Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The 2026-27 NHL salary cap is OFFICIAL! How does it impact the Penguins?
Episode Date: May 6, 2026The NHL's salary cap is officially set at $104 million, so what does this mean for the Penguins' offseason plans? Hunter and Patrick begin the show by discussing the news that the NHL has officially s...et the salary cap for the 2026-27 season, and it will give the Penguins more than $45 million in space to deal with. So, who should they bring back, who should they target, and how much should they spend? (0:00) Then, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins officially pulled ahead of the Hershey Bears in their Calder Cup Playoff series thanks to heroics from some of their more cherished prospects. Rutger McGroarty got the game-winner, and Sergei Murashov made several stunning saves to help them get one win from advancing. (12:37) Finally, with the season fully over, it's time to give out the season-long Warrior Helmet Wednesday winner! (24:07) 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! 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! Rugiet Get 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnhl Rugiet. Performance medicine for men. QuoMake this the year where no opportunity — and no customer — slips away.Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go tohttp://Quo.com/lockedonnhl. 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.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
The NHL has officially announced the salary cap for the 26-27 season,
and Pat and I are going to discuss what that means for the Pittsburgh Penguins 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 the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.
I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes.
You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.
By my co-Cast, Patrick Damp, you can follow him on all social media platforms at Sendin and For Wet.
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Pat, thanks to Elliot Freeman, as I put on my new Clark Kent Superman glasses that I just got this week.
I love these things.
Thanks to Elliott Freeman, the NHL has informed all the teams about the 2026, 2027 salary cap, and the payroll range, starting with the salary cap floor.
That is 76.9 million.
The midpoint is 90.4 million.
And the ceiling is 104 million with a maximum salary of 20.8 million.
Now, what does this mean for the Penguins?
Well, the full cap is 104 million for this next season.
And the Penguins, they have a projected 404.
5.8 million in salary cap space for the summer per puckpedia. Pat, really no surprise there at all.
So if Gennie Malkin, $20.8 million one year deal, when? That's what we're going to do this summer, right?
Right? You get that down to $25.8 million if you signed a one year, 20 million. But in all seriousness, jokes aside, Pat, you give him $5 million.
You still got $40.8 million of salary cap space to play with.
Yeah, the funny thing is I'm looking at Puckpedia right now.
And if Friedman's reporting is correct, which it often is the floor is 76.9 million,
the penguins still need to hit the floor going into next season.
So that's how much cap space they've got.
But as expected, we figured this was going to be somewhere in the $100 million range,
whether it was 100 on the button, 103, 104, 105.
something like that.
Now we know the penguins have a lot of cap space
and we went over the whole gambit of UFAs and RFAs yesterday.
So this is actually good timing for us.
I think you look at this right now and you look at the penguins group of RFAs and
UFAs, this does paint you, I think, a bit of a clearer picture.
Jokes aside, yeah, you're not giving Evgeny Malkin the max deal.
But again, you give them.
five to seven million doesn't really handcuff you all that much. And then you look at the rest of
the UFAs and there really aren't that many worth bringing back. So I think you expect this to be
a very similar summer to what we've seen what we saw last year, where you're not going to see
any big swings despite all of the cap space because it's a pretty shallow UFA pool.
this means you're probably going to see a good bit of trades, a good bit of asset acquisition
where they may take on a contract or two that doesn't look great,
but they'll get picks attached to it or a prospect attached to it.
So this is a good spot, I think, for Dubus and the Penguins to be in,
because it keeps them on that track right now where the only really bad move that Dubus can make
is to swing big on a rental or a short-term deal,
but you can still get most of the players you need locked up,
leave yourself room to operate.
If you need to take on some bad deals
in order to get some better assets,
you have that option.
So the flexibility for the Penguins remains
going over the next couple of years.
Yeah, it's especially huge in the trade market
because, again, I don't think they're going to be super active
in free agency in terms of going after any of the big names.
I've discussed Alex Tuck, Pat, he's going to get a lot of money from a different team.
I think Darren Radish is going to get a lot of money from a different team.
I don't think the Penguins will be in that market.
I also don't think they're going to be in the market where they're overpaying,
middling players.
I think they're just going to go after bargain contracts that, you know, they can sign for
one to two-ish years, something like that, and then they make their big moves via trade.
And say you do bring back of Genni Malkin for $5 million,
and then you also bring back Sheelof and Chinov.
Pat, they're still going to have over 30 million of cap space to do whatever else they want to do.
Whether, again, that's bringing players in with a bad contract that they get future assets for,
maybe bringing in a really good younger player with a good contract.
