Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Who will be the first AHL call-up when the injury bug hits?

Episode Date: October 22, 2020

Some more of these "reverse retro" jerseys have been leaked after the Penguins one was and Hunter is here to give his thoughts on them and if more are potentially coming. How bad do the Flyers and Golden Knights one's look? Are the Capitals going to bring back the "screaming eagle" in red this time? There's also the potential that these are only worn for just a couple select games but as more get rumored, Hunter will be here to react to them. Hunter also talks about watching some video on Cody Ceci on Youtube and detailing some of the weaknesses in his game and if they're truly fixable. Finally, Hunter talks about some potential AHL call-ups for the Penguins next season when injuries happen. Could Sam Miletic get his first call-up? What about Phil Varone? All that, plus much more in this episode of Locked On Penguins.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 episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes, follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L0 underscore Penguins. So, yeah, we are in the big lull now of the NHL offseason. I know I said it yesterday, but it's still true today. It's going to keep being true until there's news because there's, it just has not been news ever since the Stanley Cup was handed out, and then free agency happened in the draft. And now that free agency is just basically hit the shutdown button because players

and just aren't signing, and then teams, of course, are cap strap. There's just not going to be any news until, you know, like a player like Mike Hoffman signs who, who knows when that's going to be. And so, yeah, this is basically the dog days of the NHL offseason. And I do really appreciate you guys always tuning in and listening to me blabber about whatever, especially during these times where there is just really nothing to talk about. But for today, you know, we're going to talk about some more of those leaked fourth jerseys. I think the Capitals one was leaked.

Well, potential Capitals one was leaked. the Flyers one was leaked along with the Penguins one. We already talked about how bad those Penguins one were because those reverse retroes suck, but it looks like the NHL is batting 0-0-0 if this were a baseball game in the batters box. So all these are just terrible, but we're going to touch on those later in the show. In the first segment, I'm going to go over a piece by Dom from the athletic NHL.

I will not pronounce his last name. You know, it's, of course, starts with L and then a bunch of random letters. It's almost like a random letter generator last name. But he does amazing work. You know, he talked about all the teams throughout the offseason who's won, so far, who's lost. And I'm not really sure where the penguins are in that term. They're probably in the losers, if I had to say. But, you know, we'll double check and I'll read you guys what Dom wrote and give my thoughts on it as a whole.

And we will also be talking more about Cody Cici. I went on YouTube yesterday, you know, a bit today as well. Just to look at some film on him, see, you know, how bad his weaknesses are. Just because he is, I haven't watched a lot of Cody Cici in a while. I mean, we obviously saw him in the qualifying round. but, and we've seen them in Ottawa a bunch, but it's just, I wanted to dive deeper into just how bad his weaknesses are. So I'll give you guys some thoughts on that.

And that basically will be today's show. There really is just nothing else to talk about right now in Penguins land. I mean, Josh Getsoff had the hockey night in Punjabi guy on the Penguins podcast, I think today who did the Benino Bonino call. So that was a really good listen. I hope you guys definitely check that out on the Penguins official Twitter account. And also before we do get to today's show topics on the Edmonton Oilers barred all over themselves and decided to sign Chris Russell to a one-year extension worth, I think, 1.2 million per season.

So, yeah, that's basically like the Penguins keeping Jack Johnson, but signing him to a one-year extension where he would have four years left on his contract if the Penguins did not buy him out. So that's pretty embarrassing. Chris Russell is still going to be there. Just feel bad for Connor McDavid. Feel bad for Beyond Drysidal. Feel bad for Ryan Nugent Hopkins. And most of all, you know, I probably feel bad for Edmonton. Oilers fans because they have to live another year with Chris Russell on the team.

But let's just get into our show. This show is brought to by Bill Barr. It's a protein bar that tastes like a candy gar. You can go to Billbar.com and use promo code blocked on and you'll get $20 off your next order. So first thing, we're just going to go to the athletic article here from Dom. You know, just like I said, talking about like who won in the off season, who basically lost. You know, we scroll down in the Penguins series. So he says according to his model, they added 0.2 wins.

