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So you can get big flavors and big savings. Kroger, fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions apply. (upbeat music) - 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 at tip of the iceberg, excuse me. Make sure you like, share, subscribe, all that fun stuff. Or you can find us anywhere you get your podcast from. Today's is the day. The Pittsburgh Penguins back on the ice in an official capacity training camp underway, plenty of storylines to get to a couple of injuries to discuss. And then of course the return of one of my favorite segments to do every single week. And that is the three stars of the week. Of course, we're gonna try to kind of keep up with who has the most stars throughout the season. It's preseason. So as with goals and assists and points, we're not gonna keep track of the three stars that we make this week, but we will keep track of three stars once the regular season begins. But plenty of news to get to, like I mentioned, it's nice to see the Pittsburgh Penguins back on the ice at UPMC, Lemew Complex and Cranberry. There's a couple of players though that didn't quite make it. Some players not present due to injury in the early portions of training camp include Matt Nieto, who is still coming back from a off-season surgery. He is expected to begin the regular season on long-term injured reserve. We have Bo Gelsma, who is also injured Jagger Joshua, who was injured Taylor Gautier, who was injured and was replaced midway through the final game of the prospects challenge on Monday. He seemed a little upset, didn't know what that was for. Now we find out it's because he's dealing with an injury, but also biggest name to talk about, biggest name that was not on the ice today for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Eric Carlson, who reportedly is day to day with an upper body injury according to Penn's inside scoops, Michelle Craciolo. To me, this is nothing that is too concerning because it is very early, but it is not the best way to start what should be a pretty big season for Eric Carlson. We have high expectations on the tip of the iceberg. Myself included for his second season. Now that he has his feet underneath him, now that he's gone through an entire off-season, knowing what to expect with the Penguins organization, we had high expectations for him. And it's similar to when the Steelers open training camp, and surprisingly, the starting quarterback Russell Wilson was out with an injury. Now everybody said that that injury was nothing to be concerned about. And here we are going into week three of the football season and Russell Wilson has yet to take a regular season snap for the Steelers. Hopefully, this is a different situation with Eric Carlson and his upper body injury. It's something to monitor, but at the same time, early in the preseason, he misses practice. He was out there in gym clothes, according to Seth Roerba of the Tribune review. So seemingly around the team, seemingly getting some work in. So it certainly feels like the day-to-day tag should actually ring true in this one. But unfortunate news, because anytime you start one of these training camps, you want all faces on the ice. You want everybody to be present. You want us to get that first glimpse of everybody. Unfortunately for Eric Carlson, he just happens to be injured and missing the early portion. We'll see if he gets on the ice. At some point this week, and we'll see if he's available for the Penguins when they open up the preseason in Buffalo this Saturday. And with that, let's move over to the three stars of the week. We're quickly gonna burn through these things because while I'm excited to get to your questions with training camp starting, there is a heck of a lot of interest and intrigue surrounding the Pittsburgh Penguins. So make sure if you're tuned in live right now on tip of the iceberg on YouTube, then you drop your questions in there. We'll get to those at the end of the show. But let's get into our three stars of the week. I'm gonna have a graphic that pops up, but that's only gonna be after. I reveal a couple of these ones. Third star of the week is gonna go to Sergey Mershov, the netminder from Russia that came over, and made his technically North American debut over the weekend at the Prospects Challenge in Buffalo. Three games played technically again. He played half of the first game, and he played half of the last game in 60 minutes of the second game, but four goals allowed a 902 save percentage. It doesn't sound like a dominant performance from Sergey Mershov, but it was a very, very good performance from the young netminder, seeing how he was able to come out here, play six of the nine periods for an undefeated Prospects Challenge team, and give up only four goals, including a beautiful breakaway save that he made on Monday. They kept the Penguins a couple goals up in the third period, an absolutely stunning save, and hopefully a sign of things to come for the Pittsburgh Penguins and their young netminder. So third star of the week goes to Sergey Mershov. Second star of the week as they pull up the graphic here, goes to Avery Hayes. Five goals, two assists in the Prospects Challenge, an absolutely stunning performance from Hayes for the second consecutive year up in Buffalo last year. He parlayed that into a fairly successful season, getting his feet underneath him at the American Hockey League level this year. We'll see what it does. Is he able to start the season in an elevated role for that AHL squad? Is he able to eventually earn himself an NHL contract? As he's on a contract year with the Wilkes-Byrse Grant and Penguins. Those questions are left to be answered, but he certainly showed a very high compete level, including getting into a couple of scuffles at the Prospects Challenge. And like I mentioned off the top, five goals, two assists, including a hat trick that helped the Penguins secure victory on Monday evening against the Buffalo Savers and walk away as the de facto champions of the Prospects Challenge. And the number one star of this week didn't do anything formally on the ice until today. Did score the shootout winner today in the inner squad scrimmage, but it's Sydney Crosby for obvious reasons. Signs a two year, $8.7 million extension. By $8.7, we mean the average annual value will remain at $8.7 million, continues to take less money to help the Penguins win. I mean, this just goes to show, and again, we've had plenty of examples of this, but this goes to show just how much Sydney Crosby continues to be the perfect player to have as your star player. Crosby goes out, puts his heart on his sleeve, carries the team for the last couple of seasons. And while everybody this off season came out and said, well, there are questions about whether or not he'll want to stick around on a sinking ship that is the Pittsburgh Penguins because they've missed the last two post seasons. And vibes aren't supremely high around the National Hockey League about how the Penguins are gonna fare this year. He says, none of that matters to me. Signs a two year extension, sticks at $8.7 million where he realistically should have probably gotten over $10 million and let's be honest here, could have probably gotten over $12 million for this contract. He decides to stick with $8.7, give Kyle Dubas and the Penguins a little bit of flexibility about what they can do going forward and how they can try to quickly