Hey Penguins, Good Luck With Kevin Hayes!

Intro Kevin Hayes is now a Pittsburgh Penguin poo Joseph is now on the St Louis Blues and joining Hunter and I on this edition of the lock on Penguins is Haley Taylor Simon from the lockon blues podcast and we're going to get into all of 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 edition of the locked on Penguins podcast as well as another edition of the locked on Blues podcast and I am Patrick damp you can follow me on Twitter at synonym for wet joined by my co-host Hunter hodies you can follow him on Twitter Hunter hodies we thank you for making this your first listener watch of the day because we're your team every day and don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcast and before we get started today's episode is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply as I said at the top we are Kevin Hayes joined today by Haley Taylor Simon of the locked on Blues podcast and before we talk about anything Haley for our locked on Penguins listeners who may not know you give them a quick rundown of lock on Blues who you are and what you do because I'm sure they're very interested in getting to know yet another locked on network host yeah absolutely so I'm Haley I'm the host of locked on Blues so you can expect daily episodes five days a week talking all things St Louis Blues also exclusive Blues content is found on my channel as well some one-on-one interviews of some players and Prospects so always on Twitter at lockon Blues as well tweeting away and my own Twitter at Haley T Simon we're happy to have you we're really excited and thanks to give people a little bit of a peek behind the curtain you reached out to us after the Kevin Hayes trade we finally found some time because as you'll find out as this episode progresses Haley is everywhere she does everything us two bums we do this show and do whatever else we do so we appreciate you finally having some time set aside to join us to talk about this so without further Ado let's get into it Kevin Hayes is now a Pittsburgh Penguin in a sort of an interesting trade where the Penguins sent future considerations which apparently the blues spent no time flipping to other teams for Kevin Hayes and a second round pick Haley what can penguins fans and the Penguins expect from Kevin Hayes now that he is on the roster I'll give you some positives to begin with on the faceof he is really good and consistent so didn't expect to see that out of him if he's on the third or fourth line you're going to get a consistent Center out of him as well uh nothing too crazy but he is good to generate in plays very smart on the ring to and very careful and careful in a go way not overly cautious but just careful with how he makes his passes and plays so you get a hardworking guy um that's great on the faceoffs what do you think led to him just having kind of a Down year this past year just because when you look at him this year compared to previous years 13 goals 29 Points in 79 games the year before that he was a lot better 18 goals 54 points and 81 games his underlyings went down a little bit this year with you know 45% of the shot attempts per 60 minutes when he was on the ice for St Louis his scoring chances rate went down his expected goals rate went down just do you think it just wasn't a good fit for him with the blues more than anything yeah so that's my biggest takeaway I'm watching ha for quite a while I don't think he meshed very well with the St Louis Blues and he never wanted to leave his previous team so when you take that into consideration that you have a player that was really comfortable where he was at you're throwing him into a new team um a lot of negative um Coming NE negativity coming to the season especially from the fan base no one was really wanting Kevin Hayes and I think that you know players go on social media they read what's going on so you're going to a city where you know you're not really wanted uh you're not meshing well with the team who knows you know what went on in his head but it definitely translated on the ice to a really bad season yeah and you look at like Hunter kind of brought up he has kind of declined a little bit over the past couple of Seasons he was very effective in his time with the New York Rangers actually went on to do fairly well with the Philadelphia Flyers considering their situation being in a rebuild and starting to get themselves back on track to being competitive and then eventually becoming contenders but when you look at the Penguins and where they are right now they're obviously Hunter have been saying it on our show Kyle dubis isn't saying it but they're doing a quick rebuild here over the next couple of Seasons that they're not using that word but you look at all the moves they've made the last couple of weeks into free agency they're trying to do some quick stockpiling here and get back to being competitive before the core retires but with that in mind you look Can he keep the Penguins competitive at what he's been able to do in the past couple of seasons do you see this as a guy who can at the very least keep this penguin team moderately competitive going into this season yeah so as I said that third and fourth line is going to be a huge upgrade having Hayes in it um most likely with the Penguins I would say that he's a third line type of guy um just with how the team is but you have some of these great players on the Pittsburgh Penguins um you have you know Crosby obviously that's one of the best of all time um malan you have all these really you know solid players that are veteran leaders so you're adding a guy that you can put into the third or fourth line depending on where the Penguins want to use him and it's going to really help out these younger guys especially the young guys that they um drafted a couple years ago the guys that you know maybe they decide to bring up from uh the AHL but the point is is that the penguins are now going to have a player in Kevin Hayes that is going to be able to work with cdy Crosby he's never played with cdy Crosby um they've been Metropolitan Division uh Rivals for quite a while with the different teams that he's been on so n he gets an opportunity to really Excel and play with one of the best in the league so overall this is a huge win for the Penguins um they gave up future considerations which I I know that's a little tough sometimes uh to have to give away but at the end of the day you're really winning the tree like