Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Well, that happened...now what?

Episode Date: May 27, 2021

I am sad to report to you all that yes, the Pittsburgh Penguins season has come to an end. In this episode, Hunter goes in on Tristan Jarry as this was a flashback to Marc-Andre Fleury's meltdowns from 2010, 2012, and 2013. Is there a way for him to be back on this team next season, let alone start? He also discusses the one and only reason why Pittsburgh lost this series, in case it wasn't obvious. Also discussed: Should Mike Sullivan be on the hot seat? What tweaks does this team need? Who are some goaltending options for next season? All that, plus squashing Jake Guentzel trade rumors, on this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.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.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Lucy.CoGo to Lucy.co and use Promo Code LOCKEDONNHL to get20% off all products on your first order, including gum or lozeng 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, everyone and welcome to this Thursday afternoon, almost early evening episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. In order to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes,

follow this show, Twitter, at L-O-Weners4 Penguins. Today's episode is brought to you by Rock Auto. Amazing selection, library low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Visit rocked auto.com until them locked on sent you. So this is our first post-mortem episode as the Pittsburgh Penguin season has officially come due to an end, a 5 to 3 embarrassing loss to the New York Islanders

and as they lose the series in six games. The Penguins would have won in six games, had they won game, five and then won last night. They will be getting ready to play Boston on Saturday night at PBG Paints Arena, but that will have to potentially wait until next year. And, you know, we've already seen. seen a lot of takes, you know, on Penn's

Twitter as expected, you know, you're going to have a lot of people say one thing, you're going to have a lot of people say other things, and it's just going to be assessable until next season. That is what this is going to be like, because, you know, as the core gets a bit older, the window starts to slam shut, I mean, you're just going to have people

just saying stuff for the sake of saying shit. But as I tweeted last night, you know, don't listen to these people that say, oh my God, bro, like, let's trade Genie Malkin. Let's trade Chris Lank. If anyone is saying that, don't give them to the time of day. Tell them to shut the hell up.

It's just, it really does not even need to be discussed. Chris Lutang had his best playoffs. Honestly, I think since 2016, you know, his overall play, I thought, in both zones, was just fantastic. I mean, he had six points into six games, average 28 minutes a game, and this comes courtesy of Danny of the Penns blog. His 5E5, of course he share at 60%,

expected goal share at 57%. I know he was on the ice for more. than he was, wait, let me rephrase. I know he was on the ice for more goals against than he was for goals for, but I mean, he's also going up against the top competition. So sometimes that is a little bit expected, but he put up some fantastic numbers this postseason. And if anyone is thinking that they should trade Chris LaTang, you just obviously do not watch

the series. And, you know, I had Chad on the podcast yesterday. And, you know, I agree with him wholeheartedly that I will use Chris Lantang as my, kind of my test to see if you actually know what you're talking about when it comes to hockey and the Penguins. And if you think Chris Letang is bad or that he had a bad playoffs or anything really resembling a lot of negative towards him, I'm just going to assume that you don't know what you're talking about when it comes to this team or this sport. But Latang was incredible last night. He was awesome all series. Bring him back and then sign him to a three to four year extension.

And I'll say the same thing about Fgeny Malkin. He was sensational those last couple games. you could really see that he was starting to move his knee a lot more. He definitely was not 100%. I mean, that was obvious. Apparently, I read in Joshioli's article that a couple Islander players were telling him that he was soft for missing the two games. I mean, that's part for the course for the Islanders in their franchise. I'm not really going to say my overall thoughts on it, but, you know, he did respond with two really nice games. I think he had overall, when he came back, I think he had five points in the last four games, if you add it all up.

So he was really good, and again, they're not going to trade him this all season. He is going to retire with Sidney Crosby. End of story. Stop talking about it. Another thing that I have seen that is really also starting to piss me off. I might just dedicate this whole segment to stuff that I've seen in the last 24 hours that has pissed me off. But, you know, this is the first post-mortem episode, excuse me. I'm sorry for stuttering so much.

