Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Who's ready for a wild week?

Episode Date: October 2, 2020

As we kick off season 2 of the Locked On Penguins podcast, Hunter is joined by Tyler (iFishyHD) from Penguins Twitter and they also go around the horn with Penguins news from this offseason and preview the wild week that's going to happen around the NHL. When does Tyler want the Matt Murray situation to be done with? Who are some of his low-key targets that he wants to see the Penguins potentially go after in free agency? What are his thoughts on Sam Lafferty playing full-time? The two also go into the big week coming up around the NHL and what could potentially happen around the league, plus much more on 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 $10 off your first 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 Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow those shows, Twitter at L-O-Nscore Penguins. Happy October to everyone. Now we are two months away, well, three months, babe, from being into 2021. So as this dog shittier hopefully comes to an end very, very soon,

we are now on to season two of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Just want to say again, thank you guys so much for listening to this podcast, whether it's 50 episodes, 10 episodes, or even just a singular episode. Lloyd does mean a lot. Just everyone's support for this podcast for always just tuning in. But today we have another special guest. I've had him on this podcast once. He was on here with Cameron Easton, who, of course, has been on this podcast a lot.

It's Tyler from Penguins' Twitter, very, very well known. Well, at least he should be well-known. I-Fishy HD is his Twitter. Tyler, how you doing today, my man? Great. Glad to be here. Waiting for the Jack Johnson news. I think everyone who listens.

to this podcast. I think everyone on Penguins Twitter are just roots for the team in general is waiting for Jack Johnson News. We're just kind of tired of it at this point. But nope, hopefully we're going to get it sooner rather than later. I saw Joshi in his mailbag

for the athletic, basically. It's kind of teasing it, saying, yeah, he'd be surprised that he was on the team next season. Jim Rutherford in that article that, you know, he was talking to Josh Yowy, he's just being really weird about the situation.

He's really not saying a lot. but I think it's easy to see that he's definitely changed his tune, I would say, on Jack Johnson from about a month ago. Would you say that's accurate? Yeah, I'd have to agree. And, you know, not only has his tone changed with the words, he also went out and acquired Mike Mathis on a massive contract. So the stars are aligning, you think. You would definitely think that this is the end now. I mean, God forbid they put him on his off-sides.

that would just be a complete and utter disaster. I mean, we saw that during his first year here. I think he played with, I'm trying to remember who it was on the left side. The name is going to come to me. I'm not really sure who it was. But, I mean, he played on his offside. The numbers were even worse. His underlying numbers were just also really, really bad on his offside.

So, yeah, that would just be a hard pass. But, I mean, Jim is basically saying, you know, I like Jack, but he's not going to be on her. third pairing on the left side. He's not going to be playing on the left side. So he's basically going to have to be on the bottom pairing on the right side or he's going to be out of the lineup, whether it's in the press box,

which would just be really stupid because why would you pay $3.25 million for three more years for a guy to be in the press box or the more likely solution would be a trade and just packaged with Matt Murray, which I'm sure we're going to get to in a minute. But, I mean, the whole situation is just definitely getting weird. And I mean, I'm hoping a few people in the management,

like in the organization, hopefully went up to Jim and, like, Jim. I don't know if you've looked at the numbers that have been watching him play, but I think you've got to, like, rethink your opinion on this player. Poor Sam Ventura. That's my guy, man. He's just, I feel bad for him.

I mean, he really is a great person just to be, I'm still surprised he works with the Penguins because it just seems like his opinion is never really noted, especially in that kind of signing. But, I mean, I did see, though, Tyler, he's going to be in the war room, which in Rutherford for the draft with, like, four other people.

So he's definitely, I think, high up on the organization's, like, management list, I would say. Right. I don't know if you saw it in the Yomail bag as well. Somebody did almost ask a question based around San Ventura, and he was like, you know, do they value his opinion?