They can really fit any contract that they want under the salary cap space that they have.
So that's another big thing.
Again, I know this is helping all the teams.
Like it gives all teams more cap space, obviously now that the cap is up to 104 million for next season.
but it really does especially help a team like the penguins who, I mean, it's rare when you have seen them have this much cap space during the Crosby, Malkin, Latang era.
And I understand it.
It's been different for a lot of it just because Pat, we haven't seen the cap boom like this for like a lot of those years.
But this is what's happened these last couple of years.
Now, the challenge that is going to face Kyle Dubis this summer more than anything is what you just said.
cap boom really does impact and help just about everybody.
I mean,
teams that are maybe squeezed against it,
maybe don't have to move out a player that they don't want to move potentially.
Yeah,
I mean,
you look at the projections right now on Puckpedia.
There are no teams that are over the salary cap going into next year with where they
are right now.
Obviously,
there's a lot of UFAs,
RFAs and a bunch of other stuff that needs to get done.
So teams are going to fluctuate.
But as we sit here on May 6th,
the team that's close,
closest to the cap, according to their projections, is Colorado at 101.
So even they have some wiggle rooms.
But you look at a lot of the teams that are going up against the upper limit,
and there actually is some advantages for the penguins going into this summer.
Obviously, Colorado is in win now mode.
You've dealt with them before.
Maybe there's somebody that they like on their roster right now that they might not be able
to hold on to.
The same goes for the Golden Knights.
They are always active.
they're the next team closes to the ceiling.
A surprising one is Montreal.
They've got a lot of money on the books.
They've got a lot of good prospects.
That's somebody you could potentially do business with.
And then obviously there's the big one that everybody has talked about,
and that is Dallas.
Now, I still think that they're going to move a lot of other pieces out in order to hold on to Robertson.
But it's a team that is going to need to move things out in order to keep Robertson.
And so Kyle Dubas should probably keep Jim Nill's number near the top of his speed dial.
Yeah, I mean, and Dallas should do that because Robertson is a player that you just can't let get away from you.
I've seen the rumors about Thomas Harley.
Obviously, I've seen the rumors about Maverick Bork as well.
If they put him on the trade block, I think Kyle Dubus would be all over him as a player who still young enough.
He's growing more as a player.
I think he would be a good player to add to the Penguins.
but again, time will tell if he even gets put on the trade block.
We just have to see if Dallas gets us across the finish line with Robertson first,
which I do expect what happened.
I don't think they're going to move on from him overall,
but yes, that is the team to look out for.
But again, the penguins, they'll have plenty of space to take care of their own business
and then go external too, especially be the trade market and help that.
They can even move out some place.
of their own via trade to create more cap space potentially at the same time as well.
They have a lot of things that they can do this offseason with this space.
I don't want to, as the kids say, I don't want to glaze Kyle Dubus too much.
But you look at his last 18 months and he really took what began as pretty close to a nightmare
scenario for where this organization was and has brought them to a place where they have a ton
of flexibility all of a sudden.
Now, a lot of that is aided by the fact that the cap is exploding.
And that is kind of what undid him in Toronto is they expected the cap to continue to rise and explode.
And that pesky little thing called the COVID-19 pandemic happened and screwed everything up.
But at the end of the day, you look at where the penguins are now to where they were when he took over.
It's a much better place to be.
And I just want to add this one little bit before we move on,
because I find it very funny,
and obviously it's going to change over the next few years.
But if you look at Puckpedia's projections through the next couple of seasons,
they're projecting by 2829,
the salary cap limit will be $123 million.
The Penguins projected cap hit in 2829 is $6.75 million.
So as of right now,
with their projections in 2829, the Penguins will have $116,250,000 of cap space.
That's obviously going to change as we get closer to that year.
So don't want to put too much stock into it, but it is at least, you know, funny hearing that coming from you.
But also, Pat, we should have mentioned this yesterday.
This was the final season of Jack Johnson's buyout on the Penguin salary cap book.
So that is officially done for good in case anyone wanted to know about that.
Yes. Good. Goodbye Jack Johnson's $9,916,667. We hardly knew ye.
Yes, exactly. But that is going to do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment,
last night's Wilkesbury Hershey game was dramatic in a lot of ways.
And Pat and I are going to recap that game coming up for you all right after this.
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All right.
We're back here on the Wednesday edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast.
I'm one of your host, Hans for Hodes, joined by my.
Co's Patrick Damp and Pat, what a game last night between Wilkesbury and Hershey.
