Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile unlimited, premium wireless! Get 30-30, get 30, get 30, get 20-20, get 20-20, get 20-20, get 15-15, 15-15, just 15 bucks a month, so... Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45 up front for three months plus taxes and fees, promote rate for new customers for limited time, unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month, slows, fold turns at mintmobile.com. Welcome to the tip of the iceberg podcast, your home for Pittsburgh, Penguins, News and Analysis. You can find us on YouTube at the tip of the iceberg, or anywhere. You get your podcast from I'm your host, Nick Belsky, joined as always by Nick Corwatt, and it was a busy day one of free agency for most teams, including the Pittsburgh Penguins who offloaded a contract for future assets. We'll get into that trade here in just a little bit, but they also brought in nine players on day one of free agency. We'll talk about most of them, and then look forward to what is remaining for Kyle Dubas and the Pittsburgh Penguins this offseason. A lot to get to, Horwatt, so let's get started on this one. And let's start with the Penguins decision to trade Riley Smith. It was a decision that feels like was made a while ago, but now we finally have a resolution to that storyline. And the Penguins send Riley Smith to the New York Rangers with 25% of a salary retained, which is $1.25 million for the 2024-25 season. In return, they get a 2027 second round pick and a 2025 fifth round pick. Your thoughts on the finally resolution to the Riley Smith trade discussions from this summer. Yeah, like you said, finally, or it's been, or it's already been determined. Yeah, this trade just felt like a long time coming. It was just a matter of finding the right trade partner and deciding what kind of return the Penguins wanted. They settled on just a couple of draft picks and retaining some salary, which you were going to probably have to do if you weren't throwing in more pieces. It was just purely, this trade just looked like it was purely getting Riley Smith off the roster, because things didn't work out. Riley Smith might go on and have a really good year in New York. If you're a Penguins fan, you cannot be upset at that, because he has a track record of being a good player still, and part of me kind of expects him to go on and do pretty good things for the rest of his career. But the fit just wasn't here in Pittsburgh. That's all it was, and loading up on draft picks has been Dubas's forte. Since getting here, he didn't add too many at the most recent draft, but he also didn't send any away. So he's going to have some picks to really revamp everything down the line, and for what it's worth it, we're going to have this whole episode not even discuss the draft, which a lot of people seem to be happy with, which is a good step in the right direction. Thanks for the Penguins, and when it comes to free agency, the deal with Riley Smith, I'd say the team is trending in the correct direction, and it all started with dealing Riley Smith and getting most of that contract off the books. You mentioned trending in the right direction. I think that depends on who you ask, and what direction they think the Penguins should go in. The Penguins direction, and we'll talk about in a little bit what it seems like Kyle Dubas's direction is for this organization. But when you look at the trades, I mean, first and foremost, the trade should tell you what the direction he's headed in. He traded. If you look at his last two trades over this past weekend, he traded Riley Smith for a second, a fifth, Kevin Hayes, and another second. Essentially, because that's that's the out versus in on his last two trades, and that points to one thing, which is a retool or rebuild depending on who you ask what the Penguins are heading towards, but we'll get into that in a little bit as far as the Riley Smith thing you hit the nail in the head. It was only a matter of time before this happened. Thirteen goals, 40 points and 76 games played. He just didn't fit with the Penguins, and by the end of the season it was evident, especially considering he was playing on the third line with Lars Eller and Valteri Pustin. Yeah, he started to find his footing a little bit, but I think we can all agree that if you're paying $5 million to Riley Smith to be on that third line, you really kind of wasting that salary cap space, especially when you can go out there and get, in my opinion, surprisingly, more than you paid for him. I understand you have to retain $1.25 million, but as far as future assets is concerned, you traded away a third round pick, which is not a nothing asset to get Riley Smith. Now, you thought that you were getting a much better version of Riley Smith, but at the end of the day, you flip him after a down season for a second round pick and a fifth round pick, and that's good asset management from Kyle Dubas. Now, there are the things that I didn't particularly like from Kyle Dubas, but I will give him credit where it's due. I think his two trades this weekend were pretty decent for the Penguins. Not that I love the Kevin Hayes edition, but at the same time, I can see the point, especially whenever you're looking at a team that is not going to go for a Stanley Cup next year. Yeah, it's going to be an interesting, the Kevin Hayes thing is going to be a little interesting. It'll be the obvious. He's going to fill in as a third line center. He can shift to wing if he needs to, and if he's bad enough, you drop him to fourth. I don't know what else to say, but you got to keep the expectations high. I'm sure I've bagged on Kevin Hayes on this show years ago, but here we are. It's a new era. We are moving along and he could absolutely be a useful asset for the Penguins if given the right opportunity, given the right situation, he's not costing the Penguins a ton of money. I think that's a pretty solid sign. And man, I keep forgetting that