Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Pittsburgh Penguins got a STEAL with that Bryan Rust contract...

Episode Date: May 24, 2022

The Pittsburgh Penguins always surprise us! Hunter starts out the show by touching on the Bryan Rust contract and how the Penguins stole that one. How shocked was Hunter to read that tweet on Saturday night? How many good years will the team get out of Rust on this contract? He answers those questions, plus goes into why it doesn't matter if he's not as good during those final two years since the team likely won't be good. He then debunks some theories that Rakell is better than Rust even though the former did play well after he came over from Anaheim. He also brings up the point that this can really help the Penguins with their cap situation and what it means for paying their stars. After that, he reacts to Ron Hextall's press conference on Monday and analyzes what some of his comments mean. Is it the right call to potentially bring Kasperi Kapanen back? What did Hextall think of the hit on Crosby and Guentzel? Are the sides close with contracts for both Letang and Malkin? Is this team going all-in again? Finally, Hunter brings up some Elliotte Friedman comments about the team and what they could mean moving forward.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Athletic GreensAthletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There's always something to talk about in Penguin Land. Brian Rusk. It's a big contract extension. Surprise is the heck out of me this weekend. I'm going to spend the first segment talking about that, give my reaction and analysis to it and what could be moving forward for the Penguins. Ron Hextall finally spoke to the media on Monday. I'm going to give my thoughts on that and what you potentially expect for the offseason. And also some updates from Elliott Friedman on 32 thoughts with the contract situations with a Kenny Malkin and Chris is saying that's all coming up right after this drop. You're locked on penguins.

Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked on Penguins Podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes, Murdoos, follow the show's Twitter at Eleanor for Penguins' Taste episode. It's brought to you by Bet Online. Ben Lines to cover this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before.

that has been online where the game starts. So, excuse me, as I said in my intro, Penguins, you know, they're, obviously, they're never boring. And it's funny, I was playing, you know, Fortnite yet. And yes, people still do play that game, even though it is four to five years old with my good buddy Jeff, who's on Penguin's Twitter. And I think two people DM'd me and they said, W, I'm like,

and there's a Darren Dregor tweet. I'm like, okay, this is probably a contract tweet. And I expected to see of Gennie Malconner, Chris Tang on there. and I saw it was a Brian Russ. I was like, what? I had to make sure that was the real Darren Greger account two or three times to make sure that was not a fake. Because, you know, I know everyone that probably listens to the show

knows what my take was on Brian Russ. I thought he was gone. Honestly, the ratio of him staying was probably 5% to 95% gone. I did not think the penguin was going to keep him. I thought he was going to price himself out. I figured the contract would be, six times six point six times six point five kind of maybe like the Zach Hyland deal where maybe a team gives him seven years on the open market so I saw I was like okay it's going to be a six year term

and I tweeted obviously I was like okay let's see the number here are the hang one's going to get a hometown discount did they pay too much to sign him and then when the number came out I think was frank Zarevelli then elli then elliott freeman and a couple of the joshioi a couple of the penguins reporters 5.125 I was like all right is that real and I had I obviously made sure that obviously all the check marks were on the accounts. And at the end of the day, this was a hometown discount for the Penguins. And I know what Brian Russ said. You know, I want a number that's fair.

You know, I want to be paid my worth. But at the end of the day, he only got a raise of $1.6 million. Like, he was making three and a half on that contract that Jim Rutherford signed him after the 2016-17, that Stanley Cup run where, you know, he obviously got a raise in rightfully so with how he played during those two cup runs. But the fact that he only got a $1.6 million raise, that's just, that's a steal by Ron Hextall. I know he's had his hits.

I know he's had some misses as of late. This is a hit, a very job, well done. He easily could have went out on the open market and gotten a contract from another team that was six times six, six times six and a potentially even six times seven. Steve Eiserman, I think was probably ready to, you know, give him a blank check. I think Josh Yewe of the Athletic said that that was one of the teams that was really interested in him.

I think Brian is from Michigan anyway. I'm sure there's a bunch of other teams in both conferences that did not make the playoffs. That would have loved to get their hands on him just because he has that cup winning experience. He's almost a point-per-game player. These players do not grow on trees. And again, the fact that the penguins, they got him for only 5.5.1 million. Again, it's basically six years, 301, 32. million. Just a really job well done. And that that opens up possibilities now for again for

them to bring back Chris Lutang and Evgeny Malkin. But the top line, it's going to stay intact going into next season at Jake Ensoll, Sidney Crosby, and Brian Rust. You know, the penguins are probably going to get at least three good years out of Brian before the contract potentially starts turning sour. And you know, I saw some of these takes on for a little. can't sign them for six years. It's like, you know, years four through six or potentially five through the last few years of the deal, who gives a crap? The team is going to probably be really bad at the end of that contract because, you know, Cindy Crosby and it's a Chris saying of getting Malkin if they sign. They all may retire at the end of that point. And then it doesn't

