Penguins prospects SHINE in Buffalo with a tournament victory!

Penguins prospects SHINE in Buffalo with a tournament victory!

For a third consecutive year, the Pittsburgh Penguins have won the prospects challenge. Who stood out during these three games? Pat and I are going to discuss that right after this. Your Locked On Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodies. You can follow me on Twitter, Hunter Hodes, joined by the birthday boy himself, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Cinderver. You can follow the show’s Twitter at l_penguinsguins, and you can follow us on Instagram, locked_penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. So Pat, the Penguins finished the prospect challenge with a 2 and 0 and one record. Good enough to win the event for the third straight year. We got to give a round of applause, a small one for that. And we’re going to get into some of our big standouts. And I think the main two that come to mind right away, my friend, Tristan Bros and Avery Hayes. Avery Hayes just dominated this competition. Was very much a man against boys. He was living in the offensive zone literally every single shift. He was getting chances every single shift. He was scoring at will. Had four goals in these three games, seven points total in these three games. It was clear to me that he was too good for this competition. He had a good season in Wilsbury this past season. And I know I’m not trying to overreact to this type of tournament just because it’s only three games. They’re kind of like exhibition games, but they still mean more than development camp. But he’s going to try to really ride this momentum going into training camp to show the management and the coaching staff that I’m here and I’m going to try to push for an NHL job. He may not get it and I don’t think he will, but he may be able to potentially show everyone that I will will be deserving of a call up at some point during this upcoming season. The same goes with Tristan Bros. to me. He looks like he has his entire confidence back after watching these three games. Obviously, we all know he had a really bad case of mono last year that knocked him out for a bit. He was able to come back, get nine points in his last 10 games, was really good in the playoffs. He’s able to carry that over into prospects challenge Pat and he has all this confidence. He he looks like he did before he got mono last year where he was playing really well in the AHL. And I put him in the same category as Avery Hayes where he’s also going to try and show management and the coaching staff that I have what it takes to make this team. And like Hayes, I think it’s a little bit of a long shot right now just because of a lot of forwards ahead of him. But also like Hayes, I think he can show that maybe he can be a call-up option during the season. But these two definitely my biggest standouts of this prospect challenge by a mile. They were both on another level for all three games. It it was clear they were three of the best players or two of the best players, excuse me, on the ice for those games. And this is something that is going to be a big part or needs to be a big part of the Penguins rebuild is finding these diamonds in the rough. Now, I’m not going to crown Avery Hayes as the next one yet, but when you’re an undrafted 22year-old, he’ll be 23 right as the NHL season gets going and you dominate a tournament like this, when you’re surrounded by a bunch of draft homegrown draft picks in the organization, that’s a big big step. And it’s how you rebuild an organization like the Penguins where we’re still waiting for that top fiveish pick in the NHL draft that they’re they’re definitely lacking right now. So you look at his game and the way he played really making a name for himself, rising his or rising his stock within the organization. And then for Bros, this is a guy that you and I have been excited about for quite a while now. And you could see that there was a bit of a before and after when he went down with mono because if you’ve ever had mono or known someone who has mono, it damn near paralyzes you. You don’t do anything. There’s no like riding the bike while you get back from injury. There’s no working out where where you’re not injured while you have mono. you’re bedridden basically because it zaps you of all your energy and you’re really not able to do anything and you can see it was a bit of a long road back for him. But to see the way he performed in this tournament over three games is a very positive sign. And you look at who’s going to be on the fringes going into training camp and throughout the season. If these guys perform well in training camp, they’re going to be very close to the top of the list for guys who are going to get a call when injuries or under performances happen throughout the year. Right. I agree with both of those and again, I’m excited to get to see them at camp, which starts this Thursday. Another player that especially caught my eye today after he was a little bit quiet to start the camp, was first round pick Ben Kindle. I thought this was the prototypical Ben Kindle game where he’s using his hockey IQ to his advantage. That’s probably my favorite part of his game. There was one sequence where it looked like he had eyes in the back of his head. No look past spring a two-on-one where the Penguins almost scored. He got a couple of goals in this game as well right around the net front which you know he utilizes his release pretty well when he wants to but he does have that ability to go to the greasy areas and get some dirty as well. He also had a couple of assists. He finishes the tournament pad two goals five assists at least by my stats that I had written down in my notes. I thought this was by far his his best game. And I know some people don’t notice some of the things he does on the ice, but that’s by design because his hockey IQ is just beyond