Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Your Pittsburgh Penguins free agency primer!

Episode Date: October 8, 2020

It's the night before free agent frenzy which means it's time to talk some free agents! Hunter is back with another episode of Locked On Penguins and he first brings up some listener's free agent ideas that he was tweeted at today and if some of these players are good fits. Is Anthony Duclair a pipe dream. Would Troy Stecher be a good fit on the right side? Could Alexander Wennberg regain his form here? These are all questions Hunter ponders before moving to Rob Rossi and Josh Yohe's article on The Athletic where they wrote about what they've been hearing going into tomorrow. Hunter touches on some of it, including why there's no need to bring Marc-Andre Fleury back. Finally, Hunter ends the show by talking about forward Jesper Fast and how he would be the PERFECT signing for the Penguins bottom-six.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.Door DashRight now, our listeners can get $5 off and zero delivery fees on their first order of $15 or more, when you download the DoorDash app and enter code LOCKEDONNHL.RomanGo to getroman.com/lockedonnhl TODAY. If approved, you’ll get fifteen dollars off your first orderof ED treatment. 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 Thursday afternoon slash evening episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show is Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So for this entire show, everyone, we're just going to do a bunch of free agency stuff. Happy Free Agency Frenzy Eve. To all, it all opens up at 12 p.m. tomorrow, Eastern Time on a lovely Friday. I hope to be off work at that point so I can just be live tweeting it like I normally do.

If I'm not off work at 12 o'clock, I'll probably give you. off at like 1230 or 1 o'clock or something like that. But I'm really, really hoping so. But we'll have another episode tomorrow after the Penguins make their moves. Honestly, well, if they do make their moves. So I think they may wait a couple days to do something because they want to find some bargains, but still not really sure. Like I said, today we're just going to do a whole big free agency preview for the Penguins,

what players they could go after, what players they shouldn't go after. And just a few minutes ago, Josh Ely and Rob Rossi posted an article on the Athletic, basically just detailing what they're hearing with the Penguins Free Agency. yes it includes mark andre fleury yes we're going to talk about this on this episode today so stay tuned for that let's go it all into it so earlier today i posted on the locked on penguin's account and on my account just you know what players you guys would want the penguins to target in free agency got a couple responses to it you know going to read some names um from that so i'm just trying to find a tweet right now just because you guys i'm just a total moron so here we go so j

3-2-600 says Stetcher, Hineshroza, Duke Claire, and Benning. So we'll just start on Stetcher. Stetcher was not qualified by the Vancouver Canucks yesterday, so he's going to be hitting the UFA market. He's a right-handed shot. So, you know, the Penguins definitely have a need for that

unless they don't want Chad Ruehdle, just being the number six defenseman. And, you know, when you look at his skater chart, you know, you look at what he did last season, five goals, 16 points. His cap hit was around 2.3 million. I think, honestly, he might take a little bit of a discount to come to Pittsburgh. I mean, he ranks in the 79th percentile for his skater score.

His points he ranks in the 70th percentile, goals, 82nd percentile. Second assist, 77 percentile. Shots, expected shots assist. I mean, shooting percentage were all in the blue. I mean, defensively, he's okay, but he brings offense, which is good. He can move the puck pretty efficiently. I think he played mostly on Vancouver's bottom pairing last season, if I'm not mistaken. I mean, the season before that in Vancouver, two goals, 23 points in 78 games. his possession. He's hovered around kind of 50% for his career, but still, I mean, him and

