Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - What do the Penguins need this offseason?

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

The offseason is officially upon us and in this episode, Patrick and Hunter discuss what Kyle Dubas and the front office need to focus on to get this team back into the playoffs, whether it's depth scoring, top-line talent, or defense. They also dive into what a potential Sidney Crosby extension looks like for the captain this summer. Next, the Penguins' AHL and ECHL affiliates are in the playoffs and the boys take a look at what they're up against as they chase the Calder Cup and Kelly Cup, respectively. Finally, a quick look around what was a wild opening weekend in the Stanley Cup Playoffs!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monopoly GO!Get in the game and join your friends. Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Pay. The mobile hit twist on classic MONOPOLY.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.PolicygeniusCheck life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonnhl to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save.SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARENTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – win or lose! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. 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.

Kyle Dubas has a lot of work ahead of him this summer, and Hunter and I are going to preview 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 Penguins fans to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4Wet, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodeys.

you can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. And we thank you for making this your first listener watch of the day because we're your team every day. And we are free and available wherever you get your podcast, including YouTube. And today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Make every moment more.

Right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed. That's $150. Win or lose. Visit fandul.com slash locked on to get started. So here we are, Hunter, it's Monday. It's the first official offseason episode for you and I with the penguins not qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs for the second year in a row. There have already been six NHL or Stanley Cup playoff games played, excuse me. And that means we're going to sit here. We're going to watch these games. We're going to have some fun with no pressure.

We're going to enjoy it. We're going to talk more about what we've seen in the Stanley Cup playoffs in our segment today, but obviously this is a penguin-centric podcast. So what we are going to do is we're going to kind of take a look at what some of these playoff teams early on have done. And obviously rob ourselves of joy and compare them to our Pittsburgh Penguins to kind of come up with an idea early on here with what the penguins and Kyle Dubis need to do this offseason to get this team at the very least back into the post season. And so we want to start here with this.

Obviously, we're not going to make a ton of inferences and comparisons after just one game has been played in six of the eight series in the Stanley Cup playoffs so far. But what we are going to do is kind of take a little bit of a look at what playoff teams now are doing to get into the Stanley Cup playoffs and what the penguins are lacking in order to get back to the postseason. So the first thing we want to start with is this. Obviously, the biggest thing is depth. You look at the Penguins' results this year. You look at their statistics for all of their skaters. And the big guns did their jobs this year. The Sydney Crosby's, Evgeny Malkins, Chris Latang, even Eric Carlson.

Those guys did their jobs. They put up the points they needed to put up. But then you start looking down on the roster. And a lot of guys with 20 or less, a lot of guys with 10 or less goal. goals. And that's an issue because we look at the Stanley Cup playoffs so far. And obviously, like I said, one game has been played in only six of the eight series, but you go to the NHL statistics page, a lot of role players with multiple points. Sure, the big names are there, but in a lot of the series so far, it has not been the big guns doing it. It's been the supporting cast.

Agreed. And I think you did leave Brian Russ out of it because he did do his job for the penguins here. I mean, he almost had 30 goals. while missing a good chunk of games overall. So he still played his tail off every night. But to your point, I agree. I mean, I was watching the Vancouver Nashville game, the night count game last night. Dakota Joshua for Vancouver, two goals.

Having depth that can chip in when your stars don't have it at times is so massive come playoff time. Heck, for example, Pat, in that game, Elias Pedersen, I don't think enjoyed that good of the game for the Canucks, but it was all moot because other. players stepped up. Throughout this season, yeah, the top two lines for the penguins were fairly good. At least the top line was. The second line didn't really get that good until Michael Bunton came over at the trade deadline. But outside of that, you know, you had at times the ESP

line was fine, but the fourth line really wasn't contributing on a nightly basis. And the bottom six, much like it was heading into last off season, it's still a major issue for this team heading into another off-season. I understood the vision that Kyle Dubus had by building out that bottom six to be mainly defense first, but you still need players that can score down there. You can't just comprise the bottom six of quote-unquote defensive specialists, so to speak. And when I discussed all the defensive specialists, I shouldn't fully lump Lars Eller into there. I mean, he was great offensively this season, 15 goals.