And it was, yes, but Rutherford still kind of got his old hockey man mentality. Yeah. We know he gets his guys, so the decision's his in the end, you know. Yeah, that's just, that's how Jim Rutherford is. And it's shaping up to be a wild week coming up. Believe it or not, Tyler, it's a week away today is free agent frenzy. That's definitely kind of weird, especially with how the Stenlika final just ended.

I honestly expect trades to start happening this weekend because the draft is in, what, four or five days now? Right on Tuesday. Yeah, the first round is Tuesday. Wednesday, I think, is the rest of the draft. I think it starts at noon, too. So probably people are going to be taking off maybe a little bit of work or trying to sneak in a stream during work.

So that's going to be a lot of fun, especially with people stalking Twitter. But, you know, to get back to some trades for the Penguins. I asked this question to Danny, who was on the podcast the other day. It's probably a give me a question. Would you take less of a return in a Matt Murray trade if it included Jack Johnson going the other way? It was just like a six or seventh round pick and return or something like that. I mean, yeah, we would have to at this point just because we don't have any cap space.

If you want to get any sort of help on the third line or any more defensive depth, you know, spread it around even though we've got a ton. You have to. And obviously it would be nice to get a high pick for Matt Murray or another asset. But at the end of the day, cap space is king, especially with the COVID flat cap. I agree with you on that And it's just like, you know, I saw the tweet this morning I'm from Haley Selvian who covers the Ottawa senators.

I think it's, is it for the athletic? Or is it, yeah, it is the athletic? And, you know, basically she tweeted out most goalies on the trade market are going to cost the first because Pierre Dorian apparently said he doesn't seem confident that they're going to be keeping the 28th pick in the draft. And I think about that.

And I'm like, well, you could get the 28th pick back in return for Matt Murray if a team really wants to pay up for him. Then I think about the other side. situation we just talked about like you know jack johnson also going with matt murray and taking less of a return which one would you rather do i'd honestly rather do the second option and just get a six or seventh round pick and return and just send jack johnson off his team because that's just it sounds weird to say but like it's really true that i mean this team can really really contend if this guy is off this team that's like the funny thing about it yeah i mean when you have a player giving such net negative results

that hurts and there's there's really no other way rutherford could approach trading johnson because it's obviously going to take some sort of sweetener and you know they don't really seem to have a plan for matt murray at this point so he'd definitely be a better sweetener than than russ god for yeah god forbid they trade brian russman i do not need to see that i know people are skeptical that he's going to have you know a repeat season next season as he did this season i mean I don't think he will. But I mean, even if he does like half of that season, that's still basically almost a 20-goal season for him,

plays top six minutes with the McGinnie Malkin. I think trading Brian Russ would just be very foolish for the penguins. But, you know, that's why it would be a peak Jim Rutherford move because he's still probably pissed off with the team. I mean, it would just be a very, very dumb move. But, I mean, like you said with a sweetener, Mark Stahl, I mean, he went to the Detroit Red Wings last week. I was talking about that on the podcast a couple days ago,

and they had to include a second round pick as a sweetener to get Mark Stahl, the Rangers that is, off their payroll. So, I mean, it is going to have to be a sweetener. And I think Matt Murray would be a pretty good sweetener. And the funny thing is, Tyler, the senators really don't have a team right now. They have like three forward signed going in the next season. And I think only a couple defensemen. And they really need to hit that salary cap floor.

