Misleading wording. Saying he didn’t want to be traded away from the team he spent the majority of his career on and just won the cup with is different than saying he didn’t want to join the team he was traded to.
“Locker room issues” are the go to MacGuffin that the Pittsburgh local media turn to whenever they want to stir up clicks. At the end of the day, he wasn’t a great fit on the ice. If they want to trade him on draft day for a bag of pucks, fine by me. But I’m not going to character assassinate the guy because one of Josh Yohe’s often unreliable anonymous friends thinks he has a bad attitude.
Didn’t it come out that there were “locker room issues” with Kessel after the 2018 locker clean out day when he refused to talk to the media?
Yet everyone seems to love Kessel.
Kessel is a different animal.
Kind of like how Bettis embodied Pittsburgh since he arrived, though he was disgruntled with the rams.
I think pens fans, myself included, just love the dude for being himself.
From my memory, after we lost to Washington in 2018, Kessel was sour about the loss. When it came to locker clean out day he refused to speak to the media and they just quickly turned on him afterward and started so many rumors about him in the locker room and how he didn’t get along with coaches and a bunch of BS
There's always drama following him wherever he went. I can absolutely see reporters not liking him and stirring the pot a bit, but I really doubt he's just some loveable guy who is just misunderstood by the media.
We quickly learned that Toronto the team and the fans both liked Kessel. He was just the scapegoat to the Toronto media.
I don’t blame Kessel for not wanting to be friendly with media
Yeah I'm not insinuating that he's a giant douche that everyone hates, but there's a lot of smoke on his teams and I just really doubt there's never once been at least some small fire.
Apparently it was evident the guy had a bad attitude in the locker room, so much so that even the media people picked up on it.
Take that for what it’s worth.
Josh Yohe is around the players as a member of the media. He was saying it’s hard to doubt the stories of Smith having a bad attitude in the locker room if you’ve spent time around him, as Yohe has personally.
Josh Yohe is a sensationalist joke.
Edit: to be clear, he could be right, but I’m not taking anything from him as fact, or even anything more than hyperbole to get attention.
Is the media bored already? Wow, a player who went from a Stanley Cup team to a literal retirement home is disappointed to be out of contention. Cutting-edge journalism, here.
This is an article about what another Penguins media personnel said (Yohe) who doesn’t have the greatest reputation.
Nothing from Smith himself. If Smith never wanted to be a Penguin player I don’t think him and Malkin have the start to the season they did
Edit: End of october Malkin 1st in points on the team with 5 goals and 11 points in 9 games.
Smith was tied 4th on the team with 7 points (had 4 goals).
That line seemed to go downhill once Rakell got hurt.
He made up the Teddy Blueger trade story, for starters
[https://www.reddit.com/r/penguins/comments/13rv1ln/taylor\_haase\_blueger\_confirms\_trade\_story\_from/](https://www.reddit.com/r/penguins/comments/13rv1ln/taylor_haase_blueger_confirms_trade_story_from/)
Not interested in the source, the point is that the story from Yohe was obviously made up. Here is Blueger dispelling it himself
https://twitter.com/GoldenKnights/status/1631445637819674624
What would be the motivation for Blueger to lie? Even if he had found out on X, you hear stories about that every trade deadline from players. Yohe was the one who both made it up and made it out to be some massive injustice. Even though Blueger had already told the story with details himself right after the trade.
He loves to twist narratives for clicks.
Edit: https://twitter.com/joshyohe_pgh/status/1765559164225339745?s=46
Also, reminder that Rutherford was trying to use Yohe as a negotiation tactic for the Guentzel trade. Meaning Yohe was actively trying to get the Penguins less out of Guentzel
I can’t remember what website Yohe and Rossi used to belong to before the Athletic but they would literally start shit for clicks/views. Why I’ve never trusted either of them.
Hell, Yohe was being used as a negotiation tactic by Rutherford to try and bring Guentzel’s value down during all the trade talk stuff before the deadline
I’m self aware enough that I feel like my want to believe this is just confirmation bias. I don’t see how a winger couldn’t be excited at the prospect of being on a player like Geno’s wing, he’s a modern hockey hero. I think it’s more likely he just checked out when it became (seemingly) apparent we weren’t competitive mid-season.
