Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - What's a realistic return for Matt Murray?

Episode Date: September 11, 2020

Locked On Penguins is back and just in time for the NFL Kickoff and the Western Conference Final. Hunter dives into the latest speculation surrounding Matt Murray and how the Penguins and Oilers were talking about a potential deal for him. Hunter touches on the asking price GMJR is looking at in return for Murray and he also ponders what the most realistic return the Penguins will get for Murray. Hunter also touches on the ZAR potential trade and why it would be a bad idea to move him with how good of a defensive presence he is. Then, Hunter gets into Darren Dreger talking about the Kris Letang situation, as well as previewing the rest of the Tampa Bay-New York series as Tampa is now up 2-0. All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins! 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Welcome to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins Podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show is Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins.

Today is an absolute wonderful day for sports. I'm just so excited. First day basically ever, we're going to have the NFL, the NBA, the NHLB, the MLS, and the WNBA, all playing on the same day. It's just absolutely crazy to me. I mean, it's not very often you have, I mean, even just the NFL, MLB, NBA, and the NHL on during the same day.

So six sports on, six different leagues on in the same day is pretty, pretty awesome. So, yeah, I mean, just I'm very, very sure the football is back. But of course, you guys come to this podcast to listen to me and we ran about the Pittsburgh Penguins. We are going to touch on some Penguin stuff today. There was some Matt Murray trade talk that happened today. Nothing is it done yet, but it sounds like that. Things could be getting close.

So we're going to touch on that. We're going to touch on Darren Dregner's report last night. We talked about potential trade targets such as Zach Ashton Reese and Patrick Hornquist, as well as Matt Murray, of course, we just touched on. And then to close on the show, we're going to just talk about the conference finals and how it's looking like the Islanders are pretty, pretty cooked right now. But as always, this show is brought to you by rockado.com. Amazing selection of a little price is all for your car vehicle at rock auto.com.

So earlier today, Pierre LeBron was reporting actually that it sounds like the penguins and the Oilers have had a lot of talks surrounding Matt Murray. My first thought in this is, it's good by Jim Rutherford has called the Oilers. Ken Holland is there. He's not known to be one of the smarter general managers in hockey. I mean, they had Peter Schrelli there before. So that's, I wish he was still there so that Jim Rutherford could target him. But still, I think it's good that Rutherford is targeting a team like the Oilers. The Oilers really don't make good decisions surrounding Connor McDavid and Leon Drysidal.

They've just really mungled that whole situation. Apparently, it sounds like Jim Rutherford is asking for a first-round pick in return for Matt Murray. I think Elliot Freeman was touching on that this morning on radio. Rob Rossi talked about the Am Athletic. He's Jim Rutherford wants at least a first or second-round pick back in return for Murray. And, I mean, that makes sense. I mean, you look at what Frederick Anderson went for when he was traded, I think, from the Ducks to the Leafs. I think it was for a first-round pick and a prospect.

I mean, you look at Martin Jones when he went from Boston to San Jose. That was, I think, a first-round pick. And Sean Corrally, who turned out to be a pretty good bottom six forward right now for Boston. So, I mean, that's probably what it's going to take for a team to get Matt Murray. I mean, it's not surprising that talks have already really, really started for him. I mean, if it were me, like, what I would want back in a Matmarie trade, I mean, I think I definitely would want back at least our first or second amount pick. I mean, you gave up that top 15 pick to get fucking Casperi captain for reasons that or whatever

at this point. You know, it's just a me of point. I wish they would have used that pick of if they were going to trade it to go out and get like a top four defenseman or an actual top six forward. I've touched on that many times. I don't need to repeat it anymore. But, you know, I still would want, you know, a first-round pickback or a second-round pick. I don't think the penguins have their first-old.

or second round pick in this year's draft. I don't even know when their first pick is. I think it's around the third or fourth round or something like that. I'm not even sure if they have their third round pick, to be honest. But, yeah, it would be very prudent for the first to get back into the first or second round. I think you can honestly get a first back for Matt Murray, especially, you know, if you just pitch. He's won two Stanley Cups. He's a good bounceback candidate potentially for next season.

