Reilly Smith

Well it's official Kyle dubis has officially made his first trade as Penguins president of hockey operations acquiring Riley Smith from the Vegas golden knights in exchange for a third round pick in next year's draft I'll have my full fonts and Analysis coming up right after this you're 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 a special edition of the locked on Penguins podcast I am your host hunter hodies in order to follow me on Twitter at Hunter hodies follow the show's Twitter at Eleanor penguins and of course thank you all so much for making this your first list since last watch of the day we are free and available on all platforms I actually do have a special guest again for this special edition of the show Nick berlanski of tip of the iceberg helped break down the Riley Smith acquisition this is only going to be about an 8 to 10 maybe 15 minute video before I'll have a lot more on the trade later on for a full episode of the locked on Penguins podcast because the Penguins will obviously have the number 14 overall pick in just about two hours now when the draft officially kicks off but Nick how dubis makes his first trade Riley Smith to the Penguins for a third round pick in next year's draft that third rounder is the one they got back in the teddy blue Group trade so in essence Nick they sent out Teddy bligger and they acquired Riley Smith something that I think everyone will sign up for but I really like this move obviously I think this means that Jason Zucker is not coming back for next season and Beyond two years at five million for Smith very similar production to Zucker 26 goals 56 uh points excuse me underlyings are really good especially in transition and at five on five offense when you saw this trade what were your immediate reactions or thoughts excuse me my immediate thought was okay it's a little surprising here because I would have expected you know the defense the goaltender to be the first priority but when something comes up something comes up and apparently Riley Smith came up on the trade market and I think this was a really good deal by by Kyle dubis and we you talk about how it's the same pick and it's funny that one general manager opened the door the other one slammed it shut and that's Kyle dub is slamming it shut getting Riley Smith for a third round pick but when I first saw it I thought okay there's the Penguins top six but also somebody that basically like you mentioned closes the door and Jason Zucker somebody that I would have liked to see the Penguins resign but I think at the end of the day when you look at everything encompassing with this trade it's gonna end up being a better move for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the long run I agree and the way I saw it with this acquisition Penguins had a choice here and you can see that front office actually has a plan with this move they could have been like okay we're going to commit a lot of term and money to Zucker or we could go shorter term similar money for someone who puts up very similar production and that's what they're doing in acquiring Riley Smith and sending Zucker out the door that was my first immediate reaction to the trade yeah what what with the Zucker situation I think you also have to look at it with the fact that you know Jason Zucker was great last season but he was also volatile like I do think that he could have replicated what he did this past season but at the same time the way that he plays and the speed at which he plays in the way that he basically throws his body around like he's Invincible even though he's shown that he is not uh there was a question about whether or not on a five-year deal you would have even gotten three healthy years out of him now again I don't want to bash Jason Zucker because I do think that he was great in the locker room for that team I think he was great on the ice for that team specifically this past season but Riley Smith is a more trustworthy person to put on that side knowing that the best ability as you know Hunter is always availability I mean it's the most overused term in sports and uh Riley Smith definitely gives that to the Penguins in Spades yeah he hasn't even missed five games over the past couple of Seasons so he is very healthy you know I and I I understand Zucker was healthy for the team this year but as you said Nick do you really think that was going to be the case on a four to five maybe six year term for five 5.5 million and also this was a career year for him do we really know if he was going to put up 27 goals for the next three to four seasons so I get it from that perspective and Smith this basically rounds out your top six they'll have some combination Jake gensol Sydney Crosby Brian Russ slash Ricard Raquel Riley Smith Afghani Malkin the other roster Raquel on the second line and I think your top six is close to if not just as potent even though Zucker is not there don't get me wrong I think Zucker is the better player if if he would have wanted two times five I would have said okay I'll give that to him we don't have to trade for Smith but he wanted more term dubus is probably like no I don't want to do that considering your injury history and your age so we're gonna go out and get someone who yes he's a bit older but someone who can produce just as much and there's not as much risk to it heck again they gave up a third round pick that's magic beans here yeah and I also think the other thing that you have to look at I know this isn't you know Zucker for Riley Smith trade but it almost feels like it for the Pittsburgh Penguins but even though Riley Smith I agree with you might not be as good as Jason Zucker at peak level I think he does bring a different dimension to the Penguins top six he's great on the rush which is something that the Pittsburgh Penguins just didn't have and really haven't had since maybe since Phil Kessel I I could have to go back and look at some of those other teams between now and 2018 but