Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - What would be your dream Pittsburgh Penguins announcing duo?

Episode Date: June 8, 2022

Happy Tuesday! Hunter is joined by a special guest for this show as he welcomes back Doug Glattke of Forechecking TV to get his thoughts on everything Penguins related so far in the offseason. The two first start out with some brief updates on Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang as Pierre Lebrun published his "rumblings" blog in The Athletic this morning. Are things getting closer on the Malkin front? What seems to be the big holdup as free agency is about a month away? Does LeBrun see a deal happening? The two get into all of that, plus again argue that there's no one really out there in free agency that can really do what Malkin does. After that, they get to the Letang update & how that one seems to be closer than the Malkin one. Are both sides going to have to bend a little to make it work? Does he look to be the top priority for the Penguins? What chances does Lebrun give of a deal happening? After that, they get into a fun debate in the second segment about what the dream Penguyins broadcast could look like using only announcers that are still announcing. This is brought up due to the Penguins finishing in the bottom third of the league in a fan poll of broadcasting duos with Mears and Errey. Finally, Doug gives a couple of free agents that he'd like to see the team go after, even if they bring back Malkin, Letang, Rodrigues, and Heinen, plus goes into who he would put on the trade block.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Athletic GreensAthletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everyone, and happy Tuesday. So for today's episode, I had bringing back Doug Glacky from the Four Checking TV to Talk All Things, Pittsburgh Penguins. The updates on Chris is hanging out of getting him, Malcolm from Pierre LeBron. We're also going to get into what he would do for free agency and potentially look at some trades. And we're going to do a cool little segment about, you know, just because there was an article in the Athletic today about the broadcasting teams that were ranked by the fans. and the Penguins one was in the bottom third of the league with Steve Mears and Bob Erie. I'm going to get into what Doug's dream broadcast for AT&D Sportsnet would be.

Then we'll get into what my dream one would be as well and build a segment around that. So that's all coming up right after this drop. You're 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 to another episode. episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on

Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow all the shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. Joining me now is Doug Glacky of the Foretrucking TV. I can pretty much see him there. Some of his face is covered by the lighting stuff, but you know what? It's, it looks just fine. Doug, but I haven't brought you on in probably a couple months now. It has to be, but, you know, You guys do great work over there with your show. I'll bring you on for some Penguins talk. So first off, how you been, man? I've been doing good, man.

Thanks for having me. I've just been working like crazy, you know, like just working nonstop, like 70, 80 hour work weeks. And it's been pretty much that, you know, makes recording stuff more difficult. I'm just glad that I'm able to come on here and talk some hockey with you. Yeah, yeah. I'm glad that, you know, we're able to schedule this. I think we've been going back and forth, like, okay, when's the, the best time for you to come on.

But, you know, thankfully, it is tonight. I do have the Rangers' Bolts game on here in the background. It's still 1-0-0 Tampa as of this recording. But, Doug, you know, there were some updates from Pierre LeBron on of getting Malkin and Chris, let's hang today. I'll read the first one about Malkin. Pierlo says there's an ongoing dialogue between the Penguins and Malkin Camp. Since the season ended by my sense is that the negotiation is still waiting its

breakthrough moment. Malkin's camp has presented a few concepts to the Penguins, but so, far nothing is moving the needle i think this gets done eventually but run hexal is quite the puzzled piece together with all this pending free agents and a tight cap situation i do think malkin would give in a bit on term as long as the dollars were right so we'll start with that doug that screams like to me that the penguins they probably have the term down and i think elliott freiband touched on this a couple of weeks ago where i think they want a three to four year term for him but it sounds like the money is the big hold up i personally don't think the penguins want to

give him, you know, 7.25, 7.5 for 3 to 4 years because of his injury history and his, I guess, decline in play, even though he was a point per game player this year. What are your thoughts on that Peirre LeBron report? Do you foresee this having a breakthrough moment at some point? Or, you know, do you see this really going down to the wire here? I mean, I think it's going to have a breakthrough moment. But I do understand the whole, like, not wanting to give him 7 to 7.5 million. concept. I completely understand that. I know Malkin's a great player and is still producing at this

