Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Which Penguins prospects will likely go to the World Juniors?

Episode Date: October 20, 2020

We've officially hit the dog days of the NHL offseason as a lot of free agents have signed their contracts and the those that haven't are still sorting through their offers. There likely won't be too much news around the league on most days but Hunter is back with another episode and he starts today's one with some World Juniors talk. He discusses when the tournament will take place, plus which countries will be in each group. Also, which Pittsburgh Penguins prospects will likely be representing at the World Juniors? Which are likely to not get an invite? Hunter touches on that, plus talks about the Blackhawks statement to their fans today about rebuilding and how that may not be far away for the Penguins. Finally, in the last segment, Hunter takes some listener questions, including one on his favorite Penguins player ever that's not a star player.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BuiltGoVisit BuiltGO.com and use promo code “LOCKED,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. 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 to this Tuesday afternoon episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at L0-untersquare Penguins. Today's show is brought to you by rockado.com, amazing selection, reliability low prices, all the parts you cover ever need. That is rock auto.com. And now, in case anyone is not aware, yes, we've hit the big lull of the NHL off season

where there could be stuff that happens, but there's maybe only going to be like one thing every five days or something every week. So, I mean, there's obviously not much talk about in Penguin Land right now. I've talked on and on and on about the signings and the free agency and the trades that this team has done. I am honestly just burnt out talking about at this point because there's honestly like no other angles to cover with it. We know how this team is going to look into going into next season.

We know that this team could still be a Stanley Cup contender. We're just going to have to see how these signings and trades pay off for them. and if Jim Rutherford made a few more mistakes. But for today's episode, it's going to be a bit different, and for a lot of this week and next week, it's going to be different to after next week. We're going to be going, I believe, to three episodes a week, starting in November as, like I said,

the offseason is in full swing now. And if there's a signing, it'll happen once every five days or something like that. But for today, we're going to talk about the World Juniors. I think they're starting in the end of December. The rosters have not been announced yet. camps haven't been announced yet, but you can look at some projected lineups and see which penguins are going to be on which teams for the World Junior Championships. In recent years, I've been getting into it more.

I'm not always familiar with a lot of prospects on these teams, but I do want to follow it more and see how good a lot of these prospects are and are going to be further respective NHL clubs. And those who are also not drafted because there's going to be a lot of players on those teams who are not part of NHL clubs. So I just want to follow a lot more. But we'll be talking about that today. Also in the next segment, we're going to be talking about the Chicago Blackhawks letter to their fans today,

saying they're going to rebuild and how it's probably going to be sooner rather than later when Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle will send that out. So we're going to touch on that in the next segment. And then in the final segment, we're just going to have some mailbag questions that are coming from the listeners. So start out. Yes, the schedule for the World Junior Championships came out. I believe it was yesterday. Just going to Hockey Canada's site. I think they start.

I'm just trying to make sure I have this right. I think it's so three games a day from December 25th to New Year's Eve, which is, of course, December 31st. There's going to be a two-game day on December 28th, and then once that's done, the playoff schedule looks the same as it has been in recent years. For those that follow it, four quarter finals will be on January 2nd of next year. The semifinals on January 4th, and then the medal games would be on January 5th. Obviously, Team Canada is going to be the team to beat. they are absolutely loaded you know you go look at some of their projected lineups

I mean Peyton Crabs Dylan Cousins Jack Quinn Quint and Beifeld who of course went number two overall Connor McMichael of the Washington Capitals Adam Beckman Dawson Mercer Sam Poulin is probably going to be on this team I would expect him to be

I would think in the top nine maybe they'll put him in the top six I have no idea but he's one of Canada's better forwards he's probably not going to be on the first line with New Hook, Krebs and Dylan Cousins But to see him maybe on the second line with Byfield or on the third line, maybe with Cole Perfetti, would not be surprised to see that at all. Then on defense for Canada, I mean, Bowen Byram of Colorado.

He's going to be called up, I think, potentially this season. He's the real deal. Thomas Harley, Jamie Drysdale, Jordan Spence of Los Angeles. I mean, the list goes on and on for Canada. They're going to be the team to beat. And for another penguin that probably will be in the World Junior Championships, Joel Blumquist, who the Penguins took with their first pick in this year's draft. He's going to be Team Finland's starting goaltender, I would think.