really matter because the team is just going to stink. So, you know, at the end of the day, that really doesn't bother me too much. As long as you get three pretty good years until Sid's contract is up in 2025, you know, it's really not a big deal to me. You know, I obviously understand that he is on, he is 30 now, so the wheels could fall off at any point. But he, I mean, he had another very good season this year for the thing that's, of course, as I look up his hockey reference page here, you know, in the regular season, you know, 58 points in 60 games in the playoffs, eight points in the seven games, two of those were goals. Going back the last three seasons, 27 goals, 56 points and 55 games in 2020, 42 points, 56 games last season. This past season, 60 games, he was binged up a little

bit, 58 points in 60 games. Two out of the last three years, he has been at a point in pace or better. I know I applaud Ron Hextall for locking him up and getting him at a number that he honestly should probably not have gotten to that. Six years, that definitely helps I think Ron touched on it at the pressor today where he said that was the main reason why they went six years was because so they could get the AAV down a little bit, which obviously helps their salary cap situation. Per cap friendly, the penguins have about $23.2 million in half space. So again, they have the money to pay these three players. It's all a matter of what do you do on the outer edges of the roster?

Who comes in? Who moves out? You can cheat the salary cap. You know, I always, some people always tell me, well, you know, the cap exists. And sure it does, but teams finangled their way out of cap hell like it's nothing. You know, teams will always be looking to help other teams out and free them of their cat problems. You know, the Penguins, they have some assets. They could potentially move out.

Brian Duman, maybe Jason Zucker, if you want to move Brock McGinn, you know, that could potentially happen. But at the end of the day, this was still a very nice contract. And I think it's one that's going to age. I think like fine wine for at least the first half again before it potentially turns sour for that second half. Just really can't say anything negative about it. I mean, again, I was definitely concerned when I saw that the contract was close to being in B2 because I thought that was going to be an overpayment.

But, you know, Burke and Hextall, they got the job done. And this is, I will say this too. For those things, for those out there, they're thinking, oh, yeah, Penguins windows done. they're going to go rebuild now. No, they, this is a big indication that, you know, that they want to go all in until they retirees. The Fenway Sports Group is all in on the management, it looks like. You know, Ron Hextall wouldn't have signed that contract,

but with Brian Russ, and he would have given a press conference today if he wasn't going to be here for at least the next season. So, you know, they're ready to go all in for at least this next season and probably, again, until the end of Sydney Crosby's contract. So overall, to wrap this all up, great contract. It helps other players potentially stay, like Faggeny Malkin and Crystal Tang. Anytime you can get a player to take a little bit of a hometown discount,

that's huge. And sometimes, you know, players don't want to pack up their bags and leave. You know, it looks like Brian and his wife and his kid, Hunter, and I'm dead serious, his kid is named Hunter. It looks like they love being in Pittsburgh, and he said at his press conference that that was the number, one goal to remain in Pittsburgh and sure enough, excuse me, they were able to get their job done and sign that contract. So, you know, I'll take the L on this one. I thought there was really

no chance that this was going to happen. Again, I said probably 95% that he's gone. I was kind of focusing on them signing Ricard Raquel. That's probably not going to happen now. And oh, yeah, just to put this out there, I've seen some takes on social media in other places that McCarad Raquel is better than Brian Rust. You know, I like Raquel. And I thought he was. was good when he came over here. But to say that he's been better than Brian Russ over the last three seasons, it's kind of a joke. Again, Russ has a point per game in two of his last three seasons.

Three straight years of 20 plus goals. Raquel, I understand. He's been with Anaheim for most of his career, but I don't think he's nearly as good as Brian. And, you know, he's probably going to go out on the open market, maybe get $4.4.4.5 million per. You know, right now, I don't think that's going to be coming from the penguins, to say, in the least.

So again, I will gladly take the L on this one. The Penguins are bringing back Brian Rust. So coming up in the next ever, we're going to get into Ron Hextall's end of the season press conference, touch on what he spoke about. And I'll give my thoughts and reaction to that. Now, before we get to that, though, our next partner is a product that I use every single day, and that is Athletic Greens. I started taking it because, you know, I normally have a lot of time to go to the gym,

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So getting to Ron Hextall's press conference from today. It is about damn time that he talked to me. It has been over a week. I guess he wanted to get his thoughts and everything. But so Hextall again confirmed he would like to keep Evgeny Malkin and Chris Lattang. He said kind of in a perfect role, but again, you know, he said they're in discussions. Obviously, that's their bit number one priority right now. He even said as such during the press conference, you know, that they have a lot of, I'm sure, balls in the fire, but their biggest priority is to bring back two of the core players. They've already brought back by Brian Rust. Again, they have $23 million in cap space right now.