Matheson together, I think, would be fine. He's 26 years old, so sign him to a couple-year term. You don't really need to give him a three-to-four-year term for $3-4 million. That would just be absolutely ridiculous, I think, in my opinion. And like I said, Rutherford said yesterday after his draft media press conference, yeah, we want to find a player that slips through the cracks a little bit. We got a lot of players yesterday that didn't get a qualifying offer. Those are the kind of players that we're probably going to be going after in free agency. This one qualifies. He's still young enough. He's in his peak years. He gives you good bottom pairing production. He can move the puck up the ice, like I said. It can probably

maybe be on the second power play unit if John Marino gets hurt or something or he can put him on the PK or something like that. But his shot shares good. His shots four in the 67 percentile. He's definitely a defense in that I would go after if I were Jim Rutherford and if they do want to get a replacement for Chad Rueh. I'm another player on this list. Hinni Hino Strosa, that's someone that Jeff was talking about from Pennsbog, who I agreed with, I think he would be a good fit here. I know he's listed at as a center, but honestly, you can just move him to wing. I really don't see a problem with that.

Or, you know, as other people would suggest, you move Jared McCann to wing. I'm not really too interested in that. You need to just give Jared McCann a full season's workload of being the third line center. That is the reason why they acquired him in the first place. You've read from Jim Rutherford's comments, oh yeah, we got him to be our long-term third-line center. but he hasn't really played there for a long period of time lately. You just have to put him there and see how he does for a full season. Give him some competent linemates.

I think Hennas Shroza can bounce back from that last poor season that he had. Like I said, his shooting percentage dropped to below 4%. Had five goals this past season. The last season before that, he had 16 goals and almost 40 points in a bottom six roll with the coyotes. He would probably become very cheap. He also did not get a qualifying offer. Get him to a one to two-year term.

I think Jim Ruther would be very interested in doing that. So those are two good options. This one's probably a pipe dream from Jason and the new clear. He would be a rock solid addition to the penguin's bottom six. But is that going to happen to everyone? No. I mean, he was a 20 goal score this past season. He was honestly on pace for 30 goals.

I think during the end of the season, he had like two goals in his last 20 games or something like that. Got off to a really, really hot start. And then it just seemed to fade as the season went on. He's going to get a substantial race, I would think. I mean, Ottawa, Pierre Dorian, the general manager of the Senate, Sanders even said yesterday. They tried to give him a raise from his current contract. He declined it.

I think a team is probably going to overpay for him. If I were the penguins, I maybe stay away from that. But if you can get him on like a cheap deal, because we all know how bad the penguin salary cap situation is, then you do it. But, you know, I think DeClair is going to be looking for some term here in a good maybe four to five million per here, especially with the season he just had.

You know, he's probably not going to be a penguin. Let's just say that. The last option for him. Matt Benning, I would be fine with that. I think his underlying numbers are not bad. He still is in his mid-20, so he's still in his peak years. Had, I know only eight points last season, but 1.9 million against the cap. He was not qualified by the Edmonton-Oy, but still 65th percentile in points in the first-assist.

He's in the 93rd percentile. Expected goals share, 60-second percentile. These are all according to the skater charts from Bill Komo, who does outstanding work. His shot share in the 65th percentile, shots against 90th percentile, so he's good defensively. his expected goals against is in the 88th percentile. He's had bad quality of teammates, but this is a guy he can move the puck. He's also not bad defensively. If you get one of him or Stetcher tomorrow, I think your third pairing would be that much better

if you can get one of them for cheap, especially. You can run Matheson, Stetcher, Matheson, Brenning. That's a perfectly adequate third pairing. And it's not going to hurt you nearly as bad as Jack Johnson and Justin Schultz did. Well, God willing, at least, folks. So, I mean, all four of those options are outstanding. and I think three of them have a potential chance of happening. I just really don't see them going after Anthony Duclair.

Jordan Parrish, Jordan Jay Parrish, he follows the show. Thank you for also tweeting to me. Alexander Wenberg was one of his choices. Honestly, man, I'm going to pass on Wenberg. I mean, he was bought out for a reason. He hasn't been good at all since that 2016-17 season with a blue jacket where he had 13 goals and 59 points and 80 games. In 2017, 18, 8 goals, 35 points.

season after that, two goals, 25 points, and then this past season, five goals, 22 points. I mean, his possession's gone down every single year. This past year was 49% the year before that 50%. And I just, I really don't see the need to bring in Alexander Wedberg. I know he's a center, but I'd much rather roll with Jared McCann in that role rather than bringing in Alexander Weber. He's going to be getting a lot of money from a blue jackets anyway.