You know, I was reading Dabber Hockies, just breakdown of their projected roster. And this was written by, I'm totally going to mispronounce his last time. I'm totally going to mispronounce his name. I'm hoping not. Yoki, Nevelinen, who's the head, I think, of the scouting for this. I definitely follow him on Twitter at J.O. K.K.E. And then, Nevillelining, he does a great job for this. He basically says Blumclis is the obvious choice for the starting goal.

bulltender, even though he is the youngest of the three options. He still has had great six at every level, and this will be just a new challenge for him to ever come. So I'd be curious to see how he goes up against the two powerhouses in Canada and the United States with the firepower that they have. Russia is also up there. They're very good as well. So it would be interesting to see just how he plays at that international level.

It would obviously be like the highest hockey level of hockey that he's played in. So, you know, this will be a big test for him for his career. So I'm definitely excited to watch him if he is, named the starting goaltender. So that's two penguins that are definitely projected to be on a couple World Junior Championship rosters. I would be surprised if those two didn't get on. I mean, there's a couple others that maybe get on.

I mean, Nathan Legerry, maybe a bit of a stretch to get on Team Canada's roster with how stack they are. Wouldn't expect it. I mean, call field as well from the penguins probably won't happen with how stacked they are. But, you know, there is one more player that definitely could get on a roster, but he's not going to be the starting goaltender. and that's a goalie that they also took in this year's NHL draft by the name of Callie Kling.

I mean, he's definitely, he would probably be, I think, the third golden turn, you know, looking at these projected rosters. I mean, Yesper Walsstead is going to be on there. I mean, Hugo Al-Nefelt. I think that's his last name. If I mispronounce that last name, I 100% apologize. It looks like he would be the early favorite to start. But, I mean, if not, he doesn't go back, it would be Yesper Walsstead starting and then Kelly Kling backing him up. So I think what you're looking at definitely.

Definitely two penguins that are going to be playing in the World Junior Championships, and then another that will likely be on the bench. So three total, I think, from the penguins. It's a bit low compared to a lot of other teams that have much better prospects in their system. But still, I think it would be around three penguins that would represent the organization in the World Junior Championships, unless Canada, like I said, takes Ligari or Caulfield. And they even have the schedule out already, just with like the different teams that are going to be playing each other. December 25th, the U.S.A. will play Russia.

the next day they'll play Austria and then when I get to the rest of their schedule December 29th would be the Czech Republic and then on New Year's Eve they would play Sweden so Group B, Austria, the Czech Republic, Russia, Sweden, and the United States that is the group of death if I had to say then in Group A, Canada

on December 26 they will play Germany, 27th they'll play Slovakia, then Switzerland and then Finland so in their group it's not nearly a group of death as Group B is with Russia, Sweden and the United States but they still have Finland in there who is always a tough out in the World Junior Championships and hell they're always a tough out in the regular Olympics as well so

can't wait for that to happen some hockey around Christmas time I'm sure the games would be during the day again that's great I love having hockey around during the holidays and you know that could be starting right before the NHL season starts I know they want to start it around New Year's day hopefully with the Winter Classic we'll see if that's going to happen there was also talk I think last week that they may be doing a Canadian division doing some realignment for next season as I honestly don't think they're going to be doing a full 82 games, but we'll talk about that when there's an official announcement or when it gets closer to the start of the season.

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Let's go. So, welcome back to this episode of Locked on Penguins podcast. So earlier today, the Chicago Blackhawks did release a pretty big statement to their fans. I think this had been coming for the last couple of days. I think a couple of Blackhawks beatwriters have been teasing. Yeah, there's a major announcement coming from the Blackhawks. And of course, I'm sure the Hawks fans are like, oh my God, is Stan Bowman going to be fired? because his moves from the last few years have definitely not been that inspiring.

