Penguins Trade For Kevin Hayes | Set Table For Free Agency

[Music] hello everybody and welcome to the tip of the iceberg podcast your home for Pittsburgh Penguins news and Analysis you can find us on YouTube or anywhere you get your podcast from by simply searching tip of the iceberg the Penguins had themselves a pretty busy weekend to set the table for the opening of free agency in just a few hours from this record in they handled a lot of business over the weekend as did most NHL franchises with the Stanley Cup final finishing on Monday last week they had a whole lot of things to go through the NHL draft the opening and closing of the first buyout period whether or not they could qualify restricted free agents all of that business had to be handled over the week and and the Penguins certainly handled some business of their own we'll talk about a couple of the things that they were able to do trading for a new third line Center drafting six players at the sphere in Las Vegas and allowing one defenseman to walk to the open market and be available for all 32 NHL teams as early as noon today let's start with the big one and that is the Pittsburgh Penguins acquiring Kevin Hayes and a 2025 second round pick from the St Louis Blues in exchange for future considerations now most people already know this but future considerations basically means they got them for nothing they're not going to give back very much if anything in the future for Kevin Hayes in that 2025 second round pick it was a cap dump for the St Louis Blues a team that brought in Kevin Hayes last summer and were hoping that he was going to be an answer to their depth at Center and instead he ended up being a healthy scratch toward the end of last season still played upwards of 75 games for the St Louis Blues last season but if you look at him now he's 32 years old making $3.5 million for two more years yes his contract is worth $7 million but the Philadelphia Flyers are retaining 50% for the next two seasons as they were the team that signed him to that deal it does accomplish a few things I I don't want to go to the negatives first let's start with the positives here it accomplishes a few things for the Pittsburgh Penguins one and the one that we were all talking about why they needed a new third line Center is it bumps lar Zeller down the lineup a little bit larz was perfectly fine for the Pittsburgh Penguins last year he was a decent third line Center in fact he was probably one of the better third line centers they've had in the past five years but he was still better off as a fourth line Center and that's why the Penguins needed to bring somebody in to bump him down and not only bump him down but potentially bump a guy like nol laari over the wing again nol laari as a fourth line Center last year he was okay you didn't get the offensive production but you got really Stellar defensive production copious amounts of block shots he played physically in the bottom six he was just better served as a wing so now by making this trade by acquiring Kevin Hayes you put two other players in better positions to succeed in that aspect good move for the Pittsburgh Penguins it also brings a little bit more of a playmaking upside to your third line when you look at the Penguins third line this upcoming season You're Expecting there to be young Wingers no matter who the Penguins bring in later today in free agency you would expect It's a combination of maybe a Drew o' Connor if they can find somebody to go on the top line on the left side you get Drew Connor who's still young and still has a lot to learn you might have a valter penin who's still young and has a lot to learn it might be one of the new guys of v koonin a pilip ponamarev if one of those young guys or two of those young guys end up being on the wing on the third line it's good to have somebody who has a playmaking background like Kevin Hayes to set them up in positions where they're able to just do what they do best fire the puck on net try to beat the goenda and lar Zeller again I'm not gonna crap on him because I thought he was serviceable as a third line Center but he wasn't great at setting up his Wingers when it comes to scoring chances Kevin Hayes at his best will be able to do that and also you you look at the fact that they add a pick at no cost lost a good draft pick too not not a fourth or fifth which could sometimes turn into a good pick but a second round pick that could end up being in the top half of the draft order those are pretty good things if you're Kyle dubis those are good things to add to the organization especially at no cost there is downside to this and there is reason that my initial reaction was oh I can't believe they actually did this I had to do a double take I had to make sure that it was actually Frank zerra who tweeted it out and it wasn't spam account Kevin Hayes has not had much success of late you look at last season I said played 75 plus games only 29 Points this is a guy that yeah he can probably put in double digit goals every season and that's great but the one thing that he was great at and the one thing that I already outlined is you're going to need him to be a playmaker he struggled to become that in his first year in St Louis so the penguins are betting that you bring them back to the Metropolitan Division a division in which he had some of his best years with the New York Rangers and early on with the Philadelphia Flyers and you hope he just finds that again you hope that he can be a solid piece in your bottom six that is consistent similar to what larell was last year with a higher offensive ceiling Hayes is decently defensively responsible but at the same time you brought them in because you want to score more goals in the bottom six that's what they're banking on from Kevin hay he didn't show it last season you saw him kind of