School is back and Exporting Goods has what you need to win your year. We've got everything from cleats to sambas, dunks, and more. Plus, the hottest looks from Nike, Jordan, and Adidas. Find your first day fits in-store or online at dicks.com. Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Tip of the Iceberg Live, your home for Pittsburgh, Penguins, News, and Analysis. You can find us on YouTube or anywhere you get your podcast from by simply searching Tip of the Iceberg. It's going to be a busy week for the NHL at all 32 teams involved, obviously the Stanley Cup awarded a couple of days ago to the Florida Panthers. But today, the Board of Governors meeting tomorrow, we have the NHL Awards Friday, round one of the NHL Draft Saturday rounds two through seven of the NHL Draft Sunday, a break, a rare break in this week. And then Monday, the chaos begins with the opening of free agency. But the chaos has already started around the National Hockey League. This weird schedule has trades coming at times that you wouldn't expect it has trade markets looking like you wouldn't expect them to. And with that comes a lot of questions. Obviously, the Penguins answered a question of their own last week whenever they signed Alex Adelkovich. But when you look at the gold-tetting market, it has been busier than it has been in years passed by a long shot. We're not even to the opening of free agency. And there are already four, you could argue, four starting gold tenders that were on the move from their team to most of them coming over to the Eastern Conference. You have Jacob Markstrom going to the New Jersey Devils. You have Darcy Kemper moving outside of the Metro division, going over to the Los Angeles Kings. You have Leanis Allmark on Monday night going to the Ottawa Senators. That's a big name off the list. And then you have Jonas Corporasolo in that trade going back to the Boston Bruins as they continue to want to have a tandem that is a 1A1B with Jeremy Swamin and now Jonas Corporasolo. With that in mind, that leaves not a lot of options for the Pittsburgh Penguins. A lot of teams are coming off of the board when it comes to the gold-tending trade market. And there are some names on the free agent market that certain teams are going to be okay with just going out and trying to acquire those guys. So there might be a lull here in the gold-tending market as those free agents come off the board and then we look and see when the dust settles, what teams don't have a dance partner? What teams need an upgrade still after the opening of free agency with some of those top names, guys like a Cam Talbot who is coming off a year where he played pretty well, although LA chose to go out there and hopefully get an upgrade. I mean, wasn't a great year for Darcy Kemper in Washington, but they're hoping that he's an upgrade over what Cam Talbot brought, but Cam Talbot outside of his year in auto, excuse me, 9/10 save percentage over his last five seasons and above, not just 9/10, but 9/10 and above. So he's on the open market. Ilya Sam Sonov has proven to be a half-decent gold tender throughout his career at the National Hockey League. He is going to be entering the open market on Monday, but that brings me to the bulk majority of this episode before we get into listener questions and thank you to everybody that has tuned in right now live on YouTube at tip of the iceberg. Drop your questions in the comment section below and we'll get to it here in a little bit and football goat underscore CR seven is already getting to it. Where does Tristan Jari go? Who is left to call if you're the Pittsburgh Penguins to try to offload Tristan Jari? We heard from Elliot Friedman on Tuesday's podcast of 32 thoughts saying, well, Tristan Jari might be a name out there that is available and he might be considered to be among guys like a leanness hallmark, guys like John Gibson, whose name has been floated out a little bit more this week and we'll talk about him in a little bit of a in a minute here. But Tristan Jari, if available, you know, all folks around the league are saying he is going to be one of those top names that people are going to be gunning after. But the question remains and as I've alluded to here for a couple of minutes and I'm going to get into here in a second, who is left? Who is left to acquire Tristan Jari? Let's start with the one that football goat throughout here. He says Tristan Jari and two or a second round draft pick to Toronto and Pittsburgh gets a fourth round pick and an okay prospect Kyle Dubas would be a massive loser in that trade. I understand the thoughts of Tristan Jari are low, but you're not trading him and a second round pick for a fourth. I don't think you go back at that point. I don't think you get a worse pick in a trade for Tristan Jari at that point. But the Toronto Maple Leafs, they are an option. Now whether or not Brad should we live in the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Kyle Dubas end up striking a deal, that's a conversation for a different day. That's more about personalities that I don't have all the insight into because I don't know how their relationship is off the ice. But when you look at the Toronto Maple Leafs just on paper, they are 100% an option for Tristan Jari. $15.7 million in salary cap space. They have about a half dozen, a little over a half dozen players that they need to sign with that $19 million, but there is a player that 100% would fit the bill for the Pittsburgh Penguins. And in fact, somebody in the comments section last week during our live stream throughout Nick Robertson's name and said what I'd be interested if I was Kyle Dubas and Nick Robertson, the answer is heck yeah, this is a young guy who hasn't gotten the opportunities that he might have wanted in Toronto. And if you bring him over to Pittsburgh, that's an area where he's going to get more opportunities, consistent opportunities in the middle six, because that's what the Pittsburgh Penguins need right now. They need players that are going to be able to push a Drew Connor, players that are going to be able to battle with a guy like Ricardo Kell on the right side. And they're looking to offload Riley Smith, all reports indicate that. So there's going to be an opening and a guy like Nick Robertson coming back, I think is exactly what you want if you're the Pittsburgh Penguins, a young player with high pedigree and could potentially become part of the next three, four, five years of the Pittsburgh Penguins future as a decent middle six guy, if you can play up to his potential. And I think it fits as a potential return. The problem with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and you'll find that all three of the teams that I'm about to mention, there is a problem with them. And the problem with the Toronto Maple Leafs is outside of Nick Robertson. What are you getting back? There's not a lot of draft capital on the books for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a similar situation as the Pittsburgh Penguins. I like the fit Tristan Jari in Toronto. I like Nick Robertson as part of the return if