DK’s Daily Shot of Penguins: The risk with rentals

DK’s Daily Shot of Penguins: The risk with rentals

See, I get this part. I I get the part where you’re bringing in your Anthony Mana types. I get why they’re here. I get what ideal impact they’ll have on the younger players and the overall roster feel. You want it to be competitive. I get it. There’s just a part of me that Well, I I’ll get to that. Good morning to you. Good Tuesday morning. I’m Dan Kvachovic of DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Penguins. It comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you’re into football andor baseball, I also happen to offer daily shots of Steelers and Pirates in the same place that you found this. Mantha did a conference call yesterday, an introductory one with reporters. He was signed back on the 2nd of July for a year and 2.5 million by Kyle Dubis and he spoke about among other things his status this summer heading into training camp considering that his 2024 25 season in Calgary was ended in November by knee surgery and he sounded optimistic about it. It’s been a long time. Um, I should be ready for camp. Uh, that was my main goal when I did uh get surgery. I mean, it’s going to be almost 10 months posttop uh at the start of camp. So, I should be all set and running and uh I’ll be ready. That’s that’s the ultimate goal. And that’s exactly what I told Pit when uh we were talking to each other over the summer. Uh, I focused a lot on on myself and trying to to prove that I’ll be ready for camp and then things went good and here we are. And for me, it’s to bring the best hockey I can. And uh, like we talked about earlier, is to find some confidence and make things happen. Good for him. This is a nice player. If you’re not that familiar with his work, he’s 6’5, 200 some pounds, and he doesn’t play a physical style. He doesn’t play a big style, so to speak. He’s not really a defensive guy. He’s a a scorer. He’s a guy who’s always been a scorer. He’s been designated as that, going back to being a first round pick a long time ago. And to his credit, in 10 NHL seasons, he has 146 goals, 303 points. He’ll be turning 31 this fall. So, you know, we’ll see what it is that he’s got left. But here’s what I wanted to get at. You can bring in your Mantha types. You can bring in your your Connor Clifton’s, you know, before that your Anthony Boilier, your Matt Grizzlicks in different forms, your Cody Glass types. And they can be here for a year. They can be here as kind of experimental. let’s increase the competition types and they can even serve that purpose and they can make if you look at the group that Dubis has brought in since free agency opened earlier this month there are enough bodies with enough NHL experience that they could almost I don’t believe for a second that they will but almost crowd out the kids and I’m going going to reiterate this and going to continue doing it all through camp, but I don’t want anybody getting a free ride. I don’t want Ruter McGroy and Vle Coovenan getting a free ride. I certainly don’t want a goalender getting a free ride, which is why it’s nice to have Arthur Celovs in. You can’t just say there’s going to be a competitive camp and then bring in a bunch of terrible players cuz everyone everyone everyone will see right through it outside and inside especially on the inside. The players see everything. But listen, I’m almost embarrassed to share this with you, but the way I’m looking at this season is probably not the way a lot of people are looking at this season. And that actually includes Dubis and his management team. You see, I look at this roster. Oh, you know what I’m going to say, right? Okay, fine. Just deal with it. I look at this roster. I look at the way this season finished and I say to myself that this is a better roster than that one. And yes, I understand the games weren’t exactly high stakes and you’re tired of hearing me sight 10 five and two. But you know what? In the last 17 games, they went 10 five and two and they beat a bunch of playoff teams. They beat them on their own ranks and in a couple of cases like down in Dallas, they beat the snot out of them and all the Stars did was make it to the Western Conference final. Now, if you want to tell me that this season doesn’t matter or something something tanking Gavin McKenna or whatever, that’s your right. If they want to feel that way, that’s their right. By that, I mean Dubis and the people running the team. But a lot of this sentiment, I’m convinced, has been founded on the notion that one or both of Brian Rust, Ricard Raquel were going to get traded this summer. And that hasn’t happened. And there are zero, count them, zero indications that either of them is getting moved. Eric Carlson still might, but I’m sure I can probably get about a 50/50 split on whether or not that would be a good or a bad thing for the Penguins this coming season. So, this looming catastrophe that way too many people are sensing isn’t going to happen. And when you have these manthypes in the