Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Pittsburgh Penguins 25-26 coaching staff is SET!

Episode Date: June 20, 2025

New Penguins head coach Dan Muse has his coaching staff for next season, and it’s mostly pretty good! Hunter and Patrick start the show breaking down the full coaching staff for the 2025-26 season, which officially includes Nick Bonino, Todd Nelson, Rich Clune, and retains goaltending coach Andy Chiodo. Speaking of Chiodo, they take the middle segment of the show to discuss whether or not the Penguins should have moved on from the goalie coach or if the team has just been a victim of poor goaltending and poor defense. Finally, it’s Fan Take Friday once again, and they take your questions and hot takes about everything from season predictions, draft positioning, and the length of the NHL season!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!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.

The Pittsburgh Penguins officially announced their full coaching staff for first-year head coach, Dan Muses on Friday, and Pat and I mostly like it. We're going to discuss more about that right after this. 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 episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host.

Patrick Dave, we can follow him on all social media platforms at Sin and Verweet. And you can follow the shows, Twitter at LO, underscore Penguins. And we are now on Instagram. You can follow our show's Instagram at Locked-on, underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Down the GameTime app, grant account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first

order. So the Penguins, they made a pretty big. big announcement on Friday announcing the full coaching staff for first-year head coach, Dan Mews. And as I said in the code open, Pat and I are mostly pretty happy about this. We already discussed Nick Minino a little bit earlier this week when he himself confirmed that he was joining the organization as an assistant head coach. I still think he's going to be mostly working on the penalty kill, working with the forwards. He played a lot on the penalty kill as a player.

Of course, he was a forward. He has good relationships with the big three and Brian Rust. He's very smart. I think he's going to bring all those attributes here to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Pat and I are cautiously optimistic that he will do a good job. But another big hire that was announced today, Todd Nelson, coming over from the Hershey Bears in the AHA. He was the head coach of Hershey,

helped them win back-to-back Calder Cups in 2023 and 2024. And he did a really nice job with helping develop some of the Capitals, really young players, especially Connor McMichael. I think he did a really nice job with him. When he was down there, you look at the player Connor Rick Michael is now, it's been crazy to see him develop into a really good middle six to top six option for the capitals. Ethan Frank, he's done a really good job in Hershey under Todd Nelson. I think he's going to be pushing for more of a full-time role.

Hendricks LaPierre, he did a nice job developing under Nelson. Not as much for Alexi Protis just because Protis didn't play as much down in Hershey. But still, when you look at some of these other players that he's helped develop, he's done a really good job and he's going to be working with quite a few young players here. He has a lot of coaching experience, Pat, both in the HL and the NHL. So there's the veteran that you and I have been kind of wanting the Penguins to hire. Obviously, it's not Jay Woodgraw for some of these other veteran coaches with other NHL experience, but we had been wanting them to bring in a veteran coach who's been around

the game for a while. And Todd Nelson is definitely that guy. As for the other two, Troy Piquette, he comes on as the team's assistant video coach and then Rich Clune is also an assistant coach as well. Kyle Dubus knows both of them very well. They've spent time with the Toronto Marleys. You have Rich Clune. He was the assistant coach with Anaheim Ducks this past season.

Before that, he was with Toronto. And then, of course, with Piquette, he will be the assistant video coach behind Madison Nicol, who, remember, he's going to be staying on with the Penguin staff. And then, very weirdly, Andy Kyoto is still the team's goaltenders coach. We're going to get to that a little bit later. but Pat, your thoughts on the new hires? I think they're absolute home runs.

Todd Nelson is a coup to me because this is a guy who looked like he was very much ready to return to a head coaching job in the NHL, not as an assistant coach. So bringing him on, I know that I've heard. It's funny you say that. I don't mean to interrupt you. I was DMing with one of my friends today. And he literally even said, you can have Todd Nelson as the head coach and Dan Muz is the assistant. It's like, honestly, you're not wrong. It's just obviously we have the opposite here,

