Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins make goalie Tristan Jarry available...sort of

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

While we still wait for the Stanley Cup Final, the Penguins had some news on Tuesday regarding the status of goaltender Tristan Jarry and whether or not he'll remain with the club into next season. Patrick and Hunter discuss that, what a Jarry trade could look like, as well as some other updates regarding the Penguins' broadcast teams. Next, three CHL standouts were signed to AHL-level deals and they'll join Wilkes-Barre/Scranton next season. What does that mean for organizational depth and what is their ceiling? Finally, forget analysis and all that - the boys tell you who they are rooting for in the Stanley Cup Final.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.PolicygeniusCheck life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonnhl to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARANTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. 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.

We got some interesting new information that could show us how this offseason will go for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Hunter and I are going to discuss that right after this. You're Locked-on Penguin, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguin. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4Wet. joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes.

You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's account a follow at L0 underscore Penguins. And we thank you for making this your first listener watch of the day because we're your team every day. And don't forget, we are free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as YouTube. And before we get started, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any one.

winning $5 bet. That's $150 with any winning $5 bet. Visit fandul.com slash locked on to get started. So we're in the dog days of summer at this point with the penguins. We're waiting for the Stanley Cup to be awarded. We're waiting for the draft to get here. And the penguins don't have a first round pick. So we can't even do a mock draft for the penguins first round. And then we're waiting for free agency to start on July 1st. So kind of feels like there's not a whole lot happening. But thanks to our friend Rob Rossi at the Athletic, we got a slew of updates from him in what he's hearing on what the penguins are angling to do this summer with the franchise,

both in hockey ops as well as on the TV and radio side. He did add a couple nuggets about that in his article. We'll get to those later on in the segment. but let's start with one of the things that was a little bit revealing but also a little bit confusing. And that's the status of goaltender Tristan Jari. Rossi in his article on the Athletics says, quote, goaltender Tristan Jari is not exactly being shopped by Dubis, but there is a sense among other teams that Jari is available.

So I want to start here with that because I kind of feel like that's been the consensus all along is that while we've never had any actual confirmation from Kyle Dubus, the front office, the penguins, or any sort of dead confirmed reporting, it's kind of felt like the penguins want to move on from him, but don't think it would be the worst thing if they couldn't. It's more of a perfect world if we can find a trade that suits us, that suits whoever we're sending Tristan Jari to, then we'll make the move. but otherwise we're going to hold on to this guy and see what happens.

Right. I'm sure in a perfect world, they would like to move on, clear out that contract and bring in a new goalie who can be more consistent. But that's easier said than done. We've discussed on this show numerous times. You look at the free agent market, it's not exactly good. Heck, even the trade market outside of Linus Allmark, who I think is the top trade option for goaltenders this summer, we don't know who is mainly going to be available. I mean, there's been a little bit talk about Jacob Markstrom, but I think the flames are probably just going to keep him.

I don't really think they're going to move on from him at all. There's obviously the talk about John Gibson and Anaheim, but I'm personally not that too interested in Gibson. I don't think he's as close to the goalie that he was a few years ago. So, sure, I think they would definitely like to move him if the right deal came along, and it would also really help that they would open up more cap space. But if they can't find a true upgrade, I think they're going to keep. him. So that's what I think that truly means for Jari heading into next season. Yeah. And I agree with that.

For a while too, I feel like. For sure. And that's kind of what I was saying is that it felt like it is a perfect world trade and not an actual trade where, you know, we kind of have accepted that Riley Smith is going to get moved this off season for whatever reason. But with Jari, it's more, hey, can we find a suitable trading partner? Will it work for Tristan Jari wherever he goes? And can we get value back? It also fits into the theme that we've been talking about for the last few days, a few weeks, heck, even few months,

that it's another trade where you also probably should, like I said yesterday, prepare for it to be underwhelming if and when it happens because really all the penguins need to do this offseason more than anything. thing. Yes, they need to get a better defenseman. They need to get another goalie. They need to find another forward. But really, all of that starts and ends with clearing cap space and having cap space because to get what they need, they're going to need cap space. Right. And they may not even just stop at Riley Smith. You know, Rob also included his article that Dubus wants to clear out that entire $5 million cap it. That's the way you want to go. You don't want to

retain money on that type of deal. Whoever you move off of this team trade-wise, you want to try your best to retain as little money as possible. You look right now, Penguins will have just about close to $13 million in the salary cap space heading into July 1. If you can get close to $20 million, you'll be cooking with some gas, heading into free agency, heading into some trades. But as we said on Monday, and as we said throughout all offseason, you just need to spend that cap space wisely. So it's right. The biggest thing you would be getting, I think, with these trades is cap space. With Jari, yeah, you're not going to be getting a top six forward. You're not going to be getting a top four defenseman return. And honestly, goalie trades are also very strange.

