Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Takeaways from Penguins GM Kyle Dubas's presser!
Episode Date: May 12, 2026Pittsburgh Penguins general manager/president Kyle Dubas spoke about the end of the season for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, and Hunter and Patrick are here to give their big takeaways. They sta...rt by discussing what Dubas had to say about Evgeni Malkin and his plan to bring him back for one more season. (1:30) After that, they dive into comments about how the Penguins are "not even close" to being contenders, and how Dubas sees the team, before looking at why he could try to go big-game hunting this summer. (11:50) Finally, Hunter and Patrick review Anthony Mantha's season after starting the season reviews on Monday. (27:30) Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Hims To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, visit https://Hims.com/LOCKEDONNHL. Indeed Now, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. KALSHI For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code LOCKEDON to get ten dollars when you trade ten. Kalshi. Trade on anything. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. 5-Hour ENERGY The Cotton Candy flavor is HERE on https://5hourEnergy.com or Amazon, crack open Cotton Candy 5-hour ENERGY®️ shot today! Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join athttp://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Penguins GM Kyle Dubus spoke with reporters on Tuesday for his end-of-season press conference.
And Pat and I are going to give you all our big takeaways from that presser coming up right after this.
You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.
I'm one of your host, Huntser Hodes.
You can follow me on Twitter at Hunters Hodes.
Joined by my co-s, Patrick Gamp, you can follow him on all social media platforms at
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For the first two segments of today's show, we're going to get into our big takeaways from
what Kyle Dubas had to say to reporters and basically the entire fan base during his end of season
presser today. We're not going to get into everything just because that would take probably 60 to 90
minutes for an episode and we just, we frankly don't have the time to do that today. And we also are
only about a 30 to 35 minute podcast, of course. And then to end the show, we're going to continue
our season and review series with Anthony Mantha after we kicked it off with Tommy Novak on Monday.
Now, Pat, let's get into our big takeaways. And we have to start, of course,
with an update on Evgeny Malkin.
And Kyle Dupas's answer was pretty fascinating.
He talked about how the penguins would love to have him back
and they are continuing to have conversations with him and his agent J.P. Barry.
I maintain my take that I have had throughout the season.
And as we have gotten into the offseason a little bit,
I still think a deal is going to get done.
It should really only take about five minutes.
I'm hoping that this is just putting the finishing touches on the
deal, but based on the way he said it, it feels like they do want him back at least for one more
season. It does. I think coming away from that press conference, that's Dubus all but confirming.
They're bringing him back. I know I saw some people say that this felt like a potential
softening of the ground to let him go, which I understand that thought process just because
it's May 12th, you kind of figured this would be done.
by now. I get it. But I mean, realistically, the thing that stood out most to me was just the fact that
one, he spoke so highly of Afghani Malkin. It was a, you know, oh, well, you know, when you get,
when you have players this age and this deep in their career, yada, yada, he didn't do any of that.
He spoke very glowingly of of Genni Malkin. And then the other part of it, he confirmed what
you and I have been saying. He realizes that Malkin's not blocking anybody. This isn't a matter.
of, hey, there's your future second line center or second line winger, just waiting in the
system. But if you bring of Gennie Malkin back, it blocks that player, they know that one year
for however much is not going to derail this plan. It's not going to deviate from the path that
Kyle Dubus wants to go down. So I think, again, this is just a matter of they're taking care of
other priorities. Dubis also said that he's deeply involved in watching what Wilkes
Barron Wheeling are doing, and that's taking up a lot of his time. So I think this is just a
matter of it's going to get done. The question is just when it gets done. I agree. And I still
don't think it's going to come down to the last day like it did last time where you got those
quotes from Malkin and his agent, how upset they were and that looked like Malkin was going to test
the free agent market. And then both sides came to an agreement on a contract,
basically 12 hours before free agency started four years ago. I still don't think it's going to
happen like that. I still think this is going to happen. Hopefully, over the next couple of weeks,
this really should not take too long, as I've been saying. And he did mention it. He's not blocking
anyone. He's not going to make a lot of money. He was over a point per game last season. He already
has, no, Igor Chinov. He's going to be locked up at least to a bridge deal, potentially a longer
term extension. Tommy Novak, at least right now, is still there. So you
have your line mates.
