Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Will the Penguins be buyers or sellers at the deadline? Plus, thoughts on Kapanen!

Episode Date: February 24, 2023

It's never dull for the Pittsburgh Penguins and that was again on display on Friday. Hunter starts the show with the big news of the day as Kasperi Kapanen was placed on waivers. He looks into why this was always a formality from the very beginning and how it made no sense to give him that kind of contract after he had a down year last season. He then looks at a few teams who could maybe do the Penguins a solid and claim him before predicting what will ultimately happen. After that, Hunter gives his thoughts on the Ron Hextall surprise press conference and informs the audience whether the team will be buyers or sellers at the deadline. Is his stance the right one? Is it also right to remove yourself from the rental game? He then gives his thoughts on a few of his other comments, including the salary cap, Jeff Carter, and so much more. Finally, Hunter analyzes Rob Rossi's story from this morning and whether the Penguins should really trade for Jacob Chychrun. Is he worth the price that the Coyotes are asking? Would this mean they're not going after a forward? All that, plus a small preview for Saturday's game against the St. Louis Blues, is on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “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. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires 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.

Hey, you made it. It is now Friday. February 24th, the final episode of this week for the Lockdown Penguins podcast, we have a lot to cover today, as you all can see from the YouTube audience. My wonderful Black Lab Thrawn is having the time of his life on the sofa. It looks like he's probably going to get down. My German Shepherd is also in here as well. Yet he is getting down and knocking over stuff because that's who he is. But for today's episode, Kisbury Captain is on waivers, what that means now and going forward for the Pittsburgh Penguins, how that was a colossal. failure for Ron Hextall. That's coming up right after this drop. And we're going to get into Ron Hextall's press conference and what he had to say about them being a buyer versus a seller. It's all 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'm of course your host Hunter Hode. He's going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter

at Eleanor Sorpanel. And of course, thank you all so much for making this. Your first listen of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. This episode is brought to you by FandualSportsbook, the official sportsbook of Lockdown. Make every moment more you can visit fendul.com slash locked on today to get started. Speaking of the show in general,

the YouTube audience is growing at a substantial rate. In the last month, 61 new subscribers, well, to 852 right now, 148 away from 1K. That is my next short-term goal for the channel. It also gets monetization for the channel. Thank you all so much for continuing to grow that channel. And just thank you all so much for continuing to listen as well.

I know the audio is continuing to boom as well. So let's jump right into this. The big news of the day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As you can see, you know, the sun is coming in here a little bit, recording this about 5 o'clock in the afternoon on Friday, a lot colder today. 70 on Thursday, 35 today with wind chills in the 20s, fake spring at its finest in the 4-1-2. But with that, Kisbury-Captan placed on waivers, I knew something was up when I saw he wasn't

at practice. We all saw the trade rumors. I'm like, okay, he's going to be held out for trade-related reasons. A lot of other teams have been doing that. Nope. Ron Hexol informed Mike Sullivan before practice that he will be placed on waivers. That just goes to show that no one wanted him on the trade market. And it's kind of hard to not see why with that.

And, you know, this move, this just goes to showians. What a colossal failure that two-year, $6.4 million deal was just eight months ago. Eight months was all it took to get conspiracy captain and basically out of town. You know, we'll get to a field clear as waivers in just a second. But I kept telling people, I told people the day that deal was signed, it's going to look bad. It was a stupid decision. You're basically giving him a raise for having a bad year.

And some people told me like, Hunter, you don't know what you're talking about. He's going to surprise you, all that stuff. Did he though? Did he though? No, he did not. And, you know, you can certainly make the case that Brock McGinn should have been put on waivers over cabinet. I mean, he's gone 24 trachean. without a point at this point.

But, you know, Kaepernan, you know, he's played 162 regular season games with them 29 goals, 53 assists. If my math is correct, that's 82 points. I mean, so half a point per game,

usually you think, oh, that's okay, not bad production for a bottom six player. But then you go to this year, right? And you look at what he's done. I'm just pulling up a hockey reference here. Just real quick, I know, I'm terrible.

I didn't have that. pulled up to start. And you look at his stacks this season. Only seven goals in 43 games, 20 points in 43. So we get half point per game there. It's not good enough. Seven goals, when you're getting paid $3.2 million, we played almost 60 games of this season, unacceptable.

That's not enough. And, you know, Ron Hextall said at best, you know, we thought he was going to be a bit better this season. We rewarded him with that contract. It didn't work out that way, and you needed to make a change. And you are all probably wondering, is he going to get claimed? My answer? No.