So, I mean, here goes the letter. So they said on their official Twitter account, releases said goodbye to a pair of popular two-time champions and acquired some new players via trade and free agency. Of course, those are Corey Crawford and Brandon Sod, Corey Crawford going to New Jersey Devils, Brandon Sodd to the Colorado Laplanche. We understand it was tough to see those respective veterans go

and realize you may have some questions about our direction. We'd like to address that direction and share why we're hopeful for the future of the Chicago Blackhawks. We're committed to developing young players in rebuilding our roster. We want more than another window to win. We want to reach the summit again and stay there an effort that will require a stockpile of emerging talent to complement our top players.

The influx of youth and their progression will provide roster flexibility and depth throughout our lineup. I'm not going to read the last week paragraphs, but basically, yeah, they're starting their rebuild. I'm sure Hawks fans are not too pleased about this because they have Patrick Hayne. They have Jonathan Taves still in their prime. Duncan Keith is still good, not what he used to be,

then Brent Seabrook is just lost at this point. But, you know, this all could have been avoided for the Blackhawks if they wouldn't have fucked up these last few years. And, you know, we could be saying the same thing for the penguins here very, very soon because Jim Rutherford has not been good in these last few years with just, you know, the Jack Johnson signing to, you know, you can make claims that the Patrick Hornquist or he's bad, you know, the Cody C.C. signing, Eric Good Branson for Tanner Pearson, that Carl Hagwin trade that got Tanner

Peter Peterson return, the Derek Rassar trade, which didn't work out, the Ryan Reeves trade, which was just a disaster from when it started. I mean, getting Jamie Alexiak, which was fine, and then trading Jamie Alexiak back for that pick that you traded him for. Again, very bad asset management from Rutherford. And, you know, this stuff is going to catch up to him soon as it did for Stan Bowen with the Blackhawks, the Panarin trade, and then they traded Sodden, and then they got him back. And then, you know, they had to trade Tevotra Bindon because they were paying, I think it was what, Brian Bickle or something like that. And I think they all. also had to trade Nicholas Jalmerson, who was a really good defenseman for them as well.

And, you know, these moves catch up to them. And because of all these bad moves, was Dan Bowman. They have no depth outside of their top players. And they have some good young players in there in De Brinket. Kubelik is going to be really good as well. Kirby Doc, I think, is going to be great too. But, you know, beyond that, I mean, Dylan Strom, I think is all right, too. But, I mean, beyond that, there's just not a lot there, like, depth-wise.

And it's good that they're going to rebuild. I think it's best for the team. They're not going to be a Stanley Cup contender for the rest of the Caney and Taves window. I think them winning another Stanley Cup is not likely to happen. But, you know, this is what you've got to watch out for if you're a Penguins fan. There is going to be a day when Mario Lemieux and Ron Borker will write this exact same message to the Penguins fan base. You know, yes, we know Cindy Crosby of getting Malkin are getting older, 37, 30 or something like that. We just want to tell you what the direction of our team is.

We're going to start rebuilding, trading off assets, getting younger. it's going to happen in the next few years. Hopefully it happens by the time Crosby and Malkin are 40 or closer to it, but with the way Rutherford has been handling the signings and the trades recently, it's going to happen sooner rather than later. So you just got to hope that Rutherford starts making

good moves that can extend the window. I mean, I just said, you don't want to reach that point like the Blackhawks did faster than what was necessary. Right now, you're looking at a two-year window for the penguins until a lot of contracts are up. Chris LaTang is up in a couple years. Evgeny Malkin only has a couple of.

couple years left on his contract. I think Brian Rust is up that same year. Kaspary Kappen is also up. I think all four of those players are up in two years. If I'm not mistaken, I can check their cap-friendly page pretty quick just to confirm on to load this up here for you guys just now if my Mac is actually going to go here. So yes, in the 2022-2020-offseason, Fgeny Malkin is a UFA, Brian Russ is UFSA. Sam Lafrey don't really care. Chrisatang is UFA. And then Kisbury Kappan is an RFA. I actually had no idea that Kappanin would be an RFA after these next two years at $3.2 million per season. But, I mean, he's also only 24 right now.