Wilkesbury starts fast, gets goals from Phil Kemp to make it 1-0.
And then Mikhail Ilien, his first HL goal since coming over from the KHL.
I think that kind of flew under the radar a little bit, Pat, when it comes to Penguins
prospects, but he did come over at the end of his regular season, played well in those few games
during the regular season with Wilkesbury, and now he has his first goal in the playoffs.
he's getting more comfortable in each game that he plays.
He's adjusting to North American ice bit by bit in each game that he plays.
So really exciting to see him get his first goal with Wilkesbury.
Keep an eye on him, my friends.
He is someone that hopefully is going to make this team at some point here in the near future,
though I do think he's probably going to start next season with Wilkesbury.
Hershey, though, Pat, they tie it up before the end of the first period.
They then take the lead three, two, early in the second period.
after that, though, I thought Sergei Moroshoff made a lot of really big saves to keep the team within striking distance before Avery Hayes was able to tie the game with less than three minutes remaining in the third period.
It was a shot from just above the right circle, beats Hershey goaltender Clay Stephenson.
The celebration was great.
I thought Harrison Burnick made a great play on that goal.
And also, Harrison Burnick continues to be a bit feisty in this series.
I think he's just making an enemy out of every Hershey player in this series.
But he's playing well, but well done by Avery Hayes.
game winning goal. A bit controversial when it comes to Hershey fans that are sitting in their
arena, booing, throwing stuff on the ice because the puck, it went in and out so fast that
none of the players or their fans knew that it went in. McGority and the ref knew the HL had to
literally put out an overhead view of the goal saying like, yes, guys, this went in and you can
clearly see that it was a goal. But that didn't stop all the controversy that you saw on social
media and other places as well. Great deflection by Rucker McGrody.
Great moment, Pat and Wilkesbury. They're up two games to one with a chance to close this
out in Hershey on Thursday. They bought themselves time, which is really nice, because we talked
about this earlier in the week that splitting in Wilkeshire made it tough because that means
they had to win. They had to win at least one in order to get themselves a chance. And now they
have two cracks at closing out this series. So that is good for them. Obviously, that's a great
tip by Rutger McGority. That's the kind of game we want to see him playing at all levels. We want
him to be a hard-nosed in-your-face kind of player. But the star of the game, to me, is Sergei
Murashaw, because after Hershey takes the lead, it got a little wobbly for Wilkes-Barre. They kind of
started to retreat a little bit. Hershey was getting the better of the play. Murashaw.
was able to hold the fort, make some big saves, come up in a huge moment to keep his team in it
and keep them in striking distance.
Then obviously Avery Hayes continues to be a solid contributor.
Rucker McGority ends it.
I will say this, Harrison Brunich got the memo.
He absolutely got the memo after he got sent back to junior.
The talk of his season was he's got to get a little bit better in front.
he's got to get a little bit more physical.
He did that in juniors,
and now that he's in the HL again,
he is playing more physical.
So he's also getting top pairing minutes as well.
You can really see how much Kirk McDonald loves working with him.
Again, I told the story earlier this week where, you know,
Kirk McDonald's eyes lit up last year when it came to answering a question about Harrison Brunich,
Pat, he loves working with us getting.
And you can see the dividends are really paying off with him after his junior season,
coming over to Wilkesbury, finishing the regular season with them, and now he's
upping his game even more in the playoffs and getting a bit mean in some of these games as well.
And that's going to be a huge improvement for his overall game.
We don't need him to become a bruiser.
We don't need him to become Jacob Truba, basically.
We don't need him throwing big hits all the time.
But he does have to add that physical element to his game because most top pairing defensemen
have that ability. You don't need them to lean on it. You don't need them to make it the centerpiece
of their game. But when you consider the type of competition, you want them to go up against,
they are going to have to know how to play a bit of a rougher game in their end specifically,
because we see how the game is trending. We see where the game is going. There's going to be a lot more
greasy goals scored in the National Hockey League. The front of the paint is going to be a war zone.
So he has to be able to know when to be physical, know when to be finesse.
And so far, since he returned to junior and then came to Wilkes-Bair,
he seemed to get that element into his game.
And that is only a positive for his overall development.
Right.
And I think it just makes him more confident as a player as well.
So whenever his season does end, whether this round or maybe the next round,
maybe it results in a Calder Cup championship for Wilkesbury,
no matter what it's going to give him more confidence
heading into the summer for his off-season workout routine
and then heading into training camp
where he is going to give it a great shot
not to just be here for nine games
but be here for the entire 82 game season.
