(upbeat music) This episode is brought to you by Experian. Are you paying for subscriptions you don't use, but can't find the time or energy to cancel them? Experian could cancel unwanted subscriptions for you, saving you an average of $270 per year, and plenty of time. Download the Experian app. Results will vary, not all subscriptions are eligible. Savings are not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required. (upbeat music) Hello everybody, and welcome to the tip of the iceberg live. Take two today on the final day of July. Hopefully everybody that's tuned in now gets a much clearer audio. If not, we're gonna have to probably can it for the day, but ran through some diagnostics, should be good for round two here of tip of the iceberg live. So let me know in the comment section if it's coming in loud and clear on your feed. But we're gonna have plenty to talk about today, even though it is the slow season of the NHL off season. Most teams have a lot of their moves done. The bulk majority of their roster is set, except for maybe one or two moves, and the Pittsburgh Penguins are no stranger to that at all. They have a couple moves left to make this off season, but they made a little bit of news as of late. And I don't know if you're here in this, but it is pouring down rain outside. So again, apologies if that audio is coming in as well. Seems like everything is against this live stream today, but we'll continue to talk about the Pittsburgh Penguins, 'cause that's what we're here to do. The pens, they've continued their trend of late, of signing the top prospects to their ELCs this summer. They did it immediately after development camp came to a close signing both 2024 second round picks, both Harrison Brunick and Tanner Howe. Last week, they made a huge signing, bringing in their top overall prospect, Brayden Yeager, and getting him signed to his three year entry level contract. Yeager is ranked number one in my Penguins prospect rankings, but even though he is the top prospect, and it was great to see him signed a year after he was drafted, there was the one that happened yesterday that was more shocking to me than any of these other three. And honestly, if you asked me a month or two ago, I would've said this player was 100%, playing next season back in Russia, whether it be the MHL or the KHL. But instead, the Penguins signed, goaltending prospect Sergei Murashov to his three year entry level contract, signaling his desires to come over and begin his journey in North America this season with the Penguins organization. Now he was a surprise addition to development camp earlier in the month of July. Everybody was super excited that he was just there to begin with. And then of course, in proper goal tender fashion, he goes out and he steals the show. He was bar none the most impressive player on the ice. And that is a group of players that included Billy Koivunen, that included Brayden Yeager, that included 2022 first round pick Owen Pickering, that included Brunick and how, as I already mentioned here, Sergei Murashov was the talk of the town that week because he was just stealing the show at Penguins Prospect Development Camping. Then he stole headlines following one of the practices when he met with local media and said that, yeah, he has a decision to make, and that this isn't just gonna come down in the next couple of weeks. He could either one, sign his ELC, come over to North America for good and start his professional journey in North America this season with the Penguins Organization, or he could go back to Russia and play at whatever level they currently have him at. He's been tearing up the MHL as we'll get to in a couple of minutes, but he was also really good at the KHL level last year as well for Yarrow Slavol locomotive. So you look at what he is, we'll talk about what that means for the rest of the Penguins goaltending situation because I know that is what comes to mind for everybody. But to me, Morschov is the sixth ranked prospect in the Penguins System right now, and to have him coming over, to have him coming over earlier than expected is huge for the Penguins and for Kyle Dubas. We know what Dubas is trying to build, and that is a young core of players at the American Hockey League level that are gonna be able to grow together and potentially become that next iteration of Penguins Hockey once Crosby, once Malkin, once Latang is done. They wanna start that from the ground up, and they've done a pretty good job of bringing in talent to the organization, but they just haven't been able to get them all together on the same ice yet. That's gonna change this year. You look at the American Hockey League, Pickering is gonna make his first full season as a professional coming over to the AHL. Tristan Bros is going to be at the AHL level this year. You have both Ville Khoy Voonin and Vasily Panamara of coming over. The three guys I mentioned earlier, Brunick, Howe, and Yeager likely going back to their WHL squads because they cannot play at the American Hockey League level. Of course, we've all talked about Yeager potentially getting a nine game sample size at the start of the NHL season before being sent back to Moose Jaw. But again, much remains to be seen about that. He has to impress the whole way throughout the summer, and it is a long summer from here to the start of the regular season. But Murr Shav's an interesting one, and it will bring with it some interesting questions for the penguin's goal-tending depth throughout the organization. When you look at what he was able to do in Russia, there is no doubting the talent that this kid has. If you look at his last two seasons in Russia, the