Why was now the time for the player to give him essentially a max term, at least, deal? I think

it was a multifaceted decision.

think as an organization we looked at it and said you know how can we as we move ahead if you see where the league is going look where the salary cap is going you have to be have some awareness of the the market that we're in we're going to need deals that provide us tremendous value and so maybe it's a it's a an aggressive bet early on on Vili relative to what he's done in the past but it's for us how can we you know He eliminates some of his own risk by signing long term.

And we, our expectation is that we will accrue value in the long range.

Because of his age, there's lots of options that come with the contract.

But our view of it was, when you start to see the last year during the year you started to get a sense of where salaries were going um and then in free agency you started to see where salaries for players at the bottom of the lineups were going so when you have a player that has some you know a lot of potential that you still believe in um you know i think in our situation with our cap space and also where the league is going with the salary cap and and our market as it you know in terms of where we stand in the league we have to do things that i think on the surface people are justifying to say that might be a little crazy and that's fine for people to say that and it'll be up to villi to to do his part and us to do our part and and kind of show where we're at but i think you have to do things differently you can't just do them based on the way that everyone else has done them or the history of contracts.

You have to try.

Yeah,

I've

never been introduced like that before, Dan, here.

Thank you.

Thanks, everybody, for coming.

And welcome back to another season.

As always, appreciate...

I don't know if it's echoing for...

How much of an advantage to you is that to kind of push these younger guys along that you have gotten or that you might get to make sure that it's not kind of stagnant and sticks, that they can kind of get pushed a little bit faster than otherwise they

Kyle, good afternoon.

Wow.

Thanks, Dan.

I've never had an introduction like that before, but thank you.

Um, uh, good afternoon, everybody.

Thank you all for, uh, for coming.

Um, I'll, uh, I'll cover two things off the, off the start, um, which are basically, you know, my review of the season that was, and then, uh, also transition towards where, where I think we're going and where I think we're heading.

What do you need to see from each of them going into next season?

Are you guys, if, say, a kid's in major junior, are you telling him, "Hey, after maybe do a couple years in college," or are you guys just kind of letting these kids figure it out on their own?

It's been a really different landscape this year, Keith, especially.

Like, so we've, we had three first-round picks last year, uh, Kendall out of the Western League, uh, Bill Zahnen out of the Quebec Major Junior League in, or Quebec Maritime Junior League, and then, um, uh, Will Horkoff at Michigan.

So Horkoff was the easy one.

He was staying at, at, uh, at Michigan.

Um, but then the other two, you know, the Saturday afternoon when the draft ended, uh, and driving home, it was all colleges reaching out about what Kendall and Bill Zahnen were gonna do.

Uh, and then as the year's gone on throughout, and, and they both elected to go back to m-major junior in Zahnen's case, and then Kendall was set to do that, signed with us, and then obviously made the team and has played the full year.

They're like slider, fastball, it's everything.

How is the Crosby situation with you right now?

Yeah.

To me, right now, uh, I, I know that everyone will probably want, uh, a much deeper answer, but because of who it is and because of, you know, being three days away from training camp, my view of it, Jeff, a- and, and this won't change throughout, is that we can't spend any time worrying about it.

Sid, Sidney Crosby is the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins, um, he is, uh, one of the all-time best players in the history of the league, and, uh, you know, so for us, having discourse around transactions or responding to what, uh, different things that are said in the media or, or who, you know, where different media members would like him moved to, um, or different things of that nature, uh, is a distraction that with the task at hand, and, and, and knowing what that task was when I came to Pittsburgh in 2023, um, we just can't get distracted with it.

So, I don't spend any time thinking about it or, or worrying about it at all, even though I know that lots of other people do because he's Sid, and he's extremely special and means a lot to everybody in hockey.

But our full focus goes back to one of your, uh, previous questions, which is about how are we going to build the, the next wave of Pittsburgh Penguins teams that can contend for championships and, and do so perennially.

And, uh, any other, uh, any other time that we spend focusing on anything else that's beyond our control I think takes away from that.

I don't know that two is enough to detect a theme, but why is, why is Dan Mews the right coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins right now?

How is the Crosby situation with you right now?

Yeah.

To me, right now, uh, I, I know that everyone will probably want, um, a much deeper answer.

But because of who it is and because of w- you know, being three days away from training camp, my view of it, Geoff, a- and, and this won't change throughout, is that we can't spend any time worrying about it.

Sid- Sidney Crosby is the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Um, he is, uh, one of the all-time best players in the history of the league.

And, uh, you know, so for us, having discourse around transactions or responding to what, uh, different things that are said in the media or, or who, you know, where different media members would like to move to, um, or different things of that nature, i- is a distraction that with the task at hand a- and, and knowing what that task was when I came to Pittsburgh in 2023, um, we just can't get distracted with it.

I don't know that two is enough to detect a theme, but why is, why is Dan Mews the right coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins right now?