Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Your Pittsburgh Penguins Trade Deadline Recap with Jesse Marshall!

Episode Date: March 21, 2022

The trade deadline has come and gone and Hunter is back with another edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast with Jesse Marshall of The Athletic! NOTE: This is the live version that went onto the Youtube page earlier. They go into the breaking news right out of the gate as the team decided to trade for Rickard Rakell. Did the Penguins make the right move to trade for Rakell? They then get the breaking news of the return while recording, which always makes for something pretty damn fun. Jesse and Hunter both give their thoughts on the player before discussing he's worth the four assets that the team gave up. They then touch on where he slots into the lineup and what the fourth line should look like now that Simon and ZAR are gone. Finally, they get into how the Penguins stack up to the other teams in the Eastern Conference before wrapping up.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 “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Athletic GreensAthletic 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/NHLNETWORK. 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.

Well, hello everyone. First time being live here. I have Jesse Marshall right around after this drop. The Pittsburgh Penguins have officially made a big trade. Ricard Raquel comes from the Anaheim Ducks to the Pittsburgh Penguins for, it looks like a second round pick, a prospect and a roster player. Do not know the roster player yet, but I'm sure it's going to break as Jesse and I are analyzing this. So that all of that is coming up right after this drop.

Stick around. You're locked on penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguin. part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to the first live edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honor Hoadies. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow this show's Twitter at LO. Arnoldscore Penguin. This episode is brought to you by BetOnline. BetOnline has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. That's BetOnline where the game starts. So joining me now, of course, is Jesse Marshall. Jesse, man, it looked like there wasn't going to be much to talk about, but of course, Ron Hextel has to make us all sweat. And now the penguins, looks like they are making a trade for Ricard Raquel.

So first off, how you doing? And what do you make in the trade? Doing well, Hunt. I honestly thought, dude, we're going to have a show today that was going to be like you and I trying to like talk people off the ledge, like of pure panic. Yeah. Like my Twitter timeline for like the majority of the day of today, especially when the Rangers got hot. and they like started to make trades. They bring in Mott and cop.

People started to like get a little nervous, I think, in Pittsburgh, like sweating a little bit. So I was fully expected this to be like a funeral Paul-esque show. And here we are now scrambling to discern what the details of this trade are while we do this podcast. So it's exciting afternoon. It is, I'm telling you, it is going to come in as we are recording this. As I said in my opening, but, you know, again, it looked like for a while, you know, Brian Verko's on SportsN and TSNN a couple of times, yeah, we're probably not going to be that active today. I mean, what else is he going to say? He's not going to come out and say, oh, we're open for

business. How would you all give us a call? But, you know, the Penguins, they get that scoring winger that they desperately need. That's huge. You know, this is, I know this is a really good team. They just went, came off a brutal stretch where they played very well against some of the best teams in the league. And to add Ricard Raquel, a player who has had good finishing ability. But, you know, it's definitely gone down a bit the last couple of years his finishing it i mean it's not the same but he's also with anaheim ducks um i think it's a slam dunk and you also don't have to give up your first round pick i think that's probably big for one hextall there you're giving up a prospect that's probably not going to be n hl ready for a while i'm curious again to see who the roster

player is because they're up against the cap part of me thinks it might be capping in um or another bottom six winger but i'm not really not sure right now good that's going to come in here probably any time now. Jesse, what was your immediate reaction to when you saw this? I'm really a big fan of it. I think that he fills a role in the system. I think this is a really good example of the general manager and the staff. Being aligned with the coach on what the kind of players are looking for. I think you kind of saw that with Jeff Carter, Dan Hinen, Brock McGinn, as much as people don't want to hear it, Dominic Simone, right? These players are all players that could play the system.

