Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Which LHD should the Penguins go after this offseason?

Episode Date: April 27, 2023

Happy Wednesday! The episodes continue as Hunter starts the show with a small update on the GM search. Well, it's an update in the sense that he doubts Marc Bergevin will be considered for the role. Hunter discusses what Elliotte Friedman talked about towards the end of his 32 Thoughts Pod and why it seems like it's just an agent helping out a client. After that, he breaks down Rickard Rakell's season and how he surprised Hunter in numerous ways this year. Hunter eats all the crow as he was against part of the extension due to the term but it quickly went away with how he played. He looks at how Rakell struck gold on any line that he was on and how that will be a big factor heading into next season. He also marvels at how great of a one-timer he has and why the power play should run through him a bit more next season thanks to his shot and his vision from the left half wall. After that, Hunter gives a couple of more moves that he would make if he were the general manager this summer. Which d-men does he have his eyes on? What about forwards for the bottom six? Finally, Hunter breaks down Tuesday night's playoff action and why this first round has been an absolute pleasure to watch.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit is only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic 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/NHLNETWORKFanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go to FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) 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.

Can't believe it's almost May at this right. Happy Wednesday, April 26th. We're back here with another fresh episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Do have a small update on the GM search. We're going to touch on that right after this drop, along with breaking down record Raquel season, how he proved me wrong for sure and what I expect from him next season. And we have a whole lot more to get to in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast

coming up right after this. 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 of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes,

and follow to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows Twitter at LOS for Penguins, and of course, thank you all so much for making this your first list in the day. We're freeing available on all platforms. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. You can download the Green GameTime app, create an account, and use code lock in NHL for $20.

off your first purchase. So we are back here for this Wednesday edition of the show. Do you have to start off. So 32 thoughts, Elliot Preyman and Jeff Merrick's podcast. It did drop this morning. As always, you know, they recap every series, right? And that's just how they do it. And I like to see towards the end, like, oh, they have some newsy items.

And sure enough, there was an update on the Penguins' GM search. And when I looked at it, it said, Mark Bergeriv into Pittsburgh question mark. I'm like, oh boy, here we go. going to be some rumor. It's going to annoy me. Nope. I listened to it. And basically what Elliot is saying, he's not reporting. He's just saying slash guessing. He thinks that there's a chance that the Penguins could potentially interview Mark

Bergevin. He didn't say they will or said that he had heard it. He just said he wonders if they would. Basically, Yins, what that is. That is an agent. Okay, I was about to squeeze this up. That is an agent. giving something to a reporter

and then they are talking about it. That is all it is. Elliot is helping out a friend in Mark Bergevin. He's guessing. That's all this is. You know, there's, it's been crickets for the last 12 days at this point. Basically, it's been almost two before weeks since the Penguins fired. Ron Hexaw, Chris Brian, Brian Burke.

We have really not heard that they interviewed anyone. I personally do not see them going after Mark Bergervin for an interview. or especially hiring him. I don't think that would make any sense. He's just an old head at this point. But, you know, like I said, it's basically just an agent trying to put his client's name out there saying like,

hey, Elliot, you know, Mark's kind of maybe interested in this job. Could you put his name out there and see if the penguins could maybe, you know, contact him stuff? That's all this is. I'm not really worried about it. None of you all should either, you know, my thoughts on Bershman. In Montreal, I don't really think he's not good of a general manager. I want someone fresh out.

He's a retread. I'm not interested in those. But I wanted to throw off the show talking about that dropped down 32 thoughts and just give my overall opinion on it. Now, getting to the full segment here for Ricard Raquel's season in review, wow, did he surprise me big time? You know, when he first signed that extension, I was someone who was against it a little bit.