they're willing to give up on them, but they just don't have a lot of picks to choose from. I don't think you want, I mean, you could, you could take a fifth round pick, you could take a sixth round pick, but at the end of the day, at that point, you're banking on being able to do the remainder of your work in separate moves. And maybe Kyle Dubas can do that. He was very active last offseason. In fact, one of the most active president of hockey ops/general managers in the National Hockey League. I just think that there's not a lot of meat on that bone when it comes to draft capital from the Toronto Maple Leafs. That's the one poison pill with them, but still, they could be a very interesting team as we move on here. And the goalie market continues to slow down a little bit with these teams starting to find their guys. Looking at the next team on this list here. Their Canadian team, Calgary Flames, $22.2 million in salary cap space and the big thing with them is they just need goal tenders, right? They have, I'm blanking on his name. I know the prospect they have and I'll get to him in a minute, but they have the goal tender that started his career in Boston. This is going to bother me. Let me look it up really quickly. I can't believe that my brain completely shut off. Dan Vlodar. I was thinking Curtis Lazar for some reason, but Dan Vlodar is the only goal tender at the NHL level over there under contract. They could use another goal tender. Tristed Jari would be a decent fit on that team. A team that I'm not exactly sure where they're trying to go. When you look at the Calgary Flames, you look at two years ago, they made the trade, you know, sending Matthew Kachuk down to Florida for Mackenzie Uighur and Jonathan Hubertow. And they just have not been good the last two years. And now it reports are out there that Andrew Manji Apani is on his way out there looking to move on from him. They moved on from Chris Tanev at the NHL's trade deadline. So this is a team that, by all intents and purposes, should be looking for a rebuild, but they do have a lot of players. I mentioned Hubertow. I mentioned Mackenzie Uighur. They have now some cadre up there who's still been a very productive player. So what good does a goal tender do for them? Where does that put them in the Western conference, a Western conference where it was a battle for that ninth or eighth and final playoff spot and Calgary was in it for a little bit of time. They get rid of Jacob Markstrom, so maybe they're not looking to bring in a goal tender with a pretty hefty contract and some questions about stability and consistency. But I look at Calgary as a team that has a lot of money and not a lot of needs. And if they bring up Tristan Jari, he could be the holdover until a guy like Dustin Wolf is ready because he is on the horizon for them. He's their goal tender of the future or so they hope. So I think it would be interesting if Calgary ends up getting into this conversation, especially because you could see a hockey trade there. Tristan Jari for Andrew Manjiapani, that feels a penguins need of being a top six middle six winger, a guy that can score 25 plus goals and has shown and proven that he can score 25 plus goals and also gets the team a little bit younger. So Calgary, Toronto, those two teams at the top of my list. This third team is interesting. I've heard that the Colorado Avalanche have been in the market for a goal tender, but when I look at their cap situation, it is a 100% mess. It is a complete and utter disaster, $11.3 million remaining in salary cap space. Gabriel Landis Cog missed the entire season, right? So if he's going to start the year on LTIR, you'd have to imagine at some point you want him to come off of it. You need that space available, but then you have the whole Valeri Nachushkin thing. Is he going to play? Obviously he's been suspended, but is he going to come back at some point next season? Do you have to account for that salary cap space? If you do, then those are two players that you're not going to have on your opening night roster, but you need to account for at some point in the season. So you still only have $11.3 million in salary cap space and only half of a roster signed. So I have no idea what they're going to do. The rumors are out there and my buddy's over at lockdown, Penguin's Hunter Hodes and Patrick Damp said Ross Colton being available would be an interesting name for the Pittsburgh Penguins. And it certainly would help if the Colorado Avalanche or the market for goalie, a deal could be done there. That helps both sides. Ross Colton, third line center comes in, younger guy bumps Lars out of the fourth line and you bring in a guy that has experience on very good teams. Remember he cut his teeth with those Tampa Bay Lightning back-to-back championships. I believe he was only in on the second one where he scored the Stanley Cup clinching goal, but you bring in a guy that has some offensive punch that has played on some winning teams and really only played on winning teams in his career, $4 million on his contract at three more years. He's a young guy. I don't hate that as a, as a, not one for one trade. I'm sure there's going to be draft picks involved, something to that extent, but you know, there is a lot of control in Ross Colton, a third line center. And then you're set down the middle and then you can go into free agency with a little over a million extra dollars in salary cap space. If you move on from Tristan Jari and you can address one A, one B, whichever you view, the vacancy Jari leaves and however you view Alex Nadelkovich and then just wingers. I think they need an upgrade on defense. It remains to be seen whether or not the Penguins agree, but it would leave wingers, maybe one defender, maybe one goaltender and about $12 million in salary cap space, not to mention some flexibility with two years left on Adelkovich, whatever you want to sign that extra goaltender for and opening the door a little bit more for a guy like Joel Blunkfist, who everybody's excited about. Now the, the other thing about Colorado outside of their crazy cap situation and needing to send cap out is they'd have to move on from your gift. This contract and Tristan Jari's contract cannot coexist on the same line and on the same team. So I would say those are the three teams that I'm looking for. When it comes to what's left, you know, New Jersey's off the books, Ottawa is off the books. Boston is done. They had to move all Mark. They were going to bring somebody else in, but they did all of that and one fail swoop. They're done. Los Angeles Kings likely done. How does the rest of the shake out? Those three teams are the three teams I'm keeping an eye on and now that brings up the question because once you get rid of Tristan Jari, once you move on from Tristan Jari, if indeed that is what the penguins end up doing, what's the plan after that? What's next if you're the Pittsburgh Penguins, right? You had to bring somebody in because you can't go into next season with Alex Adelkovich, a guy who has been good for you, but at the end of the day is not a