We know how much Crosby loves playing with him, same with Let's hang.
We know how much he wants to return to Pittsburgh.
I'll keep saying it.
This is a no-brainer.
It's a slam dunk.
Bring him back for one more season.
The thing I will say that when I did see the people doing the whole, hey, he's softening
the ground for him not returning, he did reiterate that his loyalty is to the organization,
not individuals, because he was asked about the big three and keeping them together.
other. And he basically said, like, I know at some point, whether it's this summer, next summer,
whenever, I'm going to likely have to make an unpopular decision with one or more of those guys.
But at the end of the day, we have all known that. We have all known that this doesn't happen
in professional sports, whether it's the NHL, NFL, NBA, whatever, it does not happen the way it
has here. So we'll see what happens. But again, end of the day, it feels like Malkin is going to come back.
I agree. And you're right. He did touch on that during a question where he even said, yeah, I know at some
point I'm going to have to be the quote unquote bad guy to a lot of the fans and potentially break this up.
He even said that he knew when he took this job. He would probably have to do it at some point down
the line. Don't think it's going to happen this summer, maybe the next summer somewhere down the line.
But I think this summer, to me, that's still too soon overall, especially when it comes to of
Guinea Malkin. And speaking of Wilkesbury and Wheeling, Pat, willing, they dropped game three last night.
They'll try to go up three games to one tonight in game four. And Wilkesbury, they will kick
off their Atlantic Division final tonight. And Bill Zonan will be in the lineup. And the way
Cala Duba talked about Bill Zonan during that presser, Pat, that was fantastic. He basically said
that when the Wilkesbury Scrant staff was gearing up to go over video with him to tackle systems
once he signed the amateur trial agreement.
Zonan told them,
hey, I've already watched all your film,
and I know your system before they even showed it to him.
Just the work ethic that this kid has,
he's going to be a fan favorite,
especially with the way he plays.
Again, I love the way he plays in front of the net,
the way he skates,
his playmaking ability,
he's an underrated goal score.
I'll continue to reiterate that I am also really stoked
to see him make his age all debut tonight,
but that answer,
about Bill Zonan and the way that he's already studied the systems,
man,
this kid is already awesome, Pat.
That really does get you excited when you have,
and he kind of touched upon this for a lot of the,
the prospects that people want to know about that he really likes where they are.
He said a lot about Velae Covenin,
who we have been pretty rough on on this pod,
understandably so,
but much like he said with Zonan,
he was like,
you guys don't see what he does behind the scenes,
how hard he works,
how dedicated he is, which is a good thing to know.
But yeah, for the Zonin part, that is really encouraging because this is the kind of player
you want in your system, especially because, and this relates back to us talking about the big three,
that's the expectation of the culture of the Pittsburgh Penguins when you're led by Sidney
Crosby, is that you don't just get to come in here and put the jersey on, go to practice,
and be happy that you're in the NHL.
You have to be dedicated or you will be pushed out or you will not get a regular spot.
There's a reason when they bring in these younger players, these prospects, and they make up the locker room seating assignments.
There's a reason a lot of them are sat down next to Sidney Crosby or Chris LaTang or of Guanyi Malkin because it's them signaling to those younger players.
This is who you have to listen to.
This is who you have to learn from.
And when you have a guy like Zonan who comes in and says, yeah, I already studied your tape,
he's going to fit right into the culture that's been built here.
Right.
And I'm also super stoked to see how Kirk McDonald works with him, considering the work that he has done
with a lot of the prospects in Wilkesbury this year, whether it's Rock and McGority,
Avery Hayes, Harrison Brunick, Sergey Mershaw with the way that he has played,
Yoal Blumenquist with the way that he has played as the one-de-goattinger.
Atle-Calvert, I think he's also had an underrated year in Wilkesbury.
I keep going down the list if you want me to too.
So that's another reason why I'm stoked to see Zanan
make his debut is because of the way
McDonald and his staff have worked with
a lot of the younger players.
And I do think that him and his staff
are going to do a really good job with Zonan.
But I think that's going to do it for this first segment.
Coming up in the second segment,
we're going to talk about what Dubas had to say
about the penguins being not close to contenders,
plus a potential thought about going big game hunting this summer.
That's all coming up right after this.
