Dan’s Daily: Trash Talking; Betting on Marner; Penguins Predictions

The Stanley Cup Final could end tonight as Lord Stanley will be in the building. Those close to the ice have been amazed at the amount and viciousness of the trash-talking, too. Elsewhere, it’s time to start betting on Mitch Marner’s next team, Team USA and Canada unleashed heavy-duty First Six rosters for their Olympic teams, including Sidney Crosby, and we took a stab at predicting what Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas will do with the Penguins’ veteran players.

I very rarely acknowledge the competition; it’s a rule we have because other outlets don’t acknowledge us even when they’re reporting a story we broke (in fact, I was booted from a scheduled podcast appearance last week because I’m “competition”). However, a huge hat tip to Josh Yohe at the Athletic for absolutely setting the Penguins’ universe on fire this week with a pair of home run stories on the futures of Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin.

Coincidentally, I was writing a column on the matter that dovetailed with the info that is now public. In fact, the Daily is late today because I’ve spent the early morning hours chasing tangents and other branches of the offseason moves.

And, last night I decided to help some friends who are having a graduation party and complained about needing to make 40 dozen cookies. I thought it would be a good time to be nice and surprise them with six or seven dozen. So, $50 and a very unenjoyable evening of baking later, I realized that I’ve never, ever baked cookies before, and my attempts were, umm, less than perfect. Here’s how it started. Cookies with chips, pretzels, and plenty of chocolate (white and dark). The last picture was all I was able to salvage “from scratch”, but they were really good! Sadly, the final tally was two dozen cookies, including a dozen from store-bought cookie dough … all of which were politely rejected by the hosts because no one else is allowed to put cookies on their cookie table! People in Western PA take this cookie table thing way too seriously. So much for a good deed, eh? At least I have something to go with coffee on Tuesday morning.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The future is finally here. And what will Kyle Dubas do with the veteran players this summer? It is getting close to decision time as the NHL Draft nears. From Rickard Rakell to Evgeni Malkin, what to do with the Penguins’ veterans.

Captain Canada rides again. As if there were any doubt, as the countries that qualified for the Olympic hockey tournament unveiled their First Six players, Team Canada unveiled a murderers’ row of centers, including Sidney Crosby.

I don’t usually link to our betting content, but Rich Gegick put up an interesting story. Are the Penguins undervalued in the 2025-26 Stanley Cup betting?

Rich is a really good writer; he never went the reporter route, but he enjoys the betting stuff.

NHL Trade Talk, News, & NHN

Does anybody else really want to get the raw video and audio now?

Multiple people, who are involved or close enough to hear it all, say this is the nastiest trash-talking Stanley Cup Final they’ve ever seen. Usually some subjects are off limits. Not here. Everything on the table. “Pure verbal hate.”

— James Duthie (@tsnjamesduthie) June 16, 2025

TSN: The Team USA First Six. While Canada has lined up some of the best ever, the USA … we’re going in a different direction. It’s going to be a tough game and tough to score when the US is on the ice.

The Athletic: Arthur Staple reports that the Rangers and Mika Zibanejad are done, and a trade is almost guaranteed. Perhaps I’m using more brusque language, but that’s the gist, so what comes next?

Sportsnet: Jaromir Jagr went from Pittsburgh to Florida for Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final (the type of guest networks should feature!), and met with Connor McDavid after the dramatic Edmonton win. I think Jagr enjoys the attention again, but he dropped a pretty big compliment on McDavid, basically calling him a hockey deity.

For you draftniks getting deep into the NHL Draft, Jason Bukala expanded his first-round projections to the Top 80 prospects.

TSN: This may surprise you. After some players rose and fell and rose again, Craig Button released his final draft rankings and Penguins fans might start to get excited … he has Jake O’Brien at No. 11. Here’s Craig’s list.

It seems like health has bumped Roger McQueen’s status again. Button has him up to fifth overall. I tried telling you that McQueen was really good. I’ll put out Matt Meagher’s Jake O’Brien highlights and analysis video today.

Also, it’s time to start betting on where Mitch Marner plays next season. Here are the latest odds.

Philly Hockey Now: Will James has an interesting twist on the NHL Draft–with the sixth overall pick, which prospects are worth the squeeze for the Philadelphia Flyers to trade up?

New Jersey Hockey Now: So, the New Jersey Devils have bought the camo, ammunition, and face paint. They’re going big game hunting this summer. As James Nichols writes, the Devils have everything that one of the top-shelf UFA wingers wants in a new team. Could the Devils land their target?