the Penguins no matter what are going to benefit from this situation having Kevin Hayes right and Pat and I we both think he's probably going to slot in at third line Center and if Lars Eller is still on the team he'll probably slot down to fourth line Center just for added depth and I think of him more at this point as a playmaker for his career and if they were to put some finishers around him I think that has the makings of a pretty sound third line would you agree with something like that maybe adding a finisher or two to his line that can just finish off the chances that you know for him as a playmaker that he would create yeah so Kevin Hayes I mean he used to be a big goal scorer back in the day but over time we saw that kind of go away and he's more of a playmaker as we talked about so if you have somebody that's able to score those goals but him setting up the play then you're going to have a really solid third line and a very beneficial third line third lines in the NHL for whatever reason always stress me out because I feel like the fourth lines you know you always have to work on them and make them solid but the third lines sometimes get a little bit neglected so now that you're giving that tender loving care to the third line and you're having ha who is I have to tell you as I said phenomenal in the face off where you're having a guy that's going to be able to generate the puck to the net you're gonna get points out of that third line so we've talked real to end this segment we've talked pretty much here at this point about some strengths and some positives with Kevin Hayes and I'm admittedly a little bit higher on this than most I think for obviously you give up nothing to get a guy like Kevin considerations yeah which who knows what that could be it could be literally anything or as we've seen plenty of times in the NHL turns into nothing but we look at all that and we think okay we got a solid third line guy I like I said I'm admittedly a little bit higher on it than most I think he's going to help solidify a third line which is something the penguins have been severely missing Weaknesses for the past few seasons but what would you say are some of the weaknesses because we know that little bit up there in age not the fastest skater so so if there's a downside to having Kevin Hayes on your roster what should we be cautioned for and I'm going to be nice on this he gets in his head way too much um if he's having like an off first period he's gonna have an off rest of the game that's just how he is he's slow to get to the puck um sometimes spatial awareness too he's not always aware of that stick handling it could use Improvement but again that's with age the game gets faster you get older you know that happens and you know I would say the number one thing about Kevin Hayes and I know I said in his head but it's so true I mean it's not even just for a game it it could be for chunks of games and I think that his confidence and I'm not saying that he's not a confident guy because I don't know him personally but his confidence on the ice definitely deteriorated so I think a lot of what you need to get out of Kevin Hayes is for him to be in a good head space um obviously ly when I noticed this and this is a very sad situation he lost his brother Jimmy um a few years back and you know I literally saw Kevin throughout that whole process and I just know that things have been really rough for him so I I hate to be like oh well that's a reason why I do believe that a part of a reason why is because you know his life completely changed in a really negative way so you can expect to see a guy and I'm going to leave this positive despite everything that I said you're going to see a guy that truly does care about the game of hockey that is truly so passionate and whenever he scores a goal he points up to his late brother Jimmy so um he definitely wants to score those goals because he wants to obviously be able to share that moment with Jimmy so uh just whenever I talk about Kevin Hayes I always want to put that out there because people give him a lot of hate but we're all human right and he had to deal with something really really tragic yeah I mean overall I do think like I said it's a solid ad and I'm looking forward to that first Kevin Hayes goal when he points up to the sky in honor of his brother that'll be a great moment for him for the fans I hope it really will endear him to Penguins fans in that moment but that will do it for this first segment when we come back well now there's a penguin a former Penguin on the St Louis Blues and we will talk about po Joe and everything that means for the St Louis Blues but before we do that we have to tell you about our first sponsor and that is eBay Motors passion drive and patience the formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to Peak Performance superchargers roof racks exhaust kits LED headlights and more whether you're into speed power or style eBay Motors has you covered with over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die you'll always find exactly what you're looking for and with eBay's guaranteed fit your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back because with eBay Motors you're burning rubber not cash with all the parts you need at the prices you want it's easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusions apply eBay guaranteed fit available only to us customers Crossover okay we're back here on a crossover edition of the locked on Penguins podcast we're joined by Haley Taylor Simon of lockon Blues and it was announced just a day ago that now former Penguins defenseman po Joseph has signed with the St Louis Blues on a one-year contract worth $950,000 even more exciting for po Joseph and Hunter and I briefly spoke about this earlier this week he joins his brother Matthew they are both now on the St Louis Blues so you look at this signing for St Louis and aside from it being very fun a very cool story his parents will only have to wear different names and numbers at games this year rather than different team jerseys does this Haley fit a need that the blues had going into this offseason because po Joseph solid younger defenseman for the Penguins he came on strong at the end of the year but overall his journey in a penguin uniform very up and down lot of inconsistencies started to really come into His Zone at the end of the year but overall this has been a bit of a shaky development for po Joseph but in your estimation