He deserves a spot in next year's bottom six, as does Valtery Pustin. even though Pustin struggled a bit down the stretch, he should be on the opening night roster next year. So that's two spots at the bottom six that should be already locked. And I would say, yes, he'll pull Javier. He should probably have a spot in there, if not at least being the 13th forward. He is signed for another year for the Penguins. Outside of that, I think there are three legit spots that should be up for grabs down there. Jameson Harkins, see you.

I don't want him coming back for the bottom six. Jeff Carter, obviously he is retired. I know Nieto and Achari are both under contract, but I'm sorry, man. I really just didn't see enough from both of them this year. And I know Nieto was really hurt for most of the year. But even when he was in the lineup for the 20-ish games and when Achari was in the lineup, I just didn't see enough from both of them to be fully confident in them heading into next season.

Maybe I could argue a little bit with a chari because he'll be away from Carter. But still, I'm just not. that confident in both of those players hitting in the next season. And I think as of right now, the Penguins need two to three more forwards to fill out that bottom six. Yeah, I would agree with you. I would flop it a little bit, though. I'm willing to give Matt Nietto a second chance. He only makes 900,000 against the cap. He's got one year left on that deal. And if he can overcome injury, I do think there's an effective bottom six forward there. Achari on the other hand, two million for two more years. If you can get rid of that deal, I think you do. Um, whether

it was just not a fit or if he's just no longer effective. I know he had some good hockey in the lead up to becoming a penguin, but for some reason it just didn't work here. But I'd be willing to give Matt Nietto another look just for how little he makes and how little he played. I agree with what our pal Josh Yo, he said this morning in his end of season grades. I have to give him an incomplete grade just because you didn't see enough of him, I think overall, to really get a feel for it. But yeah, then I think this is going to be Kyle Dubus' biggest task this off season. He's got to take the toys away a little bit because we look at the way he spoke of the coaching staff, did not, was very noncommittal on everybody except for Mike Sullivan.

So that pretty much tells us Mike Sullivan's going to be back. And we know that the main thing he has that is very typical for NHL coaches, he loves his vets. He loves the older guys. he always defers to them. And that is not just a Mike Sullivan specific thing. NHL coaches love their vets. They love the older guys.

They do not trust the younger guys. That's not a Mike Sullivan specific problem. But we saw when this team started to get a little bit of life in the last month of the season, it was a lot of the younger guys coming up and starting to play because by force of habit, because of injury, because of other circumstances, whether it were trades or whatever, there was a world where Sullivan had to play his younger guys, and this team started to have some life. So this summer, when filling out the depth,

obviously you don't just want to go get a guy because he's young. That's the thing I always say people leave out when they talk about, oh, penguin's got to get younger. Got to have some skill, got to have some speed, got to be effective. It can't just be, oh, well, this guy's 22. He must be great. We have to obviously be a little bit smarter on that. But I think the offseason idea that we've heard of earlier that we heard in the lead up to the trade deadline is that this team needs to get younger.

I think that's what he's trending toward this offseason. Yeah, I agree with you. I think one thing that I'm really looking forward to maybe having in the bottom six is kind of a mini game breaker, so to speak. And maybe that's someone like Drew O'Connor, if he slides down, for example, Pat, he had 16 goals this past season. And if he can go up to 20 to 22 for next season and he's on your third line, that's a luxury while maybe getting someone via trader for agency to play up with Sydney Cross because I'll keep saying this on the show. I like O'Connor. I think he had a great year. I don't think he's ready to be a full-fledged top line winger in the NHL.

And that's why I think they're going to have to go after another winner for the top six. But you move O'Connor down. That's big as well. but maybe you're also able to get someone else for cheap in the bottom six, that can also pot you 16 to 18 and 19 goals for your third line. That would be big as well. They just still don't have enough offense. And if you can get a younger player and has shown an ability to produce offense at the

NHL level, that will be big for me. I know other people are going to discuss, well, what about Wilkesbury? What about Wilkesbury? What about Sam Poulan? I liked a little bit of what I saw from Poo-in in the few games, and I would be willing to give him a shot next season. but I don't think he should be a sure lock to make this team out of camp. He's going to have to go out there and prove it if you ask me.