And I think there's a marriage between the philosophy of the office and the staff and the actual on-ice product, which is great. You want those things to be in harmony. And no disrespect to Jim Rutherford, right? But I feel like there were times where Mike Sullivan ended up with players that he probably didn't want and didn't know what to do with. It was kind of like he had to juggle them in the lineup. This is a player that will fit ridden nicely, not overtly physical, but will grind, I think,

can get into scoring areas. and play like, you know, how about this? Here's a name for you that I'll throw out there that I think when Raquel's not scoring, he almost plays like a Fedatanko-esque role for a team. But like he's not noticeable, really. You're not like, Corey from Shutdown Line from All Three Zones Project said this today on Twitter. He goes, there are times where I'll watch the games, I don't even know he's playing. Then you look at stat sheet and like, oh, he had a pretty good game.

And then the next night he dangles somebody and scores a phenomenal goal. Yeah. I think it's kind of what you end up with, right? Historically, this is important. I want to make this point. I like this buy, not just because of the system fit, because it's buying hot. This is an example of the penguins who are not a good finishing team, right? Like buying a guy who's in the middle of a really good finishing year when he hasn't had one in a while.

So strike while the iron's hot, right? Like, that's what the story is here. Like, let's go get a player. You could plug into the top stick who's already on a role, right? And if you have a player who's already on a role, a great way to keep that going, Hunter, put him with Evgeny Malkin. Probably, you're probably going to gain some good net results out of that if you have a hot player playing with a center in Malkin who's playing some really great hockey right now. So, and it could be Crosby too. You know, I don't know.

I mean, Josh Yohe, at the athletic, my buddy says that he thinks that it's, they're going to, Russ is going to move back up. And the sense is that you'll get Malkin playing with Raquel. And I just, I like that partnership. I just do. I think that Raquel's as unremarkable as his offensive skills are, Hunter, as unremarkable as they are. He does pull rabbits out of hats every once in a while, but period point blank, I just think he's got a good release. Like that's the one thing about his offensive skill set, quick, fast, unassuming release. I love a player who's got some size about him that can go out and play that way with

Hugenie Malk, and I think that's great. Yeah. And, you know, even for this year, he's actually, he's actually. averaging over half a point per game, 16 goals in 51 games, 28 overall points. And, you know, that's on a Ducks team that is honestly not that good. I mean, you know, last year, Danton Hinen was not good that good over there, comes over to Pittsburgh and he's only, what, three goals away from tying his career high. So, and a lot of people, I think, questioned that move by Ron Hextall at the time. It's turned out, I think, pretty good, even though, you know, there have been times where

he hasn't shown up on the score sheet, but that's what happens when you have those debt players. They sometimes go into a little bit of a rut. And then they don't score a little bit. And then, oh, they come back and score in a few games in a row and then go quiet. That's just, that's the nature, I think, of depth scoring in today's NHL. You know, I do think putting Brian Russ back up on Crosby's line is pretty sweet. Though I really liked how Rodriguez was doing with Gensel on Crosby.

I think they had better expected goals for percentage and better scoring chances for a percentage than Rust up there, which was interesting. But, you know, it just, this move to me, makes the team a lot more deeper, a lot more formidable to go up against. You know, if they get Jason Zucker back at some point after the deadline, that is also going to be a major, major help. I don't think enough people are talking about that, Jesse. Yeah. You know, for as much crap as he takes, and I get it, you know, he's been banged up a lot.

Maybe the fit hasn't been there at times. But, you know, he still played some of his best hockey next to of Guinea-Malkin. And if that's your second line with him, Malkin and Raquel with a Gensel-Crosby-Russ top line. That's a pretty good top six. That allows Dayton Hinen to go down to the third line with Jeff Carter and maybe Evan Rodriguez. You can put your fourth line of McGinn, Blugher, and Aston Reese. The Penguins have a lot, and I mean a lot of options to go through here.