the one draft pick from the Rangers are two years away still, but got a long build ahead of them and they're loading up. There's a ton of draft picks in the over the next three drafts that are in the Penguins possession that, like I said, Kaljubas likes adding them. And if they realize, hey, that they can go for something, let's say they're in a pretty good spot. Come trade deadline, you're still holding on to three first round picks if you want to go add or if you want to ship out in any other number of picks for something. You never know because hockey is weird and you can't doubt Sydney Crosby sometimes. Yeah, I think they would have to be in a really, really good position, like top three easily in the Metro position to trade away one of those first round picks. I don't think, I don't think it's going to be easy to pry those away from Kyle Dubas, especially considering the direction that he seems to want to take this team. But, you know, to close out the Riley Smith thing, for one, the Penguins will play, and this was announced yesterday as well amidst all the craziness. The Penguins will play opening night on October night that PPG paid Serena against the New York Rangers and against Riley Smith. That's a recipe for disaster if you're the Penguins on opening night because you know Riley Smith is going to make a significant impact in one way or other against his former team that night. Yeah, it's unless he doesn't want to be in New York either. I find it hard to believe. I find it hard to believe. I mean, I personally love New York. I know there's some people that don't like it, but, you know, Riley Smith, he might have wanted to be a southwestern guy, but we'll see what he ends up doing in New York. Yeah, I just wanted to throw one more jab out there. Yeah, I'm sure he's going to do fine. It's, uh, he just wasn't the right situation for him in Pittsburgh. And if the Penguins are lucky, he keeps on to the same trend, at least for game one. Yeah, at least for game one and maybe the three or four other times the Penguins end up playing the New York Rangers next season. The question that I have before we get to the nine players signed on opening day of free agency, is there anyone else after Riley Smith, especially after you've seen now where some of the dust is settled? Is there anyone else that you see Dubas moving out this offseason via trade, I should say? For a trade, I mean, the offseason isn't over. I could still see the Tristan Jari situation going into a step further. And I'm sure he's still looking for some sort of taker on Ryan Graves. It's the way that they still kind of want to bring Pio Joseph back, but haven't been able to yet. And yet they signed a player Mackersick, which we'll get into. There's a log jam all of a sudden if they decide to bring Pio Joseph back, so maybe Ryan Graves is still on the block. Who knows? That one seems less likely, but I'm sure you just keep that. You keep that thing in the fire until someone strikes, maybe. Yeah, especially with the performance he had and the contract he has. But for the most part, I doubt that he ends up getting moved simply because of that contract and because of how poor he was last season. When I look at now, after yesterday, who I think could potentially be on the block, that's Lars Eller or Nolichari. Obviously, Kyle Dubas is saying that he wants to weaponize salary cap space. He wants to bring in some pretty decent assets. Lars Eller was pretty good last year for the Pittsburgh Penguins. And I think if there's a team that's out there that needs a depth center at this point in the offseason, they'd be willing to pay a decent. A decent draft asset or maybe a B prospect or maybe even a C prospect, which the Penguins, you know, you can't be choosy when your prospect system looks the way the Penguins does. But I think that what's telling to me about that and the reason that I've kind of changed my tune on that after yesterday is they signed three center capable guys, right? They traded for Kevin Hayes, who Kyle Dubas said yesterday, they're going to look for him to play center out the gates. Blake Lazzotte, who will get to play center. And according to, you know, Puckpedia, Anthony Ubo-Villier, who is likely going to be a winger with the Pittsburgh Penguins, has center capabilities as well. So you have all of these guys, not to mention a Sam Poulan, not to mention a Vasily Ponomara, not to mention, I believe Jonathan Gruden has played center before as well. You have a lot of center capable guys. And while I do like the fact that the Hayes move bumps down Eller to 4C and maybe, you know, Lazzotte can fit in where he fits best. It opens the door for you to get some more assets and considering Kyle Dubas is saying that he wants to, you know, start this kind of asset, you know, collection. I think Eller or Chari could end up being on the other side of that. Yeah, Chari seems less likely just because of the way Dubas has spoken on Nolichari before. When it comes to Lars Eller, though, I agree with you that it always kind of felt like he could be a trade piece this summer, and I forget who had it now. Whether it was Rossie or Joey, Buffalo was in on something, or there was something with Buffalo involved there. So perhaps maybe that is another log on the fire of deals that Dubas might be looking to make and Lars Eller finding his own way out of here. So it's going to be interesting, and you're right, I think at least when it comes to Lars Eller's another name that absolutely could be among the names. He would fall into the main three that are left. Let's move over and talk a little bit about the nine players. You know, a lot of people are saying, no, the Penguins, they didn't do very much of anything on the opening day of free agency. They signed nine players. That is not nothing. And let's go down through the nine and then we'll go to a certain amount of them, certain ones that we want to discuss, some of the bigger names. But started off, left-handed