MHL, which is the minor system, the junior system over in Russia, 76 games played, 50 wins in those 76 games, a 1.72 goals against average, a 939 save percentage, and 15 shutouts, just tearing up the junior system. And I know the next question becomes, well, what did he do whenever he got up to the professional league? He got a couple of cups of coffee the last two seasons, seven games played, six of them last season. He has a four, one, and two record in the KHL, but still a 1.57 goals against average, a 927 save percentage, and one of his seven starts, he also notched a shutout. So this guy has some ungodly numbers over in Russia. How's that gonna translate? It's different for everybody, right? Joel Blunkfist had tremendous numbers over in Europe. He came over to the American Hockey League last year. He was an AHL All-Star. He was amazing for them last season. Do we see the same from Sergey Mersha of this year? That remains to be seen, but he certainly has a lot of potential, and he has certainly turned heads, grabbed the attention of not just Penguins fans, not just Penguins writers, but also the Penguins organization as a whole. They bring them over, and now that means a couple of things for the Penguins organization when you look at their goaltending situation. I don't think it means very much at the top. I've seen some people speculate, okay, does this mean that they're more willing to move on from Tristan Jari? Does this mean that they're more willing to give Joel Blunkfist a shot as a 1B this season? I don't think it changes much at the NHL level. I think you're still looking at Tristan Jari and Alex Nodelkovich going into the season, and I said it a couple of weeks ago on our last episode of Tip at the Iceberg Live that it seems like the best course of action for the Penguins and the most likely course of action for the Penguins is go into the season with Jari Nodelkovich, hope that all three Jari Nodelkovich and Blunkfist perform way above what you're expecting and be able to potentially ship off Tristan Jari, clear yourself of his cap space and let Joel Blunkfist shine at the NHL level. That's the best case scenario, but again, a lot needs to go right for that to happen. I still feel like this doesn't signal anything in accordance with Tristan Jari. It doesn't signal a move is coming more than you might have already believed a move is coming with Tristan Jari. So that rules that out, but where it gets interesting is when you get down into the system, you look at the American Hockey League, you're looking at a very young goal-tending tandem and Joel Blunkfist, who is in my eyes, even though Mershev is an impressive young goaltender, Blunkfist is the unquestioned starting goaltender for the AHL team going into the season. Mershev joins him. It does demote newcomer Philip Larson down to the ECHL, Larson, a former sixth round pick of the Detroit Red Wings was signed back over to North America this offseason by the Penguins. They were hoping maybe he gets a fresh start. Maybe he turns things up and maybe he becomes a nice little piece in their organization. I think that he's still a decent signing, but I think this signals that either they're gonna go with a three-man rotation, which I don't particularly like, especially considering the situation they're in at the NHL level, I'd like to see both Blunkfist and Mershev get a large portion of starts. I don't wanna see them have to split it with a third netminder. So I think that that means Philip Larson should go and start the season at the ECHL alongside Taylor Gautier, which, you know, it's unfortunate for a guy like Gautier who had a really solid year last year for the wheeling nailers of the ECHL. I believe he was named one of the top gold tenders of the entire league last season, but he was a guy that was hoping to potentially be elevated this year, build off of what he had, and then Mershev comes over, and then Larson comes back over, and all of a sudden there's a bunch of more roadblocks in front of him. It's unfortunate, but it's a good problem to have for the Penguins organization. You know, to bring it back to Mershev, the ECHL, as I talked about earlier, is going to be vastly important for the Penguins moving forward because they're trying to do this shotgun rebuild, quick rebuild to where Crosby will still be playing when these young guns can get up into the lineup and they can start to shift into the next era. These gold tenders are gonna be one A1B, the most important players down there this season. Yeah, I'm excited to see what Tristan Bros does. Yes, I'm extremely excited to see what Kojvunen can do, what Panomara can do, shoot, what Sam Pullen can do, because this is gonna be a major year for him, is he gonna be able to build it up at the American high league level and then make the jump to the NHL, 'cause that's what's gonna be expected of him this year. But the most important names at the American high league level are gonna be one Joe Blunkfist because I would assume he does get some opportunities this year to play at the national high league level, whether that's as a one A or one B or as an injury spot starter, I believe Blunkfist will make his NHL debut, that's a prediction that I will firmly stand behind, and then Sergei Mershev in his first year in North America. He's not a guy that you're gonna see at the national high league level, there are plenty of roadblocks in front of him because especially the fact that he's gonna have to get used to the North American game similar to what Blunkfist had to go through last year. If that transition is made as seemingly seamless as Joe Blunkfist did, then we have to reevaluate after the season at how far out