point. But, you know, I mean, I think the magic number is probably around like six and a half, 6.75-ish. And hopefully, you know, both sides are able to come to terms with something because, I mean, the Pittsburgh Penguins are not the Pittsburgh Penguins without a beginning Malkin. I mean, it's either, you know, and I know that they stopped to sign Latang, but, But in my opinion, it's either you bring both back or you don't bring either of them back at this point. Because, like, they're both such important players. And they both play very important roles on two completely different sides of the puck. And you need them both if you're going to be contending for Stanley Cups going into the later years of Sid's career, where he's still one of the best players in the world.

Yeah, no, I agree with that. And, you know, I understand I've had people coming to my mentions before about a beginning of all couldn't say, you know, he's a power play special at this point. He's been declining. And honestly, you know, I'm pretty sure out of all the centers this year, he was, I think, top 20 in 5-5 points per hour. You know, again, was over a point per game, was on a 40-goal, 84-point pace for the regular season. Does he hit it if he plays all 82 games? Probably not, but that was the pace.

that he was on, and he still had six points in seven games. You know, it's funny, Doug, Vince Trocheck, who, you know, I think is a good player. It would be a storybook ending for him to play here just because it's from here. His whole family is from Pittsburgh. But, you know, he also only had two points in that second round series against Newark Rangers, and he was well under a point per game during the regular season. So I personally think that would be a step down if Malkin does walk. Again, like, who are you, I always try to ask this to these people.

Who are you replacing him with if he walks? And I'm not asking for like silly seasons stuff that's not going to happen or, you know, people saying Jeff Carter or anything like that. Who do you realistically think can take the minutes that he plays at 5E5 and the munits city plays on the power play and can be equal to that or better than that? I don't think that player right now, at least on the free agent market, is out there. Now, maybe if someone is available for trade, you think about that, but I don't think teams are willing to give away what of Genni Malkin is a bona fide top line center at this point.

The only way they truly replace Fegn Malkin at this point is if they give Nassim Kodry like $10 million. And at this point in the game, like, if you're not willing to give of Genni Malkin $7 million for three years, you're not going to give Nazan Cadre a max term contract where he's making like $9 or $10 million. You know, and I've seen people throw around the idea of like one of the Strome brothers coming over, but like there's no way. There's no way that either of them are replacing Malkins production,

both on the power play added 5B5 in my opinion. Ryan Strom is an interesting guy. I mean, he's not going to be signed by the Rangers. they have some salary cap issues of their own i think coming up if i'm not mistaken but you know strome you know fine player but you know he's also missed he misses the net on a lot of grade a chances and if that happens in pittsburg um people will be coming for his head to say at least i mean it is a stark drop off from sidney crosby from a jennie mulligan up and then ryan strome who would be replacing him i have not really seen this stuff about um his brother

Dylan, but I do know Chicago is open to listening to basically all their players outside of Seth Jones, Patrick Kane, and Jonathan Taves. So theoretically, you could go get them, but again, Doug, the Penguins don't really have, you know, a lot of assets that are tradable, I think, at this point. I mean, well, players on their roster are, but, you know, I don't think Haxstall wants to give away their first film pick. Prospects, they don't really have too much down there in Wilkesbury. I mean, maybe Chicago could be had in a trade, but, you know, they, they, you know, they,

got a lot back for Brandon Hagle. I thought they did a good job, even though Tampa Bay really shouldn't care about the picks they gave up. I mean, they're trying to repeat here. But it's just, it's way too hard. I mean, someone is going to have to bend here a little bit, or both sides will. You know, sure, if the penguins can get the term that they want, you know, and Gino's camp gets the number they want, which is maybe 6.8 to 7, you know, I think that's fine. You know, I remember, I think Freeman even said on this 32 thoughts show that for the Brian Russ contract, which I was pretty stunned, they signed him, of course, both sides had to bend a little bit to get to where they wanted to go. And I feel like that has to happen with this one.