And, you know, just this move makes them a better hockey team despite his finishing, you know, not being what it once was, but still, you know, and so far this year, he's almost at 20 goals and the ducks are honestly, not that good. So I really do think this is a pretty good move by the penguins. And, you know, it's funny, man, a lot of people were getting on Ron Hextall for not really doing anything. I hope he shut those detractors up a little bit so far. He did. I like a lot of them are big Raquel fans. So everybody's like on it, Twitter is very happy about this. We'll see who the roster player is. Maybe that sentiment changes. I did get an interesting note from

Megan Chaka at Stathletes who's just like, if you're not following, and stop your life and go on Twitter and change it. She dropped a lot of good stuff about Raquel on Twitter, but I did not know this. He's 25th and shots off the rush all situations for forwards. Oh, wow. And that's, you know, you think about like, I go back to the system stuff and why I think this is such a good partnership.

But, you know, the Penguins are really tough hunter at both blue lines. We know that. They love to get turnovers and go and counterattack. And there's a lot stingier defensively. I think a lot of people were willing to give them credit for. you need players that can attack off the rush. And that's what this team does. They do it well.

You know, I mentioned earlier, we talked about this on your show that I think the success of Evan Rodriguez earlier the season was entirely driven by that. That's where Brian Rust finds his success. You have to be able to do it to play in the system. And that's a pretty good sign for all forwards to be, you know, 25th. That's a player you'll happily have on your roster. Absolutely. Yeah, I did not know that either.

25th among the, everyone in the league. is pretty good. And, you know, I just, I'm glad that, you know, Hextall saw this opportunity to go all in. The New York Rangers just made a couple of decent trades. Andrew Kopp, I think, is a pretty good player. Tyler Mott is a good four-point center there. Washington made a couple of trades. Carolina also went out and got Max Domey.

So the metro's starting to load up a bit, Jesse. You know, probably not as much as the Atlantic because Tampa Bay went out and made a couple big trades. Florida is just going full 2013 penguins with almost acquiring Douglas Murray and Brendan Morrow, but comparables, I guess at least I know Claude Jaroo is a better player than Brendan Morrow at the time. But, you know, the East is absolutely loaded. And I'm glad that the penguins did not sit pat at this deadline, even though it definitely would have made sense in a way.

But, you know, we're going to get to that coming up here right. And hold on it. Just I got to make this out there because I went a little overboard dunking on the Claude Jaroo trade. I want to self-own about that because I forgot that the penguins traded Yarmieryager for Chris Beach and Ross Lupus Chuck and Michael Civic. So I want to walk back some of the trash I talked about the Drew trade and temperate a little bit with the knowledge that the Penguins have two been owned in similar situations. I will say the fun the funny thing about the Jeru trade was that it was the only team he wanted

to go to. He didn't really want to go anywhere else. And that's probably why they just didn't get that good of a return. I like that he kind of screwed Philadelphia on the way out because, you know, what did they really ever do to him during his career there? Anyways, that's a... They did overpay for Ben Cherrydom. That was, we thought that was like them setting the market and that the, like, the market was just going to stay that high, but it did net. That was where it peaked, actually.

It peaked there and then it went down afterwards. So I think Florida, like, set the bidding like in an unreasonable level and it kind of like tempered out after that. Yeah. No, no. You're 100% right. Jesse, after this commercial break, I'm going to get your thoughts on, you know, Brian Burke's comments today about, you know, they didn't want to trade John Marino.

And, you know, I know you wrote that piece last week. about that. I'm going to just ask, you know, just why you thought it was the correct move to keep Marino. You know, I personally agree with you. I didn't really think it makes sense to trade him. But before that, our next partner has a product that I use basically every day. I started taking athletic greens because, you know, kind of wanted better health. Heck, my girlfriend even uses it, you know, gives her more energy. She likes to go on walks with a dog every now and then. So you're probably wondering what is this stuff? Excuse me, with one delicious scoop of athletic greens. you're absorbing 75 high quality vitamins, minerals, whole food source superfoods, probiotics,

to help you start your day right. A special blend of ingredients supports your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, recovery, focus, and you're aging. Right now it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition, especially heading into the flu and cold season. It's just one scoop in a cup of water every single day, and that's it. To make it easy, athletic greens is going to give you a free. one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D

and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com slash NHL network. Again, that has athletic greens.com slash NHL network to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. All right, Jesse. So, you know, Brian Burke went on to Sportsnet today and said, well, you know, we're not trading John Marino.