he is. Doesn't seem like it's likely that he'll play this year, not probably likely that he'll play next year at the NHL level, but he has certainly moved along faster to this point than we've expected. And as we know, development isn't linear, especially for goal tenders. Typically they take a little bit longer to marinate, to get ready for the national high league level, but these two young guys, Blunkfist and Mershev, the last couple of seasons, they've turned some heads, they've been very exciting, and they've been very interesting for the Penguins organization. So a huge week for the Penguins. Couple of weeks ago, they get Brunick, they get how, those were nice contracts assigned last week, they get Braden Yeager, which was a nice prospect, which is a nice bit of news, but this one, which a month ago didn't seem like something we would have heard this summer. Sergey Mershev signing his three year ELC, leaving Russia coming over and playing in North America this year, huge for the Pittsburgh Penguins, huge for the Wilkes-Bertz grant in Penguins, and really huge for anybody that likes to watch Penguins prospects because there should be a lot of young talent in Northeast Pennsylvania, especially the two guys between the pipes. (upbeat music) (whistling) - Hey, it's Kaylee Cuoco for Priceline, ready to go to your happy place for a happy price? Well, why didn't you say so? Just download the Priceline app right now and save up to 60% on hotels. So whether it's Cousin Kevin's Kazoo concert in Kansas City, go Kevin, or Becky's Bachelor at Bash in Bermuda, you never have to miss a trip ever again. So download the Priceline app today, your savings are waiting. ♪ Go to your happy place for a happy price ♪ ♪ Got your happy price, Priceline ♪ (upbeat music) - Let's finish off this episode. It's an off season episode. So I'm gonna go straight to the questions. We got a couple of people in the chat here. Drop your questions if you have 'em. I'll try to answer as many as humanly possible, whether that be about these goal tenders, Marishev or Blunkfist or these other prospects, you know, guys like Yeager, Brunik, How, I'll answer all the questions. Or if you wanna go to anything else, obviously the Penguins off season is at a slow point right now, but any questions you have about them, about anything else, I'll try to answer before we go here today. Let's go to Gunnar Murphy's question. Actually, let's start with football goat number seven. He threw this in the last failed livestream that we did whenever the microphone wasn't working. He says, Nikolai Eelers to the pens for a 2025 first rounder and a seventh round pick. If I'm on the Penguin side of things, I'm biting my tongue a little bit because I don't wanna give up first round picks. If you can try to maybe do a second and a fifth, I would be more inclined. I think he would also maybe go for a little bit more than that than a first and a seventh, especially on the Winnipeg side because we know the Winnipeg Jets. We saw this last off season when it was Mark Schifley and Connor Hellabuck. Both of them spent the majority, if not all of the summer, on the trade block as to the top names on everybody's trade lists. And then by the end of the summer, they both signed extensions. They both stayed in Winnipeg and they both had really stellar seasons. Connor Hellabuck, Bezna Trophy winner. Mark Schifley was Mark Schifley once again in the Winnipeg Jets. They might have been bounced in the first round by the Colorado Avalanche, but they were a very good team last season. So when it comes to the Jets and Nikolai Elers, again, I'll believe that when I see it, the fact that the noise has kind of gone down to a minimum, even for the slow season of the NHL, I'm not sure how likely it is that he gets moved at all, let alone to the Pittsburgh Penguins. And I'm also not sure how likely it is a guy like Kyle Dubas is gonna part with a first round pick when he is done everything in his power this off season to make moves towards a rebuild. He's not saying that they're rebuilding. Nobody in the organization has said they're rebuilding, but if you look at the moves, I think it's pretty evident that in some way, shape or form, this is the start of a rebuild for the Pittsburgh Penguins and trading away a first round pick, even if it is for a player of the caliber of Nikolai Elers, just doesn't seem to fit the mold of what their off season has been to this point. Now let's go to Gunnar Murphy's question. Thank you Gunnar for throwing this one in. Says some are questioned, but what are your thoughts on the fanatics, or on fanatics taking the Jersey rights from Adidas? Opinions now that they've unveiled them. Overall, I loved the Adidas jerseys. I bought a couple of Adidas jerseys. I bought more Adidas jerseys than I did before. Adidas took over because I loved the shoulders. I loved really everything about them. So I was upset to see that they weren't continuing their partnership with the NHL. With fanatics taking over, I don't have too strong of an opinion on it. Obviously it is a dip in quality, especially for the jerseys that the fans are gonna wear. The jerseys that the players are gonna wear, there have been some issues with the MLB this year 'cause they also switched the fanatics. Typically when I'm watching the game though, it's not making any difference to me. The jerseys still look fine on television. The only exception is the fact that all of those players, the jersey is a different color, especially if you look at any of the catchers, the jerseys an entirely different color by the third inning than it was the first inning, simply because I don't think the quality is nice enough and the sweat