retool, revamp, rebuild, whichever term you would use. Crosby is trying to help the Penguins get back into contention for a Stanley Cup. That is his desire and he wants to do it as a member of the Penguins. So the three stars of the week this week, it's not gonna go into the season total but three stars that we've seen so far. Number three, Sergey Mirashov, excited to see how he fares in training camp and preseason action. Avery Hayes, let's see if he can parlay a second consecutive strong prospects challenge performance into a good training camp and see if he can position himself well in the Penguins organizational depth chart. And the number one star who is constantly going to be the number one star on this segment, Sydney Crosby with his two year $8.7 million extension. With that said, let's go over and answer some of your questions here and if you have more questions and you're tuned in live at tip of the iceberg on YouTube, make sure you drop them in the comment section below. We'll try to get to every single one of them. But let's start off with Peter Swistock who had this question in. Before we even started today's episode said, could we see a Magrordi Crosby rust and then Bunting Mulking glass top six by the end of the year? Could we see it? Yes. Do I think it's likely? No, I think that there are other avenues that the Penguins might go. I don't know if this is what it's going to end up being by the end of the year. But could we see it 100%? I think the odds that Rucker Magrordi gets some time up there with Crosby and Rust is likely. I like his opportunity and his chances to do that. I don't think it's going to happen right off the bat as you saw from Lions today in which, understandably, you take today's Lions with a major grain of salt because they're always typically putting some things they think they're going to see in the regular season with some things that are just completely off the wall. Players that they don't expect to be there in the regular season, but want to see them next to some of these other players, get them some reps and some opportunities alongside these players similar to Villekoy Vounen playing alongside Ricard Raquel and have getting Mulking today. Things like that. So you don't take these Lions with anything but a grain of salt, but Magrordi, from what we saw, it seems like they're going to want him to build up and build and earn his role on the Penguins roster. But again, not ruling out Magrordi playing with Crosby and Rust. I think that is probably something you do see. Mulking, bunting and glass, that's interesting. And I said yesterday that I have my eyes on Cody Glass for a multitude of reasons, but for one of them is, I really don't know where the Penguins view him at the current moment. So do they see him as a top six guy? Do they see him as a bottom six guy? And is he going to be able to take this fresh start and run with it? That's going to be the biggest question mark for Cody Glass. And to me, that's the biggest question mark about whether or not we see this specifically as a top six by the end of the year. But I think certainly you could potentially see it. Let's go to football goat CR seven, who says, do you think there's going to be a trade before the season starts? I think there is a chance for it. If I had to put the likelihood of a trade happening before the season starts, I'd put it somewhere around 40%, which is still fairly high. And I think that you're looking at guys like Nolichari, you're looking at guys like Lars Ehler as potentially names. They could be on the market before the season starts. But the question is, are there going to be teams outside of Pittsburgh that are interested in those players at this stage of the season? A lot of those teams are going into camp, thinking they're going to have answers, thinking they're going to have backups to those answers. Are they going to burn through them fast enough to where the Penguins and Lars Ehler or Nolichari or insert random name here is going to become an option? And are they going to be willing to pay enough for Kyle Dubas to execute that trade? So I'm going to put the likelihood that there's a trade at around 40% because it feels like there might be something brewing simply because you look at how overstocked the Penguins currently are, especially at the center ice position. But again, the need has to arise. And I'm not sure the need has arisen one day into most of these teams training camps. Evan wants to know, what do I think Magrordi's ceiling is? Second line center, first line winger. I know he's likely going to get going to start with Crosby, but later in his career, what would be his permanent spot? I see him as a top six guy, whether that is at center or winger, more likely. I feel like his ceiling is at the wing. And I think first line wing is right where you put him. This is a guy that plays chippy, but at the same time has immense talent. You saw in the three games at the prospects challenge. So I would say that you 100% see him as a first line winger upside. Now, can he develop into that? That much remains to be seen to this year is going to be a big year for him, especially if he makes the team out of camp, it's going to be a lot of learn as you go in professional hockey with him coming straight from the University of Michigan last season. But I think that you look at him, you see his ceiling and his ceiling is a top line winger. Rich wants to know any news on how Carlson was injured, was it hockey related? That much wasn't released today. All we know is he's day to day with an upper body injury. The fact that it caused him to miss the first game, the first practice of training camp is unfortunate. But again, no news as to how it happened yet. I will have to wait and see if anybody asked that. And if they ever allow us to know that, that might not be the case. Mickey wants to know is Avery Hayes related to Kevin Hayes. He's not. He's not. He's just listening to the same name, and they were paired together in line rushes today. So getting to see a couple of Hayes is out there together, for sure, but not by relation. Let's go over to Evan again, who says, Dubas after Crosby's extension said that he would try his best to help Sid get back into cup contention. Do we see him making any trades to actually increase these chances besides Rutger McGrordy? I think the trade would have to, again, similar to what we saw from McGrordy, 100% makes sense. And I think it would have to help both now and in the future. There's only one name that I can think of off the top of my head that would fit that mold right now that could potentially be on the market right now that could help this penguins now and in the future. And that name is Nick Robertson of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He signed an extension under a million dollars, but there are still, I believe it was Elliot Friedman or Chris Johnston that put out there that there's still a chance that he is going to be traded before the start of the season, depending on probably how things go in training camp and where he's slotted in. But I would keep my eye out for Nick Robertson if he is indeed still on the trade block. That fits the mold of helping this team to get closer to contention now, while also still being worth giving up assets so they can contend in the future. That's the type of move I see him making. And again, it's all dependent upon how they perform. If the penguins are a top three, top two team in the Metropolitan Division, by the time the trade deadline comes around, it would be silly for Kyle Dubas to not go out and try to bring in a piece to solidify a missing area or a lacking area of the penguins roster. We don't know that as of now, but do I think that if they get to that point, Dubas will pull the trigger? Yes, I think they will. I think they know that the core is good enough, that if the supporting cast is good enough around that time a year and they're missing one or two pieces, I think Dubas will go out and get them. (upbeat music) When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping Kroger for thousands of appetizing ingredients that inspire countless mouth-watering meals. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices, plus extra ways to save, like digital coupons worth over $600 each week and up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with points, so you can get big flavors and big savings, Kroger, fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions apply. This episode is brought to you by Microsoft Azure. Turn your ideas into reality with an Azure-free account. Get everything you need to develop apps across cloud and hybrid environments, scale workloads, create cloud-connected mobile experiences and so much more. Discover what you can create with popular services free for 12 months. Learn more at azure.com. That's azure.com. And sign up for a free account to start building in the cloud today. (upbeat music) Let's go over to Fortnite fan who wants to know which penguins player do you think will exceed their expectations the most? Well, this one's pretty difficult. I'm trying to think of who has the expectations for some of these players, 'cause initially the thought for me goes out to Drew O'Connor because he is the player that fit this mold last year easily, right? He exceeded expectations. People said maybe he becomes an everyday NHLer this year and we'll see where he goes, potentially a good third liner. And at the end of last season, he was playing on the top line with Crosby and he did not look out of play. So he exceeded expectations last year, which of course raises the expectations this year. As far as going into this year, who could be that guy? If he gets the opportunity, Valteri Pustinen. I'm bullish on Valteri Pustinen and I think he has a lot more to give than what he showed last year. I think that his shot is something that if you give him more opportunities, he's gonna be able to bury a little bit more than he showed when he scored five goals in those 52 games last year. I think he is at his best and probably peaks at a 15 to potentially 20 goals score. I think he has the talent to do that, but he needs to be put in the right situations and he needs to develop and take advantage of all the opportunities that are given to him. I don't know if he had quite enough opportunities to score and shoot the puck last year. If he gets on a line with say Kevin Hayes this year, I think there's a chance those opportunities go higher and I think there's a chance that he surpasses expectations, especially considering there's some people, myself included, that think that he is in a battle to just make the opening night roster, let alone be an everyday guy and be an everyday contributor. So the one guy I'm keeping my out for in this question is Valteri Pustinen. Shane wants to know, still thinking, a big bodied stay at home defenseman should be in the cards. Someone to clear the net. Is there anyone left out there to fill that role? Nobody that you'd probably want on the team. Let me bring up the current crop of unrestricted free agents which at this stage of the off season, if you're looking for unrestricted free agents right now, you're probably picking from the bottom of the barrel. I mean, it's unfortunate, but that is the case. Let me see if I can see anybody that fits this mold because I really don't think there is anybody. Now, so at this point, especially with the trade being, the trade, what am I looking for? What's the word I'm looking for? The trade market being what it is right now, which is very slow because it's always fairly slow at the start of training camp. Probably not anybody on the market now, but as far as getting in a big bodied stay at home defenseman, they have Marcus Pedersen. He doesn't clear the net front as well as you'd hope, but at the same time, this is the best offensive defenseman that you have and you have to hope that maybe Ryan Graves starts acting his size this year because he has the body, he has the physicality. He just didn't use it last year. He needs to use that this year. And I think that's part of what the penguins are hoping he can do. But again, how much can you expect with a guy who has never really shown that in his career, despite the fact that he has all the tools to be able to do that? John Claude von Don says, what is up, Kyle? Why does Phil not have a PTO Phil Kessel? I saw a biz nasty of spit and chicklets was talking about that as well. Why does Phil Kessel not have a job? And the answer is fairly simple. There's a lot of players that signed PTOs that have a lot of talent. There's just not a lot of space at this point because of how much talent there is out there in the National Hockey League. You look at Phil Kessel, he didn't play last year. He signed a PTO with Vancouver and nothing came of it. He did not play last year. And for an older gentleman like him, even though he probably stayed in shape, even though he probably looked decent in those PTO practices with the Vancouver Canucks, nothing ever came of it. A year off without NHL hockey is hard to come back from. So I think that's probably part of the reason is that he is so far removed from the game that people are not willing to take a chance on him at this stage. Now, if there's injuries that happen midway through the season and they say, well, Phil Kessel is still sitting on the bench. He still probably has the shot 'cause that didn't go away. We'll just see what he's able to do. I'm sure he gets a workout here or there. But at the same time, I don't know if you're gonna see Phil Kessel back in the National Hockey League. Maybe he goes over to Europe. I don't know if that's something that would interest him, but that's probably the easiest way to get interest back up in himself is to go and play somewhere else. You can't sit on the couch and expect teams to just think of you as their top options. So I think that's where Phil Kessel is. It's unfortunate because obviously Phil Kessel, I mean, they're gonna have a bobblehead night for him in Pittsburgh this year. And as far as Phil come into the Pittsburgh Penguins, I think that ship has sailed as well. I just don't think that I see that being a potential option, especially with the amount of options that they stocked up on in the organization. Ace 80 wants to know, if not Eller, who would play the fourth line center? Seems like it's between Cody Glass or Blake Lezot at the moment. I think Lars Eller is clearly the guy in that role because in my eyes, when I look at the center depth, it's Crosby, Malkin. I put Kevin Hayes at third line center to start personally. And then I put Lars Eller at number four. I think that is a perfect scenario for the Penguins. Now, if Eller is traded and they're able to get a decent return for Lars Eller, who ends up going there, I would say it's probably Blake Lezot. We've been kind of casting Blake Lezot as that fourth line left wing all summer long, simply because of the log jam at center. But at the