I mean, it's really not a lot. salary added $8.2 million. Of course, he did the end with Matheson, Captain, C, C, C, Vier, and Jankowski, and then the out, Murray, Hornquist, Buxtad, Schultz, Johnson, Marlowe, Sherry, and Dominic Simone. His thoughts are none of the players brought him move the needle much. I mean, I kind of agree with that, you know, especially with Mike Matheson. They're hoping that he can be good offensively, and hopefully they can get him to be not as bad defensively as he was in Florida, because he was just a total tire fire into the defense zone. So they're just going to, you know, Hopefully Todd Reardon can work some magic there.

He then said he also hopes Casperi Kappan's speed can be utilized well in the top six. Again, I've been talking about it all off season. I think the ideal spot for Kappaninant would be on the third line with Jared McCann. So maybe at some point during the next season during it, got to go out, maybe get another top six winger. I mean, a right winger, preferably to play on the top line with Krosby. I know they're probably not going to do that. But, I mean, if you can have a bona fide top six winger alongside Krosby, again, so then you can roll out the Zulker Malkin-Russ line.

Then you can roll out McCann and put whoever on his left wing, whether that's Mark Jenkowski, Colton Severe, if Colton Severeer is there, because I'm not even sure he's going to last the entire next season. Obviously, when healthy, the fourth line is going to be Ashton, Rees, Blue, and Tanev. Maybe you could put Evan Rodriguez on that third line with McCannan, Cappan. That's just the ideal situation for the Penguins, but I don't think they're going to do that, even though I would absolutely love it,

because I really don't know how Capon is going to mesh in with Crosby and Gensel if he couldn't produce at a top six rate in Toronto. I mean, and they had Tavares, Matthews, Marner, Nielander, the list goes on. So, yeah, those are definitely two big question marks. He said he's not too keen on that side of the Penguins off season, but he does like how they trim the fat off the roster. Patrick Hark was a still a useful player and the best of players on the way out. But given his age, placed on footspeed, I see why the team moved on. Again, yeah, that's nothing out of the ordinary. We all knew that contract for Hornquist was going to be a problem.

The minute it was signed, though I will say on my Twitter, I didn't care as much at the time because they just won two Stanley Cups. So it was like, okay, screw it, who gives a shit. But then when I really thought about it, it's like, okay, yeah, this contract's probably going to be really bad in the next couple of years. And just with the way, like Hornquist, his play style, he's getting older, like Dom said. His production's going down.

He's also been injury riddled the last couple of years with concussions. So, yeah, I mean, like, it was definitely a fine move to let him go. I just wish they could have gotten a better package in return than Matheson and Severe. But moving on from what Dom was saying, he just said, yep, Jack Johnson is projected for one negative win on his own and cutting him provides a massive boost to the back end. Again, I mean, that's painfully obvious, though that was meditated slightly by signing Cody C.C., which we will talk about C.C. in a couple minutes. Patrick Marlow projects to be well below a replacement level and was likely his final season,

and losing him is also a net positive. Matt Murray's play in the last three seasons leaves a lot to be desired, and there's a strong a chance for internal improvement with Casey dismissed stepping in as Tristan Jari's backup. He's been promising in a small sample. Those three losses really help alleviate the positive value loss from Harkless. The rest do write some positive value, but we're mostly bonus on a deep roster. I mean, that's honestly the best way to put it. They trimmed the outside portions of the roster.

You changed up the third pairing. You brought in two players that are going to be better than Jack Johnson and Justin Schultz, but by how much? I mean, you're saving a little bit of money, but Matheson's better offensively, but stinks defensively and then Cody Cici really doesn't do anything for you. And then you bring in two fourth liners who really don't move the needle on your third line. You kept the top six basically intact. I know you're adding Kasperi Kappen and trading out Patrick Hornquist.