You've seen some goalies in the past better than Jari get decent returns, but you also have seen some goleys who are kind of around Jari's range that get minimal to just kind of meh returns. That's what I feel you're going to be getting here if you do move. Just because you look at his contract, look at the cap pit that he has, you look at some of the lack of consistency issues that he's had throughout his career. I do think he is a number one goalie, but I just don't think he's going to be getting as much back as some people may think he will, just because goalie trades in general are very strange and just, again, his contract situation.

But yeah, people just need to temper their expectations for a return for this type of player. And as we said on Monday, Riley Smith as well. Yeah, for sure, because like we've been saying, the main goal for these trades is to open up cap space. But we will see what happens with that. The other really interesting nugget from Rossi's story this morning was, and this really took up the most space was what is to come on the Penguins broadcast, both TV and radio. That's Sportsnet Pittsburgh, which is owned by Fenway Sports Group, the Penguins Ownership group. and then their partnership with 105.9BX, WX, the X, WX, the X on the radio side. And it appears that Josh Getsoff is going to return as the play by playman for next year.

Well deserved, well earned. He has done a very good job. But as we saw last season, there was a rotating door of color commentators. We saw a lot of them. We saw Kobe Armstrong. We saw Mike Rupp. We saw on the radio side and sometimes on TV. Michelle Creckiolo stepped in a few times.

And then there's the big one, which is Phil Bork. You know the old two-niner. Everybody in Penguins land knows the old two-niner. He has absolutely shined as a color commentator for the Penguins, whether it's on TV or radio. It appears they want to bring him on as the full-time color commentator on Sportsnet Pittsburgh next year. But the wrinkle is that one, WXDX does not want to lose him as the color commentator on the radio. They also don't quite know what the status is of Steve Mears because at the end of the day, Mears is a TV guy, not a radio guy.

And once the changes happened, according to Rob's article, there wasn't enough time for him to go and get another television job. So he took the play-by-play duties on the X. So I'm really interested to see what happens here. I agree overall with the sentiment that Phil Bork should get the full-time gig on TV. he has been fantastic, whether it was with Mike Lang or with Getsoff or with Mears. He does a really great job, not just of being a former penguin who talks about his former team. He's not afraid to call this team out when they play poorly.

Well, Pat, just steal my thunder some more. Why don't you there? But I completely agree with you. Paring Phil Bork with Josh Getsoff would be a slam dunk for sports net pitch. in FSG after how well they did for the radio broadcast, it only makes sense to reunite them for a full season on TV. Last season in general, I think was a big step forward for Penguins televised games for Sportsnet Pittsburgh. I thought Getsoff did a fantastic job. He seems like such a natural calling games for television.

His goal calls have so much conviction to them. He brings the right amount of energy, the right amount of spirit that you need to call games for television. television. And I just, again, I thought he was great for the Penguins. Now, with the rotating cast of caller commentators, I really liked Colby Armstrong, and I want him to remain with Sportsnet Pittsburgh in some capacity. More on that in a second. But when Bork was calling games, I just, I learned so much about the game when I listen to Phil Bork speak. And that's no disrespect to Mike Rup or some of the other people that they brought on for television. But I just learned so much when it comes to Bork. And obviously you expect your regional you know television partner to be i guess a bit homerish in quotation marks

and sure gets off in bork are just like like any other tv broadcasters for any local NBA NHL nLb team but with bork you said it he is not afraid of going in on this team sure he'll defend them when it's warranted but when this team is playing like utter crap he will go in and say like oh yeah, they need something to get going here because they look like absolute garbage on the ice. And the way he gets into it, the way he analyzes the game is second to none. I think this will upgrade Sportsnet Pittsburgh's broadcast even more for next season if Bork gets the whole-time job. So I would love if he were to get it. And if you want to make the broadcast even greater besides those two, how about you have Gets Off and Bork in the booth?