So even though Jack Johnson is very bad, I think this would be a contract for them that they can take on, even though they're not really going to be contending this year anyway, so I don't really think they will care. Right. And I kind of said before that if there was a team like Ottawa or Detroit who went out and acquired Murray and they could put a somewhat decent team around him, which it'd probably go better in Ottawa than Detroit, to be honest. If they sign them to a two or three year deal, then before the Jack Johnson contracts

even over, they could flip him for more assets. Maybe the goalie market in two years with a higher cap is a first round pick, you know, something we're not able to get right now. Yeah, exactly. It's just, I'm really curious to see how this whole market plays out, especially for the goaltenders, just because you've never see this many goalies available. I mean, we can see Mark Andre Fleury available soon. And for those that have not been listening to this podcast before since it's now a new season,

no, the Penguins do not need to trade back for Mark Andre Fleury or sign him. Tyler, I'm sure you can co-sign that as a show. well leave the past in the past I keep seeing this all the time on Penguins Twitter they do not need Mark Underbury for your way and just wanted to put that to bed real quick or Henrik Lungfist

Has that been on Penguins Twitter lately I wasn't on a Twitter a lot yesterday but have people already been saying Henrik Lungquist That's more a cap-friendly thing I think So even worse I don't, that's just a hard pass I mean I saw your tweet this morning do people forget Casey DeSmith exists?

He does not make a lot against the cap. And if you try and Tristan Jari to like $3 million per season and Gets to Smith, I think he does he make like a couple million per year or not even that? That's like $5 million at most tied out to two goaltenders. That's pretty freaking good for a cap team. Right. Yeah, if we could get Jari on a bridge for around $3 million for two years, dismissed right about in the same range.

She's got two years left for only 1.25 million. So, yeah, four and a half for your goal tending, that'd be great. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you don't want to be like the Montreal Canadians over here who are paying Carrie Price and Jake Allen, $14 million per season. I don't even know how and why they're doing that, to be honest with you. But they're doing it, and there's going to be a whole bunch of other goalies that will be available. I hope there's the first trade breaks this weekend.

I also hope that Matt Marysaga ends. by the time the draft rules around in a few days, but you know, we're going to touch on that in the next segment. But first off, Tyler, it's time to talk about Bilko. There's a lot of walls. I think everyone has to break down into life just with everyday life. You know, mine, honestly, is just having the courage to finally get out of bed after like an hour of checking Twitter.

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And Tyler, do you hope that the Matt Murray sweepstakes, or just the trade, comes sooner rather than later so that the Penguins can just get on with other business, you know, such as resigning Tristan Jari, Dominic Simone, and just maybe going out and getting another forward because you know it's just kind of hampering their cap i feel like a little bit right now and just by each passing day goes i just get a little more worried and worried that a trade is not going to happen until like after free agency or something like that yeah i definitely think it would be ideal to try to get a moved uh tuesday or wednesday on the draft floor i i really can't see a situation where it becomes a a long drawn-out trade process and it benefits us at all i i don't think teams are going to

wait two months and then say, oh, you want a second round pick? Yeah, here you go. I just don't see that being possible. Yeah, I feel like it would have to happen sooner rather than later just because like a lot of teams right now, you know, they do want to spend in free agency, but of course the flat cap is going to prevent some teams from doing that, but just every team wants to shed salary too because, I mean, I don't think every team is going to spend up to the full cap this season because of COVID. So, I mean, I think you're going to see a lot more activity than in recent years. I mean, I saw in the TSA trade bait the other day, Tyler, Nationals made all of their centers available, including Matt DeShane. So it's just going to be a wild ride just for trades in general.

But, I mean, like I said, sooner rather than later is the best way to go. Is there, are there any unrestricted free agents that you would want the Penguins to go after? I know they don't have the cap space right now to probably do it. You know, I've been on the Craig Smith train. I mean, Jay Fresh Hockey just wrote a great article about it on his website. He does outstanding work. He's probably going to be too expensive for years, like $3.5 million or I think it's three years four and a half million. I'm forgetting what Danny told me, but I think it's three years, four and a half million per season.

It's probably a bit too steep for the penguins. But that would just be such a great fit for their third line with Jared McCann. And when healthy, they can put Dominic Simone opposite of those two players. And that would be just an outstanding third line, I would think. but I mean, I just think he's going to be too rich. But, I mean, are there any other free agents that you would be looking at? Maybe some, like, depth options? One guy I don't think I've really seen anybody talk about for the Penguins would be Tyler Ennis.