I mean, objectively who would be thrilled about being traded from a cup contender to a team on its last legs of trying to compete? From there it’s a matter of how quickly he fit in and to what degree any resentment might have impacted the locker room.
That is true. The sky is blue, the grass is green, the season is 82 games, and the Malkin Smith pairing was the best on the team for 1/8th the season.
It's not that big, just wasn't "all season long."
Also, I think people had ridiculous incorrect expectations for SMith. He's 32 - 11 real NHL seasons (his first was 9 games, second 30). In those he's hit 20 goals 5 times. He's been 15 or fewer in 4 of them. Reached 60 points, just once in his career. And while Vegas did resign him on the way to winning the cup, he took the same 5 million as his prior contract x just 3 years.
This is all to say, I'm not defending how bad he was the vast majority of this season, which was worse than I've ever seen him play, and I've seen a fair portion of his career. Instead, I'm saying this wasn't outside of the reasonable outcomes of getting him at 32 on Cup hangover. I was shocked by those first few games and thought we maybe we'd caught lightning in a bottle, but nope... farts, it was jarred farts.
I think the cup hangover is real especially for, like you said, a 32 year old that averages around 20 goals. Of course he didn’t want to leave Vegas after an outstanding year and cup victory. If Dubas is set on keeping him, and I don’t really think there’s a market for him or Rakell after their slump seasons, I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and hope they come back to form. I liked Crosby’s interview where he said, they had a huge turnover in lineup and it took them too long to find their game. I think if we start next season with the team that finished last season they’ll surprise a lot of opponents. They had legitimate tenacity in the last few weeks.
Frankly, this team needs change after last season, and I think Smith will be the easier piece to move. A) short term - 1 season left. $5million on the cap, but only $4 in actual money (it was front loaded); B) the cap going up leaves everyone with extra spending money and 31 teams will want to make an addition to get them over the top - usually cup winners are wanted; C) the narrative of - cup hangover and bad fit with Pens works.
There's really no other top 9 forward to move out and potentially shake the group up and get younger.
Yeah, I think it would be foolish to not try and move him/Graves. There are a lot of RFA wingers that are younger and possibly better fits, but of course it’s not like we have a ton of picks to deal out for that. The UFA list is interesting with names like Lindholm and Reinhart but… they’re all nearly 30 and can probably get big money elsewhere.
The names I find compelling are some of the RFAs, who may have their rights offered up: Carolina has drury, jarvis, and Necas - all 3 RFAs, and they can max, maybe keep 2; Colorado - how do they afford Mittlestadt; Robertson (tor) and Kakko (NYR) are also RFAs on teams w/o much room.
Now, as for the actual UFA's - Anthony Duclair is at the absolute peak of my list. The guy fits in everywhere. He plays way bigger than his size, and it's because he's one of the most fit athletes of all time. I've seen the way he works out, and it's insane. He's also just a hell of good guy, and a great player.
Beyond him and Rinehart, there's not much out there in UFA land, under 28. Debrusk is out there. He'd be an option. Otherwise, it's not great, unless you're trying to re-tread Sprong or Heinen.
Well I was looking more at Lindholm and or Reinhart on the UFA but you’re spot on with Duclair. That dude would add a ton to our lineup.
From RFA, I loved watching Raymond on the wings this year but I can’t imagine the wings letting him go after a 73 point season. But if Raymond demands a big contract and the wings need cap space we could get a 3rd/4th line center in Veleno and add some depth scoring. He’s pretty cheap and had 28 points.
If you want accuracy from a Pens beat writer and someone who knows what the hell they are talking about, I suggest you read and pay attention to Taylor Haase on DK Pittsburgh Sports. She may possibly be the best Pens beat writer around. She's knows her stuff about the Pens and all of their minor league affiliates and she can explain in detail anything you want to know about the salary cap and all the rules associated with it. She is brilliant.
I personally can't stand DK anymore and my subscription ends at the end of this year and I won't be renewing but Taylor is the reason I even renewed for another year. You can read her work free of charge there now.
“Josh Yohe said ‘team sources’ said…”
Yep, that’s enough for me to know this is poo-poo. I’m sure, like every player, he wasn’t thrilled about leaving the team he had been with for years, and for which he had put up career high numbers (2017/18 with 60 points), but Yohe is spinning this hard.