Some teams aren't really going to want to spend a lot of money to pay a goaltender, such as Robin Lennar, or, you know, a Braden-Holpie, especially Braden-Holpe, coming off a really, really bad year for the Capitals, and we all know Samson of is the goaltender of the future there. Speaking of the Capitals, it sounds like their head coaching searches down to Gerard Gerald, who would be a slam dunk hire for them, Peter Lobulet, who, that would be kind of fun if they hired him, I don't want to think Peter Lobelette's second of a coach.

And, of course, the very, very average Mike Babcock. Please inject the Mike Babcock to the Capitals into my veins. I would be very here to see Capitals fans jammed about that. But in any case, let's just get back here to the Penguins, but, I mean, I'd also want a roster. player in return for Matt Murray. It doesn't have to be, of course, like, a top six winger. You're not going to get a top six winger in our first round pick and basically any

goaltender trade unless it's a prime hatch or Wobhaer trading. So, I mean, a first or second round pick and maybe a bottom six player or, you know, a B-level prospect. I think that's probably the best the Penguins can do for Matt Murray. I mean, I know his value is not that high right now, but still, you can pitch the two Stanley Cups. You can pitch that he's going to have a bounce back here. You know, we've seen him, you know, after coming back from injuries, you know, just a

A year and a half ago, he was playing at a 930 level, like 935 level. He was playing really, really good going into the playoffs. We all know they embarrassed themselves against the Islanders, even though I really think that series was his fault. But he was playing really good hockey from December to April of that year. And we've seen him get back to the level even during this season. You know, I didn't really think he was that bad in the playoffs. So, you know, I'm going to be curious to see what happens with that.

I mean, we'll just, Derek said last night. He said he would expect a Matt Murray trade sooner rather than later. I don't really know where he's going to go, guys, to be honest with you. I mean, if I had to take a guess, I might lean towards Colorado. There could be a match there. They may be moving on from Philip Grubauer. I think, who's the other backup, Michael Hutchison or something like that? He's not really that good.

You could definitely see Edmonton giving up some assets more. I mean, I saw him pure LeBren's tweet this morning that they may circle back to Mike Smith. I mean, okay. If you want to go back to Mike Smith and not go after someone like Matt Murray, who would be a much bigger upgrade, then someone like Mike Smith, who just flat out stinks. I mean, you do you, Ken Holland. But yeah, I just, that was from Pierre LeBruns week this morning, everyone, in case you guys

didn't see it. And that was just, that was really funny to read. So it's like, yeah, you're going to not pay the asking price that Jim Rutherford wants for Matt Murray, but you may go back to Mike Smith, who just flat out stinks. And, you know, kudos to Jim Rutherford for this. You know, I will give him credit, you know, for asking for at least a first-round pick in return for Matt Murray. I didn't really think he would ask for that.

But, you know, it looks like that he's actually evaluating those. goaltender pretty highly, you know, hopefully a team overpays. I will always say this, guys, all it takes is one team to overpay for a goaltender that has just not been that good the last couple of seasons. I mean, we've seen him in sports be really, really good, but overall, it's just been average to below average, but, you know, like I said, all it takes is one stupid team to really overpay for a goalie, and then you're set with a nice little haul, maybe with a roster player, a first round pick back in your wheelhouse, and then you're good to go.

So that's the hope with Matt Murray. But like I said, like what's most realistic, I think maybe a second round pick and a bottom six player or, you know, a second round pick and a prospect. But, you know, the hope is that they can get a first round pick plus a roster player or a prospect. So that's just my take on that for the Matt Murray situation. Coming up in the next segment here, we are going to touch on the other comments from Gary Dregor last night insider training, which pertained to Chris Latang and Zach Asson Reese and Patrick Hornquist and all that. So stay tuned for that.