You can go back and find my tweets on my text. Twitter. I even said, you know, that term, it's a bit much for me. What was it? Six years. The cap hit was whatever, but six years for him. I just, I don't know. I didn't know how he was going to play, especially even in that first year, but he showed right away that he was one of the team's best players this season, 28 goals, 60 points. Make sure this is one of his best seasons of his career. This is the second highest point total that he's had in his career. The second, The only higher point total they had came in 2018 when he had 34 goals and 69 points. Goals-wise, this is the third most amount of goals that he has scored in a season.

The first time he's gotten 28 since 2017-18 when he had 34 then the season before that, 2016-17-17 when he had 33. So he was very close to joining the 30-goal club. He was awesome for this team. He came over last year, played 19 games, 13 points in those games, got a little injured in the playoffs, came back this year, has 60 points, 82 games. He was spectacular. Power play, even showing wherever you put him, Malkins line or Crosby's line.

Honestly, even when you put him on the third line, and they tried that a lot with Michael Granlin when he came over, Drew O'Connor, he was, you know, just the main ingredient that let everything on that line cook. No, anything he touches, it just turns to perfection. And he was dynamite this season. Underlying numbers-wise, if I can find them here, played all 82 games a season. So another Topics player that played all 82 games.

When he was on the ice, the Penguins had almost 54% of the shot attempts. They also had 53% of the actual goals for, 69% of the expected goals, 55% of the scoring chances, 56% of the high-danger chances, and 57% of the high-danger goals for, again, it did not matter what line he was on. he was getting positive results no matter what.

I still prefer him to play with Sidney Crosby and Jake Gensel. I think the three of them work great together. He does work decently with Malkin, but I think with Crosby with how he sees the ice, how he's a great pure finisher on this team. I think he's the perfect linemate for Crosby. And of course, for Gensel as well, you know, a couple goals that really should out to me.

That one against Minnesota where he just rocketed it, Pass Mark Andre Fleury was beautiful. That was when the Penguin season was really on the line after they lost at the Devils. I know they didn't make the playoffs, but that goal just fed him to the left circle. Bang! Right over the glove. Beautiful shot by Raquel. You know, a couple other power play goals, especially against the senators in that game in Ottawa,

which was that crazy back and forth affair. He was electric from the left circle there as well. Honestly, you know, it's the Ovechkin spot, but it was also kind of the Raquel's in a way this year where he was scoring a bunch of goals from the area. Again, I'm not comparing him now because of that you're not getting, don't get me wrong. But, you know, he scored at his fair share amount of goals from that spot. And, you know, it was just a real pleasure to watch him really blossom into the player that he, you know, used to be a few years ago. Because he had lost that part of his game these last couple of years with the ducks.

You know, playing on a bad team hurts you. I think Ryan Burke talked about it in your ear. review how he had like some sort of like condition or something like that was like really affecting him. I don't think it was like anything like really bad or anything, but it was definitely something that was affecting him. And Burke said that he was able to get passage. And he said, and since then, you know, he was playing at an elite level. And it's, I continue to be amazed at how Ron Hexon and Brian Burke were able to acquire him when they got almost everything else wrong.

it boggles my mind. It really does. They get that trade so right. You're like, oh, my God. They actually looks like they're investing in looking at numbers and, you know, looking at, oh, this guy is a good candidate for a bounce back. Or not even a bounce bag really, but just, oh, like getting his numbers back on track, does that.

You sign them. It's like, okay, maybe it was a little too much. Nope, they got that right. Even the resigning. Because, you honestly, you know, when you think about it, who cares how long Raquel is here for. He was just great this year. And as for next season, you know, if he can do this again, that would be awesome. I would love another 30, 30, 30 season from him.

