Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins have stayed out of some early trade action...for now

Episode Date: March 17, 2022

Trades are finally starting! There were three deals on Wednesday and Hunter breaks them down to start the show and how they can impact the Penguins moving forward. He again shot down the Ben Chiarot rumors as nothing short of nonsense since no one meaningful was reporting them. He also confirmed how much he got on the trade market and wonders what that could bean for Pettersson, Marino, or even Dumoulin this summer. He also breaks down the Jarnkrok trade and why the Penguins should aim higher than him. After that, he previews Thursday's matchup against the Blues and brings up some keys to how the Penguins can win. Should there also be any lineup adjustments? Hunter gets into that as well before touching on Sid and Geno getting more ice time together, and how Jeff Carter's leadership may hopefully get Kapanen on the right track.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Athletic GreensAthletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK. 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.

Hey everyone, we got another jam-packed episode coming out of you all today for Wednesday. Got some trades that just happened. Why it looks like it's basically a seller's market right now. I'm going to go over the prices that a couple of teams paid and why, you know, maybe this is good news for in a way with the Penguins, but also maybe it's bad news in a way for Penguins as well. We're also going to preview the game on Thursday against St. Louis. And, of course, you know, getting to some more cap and talk just because, I mean,

you know, last night was even more brutal, but, you know, maybe there's a bright side coming. And there's a small moment that I noticed after Captain and Misses' chance on a breakway that I think hopefully could, you know, turn the tide for him. This is probably very wishful thinking about. I'm going to get to that right after this drop. You're Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. your team every day hello welcome to another episode of the locked on penguins podcast

I'm of course your host hunter hodies remember to follow me on twitter at hunter hodies follow the show's twitter at l o arnold penguins and of course thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day deadbine is five days away we finally got some action tonight let's just get in right into that for this first segment i'll preview the blues game on in the next segment but um three trades so far are today. I'm sure as I'm recording at, what is it, nine o'clock right now, there is probably going to be another trade maybe as I'm recording. You know, I know last night

that wasn't the case, but now with my luck with this stuff, you know, maybe there will be. But so the first one of the day, Frank Vertrono goes from Florida to New York. Don't really have a problem with that. He was not bad this year. But the second one, we finally get the Ben Sharott trade. He goes down to Florida for a prospect, a first round pick in next year's draft and a fourth round pick in this year's draft. You know, again, I touched on this on my Tuesday episode. I don't know why people were throwing out the name charot for the penguins. It never made any sense.

They are so stacked on the blue line with many capable NHL defensemen help. P.O. Joseph is not even up right now. And he is most likely ready to play. You know, they have their top six. Marcus Pedersen is a scratch. Usul Wicola is probably NHL ready. And again, you have P.O. Joseph right down there. So that's a very capable NHL defenseant right now.

Why in the hell would they go out and trade for Ben Chirot? I don't really understand people that think they needed another defenseman. I think they're totally fine right now. I mean, you know, even Mark Freeman is in the lineup. And he's got a pretty small sample size, even though it's been good. You know, I know Mike Sullivan has been experimenting with it because the penguins have like a 99.9.999. percent chance of getting the playoffs. But that should tell you something if he's in the lineup over someone like Marcus Pedersen who has really not done anything wrong for as long as he's been

a penguin. So at the end of the day, it never made any sense. I know it came for the National Hockey Now Network, the person who runs the Pittsburgh chapter. Let's just say he's not trustworthy. I'm not going to say any more than that. But I do not think he has any sources inside the organization. And believe me, as I'm saying this, I know I don't either. I don't claim to. I never really have. And, you know, as soon as if I ever did, you know, I'm not just going to, you know, try to start out something that's not there. You know, I don't think there was ever any Ben Chirot rumors, I'm to say the least, never made any sense. And that package that Florida gave up. That's a lot. Three assets. And I know, you know, banners hang forever. Florida's

all in. But I really don't know what they see in him that warranted giving up a first round picking next year's draft and a couple of other things. Because if you look at Jayfresh's stuff, his projected wins above replacement right now is 0%, even strength defense, 9 percentile, power play 9 percent, PK, 6 percentile. He doesn't draw any penalties. His goal is 4 per 60 is 42 percentile. Even strict offense, it's okay. He's been, his quality teammates isn't bad.