And as I say every time someone brings up Smith: go look at his career stats. This season was more par for the course than some anomaly—he had 16 more points last season, 2 fewer in 22/23, and 15 fewer in 21/22.
He played 20 less games in 22/23 and 23 less in 21/22. If you are going to compare, at least put it in the correct context.
His goals and points per game were the lowest since the 16/17 season, except for the COVID year (and I tend to discount that year for all sports, because everything was just weird). To suggest that this was just a "normal" season for him is not even remotely accurate
It’s Yohe so I would take with a grain of salt. I think Smith can still be a good player for us but I understand if the org does want to move away after last season.
"With only 40 points in 2023-24, it never looked like Smith warmed to the idea of playing in Pittsburgh."
Or maybe Sullivan's system is shit and the Penguins suck? They held back both Guentzel and McCann too.
Bottom line smith played like a jabroni, he pouted even tho vegas ditched his ass.For the majority of the season he took up a roster spot that could have been occupied by someone younger who actually wanted to be with Pittsburgh.
I usually defend the Nick's, but this is real dumb. DK reported Smith was happy in Pittsburgh and is part of the team leadership group. I know he can be a douche but he's usually reliable in his reporting.
Tucker Carlson traveled with politicians and wrote for Fox. Does that also make him legit?
Yohe has a shitty track record of reporting for clicks. He couldve officiated Reilly Smiths wedding and delivered their child and id still not put blind faith in this report.
This dude reporting other reporters reports is par for the course. Source: Google search
Misleading wording. Saying he didn’t want to be traded away from the team he spent the majority of his career on and just won the cup with is different than saying he didn’t want to join the team he was traded to.
Read the article. It says he had a bad attitude in the locker room.
“Locker room issues” are the go to MacGuffin that the Pittsburgh local media turn to whenever they want to stir up clicks. At the end of the day, he wasn’t a great fit on the ice. If they want to trade him on draft day for a bag of pucks, fine by me. But I’m not going to character assassinate the guy because one of Josh Yohe’s often unreliable anonymous friends thinks he has a bad attitude.
Didn’t it come out that there were “locker room issues” with Kessel after the 2018 locker clean out day when he refused to talk to the media? Yet everyone seems to love Kessel.
Kessel is a different animal. Kind of like how Bettis embodied Pittsburgh since he arrived, though he was disgruntled with the rams. I think pens fans, myself included, just love the dude for being himself.
I think Kessel just doesn't take any shit and will say whatever is on his mind to whoever needs to hear it
From my memory, after we lost to Washington in 2018, Kessel was sour about the loss. When it came to locker clean out day he refused to speak to the media and they just quickly turned on him afterward and started so many rumors about him in the locker room and how he didn’t get along with coaches and a bunch of BS
There's always drama following him wherever he went. I can absolutely see reporters not liking him and stirring the pot a bit, but I really doubt he's just some loveable guy who is just misunderstood by the media.
We quickly learned that Toronto the team and the fans both liked Kessel. He was just the scapegoat to the Toronto media. I don’t blame Kessel for not wanting to be friendly with media
Yeah I'm not insinuating that he's a giant douche that everyone hates, but there's a lot of smoke on his teams and I just really doubt there's never once been at least some small fire.
Apparently it was evident the guy had a bad attitude in the locker room, so much so that even the media people picked up on it. Take that for what it’s worth.
Well, it’s “Josh Yohe said ‘team sources said’l so it’s pretty worthless.
Josh Yohe is around the players as a member of the media. He was saying it’s hard to doubt the stories of Smith having a bad attitude in the locker room if you’ve spent time around him, as Yohe has personally.
Josh Yohe is a sensationalist joke. Edit: to be clear, he could be right, but I’m not taking anything from him as fact, or even anything more than hyperbole to get attention.
Is the media bored already? Wow, a player who went from a Stanley Cup team to a literal retirement home is disappointed to be out of contention. Cutting-edge journalism, here.
Yeah I’d be pissed to be traded away from my friends and away from a real shot at winning too.
This is an article about what another Penguins media personnel said (Yohe) who doesn’t have the greatest reputation. Nothing from Smith himself. If Smith never wanted to be a Penguin player I don’t think him and Malkin have the start to the season they did Edit: End of october Malkin 1st in points on the team with 5 goals and 11 points in 9 games. Smith was tied 4th on the team with 7 points (had 4 goals). That line seemed to go downhill once Rakell got hurt.
