Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - What could be next for the Pittsburgh Penguins this offseason?

Episode Date: October 14, 2020

With season 2 of the Locked On Penguins Podcast in full swing, that means more new guests for this show and today Hunter is joined by Dany (based_otter) from Penguins Twitter to talk about the Penguins offseason. Hunter gets Dany's thoughts on Mark Jankowski and Evan Rodrigues as they figure to be on the Penguins third line for next season and if they're going to be good fits for the team. Dany also brings up Marc-Andre Fleury and how relieved he is that he likely won't be on the team as Vegas Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon confirmed yesterday. Finally, Hunter asks Dany how comfortable he is with the team going into next season and what could be next for Jim Rutherford this offseason.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.Door DashRight now, our listeners can get $5 off and zero delivery fees on their first order of $15 or more, when you download the DoorDash app and enter code LOCKEDONNHL.RomanGo to getroman.com/lockedon TODAY. If approved, you’ll get fifteen dollars off your first orderof ED treatment. 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.

Hello, welcome to this Wednesday edition of Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L-O-1-Square Penguins. So today we have a special guest coming on the Locked-on Penguins podcast, his first time ever coming on it. Actually, The Man, The Myth, The Legend from Penguins Twitter, based, Otter, or aka Danny. Danny, how are you doing today, sir?

I am fantastic. How are you, Hunter? I'm not doing too, too bad. First day off in a bit. I know it's the same with you. It's good that we can just talk about the penguins, even though they're not really doing anything right now. So the agency looks like it's quieting down bit by bit, I would say,

as we just get further and further into the off season. Dan, I just want to start off. Just give me your thoughts on the two recent free agent signings for the penguins with Bringing Back Avenue Norriguez and Mark Jankowski of the Flames. Sure. So I think I'll just start off with Mark Jankowski just because he's the unknown commodity given as we've already had Evan Rodriguez on the roster. We already know a little bit about him.

But with Jan Kowski, the two years prior to last season, he was actually one of the most underrated fourth-liners, in my opinion, in the league. So I think that this is a pretty decent depth signing for them, and especially because we have him on League men, I think it's one year, 700K. I don't really see him slotting into the third center spot just because I, still think that Mike Sullivan is going to try Jared McCann there again. So I think we'll probably end up seeing him start out on the fourth line. But assuming that we don't get the Jankowski of last year, I think that this is a pretty

solid home run for Jim Rutherford, or at least one of the first ones in recent. Yeah. So looking at who he was playing with in the playoffs. I think he was on the fourth line centering. I think it was Derek Ryan and then a combo of Tobias Reader and Zach Rinaldo. So, you know, we really wasn't playing with that much talent that he's going to have here in Pittsburgh. You know, I'm not really saying that Sam Lafferty is going to be an extreme upgrade over Tobias Reader or Derek Ryan, but it's absolutely an upgrade over Zach Rinaldo.

I honestly can't believe that he's still in the NHL. Yeah, I honestly did not even know that he still played at the NHL level. I thought he was back in the AHL still. So the fact that Zach Rinaldo is getting meaningful ice minutes on any team, even if it's just the flames, it's kind of embarrassing. I'm honestly, like, not big on San Lafrey. I think some Penguins fans in the fan base are high on him just because he had like a couple, he was streaky a bit, you know, scoring when he came up,

and then he went up a few games, and then he scored a game. and then he scored a yeah, I know he had that big wrist shot over Braden Holpey against the Capitals on Super Bowl weekend, which was a nice shot. But I just, he's like too inconsistent for me to have a full-time spot in the lineup. He's going to really need to show me something to be in the lineup full-time, even with Zach Alliston, Rees being hurt until February or March.

But, you know, I am hoping that Jane Calshey can rediscover that touch that he had that last season and the season before that with 14 to 17 goals. If he does, it makes the third line not much better. you're right, I think they're going to slide John McAnne in the third line center spot. I mean, they kind of have to, I think, at this point, man, just because they keep rotating him and they got to just stick him at one position.