starting caliber guy from Game 1 to Game 82. He's not a number one. At least he hasn't shown that so far in his career. He could prove me wrong and I think that would be great for the Penguins. You can't go into the season with him though. And your Blancfist who has not stepped foot on an NHL ice surface for an actual game at the National Hockey League level. Not with a team that is aspiring to be a playoff team, aspiring to do more, but of course you got to get there first. That can't be the plan. So you got to bring somebody else in. I already mentioned a couple free agents that I like, Cam Tal, but I think would be a really solid piece. I don't think he's going to come expensive. I don't think he's going to get a long term deal because he's on the older side. But I think wherever he goes, he typically produces, right? I mean, Ottawa was the one exception to the rule, excuse me, but everywhere else that he's gone in the last five years, nine 10 plus in the same percentage category. That's more, I mean, get that with a lesser contract to be able to move things around in front and make the team better. That sets the Penguins up well. Elias Sam Sonov's another name that I have my eye on on July 1st. I'm intrigued to see where he goes and how the league views him because he's had some injury issues. He didn't hold on to the net this past season in Toronto. It was passed around from Joseph Wold, Martin Jones at some point. It wasn't his net. It was everybody's net it seemed to be at certain points in Toronto. So the question becomes, how does the league view him? Is there going to be a bidding war, especially with some of these questions already answered in the trade market for some of these teams? Those guys coming off the board, as I already mentioned, what's the market for him? Can you get them on a short term deal and maybe get what he was at his peak with the Washington Capitals? Get what he was and you're one with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Even that would be good for the Penguins as long as they get them on a three million, four million dollar deal for two or three years. That's an improvement on what you have Jari on right now, especially considering what he did down the stretch last season. So I think those are two names that you could watch out for if the Penguins do indeed end up in the goaltending market and free agency, but there's a lot of options via trade still too. A lot of guys that could be on the trade block. Now, UC Sorrows, his name has been thrown out there. I'll say right now, that's not happening. Not with the Penguins. Not with the Penguins. I don't think he's going to get traded. I think National is going to hold on to him and let Jari's love a scar of, you know, marinate a little bit and maybe even have a 1A1B, which could be one of the scariest combinations in the National Hockey League, but whenever they have to sign a scare of, they're going to cut Sorrows loose, but it's the same story as last year. They didn't cut them loose because, well, they didn't have to and the price wasn't right. If there's going to be a bidding war, Penguins can't afford to be in that bidding war. They want to keep as many assets as they can. They're not going to try to go out and even though Sorrows would be probably the best way you could answer this question, they're not going to go out and get UC Sorrows. So he's available reportedly. I don't think that's happening with the Penguins. So I don't even have him on my list of realistic options, John Gibson's name has been thrown out there a lot. Obviously, Western Pennsylvania native, that has been the story for his entire career. There's always been the connection to Pittsburgh. There's always been everybody saying, John Gibson to Pittsburgh would be great. He has not had a great couple of years in Anaheim. But again, is it the player? Is it the team? He's had some injuries at the same time. What do you want from John Gibson? Will Anaheim retain, which sidebar Anaheim, New Jersey's? I like them. They were badly in need of something like that. Just a little bit too orange for my liking, but hey, not upset with them much better than what they had before. But well, Anaheim retain, I got like John Gibson because he makes what $6 million I believe against the salary cap, or six and a half, 6.3, I believe is the actual number. So you'd be paying almost $9 million for your goaltending tandem for the next couple of seasons. Maybe John Gibson going off if you get some retained salary in there, maybe you offload Riley Smith that helps balance it out for this next season. It's an option. Is it a great option? No, because I don't know what John Gibson would be on a good team. And as we've stated on the podcast, can you consider the penguins a good team, especially when it comes to defense going in the next season? They were one of the worst defensive teams in the National Hockey League. So is coming to Pittsburgh really going to be that different when it comes to what's happening in front of him for John Gibson that it was in Anaheim? I don't know. He had under a 900 save percentage last season. So you're buying low on this guy that has a good history, right? He's shown it at the National Hockey League level, but I just think it's too little too late for the John Gibson train. And while it'd be a great story, I'm not exactly sure if that's a smart buy if you're Kyle Dubas. So you do have Gibson. He is an option. And then you have the two interesting guys, the guys that have somewhat of a resume at the National Hockey League level, but one isn't played on a playoff team and the other had a great season last year and then fell off and had a sub 900 save percentage this year. I'm talking about Elvis Merz-Lincoln's at the Columbus blue jackets and Phillip Gustafson, former penguins prospect, former penguins draft pick of the Minnesota wild does Billy Garen say, all right, we're cutting, cutting bait. We're going after one of these other options to pair with Mark Andre Flurry in his last year. If so, Gustafson's not a bad option. You bring him in here has two years left on his deal at $3.75 million all of a sudden instead of paying $5.4 million for Tristan Jari, you're paying $5.4 million for Phillip Gustafson, who had a 931 save percentage last season in his first real season. Getting the bulk majority of starts or at the very least, getting a fair share of starts in Minnesota. He had a bad year this year. You'd have him, Alex Nadelkovich, and then you'd have your Blancfist waiting in the wings. I don't hate that if I'm the Pittsburgh penguins. I don't think I'm overpaying for that, but I don't hate that as an option. Same goes for Elvis Merz Lincoln's only problem is you're buying another year, you're buying more money. $5.4 million for the next three years. Don't hate the player, hate the contract. That's my biggest issue with a guy like Elvis Merz Lincoln. So when I look at the options, if the penguins were to move on from Tristan Jari, I'm thinking Gustafson, I'm gritting my teeth and saying Gibson's there, but before I go after Gibson, I'm checking in on Ilya Samsonov