Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - What does Geno's contract extension look like?

Episode Date: December 29, 2021

Happy Wednesday! As always, there's a ton of news surrounding the Penguins and it starts with more COVID-19. Kasperi Kapanen has been added to the list and Hunter ponders what the lines will look like with him out. He also gets into the change in the NHL's protocols: What does this mean for the Penguins? Will some players be able to come out of protocol quicker than 10 days? He then touches on Evgeni Malkin and when the return is likely coming based on his comments, plus goes into what a contract extension looks like. How much of a pay cut could Geno take? How long will the contract be? All that, plus a lot more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.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. 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.

You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Happy Wednesday, everyone. I'm finally actually recording another episode during the day because, you know, I held off for my job today. So I'm just glad I'm able to record this at a reasonable time

and not ridiculously late at night. But welcome to this Wednesday edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. your host, Hunter Hodeus. You know to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the show who's Twitter at L.R. underscore Penguins. A lot to get to today, including a big announcement about, you know, the league updating their protocols to go in line with the NFL on the NBA. Evgeny Malkin to talk to the media for the first time in six months today.

Touch on when he thinks he's going to return, his contract status, all that, just, you know, how long he wants to continue playing. And I'll also have thoughts on, just a recent wave of postpart. moments, especially up in Canada, and why I think for these latest reasons, it's not even really COVID-related. I just think it's a bunch of BS. But starting off today's show, again, we do have that big announcement from the NHL. And you know, this comes courtesy of Elliott Freeman.

He tweeted out everything. So in accordance with the new CDC guidelines, which says if you test positive and you don't have a lot of symptoms, you can leave isolation after five days in the NHL and those players association, they have agreed to the possibility of, you know, the vaccinated players leaving isolation five days after a COVID test. If they, again, they have no symptoms or the symptoms are resolving. But the key phrase in that, one big thing, it's providing such exit is permitted by your local health authorities. So what does that mean for the penguins? It means that it's much more likely that the players will be able to leave earlier than if this team was up in

Canada. I feel bad for a lot of the Canadian fans up there just because I feel like it's going to be a lot trickier with the Canadian teams just because of how the local health authorities, you know, they're much more, what's the word I'm looking for right now, strict when it comes to COVID, especially to Canadian government, Northern California. That's a big one as well. They're also a lot more strict. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens up there with the Canadian teams, with the breakouts that they have, you know, will they be able to leave COVID protocol as early as some U.S.-based teams will? That I think is going to be the big question that, you know,

the league is going to want answers from the Canadian government. I knew as soon as the CDC made this announcement on Monday, it was only going to be a matter of minutes, if not hours, until we see the leagues go in line with that. and the NBA was first, then it was the NHL yesterday, and then the NFL yesterday, excuse me, and then it was the NHL today. And, you know, it's a big deal with the NFL as well

because their protocol stated that if a player was unvaccinated and they tested positive, which happened yesterday with Colts quarterback Carson Wentz, he was not going to be allowed to come back for 10 days. He was going to have to miss Sunday's game no matter what, just because he's unvaccinated. But now with these updated protocols, it even goes to unvaccinated players, if he can test negative a couple times in a row and is able to get over COVID quick, he will be eligible to play in a massive game for the Colts because they have a play.

They're in a playoff spot right now in the AFC wildcard race. And if he were not eligible to play, they would have had to go on to their backup quarterback by the name of Sam Ellinger, quarterback out of Texas. And that would have not been good because, you know, this has been one of the hottest teams in the NFL. But again, due to these updated protocols, it looks like he is now going to be eligible to play if he can test out of COVID a couple times negative. So again, what this means for the penguins with their outbreak, this is huge. So a lot of their players are asymptomatic, at least according to Mike Sullivan.

If they can test out of it in the next few days, they should be good to go for Sunday against the San Jose Sharks. So that is just huge right there. I'm not sure which players have had mild symptoms versus which players have not had mild symptoms. But, you know, it all remains to be seen which players would be able to come out of COVID protocol in the next few days so the penguins can play that game on Sunday. Outside of that, though, the penguins did have, excuse me, a little bit, you know, more bad news with COVID protocol today. Kisbury Kappan has joined some of his other teammates in COVID protocol. I believe the number is now up to eight.