They got him to be their long-term option at third-line center. I know he's signed for just a two-year deal. It makes below $3 million per on a salary cap, but you've got to give him a fair share giving him the center spot. And if it doesn't work, slide him back to the wing, put him on Sid's line, put him on the third-line wing

with Jenkowski centering him or get an upgraded third-line center at the trade-down line because I'm sure that's exactly what Jim Rutherford may be looking at if Jared McCann kind of struggles as the third line center spot. But are you comfortable with a Jankowski-McKan-Rodriguez third line if it comes to it? I think initially, yeah, because the one thing that we have seen with Jared McCann is just that he's not exactly the most consistent player. He's rather streaky where he'll have a couple of games where he's just this unstoppable force

and he'll net like one goal and assist or have a three point night. And he'll have a couple of games like that for like a week or two. And then after that he sometimes goes cold and you're wondering just where that fire went. So I think just getting him into a consistent spot and just stopping with moving him up and down the lineup, throwing him on the wing and then the next game, having him go back and be third line center. I think that they just need to have him stick with one spot for a little bit just to have him kind of settle down and just get into a groove because I think that'll help with just how streaky he is. So I would say I'm comfortable with it just because we've seen what we can get with McCann

whenever he's on one of those streaks. And then as far as I know, Jankowski does a pretty decent job of driving possession, not as good of a job as Dominic Simone, but I also can't have. imagine that he has a worse shot than Dominic Simone. I would say that probably somebody that plays Bannum has more finishing ability, so I'm pretty confident that he'll also be able to get the puck in that a little bit more often. I would hope so. You know, I almost just started feeling bad for Simone and all the time just because a lot of

his shots just hit the post, went over the net, went wide of the net, and he would be getting some great A chances, but he just was not finishing. And he was a good playmaker too. I didn't mind him next to Crosby. I didn't mind him, honestly, anywhere in line up. But with these two signings, it's obviously not coming back. They weren't going to bring him back even before those signings because Jim Rutherford didn't even give him a qualifying offer.

So that was just a free ticket to go into free agency. And I think if I'm not mistaken, he's going to be hurt going into February with Aston Reese. So I really don't think the Penguins wanted to do two forwards that were not going to be ready for the start of the season. But that's also if it starts in January. Yeah. No one really knows at this point. So, yeah, I mean, I wish they would have kind of waited a bit to dip their toes into free agency just because of some of these deals that we've been seeing these last couple of days.

I mean, one of my biggest targets, man, was Esper Foss, three years, $2 million per from Carolina. That's only $600K more than what they're paying, what the combined payment is from Jen Kalski and Rodriguez. I would have spent, I would have just given it to $2 million to Yesper Foss, but I guess Jim Rutherford did not want to wait. you just wanted to pounce on his guys. He's always done that in the past. But, I mean, these two signings are low-risk, high-reward. I mean, we really didn't see a lot of Evan Rodriguez. And the weirdest thing about that Rodriguez thing was, you know,

you read after he was signed back from a couple of the beat reporters, oh, yeah, like a lot of Penguins coaches and management were really pleased with how he did in training camp and all that. So it's like if they were really pleased with how he did in training camp, then why didn't he play in the series? And then why did they trade him? I mean, I did the same thing about Sam Lackford. Because I remember every single beat reporter for those couple of weeks of quote unquote training camp

We're talking about how Rodriguez and Lafferty were the two skaters stood out the most and then I think Lafferty got what like maybe five minutes of a vice time total in the elimination game So I don't know. I would say that that's also a question that we need to just keep a close eye on with the new season upcoming whenever that's going to happen just because if you're so pleased with how they're performing in training camp, why didn't they get that ice time? Why did you put out, if they're doing so good, then why didn't we see more of them? Why didn't you give them a chance

to really show what they can do? Yeah, I've always, I'll always wonder that too. I mean, Mike Sullivan was being a bit stubborn with his lineup choices. It also doesn't help that his two assistant coaches were kind of like his parents, to be honest, because, like, they really didn't, I don't really know if they pressed him on lineup decisions.

I know Jacques Martin definitely didn't if you saw the news with him. He was the one that wanted the Rangers to sign Jack Johnson. So we'll touch on Jack Johnson probably in the next segment. So, I mean, yeah, I agree with you on that. I mean, Rodriguez definitely should have been playing over Patrick Marlowe. He looked like a corpse in that series again to Montreal. I don't know what was going on there. But I'm glad to see, I'm hopefully glad to see more of him going into this season.