but go ahead. I just found that funny. And that's actually what I was building towards is I don't know if they will give him an official title as like associate head coach or something like that, or if he's just strictly going to be the assistant coach, the news release and everything today said assistant coach. So I imagine that's what his title is going to be for now. But this is, this tells us everything we need to know about what this organization is trying to do, and that is development. Dan Mews, we've talked at length about how good he's been as a developmental coach. Todd Nelson did an incredible job with the Hershey Bears for the last three years. The proof is in the pudding for that. His win percentage over those three seasons is well above 700. So that's a pretty

solid job considering who he's had to work with. Nick Benino, we talked about that's a good bridge to the veterans and into the younger guys who have to learn from a cerebral kind of player who was not quite a journeyman, but also wasn't a superstar. I'm not going to go all the way into the history of Rich Clune, Dickie Clune, if you will. But he is a guy that when the young, the guys who were, regardless of what happens to them in Toronto, when the Matthews, Marner, Neelander, all of those guys were starting to come up and starting to develop, Clune was brought in as basically a guy who worked with them very closely. Maybe not so much on an NHL roster, but unlike Pittsburgh, the AHL affiliate is right

there in Toronto. So Clune was brought in to help those guys. mature to work with some of the supporting cast that they were going to call up to work in Toronto. So having this staff in place really tells us that they are all in on developing young talent. And they got a lot of very good coaches who are going to be pretty good at doing that. Right. And we all know Rich Kloon was a very tough customer during his career. You look at his coaching history, Pat these last few years. He was a development coach for the Maple Leafs in 22, 23.

He was also an assistant coach for the Marley's in 23-24. He was on Greg Cronin staff for the 24-25 season as an assistant coach. Yes, I know Greg Cronin was not a good head coach with Anaheim Ducks, but I'm not going to use that season against Rich Clune. I know that this is one of Caldubis's quote-unquote guys, but I'm still excited to see how he does here, considering that he has been with a Maple Leafs organization for a very long time, even before he was a development coach or even assistant coach,

coach for the Leafs and the Marleys. You know, Pat, he was a player for a long time for the Marley's organization. He has been with the Leafs. If you think about it, going back all the way to the 2015-16 season. He was with them. Then he was with the Marleys for a long time. Then he became a development coach. Worked his way up to Wii with the Ducks. And now he's going to be with the penguins. So he's been around for a while. He's been up and down from the NHL and the HL. Again, very tough customer. So, you know, they're going to try, maybe try to bring in some more physicality potentially this off season. Maybe look for that with some of their draft picks next week as well.

But I'm excited to see how he does. And then, of course, for Troy Piquette, if you look at his history, he's been the video coach for the Toronto Marley's these last four seasons. Before that, he spent time in the OHL, and now he will be the assistant video coach with the Penguins. So he also knows Kyle Dubus very well going back to his time in Toronto. So both of these at least, they're. Two of Dubus's guys, but I still think they're fine hires.

Oh, absolutely. Clune is somebody who it'll get mocked a little bit because he's such an old school hockey guy. Yeah. But that still carries a lot of value. And again, I'll reiterate this point that I've brought up so many times. The best coaches often were not the best players. They were guys who had to earn everything. They were guys who had to be students of the game.

didn't just come to them naturally. Obviously, you make it to the professional level. You have some level, a pretty high level, I would add, of natural talent. You're one of the best of the best. But having to earn everything, having to work for everything at the professional level in cutting your teeth there really can help you become a better coach. And I implore everybody to look up Rich Clune's whole story and history. The things the guy has gone through, the things he's overcome. This is somebody that can be a good emotional leader on the bench and almost, kind of similar to Nick Benino, a bridge between the players and the coaching staff,

because you know Muse and Nelson are going to be the coaches. You know those two guys are going to be X's and O's, development, footage, run and practice. And you can have Benino and Clune. almost like extra players out there. They can lighten the mood when you need it. They can give you a kick in the ass when you need it. They can tell you stories or impart wisdom on you from their playing days. So I'm really happy with the majority of this coaching staff that the penguins are going to have next season.

It's a nice mix, right? Like Todd Nelson, he's been coaching for a while, both in the NHL and the AHL. You know what you're going to get from him. Damn Hughes. He's been coaching for a while as well. Has it been in. NHL full-time head coach, but he's still been coaching for a while. He has the exes and nose.