That's the main thing I think this team means. Another thing that I think they need as well, another bona fide top four defensemen. I know they're probably going to give Ryan Graves another shot just based on what Kyle Dubas said at the presser and by how NHL teams just don't give up that quickly on a player like that who has a long-term contract. That said, I still think they need. another top four guy. For as much as I like Pio Josis play down the stretch with Latang, I don't think he can play like that on a consistent basis. I think you're asking for trouble if he is on the top pairing for all 82 games next season. Yes, he's an RFA heading into the

last season, but I think the Penguins will probably bring him back if I had to guess. I just don't think he's ready for full-fledged top pairing minutes. And I think they still need to go out there and get another defenseman for this scene. For sure, there's a lot more for us to talk about. with the off season upon us. And we're going to keep that going in the second segment as well as talk about what maybe a Sydney Crosby extension looks like. But before we do that, we got to tell you about a couple of our sponsors. And our first one today is Fandul.

It's playoff time in the NBA and the NHL and baseball is in full swing. And Fandul is your place to bet on every game. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets, guaranteed. That's $150. bucks win or lose and you can bet on everything from slap shots, the home runs to slam dunks, all on an app that is safe, secure, and easy to use. So what are you waiting for? Visit fendool.com slash locked on and make your first bet an automatic win.

Fanduel, America's number one sports book. And we are going to keep it going with another sponsor and that is PolicyGenius. Policy Genius is the country's leading online life insurance marketplace. It saves you time and money so you can provide your family with a financial, safety net starting today. With policy genius, you can find life insurance policies that start at just $292 per year for $1 million of coverage. Some options offer same-day approval and avoid unnecessary medical exams. Now, I'm of an age where a lot of my friends are married. They have children and they're to the point in their life where they need to get life insurance because you never know what can happen. And of my friends that have actually used this, they said it's a lot easier than most other places because it's quick, it's easy, and it gives you that peace of mind. PolicyGenius helps you compare options from top companies and their team of license experts is on hand to help talk you through it.

You can talk to a team of award-winning agents who will walk you through the process step by step and easily compare quotes from America's top insurers in just a few clicks to help you find your lowest price. Check life insurance off your to do list in no time with PolicyGenius. Head to policygenius.com slash locked on NHL or click the link in the screen. of this episode to get your free life insurance quote and see how much you could save. That's policygenious.com slash locked on NHL. All right, we're back here on the Monday offseason edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast.

I'm Patrick Damp, joined as always by the illustrious Hunter Hodes. And we're going to keep the offseason need talk going because there is a lot for us to attack. I want to respond a little bit to what you were saying before we went to break there. fully agree on the defensive side of it. They are obviously going to give Ryan Graves another chance. We talked about that on Friday with Kyle Dubus's presser, where he did everything short of saying Ryan Graves stunk this year, and he is now sitting all by himself on a barstool at the last chance saloon

because he was bad this year, and he has to pick it up. I also think they saw a lot from P.O. Joseph down the stretch. I do think that if, If nothing else, they're going to give him another opportunity. But that's also a guy that you can dangle out in mid-season trades because he showed some potential still pretty young. You could probably get some good assets for him. And lastly, but not leastly, along with the depth up front, they do need to find another bona fide top six winger. I like Drew O'Connor a lot, but you want to bump him down, I think, despite everything that he did this year.

again, I keep saying it. Brian Rust Light kind of guy. Very good utility player can fill in in the top six when you need them is more likely a middle six second or third line winger. But a guy that you want to keep on your roster because he has seemed to figure it out. He's got size. He's got speed and he's starting to find the scoring touch. That's a player you hold on to. But overall, I mean, you look at this offseason right now where we sit at this moment.

they have $12.7 million in cap space available, and that's before they make any moves. You know, because you look at a guy like Nolachari, you could probably move him, maybe not for a lot, but that's $2 million off your books. There's also going to be a lot of talk about what to do about goaltending because Nadelcovich, unrestricted free agent only made $1.5 million last year think he's due for a raise. And then Tristan Jari, who knows what they do with him, but that's 5.3.3. 7.5 million you could move off your books and really open up for a lot of opportunities. And their only UFA, other than Alex Nadalcovic this summer, is Jansen Harkins. And I don't see a world where they bring Jansen Harkins back.

