Have the Penguins already found three CORE pieces of the future?

Have the Penguins already found three CORE pieces of the future?

They say the future can never come fast enough and for the Pittsburgh Penguins, the future might already be here. The Hockey News is Kelsey Surmats is back on the show and we’ve got quite the discussion coming 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. Welcome back to another edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms, synonym for wet. Joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodies. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodies. And joining us today, one of the best friends of the show, the one and only Kelsey Serats of the Hockey News. You can follow her work just about everywhere. You can find it on the Penguins internet. And of course, as always, we appreciate you being here, Kelsey. And we appreciate you, the listeners and watchers, on making this part of your daily routine. Don’t forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, as well as YouTube. And if you’re not following us on YouTube, you should be. When you follow us on YouTube, go ahead and hit that notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we jump into it, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app now by going to fanduel.com and you could win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. People, we have brought one of our best friends, Kelsey Surmats, back to the show because, as she is so apt to do, she just drops banger after banger after banger on the hockey news. And she had one this week that I’ll give you guys a little bit of a look behind the curtain here on the process for Locked on Penguins. I was doing my show prep, reading everything I need to read, and I said to Hunter, “Kelsey had this really good piece on the hockey news. It’d be a great Penguins are kind of on vacation day episode discussion.” And rather than having us just steal it, we decided to bring her on. And the piece is the Penguins may now have three pieces of their future core. And that’s a big deal. So Kelsey, let’s just give you the floor. I’m with you. I think they have it, but as you write in the lead, there is such a thing as getting too far ahead of yourself. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, that’s the whole cautionary tale about young players and prospects. Uh you don’t really know how they’re going to pan out until they start to pan out. Um and right now, I mean, I don’t think anybody could have predicted the start that Ben Kindle um has had to this season. Uh he’s been an absolute revelation for the Penguins. Uh already starting to look like a lottery pick. um and they got him at 11th overall in this past draft. And then you have Harrison Brunick who has even though it’s been up and down for him to start his NHL career and they still have a decision to make um you know he’s shown some flashes and he has a track record. And then you got Ser Murv who’s just recalled made his NHL debut on Sunday against the Los Angeles Kings. 3-2 loss wasn’t really on Murash. He made an unbelievable save in the second period. Went post to post on Quinton Biffield. So, uh, we’re seeing, you know, possibly the beginning stages of the Penguins already having three pieces of their future core, and that’s a center, a defenseman, a goalender. Um, and, you know, if this is something that pans out for the Penguins, these are three higher ceiling guys. Um, this could really, really, really make a difference, um, in terms of their rebuild and just how they, you know, start to build out the rest of this core and the rest of this team. Um, so they have some periphery pieces, too. You know, you got Recker McGryy who’s still on the shelf. Uh Ba Quivvenin has kind of, you know, hasn’t really gotten going this year, but he’s really close. Uh Hunter and I talked about this the other day on Puckset, but it’s a matter of time, man. He’s getting so unlucky right now. Um so they they have some other pieces. They obviously still need to keep up with the process and keep adding as much talent as possible. Um we’ve seen what some of their other prospects are doing in the minors, in the NCAA, juniors this season. So the future looks bright for the Penguins and it starts with those three. Yeah. When it comes to those three, you know, if you if Murishoff really hits like that really speeds up your rebuild even quicker just because a franchise goalie can do wonders if if he turns out to be a franchise goalie. He’s dominated every level he’s played at so far. But obviously the NHL is going to be his biggest and toughest test yet. So the jury is still very much out on that. It’s only been one start. I thought it was a pretty solid debut. Pat, I know I talked about it earlier this week where I was a bit nitpicky on one of the goals, but he still made an insane save in the second period and the other two goals weren’t really his fault. So, totally good