same time, Blake Lezot has played most of his NHL games at the center ice position. And I think if they can get him into that role because of a trade of Eller or a trade of a Chari, I think they'll end up doing it. So I would lean towards Lezot and Cody Glass again, somebody who I am very interested to see what the Penguins decide they wanna do with Cody Glass this season. Let's go over to Brandon Rickner, who says last season, Dubas was very active on waivers. He was, I mean, look at John Ludwig, who was brought over pre-season. And there was another one that was brought over as well. I just can't remember it. Oh, Janssen Harkins, I forced myself to forget that one. But Janssen Harkins and John Ludwig both brought over before the season began. And both of them played a lot of NHL hockey last year, one of them still with the organization in John Ludwig. But I digress this season. Do you feel like he needs to be more active in the trade market given the youth movement in Wilkes? We have a few too many players on term. Now, as far as the trade market this year, and of course you're talking about potentially just making those adjustments before the trade deadline. Last year, there was no movement in the trade market. And I think that was part of the problem. You talked to, or not you talked to, but Dubas talked post trade deadline about would we have liked to be able to make that shake up trade like they did with Michael Bunting getting him in here and seeing what that did for the organization? Would they have liked to make a trade earlier in the season? Yeah, they would have loved to make a trade earlier in the season. He said he went as far as to say that they did try to make a trade earlier in the season. But the market just wasn't there. And that's the problem. Last year, the NHL trade market did not heat up until about two weeks, three weeks before the trade deadline. Typically, there is a stint in December, not including obviously the roster freeze around Christmas. But there's a stint in December where teams are starting to figure out who they are and what they need. And the trade market kicks up for about a week or two. That didn't happen last year. And that was a big part as to what reason as to why the penguins weren't really active on the trade market. And also why you saw them cycling through as many guys as they did in the bottom six towards that part of the season. Guys like Zohorna, guys like Hina Stroza getting chances. Obviously, that's when both Nieto and Achari went down. So you saw Harkins get an increased role. You saw Poston and get that opportunity. I think that this year it's all dependent on where the trade market is and how willing teams are going to be to make those trades and get into those trade talks earlier on in the season in that December, that early January type of time frame. Tyler wants to know, what do you think the likelihood is that the penguins make the playoffs this year? That one's tough. This is a year where I feel like a lot of people are doubting the Pittsburgh Penguins. A lot of people don't see them as a playoff team. And if they do, they see them as one of those wildcard teams, probably a bubble contender for the playoffs. I certainly don't see them as a top three team in the metropolitan division. That much is certain. The likelihood that they make the playoffs this year, I mean, I'm never going to rule it out because it's Crosby. It's Mulcan, who is still playing at a high level. It is Eric Carlson in year two, who I expect big things from despite his injury. It is Chris Latang, who if he can stay fully healthy all season and perform the way that he did early last season, those four could lead a team, not to mention Brian Rust if he can stay healthy, not to mention if they can figure some semblance out of good goal tending. I think the Penguins should be a team that should be considered a playoff caliber team. The likelihood that they make it, I'd give them the same amount of chance that I would give teams like the Islanders, the same amount of chance that I'd give teams like the Capitals, like the Red Wings, a little bit higher than the Senators, just 'cause I can't trust the Senators, as much as I want to, like I see them on paper. I feel like the progression has to be there to where they can push for a playoff spot this year, but it's the Senators. I thought the same thing last year and we saw how that turned out. So I give them as good of a chance as any of those other bubble playoff teams, whether or not they do is dependent upon a couple of factors, like I mentioned, goal tending. Can they stay healthy, especially the top of their lineup? And can their bottom six actually start to help with the Penguins when it comes to scoring? So those are the big things. Are they gonna be able to be a playoff team this year? It's what's gonna be the biggest question mark all season long. Can they perform at that caliber? John Powell wants to know, could you see any scenario where Jari gets moved in season? I just believe both sides need to move on. It's just for the best. I do see a scenario where Jari moves, they move on from Jari mid-season because I don't think that they're very happy having him under that contract. Even if he performs well in the early portion of this season, there are question marks about how he can perform once the calendar flips to the following year, right? Every time we hit new years, it seems like something happens to Tristan Jari, whether that is through injury or just simply performance. Last year, it was an injury. I mean, you can say what you want about him having, you know, the health issues that he had at Madison Square Garden, which forced Alex Nadellkovich in the net and then Nadellkovich never turned back. But outside of that, Jari still wasn't playing well whenever the net was turned over to Alex Nadellkovich. So there are questions about can Tristan Jari perform when the lights start to get bright, when the games start to get more important because at his best, he's a very good net minder. I know people don't want to admit that sometimes, but at his best, this guy has made it to two all-star games, not by Fluke, but because he has put together starts of seasons that are that electric go and look at his splits. How good he is in October, how good he is in November, how good he is in December. He can be a very good net minder. The problem is January, February, and especially March and April, he's not. And if you can't figure it out, you don't want to pay that guy for four more seasons or three more seasons after this year. So if they can get his value up and another team becomes desperate enough and they want to trade for Tristan Jari, I think the Penguins have pulled the trigger. But the other thing that that's dependent upon is whether or not Alex Nadellkovich continues to look like he did at the end of last season. And if Joel Blungfist can make strides and seem like he could be ready to be a backup at the NHL level, both things yet to be determined, both things, something that I could see happening. But again, everything has to go right, but I do think there is a possibility the Penguins do look to trade Tristan Jari if the market for him exists, right? I don't even want to say he eats up, if the market for him actually exists. Let's go over to Brandon Rickner, who says second question, which, listen, second question, that's fine, throw in a third, throw in a fourth, throw in a fifth if you want, I'll try to answer as many as humanly