Obviously, Jeff Carter is a UFA, but he has since retired. So that's out of there. So really at this point, a lot of opportunities for Kyle Dubus to tinker and reshape this roster going into the 24-25 season. Yeah, I mean, you left out a couple other players who I do think the penguins could look to move as well. For example, I could see them moving on from Ricard Raquel. I liked how he ended the season, but are you going to get that level of play from him

for all 82 games during the 2024, 2025 season? And oh, yeah, now he's going to be over 30 for next season. He also has four years left on his contract at 5 million. Can you get out of that potentially? I think Kyle Dubus could maybe look at that contract, considering how he did not sign Raquel to that deal. I also think you could look at Riley Smith. He makes $5 million heading in the next season.

He's 33 right now. He'll be another year older. He didn't fit in this past season. I could see that being a potential draft day trade or a trade a little bit before the draft. There's going to be a lot of avenues that Kyle Dubus could go down in terms of opening up more cap space so the Penguins could be more active

in free agency trades or both once the draft and July 1 comes around. So I do think you can see one or both of those players potentially going out as well. Just want to put them out there as trade bait for this off season. Yeah, I mean, the good news is with the salary cap going up pretty significantly next year, a lot of teams I think, and this is obviously just my prediction. I don't have any inside source on this. I think we're going to see a pretty active trading off season once we get around the draft and then after the first week of free agency, just because teams are going to have a lot

more to play with, including the penguins, because we're finally coming out of the stress of the pandemic when it comes to the economics of the NHL. Then you add in there's going to be a brand new, a brand new team in Utah that is going to really help with hockey related revenue because it's not going to be the drag on the league that Arizona, Phoenix, Coyotes. whatever you want to call them, were because of everything going on with their ownership. But there's also a huge question to be answered this off season. And that is what happens with Captain Sidney Crosby. Kyle Dubus pretty much said that it's going to happen.

He said that he is of the belief that Sidney Crosby has to finish his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sidney Crosby has himself said he wants to finish here. I know we're going to get every column and every NHL network, hot take segment of who is Sidney Crosby thinking about going elsewhere? He's not. He has said it. This is a guy who says nothing throughout his career, never says anything and has said emphatically he wants to finish his career in Pittsburgh. So Hunter, I ask you, July 1, Sydney Crosby is eligible for an extension. What does that extension look like? I think he signs that extension that day and puts all of this stupid engagement farming, this stupid bait that I,

always see on social media to bed. I saw that segment that the Inchal Networks Twitter posted over the weekend. Why are we continuing to still do this? Sydney Crosby is going to retire a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He will go out with Chris LaTang and of Guinea Malkin, and that's that. He's not going to leave this organization. What I think a deal looks like, I'm going to go out there and just guess. I have not heard any inside information. This is going to be a strict guess on my part. Three years, 9.5 million. Check this out. 9,500,000, 87. He's going to squeeze that 87 in there because you know how superstitious he is. That's what I'm going to guess, though, for the overall AAV, 9.5 million per year for three years. I think he's going to want a little bit

of a raise. He should want a raise. He's been taking below market value for quite a long time at this rate. I do think he'll get a raise three years. He'll finish his career with the payments. That's going to be my guess on the next contract. That's right where I am too. I think at this point, he's going to take a three year deal just because that takes him to the end of the 28, 29 season. That's one year after, or actually that'll be three years. If I look at Cap Friendly correctly, that would be the same time that Malkin and Latang's deals run out. And I do think that's kind of what those three want to do because I don't know what they feel or how they feel about playing past those deals.

I don't think Malkin or Lattang are going to. I think these are their final contracts and they're going to retire because both of them have dealt with a lot of injury and a lot of health issues that once they get to that age, yeah, they're going to have made a ton of money. They're going to have done so much as NHL players. They're all going to be Hall of Famers at one point or another. And I think at that point, they're going to ride that out. And then Sid's going to see how he feels and probably take stock at where the organization is.

Is he going to be the gray beard that hangs around for two, three years and helps the next generation get into the NHL? Or does he say, hey, thanks for everything. I'm going to stick around in Pittsburgh, but it's not going to be as your captain or as a player. So I'm with you right there. I think it's a three-year deal. I think it takes him to the end of his buddies Malkin and Latang's deals. And then they all figure it out from there. But I'm with you there overall, too.