wins in COVID protocol. This outbreak is just as bad, if not worse than what we saw at the beginning of the regular season. I would probably put up to their saying it is just as bad. I know Mike Sullivan has not tested positive again. We're not going on board. He does not. But it's still pretty bad just because the team had no positive COVID cases before the early holiday break. And now they have eight. So, I mean, that early holiday break, it looks like, really didn't do much at all just because, you know, more players continue to test positive. And, you know, going back to, you know, just the overall announcement, you know, Elliot Freeman said, you know, the negative test and the clearance also mandatory to exit the

isolation. We are going to see how different players and teams are affected. But from what I've heard, the teams and players seem very happy with this news. And again, we will see how local authorities react. So there's the news on all the COVID front. The Penguins did have practice again today, of Guinea-Malkin was a full participant. took full contact and looks like he was finally back in his normal spot, playing second line center to Cindy Crosby was playing on line with Danton Hinen and Jeff Carter.

And, you know, I know some people are probably reading into that second line a little bit just because, you know, Carter can play wing and has played wing in the past. But I still think this team is a lot more dangerous when Carter is, you know, playing in that third line center role, right? it's the deepest, you know, center pool that this team has had since Nick Benino was the third line center in 2016 and 2017. I would shock Carter right up to him. I know he hasn't had that same level of playoff success that Benino did have in 2016 and 2017. I mean, Carter was really good against Sounders in that series and was really good in the regular season.

But just a tad way to go before he gets up to the legend that was Nick Minno on that HBK line. but still, this is a player that's been awesome since coming over from Los Angeles. This team was a lot more dangerous when he is playing the third line center. I would like to think that Mike Sullivan is going to keep that going once Gino officially returns. And we're going to get to that here in just a few minutes. I know some people on Twitter were talking about the potential lines, but a potential third line of Zucker Rodriguez and Capitan. I would be intrigued with that, but I'm still not sure how Kaepernan would play with Rodriguez.

I know Erod has been really good this year. He's been one of their top three best players and is going to get a massive raise after the season is over. But is Captain really going to get back to last year's form if he's playing with Rodriguez and Zucker? That's my thing. I just don't see it. And the team needs more out of them, considering the price that Rutherford does. gave up to get him. He has not lived up to that this season.

I know he did last year, and I was eating crow for a little bit just because I wasn't a huge fan of the trade at the time, but this year, it's all come crashing down, and he's having just a horrific season, despite the underlying numbers, being mostly pretty good. He's just, he's not finishing, and, you know, the eye test is not matching up with the numbers, just because he looks lost on there out there on a nightly basis, yet the numbers are telling a completely different story. So it's interesting to see the dynamic between those two things. I would like to think that Kappin is going to be reunited with Malkin once he's ready to play. So we'll just have to see with that. But, you know, that line with Rodriguez, Zulker and Kappen,

when they played together, per Adam Greta, of Pensburg, it's looked pretty good this year. Apparently he has said they've played over 100 minutes together so far this season, have dominant possession numbers for expected goals, schooling chance, score high danger chances, and they've outscored the opposition 7-0-0 when they've been on the ice. So I will be curious to see if Sullivan gives that line

a little bit more juice, if this team ever does get fully healthy. But again, at the end of the day, I still think the more likely scenario is Sullivan going to be reuniting Zucker with Malkin and Kappan with Malkin as well, just because, you know, Camden played his best hockey with you know again last year.

And I think they want to see if they can get Jason going as well once he's eligible to come back. Remember, he is week to week at this point with that injury that has been nagging him for a while. That is the latest updates from today's practice. Again, coming up in the next segment, we're going to go into Evgeny Malkin, go into his comments about his contract situation, what the contract I would offer to him would be. and when it looks like he will be making his return to the lineup. Hint, it will not be the Sunday. But before we do that, it is a new year.

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All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoos. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hoos. You can also follow the show's Twitter at Eleanor Square Penguins. So let's get into Gino's comments today. And there was a pretty good one in here. This is just typical Gino fashion right here. So he was asked by the media it today. Just, you know, what are your thoughts on the contract? What's the update going on? Didn't really provide an update, but had this great line saying, I'm not thinking about money. I'm a pretty rich guy. And then he flashed a grin. Typical Gino kind of answer, he also confirmed to the media and to the fans that he's looking to only play for three to four more

years. So this next contract that the Penguins will likely give him, hint, hint, he's probably not going to walk to free agency here, people. It will probably be his last in the NHL before he retires. he goes back to Russia, he plays in the KHL for a year or two, and then calls it a career for playing hockey. I honestly do think the Penguins will be able to get Gino on a nice discounted rate. I don't think he's going to get anywhere near $9.9.5 billion on the S contract.