He had a pretty good season last year playing in Edmonton and Ottawa, I believe. He got traded, right? He did, yes. He's got pretty good fancy stats. I think if we could get him on a cheaper contract, he just took a price. He just took a pretty cheap contract. I'm pretty sure last season. Yeah, only 800K.

So, I mean, I think he could end up being a under the radar guy that I would like them to take a swing on. Yeah, and I mean, this season, 16 goals, 37 points in 70 games. And, I mean, that was with Ottawa and Edmonton. Basically with Ottawa, he was honestly one of their better players, 14 goals, 33 points in 61 games. The season before that, he played in Toronto, 12 goals. He's been a 20-goal scored three times in his career. I know his possession is not back good, even though it was 50% this season with Ottawa, which is basically like a minor miracle. But, I mean, I agree.

The only thing that I'm worried about with him is that he's 30 years old now, so I don't want to give him a lot of term. Jim Brotherford loves to give bottom six players a lot of term. Just look at Brandon Tanneth. He was looking to give his brother, Chris Tanneth, who is a depth defenseman option, potentially four to five years of five million per season. That's why I'm just glad they got Mike Madison for Patrick Hornquist, man, because I'm much. I'd much prefer that over just, I mean, signing Chris Tannib to play on the third pairing, because I think Matheson is just a lot younger and cheap, and he would be cheaper and a better option. But, I mean, we'll discuss that in a couple minutes.

So the only thing I'm really just worried about with Ennis is just like term and then him wanting like a big raise, I would say. Right. Yeah, like I said, that would have to be, I mean, really just like any free agent, we would get the soft season. they'd probably have to be under the radar kind of signing or, you know, maybe find a guy who would really like to go compete for a championship and maybe the other contracts he's getting or from bottom feeder type teams. It's really just going to be a – Jim Rutherford's going to have to make a lot of phone calls, I think, if he wants to upgrade the forward group.

I think so, too. And I mean, like, they just don't have a lot of, like, big trade chips right now. You know, trade their first-on-picked for Casperi Kaffin. I wish they would have kept that pick and went after a bigger fish. I know you were tweeting about that the other day, man, just because of the TSN Trade Bate Board with how many great players are on that list. It just, it kind of sucks to see that they don't have that first-on-pick to dangle now after all those players are on the list.

Right. Lone, Ellers, Goddrow. Oh, you can name so many Dushane, Ryan Johansson. Yeah, I mean, there's old friend Nick Venino's on there, though I would not go out and get Nick Benino. But even like the different. Dougie Hamilton I saw was on there. Jake DeBrus from Boston.

I mean, hell, they may even move Tuka Rask, which would just be a brain-dead decision by Don Sleeney. But obviously this is not the Lockdown Bruins podcast. You know, I'm not to give Ian McClarene a little bit of crap for that when I talk to him next. But I just, I can't get over how Tuka Rass was on that list, man. That was just honestly making me laugh. But, I mean, I was just talking about the, you know, the Mathis and Tanna thing.

Buddy, like I said, I'm just glad they didn't give Tanna of any term and they're not going to go get him because, you know, spam, I was reading that storyline in The Athletic Man. Oh, yeah, it reunites the brothers. And it's like, the only brothers that I want to see Rue to come here would be like, if their last name was like Peterson, if Elias Peters, Pettersons was related to Marcus Pedersen or if, like, this is Dean's come out of retirement. I really don't understand why so many people care about like, oh my God, Brandon and

Chris Tanna are playing together. It's just like, nobody cares. Maybe if Cindy Crosby has a secret long-lost brother, we can get him a contract. That would be just absolutely awesome. I was asking Danny this question the other day. I was going to ask you this too. What does Jim Rutherford have to do this offseason? For the rest of the off season to be considered a successful off season for you going into next year?