What team is going to take him? Anaheim, maybe, Chicago, Columbus. Other than that, I can't think of him a team that's going to claim it. Vancouver, maybe, with his Juniperford connection. Other than that, I don't know who's going to take him. I think he's going to go unclaimed, and they're going to have to be. assigned him to Wilkesbury. And at that point, I believe if I, according to five cap friendly, if that's right, according to, if they're right there, and I'm sure they are, he's still going to

count two million against the cap when he's not even playing. Like, well, what are we doing here? You knew this was going to be such a bad deal. I actually, I should say, most people knew it was going to be such a stupid deal when it was signed. And yet, you know, he still went out and did it and defended it and said he's going to be a different player or that Ron Hexel that is and yada yada yada that was a bad year for him we expect more out of him no man no he's been this kind of player his entire career that's not going to change he was good during the short season because he caught lightning in a bottle playing next to one of the greatest players of this generation people really thought he was going to keep up he so he had 30 points in 40 games that season

in 2020, 2021, right? Yenst thought he was going to keep up that and have a 60-point season in 82 games? No. That was never going to happen.

I mean, no. And I hate to say this wasn't deserved. It was. But nothing sums up the Ron Hextall tenure. This was a perfect tweet. I didn't come up with this one.

I came up the other one where it said, where I said that, you know, it just goes to show how a bunch of a failure was. But from Adam Gretz, you know, his, the whole one hexal era, it summed up by waving captain only eight months

after signing that contract. And oh, yeah, you still need to send someone else down to create salary cap space to bring back Yarn Ruda, who was just signed eight months ago as well when you didn't even need to sign it because they had six to seven quality defensemen. Oh, man, I'm sorry. I can't. It's hilarious. You know, and I'll get to Ron Hextall's comments

in just a second because this has his comment about the salary cap has something to do with this. But man, if that does, if those two tweets don't sum up Ron Hextall's tenure so far, what does, man? What does? He even admitted that part of this was due to John Ruda coming back. It looks like he is going to play on Saturday. the defensive pairings today, Jim Lomitang, Peders, and Petrus, and, Joseph, and Ruda, so it looks like Chavridel will be a hell of you scratch. They still need to do something else,

and you're probably wondering, Hunter, what is that? I'll try to tell you here. So with Capinen, being on place on waivers, if someone claims him, they do not have to do anything else. 3 million goes off your books, okay, salary cap's face, good stuff. But if he doesn't go unclaimed, goes down to Worksbury,

you still need to clear, the number per cat friendly and puck PD is like 1.15 million, something like that. It's right around there. So you have to send someone else down or put someone else on waivers. Two names come to mind. Mark Friedman, but Mark Friedman is also hurt right now. He practiced today in the extra role. I don't really know how close he is to playing.

If he's hurt, you can't put him on waivers. Yes, he will need waivers to go back down to Wilkesbury. What they may have to do is send Drew O'Connor down go 11 to 7 because Danton is going to be in the lineup tomorrow and they may only have to play with 11 forwards

and 7 defensemen genius masterclass stuff from the Penguins General Manager right there folks that's what might have to happen tomorrow just a total epic dumpster fire from him and this was all avoidable. You didn't have to give him that 3.2 million.

You didn't have to give Jan Rood a 2.75 million. You have to sign any of them at all. It's just, I know, I'm going to get more fired up before I talk about it. But yeah, that's what this means for now and the future. Cross your fingers that someone takes his very captain. I'm not betting on it. You know, the smart bet is on no one claiming him

and they'll have to make another move. So, yeah, yay. That's the, big news of today. Coming up in the second segment, Ron Hacksall had a surprise media conference today. I'm going to get into the main points that I took away from it. Are the penguins going to be buyers or sellers at the deadline? What kind of deal is he looking for and his comments about the team in general? And then later on in the show, we're going to preview the game against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday. But before we get to that, let's take a second to talk about Bill Barr. If we're looking for a delicious

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all that good stuff. You know, you can thank me later when it comes to that. All right, I'm back here in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm, of course, your host. Hunter Hodes, want to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, all the shows, Twitter, at L-Rs for Penguins. And, of course, thank you so much

for making this your first listen of the day. So, very surprised press conference today. from the man, the myth, the legend, Ron Hextall. And, okay, what is this? Just saw this on my Twitter. Wow. Okay, this is big news. Warner Bros. Discovery tells us teams it wants out of the regional sports network business.