So I'm excited about the way he's playing.
You mentioned about Marguerty.
That's really nice.
That tip from right in front of the net,
going to those high-danger areas,
those greasy areas, getting that goal,
really big for him.
The celebration was also great.
Avery Hayes, he's also played really well.
I continue to see good things from Aden McDonough as well.
So, Wilkesbury, there are a lot of fun here, but they have a chance to close us out here on Thursday.
If they don't, game five, we'll be back in Wilkesbury.
And then if Wilkesbury wins a series, they will play the winner of the Springfield Providence series where there was also a lot of controversy in that series.
I don't know if anyone saw that.
Springfield, their overtime winner clearly offside, but the refs just missed it.
And Darren Dregor of TSN even reached out to the AHL for comment, and they literally even said, yeah, we messed up.
But there's nothing they can do about it now.
Providence Pat, they're down two games to one in that series.
So looking like right now, both teams have to close it out.
But if both do, it could be Wilkesbury versus Springfield in the third round.
Which would be huge.
I mean, that's going to be another big test for them.
Because we see this that a lot of teams, it's not 10, 15 years.
years ago anymore where only a handful of teams prioritize their minor league systems.
This is a league wide thing now, and I know that sounds like I'm being painfully obvious,
but there were a lot of teams if you read reporting, you talk to people in those organizations
in the AHL and ECHL that one of their biggest complaints were that their parent organizations
didn't pay them much attention. And that has shifted over the past decades. So there are
a lot of good teams in the American League.
And this is only going to help the development of this group of prospects for the penguins
if they continue to play meaningful, serious hockey, grow together, get better in those big
moments.
So when their names are called to come up to the big club, they'll be ready.
I agree.
And one last little note before we had to break here.
Bill Zonan and Pat, his junior team in the QMJHL last night, their season ended.
time will tell if Zoning gets reassigned to Wilkesbury for a potential playoff run here.
We'll have to see what the front office decides to do with that one.
But just want to point out that Zonan season ended on Tuesday night.
He was great when he came back from injury both in the regular season and the playoffs,
really excited for his future in the organization as well.
I will say this.
If I'm the Penguins right now, I'm probably letting him go to his offseason.
had the injuries give him some time to really recover and begin an offseason training plan
because he is going to be a bit of a longer term project.
He's not going to be somebody that we're going to see for the next couple of years.
We maybe will see him in the ECHL or the AHL.
But when you have designs for him,
especially the type of game that he plays with the amount of physicality,
the amount of straightforwardness in his game,
I want him to get healthy.
I want him to have a full off season to train.
And throwing him into either Wilkes-bearer wheeling,
I know that injuries are possible for everybody.
But with how injury plagued his current season was,
I see him as a good potential bottom six player at the NHL in a few years.
So I want him to continue to train,
to continue to get stronger.
And there's going to be time for him to get that experience at the
minor league level. So if I'm the penguins, let him recover, let him hit the offseason and have
them come back and maybe make a big impression at camp. Yeah, I can see them doing that as well.
I mean, he finished the regular season with 14 goals and 46 points in 35 games. And then he was
right around a point per game in the playoffs with two goals and 15 points. If they want to just
let him get to his offseason workout routine, I can totally see that. At the very least, Pat,
he will be in one of Wheeling or Wilkesbury next year. If I had to say right now, I'm going to guess
Wilkesbury for next season just because, again, A, he's out of junior eligibility.
He's going to go pro for next season.
But I'm going to say right now he'll be at least in Wilkesbury to start next season.
Maybe not up with the main club yet.
But they're going to work him in with that team in Wilkesbury.
And I am really excited to see him how he does with that.
But time will tell if they calm up for the end of the regular season, not the regular season.
Excuse me, the playoffs here with Wilkesbury.
or if they just say, hey, we're going to have you start your offseason routine here and all that.
But that's going to do it for the second segment.
Coming up to end the show, this is something that Pat and I have waited to do all year.
It's our 2025, 2026, Warrior Helmet Wednesday winner,
and we're going to tell you who won it coming up right after this.
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All right.
We're back here on the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.
I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Damp.
I'm not letting Pat steal the host chair for this segment.
Feels like we got to end it in the style of today.
But I will pass it over to you, Pat, because who won?
Warrior Helmet Wednesday for this year.
I'm sure to everyone who's been listening all year,
it's probably pretty obvious.
But for those that have not,
for those that have started listening to the show a bit later,
Pat, tell us who won it.
So you said it, Hunter.
We actually got a lot of new listeners throughout the stretch run
and into the playoffs.