defense with Matt Grislic, one-year deal, 2.75 million dollars. A lot of people not happy about that. We'll get to that in a minute. Also on the left-handed defense side, Ryan Shea, one year, 775K. He could play the left or right. Did both last season comes in and basically you kind of locked up your seventh defenseman with Ryan Shea. You bring in left-winger slash center slash right-winger. Wherever he really needs to go, Anthony Beauvilla, one year, 1.25 million dollars. Blake Lazat comes in two years, 1.85 million. We're definitely going to talk about Lazat. Emil Bemstrom is back. Not a name that I was super excited to see, but we'll see what he's able to do in a second stint and a second opportunity in Pittsburgh. One year, 775K League minimum, not bad. And then four American Hockey League players, because as we had mentioned going into free agency, they really didn't have any defensemen. And they needed to restock because they let a lot of those forwards go. Vinny Henestroza, who went and signed with Dallas, I believe, they let go of Redeemza Horna, who they haven't at least had any interest in bringing back to this point. But they signed for a AHL players to NHL deals, including Bocco, E-Mama, Mack Hollowell, Nathan Klerman, and Jimmy Huntington. Horwatt, let's start with the name that I think caught the most heat yesterday. And that's Matt Grizzlyk. I don't personally understand the hate on this one. What were your thoughts on the Grizzlyk signing? I don't totally hate it either. I get where people are coming from. He was scratched for the last 11 of their last 12, the Bruins. The numbers didn't match up with what they're used to with what the Bruins are used to when it comes to Mackaras, but also it's not like he was a minus player. He's never been a minus player in his career. So there's some sort of puck-moving ability that he has that the Penguins are going to look to take advantage of him. I think that was the main reason why they got him. He's not going to be your first-line guy. He's not going to be unless it comes down to it, because it's on the left side. But he's going to be a solid puck-mover for a team that could use a bit of transition out of their own zone at times. We'll see how the defensive game plays out, but also much in the way that we discussed Ryan Graves last year. If this is a good signing, this is going to be good for the team. It's a bit long, but so be it. Then it turned out to be a bit of a disaster. You have to look at this. It's looking like a disaster now. It can flip the other way too. You never know what's going to happen on a player entering a new system, entering a new season even. I get that on the surf so it looks scary, but you've got to do your best to withhold judgment until you see something on the ice. Or at least not overreact until you see something on the ice. I'm glad you mentioned a new system in there, because when you look at when Matt Grizzlyk really started to fall off, it coincides directly with a coaching change. They went from Bruce Cassidy to Jim Montgomery, and Grizzlyk's numbers started taking hit, not only mentioning the fact that he dealt with injury last year as well early in the season. That can affect your play throughout a year. You look at Chris Latang. He was injured early in the season, and his play slowly deteriorated through the season. But I think the big thing that I look at with Grizzlyk, he's had a couple of down seasons, and whether it be because of injury or coaching change, that is to the performance that he put out on the ice. And I think that's the reason he got a one year deal, right? 2.75 is a decent chunk of change, but also look at the fact that the Penguins didn't have very much to spend. They needed a top four capable guy, and they're already spending a lot of money on Ryan Graves, on Chris Latang, on Eric Carlson, on Marcus Patterson for next season. They needed somebody that could play bonus up in the lineup. Top minutes, somebody that's handled that before, somebody that's played with a defenseman, similar to Chris Latang, and he has with Charlie McAvoy. And I think Grizzlyk checks a lot of those boxes. Is he the most flashy signing? No. Would I have rather seen Jacob Chickren, you know, if the salary cap wasn't anything, if trading assets wasn't anything, you had to take into consideration. I know that washing them got them for a steal. But again, would I have liked to see a guy like Jacob Chickren? Yeah, I would have preferred that. But at the end of the day, with what they could do, with what they were handcuffed in because of what they're already spending, I don't hate the Matt Grizzlyk signing. And I also think that there's been a lot of revisionist history about P.O. Joseph's season after this signing. But I'll let you respond before I get into that. No, I just, you also mentioned new system. Let's not forget that Matt Grizzlyk spent three years of his college career being coached by David Quinn, who is now in the Penguins, behind the Penguins bench as the defensive coach. So David Quinn's going to be tasked with revamping the career for the final years, for at least the latter years of Eric Carlson, bringing Chris Letang up another step this upcoming season. And now maybe even a quick reclamation project on Matt Grizzlyk, a guy he is familiar with and had relative success with, I'd have to look into the deeper details, relative success with at Boston University. So keep that in mind to it. There is that connection there and that could be in that positive for the Penguins. Now, the big thing I, before we move over and talk a little bit about Anthony Beauvilla, a lot of people are saying, well, I would have just rather brought back P.O. Joseph and put him into that position because, you know, P.O. Joseph is still young. He has some untapped potential. Sure. But at the same time, I think there's a lot of people that are saying, you saw what he did at the end of the season. Wasn't, wasn't that great