I mean, you have to trade Jack Johnson. Yeah, that's the obvious. Yeah, other than that, it's hard to even say because I was saying the other day, like, who do you trade off this roster? Jared McCann, Brian Rust, like, sure, maybe you get an asset from a Murray trade. You don't dump Johnson, which, whatever, but, like, what does Brian Rust in a second get you that pushes the needle that much further, you know? for it to be a successful off season the third line needs to be revamped that was absolutely one of the biggest questions

coming into this off season was third line center and the wingers around him and that hasn't been touched at all so that's a big thing for me I agree I've been talking about that nonstop on this podcast and for the listeners that have listened to almost virtually every episode I'm sure they're probably tired of it

but you know what I don't care just because of how big of an issue it is. I mean, we saw in the playoffs just how bad that line was. And I know Patrick Harnquist is a great player and we're going to miss him a lot, but he just wasn't a fit on that line with McCann. And it didn't help that McCann was just playing the worst hockey, some of the worst hockey of his career.

I mean, especially since January 1st. Even though his shooting percentage tanked a lot, I think that was one of the biggest reasons as to why his play tank, but that line in general was just so clunky, I thought. I mean, Marlow looked like he was 60 years old on the ice. I honestly did not see that coming in my opinion

just because I thought he looked fine before the pause but you know five months off we'll do that to some people so I mean they are going to have to revamp that line I would not be surprised if they do free up some money somehow that is not just Matt Murray and Jack Johnson that they go out and sign someone to play on the third line just because Dominic Simone he's not going to be ready for the start of the season he did something I think it was like a torn laborman in his shoulders

or something like that they had to have surgery for he's going to be out until 3rd. February. I mean, on the other right wing, do you put Colton Severe there? That's a very big question. Some people have already speculated that they could flip Severe or another trade. I really don't think that they're going to do that. I mean, some people have already made the comparison to Nick Spalling when they got the Reginal Hornquist trade. I mean, maybe down the line, I could see Jim Rather doing that because he loves trading assets after just acquiring them. But I think at the start, they're going to give him a fair shot since he's going to be a UFA after next season. And he's only making

like 1.2 against the salary cap. Yeah, I'm still under the belief that I'd really forget who wrote it. I'm pretty sure it was yo, but I don't think Mike Sullivan liked Zach Aston-Rice that much. I remember reading something on The Athletic that during the end of the series in Montreal, two players had to go to a film session before the last game. Those two players were Justin Shultz and Zach Aston-Reece, and look what they had to say about Schultz. I think Zach Aston Reese might have a little more benefit for him right now

because he's injured as well as Simone. Yeah, and the weird thing was for Ashton Rees, he was playing that series hurt too. I don't know why you were going after him. He's also one of your best defensive players. I mean, we all heard the calls for Zach Aston Rees, getting some Selkotky Trophy love. I mean, he suppresses shots at an elite level

in the defensive zone, his line with Tanniff and Blugers are probably one of the five best fourth lines in hockey. I will die on that hill to the day I die. It's just, it's a great fourth line. It sucks that he's not going to be ready to start the season two. So they're going to have to figure out something on that fourth line. It's probably going to be Sam Lafferty that comes in. Though, Tyler, like, I'm just not a big fan of him.

I know some people in this fan base are, but I don't think he brings a lot of offense and his defense, I think, is kind of subpar, too. Yeah, he was, he scored and burst. I mean, but that's that's the, that's kind of a bad thing because it makes your point totals look higher than what you really had to give every, every night on the ice. I thought he had good speed. He just didn't look all that flashy. I think he'll probably top out at like a 13th forward in the NHL.

