Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Which free agents could the Penguins still go after? (if they open up space).

Episode Date: August 3, 2022

Happy August! The year continues to fly by, as does the offseason. Hunter starts the show with a segment on Evgeni Malkin as his birthday just passed. He goes into five of his favorite goals from Geno's career and how much he's meant to the fans and the city. He also gives a small scoop on Malkin regarding a particular hat that fans have been waiting for before getting into who should be on the top pairing if the team does trade Brian Dumoulin (Hint: You may not like it). Finally, Hunter looks at a potential free agent signing that the Penguins could still make if they're willing to open up some cap space via a D trade.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! 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, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. As you all can see, a much different view. Today, for those that watch on YouTube at least, I'm outside on the deck here of this beach house down in the outer banks of North Carolina enjoying my first, I guess, really long vacation of the summer I'd like to think I earned this one after just, you know, I haven't really been on a lot of vacations in the last year, but good to get away from some. things, you know, it's been good to sell on social media a little bit. But, you know, I still have a job to you and give you all some Penguins content.

So for today's show, we're going to get into, you know, if Brian Dumlin is traded, who is going to be on Crystal Tang's pairing, who I think should be on Crystal Teng's pairing. We're also going to get into some free agents that I've not signed yet. Could there be some fits out there for the penguins that they are able to move some more money out, especially a defenseman. And also, you know, a small little scoop that pertains to have Guinea Malkton and also wish him. A happy birthday go into some of them. It is greatest moments as a penguin, as he is now somehow 36 years old. If there's any background noise, I apologize. Some of these stupid cicadas like to be loud,

but I'm hoping that they decide to go to bed for the night. So without further ado, let's get right on into it. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. your team every day. Well, welcome back to another episode of the Locks on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes.

We're going to follow me on Twitter at Honor Hodes. You can also follow the shows Twitter at L.R.Ns for Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first listen of the day. First and foremost, happy late birthday to have a Gennie Malkin, 36 years old. It's just, it's hard to believe that he's almost 40 at this one. I mean, you know, remember the first time I came down here about seven, eight years ago. And it was right around the time that he was celebrating his 28th birthday. I mean, time just absolutely flies on his.

I don't know if you saw his birthday cake. It was Lion King themed. He posted on his Instagram, had three Stanley Cups around it, and then had Rafiki, who's, you know, the gorilla or on Pride Rock with Simbo and all of them. and he's putting up the fourth Stanley Cup, like, just to speak it into existence. So if Gany Malkin badly wants to win a fourth Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh. And, you know, that's just, that's typical Gino stuff.

I mean, it's crazy that he gets all of these theatrics. And while I'm talking about him, I guess I'll just get into the little scoop I have. So for those that don't have Twitter, don't follow me on there. I was told today, so if you are on Instagram but not on Twitter, or maybe you've seen these hats. Juni has been sporting these penguin, just a penguin kind of hat. And let me pull up the photo here if I can actually find it.

So for those on YouTube, I'll put it up the screen right here. So I'll zoom in a little bit. So yeah, I think you all can see that. I think so. Hopefully I can, oh, if that's going to work. basically it's you know yellow square on the middle of the hat like the one I have here and then it has a penguin and it's just it's very cool and I've heard that for the for all the fans that they've been wanting to get a hold of one of these hats they're going to start being sold to the public in October price wise price range I don't know for sure I've heard it might be 50 40 to 50 60 bucks somewhere in that range off to double check with the person who told me this but he got off the phone today, and it sounds like those are going to be made available to the public

in the next couple of months. So that is my little Gino scoop for you all for today. Also, again, just going back to his birthday, I saw Pensburg, the SB Nation affiliate for the Penguins. You know, they posted the goal, the goal heard around the world for Gino, and probably my favorite Malkin goal of all time that work talking about him on his birthday.