debut, solid for the most part, and I’m excited to see him get more starts before Jarry comes back. I think he’s going to get one of the games this weekend in Sweden. At least that’s what I would do if I were Dan Muse. And then for Brunick, you know, I liked his start to the year, but he faded off a little bit quickly. And Kelsey and I were talking about this on Pucks Net and that I just don’t know. I just don’t think they know what they want to do with him right now. Kelsey, actually, we haven’t talked about this on the show yet. So, I wanted to give this sack to you. There’s a little bit of a loophole that the Penguins could look to take advantage of here when it comes to potentially sending him on an AHL conditioning assignment if he gets two more scratches. So, I’ll just give that to you. Yeah. So essentially um there is you know as far as hockey fans who might not be aware um 19 year olds 18 year olds aren’t eligible to play in the AHL because of the CHL AHL agreement that’s ancient and nobody really likes the rule but it is what it is. Um and next season you know they’re looking to change it so that one 19year-old player per organization can play in the NHL or AHL um per season. So hopefully this is something that will change next season, but unfortunately for Harrison Brunick, it’s not happening this year. Um, but basically there is a a small loophole that the Penguins may be able to take advantage of. Um, Brunick has hit that nine game mark. Um, as in case you’re not aware, and then basically if he sits for five straight games as a healthy scratch at the NHL level, uh, he is eligible to be sent to the AHL on a conditioning stint that has a maximum of 14 days or five games. So, the Penguins could exercise that option because if you look at the schedule, if he sits both games in Sweden here, uh that’ll be five straight healthy scratches for Brunick. Um so, we’ll see what they decide to do with him, but I agree with you, Hunter. Um you know, in speaking with people in the organization. I really don’t think the plan was ever to send him back this season. Um, and I think, you know, that they they want to keep him around, but he has, you know, shown this tendency to struggle in reading up to NHL speed at this point, especially in the defensive zone. Um, so there, you know, some things that they want him to work on. He’s made some mistakes that have led directly to goals against and have hurt them, um, potentially cost them hockey games. So, they’re kind of at a crossroads and that’s a little loophole that they can exercise, um, should they choose. And then after that, you know, it kind of buys them some time. they’ll be able to kind of buy some time, make a decision further on down the road. And then World Juniors is basically right after that stint would be um up and they can lend him to team Canada for World Juniors um without affecting, you know, his his contract status at all. So, couple options here, but I think sooner or later we need to see him in some game action, wherever that is. So, I want to keep the focus of our opening segment here on Harrison Brunick. We’ll get to Ben Kindle and Sergey Murishav in the middle segment because we’ve already heaped so much praise on both of them. And listen, it’s been a dark couple years relatively here in the land of the Pittsburgh Penguins. So, we need that little bit of light from those two. But let’s keep it, as I said, with Brunick because Hunter’s right. We have not brought up that loophole in the NHL CHL agreement that is in front of Harrison Brunick right now. And basically what I want to get the opinions on from both of you is if that is the right decision for the Penguins and Harrison Brunick because I’m in the camp of I think this would actually be the best way to treat him right now. Obviously, I am on record on this show as of saying his development is now best served at an NHL level rather than going back to junior and just being the biggest fish in a smaller pond as opposed to being here in the NHL where he’s going to get that NHL caliber training at NHL caliber facilities and he gets to learn from some living legends. But I do think if you send him to Wilsbear for a conditioning stint, it’s almost a soft reset for him because it is a little bit of a lower level, it’s still professional. He is going to go down there and likely be on their top pair, get some big minutes, and be able to kind of reset himself in the American Hockey League. And then, as you said, Kelsey, World Juniors are right around the corner. They loan him to Canada. he gets even more experience in good hockey. So I think if I’m Dan Muse and Kyle Dubis, I sit him down and go, listen, we’re not upset. We’re not disappointed. We’re not thinking you’re suddenly a bust. We just want to take this route developmentally. So in the long term, you can be a key piece of our defense. Yeah, I totally agree with you. And you know the the other thing too and think the thing that people have