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All right, we're back here on the Tuesday edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your
host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-Cost, Patrick Damp. And Pat, there were two really big money
quotes that I really took away from this presser, starting with,
how close the penguins are in terms of being a Stanley Cup contender.
And Dubas said that he believes the penguins still have a long way to go in order to be on
the same level as seems like the hurricanes, the avalanche, the stars, the lightning in
Montreal.
He says they have made progress, but he did even talk about how while he was watching
game seven of Montreal, Tampa, he kind of questioned how his team would compete against
either those two teams, which he's not wrong to question that.
Those two teams are two of the best teams in the conference.
you're seeing Montreal, especially play really well right now in the second round.
They're up two games to one going into game four.
He also talked about the Colorado Minnesota series,
how he questioned how his team would play against both of those two teams in the
playoff series.
And he's very right to question that as well.
The avalanche are basically running through the Western Conference right now.
I think at this point, Pat, I know we're only in the second round.
I'd kind of be surprised if anyone beats them in the playoffs with the way that they're
rolling.
And Minnesota, we all know how great Minnesota was during the regular season.
And he especially talked about how Carolina, the hurricanes, they're the class of the metro,
and he doesn't believe that the penguins are close to them right now, even though he does believe
that they again have made progress.
So to me again, this just goes in line with his overall plan and how he's just going to keep
doing what he has been doing to try and get the penguins closer to all of those teams.
This was comforting.
Very comforting for me because it shows that he didn't get saucer eyes.
when the Penguins made the playoffs this year.
It would have been very easy.
And we have even heard some people, whether it's commenters or even people who cover
the team about thinking this team is ahead of schedule.
They are in a way because Ben Kindle showing up and becoming a regular NHLer at 18 years old
puts you ahead of schedule.
But it's not the job is nowhere near done.
The fact that they were able to get into the playoffs is a great testament to the veterans.
and even some of the young players,
but I don't think anybody should have any misgivings about where this team is.
They're better than expected,
but they are still a long ways away.
And Dubis,
using the benchmark of a lot of the teams that are still in there is the way to go,
because would they play okay against Carolina?
Sure, but I don't think they beat them.
Maybe they put up a better fight than Philly,
but not by much.
That's how good Carolina is.
The most that series goes to is probably five games.
and that's maybe even some wishful thinking, to be honest.
I think the most bad, it's five games and that's probably it.
Yeah, maybe the penguins sneak out a win,
but they aren't going to put up much of a better output than what Philly did.
Montreal and Buffalo, they're young, they're fast, they're talented,
they can play 200 foot hockey.
Dubas specifically said this team has to get better at defending,
and they would probably not do well against those teams.
Minnesota, Colorado, I mean, you step in front of them.
a speeding 18 Wheeler against both of those teams.
So it was very comforting to hear him say that, listen, the work has been good.
The progress has been good.
But we, as it says here on our rundown, they're not even close.
Yeah.
And he really did mention the defensive work on the Penguins this season, why he thinks it needs to be better.
It sounded like he really wasn't happy with the way they were defending in a lot of games.
So again, I would think that they're going to address the blue line even more this summer.
than they did last summer.
Another quote from Kyle Dubus,
he again said the penguins were a good team.
At times,
we flirted with becoming very good.
Ultimately,
we are still well short of where we aspire to be,
and that's a contender.
He also said that that falls on him,
and he's going to try to continue steering this team
towards taking more steps going into next season in the future.
And again, that is the right mindset to have
when, hey, you have an unexpected, magical regular season,
you get in the playoffs,
but you see really quickly,
okay, there is still plenty more work to be done.
The other thing, Pat, that really stood out to me was when he was talking about picks and the prospects that this team has,
he mentioned free agency not being very good, and you saw that earlier today, Charlie Coyle signed six times six back in Columbus,
which, I mean, okay, the term on that contract is pretty crazy.
Free agency is going to get worse.
The way that he answered that question about this summer just makes me think that they're going to go big game hunting,
whether it's for a forward or defenseman.
and he specifically mentioned, you know, those players in their, you know, mid to late 20s,
all that good stuff.
Now, whether that's someone like Robertson, who we have discussed plenty, Robert Thomas, Thomas Harley,
you can go down the list, Owen Zellweger of the Ducks.
Again, there's plenty more.
Maverick Bork is another one.