His finishing isn't bad. But, you know, he's probably not as bad this year as he's been. for the rest of his career, but I still don't think he's worth that price act, even if he's not as bad as we've seen him be this year. I think Florida is already pretty stacked on the blue line. I don't really know what they see in him for that. And, you know, for the defenseman market, if Ben Chirot is worth that, what's Marcus Pedersen worth on the trade market? It's a fair question to ask, I've even seen people say out there, what is Brian Dumlin worth on the trade market if Ben Chirac goes out and gets a first-round picking with her. Hell, you know, I don't think this is going to happen, but what is John

Marino worth on the trade market? I mean, the penguins do have a surplus of defense and they can trade to get that impact forward that I have been talking about for the last week or two, hell, even three weeks now. Who knows? You know, GM's value defensemen differently. I understand that, but, you know, when I see this trade tonight, I'm like, wow, if a defenseman as bad as Ben Sharad, especially offensively and heck, even defensively this year, gets that kind of return. you know, that should send a little message, you know, to Ron Hextall saying, okay, you know, you know, he can kind of use that against other general managers and be like, okay, this guy got this, you know, what about a couple of my guys here?

So definitely thought it was an overpayment for Florida. I'm glad the penguins were really never in it. And I will be curious to see what happens now with Pittsburgh if they want to trade one of their defensemen at the deadline. You know, we're only basically four and a half days away now at this point. from the deadline. The other trade, so Kelly Yarncrock.

I saw that option out there for the Penguins. I think Josh Joey wrote it from the Athletic in one of his articles last week. I saw Washington, I think, had interest in him. He goes from Seattle to Calgary for a second round pick in this year's draft, a third round pick in next year's draft, and a seventh round pick in 2024.

You know, I did see some Penguins fans on social media and a couple other plays to say that they wish they could have gotten him. I personally, I say this to those people. Two works. Aim higher. In my opinion, the Penguins have about five Callagarn Crocks. He's a fine player.

Not really going to hurt you. Solid defensively. Good on the PK. You can put him on your second parable unit if you want. But he's not that much, you know, of a play driver. 26 points in 49 games. It's not bad. But, you know, if you're looking for an impact top six winger,

that's not your guy. So I am perfectly fine with the Penguins passing on him for that, especially at that price. I mean, three picks all in back to back to back years, especially one of them being a second round pick. I don't, you know, I know I don't usually care of teams that are all in trade draft picks because banners fly forever. But, you know, I feel like a team like Calgary could have used those picks to go get

someone a bit better. And if Pittsburgh had been the team to acquire Yon Kroc from Seattle, I would say the same thing. You know, I don't want to just burn assets for the sake of burning assets. I would want to make sure that what I'm giving up, you know, actually matches the player that I'm getting in return. And I don't think, you know, I get it. Calgoos all in.

They already got to Foley. You know, they're a very deep team right now. They're probably going to blitz. A lot of the teams in this conference come play out of time. But I just don't think Yon Kruk is worth what Brad Chilovine gave up for him. So these two trades aside, you know, I'm fine. The Penguins passed on, you know, one obviously Yarn Krock and especially on Chirot. No, patience.

There's still time. A lot of these names, a lot of the other players have not moved yet. I know some of the teams have wanted to get a head start. That's totally fine. I'm sure we're going to see more deals leading up to this weekend. Obviously during the weekend and then Monday is going to be hopefully a big day. But all you can say to the penguin stands out there, stay patient. I'm sure Ron Hextall's been talking to teams this week.

Maybe his cell phone's been having some battery issues and all that stuff. But, you know, let's just let's see what happens. If he doesn't make a trade on Monday, then you all can sound off. as much as you want. But I think right now, my opinion, you know, he's being wise to wait out the market a little bit. This is a seller's market. These two prices that we just saw for Ben Chirot and Calli Youngcrock are sellers prices. I mean, you know, there's just not as many buyers out there this year.