to keep in mind 19 I think that sometimes you know gets lost in this conversation because yes it’s been bumpy but this is what development looks like. This is what it’s going to be for a lot of these young players that are transitioning into the NHL. Not everybody’s going to be Ben Kendall and just be unbelievable right off the bat. I mean and nobody again nobody really expected that from Kendall either. So, you know, it’s it’s one of those things and especially with defenseman. Um, it’s one it’s the arguably Mike Sullivan used to say it’s the hardest position to play in the sport because there’s just so many things you have to learn um kind of on the fly as a defenseman at the NHL level at NHL speed. And the kinds of things that Brunick’s struggling with right now aren’t things that I don’t I think that he’s going to be able to address in any kind of meaningful way in junior hockey because it all comes down to reading things at NHL speed. We’ve seen how he is in transition. We’ve seen, you know, that offensive ability and that that ceiling and what he can do with the puck and how he skates with the puck is really impressive, but he just kind of needs to take some time some time to reset, take some time to get his confidence back because I’m sure it’s not, you know, a great feeling for him that he’s been a healthy scratch in seven of the last 10 games. Um, so you know, I think there’s a a course developmentally here that makes sense for the Penguins, that makes sense for Brunick that allows him to kind of, you know, get those games in, get professional experience, get some of that confidence back, and then come back. And last thing I want to add here too, a couple things. So, um, Kirk McDonald, you know, over um, the summer during development camp said something that really stood out to me and director of player development Tom Costlos said a similar thing. They both kind of said how Brunick uh struggled at the beginning of his AHL stint last season. There was 10 games in the regular season, two games in the playoffs, and by the end of it, I mean, he was basically masterful. They said that he he learns quickly. Um, you know, he picks things up really quickly. He’s very coachable. And those are all things to keep in mind, too. You know, it might only be five games. It might only be 14 days, but there’s kind of a learning curve that seems to be pretty quick for him. um from their perspective. And I was also talking to a Western Hockey League scout earlier in the summer and he kind of mentioned something that kind of sticks out to me about Brunick and he said, you know, you’re get some of his development is going to be a little bit frustrating. You’re going to see him make mistakes. he’s going to have a lot of stick infractions, but just literally like within his skating and just his puck skills and the way that he plays the game with the puck on his stick, once he settles in, you’re going to start to see why he has such a high ceiling. So, um, I think that’s all stuff to keep in mind and stuff that he can really hone at the AHL level that he might not necessarily have the space to right now in the NHL. It’s also legit professional experience, too. Like, you’re going up against D. Yeah, I know it’s it’s not the NHL, but you know, as you said, he started out a little struggled a little bit. He had a couple welcome to the pros moments in the AHL, but by the end of it, especially in the playoffs, even though it was only a twoame sample in the playoffs, you know, he was one of their best players in that little miniseries. And I remember that Kirk McDonald quote, you sent it to me over the summer. He was his his eyes lit up when you asked about Harrison Brunick. So that I I do think that would be a good idea if they were to scratch him for two more games because you don’t want to keep having him just kind of rot up here and not playing and just sitting in the press box. You got to get him some games and then after that stint if they decide to do do to do that, excuse me, they can figure out what else they want to do, send him to Juniors and then go from there. Yeah, it that’s the biggest thing is you don’t want him to sit dormant. You do want him to get game action. As good as the training and practices will be at the NHL level, eventually he does have to play and get that experience and the AHL could be the perfect place for that. But that is going to do it for a jam-packed first segment. When we come back, the discussion on the potential pieces of the Penguins future core continues with two guys who have impressed in Benjamin Kindle and Sergey Murishov. So stick with us. We’ll get more into that right after this. But before we do that, we’ve got to tell you about today’s first sponsor, and that is Drip Drop. When I’m hydrated, everything just works better. My focus, my energy, my mood, and even my skin. That’s why I have been using Drip Drop. It is doctordeveloped hydration that keeps me running at full