I mean, when he signed that last contract when Ray Schererer was here, boy, that was a long time ago. It was that 2013, I believe, was when he signed that contract. You know, he obviously got a lot of money, and rightfully so because he was one of the five, six best players in the league at that time. I mean, he still is one of the top 10, in my opinion, best players in the league when he's fully on his game.

I know he's been a bit banged up recently, but, you know, the Gino Machino, he's probably one of the more underrated players in initial history, was in my opinion. But at that time, that was when it was a different, you know, salary cap, different CBA and all that. So I wasn't surprised that he got eight times 9.5. Honestly, he could have gotten more.

But that contract was seen. when he signed it as a bit of a hometown discount because, again, he 100% could have gotten 10, 10.5, 11 million per something like that. And the fact that they got him at 9.5, I mean, that was a discount. That's only 800K more than what Cindy Crosby is still getting on that contract. And he signed that contract. I believe it was a year, year or two before. I'm not mistaken. So I really do think, again, Pittsburgh should be able to get him. If it's three years, I'm thinking seven, seven point two, seven point five. If you can get him below eight, that's a steal. Now, if it's four years, I'm thinking 28 million, 29 total million, 30 million, 31, something like that.

You know, three years, 21, 22, 22, 9 million, something like that, I think. I think that would be a really nice contract for Gino. We'll have to see what Ron Hexton and Brian Burke want to do with that contract. But I think that's probably what the Penguin should do. At least that's what I would do if I were Hexton, Brian Berg. So we'll have to see when we get some clarity on that contract negotiation. It's been very quiet. I think that's what Ron Hexton, Brian Burke like.

I'm sure at some point we will get rumors and confirmation of the two sides of the talking. But as of right now, there has been nothing concrete as if yet. Now, going into Gino's potential return date, it looks like it's going to happen right before the Western trip. He said today that he's looking to get into games during that trip. I'm speculating that I think it's going to be for that Dallas game on January 8th. So not this Saturday, but the following Saturday after that. That puts it at about 10 days at this point. If it is not that game, then it's probably the game against Anaheim on that Tuesday,

which would be 13 days from today. So as of right now, I do think we're about 10 to 13 days away when Gino is going to come back. I'm not super surprised by this just because, you know, they're easing him back. They're babying him and rightfully so. He's six months off a major, major knee operation. He basically played on one knee in the playoffs at six points and four games. But they want to make sure that he's fully healthy for the rest of the season just because look how good this team has been this season. They, I mean, upper management and Mike Sullivan and probably the rest of the team,

they probably have sensed that this is one of their last years at really contending for a Stanley Cup. They want to make sure that they are not rushing back one of the best. their best players. I'm perfectly fine with them taking their time. The team is one seven in a row at this point. So we'll see what happens in that regard. But do not expect you to play this Sunday against the Sharks or Wednesday against the Blues or the Flyers. Now, could it happen? Sure, you know, if he's feeling up to it and he's feeling a bit better than normal, you know, he definitely could make a return. But as of right now, do not bet on it. That's for sure. I know he was skating on the second line with Hinen and Carter today,

but it's probably going to be Carter on Sunday and not, you know, at this point. Now, for the rest of the lines, they were a little bit interesting. I mean, you're going to have Yusel Reeklo and Mark Freeman as your third defensive pair. Pedersen with Ruiedel on your second pair, Latang Dumlin, obviously. Ashton Reese was with Drew O'Connor and Brock McGinn today. That's an interesting combination. And then Cassidy of your Brueckwith, and Brian. Boyle were on the fourth line with Lafferty out today as well.

So the team might have to have another forward in there. But I think Pittsburgh is also hoping that they can get a player back this Sunday. That's asymptomatic. That's negative a couple of times due to these new protocols. It does look like that Bjorkwist will probably be making his NHL debut on Sunday. I touched on this on my Monday episode. This is a player that we really have not seen a lot of other than in just preseason games. He's been playing a lot of Wilkesbury, but he was a high draft pick about, I want to say,

what was, five to six years ago at this point. And we just, we haven't seen him play yet at the initial level. So I want to see how his development has been going. Obviously, he's going to play in the bottom of six. It's not going to play in the top six here unless the whole team has positive for COVID or something like that. But, you know, he's still a player that I'm definitely intrigued by. I want to see just how it's been going for him down in Wilkesbury. You know, Drew O'Connor with Ashton, recent, again, that's an interesting.

third line. I want to see more of O'Connor. I know he kind of fell off a little bit since having that great start of the season, but, you know, this is still a much different player than what we saw last season where it looked like he was an ECHL player, at least in my opinion. So I'm excited, excuse me, to see what he can do in a top nine role for this team. Now, before we get to our last segment where I'm going to touch on some of these post-formments and why I just think it's kind of a little bit of BS. for the NHL. If I can find this here. So Jackson Hollister, if you're listening to this episode, thank you so much for sending this question. And he said, with all these players out with COVID,

would it count against the cap just because, you know, he asked a question with Gino, Rust, and Gensel playing the game this weekend. We will be over the cap with COVID and asked if I had any insight on that. So do a little bit of digging, Jackson. I do not think, I just checked a couple cap friendly and all that. It does. It doesn't look like it would count against the cap for the penguins. And it looks like only Gensel and Russ are coming back for the game on Sunday. At least that's how I'm taking it right now. So either way, the penguins are not going to be over the cap regardless.

So I wanted to give you that answer on today's episode. Just give you a little bit of clarity on that. Also, Gino is on LTIR right now. So even with the returns of all those players in COVID Protocol and Gensel and Russ who are not an LTIR to begin with, they will be fine cap-wise. So, again, thank you so much for sending in that question. I really do appreciate that.

Again, coming up after this commercial break, we're going to get into some of these post moments for the games up in Canada and why it's just whatever. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. We want to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the shows Twitter at L.O.

R.S.C.P.P. And so I understood why the Penguins game against the Leafs this week was postponed. Just because the Leafs had a lot of players in COVID protocol. Sheldon Keith was in COVID protocol. Penguins were having a huge outbreak. It didn't make sense of way that game right. But the game against Ottawa, I think it's just total BS for why that I post that guy got postponed. And it wasn't just that game.

It was other games in Canada as well. And it was due to limited attendance. And it's just like the NHL is such a joke in that regard. because you're not taking player safety seriously, but you're postponing a game due to not having a lot of fans there just because it's money reasons. I mean, what are we doing here? I just, I don't get that at all.

That game should be played. I think at least in my opinion, the Penguins have a healthy-ish roster to play. I noted that senators do as well. Matt Murray was probably getting ready to start in that game, too. So, I mean, the NFL really doesn't have. have to be just go out here penny grabbing i just i hate that for the league i think it's total i almost said a bad word there i think it's total BS um it just makes your it just makes the integrity

of the sport just look really stupid in my eyes i mean it was a one o'clock game it's new year's eve these teams haven't played in so long there's no reason to postpone that game due to attendance issues i mean i understand you know the league office they're trying to get money back just because they lost so much money during this pandemic. But you know what? Tough crap right now. I mean, these teams are ready to go, for the most part, at least. I know some players are in code protocol, but, you know, this game was on track to be being played.

But now you're postponing that in a few other games in Canada because you're not having the attendance that you want unlike it is in the United States. So that just really is a joke to me, at least in my opinion. I just really don't get that. Switching gears a little bit. Penguins do have a big game on Sunday against the sharks. San Jose is not that good this season. They're kind of a meddling 500 team. They played a ridiculous 8 to 7 game against Arizona on Tuesday night.

San Jose was up by two goals multiple times, allowed the coyotes to come back. Do not expect Arizona to even score seven goals once this season. But San Jose, Tim Omeyer has been great. Tomas Hurtle is awesome. If they fall out of the playoff race, I would love if Pittsburgh would somehow go out and get him. He is. That would be a slam duck. position, even though this team is as deep as it is.

Eric Carlson's turned back the clock a little bit. Logan Gature has played well. Brent Burns, he's kind of falling off a little bit. But, you know, the sharks are a bit better than what I thought they would be this year. But it's still, they're not a playoff team, at least in my opinion. But thou dude for this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast, I really appreciate you all listening to this one. We'll be back from another episode on Thursday, and then we'll close out on Friday. Just with a year in review for the Penguins were going to go over the best.

goal in my view, best game, best moment, all that stuff. That's going to be coming over these next couple of days for what you can look forward to for the podcast. And of course, we will do a full shark's preview going and go and going to knowing numbers and all that jazz. So thank you all so much for listening to this one, excuse me, and I will be back with another episode on Thursday.