Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins need a top 4 LHD, Ottawa has just that...

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

Happy Friday! Hunter and Pat are back for another episode of the show and this time they start with the UFA goaltender market and if there are a couple of Alex Nedeljkovic type options out there in case Joel Blomqvist isn't ready. They discuss two options that are set to hit the market that probably won't be that expensive if that's the road they choose before diving into a player that's in the trade rumors yet again: Jakob Chychrun. After having interest in him last yar, should the Penguins re-engage those talks, albeit with a different management group? They dive into how dangerous the Penguins top four would look like if they could swing a deal and also detail how this could be a "hockey trade" not a "futures trade. Finally, they discuss where it has all gone wrong for the Oilers as they face a sweep at the hands of the Panthers.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.Ultimate Hockey GMEver dreamed of becoming an NHL GM and managing your hockey franchise? Ultimate Hockey GM is completely free and playable offline, play on the go, as you want and when you want to. Locked On listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo LOCKEDONNHL in the game store. To download the game just visit hockeygm.app or look it up on the app stores. Ultimate Hockey GM - Start your dynasty today! 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 TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET. That’sTWO HUNDRED BUCKS you can use to bet everything from the Finals MVP to who's going to hit one out of the park!Visit FANDUEL.COM/LOCKEDONand add a big win to your summer bucket list!  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.

While the UFA market for goalies may not be strong this offseason, the penguins are still likely in need of a backup goaltender. So on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast, Hunter and I are going to discuss a couple of options. Your 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 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 L.O. 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 today's episode is brought to you by Ultimate Hockey GM.

Ever dreamed of becoming an NHLGM and managing your hockey. franchise. Well, now you can with Ultimate Hockey GM. It's completely free and locked on listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo code locked on NHL in the game store. To download the game, just visit HockeyGM.com or look it up in the app store. Ultimate Hockey GM, start your dynasty today. As I said at the top, the penguins still are basically a backup goalie away from having a full roster at the NHL level. Obviously, that's not the only thing they need. They have other holes to fill and other things they would like to improve on their roster. But strictly by discussion of filling out a minimum NHL roster,

they are likely going to need another goaltender. And yes, as we have said, most of this offseason so far, when you look at the UFA market for goaltenders, it's not a very strong one. So that pretty much means they won't go searching for a starter to replace Tristan Jari, but they are likely going to need somebody to replace Alex Nadelcovic, who we have said on multiple occasions has likely priced himself out of Pittsburgh. He's going to be due for a pretty solid raise. And there are two names on the UFA goalie market who kind of fit a similar description to Alex Nadelcovich. If you remember when we've spoken about him. This was pretty much a one year bounce back, prove it deal, because he's had a career that's been kind of marred between inconsistency and just playing for teams that

frankly weren't that good. So the first one I want to start with, and I think this one is a little bit more of a pipe dream than anything because he very well could potentially be a starter somewhere else. And that is a guy who finished the season with the Winnipeg Jets. And that is Laurent Brissue. the Brissot team, if you will. And he had a pretty solid season this year, 23 games, 15 wins, three shutouts, and even two goals against average and a 920 save percentage, excuse me. But very similar to Alex Nadelkovich, you look at his career numbers, bounces up and down a lot, a couple seasons under 900, a couple solid seasons at 927,

in and around that. So Hunter, you look at him as a guy that could be in the same position as Alex Nadelcovic to where maybe a one year deal, not that expensive. But if he plays well for a third consecutive year on a deal, he could go somewhere next off season and get paid. I agree. Yeah, he was 927 for the Jets this year served as Connor Hullabuck's backup. And he came to the Jets really cheap this year overall.