It doesn't make sense. And, you know, I ended up tweeting that out. And I got mostly some positive responses from that. Though there were a couple few negatives. To me, man, I'm glad they held on to him because it doesn't make sense to deal him, especially with Chris Latang up after this year. If you deal him and Latang walks to Montreal, which seems to be getting hotter and hotter by the day with all the reports.

Hold on a second. Hunter. It's Zach Aston Reese. They traded the Aston. What? Really? Jack Aston Reese is the player going back to Antoine. Wow. I'm actually, I'm surprised. I'm, I will, I will say that.

Wow. I'll say this. I'm surprised because he was great defensively on that line. That's the only benefit. Yeah. That's it. And I think, I think you're in a situation where this team is very good defensively, right? whether he's in or out of the lineup.

I think it's very good defensively. I don't think offensively he's got the smack that you kind of need to justify keeping him in a lineup with other players who are really good defensively. He's not the only forward on this team that's really good defensively. There are a lot of them. Now, he's affordable, right? He's on a super cheap deal. I believe it's below two.

I mean, that's great, right? You love that. but as a total, has really become a total black hole offensively, both individually and on a line with other players. So it is not difficult for me to see this as a situation where they kind of deem him as being surplus to their requirements, because they have so many other players, again, of that ilk that are better than he is offensively. Maybe not as good defensively, but I think it's very clear that they've decided that they're probably okay with that otherwise. Yeah, and one of my favorite follows on Penguins Twitter, you know, Jason, J. underscore 8155, you know, he even tweet tweeted out that it didn't look like Ashton Reese was probably going to come back next year. So that I think definitely played into this because remember he only took that one year deal. Again, it was below 2 million. And, you know, I think I've been waiting for Aston Reese to finally show up with his offensive game. I thought it was coming out last year where he actually wasn't bad in the offensive zone. But only. only two goals this year.

One of them wasn't empty net. I think that was like his first game in 30 plus games or something like that. So I guess in a way I'm a little surprised, but also in a way, I'm not. I will say, Jesse, I'm glad they didn't. This is probably going to sound weird to some fans. I'm glad they didn't give up Kaepinan because he started to show signs of life. I'm glad it wasn't someone like Evan Roderriguez because he's been better as up late.

Teddy Bluger, same thing. you know if there was a player in the bottom six to give up to get Raquel I think that's the player that you have to give up in my opinion yeah um Bob deleted the Mar the czar tweet so let's see I did just get independent confirmation on my phone that it was czar um hold on one second I'm gonna yeah no no worries yeah I'll keep obviously I'm sorry uh talking here i'll be curious to see who the prospect is see it's probably someone that's not that good um in my opinion um second round pick is whatever i don't really care about that neither should the penguins i mean the tampa bay lightning just gave up yeah multiple first round picks for brandon hagel and they're not

they're not going to care about those if they're going for a three p um so you know if it if it is czar you know i don't deleted the tweet um you know i think it's surprising in a way but also not surprising in a way. I'm curious to see though, Jesse, if it is him, who do you think is a good replacement on that line when McGinn comes back and Teddy Blueger? Because it could be Dominic Simone, though, I mean, I know people have been, I guess, underwhelmed by him. I know he doesn't score a lot. No, he's okay playmaking wise. He's good defensively. It could be Brian Boyle. I know he's a bit slower than those other two players, but he's been quite the surprise this year. He's almost at 10 goals. I don't think anyone expected that out of Brian Boyle this year. So what do you, who do you

think should replace Ashton Reese if he is the one going back to make the salary work? Hold on one second. Don't worry. Jesse is just trying to be fun with his sources here. Right. One second. One second. It's the source is called, trust me, bro. No, I'm just messing around. But, yeah, Jesse, Jesse. Yeah, I mean, I think this is right, though. I'm sorry. I'm just like, Like, I feel like this is correct. I feel good enough that like I just, I'm going to like I tweet it, you know. So. He's beating out Bobby Margarita guys.