just absolutely drenches through the jersey and you can see through them. So outside of the actual quality for the players on the ice, I'm not overly upset. The quality for the fans I think is gonna take a dip. Fanatics has obviously had a reputation. And I think that even if they're at the top of their game, even if fanatics improves what they've been doing and tries to get out of this public perception of themselves, it's a step down from Adidas. So those are my overall thoughts, Gunner. I appreciate you asking this. I think you asked this a couple of weeks ago and I just wasn't able to get to it, but I'm not too upset about it. I think the on ice product is gonna be fine. I'm worried for the fans because the jersey quality that we got from Adidas was great. Let's move over and answer some other questions here. Brandon says, "Taylor Gautier, "Sam Poolan, Nola Chari to Columbus for Patrick Linae. "I don't know how the cap would work though. "Regardless, I think we have too many goal tenders. "We're doing it at a service "or we're doing one at a service otherwise." I'll say one thing, you can never have too many good goal tenders in the pipeline, especially because only two of them are 100% ready to go NHL this season. And that is Tristan Jari and Alex Adelekovich. And that's why Alex Adelekovich was brought back on a two year contract because, you know, as of right now, the Penguins just don't see Joe Blungfist as NHL ready. That is what that move signaled to me is, hey, they like Blungfist and everything that they have said is that they like Blungfist, but he's just not ready to make that jump. And of course, you shouldn't expect him to be. He's only played one year of North American hockey. He was really good in that year. He was an all star in that year. He was one of the leaders on that team when it comes to performance wise that year, but you shouldn't expect him going into that next season to automatically be ready. Same goes for Mershev. He is not gonna be NHL ready this season. He might not be NHL ready next season. So having these young guys is not a bad thing. To me, it's not a log jam yet because you have guys in the correct position. You don't have guys in a position under what they should be other than maybe a Taylor go TA, right? That's the only name. And at the end of the day, is he going to be an NHL guy? Probably not. I don't want to put a ceiling on it. Maybe he can. He was one of the best, like I mentioned, one of the best ECHO goal tenders of the year last year. But as of right now, he projects to be an ECHL, AHL guy. And if somebody moves above him, he'll probably be one of the names that is talked about as, hey, will that guy also be bumped up the ladder? So I don't think that it's an issue to have too many goal tenders. I think right now it's actually a good thing, especially when there's so much uncertainty at the national hockey league level to have these really stellar young goal tenders that are making their way towards the NHL. It's not a bad thing in my eyes. But let's go to your mock trade here, Brandon, because Patrick Linet is a name that is obviously resurfaced with him coming out of the NHL and NHL PA Player Assistance Program this week, which means the trade speculation is going to reach another level for Patrick Linet. So here's your mock trade from Brandon for Patrick Linet of the Columbus bluejack and says, Taylor go TA, Sam Poulan and Nolichari. I don't think Columbus has taken that. Not Don Woodell. Maybe if it was Yarmo Kekalainen and the old regime in Columbus that seemingly made their mistakes more often than they made the smart moves. Maybe then you could fleece them in this way, but Don Woodell has not taken that move. Now there is history between Woodell and Kyle Dubas. Obviously recent history with the Jake Genssel trade getting done at the trade deadline last season. So there might be an open line of communication. The Penguins do need another scoring winger if they want to be better this season at line A. Who knows what the price is going to be? That is going to be a hard one to narrow down because he's 8.7 million on the cap. That's going to be difficult. You would have to imagine Columbus who is not in position to go for it the next year or two are going to retain salary. But again, what does that do for the price? It's going to be draft picks. And it's not going to be small draft picks. It's probably going to be pretty important draft picks that's going to be in the Patrick line A trade. It's just a matter of how many of them what Columbus is looking for. And honestly, how much they're willing to budge to move Patrick line A off the books. Again, I don't know if the door is completely closed on then keeping him. I'm not plugged into Columbus that much, but if they have any Iota of a belief that they might actually keep onto him, it's only going to drive the price up more. So go to see a pull-in and a Chari to Columbus for line A. The cap doesn't work, but we can throw that out because I don't think the return works for Don Woodell and the Columbus Blue Jackets. Mac Brunson says, I know this is probably unpopular. That's fine. That's what we like to get into here. But we have to trade Chari. He's a bad goaltender. And I feel we've been trying to sugarcoat it for five years. The thing is he's not always a bad goaltender. And that is the most frustrating part about it is because when he's at his best, and Kyle Dubas made sure to run that company line throughout all of last offseason after the contract was signed, when he's at his best, he is a very solid goaltender. The problem is he is rarely at his best when it's most important. That's the biggest problem with Tristan