and Cam Talbot. So I would probably say if you're on the trade market, Gustafson, if you're going on free agency market, you might have to pay a little bit more for a guy like Ilya Samsonov, because he's a little bit younger. But if you don't want to pay a lot of money, Cam Talbot was good, but I don't think he's going to command a whole lot of money at the age that he is. He's been a little bit of a suitcase last couple of years in the league, so I don't hate that as an option for the penguins either. But again, this is all predicated on if the penguins move on from Tristan Jari. The odds of that happening, my gut feeling at this point is 60% it happens, 40% it doesn't. And the 40% it doesn't is so high simply because the market has been unpredictable so far. I didn't see Corporasolo and Olmark being exchanged within division. I didn't see that at all, especially Olmark. There was some reporting from Elliott Freeman that Olmark would have had the Ottawa Senators on his no-trade list if it got past July 1st. It's an interesting story. That's a little bit of drama to keep an eye on. Obviously, he's in need of a new contract after this season, so we'll see what ends up happening there. But the goal-setting market has been intriguing. It has certainly been the highlight of the off-season to this point. And I think it's going to continue to stay that way as we head towards the opening of free agency on Monday. I'm going to take a quick break. It has been a very active comment section. Already have a couple of questions headlined and highlighted for the listener question segment of this show. But going to take a quick break when I come back, we'll get into those. So if you have any more questions and you're watching live here on tip of the iceberg on YouTube, make sure you drop them in and we'll try to get to it after this quick break. This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all gotten back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place every game every Sunday. And you can even watch up to four different games at once with MultiView, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical and also, YouTube TV is great. I got it this year. It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com/BS device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket for out-of-market games, excludes digital-only games. Welcome back to the tip of the iceberg live. Thank you to everybody for bearing with me through that quick one-minute break that I took there. I'm going to start continuing to that because it gives me a chance to look over some of the great questions that we have today. A lot of them pertaining to this goaltending market, and I love it. I love continuing to talk about the goaltending market because that is going to be one of the biggest question marks going into a very busy weekend across the National Hockey League. Let's start though with something that's not on the goaltending market. My fellow Nicholas, Nicholas Sarka says, "Do you think we can get Steven Stamkos?" Nicholas, that's a brave thing to do in our comments section because of his age. And a lot of people in our comments section do not like veteran players. At least they don't want veteran players coming to the Pittsburgh Penguins this offseason. Although Steven Stamkos is interesting, I don't think they're going to be able to afford him. I think there is a high chance that he ends up back with a Tampa Bay Lightning simply because it's a legacy thing. I don't think he's going to take a pay cut, but it's going to be either Tampa or I feel like he's going to go play in a Canadian market either way, you know, outside of predicting exactly where he's going to go, which I don't think I'm going to be able to do. It's not going to be Pittsburgh. It'd be great if it was simply because you're bringing another guy, and I mentioned last week the Penguins haven't had a guy since Phil Kessel to score the quote, "easy goals." Just coming down the wing, being able to blow the puck past a goaltender and just beat him top shell for beat him six hole, similar to what you saw Sam Reinhardt do for the Stanley Cup winning goal. They haven't had that guy since Phil Kessel departed back in, what, 2019. So Steven Stamkos would be that, not only that, Steven Stamkos would finally bring a little bit of stability to the left half wall in the power play, and we talk about the Penguins power play at the end of the day. It's not going to be a personnel issue that fixes it. It's going to need to be, you know, something within this game. It's something's going to need to click with the players that have been out there, especially this past season with Carlson, Malkin and Crosby. It needs to be the players there. Personnel is not going to change them from 28th, I think, or 29th or 30th, wherever they finish last season, abysmal is where they finish last season. Well, one player, even as somebody as great as Steven Stamkos isn't going to fix that power play, but it sure does help to have that shot on the left side and it sure would make things interesting. So I like the question, I love Steven Stamkos. I just don't think the Penguins are going to be in play for any of these big name free agents, him, Jake Genssel, unfortunately, and also you can throw in Sam Reinhardt into that mix as well. Let's go over to Grant's question. He says, why does everybody think Jari is going anywhere? Then simply say he wouldn't be surprised, but I've heard nothing solid about him really being on the market. Well, Grant, here's the thing. It was Rob Rossi of the athletic that shortly after the season put out a piece that said the Penguins were obviously not pleased with the way that Tristan Jari performed and the fact that he lost his net towards the tail end of the season. And I think this is me speaking here now. What do you see a meaningless game after Alex Nadelkovich has started 12th straight. You could say that he might have been running out of gas. The Penguins were eliminated from playoff contention. There's no reason to start Nadelkovich in that last game. And yet they did. They didn't even give Tristan Jari a meaningless game there. They didn't give Tristan Jari anything down that stretch. You can say it was just riding the hot hand, but to me it felt like a little bit more. The reason everybody is thinking Jari is going somewhere is because do you really want to spend, what is it, 2.25 plus 5.4? Do you really want to spend 7.6, 7.7 millions, nearly 8 million dollars in salary cap space on a Jari Nadelkovich pairing going into next season again. Nadelkovich who has stolen everybody's hearts, but is still usually around a 900 to 904 say percentage goaltender. And Tristan Jari who after January 1st turns into a pumpkin. I don't think you're going into next season and being very comfortable with that. If that's what they have to do, I'm sure they'll do it. Now I'm sure they'll come out and say that they've trusted Tristan Jari this whole time, but the end of the day, they need an upgrade. They do. Tristan Jari has shown that he can't do it in the big games. He can't do it under the