possible as I scroll down through here and make sure I get all of them checkmarked. So I can try to answer them. But second question from Brandon here is, with SIDS New Deal, we're poised to have a lot of cap space next off season. Any pie in the sky, early candidates to potentially snag in free agency. I, for obvious reasons, have not looked at the current crop of free agents for next off season, because we have barely even started this season as I try to bring it up here, but Crosby gives them $19 million in salary cap space. So that certainly gives them plenty of room to work, especially when you consider looking at what they have right now. And knowing that, listen, it's a lot of space for not a lot of guys that need re-signed, right? The one name that sticks out to you is Marcus Petterson. And I have had questions about whether or not they should extend Marcus Petterson. Now, of course, with Crosby coming back at 8.7, it makes it a lot easier. It makes the discussion and the argument to keep him a little bit easier because you have more space, you have more room and you don't have to worry about handcuffing yourself into the future. There is still the fact that he's probably the best trade piece you're gonna have available all season long, especially if he remains on that contract year, but I haven't looked at free agents for next off season yet, but you're 100% right. They have 19 million. Let's say Petterson signs for 6 million, which would be probably up towards the ceiling of what he could potentially make. You still have 13 million dollars and you have some maneuvering you can do. Talk about Nolichari potentially with one year left on his deal being easier to move. Talk about Lars Eller's caps already coming off of the salary, but if Ricardo Kal ends up being moved, I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility. This year, that's an extra five plus million dollars there. So I think there is the potential for them to go big game hunting next year. And I think all of that is, of course, like you mentioned Brandon, due to city Crosby continuing to take far below what he should. Let's go over to Shane again, who has a second question as well, saying in view of the defenseman, is there a Hornquist type player who can park in front of the net on the power play, especially and on his own line as well? I think the Penguins do have a player like that. And I think it's Michael Bunting. I think you saw that a little bit towards the end of last season, you saw him score in a couple of goals. You saw him opening things up for the Penguins on the man advantage late in the season. And that's why they started to have a little bit more success. I wouldn't say they had a lot of success. I think they were for that final 21 game stretch 25th in the NHL, but you saw what that did at a base level. They went from being the 30th worst power play in the NHL and horrible and far out of the playoffs to the 25th worst power play in hockey. And they went eight, one and three down that final stretch. The level of which they need from that power play was so low last year that if they can get any modicum of turnover or of continuance from what they were able to do late last season into this season, it should be much better in the Penguins should be a much better position. And I think a large part of that is due to Michael Bunting being able to be in that net front, being able to not just create some havoc, not just screen the goaltender, but be able to put away the goals. I mean, Jake Genssel was fine in that role, but as we know, he was too easily pushed out of the way. Michael Bunting's not gonna be that type of player and there's a player this year in Drew O'Connor that I wanna see if he's able to add that to his game because he has a big body, he has a big frame. If he can add that to his game, it's going to go a long way in getting him opportunities with higher lines in the top six, potentially on one of the power play units as well. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Fate Co wants to know, do you believe that this season is a do or die for Ricard Raquel? And if he has even a okay season, do you see his contract being one that is hard to move? His contract is one that's hard to move. I believe he still has three years left after this season and it's at five plus million dollars and he's a modified no trade clause. It's not an easy contract to move. It's easier because the salary cap went up substantially this past year. It's going to go up substantially again next year and you could probably project it to go up barring any very crazy unforeseen circumstances. It's gonna go up substantially every year going forward, right? Which makes contracts that were signed three years ago a little bit easier to move. But I would still say, considering how poorly Ricard Raquel performed last year, he's gonna have to have a massive resurgence for that to become one of the top names on the free or on the trade market. Especially because Kyle Dubas is not gonna pull a St. Louis Blues with Kevin Hayes. He's not gonna pull a Nashville preters with Cody Glass. He's not gonna pay a premium just to get a contract off the books. As nice as it would be to get that contract off the books. He's not gonna pay the tax for it. So Raquel's gonna have to do much, much better. Is it do or die? It can't be as bad as last season. You can't repeat what you did last season. You have to be much better than you were last season, but I do expect him to bounce back. I do expect him to settle in a little bit more and be what we saw late last year, right? When he was with Bunting and Malkin, he started to come around and he started to be that player that we saw scored 28 goals the year prior. If he can be that guy, maybe the Penguins don't have interest in trading them. Or maybe they say we're not near the playoffs, but Raquel's had a great season. There's a little bit of desire around the NHL forum. We're gonna try to offload it. Do I think there's a chance? Yes. Do I think it's gonna be hard to move 100%? Do I think it is a do or die season for Raquel? I don't know if I'd go that far. I think he's already a made man. I think there's already another team that would probably take a chance on him if he was a free agent, but he's not. So for the Penguins' sake, they're hoping he turns it around. Is it do or die? No, because he's under that contract and that contract's gonna be hard to move. And anybody that acquires it is going to acquire it with the intention of him playing it out. So do or die as far as his professional career, not even close. So let's go over to John Claude, who wants to know as there's been a lot of questions added. So I wanna make sure that I get all of them in here. But let's go to John Claude next, who says, "Could Sid Propell McGrarty into a colder conversation? A lot of great rookies this year." I believe this question was asked a couple of weeks ago, but I'll answer it again because the answer is, unequivocally, yes, he could. I mean, you see with everybody that plays with Crosby, their game gets elevated. Look at last year, Drew O'Connor smashed all of his career highs. And it's because he scored most of his points playing with 87, which there's 87 current viewers in here, so perfect time to bring this up. As far as McGrarty and the colder race this year, it's a tough one. Like you mentioned, a lot of great rookies this year. You have the two guys out in San Jose, and Celabrini, and Will Smith. You have Montvei Michkov, who