guys? Like, it was, it was better. It was better than Ryan Graves, which is why I think a lot of people have rose-colored glasses on it, but we're so far removed from actually seeing those games and seeing the play on the ice that a lot of people are forgetting that P.O. Joseph wasn't the next best thing. At the end of the season, right? He wasn't a guy that is, you know, undeniable to bring back. And at the end of the day, if you're bringing somebody back and you're trying to keep things open, going into the future, especially on a left side where there are a lot of question marks. Marcus Pedersen, we'll get into that later this summer. Owen Pickering, how far does he develop? There's a lot of question marks on that left side. Do you really want to eat up more years with a guy that at his best is nowhere near what Grizzler was at his best? So if you can get Grizzler to his best, he's an analytical darling. He's a guy that played top pair minutes with Charlie McAvoy and some of their best seasons together. I think that if you can get that out of Grizzler, there's not even a question that it's better than bringing back P.O. Joseph. Because let's not forget about this with P.O. Joseph. He was healthy scratch for a good chunk of the season to start. And he wasn't put into that first line position because he was good. The penguins didn't have a choice. No, it was out of the press box and on the top line for him. They didn't have a choice. It was all right. Here we go. Let's get. Let's give it a go. And it happened to be OK. It happened to be fine. It worked out. That's great. That doesn't mean it's going to again. Also, is P.O. Joseph a lock if they bring it back? Is he or even without Mac? Was he a lock to hold that position again? Not necessarily again. It wasn't because he worked his way there. It was because the team didn't have a choice. Yeah. So again, the door is not shut on P.R. Olivier Joseph. Kyle Dubas mentioned that. But if you're bringing him back, the best thing that I can say about that is there's going to be competition. Whereas without that, I don't know if Ryan Shays really pushing one of those three guys for a spot in the lineup every day. It's just Shays a little bit of an injury, you know, injury help because you saw what he was able to do with Jackson. I haven't even down the stretch and that was good as well. But you know, Grizzlyc, I saw a lot of people saying, you know, a lot of doomsday after the Grizzlyc signing. And I was like, it's, listen, he wasn't good the last two seasons. But let's not act like he hasn't been good and let's not act like that was eight years ago. It was two seasons ago. Who knows a new system, a new coach, Mike Sullivan might bring a little bit more than Jim Montgomery did for specifically for Mac. So again, we'll have to wait and see what's up with that. Let's move over and talk a little bit about Anthony Bovillier because it was a similar reaction to Bovillier, somebody that we put at number two on the top free agents to watch for the Penguins. And that was simply because he was going to be cheap and it feels like he just fits with the Penguins. A couple days later, Bovillier is a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. What are your thoughts on this one? We said Anthony Bovillier sounds like he'd be a good fit for the good fit in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh went outside and everyone freaked out, except for us because you can't go. Listen, much like Grizzlyc, one year deal. All right, good start getting him for a season. If you want to trade him because he's not good later for nothing, do it. Who cares? You're moving on at the point that the Penguins are at. He is bringing in guys for a season, two seasons, maybe moving on afterwards. If you can bring Anthony Bovillier in for a good season and he does some good work, he helps out the bottom six refines the game that made him solid in New York. If you're not, then you're cooking. It's a low risk signing guys. I get that. I get with, you see the analytical numbers of recent with Grizzlyc, Bovillier, these guys, but I'll tell you what, who cares? It's a season. They're going to enter a new system. You can't overreact to this early. And I think it's just a good choice. It's low risk option. He's going to come in and help the bottom six the best way he can. It's hard to judge the bottom six at this point of the summer, too. A little aside here. I enjoy the analytic side of hockey. I have somebody that has embraced it. I've tried to learn as much as I can about it. And to be frank, I'm still not as in the weeds as I'd like to be. I want to continue to learn. But the amount of people that just take, and I love J. Fresh, you know, friend of the show, the amount of people that just take the J. Fresh hockey card, see red and take that as gospel and just post that and say, Oh, how about we realize that these are more than just numbers on a paper? These are humans. When you look at last season, it was bad for Anthony Bovillier. That much you could sell on the ice and on the spreadsheet. But let's not forget there's a human element of this. The guy was traded twice, twice in the middle of a season. He's played on four teams in the last two years. And I'm not saying that he's going to come to Pittsburgh and he's going to be, you know, some great piece to the bottom six. What I'm saying is let's not bury the guy, a guy who has had previous success in the NHL and more specifically in the Metropolitan Division before he even steps foot on Pittsburgh ice. Not only that, he's had success in the Metro Division. He has shown that he has offensive upside and he's a bottom six edition. And that's the thing that I don't understand what the hate on the haze deal. The hate on the Bovillier deal is you look at those two. You look at Yes, a pull your view. You look at a meal Bemstrom, which is why I haven't screamed and raved and ranted about him coming back. They will all be bumped for the prospects