I'm hoping he's going to be getting every, like, he's going to be playing every game. God, I cannot speak today. I'm going to edit that out, though. But, I mean, I'm just hoping that he plays every night. I guess that's the big thing. And he actually gets like 10 to 12 minutes a night. Maybe more. I think that would be really beneficial just to see exactly what they have in him.

Because he really only played like four to five games, if that, after he was acquired in the Conor Sherry deal. Yeah, absolutely. And you're going to go back to two points. I'm going to go back to Yesper Fost. And I was also going to bring up just the fact that you said yesper Foss is on. a 2 million AAB contract for, was it two or three years? Three years for Carolina. Okay.

So while I, 100% I'm with you on that, I absolutely think that Yesper Foss is someone that Jim Rutherford should have targeted. I think there were a lot of free agents that were in the Penguins budget that he should have targeted. But I can also see where Jim's looking at it. And if you look at the Penguin's injury history, we're not exactly one of the healthiest teams throughout the season. So I can see where he thinks that depth is the main concern.

And I think that Mark Jankowski and Evan Rodriguez are both more than capable forwards in the NHL. And having two bodies is definitely a little more helpful than just having one body in Yesper Fost as the season goes on because you know that we're going to go through a streak at some point next season, wherever we're down. Crosby, Latang. than three or four depth forwards. So I don't necessarily think that that's a horrible decision on his part,

but I also would have loved to see him go after Gasper Foss as well. Yeah, I mean, I don't mind that. I agree with you on that. I mean, like I said, 1.4 million between two low-risk signings is totally fine. But, I mean, I guess, I guess they should have just spent, I guess, the extra 600K on Foss. And then if you really want to get creative, they could have created some more cap space. I mean, I don't really know what Colton Severe's place is on this team. I've said it before.

It just looks like kind of like a Nick Spalling in the Hornquist for Neil trade. I don't really know where his spot is in the lineup. And then, I mean, if you wanted to move, Yusarigla, he's making a little over a million. You could have dunk both those contracts and then you've gotten Craig Smith. But, I mean, I'm not Jim Rutherford. What were you going to say? I was going to say, I think that's one of the more confusing signings that Jim made in the offseason. because he was in the doghouse for the better part of two years,

and it really seemed like there was something that Mike Sullivan didn't like about his game. But every time that I saw him in the lineup, it was just you could see how much more he was than Jack Johnson, how much more he was providing. And you could see that there weren't nearly as many turnovers. There weren't nearly as many. Ottoman rush is coming the other way. So I don't get what Sullivan and Jack Martin saw in Jack Johnson as opposed to use a Riechla because I think it's night and day comparing the two.

But just seeing Rekla's utilization over the last two years, I don't understand why Jim signed him to a multi-year deal. Yeah, and then he talked him up a bit too. Yeah, we want to see more of them. like we want to hope he cracks in the lineup. It's like, well, you have Mike Matheson signed for six more years. So I don't think that's going to happen. And I mean, like the way Mike Sullivan treats him, it's like he killed his puppy dog or something like that. So I have absolutely no idea. But before we do get to the next segment, we'll talk about,

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I think I'm more comfortable with the team going forward solely based on the fact that Mark Andre Fleury isn't coming back. Because I think, listen, here's the thing. What Mark Andre Fleury did for Pittsburgh in his time here is absolutely invaluable. He should absolutely be universally beloved. It's time to move on. He's not coming back at any point soon. He's not coming back. He's not going to be the starter.

I'm so sick of every single, every time that there's some drama with him in Vegas and everybody and their mother is just like, come back to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's interested as we saw with Rossi in his article. And then I think it was Yo-E and a couple other, no, it was DK, just absolutely dunked on him last night. And this was like, somebody tweeted him and said, you know, is there any truth to the flurry coming back to Pittsburgh? rumors and essentially he was just like yeah absolutely not whoever said that is just making it up so I'm I'm just more comfortable based on that fact that we're not going to be spending more money toward the cap in that in that regard so I think that the roster that we see right now is going to be the one that we see on opening night but assuming Jim Rutherford is still

the GM as the season goes along that cap space that we currently have I think we have two and a half mil left. I think we're going to see that get utilized at some point during the duration of the season. But everything on the roster right now I'm comfortable with to begin. But as the season goes on, I would like to see a couple other additions or maybe a couple other moves made. Yeah. You know, that was actually going to be my follow-up question. I mean, I do agree this is probably going to be your opening night roster.