And then Nick Benino, he's never coached before, but you still have that player-to-player relationship that a lot of the players on the bench are really going to respect. And the same thing goes for Rich Clune, but he does have a little bit of coaching experience for him as well. So I really like the balance with this new look staff. And it's nice seeing some fresh blood coming in here with hopefully some fresh new innovative ideas. That's the one main thing that I've been really looking for with a new staff.

and I really hope that we get it with all these new hires. But that will do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, it looks like Andy Kyoto will be staying around as goaltending head coach, per the Penguin's announcement. Is that a good thing? Pat and I are going to discuss that right after this. There's nothing like the NBA finals,

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Again, create account and redeem code locked on NHL for $20 off. Down the game timeout today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. That's my co-host, Patchdamp, and Pat. The most confusing part of this announcement today was that Andy Kyoto would be staying on staff as the Penguins goaltending coach. We had thought multiple times throughout the offseason that he was gone. Kyle Dubas even said that he was free to explore other opportunities.

I thought that was a nice way of saying, hey, thanks for what you did, but we're going to go in a different direction. Obviously, that's not what happened here. And again, I guess I'm just confused because the goaltending has gone downhill these last few years. This isn't just a one-year thing or an isolated incident. This is a multi-year thing where the goaltending has regressed under Kyoto. I really felt like bringing in a new goalie coach to give Jari or Ned or Blumquist or even Muroshov down the line. Fresh new ideas would be very beneficial to them.

But they decided going against that, just really weird vibes about that. I disagree about keeping him on the staff. I'll be honest. I don't have. really an opinion on it. Like I, I, okay, so that's, that's incorrect of me to say. I have an opinion on it, but I think it's more that I don't think it's that big of a deal one way or the other.

I think he did a good job getting these guys to the NHL because before he was the full-time penguin's goaltending head coach, he was the goaltender development coach and worked mostly in the HL and the ECHL. He was able to shepherd Matt Murray through. He was able to shepherd Tristan Jari through. And at the end of the day, I look at it this way. Matt Murray, his guy was Buckley, who was let go a few years ago after Murray left. And Kyoto took over.

Matt Murray's been with two different organizations now and hasn't figured it out. I think Matt Murray got hot at the right time. had a run and regressed into whatever he ultimately became. Tristan Jari, I think he's just a pumpkin. Like I think there's still a good goalie in there, but I think that he's hit a mental block. And it's just not going to work in Pittsburgh. I think we saw what he did at the end of the season,

showed that there is still a serviceable starting goaltender, but it's not going to work here. And at the end of the day, I said this to you before we hear record, because I know that we're going to disagree on this. This isn't me pre-arguing with the internet. This isn't me saying that, oh, Andy Kyoto's great, and the penguins are great.

You can't criticize them? But can you name any of the other 30 NHL goalie coaches? Like, I think at this- player, maybe before he stepped away from his day-to-day duty with the Rangers, but he was very good for a long time. And I know what you're going to say, oh, well, Henmark Lung-Quist, Igor Shusirkin. Yeah, I know, but he also did quite a good job with them.

And during his first year with Jonathan Quick, I played fairly well with the Rangers during that year when he was still the full-time goalie coach. So I still think that coaching position matters. Like I get the point that you're making. But when you see time and time again that the same goalies keep regressing, you should make a change at the coach to maybe see if you can bring someone else in to at least try to get a little something more at these goals. Because I still expect at least one of, if not both Jari and Ned, to come back.

I think at least one of them will, just because of the way the Penguins are right now with the rebuild. And with that, bring in someone else to coach them up a little bit. I think it would have been mutually beneficial for the organization and the goaltending. Again, don't get me wrong. I don't think Tristan Jarry is any good anymore. I think he is what he is at this point. I would love to get rid of him if possible.

But if you are potentially going to keep him for this season, bring in someone else to see if you can maybe get a little bit more out of them to maybe boost up that value. Same with Alex Nadelcovic. And I'll also say this to you, Yoel Blumquist really regressed in the second half of the last season. And yeah, I know. The Penguins team defense was legitimately awful. They were one of the worst defensive teams in the league.