So there might be some people here today who don't know what Warrior Helmet Wednesday is.
This is a segment we created a couple of seasons ago.
it was what we would do every Wednesday throughout the year,
where we would pick the MVP of the week for the penguins.
It was us paying homage to the 2016 Stanley Cup winning penguins,
which coming up on the 10-year anniversary of,
which is crazy to say.
But during that season in the locker room,
the team itself after wins would give their player the game.
It was a warrior helmet.
They did it all season long and throughout their run to the cup
in San Jose.
And don't you worry if you're watching us here on YouTube.
I brought our tracker along with me for us.
So if you're watching on YouTube, you're about to see who won for our listeners.
You're going to have to keep listening here.
You can see it on your screen if you're watching us.
Leading the pack this season with five warrior helmets was the captain number 87,
Sydney Crosby.
he won the Warrior Helmet for us five times this season.
Getting it four times this year were Eric Carlson,
Evgeny Malkin, and Anthony Mantha.
And then with three, we had Justin Brzo,
Kyle Dubus, and Dan News,
and then a whole bunch of players got two and one.
I'm not going to read off that whole list.
You can take a look here if you're watching us on YouTube,
but a pretty good season,
all things considered for Sidney Crosby,
especially with his post-Olympic injury that he had to deal with.
68 games, 29 goals, 45 assists for 74 points,
and hilariously this season.
His plus minus on the year.
You want to guess what it was, Hunter?
I am honestly not sure.
I don't know off the top of my head.
He finished even.
He was not a plus.
He was not a minus.
him and Brian Rust both finished the year with an even plus minus.
But it was another great year for the captain, very deserved.
And honestly, I'm surprised that Eric Carlson with the season he had,
did not get our season long warrior helmet.
Yeah, I think it was going to be really close in terms of whether he was going to tie
Sidney Crosby.
He very much deserved at least second.
But honestly, Pat, I thought as the season went on,
and he was potentially going to tie Sid by the end of the season and the playoffs.
I honestly think if he had had such a great first round,
I probably would have given him one to tie Sid for the season,
and then we would have had to see if one of those two can surpass one another
to win the season-long helmet.
But in the end, it is Sidney Crosby that wins it.
And you said that there are a lot of players with two,
including, you know, Igor Chinochov, Archer Shilov was there,
a lot of players with one.
as well, we have the special teams units down there, as well, Pat, both the power play and the
penalty kill as well. Elmer Sotombram was also on there, as well, Pat.
You know, we keep going down the list, honestly. But at the end of the day, congratulations to
Sidney Crosby. He wins the season long warrior helmet. And I don't think it'll surprise anyone
if he wins it again next season, too. I mean, of all the awards and accolades that Sidney Crosby
has achieved in his career, I think his most.
proud will be winning the Locked-on Penguins Warrior Helmet Wednesday award.
It's it's just so prestigious and such an honor for him to win an award from two goofballs
who do a podcast.
We got to make a trophy for him and then he can put that trophy just like in his man cave in
the basement or something where he has all those other trophies.
I just want that one to stand out among all the rest of the trophies that he has.
You know, the heart, the art Ross, the rocket.
all that good stuff.
Yeah, I'm proud of the Kahn Smyth.
I'm proud of the Art Ross, the Hart Trophy.
But this, this is the Warrior Helmet from Warrior Helmet Wednesday
unlocked on penguins.
Yes, but that was fun throughout the season.
Stinks, they're not in round two.
But we're going to bring the segment back again for the 26, 27 season because we love
it.
It's a lot of fun.
I think a lot of people who listen slash watches.
So love it as well.
So, yeah, we're going to.
to bring it back, Pat. We're also going to continue a fan take Friday throughout the offseason
and into next season. Who knows, maybe we'll add another weekly segment at some point for next season
for a different day. Pat, do you have anything else for today? I will say this just to end the show
real quick. Congratulations to Detroit on being named the next city to host a PWHL franchise. Now,
it should be our turn next. Let's get that PWHL Pittsburgh team going.
before we know it.
Yeah, I do think an expansion to Pittsburgh is going to be coming in the next, you know,
two, three years, something like that.
It just makes too much sense to me, in my opinion.
So I agree with you.
And with that, that's going to do it for the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins
podcast.
Thank you all so much taking the time to listen to slash watch this one.
Pat and I will be back with a fresh episode for you all on Thursday.
But until then, for Patrick Damp, I'm Hunter Hodes.
Thank you all so much for tuning in.
We'll be back on Thursday.
Thursday.