But I mean, other than that, it's the same roster. They just, they got rid of the players that I think everyone expected them to get rid of. You know, Nick Bukstad, like I said, Jack Johnson, Justin Schultz, Matt Murray, Connor, Sherry, Patrick Marlow, we all know how bad he was in the playoff series. Dominic Simone was definitely a surprise as well but you know like I said most of the players that they got rid of I think everyone wanted them to be off this team except Patrick Warkwoods. That definitely I think caught me especially by surprise

and I'm sure a lot of you guys that listened to this podcast by surprise even though you know you can make an argument that it was a year early but you can also make the argument like Dom said that this was the right time to do it even though he hasn't fallen off completely yet so I just wanted to give my thoughts on that article so now you'll just get into Cody CCC before the first commercial break So just by going on to YouTube, finding up some clips from the Maple Leafs last season, it's obviously he played way too much. I mean, some of those clips I was looking at, he seemed kind of gas, but I mean, this guy has no hands.

I saw a tweet from Danny Shiberi Irving, who has been on this podcast before, of course, please follow him on Twitter at S-H-I-R-E-Y-I-R-V-I-N-G. On Twitter, he does amazing work for the Penn's blog. He is a absolutely outstanding writer. He basically almost compared it to Pascal DeVille. he said Pascal Dupley would be impressed with how bad Cody C, C's hands are. So, yeah, if anyone that has remembered watching Pascal Dupley with his time with the Penguins, yeah, you knew how bad it was at times. But another thing, you know, just watching him with his weaknesses, definitely needs a lot of help

exiting the zone. That is not his cup of tea. He's very bad at it. Just even his play in the defensive zone also needs a lot of work. He honestly just handles the puck like a grenade, but I also think he's been like that for basically his entire career. I didn't really see a lot of zone entries for him, but I think you're probably going to have Mike Matheson do that

because he can actually carry the puck up the ice. He can carry into the offensive zone. I think that was one of his best attributes, you know, when looking at the advanced stats is, you know, his zone entries per 60 were in a pretty good percentile. I'm not to double check on that, but it was definitely one of his best attributes. So, yeah, there's a lot of work that's going to be needed

to get Cody CC up to, like, a respectable level. It's not going to be as bad as Jack Johnson. If you're worse than Jack Johnson, especially at like $1 million, $1.2 million for one season, there is a massive problem. And I've said it before, guys, if he stinks, they can just easily put him in the press box and put Chiroedal in there.

This isn't going to be like a Jack Johnson situation where they're just going to continue playing because he makes $3.25 million per season and they don't want that person in the press box for reasons, even though he was giving them below replacement level production and play. So, I mean, yeah, you guys have that to look forward to if C's he just flat out.

shit's the bad. But the bottom line with him is, you know, we all know what his weaknesses are. He's still going to play. But if you can meditate his weaknesses and hopefully they're not nearly as bad as he was in Toronto and especially in Ottawa, it won't be as bad as some are making it out to be. But, you know, that's like the big hopeful part of me, I guess. It's probably not going to happen. You know, if it does, I'll eat all the crow as well, a lot of people. But yeah, we'll just have to see. I'm sure Jesse Marshall of The Athletic is going to have a post on CC coming soon with lots of video. Hopefully maybe this week or next week or something like that. So, guys, hopefully, we'll check that out if you guys have a subscription to the athletic.

But before we do get to our next segment, it is time to talk about Ryan Holiday's book, Lies of the Stoics. From the best-selling authors of the Daily Stoic comes the ultimate stoics and guide to success, resilient is in virtue to accept when you cannot control and adapt to what you can. A philosophy, sports teams across the country are successfully adapting. Lides of the Stoics, the Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius is available now wherever books are sold. All right, welcome back to this episode of the lockdown. Penguins podcast. So let's talk about some jerseys, guys, because Anshel, like I said,

it seems to be batting zero zero zero with all these leaked ones that seem to be, these little reverse retro jerseys. Sinbin. Vegas leaked. I think it got leaked to Sinbin.com Vegas, which is a really good, incredible site for the Vegas Golden Knights. This one, it's basically red with just big swords, basically collapsing in the middle. they have it has the regular low well the regular colors of Vegas on the outskirts of the jersey but i mean red red for those Vegas jerseys that just looks utterly terrible i mean i do not like this one one bit i like their other jerseys like their actual home and away jerseys a lot better i really hope they would only have to wear this like once or twice during the season honestly once is