I think anyone in this system. That’s that’s the biggest standout for me away from the numbers for Kindle watching these three games is that he processes the game very well. He sees the ice very well and there’s not a lot of panic in his game and you know that in a prospect challenge where you’re playing three games with a bunch of players that you don’t know, you’re not all that familiar with, there’s some familiarity for a few of these guys on all teams because they’ve been together either with the AHL clubs, the ECHL clubs, or some of them are together in junior. But at the end of the day, this isn’t a coherent put together team that you’re spending all your time with, you’re practicing with, you’re playing games with, you’re developing together. So for Kindle to take what should be a pretty chaotic type of game in a pretty chaotic type of tournament and to play a calm game and to play a good game where he’s seeing the ice well, he’s distributing the puck well, he’s rarely out of position. You couple that with his junior stats from last year of 99 points and you see the makings of what could be a pretty solid NHL player should he continue to develop because like we said when we were getting ready for this last week, you obviously don’t want to read too much into it, especially the stats and the game results. like we’re going to give some snaps and some claps for them winning this for the third year in a row. But can’t really do anything with three straight prospect challenge wins. It’s really nothing. But you see these individual performances, especially for somebody like Kindle, and you see the way that they control the game, the way they play the game, and it it it shows you that they made a smart pick for now. if he continues to develop, it’s a player that we’re seeing a lot of upside for, right? And I want to see him also carry that momentum into at least a little bit of training camp before he gets sent back to to his junior team for this year. And I’m excited to see what he can do as a junior team this year. 99 points last year. Does he hit the 100 point mark this year? Does he does he continue, excuse me, to build on that? I’m gonna be really trying to tune in to some more of his games this year just because when he’s on, he really is a blast to watch. Again, the hockey IQ people, it’s out of this world in my opinion. But I think that’ll do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we’re going to discuss a few more players who we thought stood out, including defenseman Quinn Buchane because he almost had a Gordy How-Trick in the first game, and I think he’s going to become a fan favorite pretty quickly. So stay tuned for that coming up here in the second segment. Before we get to that though, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor and that is Indeed. You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other websites. Indeed’s sponsor jobs put your post at the top of the page and to help you reach the right candidates faster. I’ve been in that spot where you need the right hire like yesterday. The pressurees on and every day without the right person is a setback. That’s exactly when Indeed’s sponsor jobs come in handy. They make sure your post is seen by the right candidates right now. So right now you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 sponsor job credit. Just go to indeed.comlockon right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. All right, we’re back here in this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I’m one of your hosts, Hunter Hodies, joined by my co-host Patraamp and Pat Quinn Buchane was so fun to watch during the prospects challenge. And as I teased going into it, just with the snarl that he played with, the skating ability and some of the offense that he can create, I think if he develops properly, I think he could be a fan favorite if he if he reaches the NHL. This is a player that I think was taken two to three rounds later than he should have gone just because I think some teams felt like he was a bit undersized. You watch him skate, it’s breathtaking. I don’t mean that as an overreaction. It’s just he’s that good of a skater. Kind of reminds me of Harrison Brunick a little bit in a way. He absolutely unleashed a cannon of a slap shot during today’s game after Sergey Murash made a really big save to keep it at 4-3 before the Penguins kind of iced the game with that Busheno goal, excuse me. He got in a couple of fights. He got an assist again during Friday’s game. He had an assist in a fight just one goal shy of a Gordy Halatrick. Almost scored a goal later on in that game. We didn’t really get to talk about it that much just because we were going into the weekend, but I was a really big fan of his game. He wasn’t out of position in his own zone. He was skating well. He brought the offense. He brought the skating ability. And he showed that he could really fight when needed to. He answered the call when Ben Kindle got a bit roughed up along the boards. He said, “Hey, you’re not going to hit my teammate like that, especially a prospect that was picked 11th overall, and he had the player that hit him answer for it.” So, again, I I know some of my takes on fighting fans disagree with and I get it, but I did like that he stood up for his teammate there and I think he had a really good camp. I have to reference our good friend Jesse Marshall here because not long after the draft, Jesse was doing his thing where he’s breaking film down of all of the Penguins picks and I get a text from him on Sunday, June 29th. I have it pulled up on my computer here so I can make sure I get the date right. He texts me at 11:30 at night and says, “As I am watching this Buchane video, for some reason I keep thinking Pat is gonna love this guy.” I text him back in the morning cuz I was sleeping and I said, “Oh, now I have to know why.” He never got back to me. But no big deal. He’s a busy