that are in the system. If those prospects prove to be ready as of right now, these are placeholders. That's why it's one year for Bovillier. That's why it's one year for Bemstrom. That's why, you know, Hayes has two years left, but at the same time, you could move on from that as the St. Louis Blues did. That's why pull your view has one year left on his contract because if these young guys are better, then put them on waivers, send them to the minors. It's not going to hurt you that much. So that's why I don't mind this move. I understand that people say, well, he had a bad season last year, but also this is a bottom six piece for a team that is not going to a Stanley Cup. You have to realize that is not going to be that enticing for top free agents to come to Pittsburgh, not to mention Kyle Dubas mentioned it on Friday in Vegas saying basically don't expect anything flashy and free agency. Bovillier fits right into that mode. Nothing flashy, flashy, excuse me, doesn't move the needle much, but it is an expected move that at the end of the day, fills out the roster with somebody that at his best could be a difference maker could be an impact player for the Penguins this season. Kyle Dubas said he's looking for one to two year guys. He assigned one to two year guys. Did the Penguins fail yesterday because they didn't go out and get Jake DeBrusque for that contract or my God, that was an awful contract. Or whoever else even signed yesterday. No, that's not why they lost it. If you think if you think they lost yesterday, I'd say they had a plan. They stuck to it. Bovillier was part of it from very early on too, apparently. Yeah. And the one name that was out there a lot yesterday was Jeff Skinner. And I understand it. Jeff Skinner on the first line with Crosby. Yeah, that could have been a fit. And he signed for one year and three million dollars, which, yeah, the Penguins, they could have afforded. But at the end of the day, if the Penguins offered him one year, three million dollars, which will never know, why would he not take it with the team that just went to the Stanley Cup final? It's Jeff Skinner. This is not a guy that has won copious amounts of championships in his career. If he wants to win a championship, do you want to come and play with Crosby? Yeah, that's enticing, but this team has missed the playoffs the last two years. Or do you want to sign a similar deal, approve a deal, and go play with either Conor McDavid or Leon Drey settle who were just in the Stanley Cup final? That's the other thing you have to look in here. There's a reason free agency is not all these great players clamoring to come to the Penguins this year. It's not, you know, a bunch of splash moves because the Penguins don't carry as much weight this year as they had in years past. And I think people need to start realizing that. Yeah, absolutely. And they will. It's, like I said, it's just the quick, immediate reactions because, again, they weren't in on Stephen Stamp Coast, Jonathan Marsh. So even Jake Genssel, if you really wanted to, because they weren't in on the big names, it's hellfire and brimstone out of Twitter. Which represents a vocal minority of the fan base. I do understand that. Yeah, and people with a couple of followers who think they know things, but it's going to be fine. I think the team had its plan and they'll execute their plan. And if their plan is to trade trust and jarring, maybe that's going to be part of the plan. If their plan is to do other things, if their plan is to sign. One of the biggest names still out there is a name we'll get into at Vladimir Terasenko. We'll talk about it. Yeah, but if that's part of the plan, it's part of the plan. If it's not, it's not. So be it. Let's move over and talk about because it wasn't all hellfire and brimstone. There was one move that everybody was excited that the Penguins made yesterday. And that was signing Blake Lazat, two year deal. The only multi year deal dished out by Kyle Dubas on day one may have been the most fan approved deal of the day. What do you think about the addition of Blake Lazat? As you texted me, quote, he is one of your guys. That's a good one. That's a good choice for, you know, undersized depth, depth piece. Again, who knows how high up in the line up, he ends up making it. But he's going to be there too much like Anthony, Anthony Pavilion fit into that bottom six play defense from the forward perspective and hopefully if possible chip in every so often. Because there does still need to be an element of scoring to the bottom six that someone needs to add. Blake Lazat's just a good over just overall a good choice. There's not too many more details to read into. I'm sure he'll describe himself more because much like, I know Matt Phillips was here for the shortest cup of coffee in the world. But the way he described his game was, well, I don't have a lot of size, so I have to bring other things. Blake Lazat, according to Cat Friendly, which will soon be a dead page. He has about five seven. So he's got to utilize what he has at his disposal to make up for a shorter stature. Five seven. That seems like I got five nine on NHL.com. But I mean, again, that's why I said I'm on Cat Friendly. I thought I'd make sure I had that specifically. That's a dead site walking right there. But no, I like the Lazat signing a lot. He's a spark plug type of guy. And at the end of the day, I think he brings much more offense than you got out of the fourth line center position last year, if that is indeed where he slots in. Because last year, you know, Achari, you mentioned it. Kyle Dubas really liked to back Noel Achari last year, but the offense just wasn't part of his game. He didn't bring anything by way of offense. And neither did Janssen Harkins and those two played way too many games together. And I think that's not as much to do about Achari being in the lineup. But you bring in a guy like Blake Lazat, who has a little bit more scoring ability