The Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins are now down 0-2 in the Eastern Conference Final.<\/p>\n
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Video Transcript<\/p>\n
You know, you mentioned Thomas Harley.<\/p>\n
I think the Stars would be nuts to move on from him.<\/p>\n
I think he is a bonafide top pair guy in this league when he is going.<\/p>\n
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I think if Ky- if you’re Kyle Dubas, you have to at least call them.<\/p>\n
I would say the same thing for Robertson, too.<\/p>\n
Make the call.<\/p>\n
You may not have what it takes to pull off a trade.<\/p>\n
That’s also if Dallas decides to put him on the market, ’cause I agree with you, Dallas should sign him.<\/p>\n
I don’t think they have a choice but to sign him.<\/p>\n
But if somehow things hit a snag, if you’re the Penguins, you have to at least call to see what the price is when it comes to a sign and trade in that situation.<\/p>\n
You can say the same thing for Robert Thomas.<\/p>\n
That’s another player that I think would be on the radar.<\/p>\n
But a player like that is probably going to cost you more than Robertson.<\/p>\n
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Centers always cost more.<\/p>\n
Teams are always looking for centers every off-season.<\/p>\n
And if someone like Thomas is available, probably half the league is going to flock to St. Louis to be like, “Hey, what are you thinking here?”<\/p>\n
Because that’s a bonafide number one center in the NHL.<\/p>\n
Those just don’t become available very often.<\/p>\n
you know, someone like, you know, Olin Zylwerga from the Blue Line, from the Ducks makes some sense.<\/p>\n
He’s not playing a lot right now in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
He’s still only 22 years old.<\/p>\n
Left shot D. So that’s something that at least makes some sense.<\/p>\n
Seven goals, 22 points from this past season, if you wanna potentially put him in a second pair spot.<\/p>\n
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I do think they’re going to trade quite a bit this off-season.<\/p>\n
That’s the way that, you know, you see some teams are building.<\/p>\n
You, obviously Kelsey, you need like the top high picks.<\/p>\n
Like you need, you need at least, you know, one to two to really be a contender.<\/p>\n
Maybe even three, of course.<\/p>\n
But, you know, you’ve seen like the trend, and Adam Gretz I thought did a great job of this on his Twitter page over the weekend, where a lot of these teams are really, really utilizing the trade market.<\/p>\n
And I think that gives an advantage to Kyle Dubas because he’s been very good at trading since becoming the Penguins GM\/president.<\/p>\n
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So that’s something to look at.<\/p>\n
Obviously, they still need more, you know, high-end talent coming in via the draft.<\/p>\n
But if you can really hit on your trades, that also goes a long way as well.<\/p>\n
It’s gonna be super, super interesting to see how roster building kinda changes over these, you know, next handful of years, especially with the cap rising so much.<\/p>\n
We’ll see.<\/p>\n
I think that, you know, favors a team like the Penguins.<\/p>\n
I don’t know if you would agree with me here, but it kind of favors the position they’re in, too.<\/p>\n
Because I know we’ve talked about this, it’s gonna be hard for them to bottom out without Sidney Cros- with Sidney Crosby still on the roster.<\/p>\n
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and you know, given how they played this season, I know a lot of the production came from those veteran guys.<\/p>\n
But they’re kind of at a point in a lot of their young players’ development where they need to be getting NHL minutes and they’re gonna be breaking through.<\/p>\n
You talked about Avery Hayes.<\/p>\n
Let’s not forget Rucker McGorty.<\/p>\n
I’m kinda low on Felix Hejny at this point.<\/p>\n
Yeah.<\/p>\n
But I do still think Rucker McGorty is going to be a, a, a part of the picture here.<\/p>\n
He hasn’t really shown that he shouldn’t be, even though there’s been some inconsistency.<\/p>\n
and then we mentioned Gronek, we mentioned Mersha.<\/p>\n
I mean, there’s a good chance that a lot of these guys are gonna be breaking through next season.<\/p>\n
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Tristan Bros, Tanner Howe, you know, Bill Zahn- Mm-hmm is gonna be probably in the AHL next season.<\/p>\n
So there’s a laundry list and at some point you gotta give these guys the space to break through on the roster.<\/p>\n
I think we’re gonna see a little bit of that next season, but then if you can land one of those big impact players, that changes a lot about the short-term and the long-term outlook.<\/p>\n
And I think that’s kind of the goal here with Kyle Dubas.<\/p>\n
My opinion, and feel free to disagree, my opinion on what’s happening here is I think they’re trying to build a little window of contention for while Sid’s still around.<\/p>\n
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and I’m talking about Stanley Cup contention.<\/p>\n
I’m not talking about just playoff contention.<\/p>\n
And then I think after Sid retires, what their goal is is to minimize that window by building out all this peripheral talent- Mm-hmm so that they only have to tank for a couple years.<\/p>\n