power no matter what my day looks like. Drip Drop, it’s not your average sports drink. It delivers three times the electrolytes and half the sugar of leading brands using a science-based backed formula trusted by medical professionals, firefighters, and over 90% of top college and professional teams. I’m a big fan of this product because, as I have said on this show, Hunter makes it clear to you guys all the time, I’m not the tallest man in the world. So, I’ve got to get myself back in shape because I’m not growing vertically. I can’t grow horizontally either. So that means I’m working out, trying to get back in shape or even playing beer league. So I need that hydration and Drip Drop has been exactly that for me. And right now, DripDrop is offering our listeners 20% off their first order. Go to dripdrop.com and use promo code locked on NHL. That’s dripdrop.com, promo code locked on NHL, for 20% off. And you can do that right now to stock up as the winter approaches before the heat kicks back in and keep your mind and body performing at their best with Drip Drop. Back here on the Wednesday edition of Locked on Penguins, I’m Patrick Damp joined by two of my good friends here on the show. my partner in crime, Hunter Hodies, and arguably the best friend of Locked on Penguins, the one and only Kelsey Surmats of the Hockey News. And we talked about Harrison Brunick and what to do with him in the opening segment. Now, let’s kind of keep that going a little bit, but with the goalender Sergey Murash, because again, to quote Kelsey’s great piece in the hockey news, which you should go read, we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. It’s been but one start in the NHL and it was on the second half of a back-to-back with travel. So, the team in front of him didn’t have a lot of gas left in the tank. So, not exactly the most ideal of situations, but he played pretty darn well against the LA Kings. As Kelsey said, can’t put that loss on his shoulders. He did a pretty fine job in that one. But Kelsey, I did want to get your take on this because you’ve been keeping an eye on a lot of these young players. The thing I noticed, and I said it on our show about Murishov, it was one of my few nitpicks with his first NHL game was that he is a very typical Russian goalender in that he is trained in move the puck, move the puck, move the puck. There were multiple occasions where he either gloved it, put it down to his stick, and put it back into play, or he went down, put it back into play. And while it didn’t burn him in that game, it is one area I look at with a teensy bit of concern because you might be able to do that in the K, the AHL, or the ECHL, but at the NHL, you got a lot of forwards bearing down on you coming to the front of the net. Yeah. And I mean, you that’s something, too. Um, I think that’ll It’s almost like it’s almost like you’re waiting for him to get burned one time so that it kind of like shows him like, “Hey kid, you can’t do this at this level. That’s not going to fly here.” Um, but yeah, I did notice that as well. He does love to play the puck. Um, and you know, that’s that’s a good quality in a goalender. I know Tristan Jari loves to play the puck, too, but we’ve seen that burn Tristan Jari on several occasions throughout his Penguins tenure. So, um, yeah, that’s that’s something to keep an eye on for sure. Um, and maybe that’s something that rounds out, you know, as he gets more experience, as he gets up to NHL speed. Um, but you know, aside from that, I I can’t say enough about how impressive this guy’s been. Um, and I think it says something that even throughout training camp, you know, there there was this goalending battle. You had Sheil coming and trying to prove something. You had Tristan Jarry trying to prove something after his season last year. Um, and Sergey Murishov stood above all of them in training camp. He was the best goalender. uh Penguins decided it best for his development to start at the AHL level um this season. And guess what? He knocks it out of the park. Um he has seven appearances, 931 save percentage, 173 goals against average. Um and that kind of even dipped in the last game or two, you know, it was higher than that before that. So it’s just it goes to show this guy has dominated at every professional level that he’s been at. Um, and I told said this the other day, um, on pucksinet with Hunter. You know, maybe this is a stretch to say for some people, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say. I think this is the most hyped goalending prospect the Penguins have had since Mark Andre Flurry. Um, and there’s even some shades of Flurry, too, you know, and the quickness and the athleticism and the confidence. And I think that’s something that kind of separates him. He’s 21 years old and you even just talking to him in the locker room and conversing with him and just seeing his process, he is so calm. He’s so composed and he’s just so casually