You know, 28 goals, 32 assists. Again, you know, 30 goals, 30 assists, 35 assists, something like that. That's, you know, I know he's a little bit older now, but I have those expectations, especially if he's getting top line minutes with Sidney Crosby. I would also like to see the power play kind of run through him a little bit. They may, that may sound weird of me to say. I get it. But I kind of want them to have the power play go through him.

like they did with Castle. I'm not saying they're like, oh, he's the next Phil Castle on that properly. He's not. But I think he's the closest they can get to replicating that where Raquel has a booming shot from that left half wall. And even he's not shooting there,

he still has a beautiful passing ability, you know, back to the point, slot area, opposite side of the ring. He sees the ice so well in the offensive zone. I really do. think you'll be proved for the Penguins to have the power play go through him a la Kessel there. Because remember, you know, when the Penguins power play was really, really good, you know, 2016, 2017, 2018, even the year after that, it was running through Kessel because you had to account

for his shot and you had account for his passing ability. And I want to see the Penguins do that when it comes to when it comes to Raquel here. But he was awesome this year. A plus season in my book. I don't know where the Penguins would be. without him. Now, he's found a home here. He's signed for a long time.

I expect him to play with Cindy Crosby for most of next season. And even if he's not for a few games and he goes down to Malkins line or goes down to the third line in place with whoever, it's still going to be fine because, again, any line he touches, it turns to gold. Because, heck, you know, I was, when they dropped him to the third line, they moved Rust up and they had someone else on Malkins line. They had a kneelander then, remember.

And they bumped Raquel there. down to the third line. I was like, wait, that doesn't make any sense because, like, is he really going to get that much out of Granland? Funny enough, the one goal Granlin scored, who was his right winger? Raquel, it was. He factored in on multiple goals during that game

on that line with Granlin and O'Connor. Any line you can put him on, it will work. So really thrilled with how he played A-plus grade. That wraps up this segment with my player season review. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to get into a couple more news that I would make as the mock. as the Penguins mock general manager this summer, and then to end the show, I have a couple of things regarding the Stanley Cup playoffs, as we keep chugging along here.

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All right. All right. All right. All right. And of course, thank you all so much for making this. Your first list in today. We're free and available on all platforms. Just checking to make sure I'm recording this.

I'm about going to overtime. It's about going to overtime. Wow, Brad Marchand. Almost, wow, you almost won that at the end. We almost had a buzzer-beater to end that. a series against the Panthers. If I were a Panthers fan, I would have almost crap my pants. I would have been scared out of my, scared on my mind. But getting back into my mock GM, if I were the Penguins GM, what I would do. Um, another, so we did yesterday,

buy out of McCauleeland. We, um, offer sheet slash trade for Jeremy Swayman's rights. He's a slam dunk, in my opinion. Next up, you know, I've been beating this truck. You have to go out there. and get a left shot deed. It is one of the biggest needs to the penguins going into free agency, going into the draft. They need to get someone to either A, play with Chris Lentang, or B, play with Jepetri. You can move Pedersen up to play with Lutang.

I think that would work in a perfect world, though, at least in my opinion, I would rather have someone else come from the outside to Perth Latam because, you know, Brian Duhman, I don't think it's going to come back, nor should he. It does not make any sense, people. So, with that being said, I will look to Calgary.

You know, I think they're going to make a lot of changes to saw season. They have a lot of defensemen. I think they're going to put on the market. I would personally go and trade for Noah Hannanthin. His contract is not that bad right now. I believe he has one more year left on that deal with, I believe it's actually not that much money. But Anglin will be able to afford this under a, yeah. So one more year left, modify no trade cost.

4.95 million right now. The penguins have 20 million in salary cap space that can go to 24. with the McCall-Gremlin buyout under my mock GM offseason. That will be happening. So $24 million. You can easily fit this under there and maybe not even ask Calgary to eat salary. Is there a one-year rental in a way? Yes, there's also potential that he could resign after the season.

Another good part is you're not getting him for just 20 or 25 games. You're getting him for a full 82 game season, hopefully a big long run in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And he can be that long-term answer if you want to re-sign him next to Chris Lattang. He has more offensive capabilities than Dune does. He's good defensively. He is the full package as a left shot D. I would be all over trading for that.