But before we get to that, it is time to talk about rockado.com. It's a family business serving auto park customers online for 20 years. You can go to rockado.com to shop for auto and body parts from hundreds of manufacturers. The catalog is unique or remarkably easy to navigate. You can quickly see all the parts available for your vehicle and choose the brands. Specifications of prices you prefer. Go to rocko.com right now and see all the parts available for your car or truck. You can ride locked on and their how did you hear about us, Fox, so they know we sent you.

Amazing selection. All I below prices, all the parts of car will ever need. that's rockato.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. So last night, if you guys didn't see on insider trading, Darren Gerger had a lot to say when it comes to the penguins with Crystal Tanks. Of course, that was written by Rob Rossi to Zach Aspenry to Patrick Hornquist, so let's just get right into it.

So it sounds like to Darren that players that could be on the move for the penguins, I mean, I basically just said it. You know, it's Patrick Hornquist, Zach Ashton Reese, and the lovely Jack Johnson, who we all love to hate. But, you know, I'm going to start this with Zach Gaston. Reese. That would be a mistake. I would not trade Zach Ashton Reese. I don't know why Drepper put his name out there. I also don't know why Jim Muthford would potentially want to move. Aston Reese. I mean, I know he's a player that doesn't score want. I mean, he plays on

the fourth line. He's cheap, but he's an absolute mammoth defensively. I mean, he's in the 100th percentile of NHL forwards with his ability to just suppress shots. And this is all according to Jesse Marshall of the athletic. I mean, he's just, he's the defensive anchor on that line with Brandon Tannett and Teddy Bluger. We all saw how good they were during their season with Howley-R-A-O to just suppress shots in the elite level, just shut the other top teams down whenever they were on the ice. So, I mean, it just, it really doesn't make any sense as to why they would move him. I know a lot of people just look for a lot of scoring fourth lines, but, I mean,

Teddy Blugher really came into his own offensively. You saw Brandon Tannup contribute a bit offensively, and I know it's not as much as some of other people would want for him at 3.5 million, and trust me. I get that. You usually play a player 3.5 million on the fourth line to score. We all know he doesn't do that at a pretty good level. And, you know, the same for Zach Astros. But, you know, the thing with Zach Aston-Rees is he's much cheaper than Brandon Tanav. I mean, I think with Teddy Blugher as well.

And he's just so good defensively. Sometimes, guys, it's fine to have a player on your fourth line who does not score a lot, but is also really, really good at even strength and is very elite at suppression shots and playing very well defensively in his own zone. There's no problem with that. We finally saw Zach Ashton Reese was healthy for the first time in his career. He finally played most of the healthy season. I know it looked like he was banged up a bit in the playoffs,

which is why he didn't score as much or look as good defensively. But still, I mean, this is a player that's finally healthy. We're all seeing how good defensively is. Just keep him gym. Like, that would be just a peak dumb Jim Rutherford move. I know you want to make changes. I understand changes are going to come. But, you know, that's just not a player that you need to move.

You know, keep him on that fourth line. Keep him with Brandon Tanev and Teddy Bluger. you'll be totally, totally fine going the next season. Also, you know, we touched on Patrick Horquist. Again, that was, this isn't as surprising. He makes $5.3 million against the salary cap. I know Horquist had a good season last year. He was almost at 20 goals.

But, you know, it's just $5.3 million for him than just too much. I mean, I would have preferred that extension if it was maybe just a three-year extension, but five years just fell way too much. It's just, it was way too long for him. That was just a mistake by Jim Rutherford. And, you know, especially if the penguins are looking to, cut costs as we seem reported multiple times. I've talked about this on the podcast a lot from the athletic article that

Joshua and Rob Rossi wrote. He would just be a very, very easy player to move. I mean, I think definitely teams would want him. You know, he has Stanley Cup playoff experience. He's won two Stanley Cups. He's still had a pretty good year last year. You can probably get a decent return, I think, for him. I mean, you're not going to get blown away with offers for him, but I still think

you could get back, you know, a pick. You know, maybe a roster player for him. So, I mean, yeah, I would not be surprising if Patril Hornquist has moved this long season, though I could see. Jim Rutherford keeping in. And then, you know, we finally get to the Chris Latang talk that Duren Dregor talked about. Driger apparently, he said Lattang and his agent, they really do not expect him to be traded this offseason. So he was kind of dunking on Rob Rossi a little bit there.