have Kobe Armstrong between the benches down there. I think three together would form an A-plus broadcast, in my opinion, full-time. Yeah, you kind of beat me to something I was going to say there was that I like Colby Armstrong quite a lot. He was one of my favorite players growing up on the Penguins, and he's become a great television personality. I think that would suit him a lot better than Color Commentator. He's much better in those snap reaction kind of places, like between.

the benches or on an intermission panel rather than the number two guy on the broadcast. And one other thing before we send it to break, this is going to sound like a shot at Mears, and I promise it's not at all. He is better on TV than he is on radio. He's not a radio guy. And I don't mean that in a negative way. There are certain qualities that play-by-play broadcasters possess that work on TV, but don't really translate to radio.

and Mears, he was fantastic with NHL Network. He's been doing the stat cast for TNT games during the playoffs. Tremendous on that as well. He did it, I thought, a very admirable job when he was the play-by-play guy on TV for the Penguins. It's not that I even think that he does a poor job on radio. It's just he's more of a, he enhances the visual on TV better than bringing you a visual on radio. And again, not at all a shot at him. I think he works his butt off.

He does a really good job. But he is more suited, in my opinion, for television than he is radio. Interesting because I kind of feel the opposite. I felt like he was better on radio this year when I was tuning into him alongside Bork or Michelle, compared to when he was on TV the last season for the Penguins. It felt like he was describing the game a bit better, just to me at least, on radio compared to TV. I will say, I think he improved when he was calling some playoff games for TNT this year.

I thought he was much better there than he was for the Penguins a year ago. And I agree with you, that's no shot at Steve. I know he works his tail off. I know he also loves the Penguins organization. He's been doing this for quite some time. Personally, I think he's, for play-by-play, I think he's better suited for radio. But if he does go chase a different TV job, I won't hold a number. against him in the slightest. I think he deserves to show what he can do on TV if he does want to go

to a different organization overall. But that is going to do it for this first segment of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. When Hunter and I come back, we're going to discuss a trio of signings made by the Wilkesbury Scranton Penguins and what this means for the organizational depth. But before we do that, we've got to tell you about our first sponsor. And that is Fandle. It's winner take all time in the NBA and NHL. And Fandul is. giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150 to bet on spreads, money lines, player props, and more.

Visit fandul.com slash locked on and make every playoff shot count. Fandul, America's number one sports book. All right, we're back here on the Tuesday edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. And it was announced yesterday after. that the Wilkesbury Scranton Penguins have signed three forwards out of juniors, that in those three forwards are Gabe Classen, At Lee Calvert, and Jack Beck.

All three have just finished up seasons in juniors. And while I don't have a ton of high hopes for any of these three players, I do think that these are guys that should they get some development time, should they spend some time in the American Hockey League, they could become good depth pieces for the penguins in the future. I want to start with Klasson, who while he was a 20-year-old overager in juniors with the Portland Winterhawks, he does have some very solid career numbers from his time in junior, three straight seasons of 30 goals or more.

This past season had 109 points. And he, those 109 points were seventh in the WHL. 71 assists was good for fourth in the league. But you said this to me before we started recording. Do have to keep in mind he did this as a 20 year old in the WHL. All three of these players did this as 20 to 21 year olds. Two of them are 20. One of them is 21.

So they dominated their leagues, but that's what you want them to do at age 20 to 21, going up against players who are a bit younger than them. You know, with Classen, he was very, very good this year for Portland in 67 games, 35 goals, 106 points in the playoffs. I know they didn't get to the Memorial Cup, but he still had six goals, 16 points and 18 games. Jack Beck, he was also very good. He played for the Greyhounds.

So, of course, you know, Kyle Davis is going to go back to the Greyhounds to sign a player. 27 goals, 85 points in 67 games, also averaged a point per game in the playoffs. And then Atlee Calvert, some fans may recognize him. He was at Penguin's development camp last year and was also Moosechaw's second line center throughout this season. So he played on the same team as Bray and Yeager. And he had a good year. 47 goals, 95 points in 68 games.