We could probably spend 30 minutes talking about potential trade targets this summer.
But the way that he answered the question, the way that he talked about the picks,
prospects, not even really as much roster players that they already have,
but I'm sure some roster players would be available via trade.
It does make me think that he's going to at least try to go big game hunting this summer.
I use the term mobilizing last summer.
You saw it a little bit, but I think you might see way more of it this summer,
especially via the trade market, because that's why I think he's going to do most of his movies,
especially when you look at how, you know, excuse my language,
It's dog shit the free agency classes.
Yeah, that's about the best way to describe free agency this summer.
I don't say bad words on this show super often, but I felt like I kind of had to for that one.
You got to choose it for the right moments.
You picked the right one.
But there, obviously, this is me putting the cart a little bit ahead of the horse here.
We have to see what happens.
But I liked the gamesmanship from Kyle Dubus in this press conference because,
when he spoke negatively, and it wasn't even that negative,
about what the team and the organization has done about not being great defensively,
not even being close to being contenders, all that stuff.
That was him kind of saying, like, listen, we still got a lot of work to do.
But then you heard him talk about all of the prospects he got asked about.
And if you look at the way he smiled, the way he built them up,
the way he did all of that,
That's him kind of signaling to the rest of the league.
Look at these gems that I've got.
Look at these great players that I've got.
Wouldn't you like some of them in your system?
Wouldn't you like some of them in your organization?
And then you couple that along with the fact that it was a lesser noticed part of his press conference that stood out to me.
He talked about, man, Pittsburgh's a great city to live in.
Pittsburgh's a great city to raise a family in.
We got a great coaching staff and organization here.
That's him signaling to some maybe 24 to 29-year-old players
who might have no trade clauses to go, you know, Pittsburgh,
that could be a nice little place for me to land.
So there's a lot of gamesmanship happening by him.
And I want to see what it leads to because this is a good first shot of him kind of saying,
I've collected a lot of assets.
I've collected a lot of draft capital.
I've got a ton of cap space.
This is him signaling to the league
and some players and agents that
this might not be the worst place for you to go.
Yeah, he's selling the city and the team,
the coaching staff, the management staff,
the players that are already locked in
contract-wise for next season.
He's selling everything when it comes to the Penguins to,
you know, potential RFAs that could be available
via trade other young players
who maybe aren't having.
happy with their respective teams, maybe other players who haven't been put on the trade market yet
that are still in that, you know, 24 to 28, 29-ish range, maybe even potentially younger Pat,
22 or 23 years old, if those type of players potentially get made available, you know, again,
at least to me, I feel like they want at least a couple of established players in their
mid to late 20s, especially up front. And I think they want to continue working on the blue
line because I said it last summer.
This is going to be, you know, it's a process in terms of revamping the blue line.
Letang is another year older.
Eric Carlson is another year older.
Carlson only has one year left on his contract.
You saw him speak glowingly about Harrison Brunick, you know, up and down in terms of
his NHL 9 game trial, goes back to junior, plays pretty well for Cam Loops.
He then comes to Wilkesbury at the end of the season.
He's playing even better, really solid stuff in the playoffs, and he's going to try to make a
for the roster next season.
So again, I feel like those are like the two big areas for the offseason,
continuing to revamp the blue line ever so slightly,
just because this is going to be a situation where it happens over multiple
off seasons and then maybe getting a potential young difference maker up front via trade.
But again, potential problem with that is you have to bid against probably a lot of
these other teams and potentially some of these other teams have more.
to offer than you do. So that's something that you can think about. That's a discussion for later
on this offseason. But I do think overall, those are their two main goals for the summer.
And he talked about Marischov and Blumquist, Pat. They're both going to be pushing for a roster
spot, which I don't think anyone is surprised by. No. And you do, I know that I've floated
Blumquist out there as a potential trade chip because just the insane amount of depth that the organization
has at goaltender right now that you could maybe get a nice, not a huge haul, but a nice
return for because he does seem to project as a potential NHL starter at some point,
but you know he's probably not going to eclipse Murashav.
He's probably not going to eclipse Ardor Shilov should he return, which it does seem like
that is tracking towards happening because Dubis didn't mention Stuart Skinner, I don't think,
at all, but did mention Arter Shilovs a couple of times.
So it kind of feels like he revealed his preference there.