bright lights. They need an upgrade there. And again, there's room for, I'm not the end-all-be-all. I'm not the last word on hockey. There's room for him to go out there and shove it in my face and be a great performer, but he hasn't done it to this point. And if it looks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. Right now, Tristan Jari being a duck means that he just can't perform when the lights get the brightest. Excuse me. Team Crusade has a question here, says, "What are the penguins' biggest draft needs? They need defensemen. Plain and simple. Their best prospect position is goaltender. Yoblongfist. Really good. Sergey Mershev, really good. I even like the guy that they brought in this season that was a Detroit Red Wings draft pick. I like him in the minor leagues, as well. Pretty good. Taylor Goat TA was one of the best goal-tenders in the East Coast Hockey League this past season. Really good. They're flushed with goal-tenders. That doesn't mean they can't add another one. But when it comes to their biggest draft need, it is defense. And in any way, shape or form, as far as style, any way, shape or form, because you look at their defensive prospects, there's Owen Pickering, who had a really good year, had a productive year, his climb in the ranks is progressing well with his development. You have Isaac Belavo, who played the majority of this past season at the East Coast Hockey League. It remains to be seen whether or not he's going to be able to become an NHL or one day. And you have Emil Pianiniemi, who was a draft pick last year. It's very early to determine what he is, but he signed to an ELC, and we'll see where he goes this year. Outside of that, there's not a lot of guys that are making a lot of progress. There's not a lot of guys that are making the top 10 prospects list for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and not even a lot of honorable mentions on that list either. So they need defenders. And that's going to be the biggest thing that I'm looking for this weekend, is how many people of the draftees does Kyle Dubas select from the defensive side of things? Yankees dynasty. You do see the pirates ball behind me, right? Man, Yankees dynasty. Must be nice to have a consistently good baseball team. But let's get to your question here, Yankees dynasty. Thank you so much, a platoon in the show based one out of 10. What do you believe the chances are that Jari is moved and what would be the best return? So we'll go back to what we talked about early and I'll make a decision based on those three teams of the best return. But I think I said 60 40, so I'll say six out of 10 odds that Tristan Jari gets moved. And again, I might be wrong, but that's just my gut feeling. The best return. Look at those three. I went with Toronto questionable, but you get Nick Robertson, a nice young player Calgary. You don't open up too much cap space, but you bring in Andrew Manji upon a guy to be in your top six who's under cap control and not a ridiculous cap hit or Colorado. You bring in a third line center in Ross Colton, four million over the next three years. I'd go with Calgary simply for this reason. Over the next three years, as much as I like Ross Colton over the next three years, my personal hope is that one of these prospects steps up. The Silly Potter Marov, Brayden, Yeager, Sam Poulan, one of them takes the mantle of third line center in the next couple of seasons. It's my hope and I think that's what the Penguins are hoping as well. So with that in mind, what do they need? Who can score Andrew Manji upon is the name on that list that I trust the most. So I would go Calgary Flames and I'm sure there's something else that happens in that trade. If it does, but Jerry Manji upon as the principal aspects of a trade, that to me would be the best return of the ones that I've seen so far. Zach Kemp has a question here says, thoughts on Kubelique on a cheap prove it contract. I'm assuming you're talking about Dominic Kubelique, but I will check that off before. But if it's Dominic Kubelique, I don't know. I guess you could throw him a bone the same way that we saw guys like Vinny Hinnestroza, Redeem Zahorna. Kubelique has had a little bit more success than those two, maybe not Hinnestroza. Same thing, bring him in here one year prove it deal like you mentioned. If he doesn't perform, he can go play in the minors. He can go play in Wilkes-Barr. I think you bring him in maybe. I don't hate that as competition. I don't think you bring him in here with the thought process that he is immediate filler and immediate starter for you next season and he's holding a position and above some of these other guys. I think you bring him in for competition. Don't hate that one. Zach Attack asks about Tampa Bay's captain, Steven Stamkos talked about that a few minutes ago. I think that was the first question I answered so you can go back to the break and that will be the first question that I answered there. Team Crusade says, what about Gibson for Raquel and either a pick or an older prospect like a Jonathan Gruden? Jonathan Gruden's in an interesting position because Jonathan Gruden is a guy who is going to get passed over in a lot of people's eyes by Panomarev, by Vili Koivunin, by Brayden Yeager, if he ends up being ready for the NHL at 19 years old, but I think Gruden brings that a lot of those guys don't bring are the intangibles that you need in a bottom six player, specifically a fourth line guy. If you look at his game last year, all 13 that he played is a physical guy, underrated American Hockey League level that he has some of that scoring talent. So because of that, maybe he's a valuable piece around the league and maybe that could be used to help sway some opinions for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the trade market, but I wouldn't rule him out as being a guy that they look at as one of their answers in the bottom six, specifically on the fourth line on the wing. So again, as far as the trade, Team Crusade, John Gibson, for Raquel, you do get out from under that contract, even though I like Raquel he had a down season, I think that he could bounce back this year. You're playing the odds with three more years after this season, he has four years left on that contract. Again, not sure what we were doing with that one, Ron Hekstahl, but he has four more years left on that contract. You get out from under that, you bring in John Gibson and he doesn't have a great contract either, but again, he could be an expensive one B in a couple of years time to a guy like Joe Blungfist, if all things work out considered and a pick and order prospect. I don't think that's a great move if you're the penguins simply because again, I struggle on whether or not John Gibson will be good enough to provide an upgrade over Tristan Jari. I know I've talked down on Tristan Jari at his best. Jari is a top 10 goalie in this league and better than every other goalie that I've mentioned on the show as being an option. He's just never at his best when it matters most. And I'm not sure John Gibson hasn't played important games in