You can bring back these two players. You give that again, you're all going to discount, maybe give them that $7.1 million per bump with Tang's AAB up to maybe eight or something like that. That's $15 million. You still have $8 million left in salary. And oh yeah, by the way, you can also open up all their salary by moving players out, just doing a few exchanges. You know, there's plenty of salary dumps that I've seen this team do over the years. Remember, Buffalo at the time took Matt Hunwick and Connor Sherry from the Penguins. They dumped Nick Bukestack to the Minnesota Wild. They dumped Eric Good Branson's $4 million salary to make room for John Molino.

Yes, I understand those are different regimes, but teams are always willing to help out. So the Penguins, there's really no excuse for this. If they have what it takes, do we get it done, they have the cap space to get it done. it's all up to, you know, how far do they want to, I guess, bend, you know, with these negotiations. I think that's really the big thing here, you know, at least in my opinion. So, again, I don't want to hear the excuses if one of these two walk. They have a cap space. It is really not an issue right now.

So still good for Ron to say that, though, that it is their biggest priority. Hextal was also touched on the Penguins performance in the playoffs. He was, we certainly felt like we were definitely in the driver's scene in that series. We thought we were good enough team that we could have gotten it done. Our plan is to continue to try to win a Stanley Cup and Fenway Sports Group is on board. He also touched on the Cindy Crosby hit. He thinks there was a little bit of intent from Jacob Truba. He also, he went after Jacob Truba a little bit in that press conference.

He thought there was definitely intent on hit on Jake Gensel about 20 seconds into a game five when Penguins had that five on three. And, you know, good on Hextall for calling that out. Obviously, he's going to defend his players. I think any GM in that situation would. But it is past time where we get these cheap little headshots out of the game. Hextall said as such during his media press conference today. Obviously, you know, nothing can be changed that the Penguins blew the 3-1 series lead. But I did like that he stuck up for two of the court players and said, you know,

they looked like there was a little bit of intent there, whether it was to injure or, you know, make sure they couldn't get to the puck. I don't know, but he said that he didn't really like the way the hits were seen. But, you know, I agree with him on that. I'm glad that the Fenway Sports Group is all in on getting to another Stanley Cup. And, you know, they also will gladly spend their money to do that. Other things here as I'm scrolling my timeline, Hextallie, he did say again, first of almost, they would like to sign Gino.

But he did say, if that can't happen, they will look elsewhere for a number of number two center. He did not say that for looking for a number one defenseman for a crystal tank, which again, that kind of lines up with what I was tweeting out today with when Elliott Friedman was on 32 thoughts and saying it sounds like, you know, the negotiations with Lutang could be a bit closer right now than they know with it getting in Hawkins. And again, I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way. But my take on this, and this is what I think. It is easier to replace a second line center than it is a number one defenseman, which is why

Krista Tang should be their biggest priority going into next season. Yes, do I want both back? Absolutely. But I think if you can get what Tang done, which is the harder one, then you can get Malkin done, and then I think, you know, it's totally

fine from there. Because, you know, again, look at some of the second line centers in the playoffs. Ryan Schroem, of all people with the New York Rangers, Carolina. They're center depth. I mean, they have good players, but, you know, is there second line center um elite you know not really um at least in my opinion st louis they have a deep forward group but is there is there a second line center um an elite player um excuse well almost had a heck up

no i do not think so so you know that's why i think you know how he said that because either they can go out get a second line center for the agency aka vincent trocheck if he is available that can come in and play for any of getting milkins place again i don't want to come to that but I think that's maybe why he did say that because, you know, again, it's easier to replace a 2C than it is a number one D. Now, I think Mike DeFabo asked a pretty interesting question. He asked what is missing from the team, and he did say a little more cap space would be nice. I kind of made a little joke about it, but I also think that he is a little bit serious in that regard.

I think HECDahl would love to shed some salary, at least in my opinion. This is a team that, even if they do sign Sidney Crosby, Crystal Tank, and Evgeny Malkin, all right, I had to actually pause my recording because I'm sure if everyone that was on YouTube watching, my wonderful German Shepherd decided to come downstairs and just basically attack me. So that was what you all saw, my massive 65 to 70 pound German Shepherd. Anyways, get back to what I was discussing. you know, you know, they have the cap space again, Tucson and Evgeny Malta and Crystal Tang,

but they still need to get a little more cap space, you know, get Brian June 1, his 4 million. Teams, I think, will take that contract on. He's still a good player. You know, he has that Stanley Cup experience. He's a good defensive defenseman. A team will decide to trade for him. Jason Zucker, love the guy.