He only made 1.75 million against the cap this year. With those numbers, even though it's a small sample size, that's now two seasons in a row of him being a 927 goaltender. I know that's only 34 games of a sample size over the last two seasons, but he has still played like one of the better goaltenders in league. I'm sure those numbers would drop with a bigger sample size. I think at best he's a 1B goaltender. but if you can somehow figure out a way to sign him to a cheap contract,

it probably won't be as cheap as Nadelcovic came to the Penguins last off season, but if you can get him for, I don't know, two years, just spitballing out there, two million something like that, two million per year, I should say. I think that would maybe work in that case. It's just you don't want to go probably more than that, just because, again, I'm someone who very much doesn't want to, give out a lot of term and a lot of money to a goaltending tandem,

unless I think you're one of the five to seven best goaltenders on the planet. I think Adelkevich, he's going to be getting more than $2 million from a team. I think he could get $2.5 million on a deal from a team, maybe even more than that, maybe upwards of $3 million. I mean, heck, we saw Yonis Corpusalo get that massive contract from the Ottawa Senators last offseason when the goalie market was also not that good. When you see another year where the goaltending market isn't that good, that's going to drive the prices up.

So, yeah, I think very much a pipe dream in this case, but if you can somehow some way get him for a steal, I would look into that if I were Kyle Dubus, especially if he doesn't think that Blumquist is fully ready for NHL minutes, minutes, excuse me, just yet. Yeah, and that's the other thing to keep in mind in this discussion is that there's a very real world where Blumquist is not quite ready for NHL minutes. You would hope that he is, but you likely should have some sort of,

sort of a break glass in case of emergency plan there in case he falters. And then thinking about the way Breswatt has played the last few years, this could be a good option because I think he's similar to Ndolkevich in the sense that he's likely a ceiling of a 1B, but maybe just a tad better. And it would probably be in the best interest of Tristan Jari, very similar to our old pal Mark Andre Flurry to have somebody behind him that could realistically take his job. Because if you think of some of Flurrie's best seasons as a penguin, a lot of the time, there was somebody behind him that while you knew in the grand scheme was not going to take his

job as the starter, but you could have some doubts. You could have some thoughts of, you know what, if this guy takes over for the rest of the year, I don't think it would be that bad of a deal. and that would always kind of push Flurry to play a little bit better. Along with that, if you have Braswa, he could technically do the thing that we've been talking about to where you need to lessen Jari's workload. And he has shown the last two years he can be fairly capable. 927 is nothing to sneeze at despite it being a smaller sample size in 34 games.

But if you can get 30 to 35 games of 915, 920 goaltending out of your backup, that takes the workload off of Jari. that could be a good deal. If you get them for two years, two million each, I would not hate that whatsoever. Now, the more realistic option on the UFA market is from the now, at least for now, unless he resigns, former Predators goalie Kevin Lankinen, who somewhat similar numbers to Breswa, 24 games, 11 wins, 2.82 goals against average 908 save percentage. And then you think about where the predators are. they're probably going to run the same playbook that they did with Pecorite and UC Soros, now with UC Soros and Yaroslav Ascarov waiting.

There's a lot of talk that Ascarov might even be better than both of them. So they're probably going to try to bring him along if they hold on to UC Soros for the next couple of years without trading him. I think Lankinen would be a very similar position to Alex Nadelcovic where you're not going to get 30, 35. games out of them but 25, 26, 27, adequate backup goal tending in a better situation. So I look at that as maybe if they're going to find a backup for Jari in the offseason, this is probably their best target. Yeah. So with Lankin, he only made $2 million this past season for the predators. And I don't think they're going to resign him at all just because of UC Soros. I think they're going to want to extend his contract at least a little bit. And that Askrovkin, I think he's going to be their number one

sooner rather than later, it all depends on how long they want to sign Soros for. Soros is still, I think, again, one of the five to six best gold tenders on the planet. But Ascarov, I'm not saying he's going to get to that level yet, but there's a reason why he has a lot of hype coming into the NHL. So I expect Lincoln to hit the market. And I do think he's also more realistic for the Penguins. I think of the two between Versawe and Lincoln. I think Lincoln is the one that would maybe sign a one-year deal. I think Brasua could maybe look for a little bit more term.

I was going to say as well, in a perfect world, Braswaw, I would sign to a one-year deal. But I said, too, just because I think that's something that he could be looking for with the way he's played the last couple of years. But with Lankan, you know, this season played pretty solid for the Preders, 24 games, 11 and 6-0, 2.82 goals against average, 908 percentage. In terms of goals, say, above expected,

he was above both Alex Ndankovic and Tristanjaro. for this season. He was 27th in the league and goals that above expected with 4.1. I don't think he's going to be very expensive at all. So if you can sign into maybe a one-year deal worth, maybe similar to Brousswa. 2 million or maybe even a little less, you can get him on a discount to be Tristan Jari's backup or whoever the number one is, but we expect it to be Jari, at least right now.