a long time. So I'm not sure I'm giving up, I'm not sure I'm giving up a guy like Ricardo Cal who would be. It's already hard that you got to replace Jake Genssel this offseason on the left side. You'd have to replace a pretty solid goal scoring guy on the right side as well. That would not be easy and obviously with the salary cap, the way it is, it makes it even more difficult. Let me look through here because I fell behind because all of you guys are throwing in some great questions. So I gotta just scroll through really quickly, see if there's any other questions here and if you have some, make sure that you throw them into the comment section here. Let's go to Jay's question. Says likelihood that Drew O'Connor starts the season in the top six. I don't think it's very likely and I don't think that it should be likely. I like Drew O'Connor. He more than held his own last year as I break my chair. He more than held his own last year in the top six. He more than held his own with Sidney Crosby and you saw it down that stretch. The penguins were dominant in certain games and Drew O'Connor was a huge reason as to why he was there because he was starting to find his finishing capabilities. He was starting to find the back of the net a little bit more. He was starting to utilize his speed and be comfortable with his speed on the ice. So I really liked what I saw from him last year, but at the same time, when you look at a team in the penguins that is trying to compete with, for example, the Florida Panthers, you need depth and that has been the penguins issue the last couple of seasons is they have not had that depth. Is Drew O'Connor able to keep his head afloat and perform well in the top six? Yes, but at the same time, would it be better off if he's facing off against third line opponents? Would it be better off if he's going up against fourth lines for opposing teams? Yeah, you bet. In fact, that's been the issue with the penguins. They haven't had enough good players to where they have people that are performing well in their third line. The penguins third line for the past couple of seasons has been well, whoever struggling throw them on the third line, Riley Smith example, number eight, Carter Kell, well, he's struggling with the Crosby hasn't played well with Malkin's throw them on the third line. See if he can get his act together. Okay. That's what the third line has been. That's what the bottom six has been for the penguins over the past couple of seasons. If you can bring in players at the top of the lineup that bump down Drew O'Connor for no fault of his own, you're in a much better position because they need players like that in the bottom six. They need to be able to put their better players who are playing well, excuse me, down in the bottom six. So that's where I'm at on, on, on Drew O'Connor. I do like them. I do think that there's definitely a likelihood that he gets into the top six, but I think he starts the season in the bottom six. If the penguins get their way. Dapton says, and dream scenario here, line a marner or zigress. All of them obviously reported to potentially be on their way out of their current teams. It's interesting. Of those three, give me Trevor Zigress. People are going to hate that. People dislike Trevor Zigress because of, you know, attitude. I understand it. I get it, hockey is a very, you know, know your place, unwritten rules, type of sport, and the fan base follows along, and I like that too. But man, there's a lot of talent there. There is a lot of talent there and it's going to be less expensive than trying to acquire Mitch Marner. And it's more of a sure thing than a Patrick line A, in my opinion. And I think it goes right along with what Kyle Dubas wants, younger, more talented, more goals, zigress is younger, he's talented, and he's going to bring that foot speed of the Pittsburgh penguins way up Mitch Marner would too. And don't get me wrong, which Marner is a hundred points core. I think there's a lot of people disrespecting Mitch Marner that need to remember how much offensive production he creates, maybe not in the playoffs. But you know, there's a lot of talent in those three. Personally, I would go Trevor Zigress, take a drink. Christopher asks, Jeff Skinner is going to be bought out by Buffalo guys pretty good on the power play. Jeff Skinner is somebody that, I mean, he's not getting paid nine million dollars anymore, which was ridiculous in the first place. Wouldn't be a bad depth option, but at the same time, I just don't think the penguins are in a position to where they want to add a veteran like that. A guy that has a lot of offensive talent, but he does what a lot of penguins do and he just evaporates through out of thin air for multiple weeks at a time. Penguins Zigress are going to be a little bit more consistent and when they're not consistently scoring, they need guys that are going to want to hit. They need guys that are going to want to forecheck. Jeff Skinner doesn't do any of that. So I would pass on him if I were the penguins, he's expected to be bought out as the buyout windows open tomorrow. Zachary Durosa says, do you think possibly moving Smith to Columbus for Leine and moving Jari to get value while the market is still doing well as a good start for Pitt? If you move Riley Smith to Columbus, which I don't hate Smith's fit in Columbus, that's a very young team that needs some veterans to show them the way. Smith to Columbus for Leine that offsets the salary cap with about 3.7 left over that Pittsburgh's eating and moving Jari to get value. I don't think it's an awful start. No, I think Zach, it's a pretty good start there, but I think the one thing that you have questions with is Leine going to be, and again, teams were not able to talk to Leine about, you know, the specifics of being in the player assistance program and everything to that extent, it's going to be whether or not, and the success of that being your first move would be dependent on solely on whether or not Patrick Leine turns back into the guy that he was early in his career. I'm again, that I don't know. That's a tough one. But as far as you get out Smith, you open up, you know, Smith and Jari. So you open up $10 million, you bring in a guy like Patrick Leine, who is a top tier star caliber guy at his best, and you end up with $1.3 million more in salary cap space. The question then becomes more importantly, who do you get to fill the goal-tending position? We talked about those options earlier, but I think if you, you know, that's been another problem with the Penguins as of late, a lot of times you look at the moves that they've made. All right, they've cleared out space. They've cleared out space. How do they fill the gap? It's bad. I mean, that was Ron Heckstall's last trade deadline in a nutshell, right? That was the synopsis. All right. You cleared out Blueger. All right. You cleared out this guy. All right. You cleared out that guy. What are you going to do with it? Mikhail Grandlin. That's not what you want to do, right? Everything was good. Could have been great. And then you followed up