So I guess it does make sense. So, yeah, this is the two-year window here for the Penguins. You have Sydney Crosby signed for five more years. Jake Gensel signed for four more. Jason Zucker, his contract is up a year after of Guinea-Malkins is expired. Brandon Tanev goes until 2025-26. But like I said, I mean, a lot of your core players, for this team are up in two years. But the big thing that Rutherford needs to do here,

extend the window. Stop making mistakes. Stop trading assets for bad players. You have to, you can't mismanage your team as he's been doing these last couple seasons. And as Stan Bowman did. And now they had to release a statement a lot sooner than it should have been. Considering Jonathan Taves and Patrick Kane are actually younger than of Gennie Malkin and Cindy Crosby. Kane is 31. Taves is 32. They're both signed for 10.5 million for the next three years. I mean, they don't have a lot of, like, big UFA contracts coming off the book soon. I mean, De Brinket is signed for a while. Kublo just signed for the next couple years.

Zach Smith comes off the books after next season, so does Matthias Young mark who they just signed. But, I mean, there's just, I mean, Kirby Doc is going to get a lot of money. He's 19. Dylan Strom, of course. Duncan Keith has signed for three more years until 2024, so right on point when Taves and Keynes. I mean, their window is really only for three more years. but I mean by the time they get to that point, they probably won't even have another Stanley cap,

and they're just going to be continuing to rebuild as Taves and King get into their mid-30s and just slow down. So I know that was a big ramble, and if it didn't make a lot of sense, I apologize, but the big thing here for the Penguins is what they should take away from this statement is, you don't want to have this happening in the next two years when Malkin and Crosby are still going to be playing at a pretty high level.

Is it going to be at the level that they played at in their peak years and in their prime years? Absolutely not. They're going to slow down at some point and stop producing up the level of the last couple of years. And then you're going to be, you have to be really careful with how you manage the cabin, you manage the team. But also, I don't really think Jim Rutherford is going to be here when those contract

aspire. I would hope that Jim Rutherford is not here in the next couple of years. And I would also hope that he is not here for the Penguins long rebuild, which is coming. And it is going to be a pretty painfully long rebuild, I would say. It's going to take a while for the penguins to get good at it. You know, you got to hope that you just tank and maybe land. another generational talent as they've done twice with Lemieux and Crosby. But yeah, I just want to talk about that and make the comparison of the penguins as, you know,

just as a reminder that, hey, Jim, maybe you should start making good moves so you can get Crosby Malk in another cup before they retire because right now I'm not sure a lot of people see it. I don't know if I see it currently right now, but, you know, there's still time going into next season. We'll see what moves he has up his sleeve, especially going into next off season as well, where, you know, it's going to be pretty interesting for the penguins as Crosby Malkin. and we'll just continue to get older as Kane and Taves have. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockton Penguins podcast.

For this segment, like I said, we're just going to have a few mailbag questions to answer, as well as go over a couple things. Before we get to the mailback questions, Chris Stang did post a tweet and an Instagram post today. Almost I thought he was traded when I first saw it. I just, my heart skipped beat, because it started out with my biggest moments of my career will live forever. And it was like, okay, did you get traded?

but, of course, he was talking about Doc Emmerich. You know, he basically said, thank you for the conversations. Thank you for making hockey sound so graceful. Congratulations on a remarkable career. Basically put two of his Doc's best calls of Chris Lattang's goals, and that was the game three overtime winner against the Washington Capitals in 2009, where Mellon Arena's roof was just blown off with how loud it was. And then, of course, his 2016 Game 6 Stanley Cup final clincher

to make it two to one against the San Jose Shark, with that amazing play by him in the offensive zone. and then Krause was able to pass a tomb and he beats Martin Jones. So that was a really cool post by Latang there. Like I said, my heart definitely skipped a beat when I first saw the post because I thought he was traded or something. But, you know, God forbid they ever do trade Chris Latang because Penguins' Twitter would melt in ways that we have never seen before, I think. So hopefully that day never comes. But back to some of the mailbag questions.