When that happens, you know, you get a sellers that, you know, they can, there's more sellers and they can ask for whatever they want. And again, those two prices that they asked for that they got, just very steep for those kind of players. So that sums up my thoughts on the two trades today and what they meant for the Penguins and what they could mean moving forward. Coming up in the next segment,

I'm going to preview the game against St. Louis on Thursday nights, the Penguins. That would be their second of the three game roach before they go to Arizona on Saturday. But before I get to that, this is the time of year that I pretty much given up on all of my New Year's resolutions, but not this year. resolution to eat right thanks to Bill Bar. It almost feels like it's not really a resolution

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I am your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Honor Hodeson. Follow their shows Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguin. So Pittsburgh takes on St. Louis, Thursday night game, 8 o'clock in St. Louis, of course. And, you know, this is, this is going to be a pretty, I had the, funny enough, I go to my left wing lock to evaluate the Blues lines and I have the Rangers lines pulled up for whatever reason. This is my luck right now. But St. Louis is a good team. I mean, they're, their top three in the Central right now. They've been one of the best teams in the NHL all year. They're obviously not going to catch Colorado. I mean, Colorado is just on a freaking heater. But, you know, they're basically battling with Nashville for that second, third. but I think that's probably what we're all going to see in the first round,

unless Minnesota comes up there and play St. Louis. But right now, if the playoffs were to start today, it will be St. Louis having home ice over National Blues right now. 34 and 17 and 8, the Penguins, of course, 36 and 16. The Blues do have two games in hand on the Penguins. But there are lines. Braden, Ryan O'Reilly, David Perron. I mean, O'Reilly is one of the best two-way players in the game.

He's having a good year as well. You always got to look out for him. I always say that the O'Reilly trade from a Buffalo perspective was absolute dogwater, as the kids like to say, of course, that weird word. But they just, you know, I know they got Tage Thompson back. He's actually been pretty decent this year. But outside of that, I think it was like Patrick Bergland, Vladimir Saboteca. He's not even in the NHL anymore.

I don't think Berglins in NHL anymore either. I think they also got a pickback on that trade was just a really bad one for Buffalo. And O'Reilly, you know, he's just been a mainstay there. ever since Shen, of course. We all know him from the Philadelphia days. He's having a good year. David Perron, Vladimir Tarasenko. He requested a trade prior to this season.

He's having a really good year. Jordan Kairu has been great. Barboshev on the third line. Oster Sond, Chris, former Penguin, Brandon Sade, Tyler Bozak, on the fourth line. It looks like Pavel Bouchnevich is hurt right now. I don't think he's going to be playing.

Well, actually, the latest news, he's not been ruled out for Thursday's game. He actually practiced yesterday and a no-contact jersey. I'm sure he practiced today as well. Robert Thomas has also been banged up a bit lately. He did not play in their game a few nights ago. I'm not sure if he's going to play. And this one, it was due to an illness.

So we'll have to see if he does play in it. Tyler Bozak, though, he's expected to miss at least four weeks, actually. So he will not be playing in this game. that actually came out 12 o'clock today. So the lines on left wing lock, that's going to have to be updated. So no Bozac, that's big, that's obviously big. Defensively, Colton Pereco, he's having a really nice here. Marco Scandella, Justin Fulc, Tori, Krook.

He's always been a nice power play specialist. Good at even strength. But, you know, Krug, you know, he's mainly known for his ability to quarterback a power play. You know, he kind of reminds me of Sergey Gonshar a bit in a way, just with how methodical he is at the point. a bomb of a shot. Great playmaking ability. Now, for a while, I've always wanted the Penguins to somehow get him, but he's making a lot

of money down there in St. Louis. You know, Robert Bortuzzo, also a former penguin, and then Mikula, who is on the left side. Remember him and Crosby, we're definitely going at it in that first matchup. And, you know, remember that first game, the Penguins were down three to one to the Blues in the third period, and be able to come back, tie the game, and then, And remember, the Blues challenged for go-tinting interference. Did not get it. Craig Bar-Rubi had a nice filled diaper after the game.

And then, of course, Evan Rodriguez was able to bury the game winner with, I think, a 6 to 7 minutes left. The Penguins were able to win that game. That was during one of their hottest, that was their hottest stretch of the season right there. It was just a really nice win for the Penguins just because, you know, I think that was when Casey DeSmith started. You know, he didn't really play well in that game. game, Mike Sullivan pulls him from Tristan Jari, and Jari doesn't allow a goal for the rest of the game.