with Mikhail Grandlin. So the question becomes how do you follow that up? I think it's a good start if you end up doing it that way, but you have to follow it up very well because I don't think that puts you in the position to where everything else is gravy. I'm going to continue to make some good moves if that's going to be your start. Brian asks, is there a player the penguins are or will be shopping that we aren't talking about? I feel like most people will talked about Riley Smith for good reason. Some people have talked about Tristan Jari for good reason, Raquel has been brought up obviously in this comment section before a player that we're not talking about. I mean, PO Joseph's rights could be on the move, but again, they've talked about how much they liked what he looked like late in the season with Chris Latang. So I don't know if that's an option. But the penguins don't really have a lot of guys that you look at last off season. There was so much turnover because of, you know, Kyle Dubas coming in and wanting to make it his own team, wanting to change things around, wanting to quickly jumpstart the penguins organization. There was so much turnover that you look at this off season and they're all guys that either can't be moved because their contract, Ryan Graves, is a perfect example. Eric Carlson, another example, cannot be moved, will not be moved. They're not even thinking about moving them or guys that he just acquired and that did not do enough to where they're going to move on from them. We've talked about the ones that have Riley Smith being the main perpetrator, right? So I don't think there's anybody that comes to mind for me that's going to be actively shot by the Pittsburgh Penguins. It just, there's nobody that comes to mind immediately. Drake says Jari to the red wings. That's a team that I looked up when I was, you know, obviously doing my first segment and doing the notes for my first segment. The weird thing about the wings is they paid Vili Huso a decent amount of money to be their number one guy. And they also have a good prospect in the ranks of Ashton Kosa. At the end of the day, I'm not going to try to figure out Steve Iserman because if you look at his trade yesterday of Jake Walman of the San Jose Sharks, it makes no sense. So I don't know. But it's interesting because, you know, you have Nadekovich who came from Detroit to Pittsburgh and found his career, right? Jari, if he does that in the opposite direction, it's not a great thing for the Penguins because the Detroit Red Wings are going to be a team they're battling with the next couple of seasons for wild card positionings, or at least it's most likely that that's going to happen. But there are obviously a couple of interesting names on the Detroit Red Wings. Their salary cap situation is not great. They obviously are, they have $30 million and that's fine. But a third of that's probably going to go to Lucas Rain in this off season. Not to mention, I believe they still have to sign more at Cider. It's going to bother me if I don't look that up really quickly. So let me see where he's at more at Cider's contract. No, he's a restricted free agent too. So they're going to be quickly in a deep, deep hole. So I'm not exactly sure how much flexibility the Detroit Red Wings have at this point in time. Jay's question is how long do you think it'll take Pickering to come up into the big boy league? Well, Owen Pickering has played very little professional hockey. He had a great season in the WHL, all intense purposes. He is on a pretty solid trajectory. But the one thing that I will say about Owen Pickering, and we said it a bunch about Pio Joseph before he came up three years ago. Defensemen take longer to marinate and develop. If you're Owen Pickering, the Penguin's pretty much only option to be a top four defensemen for them in the future. They're going to be pretty secure and they're going to be pretty slow with his process. I'd be very intrigued to see whether or not he plays next season at the American hockey league level or if he plays it at the WHL level back in juniors. You look at what he was able to do last offseason and there was a great piece in the athletic by Scott Wheeler detailing his last offseason, the snub for Team Canada, missing both Penguins training camps since he was drafted due to injury, wrist surgery or wrist injury in his rookie year and then last year a lower body injury. And what that did to his season going into his WHL year with Swift current, if he can stay healthy and have a really good camp and they think that, you know, he's put on the weight, he looks like he's in a good position to play against professionals and he starts the year at Wilkes-Barre. I think that's when we start looking at next season being a possibility for an NHL debut. And by next season, I'm talking about 2025-26 because he's a left shot defense man and the Penguins right now sorely need a top four left shot defense man. But you cannot rush pickering to be that guy next season. You just can't because at the end of the day, what do you get is is a PO Joseph situation where there's nights where he looks like he's on it. He looks like he could be that guy. And then there's nights where he looks like he shouldn't be at the NHL level. And that happened through a lot of of his first stint last year or two years ago, whenever he had his first full stint as an everyday NHLer, he looked really good for the Penguins. And then this past season, he struggled to stay in the lineup. Then down the line, he looked pretty good with Chris Latang. I thought there was still more to be desired personally. But at the end of the day, you don't want to rush defense men, especially because they take a little bit longer to develop. I think if he goes to the AHL level, then we can start talking about 2526 personal opinion. But I think that's where we're at as of his timeline right now from what I've read and from what I've watched of his games, Zach attack says, Hi, I'm just curious. Hi, Zach. I'm just curious. How many trades would be happening on Monday for the Penguins? I mean, there might be trades. The Penguins contingent is already in Las Vegas, right? They're already in Las Vegas. They're already talking with other NHL general managers. They've been talking for weeks as you noticed during the tail end of the Stanley Cup final, these GMs are getting giddy. They want to make their moves. They want to start their offseason. They want to get the show on the road as they should. The schedule is ridiculous. So there's trades that could happen, honestly, it would be nice if it happened right now, so I could talk about it live with all you fine folks in the comment section. But trades could happen whenever. As far as happening on Monday, I think that is, you know, trades are sped. The process of trades are sped up when there are deadlines. Monday's not necessarily a deadline, but if there are players, the Penguins want to sign and they need more salary cap space to have that flexibility, it might force them to expedite the process. It might force them to try to execute some of these