He makes $5.5 million. You know, in a perfect world, you maybe move on from him. him and get all of that cap space. You don't have to retain any of it. There's almost 10 million right there. Brock begin, 2.75 if you want to move on from him after just a rough season, that could potentially be a thing too. So again, even if they do sign both Latang and Malkin, I would not be surprised

as text all goes out and still make some other changes, add some cab space going in free agency where they can, you know, make a splashy addition or two or, you know, get a player back in a trade that doesn't make enough money. You know, say, you know, an example could be like in a trade. Olimada to Chicago, remember, and they got Dominic Cahoon back, and they saved well over three million against the cap. So maybe something like that happens during the off season with Hexta on another team. No, who knows at this point?

Ron also talked about Kisbury Cap, and he says, we certainly expect more of him next season. You know, I'm not really going to read too much into that. I think, honestly, it's kind of GM speak. He's obviously getting it qualified. That's the right call. the only way I bring Kisbury back is if you know he's making like a one year

prove it cheap deal like 1, 1.5 million. He can't be making 3.1, 3.2 million like he was next season. I mean, that's just that's contract malpractice. He does not, he did not earn that type of contract

going into next season. If he is brought back, I definitely think it's going to be for a cheap cap hit, just to see if that, if this last season was I guess, what's the word I'm looking for? Like kind of an outlier, or if he can actually get back to where he was during the 2020-2020 season

where he had 30 points and 40 games, 10 of those goals. Otherwise, I don't think there was too much other stuff from Ron Hextall today. Very, very quiet. He didn't really divulge too much of their off-season plan. Pretty quiet. I think someone asked about the goaltending situation. He didn't really say if he wanted to get another backup behind Tristan. He's keeping this to himself.

This is how he is. This is not Jim Rutherford over here, people. He's not going to come out and candidly say, oh, I'm going to go make some changes. Or I'm going to go out and look for trades like Lou Le Marello said after the Islander season. We're just going to have to wait and see. Hextall said he doesn't negotiate through the media, said that they're continuing to having contract discussions with the big two.

And we're going to have to see what happens here throughout the offseason. So that was everything that Ron Hectorall said to the media on Monday and just my thoughts on now. Coming up with the final segment, we're going to get to Elliott Friedman's take on 32 thoughts and just my analysis on that. Before we get to that, though, our partners have been online to continue to be the number one source for all of your betting needs and sports info.

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All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L-OrenSquare Penguins. So Pennsburg of SB Nation was kind enough to put my tweet in there where I recorded what Elliot was saying. after when he spoke about the Brian Russ contract on the on 32 thoughts today.

And Elliot reported, he goes said, one of the things I heard was that the 5.125 number is very close to what Rust wanted and what the team wanted. They didn't get 100% of what they wanted for sure, but they got to a point where it was close enough that everyone was happy enough and shook hands and said, that's good. It sounds like the penguins are hoping they can do that with both Latang and Malkin, but this is the kicker from what Freeman said. he said, I think that's going to be harder to do with Malkins case right now. It sounds like to me that they're closer to that in Chris Lattang's case. So, again, from what I gather from that, it sounds like the Crystal Tang contract negotiations are going a bit better than of Gany Malkins. I mean, Gino, he definitely seemed a bit hurt. I think at his end of season media availability.

You know, I think obviously they're going to get around to him. But again, I do think Lattang should be a higher priority right now. Now, you know, maybe he is a bit hurt in that regard. But, you know, once you get him done, if you do, Latang, that is, you can go to Evgeny Malkin, and then you can really, you know, just finish that, and then you can get to the rest of your offseason. But again, Elliot finished up, he goes, what this says to me is that the penguins are saying, we will give a little bit in our contract talks, but we want you to get a little bit too.

So, you know, they don't want the players to just, you know, have this straight up asking price and sticking to that and then have the team have this and they're sticking to that. They want to find that common ground like they did with the Brian Russ and say, hey, you know, this is probably not our best offer. This is probably not what you fully want. But at the end of the day, you know, this is, you know, this is how contract negotiations work. Right. So, you know, definitely some interesting comments from Friedman.

You know, this is, there's a long, yeah, again, there are a long way to go here with this. Remember, if you've been reported last week that the Penguins originally offered a contract, I believe it was four years for Letang, that it was a little below his current AAB, which was 7.25, which is about to expire. I know there's been reports out there that they lowballed both Latang and Malcolon 3 times 15. I'm not really sure how much I buy that. But, you know, this is, again, this is, it's a process. It's a process.

There's still plenty of time before July, you know, that they have what it takes. to get this done. It's all matter of, you know, we'll see what's going to happen here. So that wraps up this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for listening to this episode of the show. I will be back with another episode on Tuesday. I have plenty of topics to discuss as always. So thank you all so much for listening and I will be back tomorrow.