We start with Alan T. Yoder, who is a frequent listener of the podcast. No, Alan, thank you so much for always listening. He asked, who is your favorite all-time penguin player that was not a single-time penguin player that was not a star player, like no Mario, Sid, Yager, Gino. That's a good question. You know, there's a lot of options that I would pick here. But I'm honestly going to go with Chris Kunitz. I mean, I think that's a really good answer. Just like, you know, when he was acquired, no one expected him to play in the top six. I think a lot of people all the time, like, oh, you know, just to throw in on that tray, you know, third line wing or something. He was elevated to that first line and he, he produced

quite a bit over his tenure here. I know it went down as he got older. but he's still a penguin hero, you know, with that 2017 game 7 winner against the Ottawa Senators with that knuckle puck that went in over Craig Anderson. I always thought he was just underappreciated here in Pittsburgh. I mean, he had four straight seasons of 20 goals or more. His best season with Pittsburgh came in 2013-14, 35 goals, 68 points, and 78 games. That was when he was playing top-line minutes with Crosby the entire season. You know, the year before that, 22 goals, the year before that, 26 goals in 2011-12,

when Crosby was basically out for that entire season. Then, you know, the production started to go down in 2014, 15, 2016, but he was still a 40-point player. That's good bottom six production. And he was also just a great playmaker too. I mean, you guys forget, I mean, of his 619 points, 351 assists. I mean, he could dish it out a lot better than a bunch of players in this league. And he was just, like I said, he was just a treat to watch.

He was also good defensively, I thought. He drove possession very well with the Crosby line. And whenever there was like a big goal to be had or just a big play in general during a game, he was always there to make. And I mean, he also had the overtime winner against the Islanders in game three when Mark Andre Fleury nearly cost him that game with how he was barfing all over himself. I mean, he fully did in game four, which was when he was pulled officially for the rest of those playoffs. But, you know, when a big moment came up during a game, Chris Kunitz was right there ready to seize it and he did so plenty of time. So he will always go down as I think my favorite player, that was not a star player. from the Penguins franchise.

I mean, especially during the Crosby, Malken era, I mean, if you want me to go back during the Lemieux era or just any other era before that, I think my favorite penguin player that wasn't a star player, would be someone like Marty Straca. I know, guys, he had 257 goals, 717 points and 954 games, but, you know, he's not one of the Penguins, like, all-time franchise grades. So, I mean, that's why I'm saying him. But, yeah, definitely Straca, but, you know, my overall answer would be Chris Kunitz for that. So thank you for that question.

Our last question here comes from King Clarkie, who has always asked questions on the podcast for. It's only going to be a couple questions for this mailback. Hopefully for the next mailbag that I do in a few weeks, months, whenever I do it next will be a lot more. So he asks, what is your World Series prediction? So this is a tight one. I'm going to go with Raisin 7. You know, I always like when, you know, a team like Tampa Bay that's not, you know, they don't have as much money as a team like the Dodgers, you know, the Yankees, the Red Sox, those kind of teams. wins just because it shows you don't have to spend to the top every single year.

And I really like the Rays roster. The Dodgers do what they normally do in the playoffs, especially when they get to the World Series. They lose. I'm going to go with the Rays in seven games. I know the Dodgers did come back from three games to one down against the Braves. I was pretty surprised that that happened, considering the Braves pitching was really good.

But, you know, once they got past those two pitchers for those last few games, it just, it was curtains. And the Dodgers hitters woke up, you know, Cody Bellinger hit that gorgeous home run. I think it was in game seven to put them up top. And, you know, the Astros do the world of favor by beating the cheaters that are the Houston Astros. I don't think anyone wanted Houston to win outside of the city of Houston. So I'm glad that happened.

So this should be a fun World Series, but Ken Clarkie, I am going to go with the Rays in seven games. They will take their first ever World Series time. I think this is only their second World Series appearance. I think their last, their only one was in 2011, if I'm not mistaken. I think Joe Madden was the manager there. And I'm trying to remember who they lost to in the World Series. It might have been the Giants, but don't quote me on that. I believe it was the San Francisco Giants that they lost to in the World's Series.

So that will do it for this episode of the Lockdown Tangleman's podcast. I really appreciate you guys listening to this. We'll have another episode coming for you guys tomorrow, so have a great rest of your day.