confident and that’s not something you see every day from from a young goalender literally just coming up uh to play his first NHL game. So, um I think this is someone, again, you don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself here, but this is someone Penguins fans should be legitimately excited for. Um there’s going to be some bumps in the road. There always are with young players. But I’ll tell you what, I just watching him in training camp even from this year or last year to this year and then seeing him, you know, in this short sample so far, um there’s even miles of improvement from last season, especially in the rebound control. So, we’ll see. We’ll see how that kind of develops, but I’m very excited to see how his next handful of starts here go. Yeah, I agree with you on that. And you know, the cool calm and the collectiveness really just translates to the ice as well, especially during camp where I I don’t think it was close. He was by far the best goalie at training camp. He got to the end of camp and preseason for a reason. Just wasn’t room for him on the roster at the time. But it’s not going to be long until I think he is here full-time, especially if he does keep it up because we assume he’s probably going to go down to Wilsbury once Jar comes back. And if he keeps dominating down there, I think there is a real chance that he could be the number one minder, at least on the team full-time to start next season. Maybe not number one just yet, but there’ll be a chance, but definitely at least um on the team. And even during the first few minutes of that game against the Kings, you know, I didn’t really see him have the yips or anything like that. He didn’t really look nervous. He looked confident. He made several saves in a row. Again, first goal, he gives up, just a bad bounce. I bl I blamed Bob Grove on the podcast because uh Andre Kopur I never scored against the Penguins at PBG. So it’s like you know what uh shame on you for that one Bob but bad bounce off Parker Walther Spoon. Cory Perry blisters a shot through him. Not much he can do there blocker side. And then you know the third goal I would want to see him up a bit more play a little bit bigger in the net. But again that’s my only nitpick. But again he’s still young. He’s going to keep learning and I’m excited about it. As for Ben Kindle, I think if we were to do a reddraft of this year’s draft, I think he’d probably go what, top five, something like that at this rate. Uh, he’s carrying his own line in the league. I mean, you see the 91, 93, 95 expected goal share. Doesn’t matter who his linemates are, but he has had good chemistry with Tommy Novak. Billy Kovven and him have had good chemistry at times. Kelsey, I don’t know if I’ve said this to you yet to you yet, excuse me, but I’d love to see Rucker McGordy with him at some point once McGordy is able to get healthy. I think those two would potentially have some good chemistry together. I think they put him on Sid a little bit for the injuries, but also to try and jump start that line a little bit, especially in their own zone because the Crosby line has not been good defensively to start the year. So having a defensively responsible player even though he’s only 18 on that line could help in that department. So I think that’s another reason why you’re seeing that. But you know, he keeps this up. you know, we could be talking about him being a, you know, not just a top six option, but maybe even a way down the road a franchise guy, which I can’t believe I’m saying because usually when you pick a player at 12, you’re not really thinking, oh, this is going to be a franchise type player. But if he keeps developing like this, we we could see it well down the road. But again, it’s still very early, so I don’t want to say that he’s a franchise guy and it just blows up in my face. So, it’s only been a handful of games here, right? We’re obviously operating under the let’s have fun with this banner and not totally 100% serious. We’re not ready to put our stamp on it and say forget about the big three. Get them out of here. We got our we got our guys now. It’s all needs to hit his peak, people. Like long way away. But I I said this on social media and I stand by it. The potential is there. You’re seeing it as he can be a long-term top six guy. The potential is there. He just has to find a way to continue to develop and to continue to get better. And I’ll say this much for Kindle and Murishov together because we already kind of talked about it in the first segment with Brunick. You want to see what happens with these guys when they hit some turbulence whether it’s as a team as a whole because let’s be real here with Murishov. It’s kind of been all sunshine and roses in Wheeling and in Wils Bear. They’ve been good. They’ve won. They haven’t hit any real rough patches. But for Brunick, you see it now where struggles a little bit, has some issues, finds himself out of the lineup. How