You know, he was, he was that freaking good. So I would assume Tristan will start in this one. You know, Casey DeSmith wasn't terrible in Nashville. Again, I didn't really like the third goal that he gave up. But, you know, I still think, you know, it wasn't really too bad. And, of course, hopefully my Mike did not pick on my girlfriend just yelling while she's playing video games. So she just sounds like me sometimes.

but it's going to be Tristan for this game. You know, he had a nice night off. He'll get the start here, I would assume. Saturday, I think it's maybe you flip a coin. You know, I don't really mind which goal you go to. My gut kind of tells me it's to Smith, but I also would not be surprised if it is just in there. But, you know, St. Louis, they're a very physical team.

The Penguins were definitely pushed around against Nashville. I'm not really going to subscribe to the notion, though, that they need to get bigger and tougher at the trade deadline or something like that. You know, just the penguins don't hit a lot. lot at the end of the day. And honestly, if a team is leading the game and hits, that mainly means that they don't have the puck. And last night was a perfect example of that Nashville out hit them.

I think for a time was like 36 to 12 or something. And you know what? I didn't really care because the Penguins have the puck the entire game. The only reason why Nashville won was because just a couple dumb penguin miscues and UCROS was just God. So, you know, if that game has played nine more times, the Penguins probably win at eight. you know, even with UC Soros, playing really good. So for this one, you know, the table has just got to try to match the blue's

physicality, but if not, you know, just got to, you know, skate around it, you know, just don't play into their hands there. And, you know, the blue special teams, they're not too terrible as well. But, you know, I'm curious to see also what lines Mike Sullivan does. Does he keep the Matheson-Latang pairing going? No, I know I went on record on my last episode and say, you know, maybe I would change it at some point because they're both high-risk players, though I get at the underlying numbers are pretty good with Matheson and Lettang.

So I wouldn't be surprised if Mike Sullivan keeps that pairing together, at least for a little more and longer, to see if they bounce back from that. I would hope that both players have a much better game than they did on Tuesday against Nashville because that was just dreadful. It was easily Mike Matheson's worst game in the year. LaTang had some really good stuff, had some really bad stuff. as well. So that's my preview for the game on Thursday.

Big one, obviously, for Pittsburgh. If they can win that game, they'll get points 82 and 83. Penguins, of course, as I said, I've already beaten St. Louis once this year in Pittsburgh. So I'm sure Jordan Bennington will get the start. But honestly, Jordan Bennington, hasn't really been as good as this year. It's actually his backup,

Vili Huso, has been better than him this year. So he has played in 24 games this year. Has 16 goals stayed above expected. 928% percentage, 2.24 goals against average. If we now go down to find our good friend, let's see here. He is way down here, I think. Good Lord. Jordan Bittington, 80th overall among goalies.

29 games play this year. He's allowed five more goals above expected. 903 state percentage, 3.1 goals against. average. That is what we like to call a yikes in the chat right there. That is just absolutely, that's dreadful. That contract, that was a little, I think it was a, that was six times six when he signed about a year and a half ago. Good luck. That's a, that's a bad contract. Honestly, I would not be surprised if whoso did start because he's been the better goalie this year, though. I do think Bennington goes. It's always fun when he does have a full diaper.

the penguin, we finally got to experience it this year because I've always been wondering, like, you know, he always does this against these other teams. He gets so mad for no reason. I kind of want to see it happen against the penguins. Well, and finally he did during the game, you know, he got really jammed in after the game, especially. So bad contract there. He's had a really dreadful season.

You know, if he does start the playoffs, and I think he probably will because, you know, obviously the Blues won a cup with him, I'm not sure how far they're going to go if they get it. you know, a 903 level performance from him, from him, that's for sure. So if he is the starter of Penguins, just got to pepper him with a lot of shots. This is in UC Soros over here who's having a great year. This goal he can be had. And the Penguins have already gotten him at least once this year. So coming up in the next segment, I'm going to get to some talk on Casperi Capman

and why hopefully, you know, maybe a moment that I saw on Tuesday can at least maybe get a jolt in him, at least from a leadership point of view. So stick around for that coming up here in this next segment. All right. We're back on this episode on the Locked on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honourn Hoddes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows Twitter at L.O underscore Penguins.