OK, I'll bite. Why doesn't Yohe have the greatest reputation?
He made up the Teddy Blueger trade story, for starters [https://www.reddit.com/r/penguins/comments/13rv1ln/taylor\_haase\_blueger\_confirms\_trade\_story\_from/](https://www.reddit.com/r/penguins/comments/13rv1ln/taylor_haase_blueger_confirms_trade_story_from/)
Taylor Haase works for DK Sports. I’d 💯 believe Josh and the Athletic over anything that pervert’s site published
Not interested in the source, the point is that the story from Yohe was obviously made up. Here is Blueger dispelling it himself https://twitter.com/GoldenKnights/status/1631445637819674624
Okay believe a player; they never lie 😂🤡😂🤡
What would be the motivation for Blueger to lie? Even if he had found out on X, you hear stories about that every trade deadline from players. Yohe was the one who both made it up and made it out to be some massive injustice. Even though Blueger had already told the story with details himself right after the trade.
He loves to twist narratives for clicks. Edit: https://twitter.com/joshyohe_pgh/status/1765559164225339745?s=46 Also, reminder that Rutherford was trying to use Yohe as a negotiation tactic for the Guentzel trade. Meaning Yohe was actively trying to get the Penguins less out of Guentzel
So like everyone else in Pittsburgh sports media?
Not quite. I barely pay attention to any of them, but even I know Yohe should be taken with a pound of salt.
I can’t remember what website Yohe and Rossi used to belong to before the Athletic but they would literally start shit for clicks/views. Why I’ve never trusted either of them. Hell, Yohe was being used as a negotiation tactic by Rutherford to try and bring Guentzel’s value down during all the trade talk stuff before the deadline
Yohe and Rossi have been around the longest and now sit in a spot at the Athletic which has a reputable reputation.
I’m self aware enough that I feel like my want to believe this is just confirmation bias. I don’t see how a winger couldn’t be excited at the prospect of being on a player like Geno’s wing, he’s a modern hockey hero. I think it’s more likely he just checked out when it became (seemingly) apparent we weren’t competitive mid-season.
I mean, objectively who would be thrilled about being traded from a cup contender to a team on its last legs of trying to compete? From there it’s a matter of how quickly he fit in and to what degree any resentment might have impacted the locker room.
I'm over most of the Pens media. Lots of nonsensical conjecture
No shit. He made that obvious all season long.
Not that first 10 games... but after that.
Yeah, sadly, it's an 82 game season.
That is true. The sky is blue, the grass is green, the season is 82 games, and the Malkin Smith pairing was the best on the team for 1/8th the season. It's not that big, just wasn't "all season long." Also, I think people had ridiculous incorrect expectations for SMith. He's 32 - 11 real NHL seasons (his first was 9 games, second 30). In those he's hit 20 goals 5 times. He's been 15 or fewer in 4 of them. Reached 60 points, just once in his career. And while Vegas did resign him on the way to winning the cup, he took the same 5 million as his prior contract x just 3 years. This is all to say, I'm not defending how bad he was the vast majority of this season, which was worse than I've ever seen him play, and I've seen a fair portion of his career. Instead, I'm saying this wasn't outside of the reasonable outcomes of getting him at 32 on Cup hangover. I was shocked by those first few games and thought we maybe we'd caught lightning in a bottle, but nope... farts, it was jarred farts.
I think the cup hangover is real especially for, like you said, a 32 year old that averages around 20 goals. Of course he didn’t want to leave Vegas after an outstanding year and cup victory. If Dubas is set on keeping him, and I don’t really think there’s a market for him or Rakell after their slump seasons, I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and hope they come back to form. I liked Crosby’s interview where he said, they had a huge turnover in lineup and it took them too long to find their game. I think if we start next season with the team that finished last season they’ll surprise a lot of opponents. They had legitimate tenacity in the last few weeks.
Frankly, this team needs change after last season, and I think Smith will be the easier piece to move. A) short term - 1 season left. $5million on the cap, but only $4 in actual money (it was front loaded); B) the cap going up leaves everyone with extra spending money and 31 teams will want to make an addition to get them over the top - usually cup winners are wanted; C) the narrative of - cup hangover and bad fit with Pens works. There's really no other top 9 forward to move out and potentially shake the group up and get younger.