does he react to this? How does he get better out of this for Ben Kindle? What’s going to happen when, say, he has two or three bad games or he makes some mistakes? And same for Murashaw. If he has a rough start or Wilks Bear or even Pittsburgh if he’s still around for it goes through a three four game losing stretch and he’s struggling a little bit. How do they bounce back? Because for those two it has been nothing but roses so far with how good they’ve performed. So we still have that question mark. The last thing that I want to discuss with you two about Ben Kindle is this. Hunter, you touched on it a little bit. He’s up with Sid right now because of injury and just to kind of jumpst start that line. The question I have is how long would you want to stick with Crosby and Kindle together? Because here I genuinely don’t have an answer myself because he has shown both you put him on the third line quote unquote as the center and he drives the line. You put him with Sid the chemistry is there. So, I I really don’t know exactly what you do once this team gets back to health because he has shown he can perform in both places. You want him to develop as a center because he’s shown he can, but I haven’t seen a young player come up and have this kind of chemistry with 87 since Jake Gensel. So, what do you do? I think for me, you send him back down to center. That third line was cooking when he was there. I think this is more just a circumstance of a getting them to be a bit better defensively and hopefully get that nipped in the bud a little bit and b just because of their injury in injury situation. You know, once Raquel comes back, I think he’s going to be back up on that top line. We all know how much Sid loves playing with him. And then with when Brazo comes back, he’s going to be back up with AI Malin. So, I would move Kendall back down to center. He’s been dominating in that position to start the season. He’s had good chemistry. That line has been living in the offensive zone. That’s what I would do. I wouldn’t think twice about it. I’m kind of I I’m inclined to be in the same boat, but it’s also hard to say at this point because, you know, like I think lot when you’re thinking about the logic of it all. You know, you’ve seen how the Penguins center depth has kind of suffered without him as that third line center. And that’s not a knock on Kevin Hayes. It’s not a knock on Blake Lazad. It’s just that there’s a big difference between having Ben Kindle be that third line center than it is for, you know, Hayes or Dan Heinen or any of the guys that are slotted in there. Um, but I mean I think a lot of it will ride on how good he looks with Crosby because it’s one of those things, you know, Jake I don’t think the plan when Jake Gensel first came up to the NHL level was to keep him stapled to 87, but he did so well alongside 87 that it kind of got to the point where you couldn’t take him off of there. Um, and I’m I’m in agreeance that you need to develop him as a center. I mean, he needs to get some experience there. And maybe, you know, when you’re going into next season and if Malcolin comes back next season, maybe it’s a situation where you start to experiment with him at that second line center role and kind of develop him that way. Um, but I think a lot of it’s going to arride on how him and Sid look in these next couple of weeks without Raquel. Um, because you know that that is kind of this was a um, you know, a circumstance because of the circumstances. I don’t think he would have gotten this opportunity had Raquel not got down. um had had Hollander not went down, you know, there was a couple different things here and I think right now um maybe the Penguins might want to consider calling up someone like Tristan Bros for somebody else who can hold down that third line center position um and pro, you know, have a little bit more of a ceiling offensively um while their injury situation still is what it is. But I I’m kind of with Hunter though. Um, you know, unless he shows an absolute, you know, you can’t take this him off of Sid’s line because they’re unbelievable together kind of thing. Um, I think third line center is the best place for him to be on this team. Once the Penguins get healthy, that’ll bump some guys down. Uh, that should help him, you know, in the scoring department and just in the production department. Um, he should be able to play with, you know, more capable players once they get healthy. Um, so I’m inclined to kind of bump him back down there, but I’m also just open to seeing what happens here because, uh, it’s not every day you see someone with that much chemistry with 87 so quickly. Of course, there’s always the power play where you can just send out the super weapon and put them together because they look really good on that as well. So, I I don’t know if I’m totally convinced by both of your arguments, but they are great arguments. But it’s also a really good problem to