This speculation is dumb. Unless, and there's one world where I see this happening, exactly one world. And it has to be where every single solitary thing goes wrong next year. And this team is in the basement. They've cleaned house on the coaching staff. and they just know, okay, it's over. It's time to start this rebuild.

And the way they finished this season, I'm very, very doubtful. That's how next season goes. I agree. I mean, I think you're going to see them make moves to try and get back to the playoffs next year. They're not going to be making moves to look for the future beyond 87, 71, 58, and 65 at this point.

I mean, maybe in the draft, they will. But in terms of moves, trade-wise, and frequency-wise, no, they're going to be making moves to try and get back to the playoffs. I mean, Kyle Dubas, during his presser, didn't sound like someone who was going to blow this whole thing up during the offseason. And honestly, he shouldn't, considering how Crosby played this past season, how Lattang played for most the season before, struggling a lot down the stretch, though he was banged up, considering how he Malkin played, especially after he had Michael Bunting, and especially

considering how Eric Carlson played for the final month or two of the season. I still think, for the most part, Carlson was, as out of it. if you want to say he was disappointing. I can hear you a little bit on that. But with the way the core played for the season, you would be foolish to not at least try one more time to get this team back to the playoffs for next year. Yeah, absolutely.

And that is going to do it for this segment for the 1,000 foot offseason talk. We'll obviously get a lot more specific as the off season progresses. But the good news is there is playoff hockey to be had in the Penguins organization with both the Oakbury Scranton Penguins and the Wheel nailers in their respective post seasons. We're going to take a look down on the farm as well as give you some quick thoughts on the Stanley Cup playoffs so far. But before we do that, we got to tell you about our next sponsor.

And that is game time. If you're a dedicated listener of this show and you listen to our ads, you know my story when it comes to tickets. It's one of my all-time favorite stories when my best friend and I went to the old melon arena for a game at the last minute. We bought tickets from a scalper. Surprisingly, they worked. They scanned.

we got in, but as we found out from our usher, they were for a row in a section that did not exist. But GameTime is now the authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball, which makes getting tickets even faster and easier. Prices on the GameTime app actually go down the closer you get to first pitch and with killer last minute deals, all in prices, views from your seat, and their lowest price guarantee, game time takes the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets. I love this app because of the view you get from your seat. You can use the feature customize your spot as your supplemental inspiration. And you get the last minute deals, flash deals, zone deals, easy to find and buy MLB tickets

for any kind of event in your area. And like I said, you get the views from your seat in the venue. And with all in pricing, you can toggle this feature and show the total upfront price without those surprise fees at checkout. You get the lowest price guarantee by game time or they will credit you 110% of the difference. And your purchase is covered with the most flexible. customer service policy in the ticketing industry.

So take the guest work out of buying tickets with GameTime, download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code L-O-C-K-O-N-HL for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, we're back here on the Monday edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast.

I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. And like I said, we do have some playoff hockey to talk about both the Stanley Cup playoffs and both of our affiliates are in the postseason. The Wheeling Nailers will start with them. They are currently tied one one with the Indy Fuel, the Chicago Blackhawks, ECHL affiliate. And this has been a game or a series of scoring because both teams in the ECHL regular season

add 230 or more goals throughout the year. And here's the other funny part. This is going to be an interesting series to keep your eye on because the Wheeling Nailers, as we have talked about with the Penguins for a while, low-key a goaltending factory. Because in net for the Wheeling Nailers is the ECHO goalie of the year,

Taylor Gautier, who had a 923 save percentage for shutouts and 24 wins. So Hunter, I know you were looking at the game result before we hit record. So tell the people what they can expect when they see this Naylor's Fuel series. Yeah, Wheeling won game two in dominating fashion over the weekend. Seven to one. Jordan Martel was the biggest reason for that win.