Yeah. And I mean, I think it's, it's arguable that it's going to have to happen with both him and tent. Yeah. You know, because here's the thing, like, their caps are. situation so delicate as is their whole trade asset situation, you know, everybody says that they can move money out and stuff like that. But like, can they really move money out? You know, like everybody's saying, when they say move money, everybody immediately thinks, oh, they should probably trade Brian Dumont. But how are you going to trade Brian Dumont after he just tore out one of the ligaments in his knee? And you don't know what the recovery time is going to be on that. Um, you know, I mean, they're not going to be able to move.

some of these guys, you know, everybody's, I mean, people have said about Brock McGinn, which I understand to an extent, but at the same time, it's like, who's going to want to commit almost $3 million to a fourth liner who is pretty much a penalty kill specialist at this point in his career, you know, and like that's the thing, like, unfortunately you have to pay the Piper at some point, but also still get creative, keep the window open, but they've done so much little tinkering over the past five to six. six years where they're really, really in a bind here, man, and they need to, and it's going to be hard for them to get out of it, you know, I mean, if you would have told me five or six years

ago that the price to pay for winning those back-to-back cups would be us sitting here today having this conversation of, are they able to retain both Evgeny Malkin and Chris Lattang? I would have told you were insane. But as time continues to move on, on here, it feels like we really made a deal with the devil to win that cup in 17 because they had no business getting there. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I mean, you know, three Stanley Cups since 2009 is, you know, you're one of the best dynasties in initial history. I think at this point, yeah, I mean, I mean, it is nuts that we are having this discussion because, I mean, I figured they would both be signed by now. And, you know, getting to Chris, let's hang here

before we hit the commercial break. Dan LeBron said there have been ongoing time. between Penguins and Montaang's camp since the season ended, which is encouraging in one sense, as far as Latang might be able to stay in Pittsburgh. He said this is actually a tough one to predict, given Pittsburgh's camp situation and other factors up in the air. He said that the Teng negotiations have been going on for about a year. They've always been largely about term. That's because Hextal wants to be careful about the number of years for a 35-year-old paler. He says, this one that goes negotiations when you can easily defend each position,

and it's positive that both sides to continue to talk. I'm of the opinion, Doug, that he should be their top priority right now. I mean, he should have been when they got the, before the Brian Russ one was done. They got that one obviously taken care of before everyone else. Now they can switch their ears to this one. And you said it best as well. You know, this is, I think, going to be one where, you know, both sides are going to have to bend a little bit. In a perfect world, you may be simultaneous, you will four times eight, five times eight, something like that.

If you have to go a little bit above eight, I say you do it. If, say, his camp wants 8.1 to 8.2, I think you've been to do it, especially if you can get a four-year term. He is way harder to replace. Obviously, I've been talking about that for weeks on the show. John Kleenberg ain't going to walk through that door and play the minutes that Le Tang does and be equally good or even better. You know, I know I touched on Eric Carlson as a trade option, but that's only really if you can get him for 50% retained. otherwise I'm not really interested in that. Brent Burns the same. What are your thoughts after hearing that update from LeBrona Teng?

And are you confident that he's coming back or do you still see it as a coin flip? Well, I think it's going to be closer. I think it's going to be more likely that he would come back more than Malkin at this point. And the thing is, with Lutang, I think we all know that at least members of this fan base should know that if Chris Lattang, is not on this scene next year, they're probably going to be horrible. I wouldn't say horrible, but they're not going to be as good. No, but they're going to be exceptionally mediocre, and they're not going to be the same penguins that we all see, and that we've all known to love and cheer for all these years.

And, I mean, really, there's no way to replace. John Klingberg is nowhere on, you know, you're not going to, you're not going to, you know, You don't have the assets to trade for Eric Carlson and 50% most likely. Same goes for probably a Brent Burns. You're not signing P.K. Subant. I mean, let's be honest. There are two defensemen in the league, in my opinion, that you could replace Chris LaTang with,

and they're both not on the market and currently playing either in the Stanley Cup final or in the conference final. yeah actually three because of headman yep i would say yeah i mean like the the three defense yeah mccarr out of fox and victor headman who are all obviously playing right now still probably the three best defensemen on the planet um right in my opinion and yeah i mean it's looking like jikin based off those the writing from lebron it sounds like the talks are definitely a little more with what ting and i think they're prioritizing him a bit more and you know that's fine with me just because, you know, you don't really have a plan B or even a plan C if he does walk.