guy. I mean that sincerely. He’s one of the busiest people we know. Sometimes his phone is in a metaphorical ocean because he’s doing a million things. But watching him in the prospect tournament, Jesse, you’re damn right. I love this kid. And and I’m right there with you on all the fighting stuff, I am vocal about. I don’t like that players will fight and jump players for clean hits, but what happened in that moment was not a clean hit. That was boarding. And Buchane, no hesitation to say, “You’re not going after my guy like that.” But it’s not all that he does. He plays with an edge, but he’s a very good skater. He’s got solid vision, and he has that added element. And I say this all the time, you have to have a thing, right, to become a a a mainstay in the NHL, which obviously that’s so far down the road for Quinn Buchane, but it’s a good starting block of, okay, so we know this guy can skate well. We know this guy has some okay vision. Just about everybody has that these days. The way the game is trained, the way the game is taught and coached, you have to be a good skater. You have to be able to see the ice. But what else can you do? The way he played, he didn’t back down. He was willing to fight. He was willing to be physical. That’s a good thing to have in your game now. We see the way the game is trending. You’re going to have to have some players who quite simply are psychos that they’re not going to be afraid to go into the corner. They’re not going to be afraid to step up. They’re not going to be afraid to go after guys when they need to. And for Buchane, he’s all a six feet. He by NHL standards, he’s not that big. But the fact that he had no fear, he was playing with an edge and he was standing out in a weekend where you have to stand out. He certainly did 100%. I also thought Billy Quinnan was good enough in the two games that he played. I don’t really think he had much to learn there just because we kind of know mostly like we saw how good he was at the entry level at the end of the year. Yeah, I know that was a small sample size, seven points in eight games, but I still felt like he is too good for this type of competition. So, he very much looked the part. It wasn’t as dominant as say like a Tristan Rose or Avery Hayes, but he still made some plays with the puck, especially during Friday’s game where I’m like, okay, he’s kind of just toying with some of these players on the ice. So, I felt like he was he looked apart and he’s going to have obviously a great chance to make this team. I think he should make this team coming out of training camp. And a couple more I do want to get to. I discussed Harrison Brunick a little bit. path skating is just breathtaking. The way that he can, you know, walk the blue line, the way that he controls the puck on his stick in the offensive zone when he jumps into the play, it’s really nice. I thought his tournament was totally fine to me. But I also want to focus on the two goalies before I hand this back to you. We wrap up the prospects challenge. I thought both Sergey Murv and Gabriel D, I think it’s how you pronounce his last name, by the way. I thought both of them were fairly solid. I know D gave up the five goals in the overtime loss on Sunday. I’m not really going to blame him for a lot of those goals. They were just bad circumstance, bad luck. He made a lot of big saves in the third period when the Penguins were trying to protect that lead before the Blue Jackets scored with a little over three minutes left, I believe. But you can see the talent is very much there. His movement is very good. It just sucks that he plays on a really bad Victoriaville team in the QMJHL. His team won 17 games last year. They were one of the worst teams in the league. If you put him on a better team, I think his numbers would improve quite a bit. Goalies are very voodoo. I know that. I’m not saying that he’s going to make it to the NHL. Like, let’s pump the brakes here. But I do think this is a more talented goalie than the numbers show. And I felt like he was good. Sergey Maros, he did his thing. Started the first half of Friday’s game. Pat uh pitched a shut out 11 saves and then today gave up a few goals but thought he made a really some really big saves especially in the third period on Helionus before Buchane got the basically the game goal to make it 5-3. I thought Mishov was also good today and we know that he’s going to be in contention starting Wilsbury this year. So those are just a few more players that I wanted to highlight. Not a lot to say about Koan or Murishov. They looked and were the part that you we expected them to be when we previewed this last week. You could tell Koanin was probably the best player on the ice and it feels like the coaching staff was kind of like in in regards to his talent. Like he obviously had players that were performing better, but it kind of felt like the development staff and the coaching staff were like we we know what you are. We just wanted to make sure have fun out there. And then same with Mishave. He was a very he was very very good. For D. I look at him the same way you do. I I think he’s a complete victim of circumstance in the queue. He’s on a team that he’s getting next to no help. And you said they won 17 games last year. If there if he’s not there, they might not win 10 because he was kind of the only standout on that team. And you could see it in this camp. when he’s with more talent, when he’s with a better team, you have a better shot to win. Now, he’s got a long way to go considering where the Penguins organization is with goalending between Murashave, Blumquish, Sheil, and a couple of others. But again, you can never have too many, especially in a rebuild like this, because either somebody falters and they’re not as good as you thought they were. kind of like and I don’t mean he’s bad now so don’t take it as that. Someone like Bloomquist who we had a lot of high hopes