That's, that's the big thing. I just think Bob was right. I don't know why Bob deleted his tweet. That's weird. When you, hey, you beat you beat, you beat out Bob, you beat out Bob father even though he deleted the tweet. So at the end of the day, you're no, I, I, I, sorry, I got it from initially was from Bob. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

But then like other people, like, we're like, they're like, no, no, it's definitely. right. Yeah. I'm just trying to figure out. I don't know. Well. Anyway. Okay, your initial question was, uh, who do you, who do you think replaces Ashton Reese on a full-time basis with Zulker coming back at some point, Raquel coming in? Is it Ryan Boyle maybe? Is it Dominic Simone? Yeah. So the nice thing about this too, right, is that you have a situation where you get the trickle down effect, right? So you have Raquel moves in. So we're going to assume for a second that Rust moves up, right? I, I know this is, you know, not the hottest opinion of all time, but I, people are really down on Evan Rodriguez, right? I agree. And I still think,

but I think there's been flashes, Hunter, where like in this period of time, people have pointed out that there are still things that he does when he's not scoring that are good, there's not good for the top six, right? They're good things. You want them in the lineup. You don't want them alongside Sydney and Evgeny Malkin when there's nothing else taking place. There's no other scoring happening. I'd love to see him get more utility in the lineup. I think he's got the ability to slide down and take a defensive role because he's a good four checker and he's had good defensive results all year with how he's handled and taking care of the puck. So I still, again, I still think there's a home in the lineup for him, you know, depending on the situation.

But yeah, something to keep an eye on. Yeah. I mean, you know, obviously, the fourth line, I guess defensively, it maybe takes a little bit of a hit. You know, my opinion has kind of changed on the fourth line going to this year, because I personally think Teddy Bluger has been the one to make that line go. I mean, we saw how valuable he was to the team when he was out for, you know, those number of games with the broken jaw. He's just incredible at both sides of the rank. But, you know, now when you stack up the penguins against, you know, some of the other

teams in the Metro, you know, the Rangers, I know they made a couple of times. trades today. Looks like there's a third team involved with the max domi trade, if I'm not mistaken, if I'm looking here on Twitter, it sounds like Florida is the broker between Carolina and Columbus. Washington goes out and get Johann Larson and I'm a reunion with Marcus Johansson. I almost forgot that he was on Washington a few years ago. How do you think the penguins stack up to these teams in the metro now that all these moves, it looks like, haven't been officially announced the trade yet, but just what do you think? There's 33 trades in the queue right now at the Central Registry.

That seems like a lot. That seems like a lot, right? You just got told there's 33? 33 trades in the queue. Jesus. That's Mark Shig, by the way, in Columbus that has that information. Good Christ. Wow.

Holy smokes. 33 trades. I feel like there's stuff that hasn't been announced. I mean, either they haven't processed things, which seems weird, or there's just a I don't know. Anyway, the Rangers got better. We have to talk about that. I mean, they did. They just got better. Now, here's the thing, like, to what extent, though? Because there are a team that struggles to score. And Mont and Cop are really, like, super going to help you with that, right? They're annoying players to play against. I think, like, you know, the Rangers finally, I think after a whole year of searching, I finally got their fourth line center, they were in the middle of the Greg McHag experience, which the Penguins were. are in and all teams that are missing a center inevitably have a Greg McKay experience. So it's an upgrade for them there. So I think they, they got better. I don't think they got better at a level that even if, here's the thing, and let's just pretend

this for Kel Trade doesn't happen, right? I would still say I'm not super concerned outside of goal titting about the Rangers at an even strength level, right? I mean, they have, look, they have an heart candidate, right, in goal. You have to acknowledge that. But if you take that out of the equation for a second. I think the penguins, even without Raquel, are much better team in even strength. So, so there's that. But, yeah, Carolina, that's, that's, you know, they're already so good, you know, so with Max, we add Max Domey is basically a depth player for them, right? That's huge. Carolina, I think is a team that doesn't match up super well with the penguins or the penguins don't match up super well with because their forecheck doesn't really work against Carolina.