from the center ice position, a guy that is going to be, you know, kind of a younger, higher level, higher-leveled Vinny Hinnestroza that is more attuned to continuing to stay at the NHL level. That's what I feel like Blake Lazat is. Is a better version of Vinny Hinnestroza that is not NHL, NHL tweener as much as everyday NHL or the fourth line center role. So I like it. A lot of other people liked it. So that's the one move that Kyle Dubas got that everybody said. Yeah. All right. I mean, they said that about the Riley Smith trade as well, getting a second rounder, even if it's, you know, whenever we've all got our government pensions or whatever that is, you know, that far down the future. A lot of people like the Riley Smith return as well. But, you know, a couple of interesting signings will obviously continue to dive into more of them and then obviously see if there's more that come along in the lines. But I want to ask you final thoughts on the opening day of free agency for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Nine players signed, one player traded out, a couple of draft picks coming back in return. What were your overall thoughts on Kyle Dubas's work on July 1? I didn't hate it. It's, again, he had a plan and he stuck to it. He didn't go out of his way to, I mean, initially say, I'm looking for one to two year guys and then jump for a lengthy boat of a contract. He stuck to his one to two year guys. He got some good depth additions for with Pavilion and Lazart, who knows where Grizzlyk falls or ends up or even rises in the lineup. Who knows, he's got a training camp in a preseason to work. And for what it's worth. I know we didn't discuss them. Those minor league contracts are assuming they're minor league contracts. I don't totally hate either. They're a bit more. Last year, there was an obvious you're getting NHLers and setting them to the to the AHL. This time around it is AHLers for the AHL that have NHL ability. I think I think you put bokely mama into the opening night lineup just to get Matt Renpy taking care of for it for what I'm assuming is a national audience. I don't know yet. Probably. That's just how you start that. That's just how you start the season. Get the statement out of the way. He led the AHL in penalty minutes. Did he not last like two seasons? Last season, definitely. I believe I can't remember off the top of my head. I think career-wise, he has like 300 and some penalty minutes and 100 games or something like that. It was over two penalty minutes a game. Yeah. If he's in the NHL line, if you know why he's here, he didn't get those for hooking either. Yeah. He's a tough customer. I'm going to enjoy that signing. The other names aren't jumping off the page. Matt Caldwell is interesting. I think mostly because he has a Kyle Dubas connection. Didn't see that one coming. Did you? Yeah. There's only a couple of those. Yeah. But overall, I think even he might push for a spot one day. I mean, the way the defense is filtering out. Maybe he finds himself cracking the NHL again. So good choices. I've enjoyed. I enjoyed today one for the Penguins. They stuck to their plan again. I'm not going to give it an A because they didn't make the big splash. They weren't in on the big names that could, you know, push the team way down the line. But for the time being, for the small plan that he set out, saw it. Good enough for me. Yeah. The names weren't as attractive as maybe everybody had liked them to be, but none of the contracts are bad. Like the one thing you can say about the Grizzly contract is maybe, you know, you would rather have them pay 2 million instead of 2.75. Okay. 750K. I understand that's a league minimum contract nowadays, but at the same time. Again, he's not filling a third line role. He is your going to be, I would assume at the beginning of training camp, he is the guy that's playing with Chris Latang. So you're going to argue over 750K for the guy that's going to be in the top four. That's that's a hard sell for me. Sorry about that. But, you know, my final thoughts. And this is a tough pill to swallow. And I believe it was Josh Joey of the athletic who essentially wrote this and not so many words over the weekend in one of his many pieces. When, while in Las Vegas, this is what a real, a retool looks like. It is what a retool looks like. The, the quote that he had, I believe was building the future, building the next era is the only goal now. I believe that's what it was probably missing a word or two in that, but I tweeted about it. So go check that out on Twitter. But that's what it is. Dubas is shifting into that mode. And, and you saw a quote yesterday that I want to bring up that really highlights that, that he's, he's trying to say it in the nicest way possible that we are starting to retool, starting to look more towards the future than worrying about trying to make this the championship team. In 2024 or 25, he said, quote, this is not a strip it down to the stud situation here. The people in that room are too good for that. It's trying to use every method we can to acquire future assets that can come in and support the core group that is here. And now that last year with the Jake Genssel trade, we might see one or two of a Potamara or Koivoon in this season make an impact at the NHL level. Cruz Lucius down the line. He's a pretty decent prospect as well. One of those second round picks. I mean, Dave, obviously Jesse Marshall has a piece out in the athletic that I'm excited to read about those second round picks today. They're trying, and he's trying to say in the best way possible. Listen. The respect that he has for what Malkin Crosby and Latang are doing, he can't strip it down because they're playing at too high a level to be able to be a top three team in the lottery. They just are. But also, how are you going to strip it down when it's hard to move everybody? That's what I think the missing piece that a lot of people were missing when they