they don't have somebody that's going to come down on the wing and just score the easy goals I mean Jake Ensel can from time to time but he he didn't really do that last season adding Riley Smith is something that is going to add a new dimension to the Penguins top six it might not top out as high as it would if if Jason Zucker came back and played at his Peak but I think it gives a new dimension of the Pittsburgh Penguins and ultimately makes them harder to play against I agree with that for sure he he is Elite in transition if you look at all the different you know charts out there Andy and Rono do good work J fresh hockey he is very good in transition actually brings him the 89th percentile among all players if you look at Andy and Rono offensively 84th percentile you're not going to get a lot of defensive impacts from him but you also didn't get a lot of defensive impacts from from so it was fine I really like this move I didn't expect it to be the first one that he makes because I thought he would have maybe gone after a tougher defenseman a goaltender but in terms of replacing someone who you probably knew you were going to lose no matter what you can do a lot worse than Riley Smith especially when you look at the free agent class heck as we're recording this Nick Vegas just signed Ivan barbashev to five times five these players are starting to come off the market Tyler bertuzzi is potentially going to get signed by Boston the Penguins have the cap space for that but they're not going to make that move because he's the best free agent available but this is I think is better than going out into the free Asian market and overpaying someone for the next four to five years to not give you as good of production Tia and when I believe it was Elliot Freeman a 32 thoughts said there are players out there for free and boy was it as as free as you could potentially even get it with Riley Smith you sent back a third round pick that you acquired from Vegas literally two months ago so uh paying whatever the opposite of a premium is uh in Kyle dubis now that's not to say that it's gonna all work out and be great and it's gonna be a fantastic fit but Riley Smith has succeeded in a lot of the places that he's gone specifically he did in Vegas but he was pretty good in Florida too they just they overpaid him and they had too many cooks in the kitchen and then they got rid of them at the expansion draft and then you see what's happened since he went to Vegas he took advantage of the opportunity yes and another thing I do want to add just before we wrap up here Nick I've been seeing this thrown out on you know Reddit social media all these other places where penguins fans come together I understand that he is a bit older but there's no law in which you can say oh no players over 30. this player had almost 60 points this past season you obviously don't want to go out and acquire someone like Mikhail gramlin and I hate bringing that up just because he's still on the team he just wasn't a good fit but Riley Smith can play even though he is 32 years old they can get younger in other areas and I expect them to but the age thing it's only two more years he just had a great season regular season and playoffs I am fine with it despite him being on the older side yeah he's 32 but he's not Jeff Carter like that let's not let's stop drawing that comparison and the same with Mikhail granland Mikhail granland's issue is not his age it's it's his talent at this point of his career which is the unfortunate issue but like you mentioned Riley Smith not only 26 goals this season 14 points in 22 games going to the Stanley Cup and guess what he wasn't on the top line that was that was barbashev who just got signed for five by five like you mentioned there's a reason that they made the deal it wasn't they didn't want Riley Smith it's because he's an unfortunate cap Casualty that just tends to happen every single year for the Vegas golden knights yes and I will give you and horwat credit you guys predicted this on your show this week I gotta say I was looking at a few cap crunch teams Vegas did not come to mind for some reason and I apologize to all the listeners class Watchers out there this is why tip of the iceberg is also one of the best Penguins podcasts out there because they called this one from the start well I appreciate the the props I will say it was not the only one so I'm not gonna sit here and say you know what I sat down and said hey this is the move that happens it's not what I said it's it's not what happened but I did mention obviously Riley Smith in Vegas it just seems like every year you know it they want to sign Barbershop they want to sign Hill and I'm like they never have cap space so they can't have it now so yes I looked at Vegas and another team that I'm looking at now is Calgary so we'll see if the Penguins can swing another deal with Kyle dubis but Calgary has a lot of defenseman for sale that's all I'll say well Noah hanifin is one of them and I would sure love to pair him with Chris Letang that's for sure real quick here Nick before we wrap up what do you expect dudas to do next now that Riley Smith is in the fold trade down trade down that that 14th overall pick I'd love to see him do it but he's trained back in the draft that's it's really just a gut feeling he's done it twice in five years with the Toronto Maple Leafs and he just seems primed to do it once again here in this draft well we will see if that prediction also comes true from berlinski tonight NHL draft set to start at seven o'clock penguins have the number 14 overall pick either way my friends I think they're gonna walk away with a very very good Prospect even if they stay at 14 or if they trade it down but that does it for this special edition of the locked on Penguins podcast I'll have a full episode out later tonight getting into who they picked more details on the Riley Smith acquisition and what could be next so stick around for that coming up later tonight