is probably the early favorite in Philadelphia, a guy that is looked at as a beast around the National Hockey League. Is he gonna be able to come in and run away with it early? If McGrarty gets the opportunity to play the majority of the year with Sid, I think he puts himself in the colder conversation. I think he, at the very least, is in the conversation, and is probably close to being a finalist. Do I think that just simply playing a full season with Sid gets McGrarty to win the colder? I'm not gonna go as far as to say that because I think Michkov is gonna have a great season again. I think Celabrini is gonna get a lot of votes simply because he is the guy this year, the number one pick for the San Jose Sharks playing with a young team with very, very low expectations. If he has a great season, that team succeeds in any way, shape, or form, he's gonna get a lot of looks. But do I think he could be in the conversation? Definitely. Ace80 wants to know, what are the chances that we see Panamarov taking on a roll and they'll line up at some point this season? Is there a better prospect prepared for the jump other than Rucker McGrarty? Panamarov surprised me a little bit at the prospect's challenge. I've watched a little bit, but I gotta admit, I haven't watched extensively. Cecily Panamarov specifically, and he looked really good. He was the top line center playing alongside McGrarty, playing alongside Avery Hayes, who I mentioned earlier in this episode. He looked really good, the forecheck was good, the chance creation was very good. I liked what I saw from Cecily Panamarov and to be completely honest, Penguins wanted him to play NHL action last year. So I could see him taking on a roll in this lineup at some point, whether that's as an injury fill-in or as an actual member of the lineup, that remains to be seen. There's still a lot of moving pieces in the Penguins lineup, a lot of players that you need to figure out where they fit, what their role is, and where they sit on the organizational depth chart. But I 100% liked Cecily Panamarov so far this season. Small sample size, just the prospect's challenge, but I think there's a chance that he makes the jump and plays some games in the NHL this year. Outside of that, Villy Kuivunin is a guy I'm keeping my eye on. He played in the finished professional league last year, so he's played against professionals. He has to make that transition over to North American style hockey again. Could he? Yes. Do I think that he has all the offensive upside to potentially do it? Yes. The problem being, that's gonna have to be similar to how Valteri Poussin first came up last year. There's gonna have to be a top six opportunity available, whether that somebody goes down new to injury, whether that somebody pulls a Riley Smith from last year and just looks abysmal. There's gonna have to be, I feel like a chance higher in the lineup for Villy Kuivunin, 'cause I think that's where he probably fits the best and they're not gonna typecast him down there as a fourth line guy. Let's go over to Brandon, who has a question about another team in the Metropolitan Division, wants to know with how better, or with how better New Jersey got over the offseason, can the Penguins stack up? To the Devils, I am bullish on the Devils as well. I wrote a piece earlier this offseason for breakaway on SI about how I feel like the Devils could be a sneaky Stanley Cup contender this year. I like their goaltending, I like what they did to kind of revamp their defense. And listen, if their forwards are healthy, they're young, they're fast, they're talented, led by a guy in Jack Hughes, who was, I believe, fourth or fifth on Hart Trophy odds already this season. If he can stay healthy, that's gonna be a tough team to stack up against, not to mention, Penguins have struggled against the New Jersey Devils over the past couple of years. They haven't had answers for the speed that the Devils present, hence the reason that Dawson Mercer seemingly scores all of his goals against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but New Jersey's gonna be tough. I put them firmly in the top three in the Metro. I don't have the Penguins in the top three, I have the Penguins floating around fifth or sixth as of right now, and potentially going up as high as fourth. They could prove me wrong. Obviously, when they have superstars like the Penguins do, you could, but I see New Jersey, especially with the revamp defense, especially with that goal tending that they added and not just going out and getting Jacob Markstrom, who's pretty good against the Penguins most of the times. They have Jake Allen as a backup. It's one of the best backups or one of the better backups around the National Hockey League, so they have a good one, two punch there. That's gonna be a tough team this year. Brandon Rickner says, I'm high on Hopium on Tristan Bros, no Hadi, but he was our most complete player in the rookie tournament. Could he force the hands? There are some hands, Allah John Marino did years ago after leveraging the tournament and camp. Tristan Bros is a guy that I think a lot of people have gotten very, very excited about, simply because he looked that good. He did. He looked to get that good over the weekend. He's a complete player. He's a guy that hasn't played professional hockey though. And that's what stops me, especially because he could play center, he could play wing, that's great. And it's phenomenal to see what he was able to do over the weekend. The one major problem is you come back to camp, look at how many other guys are above him in the organizational depth chart. We already talked about their overstocked at center, right? Eller, Achari can play center, Lausotte, Beauvilié can bounce to center, Hayes can do center, Sam Pullen can play center. Jonathan Gruden has played center. I've seen him play center down in the American Hockey League at times. You see all of these guys, not to mention wingers. Potomara of Koi Vounen, you get the gist. There's a lot of guys ahead of them and a lot of guys that have some professional experience, whether that be at the AHL level, whether that be at the NHL level, whether that be in Europe, these guys have professional experience. And that is a bigger jump than a lot of people want to do admit, right? You have a couple of players making that jump this year, Owen Pickering, Tristan Bros. If I had to bet money on it, I'd say neither of them get extensive playing time in the NHL this year. The only one of them that I would say might have a cup of coffee, that one, two game sample size that we've seen from Sam Pullen in the last couple of years, it might be bros. But again, everything has to work out in his favor. He has to continue to build like he did at Prospect Challenge, do that in training camp, have a good training camp, and then hit the ground running at the start of the season, and then a spot has to open up for him. I don't think he's gonna force the hand, Brandon, as you mentioned. So it's unfortunate, but I think that this is a player that you should be excited about, and a player that even if he doesn't get an opportunity at the NHL level this year, he can make a lot of strides, and he can continue to make very, very big steps in his development. Let's go down to Mickey, who wants to know, do you think or wants Marcus Petterson to get another multi-year contract? Do I think he gets one? Right now, my gut is that the Penguins do sign him. Do I agree with it? Not