I would give up, you know, I would even give up a first round pick, top prospect, roster player. I would give up quite a bit to go get him. Because again, I do think the flames are going to make changes. He will be one of my first calls. If you can't go out and get Hannah Finn and you want to look to, you know, the free agent market, it's not the best. I will say that, not the best,

Louis Deming one said there is one option though I will say if they do want if I were to go the free agent route as the GM I would very much look to sign Demetre Orlov is he 31 years old yes that is a little concerning I get it he's making 5.1 million on this contract he's probably gonna want to raise probably going to want a long-term deal I honestly just after I kind of look like a fool the Ricard Raquel deal I probably wouldn't care if they gave Orlov a four to five year term. And wow, Matthew Kuchuk just, wow, he just won the game for Florida in overtime. And this will be going back to sunrise for the six games.

So that talks. Wow, that's interesting. So Matthew Kachuk, he is still doing his thing. I don't know, wow, I don't know what Linus Allmark was doing there. But anyways, getting back to what I was saying, Orlov, another very good left shoty, booming shot. from the point also as good defensive metrics. I never really took him that serious when he was in Washington, especially his first couple of years there.

He really blossomed into a really good top four defensemen. He makes a ton of sense for me as a Dumer in the place replacement or even someone who can play with Petrie on the second pairing. Those are just two of the options that I would be looking at, but definitely want a left shot D for this off season. My second order of business, you have to go out and get a third line center. Whether that's someone like Ryan O'Reilly, that's maybe a bit older, you know, I would still lean on the younger side. You have to go get a third line center.

Jeff Carter cannot play that position anymore. You have to shift him down to the fourth line. I would be trying all, I would be exploring all options when it comes to acquiring a third line center this offseason, whether it's via trade or free agency. So those are just two of like my mock, you know, two more of my mock offseason moves I'll be looking for, looking for to improve the pay. Penguins heading into next season. Honestly, one that jumps out right in my eyes. I may get some heat for saying this. I may not.

Would anyone want Evan Rodriguez back as a third-line center? Just saying, just said, just putting that out there. Remember 20 goals of the Penguins, slipped a little bit down the stretch. We had a really good playoffs. He's been playing really well for Colorado this year. He's not making too much money. No, he's really not. I just wanted to make sure that it's yeah I had to make sure I had to make sure it was not a two-year deal I had it written down I always had double check one he was only making two million this year I would be I would seriously if you want to go to free agent route if I were gym I would seriously consider bringing back Rodriguez because he was a sound fit for Mike Sullivan system I think he would be really good back here though there are better options I'll say that but I'm just saying it's one to put in the back

And either way, though, they need a new third line center next year, one who can drive offense and one who can defend as well. So that does it for my second segment here of this episode of my second segment overall with my mock GM offseason. We're going to continue that for the rest of this week and into next week. Coming up to end the show, we are going to discuss the Stanley Cup playoffs as usual what happened on Tuesday night. and then what just happened just now with the Bruins and the Panther series. That's all coming up right after this commercial break. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes.

You know to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. All right. He saw all the shows Twitter, L.O. underscore Penguins. And wow, I am watching what Linus Allmark just did here. Wow. Yeah, he just totally apologize if you hear the audio a little bit for you're listening. But Linus Allmark gave the puck away. Tover Hage, gives it to Kachuk, who just deeks around,

Omar puts it into a wide open net, no clue what he was doing there. So that kicks off this final segment of the semi-cup playoffs. Game 6, Friday night in sunrise. So the Panthers putting up a fight here, and they were brutally outplayed. Much like the Islanders, both teams did not play well in their game fives, and yet they still come out with results. That's hockey, baby. I mean, what do you expect at this point?

You know, I'll have to see if those series go to game sevens, but, you know, some real strong fights there from the Islanders and the Panthers, especially after I kind of, you know, grabbed on them a little bit, just a couple of days ago when I said they were just a bunch of average teams. And, you know, they still kind of are. But, you know, I also think, you know, they got the result when both teams got the results when they probably didn't deserve the new Sroken. He stood on his head on Tuesday night.