Both of those are career highs for Calvert and in the playoffs. Eight goals, 20 points in 20 games for Moosechaw and helped them get to the Memorial Cup. And he also had two points in four games before Moosechaw was eliminated by Saginaw. At the very least, these three signings really helped. Wilkesbury for her next year just because I like how Dubison Company are restocking the cupboard a little bit. They want Wilkesbury to be competitive. And also, you want these players to go against other players of their age, other pros, to see how they stack up against in the HL. You want this team to be competitive? That's great. You want this team, you want these players, excuse me,

to go up against other pros? Yeah, that's great. And if they are able to succeed with both, then there's a chance maybe at some point down the line these players come up to the penguins. But I think right now that's probably just a little bit of wishful thinking. It's just good that they're really prioritizing Wilkesbury for next season and restocking the cupboard and getting this team even more competitive for next year. And that's something I've been saying all season long since the hiring of Kyle Dubus is that I like the refocusing on making Wilkes Bear a competitive team in the American Hockey League, because if you are an organization that has championship aspirations, you want

those championship aspirations to flow all the way down. You don't want it just to be, hey, our American League team and our ECHL team, they're just grist for the mill. We don't care what their teams do. We don't care how they play. We just want this group of players to develop, to get better, and then to eventually come and feed the NHL system, which obviously is, the main goal. But when you want to have a championship organization, when you want to have an organization that demands the best, this is what you do. You go out and you get players who, yeah, they may not become NHL players. They may not become NHL regulars. They might become depth call ups that get the call in December, January, February, when you've got your inevitable injuries,

you've got guys struggling and you need to bring up a couple bodies to get players right or just to keep the ship moving through out the season. But you want these guys who you do want to become full-time NHLers, to become key contributors for your NHL team, to play meaningful hockey everywhere they go. And the Penguins sort of kind of have done that in the Crosby-Malkan era. The thing I have always said about them, though, that I enjoyed from this era, was that they fully employed what I called the baseball development model,

where the ECHL team wasn't just the team they had that they were required to have. There were guys who started in Wheeling, worked their way up to Wilkes-Barre, and eventually got to Pittsburgh. Guy like Tom Coonhockle comes to mind, guy like Scott Wilson comes to mind, handful of others who helped in the back-to-back championships that started in West Virginia and worked their way all the way up to the Penguins. So I think if you keep that going, you keep the going that you have guys, in the system who might not be NHLers for five years,

but get that experience and development from the ECHL all the way up to the NHL, that's a big deal. Then add in the fact that you want them to play meaningful, competitive hockey, that's also a big deal. I agree, especially on that last point, just because they want Wilkesbury to be at least a playoff team for next season. I know they haven't hired their new head coach yet. There really hasn't been much to report on that anyway from the insiders or anything

like that just yet. But that new head coach hire will be pretty paramount to these players' development and everyone that's down there as well because you're entrusting that coach to develop this next wave of penguins, not even just these three players, but the other players that are down there right now as well. So that's still something that we have to keep our eye on as well in terms of who the penguins will hire to coach Wilkesbury for next season and in future seasons. And we should point out, excuse me, just to end this segment. Wilkesbury Scrant and Penguins Defendman, Xavier Olet, he has agreed to terms with a team in the KHL. So that does open up a roster spot defensively for Wilkesbury for next season.

Yeah. And I think with a guy like Spetsa basically running the show for Wilkes Bear, you know, he's a guy who has a, as we all know, a world of experience top to bottom in professional hockey. and that's a good person to have running your minor league system because that's a very good mentor. And I saw that when I was with the Wheeling Nailers for those few years. You know who the AGM and player development director was in those years? Bill Garon. And Bill Garen would be in Wheeling a couple times a month

to check in with players, to see where their development was. And that plays a huge role in a player development. when you can see a guy like Bill Garen, like Jason Spetsa, etc., etc., who have all those miles on them in the best league in the world, coming down and talking to you and saying, hey, listen, this is what you need to do. This is how you're going to get to the show. If you do these things, you check these boxes, you're going to move up.

Eventually, you're going to be in the show. So very curious to see what they do on the hiring front when it comes to Wokespaire. But that is going to do it for this second segment. when we come back, we're going to put the analysis to the side a little bit. We're going to put the previews to the side for a little bit. And we're going to talk about the Stanley Cup final. But we are going to do that right after this. All right, we're back here on the Tuesday edition of Locked on Penguins podcast.

I'm Patrick Damp, joined always by the illustrious Hunter Hodes. And we did it yesterday. We talked about the Stanley Cup final. We made our picks. We did our analysis. We did our preview of it. We talked up and down about all the things Edmonton or Florida can do to bring home a Stanley Cup. We're not going to do that today.