Jari. Do I think they have to trade him? I think it would be better for the Penguins to move on from Tristan Jari. But again, you need to have somebody else on the other end that's willing to take on that contract. And as of right now, based on how last season ended and based on the contract that he has, it's not a lot of interest, interest in Jari. Because, well, to be frank, he was a backup goaltender at the end of last season. If they come in, he comes in, wins the starting job because I do think it should be a competition in training camp this year. If he wins the starting job and has a stellar October and November and December, like he has been prone to do over his career, maybe the trade value gets up high enough to where you can offload his contract. And again, like I said earlier, hope that Joel Blungfist is ready to take that next step. Hope that Alex Nadalkovich can do what he did late last season and become a starting goaltender that gives you a chance to win night in and night out, despite not being able to stand on his head and win you games. He keeps you in games and allows you to get the best opportunity to win 'em. If all that goes right, then yeah, it behooves the Penguins to listen and potentially move Tristan Jari. But I'm not gonna say that they have to trade 'em simply because it's a team that's not going for a Stanley Cup this year. They don't have to move 'em because they can honestly pay 'em to be a middle-of-the-road goaltender, which is what he is at this point in his career, on a middle-of-the-road team, which is what the Penguins are at this stage of their evolution. Let's go over to Max's second question who says, "Who are three or four of your favorite players "to not play on the Penguins current or past teams?" I loved Carl Haglin, but he did play on the Penguins that he would have been one of my top names. I always used to love playing with 'em in the video game NHL, whatever it was, 14, whatever he was still on the Rangers. I'd always trade for him and Zukarello 'cause it was like a cheat code for my third line. So much speed, you get around two-on-one, cross-crease, everybody knows, NHL 14, that was the way to do it. But other players that have not played on the Penguins that I really enjoy watching, I loved watching Steven Stamkos. I still do love watching Steven Stamkos, but young Steven Stamkos was the best. I really, really just really enjoyed watching him when he came onto the seam in Tampa Bay, and trying to think of some other ones. Currently not on the Pens. I like watching Flurry, he just makes it fun to watch him in net. I'm trying to think of other players that never played for the Penguins. Avechkin is fun to watch, especially when he was younger and just absolutely a bull in a china shop, hard to stop. Pavo Dadsuk was always a player that I enjoyed watching as well. You know, he's called The Magic Man for a reason. The way that he was able to just sift through defenders. He was one of my favorites. And I really enjoyed watching Patrick Kane as well. You know, back in 2013, whenever him and the Blackhawks were absolutely destroying everybody in that season, it was a lot of fun watching him be absolutely dominant for the Chicago Blackhawks. So those are a couple of the names of players that I enjoyed watching in the past. Currently, you can't go wrong with McDavid. You can't go wrong watching, you know, Austin Matthews is crazy to watch, Posternock is crazy to watch. I'm trying to think of an underrated name, Cole Coffield. You know, obviously a lot of people know of Cole Coffield, especially those who, you know, love watching World Juniors. But he is fun to watch play hockey. And even if the team is not good, I like watching Cole Coffield as well. Let's go to Mark's question here who says back to 2017, knowing what we know now, do you still feel it was a good move for the Pence to protect Murray over Flurry, considering Flurry's cap hit back then, but also Murray struggles after the back-to-back cups. If hindsight is 2020, if you knew Matt Murray was gonna have the career that he turned out to have, you keep on to Mark Andre Flurry, you just do. Especially if you know that Mark Andre Flurry is about to have a Vesna-Calibre season, the following year, you hold on to Mark Andre Flurry, even with the cap hit and you make it work. Because the goal-tending, as we see right now, as for the last three seasons, goal-tending is a very important position for every single team. And if you have that, it makes everything else that much easier to deal with. If you knew what we knew now in 2017, 100%, I would have held on to Flurry despite the contract, which wasn't even that bad, and I would have let Matt Murray go. But again, back in 2017, Matt Murray had just won two Stanley Cups as a rookie and looked like the real deal and looked like he was gonna be a stud for the foreseeable future. It didn't end up being the case, it's unfortunate, but to go to your question, Mark, definitely, if I knew what I knew now, and I could time jump back to 2017, 100%, Mark Andre Flurry would not have gone to the Vegas Golden Knights. Let's go to Pittsburgh, Heather's question, excuse me, who says, "Do you think the pens will sign Pedersen? "And if so, will they do that after the SID contract "is announced?" We did get a small update today on the Sydney Crosby contract from Rob Rossi of the Athletic, practically backing what he said earlier this month when he said July 8th, I believe that a deal was close to being done. Of course, it's been multiple weeks since then, it's not done, but what he said today is close was a subjective term, and basically, they left the negotiating table because things seemed good and