Raquel helps with that, right? Because he's a bigger, heavier forechecking player, but that's still such a tough matchup. And then Washington, like, I don't think either of those moves really help Washington where they need help the most. So their cursory pieces for me probably spells the end of the Daniel Sprong experiment in the National Hockey League, I would think. But I don't think it puts Washington any closer than they were. So I think the Rangers, to sum it up,

The Rangers do get better to what level. I don't know. Cains get better. They were already really good. Penguins get better, I think, at a very, very big level. But everybody else is kind of like, you know, I think in this division anyways, kind of status quo. Before we get back to our very special episode with Jesse Marshall of the Athletic, this is the time of year that I pretty much given up on all of my New Year's resolutions,

but not this year. I'm sticking for resolution to eat right thanks to you, Bill Park. Almost feels like it's not really resolution because I actually enjoy eating them. Have you tried the puffs? If you haven't, you're missing out on one of the built bars, best tasting bars. Puffs are the first protein-infused marshmallow. They're fluffy. They're a marshmallow. They're a treat. Puffs are a fan favorite with some incredible flavors. Yonami, Cinemituro, coconut marshmallow, banana cream pie. They are all so good. All built bars also are covered in 100% real chocolate. They're low-calorie, high-protein. Replace your candy bars with them. Heck, they are better than candy bars. You can go to built.com and scroll down to the macros chart. you will be blown away. Most of Bill Pards contain 130 calories, 4 grams of sugar and 4 grams of nut carbs, and 17 grams of protein.

There's mint brownie, coconut, coconut almond, new for this month, white chocolate cookies and cream. They are all delicious and new flavors are coming out all the time. You can go to Bilt.com. Use promo code Lock 15 and get 15% off your order. That's promo code Lock 15 for 15% off at Bilt.com. Now, at that time of year again, as college basketball's torment is finally upon us,

from all the latest odds, contests, and player props. Betonline.com. is the number one source for all of your sports betting needs and info. Beneline remains the best ball for all of your sports scores, podcasts, and news this season. It's not just basketball. Vettelan is your continued source for all of your sports wagering information needs, including live betting and your favorite Vegas casino games. Head to the website today or to use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action

that is Bet Online, where the game starts. Yeah, I mean, I still think division hierarchy-wise, you know, Carolina obviously belongs at the top. Pittsburgh's right there. I would probably have the Rangers right behind them. And then, you know, Washington, they're a pretty good team. But, you know, I just don't know if they have, you know, the full firepower to go up against some of the better teams in the conference. I was making the joke on my Twitter last night that the Rangers are just basically going to gole either way to almost every win at this point.

Because, I mean, I was watching that game against Carolina. And it was ridiculous how it wasn't even Shasturkin that was playing like a hard trophy contender. it was Alexander Giorgi of having the start of his life, to say the least. But, you know, I'm just, I'm glad overall that, you know, the team decided to make a move. I was going to ask you about this, Jesse, you know, I saw you tweeted this, you know, earlier. Had they not made a move, would you have been upset because this is really one of their last runs at it? Or would you have understood because, you know, I kind of see both sides. to it.

You know, I was mainly on the side that they needed to make a move because the conference is already loaded. We already know who the eight playoff teams are. They needed another winger that can, you know, finish his chances. But on the other side, I understand that they don't have a lot of salary cap space. You have a general manager that, you know, I think you said the best on your Twitter. There's a lot of pressure from him because he doesn't do a lot normally. He keeps a very, you know, tight lip on things.