I know he would probably come cheap and want a fresh start, but I'm just really not that interested in getting Wentberg to come to this team. I'd be a little disappointed if Jim went out and got Winberg. I just really don't think he's that good of the player anymore. And then his last option, I think it's Derek Forbert is who he said, who just had, well, he only really played 20 games this past season, had one point. He's been a, just kind of a debt player for the L.A. Kings, most of his scrimmy, the most goals he's had in this season is too.

But, I mean, he's a defenseman, so whatever. He's 28 years old, but, I mean, he's also a left-shot defenseman. I really don't think that Penguins are going to be going out and getting a left shot, especially when they have Brian Dumlin, Marcus Petter, and Mike Matheson playing on the left side, I really don't think they would want forward playing on his offside. They would be more comfortable having Traver-Reedle there. So I would kind of pass on those two options, Jordan.

Thank you so much for bringing up those players. I just don't think there's a fit for them here with the Penguins. But coming up on this next segment, we're going to dive into the article that Joshua and Rob Ross, he just wrote for the athletic touch on some things in it, including the Mark Andre Floresa. But before we do get to that, we have a couple things to get to. And the first one is Roman.

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DoorDash. Okay, so let's just dive into this article from the Athletic here with Shoshio and Rob Rossi. They did a really good job with this. Basically, just they wrote a whole summary of what they're hearing for the penguins going to their free agency tomorrow. I've been seeing, you know, there's other teams that have already been wrote with their beat riders. I think Michael Russo did a good one with the Wild.

Salt Auditor for a staple did one with the New York Islanders, so now it's the penguin's turn. I'm not going to talk about everything in here. I just wanted to bring up a couple points. The first, now we're just going to get into the Flory stuff. The penguins are paying close attention to Mark Andre Fon. Florey situation with Vegas. Bringing Flurry back to Pittsburgh for next season has not been flatly dismissed within the

organization, said a league source who has spoken to Rutherford, though still view by both sides as unlikely. There are several reasons why a penguin's Florida reunion isn't out of the question. So before we get into those reasons, I'm just going to say this. Say no. I really am not interested in bringing back Mark Andre Fleury. I know it would please a lot of the people that just started following the team in 2004, 2005.

Yes, that was when I really, really got into this team, though I was kind of following them. before that, but I'm just not interested. Let the pass die. You don't need to bring Mark Andre Fleury back as a second option backup to Tristan Jari. And some of you will say, why not? And the answer is, honestly, guys, Mark Andre Flurry is not

that good at a goaltender anymore. And besides, Tristan Jari has one or two bad starts, all the little Linsers in Pittsburgh will be like, oh my God, put Flurie in! Oh my God, put Flurie in! He has to come in. Tristan Jari sucks. Why do they decide to keep Tristan Jari?

blah blah blah blah blah blah it would be the same garbage that happened when matt murray took his job and then with matt murray had a really bad game they would be like oh yeah mat mary sucks let's put in mark andre flurray it's the same old garbage nonsense i really don't need to hear it and see it here again especially so jim just say no like there seems to be just no coherent plan here going to free agency we really should not be stressed going to free agency tomorrow because there's not a lot of holes on this team. You have your defense basically already. Most of your forwards are going to be healthy going into the season, I mean, except Zach Astin-Reece, who's going to be out, I think, until February. You have a need for a depth forward. That's basically

all you need to do. Why do you need to waste assets to go get a backup goaltender who is just a folk hero or whatever in Pittsburgh just to make some little fans happy, some little 16-year-old Penguins fans happy again, I guess I should say. So it's just no, hard pass on that. But, you know, I'll just touch on a few of these reasons here. Apparently, the coaches are wary of overworking Tristan Jari in what projects to be a really weird 2021 schedule. That could feature several stretches, three games and four nights. That's why you have Casey DeSmith as your backup.