But you do have to keep the road open for him.
If Blunquist has a good camp in a good preseason and Murshov doesn't match them,
which I think is highly unlikely.
But you have to keep that road open because they have both played extremely well for the baby penguins.
So you have to just keep that option open.
And that's going to help the organization even further down the road because
as you continue this retool, you need to have open competition.
You need to have guys battling for spots.
You don't want to be where you were 10, 15 years ago,
where training camp was just, all right,
let's get everybody back in shape and everybody back to Pittsburgh.
Whenever game one starts, call us.
You need to have that open competition for guys to earn spots to help this team get better.
I agree.
And you're going to see that come training camp,
especially because they're not really going to be that act of the
in free agency. I think if they sign a player or two, it's for, you know, cheap one to two-year
deals, potential more stopgap options, something like that. And then otherwise, they're going to
have at least, in my opinion, at least a couple of roster spots open where they're going to
have their young players push. For example, I don't think Nolichari is going to come back.
I think that spot is potentially ready for Avery Hayes. We all know that Rucker McGrady is
going to be pushing for a roster spot for next season. Dili Kovinen, as well, we've discussed,
Brunich, Miroschal, Blumquist, but, you know, the list goes on.
Maybe Pat Bill's on it pushes for a roster spot as soon as the 26-27 season, even though, in
my opinion, I think it's more likely that he starts full-time during the 27-28 season.
But, hey, Ben Kendall surprised us this season.
Maybe Bill's on and we'll do the same thing for an extra training camp.
So they're going to leave at least a couple to a few roster spots open for some of their
younger players to potentially take at camp in preseason, while potentially at the same time
maybe trying to swing a big trade for an impact forward that's, you know, aged 22 to 28, 29-ish,
something like that.
And then obviously the defensive adjustments that they need to make on their back end as well.
I expect a pretty hectic off-season.
That's just how usually it works when Kyle Dubus is running the franchise.
So I expect there to be quite a few roster moves this summer.
If I'm wrong, it is what it is.
I felt like you and I were not bad in close.
to 1,000 for this season, but I do think he's going to be pretty busy once we get to June
and then into July as well. Pat, do you have anything else to add? Any other takeaways from
this presser before we get to our final segment? No, I mean, it again, it reinforced my confidence
in Kyle Dubus being the guy for the job. He seems to have a good grasp on where this organization
is, where it needs to go. And you know us. We are.
are not shy about saying when a guy stinks or when a guy isn't doing great. So I don't want this to
come off as carrying water for the organization. There is still so much work to be done and words are just
words. But at the very least, it seems like he has a good grasp of where this organization is,
where he wants it to go and how he needs to get there. I'm with you and I do have confidence in this
front office. I know it started out a bit shaky. You and I were both on the show saying it at first off
season and just the first year general.
Not very good, but once they pivoted to the plan that they have had for the last,
you know, year and a half, two years, my confidence has grown.
And I do think he is going to continue to make the necessary steps to build this team
back up in terms of being a, not a short-term contender, but a long-term contender.
So I do have confidence in them, but again, it is on him and the rest of the front office
to deliver on that confidence.
But that's going to do it for the second segment coming up to end the show.
It's time for another season in review, and Pat and I are going to discuss Anthony Mantha,
how great his regular season was, and how bad his playoffs were.
That's coming up right after this.
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All right, we're back here on the Tuesday episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast.
I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Gamp. And all right, Pat,
let's get into our second season and review. We did Tommy Novak on Monday. And now it is time to
talk about Anthony Manttha. Fantastic regular season. 33.3.3.3.
goals, 64 points, all career highs. 33 goals were a career high, 64 points were career high,
scored a lot of big goals for this team, was a very consistent player for them,
signed basically a one-year prove-it deal during the early days of free agency.
He was coming off that really big knee injury.
And at the time, you and I talked about how, okay, this was probably going to be a player
that scores you around 15 to 20.
The team was probably not going to be very good.
Okay, they'll flip him.
he'll be the Anthony Bavillian replacement.
Well, Penguins decided,
screw you guys for that take.
We're just going to be a lot better
than literally anyone expected,
and we're going to be in a playoff spot
by the time the trade deadline rolled around.
So they did not deal Anthony Muth,
but they keep him past the trade deadline.