Two goals, three assists for five points. Evan Veerling for Wheeling was also big with two goals. I think if Wheeling wants to win this series, those two players have to be two of their best players. And you told me this before we started recording. Where is Game 5 going to be played? for this series. If you want to go Penguins fans and get a look at some of the guys you may see in a couple of years in a Penguins uniform who are currently playing for Wheeling,

you don't have to go all the way down to West Virginia. You just have to go to Cranberry because game five of this series will be played in Cranberry at the UPMC Lemieux Complex. So check out the Wheeling Nailers website if you want to get some tickets for that one. As you guys know, I did use to work for them. They are not asking me to do this. I do love the nailers, but this is not a sponsored segment. This is us just looking at the farm system. But with that in mind, the baby penguins will kick off their series with the Philadelphia Flyers, AHL affiliate on Wednesday, a best of three series against the Lehigh Valley

Phantoms. And boy, oh boy, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms are basically the Washington capitals of the Calder Cup playoffs. The Baby Penguins finished 14 points ahead of the Phantoms. and Lehigh Valley this season had a minus 26 goal differential. So this is a game that is, or a series that is ripe for the taking for the baby penguins, because one, we've been talking about him all year. They have Joel Blumquist in net,

and he has been absolutely tremendous, appears to be knocking at the door for an NHL job. So he is going to be a huge X factor for the baby penguins in the Calder Cup. playoffs and they're getting a ton of help on the way now that the caller cup playoffs are getting ready to kick off they're going to get valteri pustinan red deems a hornah jack saint ivany ryan shay and we didn't have to this happened over the weekend so we didn't have time to discuss it until today but ncdbara champion with the debt with denver tristan bros is coming to the hl to help the baby penguins on an amateur tryout after signing a three year entry level deal with the Penguins this weekend.

Yeah, Tristan Brose and Joel Blumquist are the two players that I'm most excited about for Wilkesbury heading to the playoffs. I mean, you said about Blumquist. He was one of the best goaltenders in the AHL this year, 2.16 goals against average, 25 and 12 and 6 record 921, say a percentage. If he has a big playoff run for Wilkesbury, that's going to make Kyle Dubus and the rest of the Penguins front office pretty confident in his abilities. heading into next season. And I think that could be enough for him to be NH already. Of course,

we'll have to see how he does at camp for the Penguins, but he is basically just about there for this organization. So I want to have my eyes on him. And you already shouted him out, Tristan Brose. Congratulations to him. NCAA champion was a hero for the University of Denver during their run to winning the NCAA tournament, NCAA championship, excuse me, GCWA tournament. I still have March Madness in my mind a little bit here, people. But congratulations to him. I'm winning the NZAA championship. But now he gets a taste of professional hockey a little bit with the Penguins organization. I keep reading takes on social media, asking people, oh, is he going to be ready for the penguins this upcoming season? And my answer to that, my friends, no. He still needs some

seasoning, if you will, for the North American game, especially for the AHL. I see him, even if he performs well for Wilkesbury in the playoffs, I see him starting next season with Wilkesbury. And even if he plays well, I don't think he's going to be ready until maybe the end of next season, even if he lights it up. I still think he's at least another full year,

maybe even two away from really helping this team on an everyday basis. So I don't see him being ready for next season, but I really want to see how he does in the HL, both in the playoffs here, and for all of next season. Yeah, I want to see how he does with professional hockey. I think he has the makings of maybe a late season call up that you get a look at right before the postseason.

Or if, God forbid, next year goes poorly. He's a guy you can see what you got late in the year. But I'm right there with you. So real quick, before we wrap up the show, the Stanley Cup playoffs are well underway after this weekend. And I'm just going to give a couple quick thoughts here. One is a victory lap. One has a bit of an egg on my face. the victory lap, Colorado Winnipeg series.

What did I say when we talked about our preview? Colorado is great. They have all this depth and all this scoring, but they don't have goal tending. They lose an absolutely wild game one to the Winnipeg Jets, seven to six. And you would think being able to score six goals on Connor Hellebuck would be plenty to win a game,

but it was not. And the craziest part of it, of it all is, Hellebuck still made 40 saves, despite giving up. six goals. So this was an awesome game. That series is going to be pure uncut nonsense. Colorado was the better team in that game. They just could not buy a save from your if he was giving me 2012 Mark Andre Fleury vibes in that game. He could not stop a beach ball if that was coming in. So they need to figure that out for the rest of the series or I do

think Winnipeg will win it because you're not going to pot six past Hellebuck every game. He's the best goaltender in the league right now for a reason. And the abs really need to figure out if you or you can make some saves for them. And obviously, only one game has been played in six of the eight series. So you still need three more to advance. But then I look over at the east and I see the Boston Toronto series. And man, that is just a boogeyman for that team. Because I will say this, I think Toronto played fairly well in that game.