The Sop shot a goal against the Philadelphia Flyers in 2008. You know, I'll never get tired of hearing Joe Beninati's call. Afghani Malkin says take that right after he got bodied by Mike Richards, of all people. And Jeff Carter, I think, was on the ice at the same time too. And he gets, he's definitely cherry picking on that goal. I'm sure you all remember. And he comes in and just uncorks that freaking thing. just says de Marty Baran, you know what, F you.

Basically, I'm not going to say, I'm not going to say that word on the podcast, but that is the kind of goal that I equated to. It is basically a F you goal, you stink, that this is what you get for hitting me behind the net. And, you know, his celebration was also, you know, Whitney coming over and just like, screaming in his face. That will always be, I think, for me personally my favorite Malkin goal of all time is my second favorite one i mean the goal against

the hater goal against carolina in 2009 as you know they said it's done versus all me all the time um you know jo buninotti's call afghani malcon spectacular for the hat trick um it's just you know the way he was able to go around the net the skating that he had the precision with that shot spins around loose it past Cam Ward Carolina they were playing that as good as they could have and it still wasn't enough

I mean that was prime I shouldn't say that was prime that was peak Evgeny Monk and stuff right now my third favorite I think the goal against Tampa Bay in 2011 when he just went one on five against everyone

Deeked I believe it was DeWan Rawlison in it that was just something to behold. Even honestly, this year in the playoffs, it was probably one of my favorite Gino goals, you know, when he just vintage stuff

with his skating, intercepting the puck of the blue line, coming in, no one, not even caring who's behind him, who's next to him, and just roofing it past Igor Shosturkin. It just brought me back to, you know, five or six years ago when he was doing that on a nightly basis. You know, those are probably

my four favorite Gino goals. there's so many other ones you know that I could reference you know the I believe he was the one I remember he had the overtime goal game five against the capitals in 2009 when that went in well it went off a capital

and in but you know Gino was the one that you know had the rush there going and stuff and that basically you know besides that crystal tangle that turned the season in the penguin's favor but you know I could go on and on truthfully but you know those are the ones that you know over the years have really I guessed it out to me now I'm probably forgetting so many great ones right now and I'm sure if people bring them up in the comments or you know DM me then I'll be

like yeah you know I'm an idiot for not mentioning them in my top five but you know for me personally those are five of my favorites again happy birthday to Gino just a spectacular career for him. And I can't wait to see him. Retire as a penguin. There's still so many great moments for him to come. As a member of this team, he's going to hit a thousand games. He's going to probably, he's going to score his 500th goal.

Very soon, too. He's going to hit, you know, over 1,200 points, probably 1,300 points by the time his career is over. He has many more milestones to hit with this team, and I can't wait to see him hit them. So, happy birthday, Gino. Hope 36. is the best one yet.

And for that cake, I hope I can't wait to see what he does next year for his birthday. So I figured I would start out today's show with kind of, I guess, like a nice ode to Gino in a way. But coming up in the second segment, we're going to get into who I think should be on the Penguins top defensive pair. If Pittsburgh does ship out, Brian Dumont, I know it doesn't look likely right now based on what, you know,

the Penguins, you know, said to the media and which I'll show. and a couple others are reported, but, you know, there's, you know, sometimes GM's bluff. So who knows, basically, at this point. But before I get to that, Ben-Line is the fastest, easiest way to check on all your betting needs. You can find all of your favorite sports and events at the number one online source for odds, lines, and games.

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That is been online where the game starts. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honor Hoadies. You're going to follow me on Twitter

at Honor Hoadies. You can also follow the show's Twitter at LO oners where Penguins. So let's get into this year. You know, I was listening to Day on Kvach's on DK Daily Shot. And he was talking about this as well. On Monday,

I thought, you know, this would also be a really good podcast topic for my show, because it's still a very distinct possibility. You know, if Mike Matheson were still here, I think it would be easier for the Penguins to trade Ryan Dumlin. And that's not to say, you know, that I think the Penguins regret trading him. I don't, especially because I think Petrie is a better player, and then if a lot of fans are going to see that.

