DK’s Daily Shot of Penguins: Super-high picks needed?

Are super-high draft picks an absolute must?

#LetsGoPens #PittsburghPenguins #NHL

Hear award-winning columnist Dejan Kovacevic’s Daily Shots of Penguins every weekday morning! And much more!

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[Music] the two grand stages for this franchise first of which led to two Stanley Cups the second of which led to three more we’re built on something that’s not particularly easy to acquire good morning to you good Friday morning I’m Dan kovachevich of DK Pittsburgh sports and this is daily shot of penguins it comes your way bright and early every weekday if you’re into football Andor baseball I also offer daily shots of Steelers and pirates in the same place that you found this and I hope you’ll check those out as well Panthers three rangers two last night in the Eastern Conference Final that was game five and Florida has now taken a 3 to2 lead and I’m going to tell you right now that I don’t think you’re going to be wild about the subject of this episode well something I thought about in watching that game and admiring as I often do Alexander barov I believe this is one of the more underappreciated players in the game even though he’s now got the selky locked up post Patrice berser on for all eternity recognizing barkov’s defensive skills is recognizing a fraction of what he contributes and when I see not just this run that Florida has made but the one last summer as well well for me it’s it’s fun to see the rest of the hockey world appreciating barov the way I have for a long time he’s worth it but here’s something else barov was a number two overall pick barov was not an accident barov didn’t sneak up on anybody barov is doing basically what was expected of him that’s to his credit but when you draft one or two or even three depending on the the scope of the top of the class you’re going to do really really well for yourself the problem with that is you got to do a whole lot of losing to even get into that equation I’m talking about the draft lottery of course and it doesn’t take the most knowledgeable Pittsburgh hockey historian to know that that’s how the Penguins were built both times because it wasn’t just somehow sucking worse than the devils in 1984 and getting Mario that changed everything I mean it was a heck of a start but they stayed bad for a while after that the following year they got Craig Simpson in the first round number two overall Simpson ended up becoming Paul coffee via trade a few years later through some lousy luck and injury they ended up in a spot where they could get yir Yager at number five overall and then Along come the two 2000s and very high picks get used on Brooks orpic Mark hre flurry number one overall when Craig Patrick traded up you Genny malcin Sydney Patrick Crosby Jordan Stall and off they went again this episode is brought to you by bet online your number one source for all your summer Sports needs this season from Major League Baseball golf NHL NBA playoffs get the latest odds and lines including all team matchups player props odds on just about everything that’s out there head to the website today or use your mobile device to get in on the action bet online where the game starts so you’re caught in a spot here if you’re the Penguins where you go all right well listen we know that works what else might work maybe there’s another way and then you look at the current playoff teams and you see barov out there just dominating the rink barov in his own way by his own definitions is Gino Prime he’s a force to be reckoned with and he’s a force who lifts up others like for example Sam Reinhardt getting you 57 goals and it’s not just there you look at the Rangers it it’s funny you don’t think of the Rangers as a team that’s constructed that way but their biggest surprise their most pleasant surprise from a production standpoint in these playoffs has been Alexi lafranier and I don’t think there’s anybody who would look at what lafranier is doing and say boy that’s coming completely out of nowhere no because he was a pedigree guy he was number one overall now Capo kako hasn’t worked out that was a two overall but you never know when that’s going to come around so they they’ve got a couple at least one for sure there’s the stars who you don’t think of in that light but Meo hekinan was a number three overall pick and is an elite defenseman by every reasonable measure in this league while I’m at it Tyler Sean was a number two overall he’s 32 years old right now but listen we’re still talking about Sid and Gino right and they’re a lot older than that and Edmonton of course has had pretty much a monopoly on number one picks going forever and then that’s how you end up with Conor McDavid and Leon dry cidal if you want to take it back even further Ryan n and Hopkins they’ve picked high for an eternity they’ve won lotteries they won the McDavid Lottery which was the biggest one since Sid and they’re in this and I can say that and I can still safely surmise that there isn’t a soul listening to this who would say oh yeah let’s do that again let’s do that again let’s just tear the whole thing down let’s sell off everybody for parts sell off Sid and Gino and lat tang and Eric Carlson and everybody and just I don’t know load up on Draft Picks and Prospects make sure that the picks that are acquired aren’t Lottery protected and cross fingers when those little pingpong balls start bouncing around no one’s going to want that I I don’t believe for a split second even the people who say that they would want it so how do you do it how do you become a conference finalist without doing that without having those picks the obvious answer is to make sure that you’re getting a lot of middle rounders like Brian rust and Jake gensel and going further back obviously lat Tang I look at the Stars roster and I see guys who are second rounders third rounders Jason Robertson Wyatt Johnston rupe hints those are players that build up the depth you you can try to go out and get yourself you know every nol laari and Matt Neo that you want in free agency but you’re going to have to have your own people populating a lot of your roster they have to be draft picks they obviously can’t all be first rounders and they definitely can’t be among the top one two or three taken in a given class when we come back j1q [Music] today’s j1q comes from Chris and boy is Chris mad and I mean like mad at me he says DK I’m sure you could have a j1q about Tristan jari every day this Thursday episode might have been the 30th time in 45 days please talk about something else for you this is about jari not communicating with you just let everyone know the real reason jari won’t give interviews to me it’s a form of bullying what you’re doing Chris writes a lot Chris is mad at me a lot Chris apparently really is a fan of jari and his work all of which are fine what’s not fine is stating stuff that isn’t facts and attaching that presumably just to get some kind of response from me which isn’t necessary anybody who’s listened to this program for any amount of time knows that I get dissenting opinions from people all the time most of them are expressed politely in a non accusatory way and best of all aren’t just completely concocted but here are facts and they would be supported by everybody involved including jari himself he has never once turned down an interview request that I’ve had he’s never once been uncivil with me or disagreeable with me and he’s never once given cause for me to believe that he’s a reluctant interviewee whether that’s directly or through someone in media relations or whatever he has been off the ice a professional he also and this is unrelated was not trusted by the people people running the Pittsburgh Penguins to play in a single hockey game over a full month in which the team was desperate for every single point it could call along the way Believe It or Not Mike Sullivan didn’t make that call because he listened to daily shot of penguins or read M columns he made it because he believed that a career backup someone who could safely be described and I say this with affection as a minor league journeyman for a big part of it referring of course to Alex NAD delovic would compete harder would be more focused and would actually in some ways tend goal better even though jari is more athletically gifted and more technically sound NAD delovic would get praise from Sullivan that would sound a whole lot like well he’s really good at sticking the puck up to the forwards and in goal Sullivan would just say he battles he battles oh that was his way of saying he’s this is what you say about goes that are either in the miners or they kind of float in between the two this is what you say about a Casey desmith who could also get hot occasionally and the team loved playing in front of him because he competed hard and I’ll repeat you can be a fan of jari you can believe in him that’s completely you’re right but if you’d like to discuss or debate this with me or with anybody else you’d better come up with an explanation for why the Penguins themselves keep giving his job away to Journeymen oh and also at the most pivotal times maybe it’s because they’re listeners to the show which is awesome I’m glad to have them I you know what seriously Chris you can have your whatever feelings on this subject but don’t attach something false to it there’s no need for that you can have my attention either way I appreciate hearing from you always I appreciate everybody listening to daily shot of penguins but especially especially Mike Sullivan Andy Kyoto Jason Spa Kyle dubis everyone at Fenway Sports Group everyone associated with the Penguins who just hangs on to my every word and waits to hear what I have to say before making their own moves we’ll do another one of these next week I promise [Music]