trades a little bit quicker, but at the same time, it's not a great way to do business. So as far as Monday, the opening of free agency, maybe you find one. Maybe you don't get any, but I think that going into Monday, the Penguins want to at the very least make one trade. And I think that trade is Riley Smith simply because I don't think there's really any desire from either side to have Riley Smith come back next season. I'd be surprised if there was, but you know, at the end of the day, you still need to find a suitor. And somebody else on the other end that is interested in this player. So that was a big problem at the NHL trade deadline. Nothing for Riley Smith, nothing for Alex Adelkovich, nothing for P.O. Joseph, who was reportedly, you know, floated out there. You have to have somebody who has interest coming back the other way. So that remains to be the big question. We'll see what happens here in the next couple of days. I'm expecting fireworks. Hopefully they do go off with the, you know, a little premature fireworks from the Fourth of July. Corey Durosa has another question, says, would you rather have Lorentra Swah, who's also a free agent, Ilya Samsonov, or Cam Talbot? I believe having a one A one B cheap is better than keeping Jari. Jari's time, I believe, is done in Pittsburgh. He needs a change. I can see where you'd say that. And up until Stuart Skinner went on this run of a lifetime to the Stanley Cup final after he got benched in, I believe it was the second round series, he came back and he looked, it was the third round series against Dallas. Excuse me. The record came in. That was the second round, because I made the joke that sea lofts, I thought would have been the guy that got benched. Either way, Stuart Skinner got benched, came back, was great. I don't think that they're going to go anywhere else besides Stuart Skinner. I thought Edmonton was a great spot for Justin Jari to reinvent his career, his hometown. He had success there with the Edmonton Oil Kings and the WHL. He won the Memorial Cup. I thought that would have been a good, good fit for him. But at the end of the day, of those three, I'm taken, you might get the best play out of Ilya Sam Sonov. But if you're a true believer in your Blancfist, I think you go Cam Talbot because I think at that point, Talbot's probably going to sign a one, two year deal. And at that point, if it's a one year deal, you see what you have in your Blancfist this year a couple of times. And then you just move on at the end of the season from Talbot and Blancfist can just naturally step right into there. So if you, you're a big believer in Joel Blancfist, go Cam Talbot. If you're somebody who still thinks there's a lot that needs to be seen from the young goaltender, go Ilya Sam Sonov because I think at that point, you might get a guy who comes in here and has a 930 save percentage. It's an option. And I think it's a good option if you're the Pittsburgh Penguins. Brian asks, "What kind of money will Dubrusk demand like that he's only 27?" Jake Dubrusk is one of the players that could have a, what's the word I'm looking for here? He could have a, basically a bunch of teams that want them and it drives up the price. I don't know why I can't think of it. According to Daily Faceoff here, I have Jake Dubrusk's expected salary, five years, $5.8 million. If that's what he ends up signing for, I think that's a bit much for the Penguins, especially for a guy that, while I do like his play, while I do think he would fit in with the Penguins, while I do think he would bring a little bit of that Michael Bunting-esque net front presence, putting goals and in rebound goals in, scoring from the net front, which they haven't had in abundance in a while and they would have that in abundance that they had Dubrusk in Bunting one, two. I think five years at $5.7 or $6 million, whatever it ends up being. That's a lot of money and you're kind of handcuffing yourself as to what you can do with the remainder of the lineup. With that being said, is he one of their better options on the free agent market? Yes. Is he one of the youngest options on the free agent market? Yes. So that's what I think the kind of money he's going to demand is probably, you know, obviously Daily Faceoff has him at $5.7. I think he's anywhere between $5 and $6 million per year. It's a gamble a little bit, but it's also a guy that has scored 20 plus goals. It's also a guy that plays physical. It's also a guy that has played with stars before and I'm sure Brad Marshawn and Sidney Crosby will share plenty of notes on what it's like to play with Jake Dubrusk. So it's certainly a name that I'm keeping my eye on and tomorrow on tip of the iceberg. We're going to have our top 10 free agents for the Penguins. It's just a little tease here. Dubrusk is probably going to make his way onto that list. I see this question here. Z smooth, I don't know if you're, you're joking or not. If the penguins signed Stephen Stamkos, what if we trade Malkin? It's not happening. I will shut that down right away. Penguins aren't trading of getting Malkin nor nor should they. They shouldn't. He's one of the best second line centers in hockey. Even this past season when he didn't look his, his best all season long, the production was still there and that was with wingers that couldn't figure it out. Daily Smith, most of the season, Ricardo Cal most of the season, you saw what happened whenever he finally got a, a winger that can actually play to his strengths in Michael Bunting down the tail end of the season. He went off. So Malkin's not going anywhere. I don't have, I don't have any reservations about saying that. He's not going anywhere at all. Looking for any more questions, a bidding war. Thank you, Arthur, Jesus, a bidding war. That's exactly what I was going for for, for Jake Dubrusk. That's exactly what it would be called because, you know, 55 minutes into this. My brain is mush, but yeah, 100%. It was a bidding war could come about for Jake Dubrusk. And if that's the case, he might become too rich for the Pittsburgh Penguins blood, but that is going to do it for this episode of tip of the iceberg live. Thank you to everybody for turning into this one. It's going to be a very busy week. So make sure you check back at tip of the iceberg on YouTube or anywhere you get your podcasts from for all the latest news and updates surrounding the Pittsburgh Penguins during the NHL draft during the buyout period, which we'll talk about tomorrow. It doesn't seem like they're going to be very active in that. And then of course on Monday with the opening of free agency should be a very, very entertaining next week and a half for the Pittsburgh Penguins. And let's just say this, you look at them on paper today. You look at them on paper next Wednesday, hopefully it looks very different. I would assume there's going to be some differences over the next couple of days. But that's going to do it for this episode of tip of the iceberg live. Thank you guys again so much for tuning into this one. We'll see you next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