for then Murishave comes onto the scene they get Sheilovs and it’s like okay he’s still pretty good but his stock is dropping and if Sheilov’s turns out to not be as good as we hope that can be an opportunity for him. And then there’s always the other option with where we’re at in this rebuild. There’s only one net and you can only play one goalie. If you need to kickstart a rebuild and you see a team that needs some help organizationally and goalending, you’ve got some trade chips as well. But I liked his game a lot. One other one that I was I I don’t want to go too far, but he stood out a bit to me as Finn Harding. I thought he had a solid tournament. Again, he was not among the best of the best or a standout, but it was one of those tournaments where I I wanted to see a little bit from Harding and I I got what I wanted. I think he’s got a nice little future hopefully in the organization should he develop. But overall, I think when if we want to wrap this up about the the development in Prospect Tournament, I liked a lot of what I saw from a lot of the big names that we’re keeping a focus on. And you have to hope that this is both a starting point for them to have a good training camp and for them to continue to the momentum whether it’s in college or back in junior or for some of them in the American League where we’re really starting to see some of them take the next step toward being contributors at the NHL level. Right. You know, Finn Harding stats really popped off in his final season in junior. you know, he’s he’s obviously going to take it to the next level, play in Wilsbury or Wheeling this year. So, I’m just curious to see how that translates just because his offense really popped. So, I I thought he was okay. Didn’t, you know, stand out as much as the others, but I don’t think he was right. Like, yeah, like I said, I don’t want it to sound like I’m caping for Finn Harding here. I wanted to see him basically what you said. I wanted to see him take some of what he did in junior and translate it to a quote unquote pro game because obviously this was not a pro game. But he didn’t look out of place. That was the that was the biggest question I had with him. how much of this junior performance is real and how much of it is he’s just one of the best players in a league where he’s going to have to take the next step and we’ll see what happens when he gets the chance either in Wheeling or Wils Bear. But from what I saw out of out of him in these three games, there’s a flicker of hope there that when he gets to the pro game, he’s in it all the time. He develops and has that time to adjust to it. I think we could see a a a nice hopefully one day NHL contributor in Harding. Right. I hear you. I know I’ve read from a lot of different places that the organization is pretty high on Finn Harding. Again, we just have to see how his game translates to the pro level before we, you know, get too far ahead of ourselves. But I think that’ll do it for the second segment of today’s show. Coming up to end the show, Cindy Crosby was delivering season tickets to the season ticket holders today. And it looks like he called out his agent Pat Pran pretty bad. So, we’re going to discuss those comments right after this. Before we get to that though, we have to tell you all about her second sponsor, and that is FanDuel. The NFL season is here, and FanDuel is making sure you are ready for kickoff with a can’tmiss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5, and if your bet wins, you will get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love using FanDuel because it fits however you like to bet. player props, building a same game parlay, or even jumping in live as the action unfolds. It makes every game more exciting. Whether you’re watching your team or just keeping an eye on your fantasy lineup, it’s quick, easy, and the best way to add a little more energy to your Football Sunday. So, are you ready to play? If so, download the FanDuel app right now by visiting fanuel.com to get started. That’s fuel.com to place your first $5 bet. All right, we’re back here for the final segment of today’s episode. I’m one of your hosts, Hunter Hodies. That’s my co-host Pat Jam. And Pat Sydney Crosby once again was not happy to feel these questions about his future. I have been saying that on the show he does not like talking about this and you could really feel his words while reading it. Like you could see how upset he was that he has to keep answering questions about his future. And you know, one of the biggest quotes that stood out to me, this comes from Wes Crosby of NHL.com. He says Crosby on if he was surprised to hear Pat Basson’s comments last week, which we talked about. He said, he goes, “I was, and I think Pat knows how much I put into it, how much I love it, and how much I want to be in the playoffs.” You know, whether those quotes were taken for what they were or were there was a different question to get put into those quotes. I don’t know. I don’t know the backstory. Pat and I didn’t have a conversation prior to him, you know, talking when he did. So Pat, you and I discussed this a bit last week where I kind of put the thought out there that I don’t think Bran would have made those comments if he didn’t get the okay from Sid. I will take the L on that. Obviously, I was completely wrong. You know, we both were completely wrong about that, I should say. So, we apologize to everyone about that. But it was pretty damning here to see Sid really call Brassan out like that and saying like, “Hey, um, I didn’t give you the okay to say that.” And I’m sick and tired of these rumors. Like he confirmed once again he wants to be a Piter Penguin. He doesn’t want to go anywhere. And that’s that. I’m sure the Canadian media is going to try to spin it every which way because that is what they do. You hear it every freaking time on 32 Thoughts. You heard it from Pure LeBron and