That, okay. That affects the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Vegas Golden Ice. I'm going to get that in just a second. Anyways, there's a chance that AT&T Sportsnet might not be a thing anymore. Okay, so we're going to put that. We're going to table that conversation for later. But again, Ron Hextall spoke to the media today. His first time speaking in just a few weeks, definitely think the fans have something to do with that, by the way.

I'm just saying, they don't chant that fire Hextall last night. I don't think he comes out today and speaks. I'm just reading into that. But he had a lot of things to say today. You're all or probably wondering if you're not on social media and stuff. What are the Penguins plans of the deadline? So he was asked by a couple other members of the media, and the Penguins are not selling.

That's not in their M.O. I've come around a little bit on it. I've said I wouldn't mind if they sold off some assets to try to get better for the golf season, a la Washington Capitals. But this is not how the Penguins operate and have operated during the Crosby-Malkan era. Even when they sunk in 2014-15,

they still bought it that deadline. Jim Rutherford went out and got didn't he go out and get Daniel Winnick at Bad Trade deadline, I'm pretty sure, for their bottom six. He also went out and got, I believe he swapped, and it was it for that deadline? I believe it was when they went on and got Maxine LaPier for Marcel Gatch.

Went on bought. They had no reason to. They could have just punted. But no, this is not how this organization operates. But the kicker with that is this. Hextall did say, is not in the rental market. He is not interested in trading futures or any assets for the rentals. He said if they are going to make a deal, and it sounds like they will, and it's going

to be for someone who can help now and can help later on. So that means a player with term. I want Jacob Trickren. For those that did not see, check out Rob Rossi's article in the Athletic. Penguins have been linked to Trickman. Mike Sullivan wants him. The coach staff wants him. Hechtz-Sull is hesitant to do it because he doesn't want to give up a 20-25 and 2026. first round pick. I'll get to that in just a second. Give my full details on that. Get my full thoughts on that.

But I agree with Ron when it comes to that part of the deadline. If you want to go out and make a deal and try to help the team, if you're not selling and you're not punting on this season, it has to be a player

that has term. They got lucky that Ricardo Raquel came back because that was probably going to be a rental. You know, he usually doesn't go after rentals there. but that's where I think someone like Shirkman makes sense because he has a lot of term left on his deal. He's very young.

We make it 4.6. That also, I will say this, Tim Omeyer makes sense there. He's only an RFA after this season. That's not rentals. Most RFA sign back to their own teams unless you rarely see an offer sheet these days. Could be someone else,

but those are the two that pop into my mind. Maybe he's going after someone else. But in terms of looking at their deadline plans, a plane to buy. You all can disagree with that. I kind of disagree with it a little bit, but that's what he is going to do, or that's what his plan is as of right now.

Now, he also did say a couple other interesting things. He was asked about Jeff Carter. He goes, I think you look at our bottom six. For some reason, it hasn't quite fit. We're trying to find pieces that won't fit. Oh, my God. Oh my God.

For some reason, it hasn't fit. For some reason. Hmm. I wonder why, Mr. Hextall. I wonder why it hasn't fit. Is it A, the players aren't that good? B, the players drive no offense, or C, all of the above. If you circled C on your multiple choice exam, you would be correct.

Almost everyone in the bottom six is bad. there I answered your question I don't know why he has to just frame it like that most people that saw this bottom six going into the season knew it was going to stink at least I felt like most people on penguin's sweater most people that cover the team at least that was the consensus that I was getting I was saying that's all

to you all if you all were listening to the show at that point I was saying that was one of the biggest weaknesses I had or one of the biggest issues I had about this team from the offseason going into this season was how bad the bottom six was going to be thankfully I was actually right about something you know sometimes it's not always the case but you know it's almost like wow you know we're all trying to find the guy who did this here and then he got told about Carter I think Jeff has done some good things I think at times he's played well there's times

where he could play better than he's played but overall he's a big face off guy for us he's a penalty cool guy for us and he fills a wall you know I don't even want to waste my time on that you know he's delirious Jeff Carter's done nothing all here I'm I'm going to leave it at that, to say the least. You know, he also said he understands the chance from last night. He says, but you're not going to change what he does and it does not do. You know, again, whatever, I guess, when it comes to that. There's another quote that I did see here.