The forwards, you know, you can interchange the bottom six. I mean, when Aston Reese comes black, they're obviously going to reunite him with Teddy Bluger and Brandon Tanev, who was signed until 2026 or something like that, which is almost like a fictional year at this point. But, you know, your top stakes is your top six. Your defense, obviously the top four is set, and they're going to play Matheson with Roodle. Unless they're going to go out and get someone to play over Ruehiel, though, I don't really think that's likely at this point. I was talking about Troy Stetcher on the podcast. That would have been a great signing, but he went into Detroit for two years, the $1.7 million. per year. But like I said, my follow-up question, you know, what do you think Jim Oethford

would trade for during the season if he had an opportunity to you? Like another center, top six winger, if they want to move cap and down the lineup because I'm not really sure if Capon is going to be up there for the whole season. What do you think? I would really like to see them add another right-handed defenseman just to put on that third pair. but I don't know in terms of where captain and slots into the lineup I think that we're going to see him start out the season on Crosby's wing

but every Toronto fan that I follow has just said like oh he couldn't keep up with Matthews he couldn't keep up with Tavares just in terms of driving play here's the thing though is Tavaris and Matthews are absolutely elite talents

but Sidney Crosby, they're not. So we've seen people like Chris Cunitz and Pascal Dupuy succeed on Crosby's wing, and we've seen people flame out that were supposed to be amazing la David Perron. The way that Capitan plays, I really think that he will fit in the top six, just because he plays more of a North-South game, and that's more what Sidney Crosby likes in a winger. He doesn't like wingers that are more... east-west. So I think that right now, if I'm Jim Rutherford, I would say getting that

depth defenseman is probably the first move that I would make just because Chad Ruedle is good. He's a great 70. We haven't really seen him play consistently every single night. I'm not sure how he's going to handle that. So if I'm Jim, that would be my first move. Yeah, that's going to be, I think, the big interesting thing as well. You know, can he play a full-way? I mean, we've, I remember reading during the last season. And I mean, I know it came from Jocke Martin, who's, of course, with the New York Rangers. And like I said, is partly responsible for taking Jack Johnson off the Penguins because he wanted him on the Rangers.

You know, he basically said that Chad Roodle when he was playing was our most reliant defensemen. So, I mean, I think with that and with Mike Sullivan playing him a lot during that time, he's definitely going to give him a fair share of winning that number six spot, even if they do add someone to help challenge him for that number six spot, which I do think they should do. I agree with you. There's some options out there, but I mean, I think it's like what, Travis Hamanick. He's kind of getting older, though. There's a couple other than me. Please God know Cody C.C. I really do not want him on this team. His underlying numbers are bad. Leaves fans

dogged on him every night. Danny, I'm sure you saw that from Steve Dangle and all them. That would just be a, that would be a disaster if they signed Cody C.C. for any amount of money to challenge Tad Ruehiel. I would take Ruehdle a hundred times over a hundred over him. knowing Jim Rutherford, it's absolutely possible nightmare that I can see happening. Oh, God, that's just, I really, really don't need that on my conscience. And even if he signed for one year, one million, just you know what?

You have better ways to spend $1 million against a salary cap. He's just not good at all. And the same can be said with the Rangers with Johnson because they're paying him a little over $1 million for next season, and there are much better ways to spend for your salary cap. But before we get to our final segment and a couple of our last questions, it's time to talk about Bilt Bar. There's six new flavors for the Bilt Bar.

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You can go to BiltBar.com and use promote code locked on, and you get $20 off your next order. That's promo code locked on for $20 off at buildbar.com. Okay, so just a couple more questions before I let you go here. You know, one big thing that I'm really excited about going into this season is we're finally going to have a healthy season of Jake Ensel and Jason Zucker for the Penguins in the top six. And Zucker was just easily, I think, their best player during that,

what the bubble run losing to the Canadians in four games. was just a menace on the ice, absolutely everywhere. I think he was averaging like a point per game or something like that. I think in the bugger season, he was like that too. Just how big is that for the penguins, knowing that they have two bona fide left-wingers in the lineup, one that can go next to Crosby and one that can go next to Malkin? I think it's honestly invaluable because when's the last time that we've had a Penguins roster that has, like you said, just two bona fide left-wingers.