I have seen this Jake Gensel talk and that the penguins should look to shop him and that they should trade him. And it's like, I don't know where this is coming from. I guess it's a lot of radio shock jock hosts who are just looking for clicks and looking for attention. I tweeted this last night, people. You are going to see a lot of takes just from people who they want to say stuff for the sake of staying stuff because they know it's going to drive reaction. They're doing it to troll. They're doing it to get reaction out of you. Do not listen to those people.

And that starts as well with Jake Gensel. I mean, I understand he didn't put up the production. that a lot of people wanted him to in the postseason, but this wasn't for a lack of effort. I mean, I know he only had one goal, and I think only a couple points in the six games, but he led the team in high danger chances. He led the team in shot attempts. He led the team in shots on goal.

What more do you want him to do? I understand he didn't produce, but, you know, you got to give a little bit of credit to God on the other side where the Penguins got Yarslav Halokk in the series where Elia Sorokin was around 940 to 950. That's now the third straight year where they ran into a goal tent, I know this was a much different team where the goalie has gone 940, 950 against them, and the penguins just haven't had a goal tending to keep up with that. I mean, it's just, it sucks, but you know, you got to give credit to the goalie for stopping

all of Jake Gensel's chances. And he obviously was frustrated throughout, and I know the Islanders were putting him through hell, I think in that series, by just being physical with him. But he still led the team in high danger chances, like I said, led the team in shot attempts, led the team in shots on goal, and had plenty of scoring chances for it at 5V5. while playing with Sidney Crosby. He was not the problem in this series. And I guarantee you, if you look to trade Jake Gensel

and you do ultimately trade Jake, you will lose any trade that you make with him. 1,000 times out of 1,000. It is ludicrous to suggest trading him. He makes $6 million per year and is one of the 5 to 10 best pure goal scores in hockey. It's just a non-discussion for me. You really need to stop.

People need to stop thinking about trading Jake Gensel because it's just not going to happen. some other stuff that I am seeing let's just also talk about this I wonder fans will try to spin this any way they want like oh yeah man there were other factors as to why we as I wonder fans why we won this series

and it's like there really was not please read Adam Gretz's article on pro hockey talk today which basically sums up the series in a nutshell you know one team the penguins got really shitty goaltending you know part in my language where the hanglands actually had the third worst state percentage in a playoff series

in the state Gino era. The top two are obviously Mark Andre Fleury from 2010 and 2012. I think it's two of 2010, 2012, and 2013. Two of them are in the top two, and then I think 2013 is right behind it, or one of them is. Anyways. But like I said, one team had goal-tending where it was 83 and Trishon Jari was a joke,

and then the other team had 9-49-50 goal-tinting, and basically stole the show. Thank you very much. That is why the Islanders won this series. It is really not more complicated than that. Like I said, they will try to spin this any way they want, saying, oh my God, we shut down Sidney Crosby. We shut down Evgeny Malkin.

Hint, hint, they really did not shut down to Vagin Malkin. He was a point for game player, as was Chris LaTang. And Sidney Crosby, I understand he was not good defensively in that game yesterday, but he also was one of the Penguins' best players in this series. And again, it was not for lack of effort or trying. You know, people are going to say as well, like, oh, yeah, Pelik and Pulok took their lunch. That is not anything. That's not even close to true.

Sid was on the ice for a hell of a lot more shot attempts for than shot attempts against. Was on the ice for plenty more high danger chances for than high danger chances against while they were both on the ice. Again, what was the main difference? Ilya Sorokin was God and shut Sid down. I mean, like I said, you have to give credit to the goalie between the pipes for really playing a great series, and he is going to be a pain in the ass for probably the next six to seven years, as he looks like he is going to be the Islanders long-term. I know they still have Semyon of Arlama up there for the next two years, but this is probably

Ilya Seroquins team for the foreseeable future with how he played, especially against Pittsburgh. But again, you know, I thought Sid was great. I understand he was not good defensively last night, but again, it was not for lack of trying. He also, I think, was top three on the team in leading the team and shot attempts, scoring chances for shots on goal and high danger chances for per 60. There was nothing that Trots' system did, that shut down Cindy Crosby, and Jake Gensel as well.