does that f a need for St Louis and can he help them out I sure hope so the one thing about the blues is are defense sucks I'll say it we have one of the worst defenses in the NHL statistically it doesn't show but when you watch them play it's like swiss cheese it sucks I don't know and that's the thing inconsistency freaks me out when it comes to the blu's defense because that's literally the definition of the St Louis Blues defense what I wanted this offseason was to get a veteran defenseman a guy kind of like Colton Pera who we have that could really you know show the younger guys especially our you know our Pros guys this is what you need to do and we have players like a Tyler Tucker who I think's been doing well on defense but we don't need more younger guys we have the younger guys but I'm hoping hoping that because his brothers on the team I know they're super competitive with each other that this will then motivate him a little bit to be more consistent it makes me nervous I'm not going to lie I think the money it's a good deal financially good deal but what would I have done this no I would not have interesting I I think you know when you look at the penguin situation here they signed Matt grizzli to replace him for almost three million for one year you look at what po Joseph got he didn't even get a million for this I could think I could definitely make an argument that the penguins be better off just keeping po Joseph compared to grizzli but hey that's not what K dubis decided to do he signed grizzli over Joseph but I am happy for Joseph he gets to go to a team that I think most people expect to not be a playoff team next year I'm kind of in the camp and I know Pat agrees I think the blues are kind of in that middling pack where I think they're closer to the bottom of the league compared to you know the upper teams overall so I think he could be getting quite a bit of playing time overall what you're getting is a player who improved as the year went on especially down the stretch I think he played the best hockey of his career down the stretch with Chris L Tang the two together were playing pretty solid and Joseph you also saw him work on his shot quite a bit I made this joke a lot un locked on penguins and Pat he knows where this is going po Joseph kind of had a muffin shot at times but he really worked on it down the stretch he could really fire the puck in quite a few games brought a little bit more offense I think his offensive game really improved down the stretch for the Penguins and if there's one thing he needs to work on it's his play around the front of the net I think he's still a little bit soft in that area and just getting loose pucks out of the corners I think he could still work on that a little bit as well but I do think there is at least a little bit of upside to his game as well going to a different environment now in St Louis I hope so I mean I know you said that you guys don't see the blues as being a playoff team I disagree I think that uh the blues they're a sneaky team uh we finished uh 16th this year so obviously just a little bit out of it but as I said with the right defensive help this team can be a playoff team and maybe he will help the defense you know not definitely not on the first or second pair but maybe on a third pair he could fit in but again like the things that the St Louis Blues is you truly never know um so I'm hoping this works out I really am but I'm not holding my breath and it's no disrespect to the Penguins development in any way it's just when it comes to the blues and defense it usually doesn't work out yeah and you you look at adding po Joseph to this group obviously Justin Faulk is still there Tory KR is still there got Nick Po Joseph Nick Ley and a couple others where obviously only knowing a little bit of Po Joseph from what we told you where could you potentially see him fitting in that defensive core well all the guys you named I wish were not there so ah no it's true it's really bad the only guy that I really feel like is solid right now is Colton Faro but in that defensive core I mean I could see him playing alongside a Tyler Tucker maybe a Scott perunovic um anything higher would honestly not be fair to Joseph because then you would be putting him in a situation where he wouldn't excel in so I think again that third pair you would have to either get him with Tucker or perunovic and that's even if they get playing time yeah I think the third pair is probably best for him at this point I mean he was playing top pairing minutes with leang but the Penguins kind of had no choice in that situation just because of how bad Ryan Graves had been for most of the Season then you know he got a little bit banged up towards the end of the season but they kind of really had no choice he was playing a little bit out of his depth but he still played fine enough I mean it was better than Ryan Graves overall but I still think not a hard bar to clear yeah yeah you're saying it like the bar is on the floor for Graves heading into next season but I think the best case for po Joseph you know high-end second pairing potentially but I think the third pair is still probably best for him at this point yeah it's all about players and how you can make them you know be the most successful so it would be wrong of me to say yes who' be our second perod kind of guy when in the reality is do I think that from just the observations now no but that's why you have training camp that's why you have preseason where you can really mash up these lines and Pairs and you can really see what where he fits in listen for all I know he might be in the first pair no that's actually not going to happen but that's always a possibility you know so give it some time but right now you're going to definitely get at least a third paer type of guy yeah I like I said I really liked where his development was heading by the end of the year now obviously like Hunter said that was born of complete necessity because of what a disaster that Ryan Graves was in his first season and just how inconsistent the Penguins as a whole were last year so he kind of got you don't want to say trial by fire because he had been up and down and in and out of the lineup for a few years years so he started to get a foothold in the NHL but he was thrust into a role he probably wasn't ready for but still did a fairly solid job in it but we will see what happens with po Joseph and his brother in St Louis now that they have been reunited but