You would, it would behoove them to sign him and just get that out of the way here. That is the main update for both of Guinea Malkin and Chris Let's hang. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to get into our dream broadcast teams for AT&D Sports Network. And I'm going to read the quote that some Penn fans had in the article in The Athletic for why they ranked the Penguins broadcast where they did. But before we get to that, don't you love a chewy chocolatey brownie? What about a caramel brownie with caramel, swirl on top? It's so good.

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I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L-OenSquare Penguins. And I'm pretty sure Penguins noted killer Frank Vitrono just got into a fight with, is that Brandon Hagel or something like that? That was a weird. It is Brandon Hagel. Yeah, yeah, that was a very, two weird players to get into a fight. That's for sure.

But let's get into this fun little segment here. Doug. So it was, I'm going to find the tweet here. I think it was from our good friend, Jason, Jay underscore A155, who I talked to all the time. I'm going to get him on the show here at some point. He's declined it a couple times, but I am determined for all of you to get that beautiful person on to this show. So the athletic win the article this morning of initial fans around the league, ranking that are best broadcasts, the local broadcasts, to the worst. And the Penguins, out of all the teams, they came in at 27th.

Obviously, Steve Mears does play-by-play. Bob Berry does the color. The local rating from the Penguins fans gave it a 22, so below average, the national rating from the people, 30th. Last season was 26. So, you know, you can only go up from here, or you could potentially go down, of course, a little bit. And one Penn's fan apparently said,

Bob Berry gets a bit amped up at certain points and speaks more so as a fan than a commentator. Passion is certainly welcome, but it has to be based on solid analysis. Being excited while keeping a level head and correctly analyzing the play is the difference between a broadcaster and a fan who lets their favoritism cloud their judgment

from speaking on what happens on the ice. I think that's probably the perfect way to sum up what Bob Berry is on the broadcast. I mean, you know, I've lost track of how many times he says Detroit or Bruy. or something like that or, you know, just the Ariasms or, you know, oh, Mirzy, oh my God, have pucks in the net or whatever. It's just, I mean, I probably have two or three Bob Berry, you know,

tweets per game for all of you that listen to the show that followed me on Twitter just because of how hilarious he is. Doug, I'll start here with you. What would be your dream broadcast in Pittsburgh that you think would be arguably the best broadcast in the league for local, for locally at least. I mean, I think that, you know, this might be an unpopular opinion upon some people, but I think Steve Mears does an amazing job, and I think he's really, really good at what he does.

Interesting. Something you guys may not actually know about me is I went to broadcasting school. So, like, I've broadcasted games before. I've done all that. And I think the biggest thing that Steve Mears runs into is that he's, doing broadcasts with a guy that's almost double his age. And, you know, like I'll say, Bob Berry doesn't really provide a whole heck of a lot of analysis in terms of, like, actual actual hockey or at least, you know, translates to the game that's relevant to the year of 2022. You know, and I think, you know, honestly, I think the biggest solution is just given him courtroom.

You know, there were a couple games this year where Josh Getsov and Phil Bork were both out in COVID protocol, and Colby had to step in alongside Paul Staggerwald and do some games. And I thought that he did amazing on the radio side doing Keller, that if they start making that transition eventually where Colby starts doing some games with Mirzy, that's going to be a big, that'll be a big step in the right direction, because it's two guys that are similar in age. They're both kind of young, and they're both very intelligent hockey minds. You know, and I mean, I think the biggest thing, the biggest thing that makes a successful broadcast is having good chemistry.

So, you know, I think that if you would get Steve Mears and Colby Armstrong to develop some good chemistry together, I think that there is a, there's potential for it to be a really, really good local broadcast that gets recognized nationally. That one will be interesting. You know, my opinion on Mears, I think he's fine. I mean, obviously, it's big shoes to fill because, you know, you're broadcasting to a very, very passionate fan base. And it looks like Nikit Kutrov just made up too to nothing. So it looks like for right now, the bolts are going to send it back.