It was just Ilya Sorokin having a great series, which is basically par for the course of the last two runs, where Kerry Price was awesome in the bubble against them, and then Robin Lennar was also really good against them in 2019, even though I blame the Penguins' defensive structure in that series of hell of a lot more than the Penguins' goal-tending. But I did really want to get all of that off my chest in the first segment. Again, basically, in a short summary, the Penguins got goal lead. That is why they lost. And I hope Ron Hextall and Ryanberg don't make too many reactionary moves to it.

And I obviously don't think that they will. Ron Hextall has always been known to be a very patient general manager. If Jim Rutherford were still in charge of this team, I think you'd probably be seeing a lot of reactionary moves this summer. But, I mean, there really just needs to be a few tweaks. And I'm going to get to that coming up in the next segment. but I understand everyone's frustration for this series. I get it. You know, I'm frustrated too.

You know, last night was probably the most frustrated I've been with the team or not really with the team. The most frustrated I've been with the goaltending probably since 2012 because Tristan Jari pulled a full Mark Andre Fleury performance and totally cost them one of their last real shots at a Stanley Cup. And honestly, you know, I just, I feel bad for the players, you know, the forwards and the defensemen because they played their tails off in this series. I mean, they took it to the Islanders in five of these six games. I mean, if people are going to sit here and think the Penguins didn't now play them in five of the six games this series, I don't really know what people watched.

I understand a lot of people are going to praise Barry Trots, and people are going to be like, well, you know, Trots beat Sullivan again. And it's like, really, guys, it was Tristan Jari lost to Barry Trots this time. I mean, that basically is the summary of this series. Barry Trots didn't do anything new tactically with his system to hinder the Penguins. The Penguins came into the offensive zone. basically every shift in five of the six games and usually got a scoring chance off without hesitation and just really easily.

So I really don't understand where that narrative is coming from as well. I understand that I think Mike Solomon did make a mistake by keeping jarring in that game last night. I personally would have went to, like I say, after the fourth goal, definitely after the fifth goal, but I think after the fourth goal is when I would have pulled him. And, you know, who would have said this before the series that the Penguins really missed Casey to Smith coming in here? I definitely agree with the take that I saw last night from someone that had Casey DeSmith

been healthy for this game six, you definitely would have seen him start. And I think if he starts that game, I think the Penguins come away with the win, especially with how he, excuse me, not he, especially with how the rest of the team played last night. I mean, they took the lead three separate times, for God's sake. But those are my first thoughts after game six and going a little bit into the offseason. Going into the next segment, I'm going to talk about what Ron Hextall and Brian Burke need to do this offseason to make sure that this team can make another run at this going into next season because I 100% think that they have the capability to do so, even though the window is shutting a lot

faster than, you know, I think a lot of people realize. But before we do that, it's time to talk about rockado.com. It's a family business startup auto part customers online for 20 years. You can go to rock auto.com to shop for auto body parts of hundreds of manufacturers. They have everything from engine control modules and brake parts, tail lamps, motor oil, and even new carpet. it, whether it's for your classic or daily driver, get everything you need in a few easy clicks, delivered directly to your door. The Rock Auto Catalog is unique and very easy to navigate. You can quickly see all the parts available for your vehicle and choose the brands, specifications, and prices you prefer. Best of all, prices at rockaw.com are always right below, and the same

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of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. So let's get to, obviously, what comes next for the scene, because, of course, this is the third straight

first round exit for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and yes, everyone, there will be some changes. Let's get to something that I did see last night that definitely call me a little bit off guard. Maybe I'm not super surprised by it, but in a way I am a little bit. And that's Josh Joey and his 10 post-game thoughts for the

athletic is reporting that the Penguins intend to keep or protect Jeff Carter in the expansion draft. In my opinion, I see that as a mistake. Let me just say this. I love Jeff Carter. He had basically 16 points in 20 games, 13 of them goals,

was one of the best players down the stretch and I think was one of their top two best players in the playoffs. I mean, he had, what, four goals in six games? He was just sensational. He looked at his underlying numbers. I think he was on the ice for over 60, 65% of the expected goals. His course he share, I think, was right around the same.