they were fine with walking away, enjoying the rest of their summers, coming back and putting pen to paper. So that's the latest from Rob Rossi. As far as the Pedersen contract, there's been no noise about it. Do I think the Penguin signed Pedersen? That's a hard one because they've not openly admitted to rebuilding. They continue to say that they want to give Crosby and Malkin and Latang and Carlson an opportunity to compete this upcoming season and the year after. Marcus Pedersen does that. He's your best defensive defenseman. He's going into a contract year, but at the same time, every move that was made this offseason was made as if it was a rebuilding team. Rebuilding teams don't sign massive contracts to the defensive defenseman. It just doesn't. So with that in mind, I'm leaning towards the fact that it probably doesn't happen. I'm leaning towards the fact that it definitely doesn't happen in the offseason, and again, I could be wrong, but it feels like for a team that has made moves that make it feel like a rebuild. They're not gonna sign Marcus Pedersen to a, what I'm assuming is long-term five-plus year extension because I'm assuming that's what he's looking for without knowing what this looks like this year. Maybe if the Penguins have a great start to the season, they're in the top three in the Metro after Christmas and they're a team that says, you know what? We didn't mortgage the future this offseason. We're looking really good right now. Yeah, let's sign Marcus Pedersen. Maybe that opens the door. But as of right now, if I was the Penguins, I would shy away from doing that because the more realistic scenario is they end up right around where they were last year, bubble playoff team, and they may or may not have to look to sell at the deadline. If they're a team that's rebuilding, there's not many better pieces on the Penguins than Marcus Pedersen as a rental that you could trade away at the trade deadline. So again, do I think they'll resign Pedersen? If I had to be held to a yes or no question, it is a no. I don't think they are. Do I think there's a chance that they do if things turn around quickly? Yes, but again, looking at where they stand right now, it feels like they're gonna at the very least walk into the season with Marcus Pedersen on an expiring contract. Unless he's looking for much less than we all expect, which would be a disservice to him, which I don't think his agent would do, but unless that happens, I just, I feel like re-signing Pedersen goes against what they've already done this offseason and it wouldn't make too much sense as of right now. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Twisted Sunrise says, "I heard a rumor "that OV wants to play with Sid. "Would you make that trade? "And what could this trade look like? "Non-existent." I don't mean to be blunt, but Washington's never trading away OV and OV did ingest, make a joke about, you know, I like what the Washington Capitals did. They were asking him about his offseason and the offseason that the Capitals had and he said, "Yo, I like the people that came in." And he was asked, I don't remember what the question was, but he said, "Yeah, yeah, bring McDavid and Crosby. "I'd like McDavid and Crosby here as well." Jokingly 'cause he's OV and he is very unserious. So it was definitely a joke when OV said that. It would be a lot of fun to see those two play and I made the joke after that happened. Man, if OV can get Crosby to go over to Russia when he's done in the NHL, that one year of, you know, dynamo minsk or that one year of SKA Moscow is gonna be a heck of a lot of fun, it's gonna be like the Globetrotters 'cause they've always been a lot of fun in the last couple of years, whenever they go to the all-star games together. That trade is nonexistent 'cause the Washington Capitals, that is the only thing that they're looking for right now is to lab OV1 finishes career in Washington and two break Wayne Gretzky's record as a member of the Washington Capitals. So it's unserious, just as unserious as Alex Abetschkin is when talking to the media most of the time. So it was a fun little clip though, you should look it up. Let's go to Brandon's question, he circles us back to Patrick Linay, he says, "What's a realistic trade for Linay "given that we can't flee Ston Wedel?" I keep falling back to the Kessel trade package but Kessel was a guarantee for 82 games and 20 plus goals. Linay feels like more of a gamble, 100%, he's more of a gamble. This is a player that, you know, take away the fact that he has been in the NHL players assistance program for the last handful of months. He's had a lot of injury issues. When he's healthy, yeah, he's probably a guarantee, 20 goals when he's healthy and available. But again, that has been an issue for a couple of years in Columbus. And if he comes to Pittsburgh and is healthy and plays a full 82 and you can get 'em for a song, that is nothing but great for the Pittsburgh Penguins. But again, I still feel like the Columbus Blue Jackets aren't just going to hand him away, especially with the fact that, like I mentioned, they're gonna have to retain salary. It is a hard one to nail down because it's a matter of who's out there that's trying to acquire Linay. But again, you probably don't know all this. I would say it probably takes if there's retained salary, which I would imagine it has to be for the Penguins 'cause they only have $3.5 million in salary cap space, I would imagine it takes a first rounder, I would imagine it takes another draft pick, maybe a third or fourth rounder, and it probably takes one of your better prospects. I don't think it's gonna be one of the ones that they just drafted