So, you know, I saw this last night during the game. So when Latang threaded that beautiful pass to Capit on the breakaway and Kaepinin basically shot it right into Soros's logo, I mean, it's just a really poorly-place shot. He could have done anything else there. Go, try to go five-hole, top cheese, made a D-Kke. even, but he decided to do the worst out of all those options and just shoot her right into the logo. And we saw him go to the bench. And he's basically just, for those on YouTube, I'm just putting his head down, you know, basically almost, you know, like slamming his steak and screaming to himself because, you know, he knows he's in a rut and he knows just what's going on.

It's not acceptable. But I noticed Jeff Carter basically put his hand on his leg and just, you know, tap him right there saying, you know, know what, you got this, you're going to break out of this slim soon. And, you know, that's just, that's good leadership, you know, in all honesty. You know, I feel like that's a moment that Kappan may remember if he does break out of this. And trust me, I'm not trying to sim for Kisbury Kampin right now. I know how dreadful he's been. And if he is traded, I'm not really going to care that much.

But if he is on the team after the deadline, you know, I'm obviously going to root for him to get out of the slum because I don't want to see a player suffer like this. But I just thought it was a really good thing for someone like Carter to do because, as, you know, I'm sure he's been there in some capacity with being in a slump. And, you know, he just, you know, he wanted to be there for his teammate who, you know, is really going through the motions right now. I mean, the guy was just a healthy scratch, just a very little short time ago. And he's honestly never been scratched ever since he came in the NHL.

And he's just, again, having the season from hell right now. Nothing is going in the net. I mean, you know, he gets a breakaway when it's three to one at that point. The penguins can make it three to two with a decent amount of time left in the third period. and he's just not able to bury that chance. If this is last year, he probably does, at least in my opinion. But just really liked what Carter did there, you know, just being there for him and just tapping his leg saying, hey, man, you know, you're going to hopefully get out of this at some point.

You know, me speaking, we'll see. You know, I want to see it to believe it, I guess. But it was just another brutal night for him. I know it's basically been a nightly thing to say at this. point when I record. But I, and I am rooting for him to hopefully turn this around. You know, I'm not just going to openly root against someone on the team that I cover. I'm just, I'm not, I'm not wired like that.

But again, if he is traded, I'm not, I'm not going to be surprised to say the least. So I wanted to touch on that, you know, we'll see what line he's on for Thursday against the Blues. I would imagine it's probably the third line again with Carter. You know, remember Rodriguez is probably going to stay on Sitz line. I'm sure they're going to have Brian Rust on the second line. Also, one more thing before I let you all go. I don't think it was just me that saw this.

Mike Sullivan played Evgeny Malkin and Sidney Crosby almost four minutes at even strength on Tuesday night. That's something that he hardly ever does. I know Dan Bilesma used to do it quite more often. Mike Johnston never really did. But, you know, I think as the regular season gets closer to ending and the closer they get to a playoffs spot, the more I think Sullivan is going to play with.

some of these combinations because it was right after a penalty call a couple of times. Sullivan sent out Sid, Jake, and Gino for some shifts. And a couple of times they had some very nice extended zone time in the offensive zone. And I do want to see more of that moving forward. You know, I know the Oilers do it a lot with tricycle and McDavid. But, you know, I think Sullivan always has been a coach that prefers to have, you know, them on their separate lines. And obviously that's how you spread the wealth here.

But, you know, I am glad that he is trying something new with these combinations. and he's, you know, putting the two-headed monster out there together because they've always had good numbers when they are out there together at 5-5. You know, especially in that kind of situation where you're kind of chasing the game. You're playing well, but you're not winning. You know, why not? That could give the team a jolt if you score especially, and, you know, that could also, you know, lead you to play them more together moving forward.

So I'll be curious to see if Mike Sullivan starts doing that a bit more here as the season starts, you know, to get closer, even closer to ending. I should say, I've always always. always been a fan of both of them playing together at times at even strength. And, you know, we will see if that happens here, moving forward. But that would do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins Podcast. I am back tomorrow night with a full game recap episode for the Penguins' Blues matchup then Friday.

I'll be a preview for the matchup against Arizona. And, you know, we'll see if the Penguins have some trades and all that. So thank you all so much for listening to this one. And I will talk to you all on Thursday. Have a great rest of your Wednesday.