He was sensational in the playoffs, and he definitely deserves to come back with the team. They're not going to dump him here or anything. He just fits the team so well. That being said, I just think there are other pressing players that they need to protect in the expansion draft over Jeff Carter. I mean, does anyone really sincerely think that the C. Seattle Cracken, which is a team built with a lot of analytic staff. I mean, Ron Francis is a good GM, but he's hired a whole analytical staff.

Does anyone really think that one of the first players they're going to take is 36, 37-year-old Jeff Carter? I just, I really don't see it. They're obviously going to want to start young. I mean, when you're building a franchise for the first time, you want to have a young team. You don't want a team full of veteran players. And for the Penguins, I just think, you know, that definitely means that, you know, one or potentially two of Teddy Bluger.

Jared McCann, Kasperi Kappan, or Brandon Tanev, are going to be exposed, which is definitely going to be very interesting. And I'll also throw Zach Gaston-Reeson there. I've said on this podcast before, you know, you're obviously going to protect Crosby Malkin, Rustin-Gensel, those are no-brainers. I would also protect Jared McCann. I think that's a no-brainer too. Now, if you're putting Jeff Carter into that mix, that means, like again, you have to choose between Teddy Bluger, Casperi Kappanin, Brandon Tanev. You know, who else? are you going to protect? In my opinion, you know, I would go, aside from the big four, McCann, Blugher, and Kaepernan, and then leave the rest exposed, and honestly dare Seattle to take

Brandon Tanniv's contract from you. I don't want them to take Brandon Tanniv, but it would give the Penguins a bit of cap flexibility for this off season when they do probably get a goalie, which I am going to get to later on in this episode. But I just disagree with them potentially protecting Carter. If they protect Carter, then I can 100% honestly see them protecting Tanef as well. That just screams like a player that Brian Burke would want to protect, just because, you know, he's great defensively, plays with an edge, he's physical, you know, don't want to bring a knife to a gunfight kind of way, as Brian Burke has said so many times with his Penguins tenure already. Again, I wouldn't protect Mane and Tanef. You all heard

the players that I would protect, especially the forwards. But, you know, I, I, I, I understand where they're coming from when it comes to Carter. I just wouldn't do it myself. I would protect Cappinan over him. You know, you could make the argument to protect Carter over Cappinna, especially because Cappinin shot really high this year. I think his shooting percentage was well over his career. Norm, if I can just look this up real quick on hockey reference.

I think I read somewhere that it was 17%, if I'm not mistaken. Let me just see this real quick. I mean, he obviously was close to a point-per-game player. I don't know why I can't find his shooting percentage with the team here. I mean, I'm just, I think I'm just lost. I don't really understand why. So, yeah, basically, I found it here. I'm sorry for all the bad radio.

He shot 16.2%. I mean, his career best was 12.7 in 2018 with Toronto. His best year in the league, when he had 44 points, it was only out 11.5%. So that's definitely going to regress. And again, you can definitely argue that they should protect Carter over Kaepinan, but in my opinion with what Kaepinand did this year, I would still protect him over Carter again. But my expansion protected list is this is probably not going to be what the Penguins do.

My protected list at this point, the big four forwards, like I just said, Teddy Bluger, Jared McCann, and Kesperer Kaepman with the three defensemen of Dumolin, Latang, and I don't know, but Petter said Matheson, it doesn't really matter, who they protect. And then I honestly protect Casey DeSmith in expansion. I am not protecting Trish and Jari and they definitely should not.

But they definitely, I think, will protect Casey to Smith as I think he will be on the team next year. But that's the first order of business is the expansion draft. But we'll see who they inevitably protect as this thing is in a couple months. Other stuff.