and how or Brunik, it's certainly not Braden Yeager. He is untouchable, especially in a trade for a guy that has so many question marks, like Linay. I would imagine it's probably somebody, maybe upon Amara, maybe somebody in that trade that happened back in March, maybe Waddell wants them back in one of his organizations and takes on one of them. Or maybe he wants a guy like Justin Bros. Again, it's a matter of preference, what do the Columbus Blue Jackets want? But if them trying to nail down the outline of a trade for Patrick Linay, that would make sense to me if I was in the Columbus issues, it would be a first, a third, and one of your top 10 prospects, probably one of your five to 10, because I don't think the Penguins are gonna give up one of their top five prospects anytime soon. So probably six to 10, one of those prospects plus a first and a third, and likely some salary has to come back, I'd have to imagine, because otherwise, this is just not gonna work at all with the Penguins. It's a hard one to nail down Brandon, but I'm hoping that answered your question a little bit as to what it could look like. Pittsburgh Heather says, "Any new rumors around Nick Robertson "and what would a trade for him look like?" That one's a little bit more interesting, it's not as expensive, I think it fits a little bit more for the Penguins, 'cause Robertson is 22 years old, he's somebody that has not shown his highest potential at the National Hockey League level, and he's also requested a trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs. So that one's a little bit more interesting, I don't think he goes for a first, I could see that being a second round pick and maybe a low tier prospect, I could see it being maybe just a second round pick or it has to be a third round pick and a low prospect, but it's probably gonna be something along the lines of that, he's a restricted free agent, so there's no right now salary that comes along with him, he's not gonna sign for more than what the Penguins have left to offer, which is around $3 million, $3.5 million, there haven't been any new rumors since what, beginning of July, second week of July, but at the same time, I still feel like that's their best option if they're looking to add a top tier scoring winger. If I had to rank it, like I said, it's probably Robertson up at the top and then it's some mix of line A, but that's gonna be a lot of work, and then again, it's hard, 'cause there's not a lot of free agents, so those two, the most likely with Robertson being far and away ahead of line A because of acquisition costs, total cost, and also because of, you know, all the uncertainty that surrounds Patrick line A. The great grizzly bear freedom fighter says, would you trade for Ethan bear and sign Brady Keeper? I'm blanking on Brady Keeper. I don't think Ethan bear is available from the Washington Capitals. They just signed them last year and liked what they saw from them, so I would like Ethan bear, but at the same time, I wanted him last year. I don't know where he fits right now with the Penguins. Let me bring up the Capitals, Puckpedia, and see what they got going on on their defense as of right now because they signed him last year. They're $10 million over the salary cap. That's why they bought cap friendly. But you look at their defense. They have Carlson, Wah, Chickering, Sandeen, Van Reemsdike, Farivari, Ethan bear. Bear is probably third pairing guy alongside Trevor Van Reemsdike. Maybe they don't need him, but at the same time, you look at the Penguins right side. It just makes no sense because right now you have Carlson at number one, Latang at number two, and nobody is budging on that. Neither of them are going anywhere. You have Jackson Hivany as the third pairing right side defenseman. He's young, he's cheap, and he stood up to the challenge last year. So I'm big on giving him an opportunity. So I wouldn't go after him, or Brady Keeper is a prospect. So that I'm not entirely, I'd have to, I don't know, he's not, he's 28 years old. No, I'm good on 28 year olds. I'm given the keys to the kingdom on the third pairing to young guy, Jackson Hivany. The great grizzly bear freedom fighter says what would a Jari trade look like? As of right now, nothing. I don't think there's anybody out there that wants Tristan Jari, and if they do end up trading Tristan Jari at some point this season, it probably includes a roster player, and that depends on where the Penguins are gonna need help. As of right now, that's potentially left side defense. Depending on how much you trust Matt Grizzlyk, how much you trust Ryan Graves, but you know Graves is gonna stay in the lineup because well they can't afford to bench him or send him down. Obviously Marcus Pedersen is gonna stay in the lineup. So it's just a matter of how much you trust Matt Grizzlyk. I think left defense might be an area of need. Obviously the Penguins still need some bottom six forwards. We'll see how the options that they currently have shake out, but I think that it would have to include a roster player because there would have to be some salary coming back the other way. And I think the Penguins would want some draft picks. If not draft picks, you know, I don't know where Kyle Dubas is currently at because things change over and off season, but last year during that Genssel negotiation, he said, "I don't want draft picks as much as I want prospects "that I know who they are and prospects "who are a little bit closer to the NHL level." So I can see him potentially wanting to continue that trend as the Penguins try to build up a younger system and get younger hopefully sooner at the NHL level. So I would imagine it's