McKenzie alludes to Penguins' trade potential

Bob McKenzie was on TSN 1040 Tuesday morning.

On who he'd pick between Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos to put on his team:

"Oh, probably Crosby. You could do that with a lot of players. People are going to say Jonathan Toews. Anze Kopitar's a great player. Drew Doughty's a great player. So many great players and they're getting better all of the time. I think this kid Nate MacKinnon, who's just entering his second season with the Colorado Avalanche, is going to play himself right into the whole 'Steven Stamkos - Sidney Crosby' equation in terms of being that kind of good. So I think he's on a launching pad to real superstardom along with the very elite of the game.

"Crosby, he's got dynamic speed, power, strength and I think he's really highly motivated after an unsuccessful playoff. The Penguins are off to a good start and again, it's real early, so you don't want to read too much into it but I suspect that they're not finished yet, either in terms of the team and the way they're trying to construct it and try to get a few more offensive weapons so that it doesn't fall to Crosby and Malkin all the time.

"Hornqvist has looked good. That was a deal that a lot of people panned. Again, the full returns aren't nearly in yet, but Hornqvist looks good skating on a line with Crosby. The kind of guy that goes to the net, puts his stick on the ice, is probably going to pick up a lot of goals that way."

On how good of a player Steven Stamkos can be:

"You know what? He's going to be off the charts. And I think the biggest thing for him is that he probably feels healthy again and I'll bet you that he's not even feeling 100 percent yet. But he's certainly... I know he and Gary Roberts, his trainer, talked this summer about how much more difficult it was to come back from the broken leg than they thought. And even during the summer when he was doing some of the strength training and stuff, he felt weakness there. And vulnerability. And for a player like Stamkos, you want to play the game purely on instinct. And if you're worried at all about your leg, and how it feels, that takes a little bit away. So I think with each passing week he's going to get better and better, and stronger and stronger, and he'll be that much more productive.

"I also think it helps - you saw Victor Hedman last night. He was the No. 2 overall pick behind John Tavares - this guy is going to be a stud. Both offensively and defensively. He's huge. He's putting up points on the board at an astronomical rate. There's very few defensemen that have scored more. Since January 1st of last year he's in the top 1 or 2 or 3 for points in the National Hockey League by a defenseman. And you saw an example last night, a goal and three assists. A four-point night for him. He's ready to take the next step. 

"And the Tampa Bay Lightning have a whole bunch of really good young players who are going to provide energy and enthusiasm and give Jon Cooper lots of options behind Stamkos, so he'll be insulated well with some good offensive guys. Tampa is going to be a big team to watch in the East this year."

Source: TSN 1040/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey