Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - What qualifies as "success" for Dan Muse, the Penguins new coach?

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

With Dan Muse hired, now it's time to discuss what would qualify as a successful run as the next Pittsburgh Penguins head coach. Patrick and Hunter close out the week talking about what Dan Muse will have to do during his time as the Penguins' head coach in order to call it a success. A lot of it will be contingent upon making sure the young players go from prospects to regular NHL contributors, as well as keeping the veterans happy. Then, with three weeks to go until the 2025 NHL Draft, they begin discussing some players they think the Penguins and Kyle Dubas should have their eyes on, both in the early rounds and the late rounds. Finally, it's Friday and that means another round of Fan Take Friday! Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!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.

It's only been about 48 hours since the Pittsburgh Penguins named their next head coach. So naturally, let's put some expectations on him, shall we? You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome into the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platform. at Synonym 4 Wet.

Joined one more time from the beach, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's account a follow at LO underscore Penguins. And as always, we appreciate you making this part of your daily routine because we're your team every day. Don't forget, we are free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as YouTube.

And if you follow us on YouTube, sure to hit the notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. This episode today is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money and use code locked on NHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Like I said on the top, Hunter, it has only been about 48 or so hours since the Penguins announced that Dan Mews will be the next head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. So in my estimation, that means that's enough honeymoon time for you, Dan.

Now we've got expectations for you. Obviously, I'm being a little glib about that. We still have a long way to go before the regular season gets here. We've still got the draft. We've still got free agency. We've still got training camp in the preseason. And I don't want to blow this out of the water. I don't want to blow this out of proportion,

but it is probably time to start discussing a little bit what our expectations are and what would a successful run as the penguin's next head coach look like. This is the place where I want to begin the discussion, Hunter. I think we do have to temper some expectation. It's something you and I have been talking about for quite some time now, is that the penguins, as we have said over and over, are not in win now mode. They are not looking to win the 2026 Stanley Cup, though it would be very nice and very unexpected.

But overall, I think the first place to start, and our good friend Josh Yohey, wrote about this today, and this is something I deeply agree with. He has to take charge. This can't be a substitute teacher head coach. He can't be the nice guy who comes in because that could work for the younger players who are learning how to be professionals, starting their NHL careers, and learning the ropes of being an NHL player. He still has a lot of veterans to deal with. And these aren't your run-of-the-mill veterans. These aren't journeymen.

These aren't guys who have been around the NHL for years and years and years. these are guys who have been with one franchise and have set a standard in Pittsburgh. And by all accounts, they can be handled a little bit more hostile than most. Crosby loves to be coached. Malkin likes to be held accountable. Chris LaTang likes to be held accountable. If he comes in and tries to be their best friend, that could be a real problem. You don't want him to be like that field trip chaperone coach that you see sometimes in the NHL. You know, for example, Gerard Gallant was kind of like that with the Rangers where he tried to be too nice to some of the guys.

And they were kind of like, okay, whatever, this got old quick. And then, you know, you had Peter Lafayette, who kind of alienated some of those players and then he got fired. Now they have Mike Sullivan. So, again, you just don't want to be like that field trip chaperone type of coach. You want to go in there and really just make your presence felt from day one. Yeah, he's a first time NHL head coach coming in to coach three times. Timmy Cup champions and Cindy Crosby of getting Malvin, Crystal Tang, you want to make sure your voice is heard right from the opening get-go,

whether that's, you know, bringing them together in his office, sitting them down, talking to them or something else on or off the ice, whatever the case, Pat. You need to do something like that where you make it known that I am the boss and I'm going to run things the way I see fit. Now, again, you don't need to alienate those players. Those are franchise legends, but you also don't need, as you said, to be their best friends either.

Another thing I'm obviously looking for. We said it a couple days ago. Development, development, development. If he can really help develop the young players on this team, and he's done a really good job with that throughout his coaching career with the likes for here at least. If he can develop Rucker McGrady, Hilley Coivinen, Owen Pickering, Harrison Brunick, Sergey Muroshov, etc.

I will be really happy by the time he inevitably does not coach this team anymore. Obviously not looking for them to win this day on. Cup these next couple of years, that's not going to be a measure of success for Dan Mus. But the biggest thing for me, development, also if he can change the way they play in the defensive zone, as we talked about this week, that would be great. And again, special teams.

He's very well known for his penalty kills. Penguins penalty kill was below average this year. If he can get that to being a really good strength for the Penguins again, I will also count that as a success for him in his tenure. So it's kind of like baby steps, right? It's almost like learning to walk a little bit at times we're not creating these major sky high expectations, but we do have some that we really want to look for for him these next couple of years at least.

Right. As for the veterans, if there's one thing I've been reading and listening to when it comes to Dan Mews, whether it's from articles and reports in the athletic or 32 thoughts or the sheet with Jeff Merrick is this guy is a bona fide hard worker and hockey nerd. Who does that sound a lot like? The Penguins captain, Sidney Crosby. First guy, last guy to leave. I've been hearing that probably 10 times from all the different stuff that I read or listen to,

which is very much, as you said, like said. And he doesn't have to become Sidney Crosby's best friend. They don't have to be texting at all hours of the night about did you watch this game or this player or whatever. But Crosby loves to be coached. And this guy, by all accounts, pours over film, works hard, is extremely dedicated to the sport itself. that could endear him to Sidney Crosby, but at the same time,

he doesn't have to come in and be the hard ass. He doesn't have to come in and be the disciplinarian and crack the whip every chance he gets. But like you said, he has to establish himself as he is the man in charge. He is the leader of the team. And I think those guys will respond well to that because they have in the past.

They have a track record of responding well to that, whether it's Michelle Tarian, whether it's Mike Sullivan. they have shown that they can adapt and adjust to that. As for the development part of it, I'm looking at all these young guys, the ones you named, your Rutger Magrortes,

your Velae Coivinens, Tristan Brose, Philip Tomasino, Tommy Novak, other guys who they may acquire or draft over the next couple of years. Turning them into legitimate NHL contributors is a huge measure of success for me. Again, no misgivings about who a lot of these players are going to be.

Are they going to be the next Crosby, Malkin, or Latang? It is extremely unlikely that any of them turn out to be that. But making them bona fide NHL regulars who can contribute on the score sheet, can play a solid game on both ends of the ice, you do that for these guys. That is a huge measure of success because we know from the way Kyle Dubus's talk, the way a lot of people have talked about this organization. They are not stripping this down to the studs.

They are not going to try to get the first or second overall pick. They're not going to swing for the fences in that way. So you're going to have to do the job of turning guys who are good raw prospects into legitimate NHL players. And I'm also glad you brought up Thomasino because I'm really excited about him going into next season even though he's an RFA right now. I'll throw Connor Dewar into there as well. I thought he played really well down the shuts for the penguins.

he's a really feisty forechecker, was good around the net. And I want to see him build upon that. He didn't have any goals during his time in Toronto. He comes over to Pittsburgh and he just starts lighting it up for the penguins really out of nowhere. If the penguins decide to keep him, even though he's an RFA2, if they decide to tender him a one or two-year contract and he takes it, I want to see what he can do with Solmike Dewar as well because I like the offense that he showed at the end of the season as well.

Again, TBD on that decision, we still have a few more weeks before. you know, July 1 when UFA free agency starts. And then the draft is literally three weeks from this weekend, Pat. It's coming up really soon and stay tuned for that coming up in the second segment. But yeah, good with everything you said, but I did want to add Connor Dewar in there as well. Again, people, we don't have sky high expectations. We just have kind of middle of the ground stuff where we want to see the young guys really breaking into the NHL develop into consistent top six, top nine wingers.

And then for some of the younger guys already on the team, like a doer, a Tomasino, you know, even, you know, Connor Timmons, if he returns for next season, I want to see maybe what Dan Hughes can do with him and, et cetera, et cetera, whoever else they bring in, because I think they're going to be fairly aggressive this offseason with, in terms of trades, obviously for July 1, I don't think they're going to be signing too many people. If they do bring in a player or two during that time, it's going to be on a one year, two-year deal,

kind of like you saw last year, where they're taking chances on some guys to potentially flip them at next year's deadline. I think their big, big moves will be, via trade, whether it's a, sending some veterans out like an Eric Carlson or B, bringing in some young players that you can sign for the next five, six years that can really be here for like that next core group. They don't have those types of players yet, but again, that's a process here. It is. And one player real quick, we got to mention before we had to break. That is something we talked about yesterday. That is Vasily Ponamerov. Kyle Dubus basically confirmed today that he is

going to head back to the KHL. The Penguins will hold on to his rights as far as we can tell. Obviously, that's not totally confirmed because there's a little bit of a messy situation, but Dubus saying he switched agents once or twice, negotiated his own deal over there, over there being the KHL. He's young, we'll watch him. We weren't going to promise him anything. He's got a lot of opportunities with us.

We'll just keep watching him. It is what it is. It's business. So we'll see what happens with that. those are basically our expectations right off the jump for new head coach Dan Mews. One of the other things he's going to be tasked with is developing a lot of the Penguins draft picks over the next couple of seasons. Hunter and I are going to discuss a couple of players. We've got our eyes on ahead of the draft in a couple of weeks, and we will do that when we come

back right after this. But first, we got to tell you about today's sponsor, and that is Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wondered, where did all my money go. Between dining out, online shopping and entertainment, it's really easy to lose track, and that is where Monarch Money comes in. It's your personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. In Monarch Money, it's more than just a budgeting app. It's a complete financial command center. You can track all of your accounts, investments in spending, all in one place, so you stop just managing your money and start building wealth. The all in one

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It is Friday, ladies and gentlemen. My apologies for that one. I don't know where my head was. I guess Monarch Money. That was the ad we just did Monarch Monday, Mun, I don't know, whatever. It's Friday. We're having fun. It's a little bit of a looser show as Hunter wraps up his vacation.

And I'm Patrick Damp, as you probably well know. So Hunter, let's dig into. this for the middle segment. Draft, like you said, all the three weeks away, it's coming up on us before we know it. And there is one player I want to bring up that I haven't heard talked about a lot. And because I spend my time, oh, so wisely, I read pretty much every big name hockey publication out there, including Daily Face Off. And just a day or two ago, they highlighted a player I had not gotten to yet.

he was on my list to watch film and thank you to Stephen Ellis of Daily Faceoff for putting this together. That player is Malcolm Spence. He's kind of flown under the radar. He's a fringe first round guy, probably not a top 15 player might fall to the second round. But if he does, this is a player like one of the ones you've mentioned that if he's available in the Penguins name comes up, especially in the second round, I will sprint to the stage to make this pick. He is, he was with the Erie Otters. He is going to the University of Michigan next season. And he had a big year for the Otters this year, 32 goals, 73 points in total.

And he is the model of the modern day power forward. He's big. He hits. He barrels himself to the net. He's got the skill. And the biggest thing that stands out to me is watching his in watching his film. This guy is relentless on the puck. And he is that way in all three zones.

He's a menace on the forecheck. He will pressure in the neutral zone. And he will play very heavy in the defensive zone. If this is a guy who can develop some of that talent in the NCAA and the penguins have a chance to get them, I would absolutely take him. he's not on my endorsement list for pick 11 or potentially pick 12, depending on if the penguins get two first round picks this year. We still have a few more weeks until the Rangers have to decide

whether they are giving the Penguins the number 12 pick or if they are keeping it and sending the 2026 first rounder to the Penguins next year. Still have to see what happens on that. But he's on my endorsement list for a bit later in the draft. Pat, do you want to hear about some of the players I have on my endorsement list for number 11 because my big board is basically just about done my top four, it's basically like everyone's top four, but I have Mesa first,

Schaefer, second, Martone, third, and James Haken's fourth. Josh Owey of the Athletic Today did say that the Penguins have met with Porter Martone at the combine, Kishon Aitchinson, more on him in a second, because he is one of my favorite players around this range, and Jackson Smith, I have Jackson Smith a bit lower on my endorsement list,

but I wouldn't be upset if he was the pick. I think if there were other players who were a bit higher on my board who were available at the time and they skipped over those players to pick Smith, I maybe be like, oh, okay, the process was a bit weird there. But still, I wouldn't be like flat out mad by Jackson Smith as the pick. But the dream for me, if he slides down, my friend, Victor Eklund. He's number five on my board. 19 goals, 31 points in 42 games this year in Sweden.

But there's been a lot of conjecture. Do you prefer Victor Eklundle or do you prefer Anton Fondell? They were teammates, Frondell. He's more of a pure sniper. I think he's going to go top six in this year's draft. Eklin may slide a little bit just because he is a bit smaller, but he doesn't play like that, man. He played for Sweden at the World Juniors, two goals, six points in seven games,

really strong skater, great release, can be really deceptive at times. Again, people are going to be concerned since he's only about 160 pounds, but he can bulk up. He has plenty of time for that. More of a playmaker, but again, I still really like his release, really good around the net front. I think that's probably my favorite part of his game. He has a great hand-eye coordination

and really takes it to some of these bigger defensemen right around the net. He is not afraid to get his hands dirty whatsoever. I would sprint to the stage if he is available at number 11. But let's get to Kay Sean Aitchinson. There's been a lot of interesting takes on this player. You have people in my camp who really like this guy, I think he will be a slam-dum pick at number 11. You have others who think, you know,

why would you take a defenseman right around? this pick. And with Aitchinson, he kind of reminds me as a hybrid version of Brian Rofalski and Nick Cronwall in the sense that he's really good in all three zones, but he can also lay the boom when it's needed. And trust me, Pat, this dude can hit. He will be a fan favorite instantly in training camp preseason, especially hopefully once he's ready for the NHL. It's probably not going to be this year, people. He also brings the offense, 26 goals, 59 points in 64 games in the OHL this year. There are some legit concerns about whether this offense can translate to the NHL,

and those are valid. But I like his all-around game enough where even if his offense doesn't fully translate to the NHL, I still feel like he can be a good defenseman who can produce a bit, hit well, and also play well in his own zone. He also jumps into the play very smartly, doesn't have too many ill-advised pinches. He uses his stick to his advantage, breaks up some line rush, I love this player. Again, people are going to disagree with me.

That's fine. That's what makes this time of year so fun, man, because some other people that I really like are not as high on this player. And that's totally fine. If you are awesome, welcome to the club. If you're not, hey, I get the reasoning. There are so many ways that this draft could go the first round

that if you show me one mock, I'd be like, okay, I can see that. You show me another? Okay, I can see that too. That's just how crazy I think this first round is going to be. But those are just two of the players that are on my endorsement list. I will also throw in there. Jake O'Brien, 32 goals, 98 points in 66 games this year.

Very silky. He can deke players out of their skates. I think that's my favorite part of his game. He would make players just fall because he juked them out so bad. This dude is silky, my friend. He can create his own offense with his shot. Again, still more of a playmaker, has elite vision. He would be a slam dunk pick for me as well if Jake O'Brien falls.

to number 11. Those are just three of the players on my endorsement list. Pat, I want to go into more of them, but I think we can save some of these players for later this month. But my endorsement list is basically done and we're going to keep unveiling it as these weeks go by as we get closer to the draft. Yeah, one other one I wanted to mention real quick before we head out to our third segment because it's Fan Take Friday and we got some good ones this this week. You guys continue to deliver for Fan Take Friday making this a great recur. segment. But real quick, and this is more of a later round one.

I'm thinking third, maybe fourth round if he's still around. It's a right winger out of the OHL, and that is Aiden Lane. He's one of those players who bounced around this year. He was in the USHL, made the jump over to the O. And a lot of skill there. He's put up good numbers, but he's also kind of one of those players where you're wondering how much of it is the fact that he gets to go to a new situation and there's not a lot of tape on them and can it translate to the NHL.