But I'm not trying to get old takes of course again. I'm not going to guarantee it like I did last night. Anyways, I think Mears, again, a little vanilla. I think he could be better with some of his goal calls. he kind of just says the same thing for each one. Kind of want more catchphrases from him. I feel like he needs to let the game breathe a little bit more. This has only been, he's only been doing this for a few years,

so I'm sure he's in it for the long haul. And I know it's potentially hard for him to maybe, I guess, go fully into it because, you know, this is the team he grew up cheering for. So, you know, yeah, set aside, you know, being a fan of the team and broadcasting for that team, you know, being objective. And usually he is that, but I still want to see more from him as he continues to develop into a broadcaster. He's not the main issue for me. It's been no area just because he's definitely a homer.

I will say that. I don't think it's, you know, Jack Edwards is that level bad over here. You know, a couple of the Panthers guys down in sunrise who are definitely not the greatest. I think the Islanders broadcast used to be really bad. You know, Craig Lothlin, Craig Lottlin, excuse me, in D.C. never really been a fan of him as a commentator. But my dream line, Doug, for play-by-play, bring in John Forsland. I will go to bat right now.

He is the best play-by-play announcer in the NHL with Doc Emmerich and Mike Lang retired. I mean, 100% in terms of experience, the way he lets the game breathe, his goal calls, you know, the feel for the game that he has, the knowledge of the game that he has, that's a slam dunk for me. I would offer that guy a lifetime contract, I would say the least. On a national level coming in, I would probably have Ray Ferraro as my guy between the benches.

But, you know, I would also, I might go off the end here. I would love to bring in Brian Engblom. You know, he would have been, oh, when he did the work for, I believe it was NH on NBC with Dave Schrader, obviously rest in peace. He's not here anymore. you know he was a great play-by-play announcer too they had a great beat team i loved engwam's analysis i think he will be uh tremendous with a john forson i think engwam is down in tampa if i'm not mistaken he does their um believe he he does their color commentary for the broadcast down there um that

would be my dream um uh broadcasting duo for the pittsburgh penguins i think that would instantly be a top 10 broadcast in a league, probably even a top five. In my opinion, you know, just the knowledge that both of them have for the game and the way they talk about it. Plus, again, you don't let the game breathe and all that. It would be second to nine.

That is my dream one right there. A little off the wall with the color commentator, maybe not so much with the play-by-play, but it's one that I think would be an absolute killer for the Penguins. Yeah. And there's one more person I want to name drop real quick. If I could bring another person in, Joe Beninati to do play-by-play, the guy who used to do a lot of the playoff games on versus whenever I sit in Gino for a league. Like for whatever reason, his raspy voice brought a lot more energy to the bros.

And like there's so many really good goal calls. Like he had that goal call for the Malkin Spino-Rama for the hat trick and the, um, 2009 conference final against Carolina. And it's just, it's amazing. Like, it is, it's just, I really liked him. And I think that, you know, he would be another great asset to, like, make a broadcast better if you had the ability to do so. Joe Beninotti would be great. You know, I do remember those calls from the O'9 Cup run.

It's a shame that Washington scooped him up. He does a great job. I'm up in D.C. You know, I will always, you know, even, even though I don't like Craig Walthlin as their color commentator, I do like listening to Beninati with his. goal calls and he's very knowledgeable about the league as a whole and you know he definitely love is doing it um for Washington i also will say this on a national scale somebody not know him too much he does a lot of work in Canada chris scuthbert of sports net i would bring him in in a heartbeat um he has done a lot of penguins games over the years um believe he does a lot of the