probably a middle of the road and HLPs to help offset the salary and either a third or fourth round pick or a mid tier prospect because the Penguins as of right now, they're trying to trade them just because they signed that contract last off season and they're not exactly happy with how year one went. Let's finish it off with this question from Mack Brunson. Thank you to everybody that's been in the comment section today, says, "Super crazy world, "but if the Blackhawks said Badard for Crosby, "do you do it?" We are definitely deep in the off season when we're talking about Badard for Crosby, I like it. But if the Blackhawks offered that, that's a tough one and it's obviously a far hypothetical for everybody that's gonna jump in here. It is a far, far hypothetical because the Blackhawks would never do it. The Penguins would probably not say yes and I think that's where I'm leaning to go to because Badard is the future but are you gonna spit in the face of your entire history of your organization? Are you gonna spit in the face of a player that is not gonna accept that trade in Sydney Crosby 'cause he has a no move clause but we are in the throes of kind of hypothetical land here with this even being offered. No, I think I'd stick with Crosby and I'd find another way to get competitive 'cause again, you bring Badard onto this team. Yeah, Badard's pretty good. Yeah, Badard's gonna be pretty good in the future. You're probably not raising the level of your team the next two years 'cause I think Badard and Crosby will be similar the next two years and at that point there's gonna be other avenues to rebuild. Maybe not a guy, the caliber of Connor Badard but I'm not spitting in the face of Sydney Crosby by trading him away to a team that, listen, him on the Blackhawks, if he went anywhere, I'd be upset. If he went to the Blackhawks, that might be outside of the division rivals, that might be worst case scenario. There were a couple other ones in here I do wanna jump on in the wild with Kyle, I like it, says, "Would you trade for Vasily Podkolzen "and Brock Besser?" I would, I like both of those players but again, I don't know if either of them are not, I don't know, neither of them are up for sale right now. The Vancouver Canucks have not put either of 'em on the block and there's not been any rumors about it but I do like both players and I do believe that Podkolzen was probably a player that was talked about last trade deadline season by Kyle Dubas and Patrick Alveen and those Jake Genssel negotiations because Podkolzen is a very talented young player. So I certainly have interest in 'em. Problem is, I don't think the Vancouver Canucks are interested in getting rid of him. Heather says, "Is there an age that management look at "an AHL player and determine that they're more "of an everyday AHL player than an NHL player?" i.e. Unicopanon is 26. Casper Bjorkfist, who is back over in Europe, he's not coming back over to the Penguins, is 27 and Huntington is 25. I think there's a point, not just, not with age but there's a point in talent level and development that you know, all right, this is a fringe guy, doesn't have much more to give at the NHL level, we kinda know what he is. Copanon, he's an AHL player that what you saw last year is what you're gonna get from Unicopanon. He might step in for handful of games when you're down a couple of injuries. Fourth line guy, eats up about six minutes of ice time, that's what you get from him. So I think it's more so, not with age but with development and knowing where they're at and knowing how much further they can go till they hit their ceiling. And the last one, Brandon says, do you think Graves will bounce back? It's hard to get worse than Ryan Graves was last year. That is where this conversation begins is he can't possibly be worse than last year but I do think that in a second year in the system, I do think that in a better position 'cause I do think he'll start as a third paring guy alongside Jack St. Ivony with a, St. Ivony is a much better fit for Ryan Graves' style than playing alongside Alotang or a Carlson. They're paying him to play with those top two but he just wasn't able to do it last year. You let him get his confidence up because that is as big as anything. You're playing with St. Ivony, you play him third paring minutes and you let him really get his feet underneath him this season 'cause I think that's what happened last year is he came in, he started slow and at that point, his feet were taken out from under him and he just couldn't get back up to the surface. I think that's what you try to do this year, start him off at a better position, let him get his feet underneath him and hope that he can build back to being the guy that you paid him to be last season. So I do think he'll end up being better this year than he was last year, whether he reaches that level that he's worth the contract, that remains to be seen but I think at a base level, he'll be better than he was. But thank you to everybody for tuning in. Thank you to everybody for submitting your questions today. Again, sorry about the first go of things where the microphone wasn't cooperating and also just a heads up going forward through Steelers training camp, it's gonna be like this. We're gonna try to get in at some point Wednesday afternoons depending on the schedule and when the Steelers practice and stuff like that because that is also part of my job and I also have to cover that as well. But thank you to everybody for tuning into this one. You can follow us on YouTube at tip of the iceberg or anywhere you get your podcast from. We'll see you next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