If I can try to find it. I'm trying to. Oh, yeah. He said this. Yeah, after he said the bottom six You look at our bottom six For some reason, pieces have fit We try to give the coaches

The options we can give them We are in a tight cap situation Which we're trying to rectify here We're in a tight cap situation Which we're trying to rectify here G Who did this? We're trying to find the guy

Who did this meme here? I don't know that ends. Who did it? Was it A, Brian Berg? B Ron Haxdall, C, me? D, my German Shepherd dog here who's taking a he's taking a nap on my sofa it's not my dog it's not me it's not brian burke i don't even know what he does but you know it's your fault ron that the day that you have salary count problems hi teddy

i know i got a little fired up about that again he didn't have to sign yon ruda he didn't have to sign bryckin he didn't have to sign gisbury cap and he didn't have to sign jeff carter it's his fault obviously i don't understand you know not every deal is going to work out in your favor hindsight's He said that during his press conference, yada, yada, yada. But again, it's kind of your fault. It is your fault, Ron. You should not be in this much cap held right now when, and I apologize for this last night, Malkin and Letang are making $6 million.

I said 7.1 last night. Apologies on that. Just had a little bit of a brain fart. And Winston's making 8.7. Like, what are we doing here, man? Like, what the hell are we doing here? Like, it's just, you know, a whole lot of nothing, Burger. I think from that Hextall press conference

other than they're going to be buyers of the deadline. Even that's risky. He thinks they have what it takes to make the playoffs. We'll see. I'm not confident in it right now. That's for sure. But yeah, I think that's really all I have to say about Ron Hexol.

I will say real quickly here before we go to our final commercial break. Did see the article about Jacob Tricklin, trickron, excuse me, my overall thoughts. It makes sense for the Penguins because I think, you know, I've read a few places that they want a long-term, left-handed solution for their defense.

But Jacob Tricklin is not a number one defenseman. You know, he scores a lot of goals, which I think overrates him a little bit. I think he's a strong number two on a cup contender, you know, good in his own zone, but I don't think he's close to a number one that people are making him out to be. I actually understand why Ron Hextall is balking at that asking price. Two first-round picks plus a lot more for him. I think that's a little much even for me.

I also understand because 2025, 2026, we're what, two, three years away from now, you know, how bad is the team going to be at that point? You know, those could be lottery picks, for all we know. So I understand that to a degree. Now, Pierre LeBrun did say in his Rumbling's blog today, but the Penguins are very much in the trick, the chicken sweepstakes.

So we'll have to see what happens there, but I understand why Hextall ball got it. But also, I think what we're always trying to paint there seems to be a little bit of friction between the head coach and the general manager. And I've heard a couple of people that like Sullivan's not the biggest fan of this GM. So that there would kind of imply that.

Just saying. Obviously it would make sense. I think, you know, getting a strong left-handed D is a big need for this team. But right now, I think maybe getting another goalie and getting some help from the bottom six is, you know, even more prudent

the general manager than a defenseman. you know maybe you can get you know say you know you want to get the defenseman now wait to the summer to get your new third line center goalie okay sure you can make that argument but you know I'd rather just do it now and get someone on term to be honest yeah and in terms of rentals you know I think that kind of almost snacks them out of the goalie market to be honest I don't really see them getting a goalie at this point but you know that's what I really have to say on that coming up to end the show we're going to preview the game against st. Louis blues and how the penguins can sweep the season series against them that's all coming up

right after this commercial week. All right, we're back in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm, of course, your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes,

follow the shows, Twitter at Eleanor for Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So Penguins Blues Saturday, 3.30 p.m. Start time, we will find out

if Captain will get claimed at about 2 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday. That is how waivers go. We'll... Okay, real quickly here, this is a big story. So Warner Bros. Discovery. It sounds like they want out of the regional sports network business.

They own AT&T Sportsnet. Yeah, so they operate them in Denver, Houston, and Pittsburgh, and they have minorities taking the Rootsport Channel in Seattle. And they apparently, they have until March 31st to reach an agreement to take their rights back. If they cannot reach those deals, the channel is eventually planning to move forward with Channel 7 liquidation filling, or filing, excuse me. I don't really know what that means. I guess it means maybe that you're just, the channel is going to cease to exist or something.

I have to do some more research on that. But that is not good to say the least. The penguins may have to find a potential other, you know, how don't want to say this? I think they're going to have to find a different company or channel to really just broadcast their games for regional. Hopefully maybe that ends the blackout restrictions. But that's not the first company that's really been dealing with this. Valley Sports Group, the company that owns them, they're going bankrupt, that's going to affect a lot of teams going forward.