reacted to that. How many tough contracts are there to move. Plus has a no move clause. You can't move Brian Russ. That'd be a nice trade piece. But also, he has four years left on a deal that rides into his mid 30s. Same with Ricardo Cal, eight team no trade clause, four years left on that trade on that contract. Malkin and Latang, no move clauses that he inherited. If you're going to strip it down to the bolts, that's going to be included, right? I don't think it should be. But if you're stripping it down to the bolts, some would say there's an option that is off the table right there. Some of it's his doing. Carlson has a no move. Graves has a 12 team. Jari has a 12 team. A chari has an eight team. But that restricts what you can do and how much you can burn it to the ground. I think that's also a factor. It's not the only factor, but it's also a factor there. So my final thoughts are, this is what you should expect from the Penguins moving forward. They're not going to be a team that is going all in or going for it in 2024, 25 simply because Kyle Dubas saw what he saw last year and he pivoted. He said, I don't think that I can make this team a championship contender. So he's going to try to do that by retooling. However long that takes and he's hoping that he's able to do it quick enough to where probably not Malkin, but Crosby is still on the team whenever they start to get back into that next era. And you just never know what happens. I mean, you mentioned Brian Russ having a no move. That's up after the season. Maybe you do trade him after this year. If you really need to Michael Bunting loses his claws after the season as well. Maybe you get assets for Michael Bunting after the season. And then there's a bunch of forward UFAs. There's a lot of red on their roster right now actually. So retool on the fly. Maybe you do this again next year. Maybe you go big game hunting next season for the final year of Genny Malkin. We're assuming Sydney Crosby signs a new contract for the later years of Sydney Crosby. And you wheel and deal. You go a year at a time each to year at a time until Sydney Crosby's gone and then it is. All right, everyone out the door. First round draft picks. Here we go. Or I mean maybe this transition becomes a lot smoother than you think because maybe Braden Jaeger looks really good. You want to talk about prospects you haven't just you didn't you didn't mention. Maybe what Pickering turns it around whenever he turns pro. Maybe there is some diamonds in the rough in this penguin system that maybe Tristan Bros does something big. There's all kind of options that could maybe turn this team into a how did they get here in the second, third round of the playoffs. You never know. Hey, I love the optimism. I don't quite share it. But I love the optimism. We'll see what the Penguins were able to do. I think it's going to be more towards the beginning of that sentence where it was, you know, they're going to give these guys the opportunity, you know, bovilliate grislic. They're of the same ilk need a fresh start need to come and do a new situation. But if they succeed, the penguins should have a half decent team, especially still led by a Sydney Crosby that's been very good by led by Chris Latang that for the most part has been very good by led by a And I've guinea maulkin that's been for the most part very good. If those guys can step their game up and meaning the guys that are brought in bovilliers and lasazades and Kevin Hayes, then maybe this seems does squeak into the playoffs, but that's not going to be the goal as stated by Kyle Dubas. The goal is to try to build from the ground up a contender and hope that it coincides with the team that is still currently trying to hang on. Let's finish this episode off by asking one simple question for what what is the biggest piece remaining for the Pittsburgh Penguins this off season as of as of right now. They have about $4.29 million remaining, according to cat friendly, who were gonna shortly stop being able to reference. What do you think is that biggest piece remaining, the biggest piece of the puzzle that they still need to go out and get. Someone to play with Sydney Crosby. Yeah, Brian Russ is going to be there. He's gonna be perfectly fine. If you have to start the season with Drew O'Connor. All right, fine. And maybe it's, it, it'll feel a bit like that. I mean, Jerry and Genssel 2.0 almost, whereas there's an obvious piece next to him. Who's the other guy? All right, I'm pretty sure I got the name wrong with Jerry and someone else. But it, or even Coon it's Dupuis. Oh, Coon, it's a good option. I mean, first line good. So I think that's how that'll feel. So you don't hate it, but you wish there was something more there, IE. Thank you, Joshua for saying the Penguins gave an offer to Vladimir Teresenko. And that doesn't mean they're not getting them. It just means that the moment things are on hold, we'll see where that goes. That's a name that could fit somewhere in the lineup to help Sydney Crosby. And though he's a right side, they're kind of looking for a left. But maybe if that's a guy you get next to, you know, you got to hit some shuffle buttons. You guys are making other moves. It's a long off season ahead. It's only July 2nd. And the biggest piece right now is getting a left winger or someone to play with Sydney Crosby and a 1B to what's next gets into Crosby's contract. Yeah, obviously there was a report from David Paknota that they had been talking and things have been moving along, but don't be surprised if it doesn't happen today. Crosby's being patient with it. But I think both sides know that there's going to be a deal done. The other thing that Paknota said is through your deal, which, by the way, we've been talking about on this show for multiple, multiple months. But no, the Teresenko thing is interesting. If you look at daily face-offs projections, two years, $4.15 million, that is under what the Penguins currently