But I hate when some fans say like, oh, it's one thing. Like it's team defense or it's just goaltending. No, it's both. And they're hiring new coaches to really potentially fix some of the defensive structure. That's good. But B, I would have wanted them to hire a new goalie coach so you can at least maybe fix some of that or at least try to as well. Because I think you're just going to keep getting more of the same with Jari and

because that's what they are under this coach. It's both and. You know, like you look at Yoel Blumquist. He starts the year strong, but the penguins, they weren't playing horribly, but they weren't good either. And then the rest of the year-

That first month, month and a half was really rough. And then at the end of the year, they just stunk. Like, they weren't a good team. And Tristan Jari kind of stinks. So it's two problems that compounded one another. The team had terrible teams, defense and they didn't get much better goaltending.

And unless it's the aforementioned Igor Shasturkin, who even him couldn't really bail out a bad Rangers defensive team last year. So I don't disagree with what you're saying. Like you might as well try it. You might as well move on and see if you can get something better. But at the end of the day, like Jari and Nadelcovic are who they are. Like I think that's pretty well established. And the other thing.

I'll say is when you inevitably move on from both of those goalies and you hopefully get Yoel Blumquist and Sergey Mershav up here and we run into the same problems, I think at that point, it's a definitive answer. But right now, the Penguins are such a poor defensive team. Tristan Jari's not a good goalie. And I just don't see a goaltending coach making that big of a difference. I'm not defending him. I don't think he's some can't miss coach that they needed to hold on to. I, it's just, I think they're doing so many things correctly. This one is so far down on my list of things that they've got to address that they've got to do. And if they were, here's, okay, so here's the last thing I'll say. If they would have been able to this off season,

and they still might. If they would have been able to move off of one or both of the goalies and then they brought Kyoto back, I would have been perplexed. But I think they're looking at this as the team defense is terrible. We need to address that. Murshov and Blomquist are still a couple years away. People seem to like Kyoto. We can hold on to them for now.

Don't get it wrong. I think Tristan Jari is cooked, especially here. I don't think he's going to get, you know, back to some of the elite months that we saw in 2022. But I think people need to realize he was good for a few months that season. Good to, if not elite. But some of the other months, not so good. And that's where the inconsistencies came in with his game. My main point was that at least bringing a coach to maybe at least show Jari and Ned a couple new ideas,

some new techniques or something like that. And then also for the organization at large with Blahry. Bumquist and Marrashon because they got to get the development of at least one, if not both of those goalies, right? And I just don't trust Kyoto to really develop those two, especially at the actual level. Like that's been my main focus. Like for Jari and Ned, we know what they are. Like, I agree with you.

It still would have been fascinating to see what a new goalie coach could at least maybe show them a little bit. I don't think it would have made like a massive. massive difference for those two, but for someone like a Blumquist, a Murashav, who are still very much developing, I think it would. So I just think they kind of missed a little bit of an opportunity there to just say, hey, Andy, thanks for all your work here. You've been with the organization for close to a decade at this one, going back to the Rutherford era, and then he was the goaltending head coach during part of the HECSol era. This wasn't even a dubus hire, by the way.

Thanks for everything you did, but we're going to move on. We're going to bring in someone with some fresh new ideas. I just think they kind of missed the ball on that for both the goalies at the NHL level, but more so for the goalies a bit below, especially in Blumquist, Muroshov, Larson, and even maybe to a lesser extent, Taylor-Dode as well. But I think that will do it for the second segment. Coming up to end the show, it's fan take Friday. Yins know what that means.

We're going to read your takes and answer your questions coming up right after this. All right. We're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Damp, and Pat. We have some pretty good questions, some good comments today. This first one comes from Penn 68. Nick Benino, if he does indeed coach the penalty kill, which I think he will. Penguins PK unit will return to the top 10 in the NHL this upcoming season under his direction.

Don't think that's that much of a hot take. He was a very good penalty killer during his career. The Penguins penalty kill, a lot of times during the Crosby-Malkin era has been fairly good. So I think with a new coach, especially if it is Benino, even though he's never coached before, hey, why not at this point? So I like that type of take. I don't know if I would go top 10, but definitely top half. I think part of the problem is going to be that we're going to get a lot of hopefully

young and experienced players on the roster this year that are going to have to develop and that might lead to some growing pains. But I do think it'll be better under a guy like Nick Benino and even a guy like Rich Clune, depending on what. he has with the team. But yeah, I mean, you brought in two guys who played very honest, very two-way hockey in Clune and Benino. So they know what it takes, especially they know what it takes recently.