I think that's something that I would do, especially if Dubis doesn't think Blumquist is ready yet. Right. And overall, Like we said, there's not a market for them to get a new starter on the UFA market. It's just not there. The talent isn't available. So I think realistically, those two would be your best options to get as your 1B behind Jari, like I said, to give him a little bit of competition in the net again. And also, especially if you can get, like I said, Bresla, that's a guy realistically in a pinch could be your starter and has shown that.

shown that he can take on those minutes, at least later on in the season, not right from the jump. But that'll do it for this first segment. When we come back, we're going to look at a player the Penguins reportedly had interest in in 2023 and how they might and probably should have some interest in him this offseason. But before we do that, we have to tell you about our first sponsor. And that is Ultimate Hockey GM. Hey, locked on Penguins fans, I want to take a moment to bring up one of our partners, the mobile game Ultimate Hockey GM.

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By the way, Locked-on Network listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo code Locked-on NHL in the game store, so make sure to check that out. To download the game, just visit HockeyGM.com. Or look it up on the app stores. Ultimate Hockey GM, start your dynasty today. All right, we're back here on the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hodes. I'm not Hunter Hodes. I'm not.

That's Hunter Hodes. Shame on you for that. Everyone that's listening or watching to this, Pat's fired. That's just a terrible wonder right there, people. But I guess I'm Patrick Damp for today. Yeah. Congratulations. You have an even more defined afro.

Let me take my hat on. Apparently, I'm Patrick Damp today, people. Anyway, I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. It's a Friday. We're a little bit punchy today, but we're going to talk about a guy that the Penguins reportedly had interest in last season in the 2022-23 season, but there was that all-well reported rift between Mike Sullivan and former general manager Ron Hextall. That player is Jacob Chikrin, a left-side defenseman who realistically, I think, should be a target for this team,

because you and I have discussed this on multiple occasions. One of the biggest holes on this penguin's roster right now is the left side on defense. And you look at Chickren, a bit of a down year this year, didn't have all that great counting stats, played 82 games, 14 goals, 41 points of very rough minus 30, which again, you've heard me say it. You get north or south of 10. I think it starts to say something. But realistically, Hunter, do you think there is a world where they could acquire him?

I mean, he's at least worth someone that you call about just because of the need for another top four defenseman on the left side. There was that report that Mike Sullivan wanted him a little over a season ago. Then Ron Hextall said he didn't want to part with some futures when he was still the GM. So Mike Sullivan, if that is to be believed, he still would be very interested in. this player. Now that he has a GM that seems like he gets more along with in the front office, I still think it's something that Dubus at least should give Ottawa a call about. If you were to get someone like Chickren, he would bring both offensive and defensive value. And oh yeah, people, he's also only 26 years old. His contract, also not terrible either, only makes 4.6 million for this

next season. Now, you will have to maybe think about extending him after this year unless it's just a one-year rental, but this is still someone that makes sense for the present and the future of this organization. I know he didn't have that good of a year in Ottawa this past season, but he still played in all 82 games. That's the first time he's done that for his career. He finally showed that he can stay healthy for full season. If that can be continued, if he were to go to the Penguins, obviously, that will be a big deal just because they need someone else in the top four that can play all 82 games and help out Chris LaTang, Eric Carlson and especially Marcus Pedersen.