One of the other big issues with him is very similar to Rutger McGrody, not comparing the players. Foot speeds a big issue, but the skill is there at the very least over the past year. And if you're given the opportunity to draft him and say the third or the fourth round, it's at the very least the kind of player that if you want to take a chance on him, if you want to see if you can develop him, work on his skating, work on his professional game, it might not be a bad player to take a flyer on who, again, I don't want to send expectations out of whack, but it feels like it could be a player where in four or five years, you kind of forgot he was in the system and all of a sudden he comes up and makes a bit of a

difference, at least in the middle six. So obviously, like Hunter said, we still got three weeks to go to the draft. There's a lot to talk about. There are a lot of people that we think could be potential picks for the Pittsburgh Penguins. We'll continue to talk about them in the lead up to the draft, but that'll do it for the middle segment. When we come back, as I said, it's fan take Friday and you provided us with some really

good ones. We will get into those. But first, we've got to take a quick break. We'll do that when we come back. Back in on the Friday edition of Locked-on Penguins, I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes. And if you are new here, because we have gained a few new subscribers over the past couple of weeks,

this is a recurring segment we do each Friday during the off season called fan take Friday. We put the call out on YouTube and social media for you guys to sound off with whatever you'd like. It can be a hot take. It can be a question. It can even be the thing that I'm going to lead fan take Friday off with a little bit of a joke from somebody who has made a lot of good contributions to fan take Friday. And that is G-Tots on YouTube.

With Father's Day coming up, this coaching hire was an amusing pick. Someone else called him Lex Luthor in the comments yesterday and I was dying about that for five minutes. Again, I made my comparison on Twitter. He looks like Dobby from Harry Potter. Like, if you do this inside, it's so funny. I went with the really tall alien from Men in Black, the one that had the alien inside of his head. That's what he looked like to me when I first saw his picture.

So that was the reference I went with. But keeping it moving, in the spirit of Fan Take Friday, this is from Ace 6.7 on YouTube, hot take. Dan Mews will unlock Ryan Graves as a serviceable defenseman. No. Listen, he's apparently a great developer of talent, but I don't believe him to be a miracle worker. Now, I will, I will give, I will give him this.

We taught, we've talked about it before we talked about it when we did our season in review for Ryan Graves. the bar was all the way through the crust of the earth coming into this past season. He was able to clear that very low bar this year by being better than completely unusable. Maybe he takes another step next year in his fine as a sixth or seventh defenseman. But again, the biggest problem with Ryan Graves is the contract. You're making that much money for that long. You can't just be serviceable.

Now, let's get into one that I think is really interesting. And it's kind of playing a little bit of armchair general manager. This comes from Landon Bartles also on YouTube. I'm going to read this one in full. So give me a quick sec here. Assuming trades happen this summer and the potential of Ponomero of leaving for Russia, we now know that's going to happen. What do you think of these four at center?

Crosby, Rossi or Zegris, Tristan Bros. Blake Lazot. With the team wanting to go younger, I can see a possibility where Bros gets an opportunity in the NHL this year, whether it's full time or not. Zegris has been a guy in trade rumors in the past. Why not take a big swing at him or Rossi for your second line center and move Gino to the wing?

That is my bold take. Yes and no. Here's my no. I'll start with that. I think Zegris is probably not going to leave Anaheim, at least not just yet. It kind of feels like they want to give him maybe more room this season to redeem himself and then see if they can get something for him.

Rossi, on the other hand, it's kind of starting to feel like the wild and Rossi are at an impasse and there might not be a solution. So they might really start looking to move him. And I know I've seen takes of people saying, oh, don't move a bunch of stuff to get a Rossi. There's always going to be somebody like that available. In principle, I agree with.

that idea, that there will always be a good young player that comes to a contract impasse that you can take advantage of. The difference here to me is Rossi's a player that can fit on your team for the next five to six years. It's the exact kind of young player and big swing that they still can and should make at this moment. So if Rossi's available, I like a lot of that from our good friend land. They should 100% be in on Rock. Rossi. And again, people, I've seen some of these takes out there like, oh, like, they're going to want futures. Minnesota's not going to want futures in return. They're going to want to do a hockey trade here. They are about to pay Carrille the thrill. He's going to have one of the biggest contracts in the league.

