Dan’s Daily: Zegras Rumors, Utah Goes Wild, Penguins Prospects Battle

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Day 3 of our adventure to cover the mass of prospects arriving for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins will take a detour. Last night, we got a good look at Joel Blomqvist and Tristan Broz, and I think you’ll find the scouting reports interesting. We also conducted a sweeping PHN+ Q&A, including everything from mock trades to which players should or shouldn’t stick around. Dave Molinari also took a good look at Kyle Dubas’s Penguins trade record.

Elsewhere in the Daily, the Stanley Cup playoffs are getting intense and poor Dallas is merely in the path of a Stanley Cup champion. All-time Boston Bruins pest Brad Marchand is becoming the series villain against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he buried them in Game 3 Wednesday. Finally, the reception brought some players to near tears — the Utah fans filled the arena to capacity to greet the former Coyotes players. From the airport to the arena, the fans were going crazy for their new team.

And the players loved it.

Dear NHL, there are cities that will turn out and support hockey. A big media market times zero interest equals zero. A few more franchises should take note.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The past 10 months provide a good basis. What type of trades can we expect this summer from the Penguins’ president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas?

Marcus Pettersson will play for Team Sweden in the world championships, but Rickard Rakell will not. He cited an injury. Is that why he struggled this season? Here’s the latest Penguins news.

PHN+: A sweeping and wide-ranging Penguins Q&A exclusively with PHN+ subscribers. This one took a while to write because the questions weren’t easy, but I thought they were really good. From Reilly Smith to Tristan Jarry and offseason priorities, check out the Penguins discussion.

Go straight to our YouTube page for the video version. I saved the mock trades for the video.

If you like and subscribe to the channel, you’ll be notified when we post new videos this summer. What, you think I’m taking time off?

PHN+: A hard look at how close Joel Blomqvist is to the NHL. I thought Wednesday was an informative night for him, and we’ll be there Friday for the follow-up. We also got a pretty good look at Tristan Broz, who is far from the player we saw last summer. Light years different. Check out the Penguins prospects scouting report.

Use code Dan10 to save $10 on the yearly subscription, and join this merry band of hockey-loving rebels for exclusive content and an ad-free experience. Oh, and Steelers and Pirates coverage on the other sites is included. To repeat, no vacations here!

NHL Trade Talk, News, & National Hockey Now

NHL.com: The coolest story of the day. After playing for a couple of seasons in a tiny arena smaller than Wesbanco Arena in Wheeling with more visiting fans than home fans on many nights, Utah fans greeted the former Arizona Coyotes like conquering heroes. Standing room only capacity in the arena. The players and the fans went crazy.

Boston Hockey Now: First, the postmortem from Game 3. Goalie Jeremy Swayman was clutch, and Brad Marchand channeled his Nova Scotia playoff hero with a pair of goals. He also drove Toronto absolutely nuts in the Boston Bruins‘ Game 3 win.

Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe wasn’t thrilled with some of Marchand’s game. He accused Marchand of diving and drawing penalties. Here’s the Bruins postgame.

I think my three most enjoyable players in the league are from a tiny eastern province, eh? Slide an Alexander Keith’s my way with a donair, and I’ll be happy.

The Athletic ($): NHL trade rumors aren’t dying down around Trevor Zegras. Eric Stephens reports that Zegras said the trade chatter ruined social media for him. Zegras has spoken to the club about the Montreal Canadiens rumors.

32 Thoughts: Elliotte Friedman dove further into the Anaheim situation (and he’s right—the rumors have existed for quite a while, but they are always soft murmurs). It seems neither side is comfortable with each other. Let the NHL trade chatter begin.

I know Penguins fans have been watching closely, and there’s a good chunk of people who want Zegras. We’re going to be on opposite sides of that fence, and I’m going to challenge it like the viral strain of insistent opinions I did this season. Unless Zegras takes his game more seriously, he’s not the Penguins’ cup of tea (and that came from a scout).

NHL.com: LA Kings captain Anze Kopitar won it with an absolutely beautiful snipe, but the Oilers’ goaltending was atrocious. The Kings won Game 2.

TSN: Two games in Dallas. Two Vegas wins. Yep. Noah Hanifin broke the tie. Jack Eichel scored the empty netter, and the Dallas Stars didn’t know whether to cry or wind their watch. A 2-0 series lead for Vegas.

We’re still interviewing for a Golden Knights beat reporter. I could write a book on the interview process over the past year. We’ve met some interesting cats, for sure.

And finally — An odd situation in San Jose. David Quinn is out as head coach of the Sharks. GM Mike Grier said it wasn’t wins and loss related but gave no clues. The San Jose Sharks situation.

If you’re the podcast type–Sheng Peng did an emergency podcast for the immediate reaction to David Quinn.

Quinn and Penguins coach Mike Sullivan are tight. If the Penguins make any changes behind the bench this summer, it wouldn’t be a stretch for Quinn to join the crew.