Just where would you would have stood if they decided to? you know what we like our guys and we're just going to roll with what we have yeah it's one of the situations that uh i i felt i was talking about just the environment right that that mackenzie or uh i'm talking about bob mackenzie again my god damn twitter uh that hexagonic simone is that what's that dominic simone and a prospect and a second round pick to the ducks so czar was it yeah and so i was right well my integrity stands Who. Jesse got it, guys.

You hear the relief in my voice? Like, I put it all on the line with that. I was like, no, I believe it. I'm like sticking to the best line. Jesse sources confirmed that Ashton Reese has been trained. So that's the big win here. Oh, man. Yeah, my butt hole is tight there.

I think Hextall is in a bad spot, Hunter, because the reason that he left Philadelphia had, like, the talk there was that he was too complacent, right? And he had a team that was. competitive, it was kind of like borderline. I don't know borderline to the level the penguins are right now, but borderline, and he didn't do enough to like tip that ship, right? And now he comes here to a situation where there's a ton of pressure to win in a limited window of time in a seller's market with no cap space up against the deadline. You know, and that's an insurmountable amount of

pressure to me, you know, just thinking about the human element to this. And I'm not here to write like a sob story about Ron Hextall, I don't know the man like that. I just, that's the way it is. That's just the reality of the situation that he's in. So my theory and what I said today all day long was that if nothing happens, right, if they don't do anything, you know, we're never going to know what the offers were. We'll never know the insider behind the scenes, behind the curtain, this is what he turned down, this is what he didn't take. But noting the market, noting what he was up against financially, you'd have to imagine that, you know, not being, not making a move would have been a reasonable outcome. Now, and I said not to get like long-winded here, Hunter,

but I said that I think the penguins are, if you look at the top of top tier of teams that have a legitimate shot at the Stanley Cup, the penguins are the last team on that list, right? So like, here's your list of maybe seven or eight teams. The penguins are dead last. This move maybe jumps them one or two spots. Still not enough really to put them in the top five, maybe, right? Like it's... Which is fine, honestly. Right.

But that's the reality of the situation, right? That's, they have a cap, right? People kept telling me all day today, man, Craig Patrick really went for it. Craig Patrick didn't have a damn thing to care about with financials. No financials mattered for those teams in the night. There was just do whatever the hell you want. It was the rule, right? You can't make a comparison.

It's a totally different situation. So I, you know, for me, I think he's done as well as he can do, given the circumstances. You know, I guess that also answers our question, Hunter, of who's going to slide down the lineup. It's not going to be Dominic Simone. What I said about five, ten minutes ago is not true now. That is for damn sure.

I would have to assume with that news, it's probably Brian Boyle. I think he's earned it. You know, I don't think he was ever going to be traded. You know. Here's the thing to go ahead. With Boyle, right? Yep.

Our playoff is the playoff style of Playhunter, that fast that his lack of speed is going to be as discernibly noticeable. I don't think so. Like, you know, games are generally muckier. There's more, there's, there's, there's, penalties get called. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't get called, right? Like, it's the way the playoffs are. And I think it's just a it's a grindier style game. It bothers me less in a, in a series like New York to see Boyle in the lineup. I don't think he's out of place in that series. Now, Carolina, maybe we revisit that conversation because so much skating is going to be involved with that. But for Rangers, that's perfect.

That's fine. Yeah, Carolina is definitely the team that can not only skate with the penguins, they can outskate them. And I think of all the teams they play this year, out of 63 games so far, that's been the team that's carried the play the most against the penguins. We'll just go to show how great Carolina is. I mean, that's going to be, I think if they play in the playoffs, it's a seven-game series. in my opinion um also i will say if that's the final deal and it looks like you know bobby margarita here you know love how he comes out of retirement and just decides to break deals for one day then he's going to go back to his little cottage um you know they're dealing the penguins are dealing from

a position of strength um i think that's pretty big you know they were known for their depth forward wise um dominic simone for as good defensively as he was too he also was not putting the puck back in the back of the net a lot. He was also probably going to be come playoff time, a 13th or 14th forward. That's okay. So, and then obviously for Aston Reese, you know, we already touched on that.