maple leafs games now dog i know you you obviously um do follow the leaps a lot more than most penguins fans so his calls are great you know i really enjoy him calling games he would be very high off on my list as well for color commentary you said at colby armbudsman he would be up there as well um that that was that's a fun little exercise to think about because you know i know the penguins can do better with this duo and you know i know people that have told me that they will actually you know sing up the radio broadcast with getz off and bork to the tv and mute the tv so that they can listen to the game and also watch the game that way because that broadcast is so much better and i agree with them i think getsoff you know it is very hard to fill in for mike lang i mean he is probably he's not

probably he is one of the best play-by-play hockey announcers in the history of the sport him doc em rick rich internet. I think honestly those are my top three with along with Bob Cole. I think those school right there are in a different stratosphere compared to anyone else around the league. And Phil Bork, he's a good color commentator. I always enjoy his work on the radio network. He did great with Mike Lang. And that's a duo that's, I think, only going to continue to be really good over the next several years. I agree. You know, and I'll be honest with you, man. Josh Getsoff kills He does really, really good with the broadcast. And, I mean, Philip Bork's been great for probably the entire time that you and I have been following the team.

And I think, I agree. I'm really excited to see what the progression looks like over the next couple of years with those two. If they're able to stay together. Yeah, I agree. I really hope that no other team comes poaching gets off because, I mean, I brought him on the show. He's one of the nicest people you could ever talk to. and the way he was talking about the team, it was like he had been there for almost as long as Mike Lang was for the team.

So that was a fun little exercise. Talk about that based on the article that we saw today. Coming up in the final segment, we're going to get into some more silly season and stuff with free agency looming pretty soon. It's about a month away at this point. The final is going to be starting in about a week to a week and a half. So we're going to get into some of that right after this commercial bank. All right, we're back in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

I am your host, Hunter Hodes. I want to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. Orscore Penguins. So, Doug, you know, I know you. I'm sure you've been on Cap Friendly quite a bit throughout the offseason. You know, there's quite a bit of good free agents at basically every position. Who has caught? Okay, we'll play a little game here.

Say the Penguins do bring back Latang and Malkin and say they bring back Evan Rodriguez, which would also be. a very good call. Maybe they also bring back to Anton Hinen. Now, who knows what they do with the rest? When you look at that roster, you know, who, and with the potential trades that they could make, who on the free agent market intrigues you the most? Because sure, they're not going to go out and probably give a lot of money to a player, but, you know, who's a player that, you know, they can maybe go bargain hunting like the Carolina hurricanes do with stuff like that.

Well, I think with how successful last year's show me, deal for Danton Hinen was. I kind of want to see them pursue Andre Kasha if he doesn't resign in Toronto. I think that he could be a really good top nine scoring winner option and probably be a capitan replacement if he does end up departing via free agency if they non-tender him or if they end up moving him out. Because believe it or not, man, I really think that they could get something of value for Kisperi Kappanin on the trade market, especially if, especially like,

if they're able to get him at a cheaper cap rate. I mean, there's no way he should be making near $3.2 million next year. And, you know, if he's making between $1 and $2 million, he's a good third or fourth line depth piece. I mean, obviously the defensive zone impacts have gotten much better. And that would allow him to pass off as like a fourth liner, Evan Rodriguez type, where he can still shoot the puck and score, but also play sound defensively down on your fourth line,

especially for a contender. Yeah, Kasha would be an interesting case. You know, my biggest thing with him, though, man, is obviously his health. He's been banged up a lot throughout his career. Obviously, he has a lot of talent. I mean, he's displayed that everywhere he's been. But, you know, can he stay healthy is the big thing? Because, you know, Kampinen, you know, just a year ago, 10 goals, 40 points, you know,

do you think Kasha could have something similar to that? Or do you think it would be more of what we saw this year? for cap and who was better defensively but the puck was just not going in the net i think we could see something similar to like i wouldn't say comparing cap and sidelines but i'd be looking for something like a danton he comes out and scores like 15-ish goals and everybody's surprised by it um you know it's just a matter of you know would the price be right i mean i think that if that's a guy that's a guy you could bring in for around a million million bucks at this point and bet on him and hope that it works out.