Today, we're going to take off these analysts hats that we wear from time to time, and we're going to put our fan hats on. We're going to be fans again for a little bit. This doesn't matter what you think about Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers. This doesn't matter what you think about Cichuk and the Florida Panthers. Who do you, Hunter, as a fan of hockey, as a fan of the national? Hockey League. Who do you want to win the Stanley Cup? See, it's funny. I mostly don't care who wins just because I don't hate either of these two teams.

I don't hate the Oilers that are in the Western Conference, the Penguins see them twice a year. And maybe some people will get on me for this. Maybe not. I don't hate the Florida Panthers people. I actually really enjoy watching them. They play a really fun style. Do they have some players that play a little dirty at times that get under your skin that are a bit of rats? Yes, Sam Bennett. definitely is a bit of a rat. He can be dirty at times. Matthew Kuchuk. He's a rat. He's been dirty at times as well. But they are still at least fun players to watch. Gustav Forsling is also a ton of fun to watch on the back end. And I can go the same with the Oilers, McDavid, Drysidele, Bouchard's been incredible. Zach Hyman's been great. Newgent Hopkins,

etc., etc. But by the slimmest of margins, I am going to go for the Panthers for one reason. I want that Canadian cup drought to continue forever. That's why I'm going to go for the Panthers. That's a very fair argument. I can't get mad at you for that one. And again, I can't get mad at any of this because we're just having some fun here. But I'm going the opposite. I want to see the best player in the world get his Stanley Cup.

I was joking and talking about this with some of the guys I played beer league with on Mondays last night. Because we've had the typical locker room conversations that hockey people do about best player in the world, this, that, and the other. And I joked that it's hilarious to me that when we talk about the goats, when we talk about the best, when we talk about the legends, you'll sit there for 10 minutes and rattle off like he won this scoring title, he had this many points, he won this award, he won this trophy, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then you rattle all that off and you go, well, didn't win a Stanley Cup though,

don't know if I can put him in that group. you know that teams win Stanley Cups, right? Like up into this point, this is year nine of the Connor McDavid career in Edmonton. And he has been the best player in the world for a lot of those nine years. But they haven't won a Stanley Cup. And that's because up until a couple of years ago, Edmonton's front office strategy was McDavid and Hope. Yeah, I agree with you.

And just to add on to that, this is the first year that Connor McDavid has won more than eight playoff games in a single year. That goes to show how hard it is to go on a deep run. You need everything to go right, plus have a little bit of luck along the way. And yeah, this team has been very mismanaged along the way as well. I don't need to go into detail about how awful Peter Schrelli is. He was just flat out awful. And even to a degree, Ken Holland, I think, has done a fine, okay job. He's just not Peter Shirelli, which is really what you need to be, I think, overall. But It would still be awesome if McDavid won the Stanley Cup.

He gets his name on there. He gets his first one. Potentially, he gets more down the line. But you want to see, usually at least, the best player in the world, at least win one before his career is over. And I'm also looking forward to seeing if McDavid wins, gets the cup first. Who does he give it to next? If I had to guess, it's Ryan Nugent Hopkins, just because he's been through a lot of really rough years with the weather. He's seen this team through so many ups and downs.

This is something that I always like thinking about when the Stanley Cup final comes around. You know, who gets that cup first right after the captain gets it. Heck, with the Panthers, I'm kind of having trouble figuring out who's going to get it after Barkov. If I had to guess maybe Aaron Ekblot or maybe it's Kyle a Poso just because, you know, he's never played in a Stanley Cup final before. And he's also been in the NHL for a very long time. You remember him going back to his Islanders. days and how he would always kill the penguins it feels like when he played for them. But I think it would have to be one of Ekwad or Oposso.

But for the orders, I think it would have to be New Jersey Hopkins. But there's just so many fun storylines to think of when it comes to the Stanley Cup final. And man, I'm looking forward to it. This is going to be a very good, very fun Stanley Cup final. And it doesn't start for four more friggin days. But that aside, that's who we're rooting for. in this Stanley Cup final, but that is also going to do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. Hunter and I will be back on Wednesday with

a fresh episode with any news or anything that comes up or whatever tickles our fancy that we'd like to talk about here on the Locked on Penguins podcast. But for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always for tuning in, and we will be back on Wednesday.