This is not a team that you need to blow up, you need to start the rebuild because if you trade a big gun, you are signaling to everyone around the list, and especially the Penguins fan base that this run is over and that you are going to rebuild. And trust me, this is going to be a very long process once the team eventually rebuilds. We were all there during the early 2000 years where the team was so bad for a few years before Sidney Crosby came in.

You know, Mary Lemieux, obviously retired second time and, you know, the Yager trade and all that. So, you know, you're definitely going to go back to that, you know, that 0304 team, which is one of the worst teams in existence. it may not be as bad as that, but it's going to be close. But like I said, you will be signaling to everyone around the league that you are ready to rebuild. And that's not what we're doing here. You've got to take another run at this, another couple runs, I think, at least to try to get Sid and Gino one more cup before they eventually retire. First order business, what are the contracts looking like for Gino and Tanger? In my opinion, you give Latang and Gino three to four-year contracts.

I mean, we'll have to see what the price tag. be. I think LaTang will probably not make more than over $7 million per. I think it might be a little less. Virginia will have to see what he wants, but, you know, just have the big three guns retired here for the rest of their careers. You know, I think that's what Maria wants. But, you know, as for other stuff, like I said, you will hear a lot of takes about trading this guy and trading that guy. But this is what I will say. Outside of Cindy Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, Jake Gensel, Jared McCann, Brian Dumlin, Chris LaTang, John Marino, and Casey Dismet... Well, I shouldn't even say Casey Dismet. Outside of those players, everyone else on the team is touchable.

Those players that I mentioned are untouchable. You do not move them. And you notice that I did leave Brian Rust out, and this is why. I love Brian Rust, but, you know, Dan Hopper, who does great stuff on Penguins Twitter, brought up a really good point today when, you know, Rob Rossi apparently went on the 937 the fan and talked about how the Penguins

might listen to offers for Gensel, which they probably won't, John Marino, which is just stupid. Don't even get me started on that. They will not trade John Marino, and then Brian Rust. But, you know, Dan had a really good take here with the fact that Rust is, he's a great player. I've talked about Rust being awesome for so many years now, but he only has one year left on his contract at $3.5 million per, and he's going to be 30 years old once that contract is up. You don't think a lot of GMs are going to be thinking, oh, let's go for a five, six-year term here, five to six million per.

Really don't want the penguins as cap-strapped as they are to really give him that next contract. If you can get, you know, a high pick plus a pretty decent player in return for him, I think you might have to do it as much as it pains me to say it and move on from him. But, you know, if you don't get that in a trade, you obviously keep him and make another run at this with him. But, you know, you would have to really blow my doors off to, I think, trade Ross. But he's not untouchable, like I said. The four big forwards I mentioned, they are untouchable, especially McCann. He's not going to go anywhere.

You probably aren't going to trade Jeff Carter. You know, I might put him in an untouchable there as well. And then the defenseman that I mentioned, everyone else I think you can listen on. Again, you know, they probably won't move on from Teddy Bluiger. We'll have to see what happens with a player like Ashton Reese, Brandon Tanev, you know, I'm sure we'll see if he's on the. team next year with what Seattle does. But that is my opinion as to who is untouchable for this team going in the offseason

and who is not untouchable. But that basically, well, almost sums it up. I do want to say one more thing. This team just needs a few tweaks. Do you want to go out and move Marcus Pedersen and move his contract out, see if you can find a taker for him and then maybe move P.O. Joseph up. That's definitely doable. And I think the Penguins know that P.O. Joseph is just about ready to play.

in the league full time. You saw it this year with how well he played before he got elevated to the top pairing. Do you want to try to find a take for Jason Zulker and his $5.5 million cap hit? Well, you'll have to see. But again, I thought he played his tail-off in the playoffs as well. I mean, this is a good player. Don't get me wrong. You know, the nice Jewish boy, as I like to call him here, he is a really good player. It was just a very tough and weird year

for him where the puck just did not go in the net. And you saw him With that rush last night, I actually think it led to the first goal. I think with Jeff Carter, he was able to spring it up to Capon who got it to Carter and he was able to go five hole on Sorokin and then that third goal last night to make it three to two before all hell broke loose again. Just a brilliant tip past Sorokin. And, you know, that was what was missing from Zulker this season. And, you know, if that's the level play that you can get from him on a consistent basis next season,

you keep him. But, again, it's going to be interesting to see here. I've already seen people say that maybe you sign Brandon Sod in free agency and dump Zucker. We got to see how much Brandon Sod wants. I understand he's a hometown kid. He's from Pittsburgh. But, you know, I like to think that he might cost a decent amount of money to come. I really don't want the payments to sign him to a whole bunch of terms with how much tread is on those tires already.