He's perfectly capable of being the backup. So, again, it's not really something I care about. You have a backup goaltender player. Florey's preference is to start for his next club, which is why Minnesota and Carolina merged as a really preferred landing spot. So, yeah, why would Mark Andre Flore want to come back here anyway? He's not going to be the starting goaltender. I really don't think the penguins want to do a 1B, 1A1B tandem anyway, so whatever.

They also said Florey would make an exception to again play in Pittsburgh and it has express a fondness for Jari to several close friends. Again, I really don't give a shit. Here's the kicker. Rutherford believes that former starter Matt Moray suffered by not having Flurry around, as was the case in Murray's first two seasons. He thinks Florey remains a top 10 goaltender. That's just, that's anything, but he's not a top 10 goal tender anymore. Look at the numbers that he's had last season. He's not a top 10 goalie in this league anymore, and he's only getting older.

So that's just, that's a flat out lie, Jim. And at the end, Rutherford believes Jari is likely to realize his full potential with Flurry as a mentor. So now we're bringing back Mark Andre Fleury to mentor Tristan Jari, who's going to be making almost $4 million per season on a three-year deal. Wow, that just sounds even more stupid. So, I mean, just the reasoning behind this is just so awful. and just make me want to pull my hair out right now. I'm sorry guys for ranting about this,

but it's just, this makes no sense. You know what your needs are. Mark Andre Fleury is not a need. You don't need to bring him in. Have him go to Minnesota. Have him go to Carolina. Send him to New Jersey or something like that.

Whatever. But bringing him back to Pittsburgh, just no thanks. I'm not going to go into any of the more reasons that they put for Mark Andre Fleury in this article because I really don't need to actually rip out my hair while I'm recording this. So other stuff in here,

As I just scroll down, let's see here. Rutherford anticipates waiting out the market when it opens Friday. Instead, Tarticking players that are not signed after the first two or three days of free agency. Atop his wishes, remains a third-line center. And league sources who have spoken to Rutherford says he favors a veteran for that role. Again, that's not surprising, though I still think they should put just Jared McCann for that whole season and let him ride. He's on a team-friendly deal. He makes $2.9.3 million per season.

I'm perfectly fine with letting him ride as the third-line center and getting his shooting percentage back. to where it was. At least it also says it expects Sam Pooan to be getting every opportunity to make the opening a night roster. Well, I would hope so. We all saw what happened with John Marino last training camp. I would say the odds of Poole in making this roster right now. It's going to be 50-50,

I think. I'm starting to lean 60-40. I do think he's potentially going to be good enough to make this team out of training camp, especially if he impresses the coaching staff and the management. And now here's something interesting I hadn't really considered. While the Penguins love the BlueGrib Line, don't be surprised if Tanna receives a promotion to the third line next season.

That's a hard pass for me. He doesn't score enough to be on the third line. We all know how the Penguins won their three Stanley Cups. They had a third line that can score. But Anandana can't really score. He's elite at suppressing Sodge. He's elite defensively in his own son. That's why he gets paid $3.5 million for the next however many years.

I think it's five at this point to play on this team. You're not going to get a lot of offense out of them. I've seen the rumors that people want to get rid of them and go after another free agent. I get it. But honestly, should it always be the case that we're just shipping out players that are elite defensively and can still provide a little bit of offense. I definitely think there's a place for Tannad on this team. It's on the

fourth line. Provening into the third line makes no sense. When the Penguins won their Cups in 2016 and 2017, going back to 2009, they had very offensive third lines. Jordan Stahl, Hemming the third line, 2009, 2016, 2017, Nick Benino, you had Carl Hagelin down there. You had Phil Kessel on

your third line in 2016. And I'm not saying you need to go out and get a player like Phil Kessel will be on your third line because they just don't have the cap space to do that. But getting players, that are more offensively minded to play on your third line is one of the biggest priorities, if not the biggest priority for Jim Rutherford in this re-agency. You really don't need a defensive third line. Hell, your fourth line can be your defensive line, whatever.