necessarily. There was a second whenever you see Crosby sign for 8.7, you know there's going to be that much space available to the Penguins in the years going forward, and Marcus Petterson is 100%, the Penguins best defensive defenseman, and there's nobody in the pipeline that's gonna come up and supplant him on the left side, right? Owen Pickering is still a little bit out, especially because he's a young defenseman that needs to fill out body-wise. There's not really a defenseman in the organization currently that's gonna take that role from him. I mean, you would hope that maybe Ryan Graves could, but again, based on what we saw last year, that's not my expectation as of right now, I need to see it from Graves. So as far as needing that type of player, Marcus Petterson and resigning him is probably the best option, but at the same time, I'm somebody who, right now, despite the fact that Crosby is gonna stick around, despite the fact that Crosby signed for what he signed for, you have to continue to accelerate this rebuild as much as you can, right? They took a big jump last year whenever they traded away Jake Genssel. It stung, it hurt, it sucked, and I'm sure he's gonna be great for Tampa Bay, but getting what they got, another second round pick, two really good prospects, and Ponomarev and Koi Vounen, and a guy who is gonna play for them over the next three or four years likely in a Michael Bunting. Getting that accelerated their rebuild, got them back to a higher level, looking better at both the prospect side of things and at the NHL. I think you have to always have it in mind that it might be better for the Penguins to do the same thing with Marcus Petterson this year. He's gonna fetch a major return if he turns, perform as he has, and I have no reason to believe that he is going to take a step back. Could the Penguins afford it? Probably, especially now that Karlsby signed for what he did, I have his contract projection again. This is just a projection that I made earlier in the summer as six years, 5.713 million. Sure, you sign that if you're a team that has been in the playoffs the last couple of years, and a team that is expecting to be a contender the next couple of years, and has the pieces in place, you sign that every day of the week, but they haven't been that. They've missed the playoffs, and for all intents and purposes, unless they come out this season and turn the world on fire, they're not gonna be a Stanley Cup contender with the team that they have on paper right now, so I lean towards trading them. And again, I might be in the minority in that one, but I think unless he's coming back for a discount, and the trade market just isn't there, I think you still lean towards trading Marcus Petterson this season versus giving him that multi-year contract. Brandon Richter wants to go back to Sam Pulland, and I know a lot of people are out on Sam Pulland, but I don't know how you can be out on a guy who's only played in six NHL games, but we'll talk about this here. Speaking of Pulland, is this a make or break season for him? What a nightmare given all the competition, is there any trade value? No, there's probably not a trade value and outside of the simple, you know, fresh start, this guy was a former first rounder, we'll see what he can do as a bottom six guy in a different organization, like a Utah, like a, well, Seattle expects to be good again this season, so I won't lump them in there, but like a Utah, like a Chicago, something like that, is it make or break for him with the Penguins organization? I see that as the case. You know, especially if he wants to be a guy that could eventually become an everyday NHLer, he was drafted five years ago. He's just been jumped by so many players. And again, he hasn't been jumped by Tristan Bros yet, but if he has a poor season, it could be another player that was drafted after him that jumps him. There's been a lot of players that have jumped Sam Pulland, he had a great year or a good year, I should say, not great, good year at the American Hockey League level last year, when he was healthy, but that's gonna be the other issue. Can he stay healthy? It cost him a couple opportunities at call ups last year, and at the end of the day, it's, you know, unfortunate 'cause it wasn't an injury, but it was illness that took him out of the lineup before the Penguins went on that hot stretch and he ended up getting sent down because they were winning games and they didn't want him to just sit in the press box. So, things have to go right for him, he needs to stay healthy, but is it a make or break year for him with the Penguins organization? I see it as such. Let's go over to Mitch, who wants to know, how do you feel about Rutgers starting this season, starting this year? I feel great about Rutgers McGrody. And honestly, we'll see where the Penguins put him. I feel like right now, they're probably gonna think to put him on the third line. Today he was on a line with, again, there's been so much that has come out today, he was on a line today with Sam Poolin, who we just talked about and Drew O'Connor. Now, we talk about first day of training camp lines. There's a lot of fugays in the lines that Mike Sullivan puts out there, the first day of training camp. He's testing the waters on some of these things and he's putting players that aren't typically going to get those opportunities with players that are a little bit higher in stature. Sometimes you can see through it though. McGrody O'Connor is a pairing that I could see, the Penguins going with at some point, this season, particularly early in this season. Because I feel like the Penguins want to start McGrody in a lower impact role to allow him to get used to the professional game, get used to playing against professionals. He has the body type too. He doesn't need to get any bigger. He doesn't need to bulk up or anything. He is as far as physicality, he is NHL ready. But it still changes when he step on the ice against NHL talent and NHL speed. So I don't think they're gonna put him with the first line right off the bat. I think he'll probably start on the third line and I have high expectations for him. I think this is a guy that should be vying for one of those spots out of camp and should be vying for the opportunity to be an everyday NHLer from game one from October 9th. So I'm high on record McGrody. I expect a pretty good season from him. I know that's a lot to put on a 20 year old but he has the pedigree and honestly, I think he is the perfect fit for the Penguins. Whether that be in the bottom six or whether that be up next to Crosby, I think he fits really well with the Penguins, with Mike Sullivan's scheme and with this organization just as a whole. Pittsburgh fan 4-1-2 says realistically without injuries, how many and who of these exciting young players can make this roster? Well, you have to be capped on that because again, there's only so many roster spots that are up for grabs. But when I look at the young players who can make the roster out of camp, McGrody I put up there, Cody Glass is still a young player. He's 25 years old. I think he is on the inside looking out as camp begins. I would say Sam Pullen would have to have a really good camp. He'd have to jump a couple of people but Sam Pullen has the capabilities. Valtteri Pustin is another player, a little bit older, not really a real young player but still very much so at the early portions of his career. I would give Pustin an opportunity if he has