And then tonight, Barowski played really, really well. He was great for the Panthers. We also saw Dallas, Minnesota. Dallas blows out the wilding game. they're up three games or two. Going back to St. Paul, that's been a hell of a series. If Jake Onger can have another strong performance, I don't see how Minnesota can win that series.

We also have the avalanche cracking the series that game five just started now. No Kel McCart tonight, a one game suspension. I personally don't know how McCar only got one game. You give three games to Michael Bunting, and that was obviously a very warranted suspension, but you don't give the same to Kel McCar, where it was almost the same kind of hit. I don't know what we're doing here.

But their Upper Creek trying to win this game, no Macar, no Lannis Cog. We'll have to see how that goes. Islanders, obviously, again, one on Tuesday night. That was a really, you know, more fun than some of the other games in the series. Sorokan just thrown on his head. Games series will go back to Long Island later this week. Rangers Devils, that'll take place on Thursday.

Maple Leafs Lightning and the Leafs will have the chance to fully break the curse for the first time in basically 20 years on Thursday. And Edmonton really blew out L.A. on Tuesday night. They're out three games to two now. It looks like the Oilers have finally solved the Kings in this series. It looked like they were going to go down three games to one until Evander Cain saved their season in game four. Three minutes left. He scores the goal.

And then in overtime, the Oilers win at thanks to Zach Hyman. And then they blow out the Oilers Tuesday night by a final score. It was at 6 to 3. That's been a really fun series to watch. and I think game six back in LA is going to be a lot of fun as well. You know, not a lot of short series so far, Yins. No, no, no, no. A lot of these series going six, seven games,

there's a chance tomorrow that we could see one end in five games that maybe we're able to beat the lining. But, you know, for the first time in quite a while, we might not have any series end in even five games. My memory is serving me right here in Minnesota, Dallas. Well, the Vegas series might. Game 5 is back in Vegas, Vegas is up three games to one. Maybe win a pack in game four will have to see if the Knights are able to win that series.

But it looks like right now, that and the Navy Maple Leaf Series, those are the only two that could end in five. If not, though, you know, every series is going to go six to seven games, which is good. You know, I mean, you know, I don't think it's fun. You know, when you see a lot of blowouts in playoffs series. It's good when these get extended. bad for the team trying to win it because, you know, I'll always die on the hill that you need a short series if you want to win a Stanley Cup. You have to have a member of the Penguins, you know, all three years Stanley Cup runs

in this era, in this era, 2009, you know, semi-short, they're not even a short series against Flyers, they won in six, capital seven, they sweep away the hurricanes. That's the big one there. Needed a break. 2016, they take the Rangers out in five games. 2017, Blue Jackets, out in five games. You need those short kind of series if you were to go on a run.

And maybe it doesn't happen in the first round for one of these teams. Probably happens in the second or maybe the conference finals. But if you want to win a Sunday Cup in this league, you need to have a short series. And it looks like right now, unless the Leafs or the Knights are able to pull it off, we may not have any short series in the first round. But yeah, I have no idea what Linus Allmark was doing there. That was just ridiculous. The Bruins were in a prime position to win that game.

They outshot the Panthers 47 to 25. That's hockey, baby. That is hockey. But that will do it for this episode, though, of the Locktime Penguins podcast with another little playoff update for you all. Again, it's been so much fun watching these series. I'm having a blast.

I like talking about them on my show. I'm not going to be doing like this sort of format for every episode, you know throughout the next couple months trust me i know it'll probably get boring for a lot of you i will be changing it up but right now i like how it's going you know if you personally can want me to touch on other aspects relating to the team let me know as i'm doing you know the mock draft series and the season player season review series i have other things that might leave coming up soon as well obviously have the GM stuff coming but if you have a topic you would like me to discuss leave in the

comments down below you can also DM me on social media and all that stuff But again, thank you all so much for listening slash watching. I really appreciate it. We'll be back with another episode on Thursday.