And also, if you get that type of player, you can finally have another partner for one of the two guys on the right side on a more permanent basis. You don't have to play musical chairs with Ryan Graves and P.O. Joseph playing on your second pairing or your top pairing. You can finally have an established top four for next season. I mean, something along the lines of them, just spitball in here. Pedersen, Lettang, Trickren,

and Carlson or if you want to do Chickren with Letang, Patterson, Carlson, I mean, that's one of the best top fours in the NHL. Sign me up for that all day. I think the big question will be, what's the asking price for someone like him just because of how young he is. He had an eight two game season this year, played fairly well. So what is Ottawa going to be asking for in return? That's what I think would have come down to. Yeah. And the biggest question mark here to me is what exactly is his value? Because you look at the two teams he's played for in his career. The Arizona Coyotes, now the Utah Hockey Club, and the Ottawa Senators,

two teams that have not exactly painted themselves in glory over the past decade. But he has shown that he is a consistently good performer, sometimes even great performer. And then what exactly does Ottawa want? Because it is an expiring deal. And you know that with a new ownership, a better management, they're going in a more stable direction. And there is a lot of talent in Ottawa,

both currently on the roster and coming up, because for all the faults of the prior management and ownership, they are a team that did draft fairly well, all things considered. So what exactly are they looking for? And then you look at Ottawa's draft capital, you don't figure that's what they're going to ask for. They are just packed to the gills with draft picks.

To the point this year in the fourth round, they have four picks in the fourth round. They have two first round picks. And then you go to 2025. They've got all of their own picks and then an extra third round pick. So they're probably not looking for a pick at this point. They probably want somebody to stabilize their roster and maybe a young player. And the penguins have a couple prospects.

I know that people don't want to get rid of them, but they probably have one or two that they can realistically part with. That's not going to make that big of a difference. I think this will be more of a hockey trade type one rather than a features one for the senators. is because when you think of the senators for next season, I think they're going to be, I wouldn't say in win now mode, but they're going to want to take that next step next year, right? You have that young core mostly locked up, you know,

Tomah Shabbat, he's locked up for the next several years, Jake Sanderson's locked up for a while, same with Tim Stutzula, Brady Kach, Drake Batherson. I know you do have Claude Jureux signed for only one more season, but your main guys there are locked up. It's about surrounding them now with some better talent. And I think with the senators, they're going to want to at least try and make the playoffs next year. Now, I know some people would be like, well, why would they trade trick run?

Well, I think that they probably think that they won't be able to extend him after this contract is up. So I think they're maybe just considering, okay, what can we get for him right now? That can also help us for next year and then in future years after that, even though, again, I do think that they're going to want to be. better for next year. No doubt. But then you also look at their cap situation in Ottawa. They're only about, they only have about 12 million in space. They still have a good few RFAs to get locked up. They've also got Dominic Kubalik, who's a UFA, Eric Brandstrom's an RFA. So they, they have to free up some space somewhere. Yep. And then you look at Chikrin's 4.6 million, 26 year old defenseman, one year left. There is value to be had there. If for nothing else, you get that nearly five million

off of your cap. And then you can start working in on some of those other players they likely want to keep. He's also a goal score, man. He had 14 goals this past year on the blue line for the senators. I mean, I know the penguins could definitely use that on their blue line. Yeah. And then there's also the chance, the very real chance that Josh Norris comes back. And that's almost $8 million. they're going to have to find space with. So in all reality, it's not that they don't value this player or don't think that he's good. It's just the most likely deal they could move to free up cap space.

But that is going to do it for this second segment. When we come back, by the time we come back on Monday, they're very well could be a Stanley Cup champion. But before we talk about that, we got to tell you about our next sponsor, and that is eBay Motors. Passion Drive and Patience, the formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive.

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this had all the makings of what could have been an all-time classic Stanley Cup final, and yet it looks like it just might be a dud. The Florida Panthers go up three nothing on the Edminton Oilers, absolutely spoiling the party in Alberta on Thursday night. And man, I don't regret picking the Edmonton Oilers to win the Cup in seven. but I expected it to be a lot closer than this. I would not have been upset picking the Oilers and having them lose a hotly contested series,

but they just have no answers for the Florida Panthers. I agree, man. I mean, I expected the Panthers to win this series. I picked them, excuse me, in seven, but I didn't expect them to dominate the Oilers the way they have for the most part in this series. I know the Oilers, I'll play the Panthers. In game one, Brobrovsky stole that.

But the Panthers dominated game two. Game three, I do think the Oilers came out in the first period with at least a bit of a purpose. I think they had that home crowd energy juice for a little bit. But then the Panthers, they get that backbreaking goal late in that first period. That stung. The Oilers then tie it in the second. Edmonton gets riled up.

