Hunter and Pat are back for an episode of the podcast on Friday and oh boy, there are A LOT of topics to discuss. They first start off with the Jake Guentzel injury as the Penguins got brutal news on him to start the day on Friday. They look at how this will affect things with the team for the next 12+ weeks. They also discuss who will replace him on the top line to start the season and Hunter even puts Drew O’Connor’s name into the fold, even though he has never gotten top six minutes before. They also analyze whether Dubas will sign anyone to replace Guentzel while also realizing that they’d have to be cap compliant whenever Guentzel comes back from his injury. After that, they analyze Drew O’Connor’s deal more in-depth before discussing why this weekend looks like it’s going to be super important for multiple reasons. Heck, Hunter even makes a bold prediction for this weekend, especially when it comes to the Erik Karlsson situation. Will Mikael Granlund be bought out? They dive into that question as well before finishing the show with Kyle Dubas promoting himself to GM and looking at the other front office moves from Thursday.
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11 Comments
– I am curious if we will see DOC get some top-line minutes while Guentzel is out to keep the Smith – Malkin – Rust line together so they can start building cohesion, since they've had DOC practice with the Crosby line before in the past.
– I assume this almost certainly means we will see Andreas Johnsson get some NHL minutes to start the season with Guentzel out.
– I agree completely with everything you said about Granlund, but I wonder if he would be easier to move to a team that needs a top-9 forward (like a Calgary) for whatever we can get for him and then buyout Petry instead (if no teams are interested in Petry), since they will need to move Petry to make room for EK65 and I am worried that Petry might be the harder of the two to move, with his contract, age and M-NTC.
– Do you feel like Amanda Kessel will be the first female GM in the NHL?
– Sunday would be the perfect day to announce #EK65, with 65 days until the puck drops, it's fated!
The mission to replace jake is activated
Unfortunate timing on Guentzel's injury for the Pens and him with his contract negotiations. Already nervous about them giving a giant long extension because of the miles he already has plus he would be another 30+year old contract on a team that already has too many.
While I’m all for DOC getting some time on the first line idk if this is crazy but this Jake injury to me just screams for Dubas to either offer sheet or call the NYR and see what it will take for Alexis Lafreniere young number one overall pick who will finally get his chance to play on the first line and see what he can do! A line of Laffy-Sid-Rakell can be really fun to watch for the duration of Jake’s injury and increases the forward depth for when Jake comes back one of Smith,Rakell, or Rust will play on the third line! Probably a huge pipe dream😂 but I would love for Laffy to finally get his shot on a top line to see what he can really do
I would like to see DOC with better players around him. I don't think he's a first linner full time, but he did well propping up Carter at the end of last season. I will say that since guentz is out I think rust sticks with Crosby at first. DOC- CROSBY- Rust would be furious forechecking and down low work. I would love to see a ten game sample of that for sure.
totally agree on DOC. It is the least disruptive to the rest of the lines. I dont want rust on sid's line. I prefer him on geno's or the 3rd line. does this open up chances for guys like hinostroza and Johnsson getting NHL time in the bottom 6?
SOOO many questions on the jake injury/surgery. If its been a "lingering" issue, why is he playing (multiple) games in the beauty mens league? Why was the surgery not in PIT but in MN? Why August? Could have been done in May. He goes to LTIR, for sure. 22 games between Oct/Nov.
Im scared this makes dubas hesitant to buy granlund out. They might keep him and grow trade value
Buyout Granlund, get Tatar.
35 5v5 points last year. 2 back of Jake while averaging 2 mins less per game. Much better defensively.
What's his asking price? 3-4M? Easy solution.
Sign EK65 now before somebody real smart grabs him and makes all the experts look silly .
what about a team like anaheim for petry? They sit at $63M and only have 5 defensemen under contract right now.