But, you know, if they do trade Dumlin, you know, again, it's a little hard for the penguins because you know you don't have that era parent ready for him you know you look on the roster because i don't know if they're going to go out and sign someone cheap to come play on the top pair you know you go to um cap friendly right now the top defense one on the market um p k suban but he's a right d Anton strongman Danny de Kaiser but he's not really that good at his point in his career Calvin dahan not that good either tom Hickey. He barely even plays anymore. Ryan Murray, Scott Harrington, Chris Russell of all people, Nathan Boyo. You know, it drops off very quick. Honestly, it has dropped off quick after John Klingberg went to the Anaheim Ducks. There is literally no good defenseman on the marker of the penguins. They would literally have no choice but to promote someone from within. I don't know why this bird is deciding to just make all this noise. I think he's just a thing. I think he's just a mating call or something like that.

But, you know, in terms of the penguins, you know, without Matheson or Marino, you know, it's just, it's tough, you know, would they be comfortable promoting Pedersen up full-time? We've seen Pedersen a little bit with Latang, but, you know, I think he works a lot better on the second pairing with someone like Petron. I don't think he can handle 25 to 30 minutes a night. as you all can see change positions this bird out there was really just getting on my nerves but again back to what i was talking about with marcus peterson you know he would probably be the most logical choice to replace latang but you know he again because like him and brian do one

you know they're kind of good at the same thing right good in their own zone they don't bring a lot of offense though i think peterson is probably better in the offensive zone than latang is but i don't think peterson is equipped to play top pairing men's and it's like doing one that has, you know, in his prime, you know, he's always been someone, Pedersen that is, you know, they can play 18, 20 a night, all that stuff. I don't think, you know, because especially with how much Latang plays now, again, he's still playing 25, 26, sometimes he didn't have to get, almost half the game. I don't think Pedersen is that guy, in my opinion.

You go down the lineup, Patriot, obviously, he's not going to play on the left side with top pairing. Traver-Reedle, he is also not going to play up there. Mark Friedman, probably not. I think if Mark Friedman is on your top pairing, you are a bad hockey team. And that's no disrespect to Friedman. I think he's a very serviceable player. Get on the bottom pair, maybe sometimes get away with him on the second peer for a few games. But, you know, if he is on your top pair, you are probably tanking for the number one pick.

That is how I see it, obviously. you know he he honestly he would probably be their top pairing one of their top either on the top pair or the second pair on the Chicago Bacogs because I don't even know if that team is going to win 20 games next year um you know you so the only option that you know would honestly things might make the most sense even though it's a little bit of a scary thought putting POJ up with the tang and you know they played together in the past, you know, the metrics weren't that kind below 50% of the shot of temp share, below 50% of the scoring chances, below 50% of high danger chances, expected goals. But, you know, I think that came when P.O. was still a bit unpolished. And he still is a little bit now. But, you know, it's now or never. And yeah, he's not going to really be, you know, easing himself into an initial role with this. But, you know, I think of all the defensemen on this roster. And I don't think John Ruta will be there because, you know, he's going to be playing on the right side.

Ty Smith, you know, it would be fun to have him up there, but after what happened last season with him in New Jersey, the penguins are going to want to take it slow with him. I don't, again, I don't think he's going to be sent down to Wilkesbury, but, you know, who knows, you know, they might have to, if they don't have their salary-kept situation solved by the start of the regular season. But, you know, it might be POJ that has to play up there. with Letang and you know you you look at the underlying metrics you know this past season played in five games um 57 total minutes uh six six eight minutes excuse me um played in four games i was looking

at eucle there for a second natural satrick was killing me there um when he was on ice the penguin said close to 57 percent of the shana thames um 40 percent of the actual goals for um 64 percent of the expected goals 50 percent of the scoring chances 56 percent of the high danger chances No high danger goals for, two high danger goals against. But, you know, the metrics, you know, very small sample. I understand that. But, no, relatively fine. You know, again, this, it really is now or never.