have remaining under their salary cap. And that's if they don't even move on from a guy like Ella that would open up some space, like a guy like Jari, which would open up a lot of space, but obviously create a massive hole for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the gold-tending ranks. Teresenko had 23 goals, 55 points and 76 games played, not to mention he was a big piece to the Florida Panthers' Stanley Cup run. You know, I like that, you know, he said the Penguins made an offer. The question is going to be, "What does Teresenko want?" He just won the cup. So does he want that feeling again, right? He's a two-time cup champion, 2019 with St. Louis and now last season with Florida, or does he want some money and want to go to a fun situation? You know, you mentioned he plays the right side. You're not moving Brian Rust away from Sidney Crosby, and right now you need a left guy. Maybe you move, we talked about this before the show, maybe you move a Ricardo Kellup to play with Crosby, who he's sometimes played his best hockey with in Pittsburgh with Crosby. And for the first time in what seems like his entire career, Evgeny Malkin gets a Russian winger that's able to score goals. I mean, Sergey Plotnikov was supposed to be that, certainly didn't work out there, but, you know, you bring in a bona fide goal-scoring Russian winger from Evgeny Malkin. I'm sure the, you know, Gino wouldn't be too disappointed at that either. That'd be a good one. There's another connection there. But, like I said, that's kind of the thought process I had, is if you, let's say you sign and bring in Tara Sanko, then maybe you do just have to hit the shuffle button and make other moves to maybe finally make a trade to add that winger to play on the left side of Sidney Crosby. Maybe you, maybe you do go with Ricardo Kellup on the left side. I mean, one of the big themes of last training camp was these guys are going to play their off-winds. These guys are going to be able to play both sides because we're going to need that flexibility. I don't remember Raquel's portion of that, but I'm sure he spent time on the left side, too, if he needed to. So, there's going to be flexibility there. Maybe that's the same game going into this camp, too. Maybe it is you're going to play her off-wing every so often. Get used to it. Yeah, so it's obviously going to be a name to watch is Vladimir Tara Sanko. Most of the 10 names that we put out there as far as, you know, the 10 names to watch have been taken off the board, some of them before free agency even opened. Sorry. My Max Stomi dreams had been shattered before, you know, July 1 even came around, but the other thing that Kyle Dubas might end up doing, and he mentioned it yesterday, is he could probably search the trade market and try to find somebody there because one, you know what contract you're going to get the guy on. Two, you might be able to do something like the Kevin Hayes contract where they're trying to get rid of a guy. You can maybe even get something else in return, and you're not going to have to give up too much by way of, you know, looking at your own assets. I don't know the one name that is still standing out as a huge name that would certainly look good alongside Sydney Crosby. And this is, again, this might be a I need to readjust my expectations of the penguins considering where they're at as an organization, especially their on ice product going in the next season. Nikolai Eelers is said to be packaged with record McGurty in certain trade packages. That is a good enough prospect to where I'm saying, all right, some of these draft picks can go out the door. If you're bringing in record McGurty with Nikolai Eelers. But again, that price is probably unrealistic. Whatever that price ends up being from Winnipeg is probably unrealistic and a little bit too high for Kyle Dubas is appetite. Can we offer you a slightly used Lars Eller? Yeah, I think the Winnipeg Jets will just right away. Eelers and McGurty for Lars Eller. That's, that's, I think that gets it done. Hey, it picks probably a first, probably a first. I was so close to saying and thank goodness I didn't. I was so close to saying, take Tristan Jari. Oh, wait, nope, you're set there. Yeah, they're good there with the Vessner trophy winner. Yeah. Um, because they're not going to take Ryan Graves and that's it. I just don't see Ricardo Kell getting moved yet either. So, there you have it. Yeah, that's, I mean, again, that's a pipe dream. I think more realistically would be them trying to go out there and get Vladimir Tarasenko. I'm trying to look up the Utah Hockey Club because they did a lot of work on their defense yesterday. You know, I just thought it was funny that everybody said, you know, Utah, perfect place for Ryan Graves. They don't care. They don't have any defensemen. Well, they got guys that are a little bit higher quality. You know, Mikhail Serkachev, they overpaid Ian Cole. I mean, Jesus, $3.1 million for Ian Cole, but just John Marino, but John Marino as well. They still have Sean Dursey. They did a pretty good job with their defense. I don't think, you know, dumping off Ryan Graves was ever going to be a possibility for them considering what they were able to pull off. So interesting moves from Utah. Also, last thing I'll leave you with. If you're mad about Matt Grizzlyk at 2.75, at least it is not Ian Cole at 3.1. How about at least it's not a 34 year old for six years? There's also that. I'll leave the air of mystery and who that is. Yeah. Well, that's going to do it for this episode of the tip of the iceberg. Obviously, we will be back tomorrow with a livestream around four o'clock. Eastern and on Thursday morning with a full episode of tip of the iceberg breaking down more of what we saw yesterday and hopefully some more moves as free agency continues to unfold. But that's it for this one. Thank you guys so much. We'll see you next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