So I'm a fan of the deal. I know there's four parts going back for a player that hasn't hit 20 goals in a few seasons. But, you know, you got to give to get, you know, these. Pace it to 26, though, I think this year. So, is that right? Is that right? I think you're, let me jump it.

Let me double check. No, he's 28. Okay. Great. So you'll take it. Like I said, strike when the iron's hot, right? I mean, this is a team, like I've been saying this all day long. This is a team that's certainly, you know, Raquel aside, not a great finishing team or not.

That's the reality of the situation. But they're also, I think, like shooting way below what their expectation in averages right now. So, you know, kind of put two and two together here, right? Like certainly not a great finishing team, but I think things are kind of drier right now than they're usually. be you kind of hope a player like Raquel helps to kick up some dust around and you know help a couple other players out to find the back of the net a little bit and then you can get everybody hot as you go into the playoffs yeah no I agree for sure and you know I know the 30th in the league in finishing right now which is pretty crappy I know there are all the other metrics are top 10 but

if that even regresses to mean a little bit and justin Jari keeps this up I think the penguins will be cooking even more here um Jesse anything else to say before we wrap up this very special live edition of the podcast. I'm sure you can honestly have an article coming out on Raquel at some point, you know, maybe this week or next week highlighting his game and all that because, you know, this is honestly a player that I think some fans in this fan base have been wanting for the last few years. He's been on the block, I think, quite a lot just because the ducks have not been good.

Pat Verbeek, excuse me, was finally able to pull the trigger. Anything else before we wrap up? No, again, I think, you know, people generally, for whatever reason, are sleeping on how good the penguins are generating quality scoring chances already, right, without this player. Top 10, like you said, I mean, you look across the board in most metrics. This is a team that the data says is going to compete for a Stanley Cup and should compete for a Stanley Cup. This trade helps that immensely. It does. It helps that immensely.

It gives them a boost where it's sorely needed. It adds a lot of play driving to their top six. And to be frank with you, it's really at the expense of not a lot. Because at worst case scenario, you've got to reach down and grab a Drew O'Connor, a Big Z, and throw them into a role for a while. And I think they've proven capable. So maybe it forces some younger players to get some time in the roster. I don't think that's a bad thing down the stretch run either.

So this is all fine. I know there's an emotional attachment for Zach Astin-Ree's to a lot of people. But again, at the end of the day, Hunter's list, it is what it is. He's not, I don't think good enough offensively to, you know, if that's where the interest lies, you know, you've got to do it. Yeah, I completely agree there. You know, I know, I think you want you, you said it best, but whatever I was about to say was probably just going to be a bunch of hogwash. But, you know, Jesse, I really appreciate you coming on this first, you know, live edition, especially on trade deadline day. I thought, again, for a while, it looked like we probably weren't going to have a lot to talk about.

Ron Hextel is still not even met with the media yet. So I don't even think this trade has gone through. As you said, there was 30 plus trades still in the queue. But, you know, again, thank you so much for coming on. I'll let you plug your socials and everything in case somehow people do not follow you. Yeah, it's, yeah, at J. Marsh, FOF on the Twitter. And then the rest of it's all peering on the athletic. Yep, I agree.

You know, and Tray Smith here in the comments, you know, he's basically, saying, you know, we're a top eight roster in the league with how deep we are. The system is great. And I completely agree. You know, Mike Sullivan is going to, I think, find a really great use for Raquel. And this is going to be one tough out, I think, in the playoffs if, you know, the finishing is good and the goal tenning continues to be really stellar as well. But that will do it for this one.

I'll be back on Tuesday. This episode is also going to be up on audio platforms a little later on. So thank you all so much for tuning in. If you are not subscribed already, please subscribe and of course click the like button on the video i will be back with another episode on tuesday