He continues to produce after the deadline.
And then we get into the playoffs,
and then he just completely,
and I mean completely no-shows.
He had that one moment in game five
that play with Elmer's Lerblum.
That was nice.
Otherwise, he was a complete no-show.
a complete non-factor in that six-game series against Philadelphia Flyers.
He still has no goals in 20 career playoff games, also only seven points during that time in the playoffs.
It's funny, Pat, for the regular season, I give him an A plus.
For the playoffs, I give him an F.
I think if we want to balance this all out, and it's going to sound weird here for a second,
I will give him an A overall, even with how bad he was in the playoffs, but I don't want him back.
No, for sure.
I mean, and it's the old discussion of sample sizes, right?
81 games versus six.
In 81 games, he set career highs.
He had his best offensive output he has had in his entire career.
Then in six games, he gets one assist.
And I was saying this to you before we hit record.
chord. The thing that I think
annoys me about the playoffs more than anything,
it's not that he played poorly because he didn't.
He was just invisible.
And I'm not going to say it would have been acceptable
if he played poorly in the playoffs. It would obviously not be.
But when you are a top six forward,
you can't be invisible in the playoffs.
He was a complete non-factor.
in the Flyers series, save for the one assist that he got on a really good forecheck.
Outside of that, there were a couple of missed chances, and that was really it.
So being a top six-
Hell, just go to Game Six, where I felt like he had the puck on his stick,
plenty of times in that overtime, plenty of chances to win it.
And he just flubs every single chance.
He had a chance to be a hero in that game and decided to just be terrible.
It would be a lot easier to evaluate his season overall if he just stunk in the playoffs.
And we can say, hey, listen, great regular season player, not built for the big moments.
But the fact of the matter is, we don't know that because he just disappeared.
He was just a jersey in the playoffs.
So it's hard to, it's hard to evaluate him.
But regular season, this was above and beyond what you could have asked.
for and expected. The fact that he's a 30 goal score puts up more than 60 points. He's a mainstay
in the top six or maybe the top nine, but you look at his production. That's a top six forward,
right? So I think it was a really savvy signing by Kyle Dubus. It went way better than you
could have expected. It helped the team clinch a playoff spot and have a better season than anyone
could have expected. But then it was just so, so disappointing in the postseason.
Right. And speaking of Kyle Dubas, he did discuss Anthony Mantha a little bit during his presser on Tuesday.
And the vibe that I got, Pat, was kind of him saying, yeah, he was great for us.
I loved everything he did, but I don't think I'm going to bring him back.
That's the vibe that I at least got.
He didn't really sound like someone who was really in a rush to sign him to a contract or even just bring him back overall.
I think he's going to let him walk and he's going to let someone else potentially overpay him in pre-agency.
Because right now, he is one of the better free agency for us.
And that's just, again, because the 2026 free agency class is terrible overall.
So the only way I see him coming back is if no other teams bite.
If no other teams give him the term and the money that he's going to likely ask for
and you get a week into free agency and you can just do the whole, hey, you know,
you know what it's like here.
You're familiar.
Here's a year or two deal for less.
money than you want, but this means you don't have to move your young family to a new city
and you can have some stability for a year or two. But other than that, I'm with you on this.
Like, let someone else open the Brinks truck for them. And if they don't and you can get them
in a bargain, sure, why not? But that's the literal only way I'd want them back. I'll be real with you,
Pat. I don't think that's going to happen. I'd be fairly, fairly stunned if that happened. I think some
team is going to give him a contract or the penguins will not go near and deservely so.
I have a hard time believing that Mantha is going to score 30 plus goals in back-to-back
seasons and compile 60 plus points.
So that's kind of where I stand on that.
A plus regular season after the playoffs, I'll give him an A overall, even though I don't want
him back.
And honestly, I don't think a lot of the fan base wants him back either in the way that
Kaodubis talked about him.
I don't think he's going to bring him back also.
But I think with that, that's going to do it for the Tuesday edition 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 a fresh episode, if you all on Wednesday.
We're going to talk about farm teams, see how Wheeling does in game for.
And let's see if Wilkesbury gets off to a really good start in their series again Springfield
and discuss other Penguins news as well.
So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunter Hodes.
Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to,
Watch this one. We'll be back on Wednesday.