But for whatever reason, they just cannot beat the broo. and unless they figure that out and steal one in Boston, it might be another summer of heartbreak in Toronto. I said during the preview, man, I'm not going to take Toronto to beat Boston until Toronto actually does the thing. And you saw it on display. Boston just knows how to play against Toronto. And they also have the goaltending edge in the series.

Jeremy Swam and gave the Maple Leafs nothing in game one. And I know there's been a lot of debate about. about, oh, should they go back to Sweman? What about Allmark? And I do think you'll see Allmark at some point in this series. But after the way Swainman played, why would you go to Allmark right away? Go back to Swamen. You're at home.

If you win this game, maybe you can go to Allmark. But right now, I'm riding the hot hand if I'm Boston. It just seems like for whatever reason, as you said, Toronto, it just feels like it's a curse with playing against the Bruins. I know they had almost a 20-year curse that was broken. last year for winning a playoff series, but this Curtis against the Bruins goes back way longer, and I just don't know if it's going to be broken this year. They haven't beat the Bruins in the playoffs since the 1950s.

So this is quite a mountain to climb. Other than that, we saw exactly what we expected to see in the Rangers Capitals series. The Capitals are just not a good team. And once New York remembered that the Capitals are not a good team in the second period, they dog-walked them for the rest of the game. Florida, Tampa, as advertised, great opening game. Carolina and the Islanders, I mean, those are two, two Pokemon that just use Harden all the time. Harden, Harden, Harden, and they play defense and make you earn every inch.

The Islanders all played them in that game, man. I thought the Islanders played a really sound, very strong game against the Hurricanes. Frederick Anderson was just that good in net for Carolina. He's given them really good goaltending since coming back. That one, if I'm an Islanders fan, I would be sick to my stomach. over because I don't see the hurricanes playing that poorly in another game this series. And now they're down in this series overall. They got to win this game to avoid going back to the island down 02.

I would be a bit afraid if I was an islander's fan because they did play well in game one. I just don't know if Carolina is going to play that poorly again. And obviously, I will let you cook on what I think is probably your favorite series, the Canucks and the Predators. So your thoughts on that one? I was in bed. I watched the condensed game this morning. But your thoughts on that one?

I'm all in on the Vancouver Canucks bandwagon. I've been watching them all year. They are just so much fun to watch. You saw how fired up that Vancouver crowd was. Their intro for the Canucks coming out was awesome. Was it where the streets have no name by YouTube? They did that in 2011. When they went all the way to the Stanley Cup final, if I recall correctly. If you have never seen the game one, 2011 Stanley Cup final intro with where the streets have no name in Vancouver. go search that on YouTube, your hair will stand up on your arms. It's awesome. It gave me chills when I saw it last night when ESPN was televising it. That was awesome. The crowd was into it from the opening draw. And Nashville punched back a couple times in that game. That was a really fun game overall, but you had Dakota Joshua, the hero for Vancouver in the third period. Watching Quinn Hughes dazzle everyone from the blue line, I could watch that all day. long, man. He is so freaking good in the offensive

zone. Demko made some tremendous saves, including one during the early portion of the first period, which was just insane the way he played. And that was a game where you didn't get that much from Elias Pedersen. Brock Bester was a little quiet. J.T. Miller was also

a little quiet. I would not expect that to be the case for the rest of the series. Nashville, they're going to be up a creek if they lose game two in Vancouver. It was just a lot of fun the watch. Yep. And two more series, get ready to go tonight, Edmonton and L.A., Dallas and Vegas. So,

a lot of hockey for us to talk about. We are not going anywhere. We will be back tomorrow with another episode. We're going to talk more offseason and take another peek at what the farm system is doing as well as more of the Stanley Cup playoffs. But for the Monday edition, I am Patrick Damp. That is Hunter Hodes. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. And we will be back to talk to you on Tuesday.