You don't pay that guy and then just accept futures for Marco Rossi. That doesn't make any sense. They are in win now mode. They're finally getting over the cap recaptures that really screwed them for multiple years. they are going to be all in for the foreseeable future. So for someone like Rossi, that's going to be a hockey trade. And Dubas kind of even hinted to it to Josh Yew today, like trade and then sign guys for longer range after they've been acquired. Marco Rossi very much fits that bill pat. You trade for him and then you sign him to a long-term deal

and you hope that he will be there once you start really building up towards being a Stanley Cup contender again. These next couple of years, especially this year, they're in that rebuilding phase, but if you get someone like Rossi, he can help well into the future. So I would still keep calling Minnesota's Billy Garon every day. As for the rest of this comment, again, I appreciate the bold take. Obviously, Sid's going to be the top center. Tristan Bros. I am really curious to see how he keeps developing throughout the summer.

If he does have a good camp in preseason, I can 100% see him making this team. I'm really excited about him. had a good year this year in Wilkesbury when he was healthy. But penciling him at third line center right now, I think that's probably a little bit wishful thinking, but we just have to see how he keeps developing. As for Gino, I think he's going to start the season as a second line center if they want to move him to wing at some point.

Sure, I do think some people are also forgetting about Tommy Novak, only played a couple of games. He's going to factor into this lineup in some capacity, whether that's a third line center, maybe they move him to wing. but he does play center quite a bit. So I just don't want people to forget about Tommy Novak at all either. But I appreciate that take from Landon there. As for some of these other ones, you know, even Penn 68,

he says the Penguins will make a splash at the draft, trade for either Rossi or Peturka. Peterker is also someone up there that if the Sabres want to give up on him and take a hockey trade back, I will be all over that if I'm Kyle Dunez. This is a very good player that has turned into just honestly one of the more underrated of players that a lot of people don't talk about just because he's in Buffalo. But I think the Sabres are also kind of a bit spooked by this just because they've traded a lot of really good players already and they've gone on to Win Stanley Cups and other places.

So I don't think they want to see this happen again. But if you can sucker them into it and you can offer the right package, I would be all over trying to get J.J. Peterka as well. Still very young, can be here for the foreseeable future. So I would absolutely love that. And then there's a couple funny ones here, Pat to end. One guy says hot take, the Penguins stink it up so bad that Crosby actually gets married and has a kid. Hey, man, the day that he marries his girlfriend, Kathy Lutner, I think is the day that the sun explodes.

Honestly, it feels like they've been dating since I was in middle school at this rate. And then this one was also really funny to end. Penguins will go to a Stanley Cup final before the Steelers make it to the Super Bowl and the pirates make it to a playoff game. I honestly, low-key kind of agree with that. Let me make sure. Okay, Stanley Cup final. Yeah, I could see that. Absolutely.

I had to make sure I had to double check that it wasn't win a Stanley Cup because as we know all too well, it takes a lot of luck, a lot of things to go your way to win a Stanley Cup. But getting there, I think they could do that. Pirates, they're friggin hopeless. Like what's even the point? Like at this point trade Paul Skeens. Sorry, Ethan on locked on pirates.

I know people were tired of that narrative, but you're not helping them here. Let them go win somewhere. Steelers, I mean, it's coin flip to me because you know, I like a lot of what, and not to steal any of Chris Carter's Thunder from locked on Steelers, but I like a lot of what they've done the last couple years with the exception of a few things. And I can see a plan that actually kind of makes sense and puts them in the conversation to be a good team again. It's just they haven't been able to figure out

the quarterback situation. And that's, you know, kind of important. But overall, I mean, first thought, yeah, I agree with that take. And if Sid gets married and has a kid, that kid is going to be the greatest hockey player that has ever existed in the history of ever because he's Sidney Crosby and that's just what's going to happen. But I think that's going to do it for Fan Take Friday and our Friday episode of Locked-on Penguins. Thank you as always for tuning in. Have yourself an absolutely fantastic weekend for Hunter Hodes. I'm Patrick Damp.

We will be back with a brand new episode for you on Monday.