like quite enough apparently um according to sinbin dot Vegas the retro in reverse retro is a nod toward the las Vegas Thunder, because the Thunder had various versions of the V pattern at the bottom of their jerseys during their six seasons in the international hockey league. So I guess that's why they're doing that. Apparently, I don't think I said this yesterday. The jerseys are respected to be available in both Adidas and Fanatics versions like all

other game jerseys for your respective team. So if that Penguins one that got leaked is true, it will be available through Fanatics and Adidas. Then the Flyers one, it looks like was leaked yesterday along with the Penguins one, of course. This one, a lot of orange, of course, which is a gross color. Anyone who likes orange is just, I think, a weird out. The Flyers logo in the middle. But then for the shoulders and then just down through the sleeves, a lot of black and then white underneath it, which from after a little orange and black.

Just not a good jersey at all. That's 0 for 3 right there. I just don't get it. Like, why is Adidas so bad at making jerseys? Because, I mean, the Penguins one we talked about yesterday. If you guys didn't hear my thoughts, here they are right now. that new jersey stinks. I mean, apparently Sean Gentile, I think he wrote on the athletic yesterday in like a news update. He had heard that they were going to be bringing back the diagonal Pittsburgh jerseys at some point, but he had no idea that it potentially was going to be this soon. And you know, I'm all for diagonal Pittsburgh jerseys. I mean, the ones worn back in the 90s. I mean, remember this iconic snoop dog picture of him riding his bike, those black ones. Those are godly jerseys. I don't care what anyone says. People can say, oh, we'll go buy a Rangers jersey. Don't listen to those people.

They're just, they don't know what they're talking about. The jerseys are great. It's black and gold, which is, of course, Pittsburgh's colors for all three of their major sports teams. But, you know, to put it back in almost all white, there's a little bit black on the sleeves, a little bit black on just all the way down on the jersey. But it's just, it's not enough. You can't just reverse it and call this the reverse retro and make this jersey white

and expect to, like, sell a bunch of jerseys from it. It's just not going to work. If you want to bring back those iconic diagonal Pittsburgh jersever, just bring back the regular one. It's not hard. I think everyone will, I shouldn't say everyone, a lot of people would buy one and the penguins would make pretty good business off it as well as, of course, Adidas, who of course is producing these. And then I think one final one that came out, I think it's been leaking that the capitals are going to have one, but it's not 100% confirmed. They would be basically bringing back the, what is it, like the screaming eagle one that they used to have back in

the 90s, though this one would be in basically all red. I know the last one that they had was in all white, if I'm not mistaken, but this time would be an all red. This one honestly doesn't look that bad. I think this was made by a freelance graphic designer by Lucas Dichmann, Dyckman, if I've pronounced his last name. I 100% apologize, LD concepts on Twitter. He based his tweet was with the pens and fires least. I think it's time to show my mockup of a source's description of the Capitals reverses retro jerseys. So it sounds like, Someone told him what a description of it would look like, and he actually made a design of what he thinks it'll look like. And, you know, this is honestly the best one that I have seen so far.

Yes, I'm talking good about something Washington Capitals related, but this would be a pretty sweet jersey. I think it looks better in red than it does white. I mean, the Flyers one obviously was gross. I mean, the Penguins one would not look good at all. I think this one would sell the most jerseys to fans than, you know, the Penguins one or the Flyers one or that Vegas one. But, you know, I'm sure there's going to be more leaks in the coming days in the coming weeks about other reverse retro jerseys for other NHL teams. And when that happens, we'll talk about them on this podcast because, you know, I'm sure they're going to be gross. Like I said, O for three on the ones that have been leaked.

But for a mockup of the Capitals design that will potentially be warning games, I give that one. That's definitely the best one, even though that's not saying much. So if you want to be technical, one for four, but if we're going just based off, like the actual leaked one's not a designer one, 0 for 3. So, you know, can't wait to see what the other jerseys happens to offer us with how bad they're going to be. But before we get to our next segment, it is time to talk about Bill Bar. There's 18 amazing flavors, six new flavors, a couple of them, caramel brownie, cookies and cream. Another one's the carrot cake. There's the 12 original flavors. Orange, double chocolate, salted caramel, mint brownie, banana, bread, peanut butter,

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All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. We won't keep you guys here for too long. Probably just like three to four minutes or something like that. For this size segment, I wanted to talk about the Wilkesbury Penguins a little bit. Just talk to you guys about some players that could get called up to the team this season. I mean, it obviously will happen because the penguins are always just banged up. But I just wanted to give you guys some names to look out for that you may not know down there that could potentially get the call up. But the penguins really do get banged up again.