have for the Penguins. Something that we haven’t had in quite some time, which is really nice. But that is going to do it for this middle segment. And just because Kelsey’s here doesn’t mean we’re skipping what we do on Wednesdays, folks. It’s Warrior Helmet Wednesday. And with Kelsey on board, she’s going to be a guest picker for our MVP of the week in Warrior Helmet Wednesday. So stay with us. We are going to do that when we get back right after this. But we’ve got one more sponsor to tell you about and that is FanDuel. The NBA is back and there is no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss tip off or you just want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when their first $5 bet wins. So, head to fanduel.com to sign up to play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Back here on the Wednesday edition of Locked on Penguins. I’m Patrick Damp running right alongside my pals Hunter Hodies and Kelsey Surmats of the Hockey News. And if you are new to the show, which we have been getting a pretty nice new audience here, but doesn’t mean we don’t love you who have been hanging with us for a long time. But for our newbies, it’s Wednesday and each Wednesday, we pay homage to the 2016 Stanley Cup winning Penguins with our MVP of the week, the Warrior Helmet, as part of Warrior Helmet Wednesday where just like the Penguins did in 2016, we take a funny little Warrior helmet and we give it to could be anybody, could be players, could be coaches, could be fans, could be units. So Kelsey, since you are our guest, let’s toss it over to you. Who is your Penguins MVP this week? My Penguins MVP this week is Errol Carlson. Um, and you know, I think this this probably extends beyond this week, but he did have three points in in five games this week despite the Penguins losing four out of five. Um, it felt like he could have had a lot more though. Um, I mean, aside from a couple mistakes, he did make that mistake on the last Kings goal. Um they’re really moved by Kevin Fiala, but you know, he kind of just watched Carlson. It happens occasionally, but I think the version of Carlson we’re seeing this season, even the one from this past week when the things haven’t really gone the Penguins way, the process is so much different this season that it’s been um you know, for his entire Penguins tenure up to this point. Um he’s doing a lot to help the Penguins win hockey games. Um he’s doing a lot to drive offense. third in and expected goal share um on the team behind only a Venny Malin and actually Voyven. And so um you know he he’s really driving the bus on the back end for the Penguins this season. It’s making a big big difference for them. Um and he’s giving them pretty much a chance uh in every single game. He’s generating a lot. He’s looked great on the power play. Um I think he’s just been a bus driver. He’s been a differencemaker and if he can continue to play at this level for the Penguins, um they might just get a good result at the end of the season here. So, we’ll see. But Eric Carlson’s my uh uh player of the week here. I wrote about Eric Carlson this morning for the hockey news if you want to go check that out. Just wrote about how Penguins hot start has his fingerprints all over it and went into some of the numbers and yeah, I mean, he’s been phenomenal. Love that pick. For me, the entire power play plus Todd Nelson. Shout out Todd Nelson for the work that he has done this year on that unit. But the power play, even compared to last year, is so much better, which is saying something because last year’s power play was six in the entire NHL. Right now, the Penguins have the best power play in the entire league. I could watch them move the puck on this unit for days. It’s beautiful to watch. Speaking of Carlson, he’s been a really good quarterback on that unit, which has been a problem at times throughout his career. Usually he’s just been great at five on five, but this year I I think he’s also been really sound on the power play. Evani Malin has been great. Cydney Crosby has been great, whether it’s on the half wall, in front of the net, below the goal line, wherever. Brian Rust, I feel like, has been, you know, better on the power play than he has been at five on five in my opinion, at least process-wise, even though, you know, the actual results are there for both, but I think the process has been more there for him on the power play. At least that’s my personal opinion. Ben Kendall has been fitting in beautifully, but they’re keeping all the opposing penalty killers off balance. That’s been the biggest thing. The movement is very quick. They’re getting the puck to the net very fast. There’s a strong net front presence and the penalty killers just don’t even know what to do when the Penguins get into the offensive zone. The zone entries are also miles better compared to what you saw even last year, the year before. Todd Nelson is doing everything right with this unit right