And yeah, guys, like that was the main thing I took away from that article. I mean, maybe Chris LaTang thinks he could be traded, but he's not going to get traded. Like, I mean, guys, like that's just, that's not going to happen. And hey, you know, if it does, I'll eat all the crow in the world. I really can't see Jim Rutherford being that stupid. We all know he's been very stupid in the past with Jack Johnson and, you know, Erica Branson and a bunch of other stupid stupid stupid like Ryan Reeves.

But, you know, I can't think he's that stupid to trade a core player, especially after he just traded his first-round pick his Kisbury Kaepernan. I mean, that's not what a win now team does, especially, you know, he even said this off-season he wants to move forward with the core. I mean, you know, you can ask other teams what Latang's value is, maybe to get a read on him going into next off-season when his contract, I think his contract years up in two years. You know, maybe when he gets close to being an unrestricted free agent,

but, you know, I would expect Chris LaTang to sign an extension before that. But, you know, there's a difference between asking what a player's value is and actively shopping him. He's not actively shopping him. He's not going to actively shop him. I would be pretty, pretty surprised if Chris LaTan was traded. And then also, you know, he touched on Jack Johnson. You know, Janet Dugger said Jack Johnson could be moved.

So I think we're all really, really hoping that that happens at this point. So you so Ricula can slide in. And then they go out in signing. someone from the right side, whether it's Dylan DeMello, or does someone else unrestricted free agency? Jesus, I cannot speak today. Or, you know, they go out and trade for someone. I could really see Jim Ruther doing that as well. But I think that was basically the extent of what Darren Dregor talked about that sign. And then I talked about it earlier in this episode. He expects Matt Murray to be traded sooner rather than later. I mean, he didn't

really specify how soon, but, you know, if I had to guess and speculate, it could be within a week or two. I know the initial doesn't really like a lot of news to happen during the conference finals and the Stanley Cup final, but, you know, just It would not surprise me, though, if we did get a Matt Marie trade during these next couple of weeks. I mean, it will definitely happen after the Stanley Cup final, but still, it would not surprise me if we did have it happen during the Stanley Cup final or during the conference final. You know, it's whenever Jim Rutherford gets a really, really, really good trade offer for Matt Murray and then accepts it. You know, he's going to be patient with this. He has a luxury being patient.

The market really hasn't opened up for goaltenders. It has a free agency. I don't really think is until October 9th now is the new day. So, yeah, I mean, he has a luxury being patient. You don't really need to chase a trade. Just when a team offer or something that you really like, accept it, and then you deal with Matt Murray. So, you know, we'll see when that happens.

But, you know, with Dragher, sooner rather than later, it sounds like so. I'm thinking maybe within a week or two for this Matt Murray trip. I think that was basically for insider training. You know, just like I said, he dunked on the Chris La Tang stuff. I mean, that's just probably not going to happen. So, yeah, guys, coming up after this little commercial week, we are going to talk about the conference finals, Dallas, Vegas, game three.

It's actually about to start right now as I'm finishing recording this. as is the NFL. Just not a good idea for the NHL going up against the NFL tonight. The NHL is just going to get crushed ratings-wise. Ratings-wise tonight. Everyone has waited a long time for the NFL to come back. Especially with opening night, the Kansas City Chiefs, of course, won the Super Bowl last year. I know the conference finals are going down, and it's a big playoff game,

but, I mean, you can't even go up against the NFL. You never can. I think a regular season NFL game will get more ratings than a Stanley Cup final game, which is just how big the NFL is in this country. So I'm going to be curious to watch the race. ratings for tomorrow night. But in any case, coming up after right after this, we're going to talk about the conference finals, especially that big Islanders Lightning game two from the other night. All right, so welcome back on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. And yeah, I really thought