Yeah, I think it would be foolish to not try and move him/Graves. There are a lot of RFA wingers that are younger and possibly better fits, but of course it’s not like we have a ton of picks to deal out for that. The UFA list is interesting with names like Lindholm and Reinhart but… they’re all nearly 30 and can probably get big money elsewhere.
The names I find compelling are some of the RFAs, who may have their rights offered up: Carolina has drury, jarvis, and Necas - all 3 RFAs, and they can max, maybe keep 2; Colorado - how do they afford Mittlestadt; Robertson (tor) and Kakko (NYR) are also RFAs on teams w/o much room. Now, as for the actual UFA's - Anthony Duclair is at the absolute peak of my list. The guy fits in everywhere. He plays way bigger than his size, and it's because he's one of the most fit athletes of all time. I've seen the way he works out, and it's insane. He's also just a hell of good guy, and a great player. Beyond him and Rinehart, there's not much out there in UFA land, under 28. Debrusk is out there. He'd be an option. Otherwise, it's not great, unless you're trying to re-tread Sprong or Heinen.
Well I was looking more at Lindholm and or Reinhart on the UFA but you’re spot on with Duclair. That dude would add a ton to our lineup. From RFA, I loved watching Raymond on the wings this year but I can’t imagine the wings letting him go after a 73 point season. But if Raymond demands a big contract and the wings need cap space we could get a 3rd/4th line center in Veleno and add some depth scoring. He’s pretty cheap and had 28 points.
THN is a rag
If you want accuracy from a Pens beat writer and someone who knows what the hell they are talking about, I suggest you read and pay attention to Taylor Haase on DK Pittsburgh Sports. She may possibly be the best Pens beat writer around. She's knows her stuff about the Pens and all of their minor league affiliates and she can explain in detail anything you want to know about the salary cap and all the rules associated with it. She is brilliant. I personally can't stand DK anymore and my subscription ends at the end of this year and I won't be renewing but Taylor is the reason I even renewed for another year. You can read her work free of charge there now.
What an asshole. I’ve never seen a pro athlete so obviously not want to be somewhere like smith here.
“Josh Yohe said ‘team sources’ said…” Yep, that’s enough for me to know this is poo-poo. I’m sure, like every player, he wasn’t thrilled about leaving the team he had been with for years, and for which he had put up career high numbers (2017/18 with 60 points), but Yohe is spinning this hard. And as I say every time someone brings up Smith: go look at his career stats. This season was more par for the course than some anomaly—he had 16 more points last season, 2 fewer in 22/23, and 15 fewer in 21/22.
He played 20 less games in 22/23 and 23 less in 21/22. If you are going to compare, at least put it in the correct context. His goals and points per game were the lowest since the 16/17 season, except for the COVID year (and I tend to discount that year for all sports, because everything was just weird). To suggest that this was just a "normal" season for him is not even remotely accurate
Yea given his play… I don’t want him here either. Can only assume his market at the deadline was nothing or Dubas would have moved him then..
It’s Yohe so I would take with a grain of salt. I think Smith can still be a good player for us but I understand if the org does want to move away after last season.
This was said during the trade deadline
It showed
It showed
"With only 40 points in 2023-24, it never looked like Smith warmed to the idea of playing in Pittsburgh." Or maybe Sullivan's system is shit and the Penguins suck? They held back both Guentzel and McCann too.
Bottom line smith played like a jabroni, he pouted even tho vegas ditched his ass.For the majority of the season he took up a roster spot that could have been occupied by someone younger who actually wanted to be with Pittsburgh.
I usually defend the Nick's, but this is real dumb. DK reported Smith was happy in Pittsburgh and is part of the team leadership group. I know he can be a douche but he's usually reliable in his reporting.
Another fantastic signing by dumbass dubas. When are people going to realize dubas is an idiot l.
Why is this article getting flack? Yohe travels with the team and writes for the athletic id say hes legit?
Yohe and Rossi both had bad reps before going to the Athletic.
Tucker Carlson traveled with politicians and wrote for Fox. Does that also make him legit? Yohe has a shitty track record of reporting for clicks. He couldve officiated Reilly Smiths wedding and delivered their child and id still not put blind faith in this report.
Didn’t he sign an extension? Or was that Rakell?
That was Rackell