now. They got the three power play goals against Washington. They got one against the Kings even though, you know, the Penguins lost that game. But power play even, you know, you go back to that game in Toronto. It was also redhot. The Devils didn’t really have too many opportunities. Hint, I was like Garrett rank officiated game by the way. So there’s my Garrett rank reference for the show. So overall though, this last week, Power Play was phenomenal. Shout out to that entire unit and especially Todd Nelson. Both really good picks. And my pick is going to show that Hunter and I have been doing this show together for far too long because while he’s taking the power play, I am taking the penalty kill. Huge week for them this past week. They go seven for eight in those three games. They have risen all the way to sixth best in the NHL. A couple teams ahead of them are tied. So when you put that all together, they sit there in sixth at 84.3% on the season. Really shook off some struggles that they had a couple of weeks ago. And if you’re checking us out here on YouTube, you can see the graphic on your screen of our picks. So with that in mind, let’s also take a look at our picks so far this season. Still sitting in the top spot with two Warrior helmets, Justin Brazo and Ben Kindle. And then you’ve got captain Cydney Crosby, general manager Kyle Dubis, Eric Carlson, Kelsey’s pick, who has been absolutely phenomenal this season of Genny Malin, Sergey Murash, and now you can add on the penalty kill and the power play. So, I mean, I know that this week wasn’t great wins and losswise, but as we have been saying on this show, this season really is a processbased season. Yeah, we we as fans want to see them win. We don’t like losing, but you’re seeing a lot of really good progress in a lot of areas with this team that I think this is a good way to sum up today’s episode that yes, they have been off to a hot start. They’re hitting a little bit of a low right now, but there are so many things under the hood so far this season that are making you feel pretty encouraged for the rest of this rebuild. But before we close it out, Kelsey, let everybody know where they can find you, what you’re working on, and what they should be checking out once you’re done working on it. Yeah. So, um, you can find me on the hockey news. Um, me and Hunter tag team on the Pittsburgh Penguins website. So, check out our work there. We got a lot of, you know, backburner stuff coming with the team in Sweden. There’s some stuff that I’ve been working on, especially dealing with the Olympics. So, keep an eye out for that. Yeah, you can find me on social, Kelsey_armmats4 on X. And same thing without the underscore on Blue Sky. Uh, you can follow me by name usually with the four attached on all their social media platforms. And uh also just follow my stuff on the hockey news. Um we’ll be putting out a lot of good stuff this week. Kelsey, we always appreciate you taking the time to come on the show, especially since you got to deal with Hunter way more than I do, which may God bless your heart for that one. But that is going to do it for our Wednesday edition. Hunter and I will be back on Thursday. We are currently talking to our friends at Locked On Predators. Hopefully we can get times coordinated to get you a preview for the Global Series in Sweden as the Penguins and Preds will play too. But either way, we will be back with a preview episode for you on Thursday. Then make sure you’re keeping an eye on your feed because we will be live, not live, but close to live right after the Penguins and Pres to get you a recap as well as get you set for early morning hockey on Sunday. But for now, for Hunter Hodies as well as Kelsey Surmats, thank you as always for tuning in and we’ll be back with a fresh episode for you on Thursday.

As the Penguins operate with an eye toward the future, the emergence of Ben Kindel, Sergei Murashov, and Harrison Brunicke, the future might be here sooner than expected. Patrick and Hunter are joined once again by a good friend of the show, Kelsey Surmacz of The Hockey News, to discuss the future of the Pittsburgh Penguins. While the team is transitioning to the next era of hockey, the sudden emergence of Ben Kindel, Sergei Murashov, and, to an extent, Harrison Brunicke, that next era might be here sooner rather than later. They begin with what’s going on with Brunicke, should he stay, can he go down to Wilkes-Barre, and what is best for the next phase of his development. (0:00) Then, Sergei Murashov made his NHL debut this past week. What exactly is his ceiling? Will he remain in Pittsburgh or head back to the AHL? They give their takes on that, as well as how much of a surprise Kindel has been this early in his career. (15:42) Finally, just because Kelsey is here, doesn’t mean we’re skipping Warrior Helmet Wednesday! They give their picks for MVP of the week! (30:16)

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