You know, I thought he played well a year ago when he was, you know, playing on the second and third pairing. I know, injuries forced him up to the top pairing. He was not ready for that. But, you know, I think, you know, with the polishing that he had, Lash and Wilkesbury, if Dumlin is traded, the Penguins might have little choice. but to put him up there if they don't want to go out into free agency and sign someone. Because again, remember the players I listed off to you all at the start. If you don't, if you just turned in now, go back about a couple minutes.

I listed some of the defensemen are still available. It is a really bad market, you know, unless the Penguins are getting a defenseman back in the Dunewin trade that makes, you know, I don't know, two million or something like that. But then again, if they do trade a du one for a defenseman, you're stuck with him that 9D. And it's like, what's going on? The reason they would trade doom one is to get less defensemen on the roster. So, you know, I think it's a tough call for one Hextone. I do think Doomlin should be the one to go off the blue line.

But it's easier said than done because I do understand the logic that the penguins want to give him another shot to see if he can rebound, see if he can stay healthy. I think that's been one of the biggest things with him last few years. Ever since he had that ankle injury a few years ago, he has not been the same player. Skating has gone down. Even defensively last season, I was like, okay, he is not defending his own zone the way he used to. When he's losing a lot of battles with his foot speed,

something is a miss there, I think. So, again, my opinion might be unpopular. If Dumlin is traded and the penguins are looking for someone in-house to replace his minutes, I think it's probably going to have to be POJ, you know, unless Ty Smith just wows them at camp. You know, if Ty Smith does do that, then I would probably argue for him, especially because, you know, he's had good results in New Jersey. But right now, I'm kind of leaning towards POJ. And yeah, you know, it's probably not the best thing.

But again, do you trust Marcus Pedersen on the top of paring? Probably not do trust Mark Friedman up there. Probably not some of the other guys on the right side. They're not probably going to move over. Mike Sullivan usually likes. Left, he's on the left side. Right, he's on the right side. Most of the time, you know, I know Friedman, he's a righty, but he plays on the left.

But, you know, that's just, that's Mark Friedman at the end of the day. So let me know in the comments and my DMs and stuff. If Dying Doom was traded, who would you elevate to the top parent? Do you think I'm insane for suggesting POJ? let me know down in the comments and in my DMs and stuff if you're not watching a show on YouTube. Coming up in my final side, we're going to get into some free agent forwards

that are still on the market that could be of use to the penguins if they do move a D-out and create some cap-space available to make a forward depth a little bit deeper. So that's all coming up right after this commercial break. All right, I'm back here in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honour Hodeysmerer,

to follow me on Twitter at Palmer Hodes. You can also follow all the shows, Twitter, at L.O. Armstrong Pagman's been a very sad day to day. At least for me, my baseball team, Juan Soto, and Josh Bell got traded. And, you know, I know probably most of you are listening to this show. Most of you, I would say, are probably Pirates fans.

So, I definitely sympathize when a team is just not good. But, hey, you know, at least Wants Soto delivered me a World Series a few years ago. But it's still, these kind of days are, very hard the team is just going to reek for the next several years. Getting into the free agent market here, you know, still a lot of pretty good players on the market. Again, I keep saying this, but it keeps swinging true. The flat cap has really, and I mean really affected the market this year.

So many good players have still not signed yet. We're already into August. And, you know, sure some of them are they're going to trade. go in at some point this month, but I think you're going to see a lot of these teams, you know, signing these players towards the start of camp, which is set to begin in about,

you know, six to seven weeks now. You know, you look at the market, you know, Phil Kessel's still out there. Patrice Bergeron, but he's either going to be Boston

or he's not going to be playing anywhere. Louis Erickson, Nazim Kodry, obviously, Victor Rask. And, you know, the player that are what really wanted to start the segment with, is Paul Stasney.