These aren't guys who are in their late 50s, early 60s. These are guys who they were playing as soon as three, four years ago. So I'm excited to see what the Penguins Penalty Kill can do under this new staff. Yeah, 100% of view with that. And moving on to a couple other. here. One person asked, how bad do you see us being this upcoming season? Look, there's been a lot of conjecture out there about, you know, Penguins being the only team selling. A lot of these other teams are buying, which I do think mostly is true. I mean, you saw Seattle trade for Mason Marchman

Thursday night, which obviously that comes a few hours after we dropped our episode about Maverick Bork. And then, oh yeah, right before we started recording, Pat, he has now re-signed to a one-year contract with the Dallas Stars. Nice of the Stars to listen to under our episode and be like, ha you want him well we're going to resign him so that first segment yesterday you can throw that a garbage you don't even need to listen to it unless you want to hear us talk about a young player that they could have looked at but there's no reason to anymore because he has now resigned but when it comes to this team being bad do i see them bottom 10 next season probably yes do i see them as the worst team the league or bottom three i personally don't i don't think it's going to get that dire

next season. There's always one team that's surprisingly really bad every season. You saw Nashville this season. I think that was that team. Next season, it could be anyone, but I just don't see the Penguins being a bottom team or bottom three team. Bottom five, maybe, but I don't think they're going to have the worst record or one of the three worst records in the league. That's how I see it. Pat, let's say you. It's tough. I think here. Here's the thing. I don't think that they're going to be any, I think, let me put it this way. They're going to be bottom half of the Metro Division. They're going to finish anywhere between fifth and eighth in the Metro Division, I think. There's so many X factors going into this year

that you bring up Nashville last year. They were supposed to be a cup contender. They very much were not. The Penguins, we didn't really know what they were. We kind of figured they didn't. be in the same spot they were the year prior sniffing around the playoffs probably just missing maybe squeaking in on the last day turns out they finished seven in the metro and they missed the playoffs by a wide margin the thing i look at the penguins for for this year is what next steps do these young guys take how good can mcgrority and covenin and be what does sid have left in the Tang? Can Latang reasonably rebound? Is Eric Carlson still going to be here? We don't think he will, but if he is, what can he do next season? What is if Genni Malkin got left? Can he realistically

bounce back? So it's really tough to say, and I don't want this to come as a cop out, like, I can see them being a surprising team next year that stays in the mix for most of the year. I could also see them being a team that finishes seventh again in the in the metro division. So I don't like you, I don't think they're going to be a bottom three team in the league. I don't think they're going to bottom out. I also really don't think they suddenly turn into a playoff team again. No, I don't think they're going to be a top half team in the league next year. I think it's more likely that they finish in that six to eighth range in the metropolitan division.

We still don't know what moves they're going to make yet. I mean, it's still only June 20th, but there's still a lot of teams even that were bad next year that want to be better that I still don't think are going to be that good. I'm not high on Seattle. I think Chicago is still multiple years away from even being a playoff contender, let alone a Stanley Cup contender. San Jose, I still don't think is going to be that good. I don't think the Brimins are going to be very good next year. Nashville, is there a chance they bounce back? Sure, but I still don't think they're going to be that good either.

I could keep going if you want me to, but there's still quite a few teams, at least for me, that I don't think are going to be very good at all, and that still could be in the basement. Again, I know the penguins are probably a bottom 10 team, maybe even bottom five, you know, the fifth worst record, but I'm not going to say worst record in the league or bottom three just yet until we see maybe some more moves that are made.

A couple others here before we end today's episode. This comes from G. Tots. Rangers will keep this pick this year, for a trade and end up giving the Penn's first overall pick next year. Hey, if they give them the Penn's first overall pick next year, please, by all means. But there's another comment here who kind of says the exact opposite. Penn's fan, 0.082 says the Penguins get the Rangers pick this year. They should keep it and not try to move up in the draft.