start to fall off a little bit the season prior hence the reason he was traded by the Philadelphia Flyers so that's one of the downsides you need him to revert back to his old self for this to work out secondly he doesn't play special teams doesn't kill penalties he was a power play two guy in St Louis not a lot of ice time 119 minutes total on the power play last year you would assume that he becomes a at best second power play guy in Pittsburgh but he doesn't play a lot of special teams so his Focus his impact is going to Major the majority be at five on five so you're not bringing in a guy that's going to be a jack of all trades you're bringing in a guy that's going to be in that one position for most of the Season you would expect and also the big one he doesn't make the team younger he certainly doesn't make the team faster so it goes against the headline of what Kyle dubis mentioned as trying to turn the Penguins into now again he might try to fix that with who's on the wing he might try to fix that with the overall Team Speed around him but what Kyle dubis saw was an opportunity to get his third line Center in to put lar Zeller in a better position to potentially put no aari in a better position and potentially to create more chances for guys like Drew Conor in a bottom six role to create more chances for a guy like bter pin who only had five goals despite being a sharpshooter last year in his first 52 games at the NHL level you're hoping that he creates more offense you're hoping that he creates more scoring chances for those young players so they can start to fill the back of the net get their confidence up and get up to speed at the NHL level if it works it's a shrewd move but again when you see something like this happen the question that becomes what is the next thing to happen right the Penguins they're struggling to find a dance partner when it comes to trading guys like a Riley Smith when it comes to trading guys I know we've talked a lot about Tristan jar there's not much of a market out there according to all reports especially the ones by Rob Rossy who basically in his article over the weekend stated that Kyle DUIs has just kind of run into a brick wall there's been no other teams that have been interested in getting these guys at least in a way and in a fashion that Kyle dubis wants to get it so we'll have to keep our eye on what happens later this afternoon but the big move over the weekend Penguins acquiring Kevin Hayes but it was also a draft weekend the Penguins selected six players no trades made as far as in the draft they had six picks going in they took those six selections throughout the day on day two four defensemen one Center one Winger all four defensemen are right-handed shot I understand that based on what the penguins have in the cupbo and the prospect system it should have just been best player available but when you look at the cupbo there was one position that was more better than everything else and that was right shot defense and by be I mean Jack St ivany and nothing else you look at the left side you do have Owen Pickering you do have Emil PMI who was a second rounder last season you do have Isaac Bello who is a young Defender trying to make his way up starting in the ECHL last season we'll see if he can make that jump to the American Hockey League you even brought in Philip crawl a 24 year old that went over to Europe was initially a draft pick by Kyle dubis in Toronto and now is coming back over to join the Penguins organization so you have some names on the left side forward wise we saw what he did over the past year he added ponomar he added kiun and he drafted Braden joerger who immediately became the Penguin's best Prospect out of everybody go tending we've talked about at nauseum they have a decent stockpile of goal tenders they needed right shot defenseman that was a area that they clearly had identified that they needed they go out there and they draft four of them we'll have obviously deeper thoughts on all six of the picks multiple of them are likely coming to Pittsburgh for the rookie Camp so we'll get some eyes on them and we'll talk more about them as the week progresses last thing we'll mention here before we go because it is going to be a busy day across the NHL and I'm sure the Penguins will be part of that the Penguins last night allowed po Joseph to hit the open market they decided not to qualify him before the deadline yesterday now that doesn't mean that he's gone that doesn't mean that he is in the wind and not coming back all it means is he has an opportunity to negotiate with the 31 other NHL teams the penguins are now in the mix could still bring him back but at the same time he now has negotiating power with everybody else in the National Hockey League it's an interesting situation because the Penguins they need a left shot defenseman when you look at their left side you have Marcus Patterson one year remaining on his contract you have uh excuse me Ryan Graves with a lot of years left on that contract who's the third guy at the NHL level to start the season you have those young prospects but none of them I would predict would be ready by the beginning of the season so they'll need to bring in a left shot d man do they end up getting a a deal done with po Joseph that much remains to be seen but he does head to the open market he does wave uh not wave he does not get arbitration rights as he becomes an unrestricted free agent today at 12 o'clock but it's going to be a busy day penguins have about according to cap friendly $7 million remaining in salary cap space we'll see what Kyle dubis decides to do with that but that's going to do it for this episode of the tip of the iceberg remember you can find us on YouTube or anywhere you get your podcast from by searching tip of the iceberg we'll see you guys next time [Music]