I mean, Teddy Blugher, Zach Aast and Reese Brain and Tanna, that's a hell of a fourth line. They forecheck like fuck every single night. So, I mean, that's honestly your best bet. Just the last couple of things before we get to our next commercial rig. Apparently, they still like Chris Tanneth. I know he's right-handed. He's not good defensively. I know this article says that he is.

He's not. His defensive numbers have tanked. to these last couple seasons. And they are right. Josh and Rob are right. He would command around $5 million annually in the typical market. I know a lot of teams aren't going to be throwing as much money around tomorrow as in normal years, but I still think some team is going to sign Christina for way too much money,

and it should not be the penguins. The last point, though, the penguins are interested in adding a right-handed defenseman in a third-line presence. Whether it be at Winger Center, they seem slightly more inclined to add a forward at the moment because of Ford will be cheaper. Well, yeah, no shit. I mean, a forward is also a bigger priority than getting. getting a right-handed defenseman because you really shouldn't worry going to the next season with

Chad Roodle being your number six defenseman I think is perfectly capable of that role. But if you want to upgrade over him, I've said so many times on this podcast, I really won't care. But that's basically the basis of this article from Rob Rossi and Josh Yewe. Again, folks, no need for Mark Andre Fleury. Just stop this nonsense. Stop the homecoming crap. And I'm not dissing Rob and Josh here. I mean, they're both great reporters.

They're just reporting on what they're hearing. But I'm mostly just yelling at Jen Rutherford here for hopefully not making this mistake. and bring back Mark Andre Fleury into the full. But before we get to the next segment and talk about another UFA winger, that would be a great fit on this team-make season, actually Jesse Marshall was tweeting about it earlier today, and I 100% agreed with him. It's time to talk about Bill Bar.

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And so kicking off is this short little segment for the third segment of this show. let's talk about a New York Rangers forward who will be hitting the open market tomorrow, and that is Yesper Fost made only $1.85 million against the cap last year, 10 goals, 26 points overall. His skater score in the 82nd percentile, points 58th percentile, second assist, almost in the 80th percentile, shot assist in the 74th percentile. His expected goals for is in the 62nd percentile, expected goals against in the 86. He is absolutely great. Defensively, his shot share is awesome.

Shots against on ice, expected goals for percentages over 50%. His on a shooting percentage is over 70%. Gets good quality of teammates. I mean, this is a perfect forward for the Penguins Bottom sex. I haven't said that about any of the other forwards that we have talked about on this podcast today and in recent days and in recent wings, but this would be the best fit for the Penguins airline, especially if they want it to be an offensive road line. You can put them on Jared McCann's wing.

They would feast together. Foss is amazing defensively and he can chip in offensively too. So that would just be a dream signing for the Penguins. So that's why I don't expect Jim Rutherford to do it because, well, he's just always been very bad in free agency. But it never hurts to have hope for a good successful free agent signing. But who knows at this point. And obviously the Penguins are not going to be major, major players tomorrow.

Know everyone who listens to this podcast. They are not going to be getting Taylor Hall. They're not going to be getting Alex Petrangelo. They will not be getting Tori Krug. They will not be spending a lot of. money on a Ford. It will be a very cheap depth option because they only have 4.7 million in salary cap space to work with. That's what happens when you are a team that spends up to the salary cap limit every single season. But that will do it for this episode of the Lockton

Penguins podcast, one another episode tomorrow detailing what the Penguins did or what they have not done in free agency yet. But you'll get all my thoughts on it here on tomorrow's episode. This is going to be fun, guys. So stick around. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your Thursday and we will talk again tomorrow.