I mean, one of the obvious candidates is definitely Anthony and Angela. They just signed him to, I think it was a one-year two-way deal. He's definitely going to start the season down in Wilkesbury. But as a 14th, 15th forward, even a 13th forward, I think he's totally fine. You know, he's that Mark Dong player that Steve Dangle once said. Of course, I think it was his first NHL. game and he scored against the Toronto Maple Leafs while playing with Evgeny Malkin, I think, that night. If I'm not mistaken, I think he was on a line with

Chino and, you know, that was when Dangle made the joke on Twitter. I think it was in his video after the game. That was when I think the Penguins just blew Toronto out of the building, like 6-2, something like that. I think that was the score. But that was, I think, also right as, it was either right as Sheldonkeef got hired or it was right before he got hired. So I have to double check on when that happened. But yeah, if the Penguins do get the injury bug, I would expect him to get a call up. I mean, another guy that, you know, is potentially overlooked. Phil Verone, he's bounced a lot around in his career. He has 97 games career played in the NHL, eight goals, 17 points. He's mostly been in the minor leagues. He was drafted

in 2009. I think he was traded for during last season in that AHL deal, which sent Blandisi away. So, you know, he could potentially get a call up. But another one that has not made his NHL debut and you could potentially be seeing it really soon is Sam Militick. He spent the last couple seasons down in Wilkesbury, but I mean, he's put up some pretty decent numbers, played 49 games for them in 2018-19, 12 goals, 35 points, 49 games last season, nine goals, 32 points, 62 games. I mean, he's someone that he would probably be in a bottom six role for the penguins if they do get banged up.

But I do think his time is coming where he is going to get his first call up to the penguins, and I would not be surprised if it is this next season. I mean, he scored at every level of hockey that he's played, played for the London Knights, had a 37 goal season, played for the Niagara Ice Dogs, had a 20 goal season. I mean, he played, you know, that Cranbrook-Kinswood School, 36 goals in one of his season. So, I mean, this guy can score, and he's also a good playmaker as well. So definitely look for that. I mean, we already know potentially P.O. Joseph is going to be called up if the penguins get hurt defensively. But one more here for you guys before we call it a show, Adam Johnson.

He's already been called up to the penguins before. I think he had his first NHL goal this past season with the Penguins. I want to say it was in December last year against the Minnesota Wild. I don't have to double check that, but I think he was on a line with Aston Reese and Lafferty. So, I mean, two thirds of that penguin, I mean, one third of that penguin's fourth line was going strong with Ashton Reese as I guess Tanev and Blueger had to be bumped up in the lineup just because they were so banged up. But yeah, I believe when Adam Johnson's first NHL goal was. And honestly, I think he would be the first player. That would be called up if there is multiple injuries for the penguins.

I liked him in a bottom six role. He was perfectly fine on the fourth line. He'll be spending most of his time down in Wilkesbury, and he produces well down there. I mean, in 185 total games, 39 goals, 108 points, basically almost a point per game player for them. It won't be long, I think, until he is up here full time, especially with Jankowski, probably leaving after the season,

as well as Evan Rodriguez. I mean, they may potentially move the TANF contract at some point. I would not be surprised me if Johnson is up here in this lineup full time by maybe even next season or the season after that. But, you know, I just wanted to talk about, you know, some of those players, they may get called up for the Penguins when the inevitable injury bug hits. So thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Lockdown Penguins podcast. Hopefully you all go check up on Oilers fans with the Chris Russell sign and go listen to Locked on Oilers. And I'm sure Jess on Locked on Flames will probably be roasting the Oilers as well,

especially for that move, so go check that out. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your night, and we will be back tomorrow with another episode. So stay tuned for that.