We'd rather have two solid prospects than just one could prospect. Hey, I think that's a totally valid take. But if Porter Martone starts falling, I think you could see Kyle Dubin, start getting a bit itchy and maybe moving up, dangling a couple of those picks to move up to seven, eight, but that's only if Martone starts falling. If he gets picked in the top four, top five, which he should, I don't think he's going to look to move up at all. But hey, we got five days where we find out if the Rangers are keeping that pick or if they're giving the Penguins the pick next year. Normally I would agree with this take of if you get the Rangers

pick just use them if they were in the bottom half of the draft this year and they're not. And it's not a particularly deep draft. And I look at it this way. I agree and have applauded Dubus's Bill Belichick style asset management where he's going to try to get four to five prospects than two to three because you get more of a chance of those working out. But if you have two back-to-back picks in a not particularly deep draft in a couple of teams near the top of the draft who want to take immediate steps, if you can trade to get their big pick higher up with those two and maybe even say package it along with Brian Rust,

Rickel, whomever to say Chicago or Nashville, I think that's the better play this year. Because at the other end of it, you still have a boatload of picks in the following rounds and on the next couple years. So if you have both of them this year, I think you would be better served to try to use them in a package to move up. But if nobody bites, obviously, use both picks. Yeah, the only way I see them moving up, packaging those two picks for like 7 and 8 is if Barton starts falling. otherwise there's really no one else that I'd trade up for Misa and Schaefer are going to go very early they're not going to fall James Higgins I don't think it's going to fall either the only one that's really been talked about falling is Porter Martone so if he's not falling no thanks I'm good

and I still you've mentioned Nashville a couple of times on the show I don't think that's the one I think seven to eight is a bit more of what I would do when I'm thinking about packaging those two picks if you get both of them to move up. So that's where I stand on that. As for a couple others here, just a couple quick hitters. Someone says Alexander McGilny not being in the Hall of Fame as a crime. Yes, I 100% agree with you.

It is a joke that he is not in the Hall of Fame. One of the best Russian players to ever play the game. It's, honest, it's pathetic that he's not in the Hall of Fame. It makes zero sense that he's not in. Yes. I love that we got this comment because I've said this a couple of times on the pod. and I'm glad that someone else is saying it because it's ridiculous. Another person says the playoffs take way too long.

I was happy they ended so we could start seeing the trades. Hey, I get that to an extent, but I love playoff hockey. So I'll take as much of it as I could get. But I do get where you're coming from. I have been more than ready to see silly season come back and we're just about there. So I'm glad. This could be a whole episode I could do by myself. So I'm going to try to keep this concise.

NHL season is way too damn long. The Cup should not be rewarded any later than like June 5th. The season, if you're going to keep it at 82 games, for the love of God, make it matter. Play more in conference games, in division games. I know everybody wants to see every player and every team, but as we have seen for the last few years, a bunch of teams don't care about Home Ice. They don't care about the standings.

They just want to get in. And at this point, start the season in mid-September and be done by the end of May. Like, it's too damn long. The floor panders didn't give a damn about home ice. They went on the road all four rounds this spring and they kicked everyone's butts. Well, they came back from two nothing down against the Maple Leafs and they had a great series against the Oilers and six. But they still did not have home ice for any of those series. And they did not care in the slightest.

But yeah, we could have a whole episode about, you know, new changes to the initial season and all that stuff. Maybe we'll do that once silly season dies down and, you know, mid to late July, August, when nothing's going on, all that good stuff. But I think that will do it for today's episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. If we didn't get to your fan take today, we apologize. There are a lot that we got today. So if you try to submit one next week, we'll try to get to that one during that time of the 2025 national draft. And speaking of that, I will debut more of my big board. all next week.

I can't wait to get more into it. It's all finalized. We did a little bit of it on Thursday. We were going to do a little bit more of it today on Friday, but the Penguins decided to announce their full coaching staff for today. So that obviously took precedence for obvious reasons. But we'll dive more into that coming up next week, and it's going to get really busy here.

Draft is coming up, and then right after that, people, it's free agent frenzy and trade season. Keep it right here unlocked on Penguins for all of your breaking news surrounding the Pittsburgh Penguins And with that, for Patrick Damp, I am Hunser Hodes. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. We'll be back on Monday.