a good camp and I'm not gonna go as far as to say Koi Vunu no Pranamara yet. I feel like both of them are destined to start the season at the American Hockey League level but both of them are certainly call up options for the Penguins as the year progresses and as the year begins, especially if they run into injury issues which that's what we started this entire thing off with. Five injuries as they opened camp, five of them. Now, Nieto was expected. Carlson was an unexpected one but again, injuries happen especially to the Pittsburgh Penguins. So if that happened, Parnamara have Koi Vunu names to keep an eye out for. Let's go down to Mickey who wants to know, who do you think will have more stacked lineup on the four nations face off? It's always Canada, especially on paper, it's always Canada. You look at them and you can stop at the top three players, McDavid, Crosby, McKinnon. I mean, it gets better, it gets good after that. I like Team USA, I think Team USA has a chance to make noise in that four nations face off but honestly, because of their goaltending, because of their defense, I give Team USA a chance to beat Team Canada but on paper, it's gonna be hard to look at any team outside of Canada and say, yeah, they have a, they look better, they look like they could be much better. No, Canada has the stars, Canada has, especially the forward stars, now Team USA has the Kachucks, they have Austin Matthews, which is great but Team Canada is just stacked with big names and flashy names, especially on the forward side of things. So if I'm looking on paper, who has the more stacked lineup, I'm looking at Team Canada and again, they haven't released their lineup but you could probably fill in the blanks as to a lot of the names that are gonna be on there and of course they did release the first four. Shane wants to know, looking through the roster, would St. Ivani have a chance to crack it? He impressed at the end of the season last year and maybe that big body will play big at 6-3 around 200. I love Jack St. Ivani after what he'd last season. I fell in love with him the last 13 games of the year, he was thrown into the fire essentially as much as you can as a third pairing defenseman. He was great on the penalty kill, he was good in his minutes on the third pairing and him and Ryan Shea, they didn't give up goals. I think they gave up two goals in 13 games or something ridiculous like that. He was very good. The one problem for Jack St. Ivani at the start of this season is that he is non-waver eligible, right? He doesn't need to be put on waivers to get sent down. Whereas a lot of the other players that are fighting for that position, John Ludwig whenever he comes back from injury, I believe he was out there today. Again, lots of names. Sebastian Ajo was brought in on a multi-year contract. You have to imagine that he's gonna be here to be at the NHL level. Ryan Shea, another name. There's a lot of these guys that have to go through waivers and because of that, you might see Jack St. Ivani be the odd man out and have to start the season at the American Hockey League level while the Penguins try to figure some things out here. But at the same time, he was playing with Ryan Graves. Those are two pretty darn big bodies for the Penguins on the blue line. And I like that, I projected that as the third pairing right after the season ended. I think that it's nice to see them working together on the first day. But I also think if the business of hockey and waivers being a big part of that business comes into play here, St. Ivani might be the odd man out. Now again, maybe they don't care about losing a guy like Ryan Shea. They just throw him on waivers and say we can't send Jack St. Ivani down because of what he did last year and what he did in training camp. And that would be great. But I do think there's a chance that if everybody performs and if everything is close, they wanna see more out of some of these other guys at the NHL level, they'll send Jack St. Ivani down. But I do with that expect him by the end of the season to be in the Penguins lineup like he was last year. I don't think it'll take quite as long 'cause they saw what it looks like. And I think if he performs well at the American hockey league level, that's just gonna accelerate it. And the guys at the NHL are gonna have him nipping at their heels real quick. Mitch wants to know, if you had to throw out a wild realistic guess, how long do you think it would take for the Penguins to be effective in the playoffs again? That is, I mean, again, wild realistic guess is a tough one to narrow down here. To be effective in the playoffs, we've seen teams do it very quickly. And Kyle Dubas has stated and cited these teams as to the mold at which he's almost trying to do it. He might do it differently based on certain moves, but he's trying to do the overall rebuild at the speed of the New York Rangers, right? Since they sent out that email to their season ticket holders and I think it was 2017, 2018 and by 2024, right? They were cup contenders the last couple of years. 2022 was their coming out party. So it was four or five years. I could see the Penguins trying to accelerate that more, but again, they're at the early stages of this. This was the first off season that they truly treated this organization like a rebuilding organization. It's gonna take time for those picks to turn into prospects and those prospects to turn into players at the NHL level and the prospects they got over. It's still gonna take time for them to turn into NHL players and you have to be able to hit on all of these. So if I was giving a realistic guess as to when they could be an effective team in the playoffs, meaning winning a series and then being dangerous going forward after that, I would say four years. And again, it hurts me to say that 'cause in four years, it's likely that, well, almost guaranteed, if any of all can is retired, likely that Crosby is in his last year or almost done. Same thing with Chris Latang. I'd like to see this core be able to go out there and be an effective playoff team. I'd like to see another run. I'd like to see them light up PPG paints arena in the springtime once again, with the big screen outside, it'd be great. If I'm giving a realistic guess as to when they can be effective in the playoffs again, I would say four years. But again, they could shock everyone, have a great power play this year and go out there and be a playoff team this year and potentially make some noise. But again, they're not gonna be the favorite. Even if they make the playoffs, they're probably not gonna be the favorite. Who knows, it's preseason. It'd be nice if they did. We all wanna see it. We'll see how this season plays out. But that's gonna do it for this episode of Tip of the Iceberg Live. Thank you to everybody for tuning into this one. Or just getting started, like I mentioned. We'll have three stars every single week moving forward. We have live episodes every Wednesday, typically around two o'clock. So make sure if you wanna jump in and ask your questions that you're around at two o'clock on Tip of the Iceberg on YouTube. But we also have full episodes of the podcast that come out every Tuesday and every Thursday with breaking news episodes. They come out obviously as the news unfolds. But that's gonna do it for this episode of Tip of the Iceberg Live. Thank you guys so much for tuning in to this one. We'll see you next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