Darren Dreger and all these other places where they just can’t get enough of it. He doesn’t want to go anywhere and that’s not going to change. If it somehow does, I’ll take the L on it. Just like I took the L on what I said last week. But you know what? It’s probably not going to change and the outside NHL people need to deal with it. So, I really liked what Sid said today, man. There’s a lot more quotes out there. You guys can go check them out on social media. I just wanted to just to discuss the main ones. but he was not happy with his agent today. I’m going to not take an L because I still stand on what I said about this last week. I believe it was our Yeah, it was our Friday episode for Fan Take Friday. And basically the question that we took was basically wasn’t even a question, it was a take basically saying that until we hear from Sid directly, I’m not buying into any of this. And what do you know? Today we hear directly from Sid and he’s he was not happy like you said that that quote was very damning that he basically said to Brassan I didn’t tell you to say this I don’t want you to say this so that’s that’s something to keep an eye on but I I will stick with what I said in part of I do think there is a bit of a coded message behind it and it’s not the message of I’m unhappy I don’t like this rebuild. Trade me now. I’m tired of losing. Well, I think a lot of that’s true. You know, he’s tired of losing. You know, he wants to be in the playoffs. You know, he wants to compete for a Stanley Cup. I still do think that there is very much a valid argument there of them saying we need to see some progress in this rebuild. Because the last two years, let’s be completely honest here, the Penguins have been stuck in neutral. They have been kind of just spinning their tires. They haven’t really gotten a lot better. Without a doubt, they haven’t gotten a lot better because they keep missing the playoffs. They also haven’t really gotten a lot worse. They’ve just kind of been a middling team. A middling team that’s not really that bad, but also isn’t that good. And I think that they are saying to the organization and to Kyle Dubis, the next year or two, we need to see these young, and it builds into what you and I were just talking about for two segments. We need to see these young guys starting to progress. We need to see these prospects start becoming NHL players and not prospects anymore because you can see there’s some talent there. You can see that there’s some potential there, but eventually that potential needs to become real. It needs to become a team that can use some of these guys on Sid’s wing, can use some of these guys on maybe not Gino’s wing. We’ll see what happens with him, but what are you going to do for a second line center if Gino retires? What are you going to do to fill out the rest of the depth? Because we know that there’s a lot of old players forward on the Penguins roster right now. So, at some point, I think that yeah, Sid’s mad that basically Brassan kicked the door open to, “Oh, yeah, that we could totally demand a trade.” And Sid was like, “Hold on, man. I’m not demanding a trade.” But I do think they’re in sync of we’re getting a little tired of not being in the playoffs. And if we don’t see progress toward the playoffs in the next couple years, might be time for us to explore other options. Well, again, I’ll believe it when I see it when it comes to that because I know what Sid signed up for and I don’t think he’s going to request out. I just don’t see that happening ever. Stranger Things have happened. I just don’t see it. I’m just glad that Sid talked about it and hopefully this is the last time he talks about it for quite a while. Again, he doesn’t like talking about it. You could see how upset he was when he kept getting questions about it. But this time, at least I understood where some of the other reporters were coming from because this was such a big story last week and this is the first time he’s talked to like the Pittsburgh media in a while. So, they kind of had no choice but to ask him about this. But hopefully now that this is out of the way, we don’t need to keep hearing about this anymore. Again, I’m sure the Canadian media will try to spin it the way that they want to just because that’s how it is up there. I just don’t want to hear it about it for a while because I think right now with what he said, it’s a non-story until it becomes a story. We don’t need to talk about it again. I hate talking about this and hopefully this is the last time that Pat and I get to discuss this for a while. But unless Pat got anything else. I think that’s going to do it for today’s episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slwatch this one. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Tuesday. Remember people, training camp starts this Thursday. It’s going to get a lot of fun. It’s going to be competitive. I’ll be there for each training camp practice starting on Thursday. Gonna bring a detailed report to every episode of the Lock on Penguins podcast starting that day. Pretty excited about it. So for Patre, I am Hunter Hodies. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. We’ll be back on Tuesday.

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ prospects had themselves a solid weekend, earning a three-peat at the prospects challenge! Hunter and Patrick begin the show with the two biggest standouts from the Penguins’ performance at the prospects challenge: Avery Hayes and Tristan Broz. They break down their play, what it means, and where it puts them in the Penguins’ pipeline. Then, they dive into a couple of more players who looked good at the camp, including a feisty defenseman in Quinn Beauchesne, and a few others. Finally, Sidney Crosby spoke out at season ticket delivery on Monday, giving a pretty heated rebuke to his agent and the trade rumors.

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