This is not ideal at all. And that also would affect the Pittsburgh Pirates as well. Their games are also on 18 T sports now. So definitely not good there. You know, maybe, you know, ESPN plus subscriptions for everyone, I think, at this point. Anyways, Penguins Booze on Saturday, 3.3 p.m. start time. nationally televised game on ABC and Hulu ESPN Plus. I don't think it's going to be on 18T Sportsnet.

So this is a nationally televised game. Blues come into this game. You know, they're ice cold. Craig Barube called out his team in a big way on Friday night. Basically he said, he goes, I think, you know, just go ask them. I don't think the top players care after their latest loss. Hoo, it's a bad time to be a blues fan right now. That's a team that is really struggling.

They just traded O'Reilly and Teresanko. Jordan Bennington is a cry baby every night. Despite that, though, this is still a team that can hurt you. Brandon Saud, Robert Thomas, Jordan Cairo on your top line. Thomas and Cairo are two players that the blues are going to build around. Very, very good players. Barboshev, Braden, Shannon, Pavel Bouchnevitz. Strong top six, even without O'Reilly and Teresanko.

Sammy Blay, Logan Brown, Josh Levo, Tyler Petlick, Nathan Walker, and then Alexei Torposhenko, to round other fourth line. Nick Letty, Colton Perrako on defense, Marco Scandela, Justin Fogg, Tyler Tucker, and Robert Bortuzzo, goaltending-wise, hummus Christ, and Jordan Bennington. So, you know, we'll have to see. I think probably Bennington is going to start there.

You know, Penguins got to get in his grill like they did last time. He is such a baby, man. I have respect for most almost every player in this league. I have no respect for him. He is an absolute baby. I've never seen the guy talk so much smack outside of maybe Eli Apple, if we're comparing sports and be so mid at his position. He's the absolute definition of mid.

And for those that maybe a little older, that don't know what that means, just perfectly average. You know, get under his, get under his skin. You know, he's very easy to get rattled up. But Penguins, you know, they blew out this blues team last time in Pittsburgh.

That game was not even close at all. Payman's if they can rectify what they did there, get pucks in. Deep, really full check aggressively. Defenseman, he just, you know, just stop giving up bottom-in rushes that the goal tending can improve a little bit and also just show some freaking effort it really it really does not get any more simple than that teddy you are really just panting your butt off over there i don't know why i guess you're getting excited that the

penguins have a big game tomorrow i think she is guys so yeah i mean honestly the keys for winning this game of the penguins it's pretty simple play better though play a lot better than you did on Thursday against the Oilers. Another big one for me. Just show some fights. So should spirit. Act like these points mean something to you.

Getting some depth scoring. That would be so huge right now as Ron Hextel. Figures out what he wants to do for the bottom six. They can get someone from down there to score. I don't care if a Josh Archwell. I don't care if it's fucking Jeff Carter.

I don't care if it's Brock McGinn. It would be really nice if he did anything because he hasn't had a point in 24 straight games at this point. That would be so huge. And again, getting to Biddington, he's been really bad this season. You're playing a Blues team has sold. They may make a move of the deadline for Timo Meyer just because they don't believe in long rebuilds. That's just not who they are.

That's really all I'm looking at at this point when it comes to this game. Penguins have won four out of their last five games against the Blues coming into this one. They've also won 15 of 25 games against the Western Conference this season. This will be one of their last games against a West team. I believe after this they have two against Nashville. one against Dallas, and I think that might be it. Oh, no, no, excuse me. One more against Chicago.

I think after that they do not have any other games left against West Chicago. I'm going that based off my memory. Oh, no. One more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One more again. Yeah. Dallas, Chicago, Nashville, four, Blues Five.

I think that's it. Pretty. I'm going based on my memory. I'm pretty sure not said that. But I think this wraps up today's episode of Locked-on Penguins podcast. I know a little small preview there. But yeah, I think that's really all I have to say. As always, thank you all so much for listening.

I really do appreciate it. I'll be back from another episode on Monday as we have a big week coming up in terms of content. We'll recap both games this weekend. Get into some trade stuff. Have some guests on for next week. It's going to be a lot of fun. Keep it right here on Locked on Penguins. As always, thank you all so much for listening.

Have a great weekend. Have so much fun. We'll see what the Penguins can do this weekend as they try to get some much needed points in terms of playoff position. Talk to you all soon.