You know, I mean, knowing this team in their cap situation, those are the type of guys you have to go looking for. You have to find those diamonds in the rough. I mean, similar to what Toronto Maple Leafs do in free agency as well. Yeah, I agree with that. And, you know, your job as a general manager when you have a team in contention, usually with your core locked up, obviously it's a bit different this year. You should have an easier job than most of the other general managers.

You build around the fringes. You sign depth forwards to compliment your stars. You bring in defensemen who are mobile and you can support your number one guy. You bring in a backup that can support your start a goaltender. And, you know, speaking of that last point, Doug, the Penguins will have an open spot there. Chris and Jari is obviously going to come back. But Louis DeMing is a UFA. I don't think he's going to come back, nor should he.

Casey DeSmith is also a UFA this year. And, you know, I think he'll potentially be wanted on the open market by teams who could use a backup goaltender. He was a much different goaltender after January or early February of the season when he really started to turn it around. I know there's not a lot of strong options at that position, but do you think the penguins should move on from the Smith and good bargain hunting there, or do you think they should bring him back again and run it back? Run it back. I just box that up, whatever.

I think that you should at least keep your options open when it comes to keeping Casey to Smith around. because like it's it's so hard to find reliable goaltending but at the same time I would welcome a change there maybe I'm more of a veteran guy not really sure who but like give me somebody more proven and give me somebody that can realistically run with tris and jerry as a one a one B type of tandem for an entire season rather than the Smith just coming on at the end of the year when he was horrible for most of it you know because winning those little fringe games in November, December, would have been nice,

especially with where the penguins were at in terms of playoff seating and home ice advantage. It really came back to bite them in the butt that Casey DeSmith was so inconsistent throughout the season whenever he did get games. Yeah, and I don't think enough people are talking enough about that. Though, you're right. I mean, DeSmith was really bad that first half of the season.

Jari started many games. And, you know, I've floated this idea once, I think, on the show during the offseason. It would be hilarious to see all those yinzers who go to the games or who have season tickets and did the Brady-Holpy chance to see him potentially sign with the Penguins and be the backup. Not what he won. It was obviously, but he was still pretty serviceable. I thought in Dallas this year when he was healthy, he's going to be a UFA.

He would probably be one of my top options overall. I think he would make sense there. Switching gears a little bit. Trades, I think, is also going to be a big part of this offseason for the team. And I'm not saying they're going to make three to four or five trades here. Maybe it's one or two. Hextall is not really known for swinging for the fences here. But to keep a lot of these guys here, they're going to have to clear out some cap room.

And it's a salary cap league. If it were up to you, and I know everyone has different answers, but I wanted to get your input. You know, who would you have on the block? I think Brock McGinn is probably going to be on the block, just simply because they have guys in Drew O'Connor and redeems O'Hourna that can do his job at a cheaper rate. You know, they can save about $2 million there.

Almost three. Yeah, almost three. By having O'Connor or Zornah, Leaguemen, or maybe just a little bit more than Leaguemen. And, you know, this might be a hot take coming from me, but, like, put Mike Matheson on the block, man. Wow. Like, see if you can catch a little bit. Because, like, I mean, I know that he's good at moving the puck up the ice, but at the same time, like, he did blow, like, he did pretty much blow a playoff game or two for them in that Ranger series by tip and pucks in off his skate blade or off his stick or whatever it may be.

Too many times you've caught it like the wrong place. Right, exactly. You know, and the last thing you need from a defenseman in the playoffs is him getting caught with his pants down, you know? And I mean, for Mike Matheson, that happened like four or five times in the, in the Ranger series. You know, and I mean, you know, like obviously, like I would put Doom one out there too, just to see if you could get something out of him. I think his perceived value around the league is very much. higher than what it actually is at this point in the game. And, you know, I mean, see if you can find a take around Jason Zoker. I mean, I know that that guy was a baller and he really put it all out on

the line in the playoffs for them. But, you know, I mean, almost six million is almost six million, man. Like, that's, that's a lot of money for them to be messing around with if they're able to clear that out, you know. And I mean, cap and then should be as good as going as well, in my opinion. Yeah, a Friedman wants to talk about that captain situation. He says it's going to be one of the RFA's to keep an eye to see if he gets a qualifying offer. He'll probably get one, but I don't probably think he should come back unless he's really willing to take a league minimum kind of deal. You know, the problem with the penguins, you know, they've been able to create camp room in a few of these last on seasons. Remember, you know, they dump Matt Hanwick and Connoissejury to Buffalo.