But then the Panthers three times in the second period, and they quiet that Edmonton crowd very much. The Oilers, they pushed back a bit in the third period, but even after they made it 4-3, I was never confident that the Oilers were going to tie that game, just with the way the Panthers are so good at defending one-goal leads, especially in the playoffs. I was just never, I guess, scared that the Oilers were going to tie it. I guess that's the word I can use for this. I mean, they came close a little bit at the end, but they're not getting enough from a lot of

their big guns right now. Hyman is really nowhere to be found. Newgen Hopkins dry side struggle yet again in game three. I think he's a little banged up right now, to be honest. I think McDavid has been their best player in this series, but he can also only do so much, even though, again, I do think he's the best player in the world. Stuart Skinner was a bit off in game three as well.

I think that was his worst game with the series by far, but I think as a whole, the Oilers are just off in general. But you know what play I really liked by the Panthers at the end of that third period? did you see how Bark, excuse me, not Barkov. Ekblad basically pinned the puck to the boards and killed off 20 of the last 30 seconds in that game. Textbook stuff from him. That's the thing, the main reason why the Oilers did not get any scoring chances to end that third period in the final 30 seconds was the play of someone like Ekblad. Really solid stuff from the Panthers.

And yeah, they're now one win away from a sweep in their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. I expected more from the Oilers in this series. But I think at this point, they've run out of gas, man. I really just think they finally run out of steam. It finally looks like it's caught up to them. It looks not dissimilar to Florida last year, where Florida looked like an absolute buzzsaw through three rounds, and then all of it came collapsing down in one series.

I think you're right on dry sidle, possibly being hurt. You look at some of the chances he got last. night and it looked like he couldn't get anything on the puck. It's not for a lack of trying for him, I don't think. It's not like he's no-showed, but just some of the times he's gotten chances throughout this series, you look at it and go, there's just something off about him. And it's got to be some kind of an injury. And the thing that's funny is, I don't think Stuart Skinner's playing all that poorly. It's just the fact that the guy on the other end, end of the ice is playing on another level.

He's playing like God. That's really what it comes down to. Sergei Mabrovsky is playing like he should be qualified as the best goaltender on the planet. I know right now I think that's still Igor Shusirkin, but Bob is playing like just, again, flat out God. That's what it is. And he's now one win away from guaranteeing himself a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame,

just a great playoff run from him. And who knows, maybe he takes away the Kahn Smythe from Barkov. I think it's going to be him or Barkov that win in. I'm still going to go Barkov, though. I mean, if they do this in four, if they get the sweep on Saturday night, and it's another marvelous performance from Bobrovsky, I think it would be very, very difficult to not give him the Kahn Smyth. Because while this has been a full,

team performance throughout these playoffs throughout for the Florida Panthers, a lot of it falls on Bob because I look at the way he has just constantly been one of, if not the Florida Panthers best player. And then you add in, he absolutely stole game one of this final. If he's not even a little bit close to what he was in game one, this is a much tighter series. Without him, this series is way different. So he really is my leader in the clubhouse to take home the con smith.

But man, really disappointed in how this final has played out because, like I said, it had all the makings of an all-time classic. And it has been anything but that. Same in the NBA, man. Both the NBA finals and the Stanley Cup final in the NHL have been flasked. out duds. I mean, I might spend my afternoons watching Colorado Rockies games at this point. I mean, I'm still obviously going to watch my Washington Nationals, but, man, it's going to be really sad if both of these series do end in sweeps just because I thought that Celtics

Maverick series was also going to be good, just like this series, Oilers, Panthers, but, man, they've both been terrible. And there's a real shot that both of these end in sweeps. I can't even believe I'm saying that to be honest. This could be the first time if both teams, both the Celtics and Panthers close it out, that we've had an NHL and NBA final sweep since 1995. So that is going to do it for the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We will be back on Monday. Maybe we will have a brand new Stanley Cup champion come then. But Hunter and I will be back to talk about any news that happens over the weekend with the Penguins. Also maybe give some thoughts on the Stanley Cup final and where it stands or

how it ended. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in. And we will return with a new episode on Monday.