonus on your first deposit. That's Bet Online, your online sportsbook experts with a promo code, Locked On. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember, guys, follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So let's get to some listener reactions and questions and takeaways.

Gilbert says, what exactly does the hockey office? to do again, but he means the president for the hockey operations, not too involved with anything past the jam, but we'd love to know more about his role. So yeah, Gilbert, he's basically just, I think Burke is going to be mainly as an advisor. Like I said, man, I'm hoping that he's the buffer between Morehouse and Hextall. He's just going to basically check on Ron every day to make sure that, you know, he knows what he's doing with running the day-to-day operations of the team. Obviously, he does. He's been a general manager before, but I don't expect him to be involved heavily in the process of making trades and signings and just, you know, who gets called up and who

doesn't. I think that's mainly going to be Hextall and that he's just going to tell Brian what he's going to do and that's his decision. And, you know, maybe Brian will have the opportunity to veto it. I doubt it, but that's mainly going to be Brian Berksville. He's just going to oversee what Ron Hextall does and report to David Morehouse as he's the team president

and the CEO of the organization. Gilbert also talked about the Ron Hextall Hector. He goes, it's an absolute slam dunk. Hextall is the reason why Philly's future is so bright. Can't wait to see what he does with this team. Again, man, I do agree. I can't wait to see how he drafts, how he stocks the pipeline for the future. That's the really big thing that I'm excited about.

We have the three cups. Obviously, it would be great if the Penguins got a fourth, but I'm really excited to see what he can do is if the team can get some good prospects in the system that would be ready a few years down the line. You know, that will make the transition to post-Crosby and Malkin not as bad as originally feared. True North Pennsfam says, total slam dunk. It's a great move for the office.

Hope he knows magic, though, because we are going to need a magician to make things happen. He's a goalie, too, so he should be able to provide help in our country. go-tending situation. I agree with all those points, man, especially with the goalie part. He's going to get his chance to watch Tristan Jari and Casey to Smith on a full-time basis now. I'm just going to see, you know, what parts of their game need to be improved, what parts of their game are doing well, and if he wants to make a trade for a goalie, who will he trade for? Like I said, Darcy Kemper, maybe someone else. Is James Reimer available or something like that? I'm going to have to go look for other teams to see what goalies are not being used and whatnot.

But yeah, especially with the goalie thing, I'm excited about that. And, yeah, I mean, he's going to have to be a magician to, you know, clean up some of the mess that Rutherford left behind. You know, cough the horn, quist, and a couple other stuff. Alan T. Oders says, as someone who is still learning more of the behind the scenes, stuff like this, I like what I've seen from him. Definitely a move to prep for post 87, 71, and 58. Yeah, I think that's the big thing here, man. And obviously, the team wants to win now.

But this is a move that they want Hextalk here for the long term just because of how good of a job he did with the flyers to turn them around. And, you know, drafting Travis Connecting. who's one of the most underrated goal scores in the league. Drafting Ivan Pro-Rowd, drafting Carter Hard, he's turning into one of the 10 best goaltenders in the league. Drafting Travis Sandheim, Oscar Lindbaum, Joel Farabee, etc., etc. So, you know, I'm just going to be curious to see what his first move is here with this team. I mean, obviously, it's going to have to watch the game on Thursday,

get just a pulse of the team, see how they play, and as he watches more, he'll get a better feel for the team. I mean, that's just what happens when every general manager is hired for a new team. But I think that will do it for this episode. of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I really appreciate you guys listening to this one. I did not expect to have a GM hiring episode this early on, just because it's been not even two weeks since Rutherford resigned,

but we did get it. I'm excited for Ron Hextall. There's no bad feelings for what he almost did to Robbie Brown. And, you know, I'm hopefully cautiously optimistic about Brian Burke. You know, that's just where I am right now. If Brian Burke turns out to be the tire fire that we feared, it's going to suck. But, you know, maybe, just maybe he can help this organization

and not interfere with what Ron Hextall is. going to do with the day-to-day operations of the team. So that would do it for this episode. A real appreciate you get you guys listening to it. Also check out my Lockdown Now video up on the Lockedon, Penguin's Twitter account, and the Locked-on NHL podcast Twitter account. It's just a minute video of my overall thoughts on it. Well, not my overall thoughts on it, but just my immediate thoughts on the two hires.

So we'll be back tomorrow with another episode, and then Thursday, we'll be back discussing another game recap with the New York Islanders. So stay tuned for that, and I will talk to you all on Wednesday.