But we'll have to see what the decision they make there was Zucker. Do you try to find a tiger from Mike Matheson's contract? Probably not just because there's so many years left on it. But who knows? This regime does not have any law. loyalty to these players. You all have to remember that. This is not Jim Rutherford who sees one type of player and has to acquire them because he's best friends with them. I mean, Ron Hexton, Brian Burke have no loyalty to any of these players. So it is basically a clean slate

for what they want to do with this team. I feel a lot better going to this offseason with Ron at the helm because it seems like Burke kind of just is allowing him to be the GM and making the final decisions. I think Burke is just there. You know, for PR purposes, and talking to the media a bit more and just, you know, basically answering to Morehouse, you know, I think this mainly is Hextall's team. And then again, you know, the big question, which I am going to talk in the next segment a little bit,

what do you do with the goaltending? I mean, you're not going to bring back Trish and Jari and Casey DeSmith is your channel next year. You just, you can't, you know, what is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing every time, but expecting different results. They're just not going to do that.

If you do that, you will just waste away another year at trying to get another chance. championship for Sidney Crosby and I've got any milk and I just really can't see them doing that. But I'm going to touch on some goaltending talk in the next segment. Before we do that, it's time to talk about BetOnline the fastest and easiest way to build on your sports section. Baseball season isn't full swing. You can track all the action at Ben Online. Get all the latest news, odds and info for our sporting means, including MLB, NBA, NHL,

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All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockedon Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoddes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show who's Twitter at L.O underscore Penguins. So let's get into the elephant in the room, and that is the goaltending talk for next season. As I teased in the last segment, you cannot bring this tandem as a whole back for next season. Again, it is doing the definition of insanity. Tristan Jari cannot be your starter next year.

I don't really know how much more I can be clear on this. If you want to bring Casey to Smith back, I'm all for that. I actually think he had a really good season and at 1.1.25 million or something like that. I think that's good value for a 1B kind of goalie. Now, there's obviously a huge glut of goalie's hidden in the free Asian market. there's probably going to be a couple available. If you want to swing for the fences, maybe try to swing a John Gibson trade,

the local Pittsburgh product, but Anaheim's going to have to probably ask for the farm, and I don't think Ron Hextel is going to want to do that. Okay, maybe you scratch that one off the list. Another one that you may look at, you go to Vegas, and no, I'm not talking Mark Andre Fleury, I'm talking Robin Leonard.

Florey has had a magnificent season for Vegas. I know Vegas also just signed Leonard to an extension, and he makes $5 million per, but maybe you make, Vegas eat a little bit of money on that because do they really want to go into next season with 12 million per with their goaltenders? I mean, I think that's just kind of foolish, in my opinion, and it would just make all the sense in the role for Pittsburgh to not only have Leonard there for the next three to four years. I mean, it also basically just lines up with the end of their window

because Sid, Gino, and Lattang's contracts will all expire, I think, in the next four to five years. but also he probably won't make all of his 5 million per with Pittsburgh just because of how cap strapped the penguins are. So I would definitely look to Robin Lennar and see if Vegas wants to move on for him with what the season that Mark Andre Flore is having because you can definitely make the case that he should win the Vesnan. And I think he would be number one on my Vesna ballot, in my opinion, at least. But that, again, that's another big option.