When's the last time that we've had that? I genuinely think that we would probably have to go back to the 2000s to see. Because like I was talking about earlier, you know, we had David Perron, but I don't even remember who was on the left wing after him. Was it Coonitz? I honestly can't remember. I think it was Coonitz. Yeah.

I think he was still on the top. at that point. Yeah. So I'm honestly, I have no idea what to expect, but I genuinely can't see it being any worse than it has been for the last couple of seasons. So I think it's going to be absolutely invaluable to have that threat of you can just run two lines with two bona fide scoring wingers. So I'm excited for it.

Yeah. And I mean, I've said this before. You know, I'm going to keep saying it in future episodes too. this is one of the five best top sixes I think in the league. I know Boston, Tampa Bay, and Vegas have awesome top sixes even without Paul Stasney for Vegas, but

I mean, there's not many that can stack up to the penguins and that's probably where the bulk of their scoring is going to come from. The bottom six, not so much, but if they can get some depth scoring from Teddy Bluger, he was really coming into his own offensively, I thought, last year. If Tanniv can contribute more

offensively with his elite shot suppression numbers and Jankals, he can get back. to the way he was the last couple of seasons, I think the bottom six could be better than what I and some other people are thinking that it'll be. It's going to be interesting. The off-season, of course, is far from over.

We could see some metro teams add some stuff. Before I do let you go, I just talk about free agency as a whole. Danny, have there been any big surprises to you during this free agency, outside of, I think, Taylor Hall going to Buffalo? That was going to be my answer, but I think that anybody could have seen that coming from a mile away,

just because, you know, the whole narrative about Taylor Hall going into it was that he was willing to take a short-term deal, but playing for a contender. And whenever we saw the news that he signed with Buffalo, I think everybody kind of had a collective gasp, just like what the hell is going on here. But the more that I saw beat writers and other people on hockey teams, Twitter, just talk about it. The more it made sense to me, just because, you know, obviously with

COVID, the market is just pretty much non-existent. We're sticking with a flat cap for at least next season and probably for a couple seasons after that. So I think that this is a genius move on Taylor Hall's part just because you're betting on yourself, you have a one-year, $8 million contract. And aside from Connor McDavid, he is the best forward that he will ever play with. He's the best center that he'll ever play with. So I don't see this being a situation where Taylor Hall loses. But aside from Taylor Hall, I think the other obvious answer is the fact that Jack Johnson is somehow on an NHL roster again. But like we were talking about in Jacques Martin and how he was the one that convinced Jeff Gordon to acquire him. And the fact that he's making over a

million dollars is just mind-boggling to me. He's a secret agent. That's all the explanation I have, man. Yeah, so congratulations, strangers fans, on getting Alexei Lafrenier. I really hope you enjoyed that happiness while it was there because until Jack Johnson is off your roster, every night is going to be a nightmare. And I'm thinking of you. You're in my thoughts and prayers.

And Godspeed. Yeah. You get to watch him be on the ice for 80% of your even straight goals in the playoffs, just like he was for the Penguins in the Montreal Canadian series because everywhere he was barking all over the ice. So thank God we don't have to see that again. Mike Matheson is his replacement. He makes maybe a little bit too much money,

but at least he can actually move the puck and not be awful defensively in his own zone. At least, I mean, God, I hope not. But, Danny, thank you so much for coming on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I really appreciate it, and I definitely want to have you on in a future episode as we get closer to the season,

or if Jim Rutherford surprises everyone and makes another move in free. agency or a trade and hopefully that's a good move. Absolutely. No, thanks Hunter. Enjoyed being on and I'll come on any time that you need a, need a guest. Yeah, that's perfect. So tomorrow we're going to have Doug Glatky on for another episode of the Locktime

Hengland's podcast. That'll be his first time coming on the podcast, and then Friday we'll have another episode for you guys too. So again, Danny, thank you so much. We'll have you on soon, and I will talk to you all tomorrow.