the Islanders were going to win that game, guys, for Game 2. They were out playing the Lightning really, really bad in that game. I mean, the Lightning just really weren't getting a lot of shots on that. The Islanders were defending them really, really well. And the biggest reason why the Lightning won that game was because Andrei Vasilevsky was bailing them out. And, you know, that's what a very, very, very good goaltender will do. He's an elite goaltender in this league. And when he turns it on, he is as good as anyone in this league. So, I mean, it's not really surprising that Andre Vasilevsky can just elevate his game

to a new level whenever he wants. Of course, we all know what happened with the big goal. I thought this game was 100% going to overtime. But for some reason, Barry Trots kind of bungled those last 10 seconds. Well, I mean, he kind of bungled the lineup. I don't know why Andrew Ladd was inserted in the lineup. He hadn't played since March. He's not good.

He's on that terrible contract. I have no idea what Barry Trots saw on them. I think he took out like Ross Johnston for him. And I think Derek Brassard was also a healthy scratch. And he's been playing pretty good these playoffs. So really don't understand Barry Trots is coaching them. And Trots has done a really, really good job with the Islanders the last couple of years. But that was just very clueless of him there.

I really don't understand what the hell he was doing there. And then, you know, he had that line with, I think it was Pajou, Cameron. and Lad on with 10 seconds left against the Kuturov line. It's like, Barry Trots, why are you icing that line that late in the third period when you're about to go to overtime in a 1-1 game? Like, that just does not make any sense. And, you know, he paid the price dearly there. Berwamov, that was just a hell of a shot.

He had really no chance on that. Kutrov gets the game winner and the lightning go up two games to none. And, you know, now the under is going to have to beat the Lightning four out of five times to go to the San Lika final. So probably not going to happen. I think the series is already over. over in Tampa. I've said a lot of times, I'm going to say it again.

I'm getting a lot of Capitals 2018 vibes from them. I think this might be Tampa's year. They stuck with it for a long time. They didn't blow it up after last year where they had that very embarrassing exit to the Blue Jackets. And they are just kicking ass and taking names right now. They're 10 and 2 right now in 12 playoff games. They kick Columbus's ass.

They kicked Boston's ass. And right now they're kicking the Islanders ass, even though I thought the Islanders played their asses off last night, to be honest with you. And that was probably about five times that I said the word ass in a span of 15 seconds. But, you know, we're just going to roll with it because, you know, that's basically all I do on this podcast anyway. But yeah, guys, I mean, Tampa Bay is going to go to the final. If they drop four out of five to the Islanders, I'd be very, very stunned.

Alex Korn was also just suspended for a game. Get these stupid blindside hits out of the game of hockey already. It is just so annoying to see these hits like three to four seconds after the puck is gone. I mean, Korn basically just whoops. what was it, Brock Nelson or something like that after, and it's like, I mean, it was a dirty hit, and he was suspended for a game. I wish he was suspended for more, but, you know, that's probably as good as you're going to get with George Perros. So, yeah, very dumb play by corn. Just get those stupid hits out. I mean, I saw some people were saying, oh, yeah, like, that's not a five-minute

major in game misconduct. It's like, yeah, it is. Like, you people just like hockey from the 80s, so stop being stupid. But I think that'll do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Take Tampa to the final. I picked them in six, so I could really see them doing it in five, but I'm still going to go with them in six games. I think the Islanders will get a slit of these next four games, but they're not going to win this series. And then, of course, Dallas, Vegas, game three is about to start right now, as is football. So that would do it for this episode on my lockdown Penguins podcast.

I know it's a bit short. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode. We'll figure out some stuff to talk about for a Friday edition of this podcast. So I will talk to you all then. Have a great night tonight, watch some football, watch some hockey. And we'll be back tomorrow to talk about definitely the Western Conference final and just much more penguins-related stuff. So talk to you all that.