36 years of age So he would definitely fit in with what the penguins have been doing This off season, but was really good last year 21 goals, 45 points, and 71 games Can play left wing or can play center The metrics for him When he's on ice, the Jets had 52% of the shot attempts, 56% of the actual goals,

52% of the scoring chances, 50% of the high danger chances And 60% of the actual high danger goals floor I would absolutely love to bring Stassany into this game. I understand it involves getting a bit older, and the teenage average is just going to keep going up. But this player can still play, have almost 50 points last year,

undermines are very good, can play multiple positions. Even though I think he's been, I think he's mainly been on the wing the last couple of years. If I can, I'm just making, I'm trying to make sure I get this. right because I really do not want to get that wrong. I think I was, you know, I think he's mainly played center with Winnipeg,

but you know, he has a history of playing wing when available, he can play either one. It doesn't really matter. You know, at the end of the day, it does make the Penguins a deeper hockey team. It gives them another goal score that I think they desperately need. You can put them on the third line. You can put him with maybe if he many Monkin, especially because he's played left wing at points in his career. he would be a hell of a lot of fun. Victor Rask is someone that I've also seen people throw around.

But, you know, 21 points in 47 games last year are underlines. We're all right. I'm sure he's almost 30 years old, but he's kind of, you know, I guess a third or fourth liner at this point in his career. A player who I think would be a lot of fun to bring on to this team, Sonny Milano last year with the Doc's 14 goals, 34 points in 66 games. he can play either way to be honest with you.

And again, he would make the penguins an even deeper team, you know, put him on the third line with Carter or Heinz or something like that. You can also put him on the second line with Afghani Malkin, you know, someone who can potentially, you know, get close to 20 goals. Last year I'm going to pull just pull up the underlines here from Milano. and this was on a not good ducks teams when he was on the ice Anaheim had 52% of the shot attempt share they had almost 50% of the actual goals 52% of the expected goals 50% of the swing chances 52% of the high danger chances and 51% of the actual high danger goals for

honestly I think you can probably get him for a couple million I don't think he's going to get four to five million on the open market maybe three three and a half at the most I don't even know if he's going to get that at this point I think it's going to be lower than that again probably twos the three ranges something like that he would be a great debt for the penguins

if they are looking to get deeper here at Ford if they do move a defenseman out making sure I got most of the names if you've already touched on Evan Rodriguez Tyler Mott would be interesting but you know seven goals 15 points in a few games

you know kind of a hard pass I think on that but you know those are most of the players that you know I would be looking at if I were the Penguins after they do make a trade you know remember oh but it was close around this time six years ago when Jim Rutherford made that trade for Nick Minou

and that actually opened up the cap space for that to go sign Eric Fair who became the team's fourth-point center and scored one of the big two of the biggest playoff goals for the penguins in that 2016 run like the game winner against Washington game two and the game winner against the sharks in game four to go up three games to one in the Stanley Cup final. So, you know, don't underestimate these kinds of signings, you know,

especially when the cap space is available for the penguins. If they are able to open up some cap and move a D or two out, they will be able to afford one more forward to really make this team either as deep as last year's or potentially even deeper. Right now, I don't think they're as deep as last year's team. I guess they brought a couple of players back, Hinen last week. It's very good. But right now, again, they are still at least one forward short, in my opinion, potentially two. So a couple of players I mentioned will definitely be, I think, top six wingers for Gino. A couple of other players can play on the third line. Maybe if injuries come

up, well, maybe when injuries come up, you can sign them up there for a little bit. But there's some serious talent out there still on the market. And I think, again, if the penguins are able to make it move, it would behooved them to sign another forward. That'll do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for listening. Another record setting month for the month of July. I know it's definitely a bit slow right now in terms of news. It's the dog days of summer. August, there's usually not much that happens, but you know, just stay with me through this month as we get closer and closer to training camp,

which will begin mid to late September. It's going to be here before you know. It's going to be here before I know it. And then we'll be back to doing five episodes a week. let me know what you thought what let me know what you all thought about the episode down youtube comments if you're watching on youtube and if you have any other suggestions excuse me um for those listening to the audio show you can jam me on social media and all of that jazz so thank you all so much for listening all another episode for you all on wednesday and then another one after that on friday have a good day