Another one that I saw throw it out there, who's actually at the top my list, and it's the free agent market, is Linus Omer. Dr. 915 goal tender in Buffalo. I know he has his injury problems, but if you're playing good in freaking Buffalo with the disaster that they were this season and you're putting up close to 920 with them, you definitely caught my eye in my book,

and you can probably get him on a two-to-three-year deal for not a lot of money. He probably won't even cost $4 million per, in my opinion. So I understand he doesn't have a lot of NHL experience, but I think he has enough where you definitely can take the chance on that and have him be your 1A to 1B to Casey to Smith. I've seen Peter Marozick on there. I think he makes sense as well.

If you want to go full chaos and try to get Tuka Rask, if he gets a free agent market, very unlikely, by the way, everyone, they're not going to probably get Tuka Rass from Boston. They'd have to do a whole lot of cap moving with that. A couple of my buddies have said they can try to carry price out of Montreal. Again, very unlikely to happen. You'd have to move a lot of cap to try to do that.

but in any case everyone the biggest thing for the Penguins too being a contender next season they got to get this goal tending move right you can bring back almost the entire team next season say for someone going to Seattle making a couple of trades along the edges and they can compete you have the four centers

as of right now down the middle that it's just it's a nightmare to go up against you have the forward depth which is the best forward depth we've seen in the last four to five years since they went back to back you have a defense well where it's not top five in the league and it definitely has a little bit of flaws but it's still a really good defensive corbs which this team has not had these last few years you know obviously cc might walk you know maybe you don't want to pay him you know two and a half to three million per for his next contract i totally understand that with how cap shop the penguins are um maybe

he can go cash out somewhere you can just move chad ruweedle into there in your number six spot or just move P.O. Joseph into there as well, it really would not bother me in the slightest. But overall, as this team stands today, they can definitely go and make another run at it. And I'm really curious to see what Ron Hextall does this offseason and what he says at his end of season press conference with Brian Burke. Hopefully he just goes out there. And when someone asks what went wrong, he just goes, yeah, we got goalie. Next question. I really want Ron to say that.

But, you know, this is also the GM, as I saw a Flyers fan say on Twitter last night. you know, Kurt from the SB Nation Firesight, this is AGM after something like this, who will probably not do a lot. And I think that's exactly what the Penguins need. Just, you know, fill out the outer edges of the roster and just do a good job with it. Go get a goalie and make another run at this next season. I think it's as simple as that, again, this season in the playoffs, they got goal-aid. They outplay the Islanders in five of the six games.

They had a significant edge and shot attempts and shots on goal and high danger chances and scoring chances for. I know in the end it doesn't matter. And that frustrates a lot of people who don't like analytics. Trust me, I get it. You know, at the end of the day, you look at wins and losses. You know, the Islanders, you know, they won the series. Congrats to them.

You know, we'll see how they do against Boston. I'm not really going to pick them against the Bruins because I honestly don't think the Bruins will tear them apart. At the end of the day, guys, this team got goalied. There is no other way to say it. If you're looking for other reasons as to why they lost this series, you're just, you're grasping for straws. I can't be more clear than that.

But I think that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Penguins podcast. And again, everyone, thank you all so much for listening to me on the second season of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I know it was a wild ride and this was a season unlike any other. But I really appreciate every single one of you tuning in to this podcast, whether it's just for one episode or it's all 288 episodes. And if you've done the latter, God bless you. But I really can't thank all of you enough. It was so great to talk to you all on my personal Twitter and on the Lockdown Penguins' Twitter, but the content does not stop there.

We're going to keep going five days a week through June. We'll have to see what happens in July, but I can tell you all right now that for the month of June, you will be getting a Penguins podcast basically every weekday. As you know, this is going to be a wild off season. There's going to be a lot of movement around the league. I know there's going to be a flat cap, but with expansion and just everything else with free agency, you probably will see a lot of movement.

And, you know, keep it right here on Locked on Penguins. to have everything for you here with the off-season content. I can't wait to bring you all just more awesome stuff as we get further and further into summer. But again, thank you all so much for listening to not only this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast, but to all the episodes of this podcast during the second season. And I'll chat with you all tomorrow as we'll finish off this week of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.