And, you know, those are good moves. You clear up what? four to five million in camp space you suddenly have cap room to go out, get a decent player in free agency, and then Jim Brother Ver decided to barf all over himself with signing the human corpse that is Jack

Johnson, and I don't really care that he's in the Stanley Cup final right now. They're not there because of him, but maybe they are in some kind of evil way. And then last all season, Doug, you know, they probably make a mistake trading Brock McGinn, not Brock McGinn, Jesus. They make a mistake

trading Jared McCann excuse me but then Seattle does in the favor and they take away Brandon Tannum's contract and it's like okay you've cleared out some good cap space here I'm fine if you wanted to get rid of TANF contract

but you have to use that space wisely you went out and signed Brock Baganu a four year 2.75 million dollar deal I was higher on it than most I will take the L on that at least for the first year played well in spurts after he got hurt

it was not the same player took a really boneheaded penalty in game seven he decided to try to play Hero and not dump the Pelkin and, well, you know, he paid for it. He's lucky he didn't get called for a penalty shot there on Kandre Miller. Made a couple other moves with Evan Rodriguez and Dayton Hinen, that's fine, but you still had room to go out and get a backup goaltender,

but you decided to run it back with DeSmith, who ended up getting hurt in February anyway with a torn groin, which, you know, obviously took him out for good in the playoffs. So that's my biggest concern, man. If you clear the cap space, what are you going to do with it? Are you going to be smart with it? Are you going to learn your lessons from last year? And a couple of years before that when the other regime is here,

that's why I think I'm scared of the most. Well, that's, yeah, you're right. I mean, that's the scariest thing. It's like there's nothing more dangerous in the league than a general manager with Capspace. Because lots of ridiculous off-the-wall stuff happens. And, you know, I mean, it's, not every day that you have money to spend and you wake up that the morning of July 1st,

you look at your wife and you say, I'm going to sign Jack Johnson to a five-year contract where he makes $3.25 million. I mean, I'm still not over it, dude. And I hope someone just screenshots this on the YouTube page. That's me every time I think about it. It's just, yeah. It kills me, man. But, you know, there's, we still, there's still a lot of time. until free agency starts, we still got the Stanley Cup final. You know, congratulations to the Colorado Ivalanche

for getting to the final first time in 20 years. Tampa Bay right now is up to nothing, heading into the third period. They're trying to tie up that series against Rangers. A Tampa Bay, Colorado Final would be, excuse my language, hockey porn right there,

to say the least. But I think that'll do it for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. Doug, if you have anything to play, plug in with the show coming up. I'll give you the chance to do that right now. Honestly, man, I think right now we're just waiting things out.

Probably going to start recording a lot more closer to the draft because that's when we're going to get more movement, get more free agent rumors, hopefully Malkin and Lantang are locked up by then. And then, you know, we'll just, we'll go from there. You know, we'll see how it goes. But, you know, as always, just be sure to subscribe to Forechecking TV on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast from. and, you know, we'll go from there.

Thank you for having me on that. Doug does post something, you know, be sure to check it out. You can follow him on Twitter as well. Doug plug that right now. Follow, follow meet my personal Twitter at Doug underscore Galakki and follow the show's Twitter at For Checking TV. There you go. You can go check out all of his prior episodes and, you know,

read Doug's very good tweets on his timeline. it. Because, you know, his tweets are actually good takes. I know mine are obviously hashtag very bad, as the kids like to say. But that will do it for this episode. Thank you all so much for listening. I'll be back with another one on Wednesdays. We continue to be five days a week throughout the month of June. I do think that is going to change in July, at least after free agency happens and the draft. Once that occurs, the show will go back to three days a week. So at least another month of being every day for this podcast. So again, thank you so much for listening and I'll talk to you all on Wednesday.