I know everybody wants to believe he's going to be the guy who changes to the third line, but I have to agree. I don't really see it either. Yeah, I mean, like, I think Danny from Pennsball was telling me the other day, he had like a stretch where he scored like seven goals in like 10 games or something like that, like at the start or something. Or he was just because I think he first came up. He had those two big games. I think it was Winnipeg in Minnesota where I think he had three or four goals during that stretch. And then I think he scored a couple of games after that, but then went cold for a while. And then, of course, he had that big snipe against Washington back in February and was like, wow, like, where the hell?

did that shot come from Sam? I didn't know you could snipe like that. So it's just, I need more consistency, I think, from him. So that's probably the big thing I want to see from his game going into the season. But lastly, Tyler, are you comfortable with a Matheson, Ruiedel third pairing going into next season? I asked Danny and a couple others that question. But I just want to get your thoughts on that. I don't really, I mean, I would love for them to maybe get a right-handed shot.

You know, I'd love for them to put Dylan DeMello. in that spot over Chad Roodle though I think he might be out of the Penguins price range just a little bit just because they don't have any salary kept space right now but if it comes down to it would you care of Chad Roodle as that six guy next to Matheson? Not at all

I was thinking about this the other day like why does Chad Ruehidal have to be the seventh defenseman? You know if we need a guy if we're getting into the playoff race and it's like well the bottom pairing isn't giving us enough well then yeah maybe you look at trading for a bottom pairing defenseman which

In reality, it shouldn't cost you that many assets anyway, right? Like, I mean, so you're better off just trying to alleviate yourself of some more cap space by using Ru-Eadle on the bottom pair because he only makes $700,000. Yeah, I mean, that's right. He makes like $700,000. But go on, just finish what you were saying. I just totally forgot that he makes that little money. Oh, no. I mean, he's solid.

Like, you don't notice him on the ice. And that's, that's a good thing. in a way. You know, it's like the Paul Martin effect a little bit. Like, you just don't even know he's there. Yeah. He has good reads in the defensive zone. He moves the puck up the ice very, very well. I mean, I was

apparently I was reading the article from Yoie on the athletic, and I think it was a mailbag or just his thoughts on the defensive court. Jacques Martin, who of course was fired just a couple months ago, he said that during the season, I think it was during their California road trip where they got steamrolled by

every team. He said that during a lot of that season, Ruido was one of their best defensemen. So just beg the question as to why he was not getting more playing time, especially over Justin Schultz, who was just a tire fire in the playoffs. And Justin Schultz was getting more minutes during that series and was on the ice for the extra attacker at the end of games three and four. So that logic there by Mike Sullivan was just very, very odd. So I do hope we see more of Chad Ruehiel,

and I'm hoping that he's ready for a full-way-two game season. because I think he should be able to be out Jack Johnson for that spot. Right. I mean, I don't know how he would lose it. Jack Johnson has shown us he cannot play on the right side of the ice. That should not even really be in the question. I get Rutherford, you know, might have to say that just to be nice. If somehow Jack was on the roster to start the year,

I just don't think there's a way they can give him that spot. That's asking for problems. Yeah, I mean, you're asking for problems if he's in the lineup at all. all to be honest. But okay, that's the last time we're going to talk about Jack Johnson for this episode. But Tara, if you don't have anything else, thank you so much for coming on this episode. I really appreciate it. I definitely want to have you on after free agency to see, you know, what moves the Penguins have made because it's surely going to be a busy week for this team coming up starting on Monday with the draft, and then on Tuesday, of course, and then Free Agent Trengeys on

Friday. Yeah, thanks for having me, man. I'd love to come back. Hopefully next time it's in a we have some positive news to talk about rather than... You and me both, man. I'm hoping that Jim Rutherford turns this thing around a little bit and makes some good moves. But, you know, I think that's asking for a lot right now with him, just because he's on such a decline with moves.

But yeah, man, thank you so much for coming on. We'll be back with five new episodes next week. This is a very busy week coming. Keep it right here on Locked on Penguins. Free agency draft. Hopefully there's some trades coming off for this team and just honestly around the league because I'm just ready for this show to get some. started. So thank you guys so much for tuning

into this episode and I'll talk to you all again on Monday. Have a great weekend.