fold, they do get attached. they do get a sense of, hey, I like it here. I’d like to belong here. I like these guys. I’m getting comfortable with them. It might be a Lars Eller. It might be a Kevin Hayes. It might be a Grizzlick who after a horrid first 20 games ended up being a really significant contributor to that hockey team this past season. And I know from talking to some of these guys that I’ve mentioned, the Bavilier and so forth, they didn’t see themselves the way they were seen on the outside. They didn’t see themselves as, hey, I was brought in here because they needed to have a competitive camp. They saw themselves as they brought me in here because I’m a good hockey player and I’m going to show them that I’m a good hockey player. And you know what Bavilier did? He showed them that he was a good hockey player, ended up getting them something in a trade, and then he showed the Capitals that he was a good hockey player. Now, I just think I I think you want to be careful with doing a little bit too much of this or being a little bit too honest with everybody. Okay? If you bring in Mantha, what you tell Mantha is, “We brought you in here because you’re a former first round pick who’s got some skills that we could use. We think you have top six capability because you’ve played top six in the past. Maybe you could skate next to Gino. I see him as being next to Gino, by the way. Gino’s always like being flanked by the big guys. And you make him feel important because the chances are really good that he is going to beat out whoever he’d allegedly be competing with this September. Just a thought. Just a thought. When we come back, J1Q. This episode is brought to you by Bet Online, your number one source for all your summer sports needs this season. From Major League Baseball, golf, NHL, NBA playoffs. Get the latest odds and lines, including all team matchups, player props, odds on just about everything that’s out there. Head to the website today or use your mobile device to get in on the action. Bet Online, where the game starts. Today’s J1Q comes in reference to yesterday’s episode which I led with my latest reporting and outlook on Mario Lemieux potentially buying back the Penguins. It comes from Cody who says DK, maybe I’m naive or maybe whatever happened at the time of the sale was so awful that what I’m about to suggest can never happen. But if Mario wants back in, couldn’t he just do so by partnering with the Fenway Sports Group? I think it makes sense for all involved. Mario comes in, handles the hockey side of things, something that he has all the experience with. FSG handles the business side, brings them money, something that they have the experience with. Feels like both should be able to coexist. Cody, yes. Okay, I could just give you that as the answer. Yes, except let’s let’s put it this way. Mario has become in his career and in his life plenty comfortable with being able to call his own shots. He’s played the game the way he wants. He has to some extent surrounded himself even as a player with some hardly all of the the teammates that he’s wanted, the coaches that he’s wanted, even the GMs. And then of course as owner he called all of the shots. Well, him and Ron Burkel had a legitimate partnership that wasn’t an act. They did everything together. So if he wanted this scenario or if he was in favor of this scenario that you’re describing right now, Cody, he could have that tomorrow without paying a penny. I mean, he’s still in the ownership. He’s still in there. It’s a minuscule percentage, but then as you’re pointing out yourself here, he’s Mario. It’s not like they wouldn’t listen. It’s not like they wouldn’t embrace him, and it’s not like they wouldn’t benefit. So, I have no choice but to believe in light of everything that I’m spelling out here that he’d he’d want to run it. He’d want to be the guy. He’d want to have enough say and sway that he wouldn’t feel compelled to be checking with anybody on it. But allow me please to also throw this in. I am not remotely speaking for 66 and I am not remotely sharing anything that I’ve actually heard. So framing this appropriately, it’s just me pulling something out of nowhere. But unless I’ve lost all sense for who that man has been his whole life, there is nothing about him that would be in favor of even the tiniest semblance of rebuilding this team while Sid is still here and Sid is still putting up a point a game. Okay? So, just take that for what it’s worth, which is nothing more than one individual’s opinion, and run with it as you will. That has never been Mario’s mindset. To the contrary, he sees great players. He recognizes them, he respects them, and he’s done everything in his power to enable them to win championships. And on that note, I’ll sign off for the day. I appreciate you, Cody. You know that I appreciate everybody who listens to Daily Shot of Penguins. We’ll be back with another one of these tomorrow.

The risk with rentals like Anthony Mantha.

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