32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Could Be A Newsy Week

Episode Date: January 17, 2022

It might be a busy week around the NHL. Jeff and Elliotte kick the podcast off by focusing on the Montreal Canadiens and their search for a general manager as they close in on their preferred candidate (00:10), they give some background on player agent Kent Hughes who is in the running for the job as well as Daniel Briere and Mathieu Darche. They also provide some updates on Vancouver's search (12:00) along with Anaheim and Chicago (14:15).The guys then get into the situation in Edmonton and their performance against the Senators (16:30), the Dallas Stars and John Klingberg (27:15), Florida strikes goals (30:30) and they take your questions to close out the podcast (36:00).Full transcript for the episode can be found here by Medha MonjauryNew Podcast Intro Music by Jane’s Party. Thank you to Zach, Tom, Devon and Jeff for composing this season's intro music.You can find their full discography on SpotifyMusic Outro: Bilderbuch - GibraltarListen to the full track on SpotifyThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: AM 560 Sports WQAM and Sportsnet.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

One of those weeks where there's no news. Let's just read the CBA. Elliot Friedman, Montreal is hot. Now, I don't know if Montreal is as hot as your outfit on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, but right now, Montreal is hot and, true or false, close to naming a new GM. I think they're getting close.

I think it could be this week. I think Vancouver is winding down too, but Montreal, to me, is the team that's the closest it sounds like it could be this week basically where it is jeff is that we're taping this on sunday night while dallas is trying to steal this playoff game from san francisco and so you'll be nice and focused for the next hour here this is great almost got mad at me he was mad at me because I wasn't focused enough. He said, stop paying attention to football. So I'm just, I'm focused.

I'm proper. Behave. I've got my eyes on the prize, and the prize is the podcast. Focus, focus. But I am wondering if there's any possibility that maybe we might have to re-record on Monday morning, or is this a Monday announcement at all and because I think that the Canadians are getting close Kent Hughes the player agent who is someone Jeff Gordon has been interested in all along he has to make a decision is he in or is he out is

he part of this search or is he not and if if it's not him, I think it likely comes down to Daniel Breer or Matthew Darsh. There's always a possibility there's someone out there we're not seeing, but I think it's those two in particular if Hughes is out of this. Okay.

So people who listen to this podcast certainly generally will be familiar with the names and the resumes and the biographies of Daniel Brière and Matthew Darsh. Perhaps not so much of Kent Hughes. For those that may not be familiar with this person, who is a significant person, by the way, in hockey, who handles millions and millions of dollars for players and some very significant ones, Chris Letang, Patrice Bergeron, I'm looking your direction. Tell us a little bit about Kent Hughes. He's from Quebec. You know, someone told me once, like his brother is Ryan and Ryan Hughes was a first round draft pick of the Quebec Nordiques in 1990.

Technically, he was a second round pick. He was the 22nd overall pick in 1990. he was a second round pick he was the 22nd overall pick in 1990 that was round two now that's you know 70 of round one he played uh ncaa hockey i think at uh middlebury and the joke i have been told is that if if you could combine ryan's natural ability with Kent's ferocity in the boardroom, you would have had a hell of a player, like basically an unstoppable player. And like all good agents, he's a bulldog. He's really passionate for his clients. And he has a couple of kids.

Like, I believe he's got a kid who could be a first round pick this year. So, you know, he's been around hockey and he knows hockey and he knows Gorton. Gorton's very comfortable with him. So I think basically what it stands right now is they want to know if he's in. Does he want to be part of this process? Is he going to throw his hat in the ring to become GM of the Canadians? And if the answer is yes, he's very much a candidate. And if the answer is no, it's very much a candidate. And if the answer is no, it's, it's likely one

of the other two guys. Uh, as I mentioned, Kent Hughes handles a lot of money for a lot of players. Yeah. And, uh, I mentioned a couple of Chris Letang and Patrice Bergeron. There's also Darnell Nurse and, and Drake Batherson, et cetera.

And, you know, here's someone who's been doing this for a long time. He's, uh, now part of Cortex. I wonder at this stage of Kent Hughes's life, and I don't really know Kent Hughes. You know him a lot better than I do. Some agents we know want to be general managers. We've seen that before. The long-term play is, I want to be a GM. Have you ever gotten that sense from Kent Hughes? And what would be attractive? And on the flip side,

what would dissuade Kent Hughes away from this job at this point in his career in life? What's not attractive about being the general manager of the Montreal Canadians? Let me pause on that because one, it's a humongous stage. I don't care. That's attractive for some people and not attractive for others.

I get it for you embrace it. That's fine. There are some people that will attractive for others. I get it. For you, embrace it. That's fine. There are some people that will look at it and say, I may be interested in the position, but there's a lot of things that come along with it. We talk about how presidents age in the White House. So do general managers in my opinion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I understand all this.

My point is, Jeff, is he's one of the top agents in the sport, right? Yeah. Do you think that that would phase him? I don't know. My answer to that is no. You mentioned that he's got big-time clients who are French-Canadian. Letang. Yep.

Bergeron. Beauvillier. Beauvillier. I don't know the answer to this, but what do you think guys like Letang and Bergeron would say about that? Hey, you going to be the GM of the Montreal Canadiens? Hang on. Do you think that those guys are telling going to be the GM of the Montreal Canadiens? Hang on. Do you think that those guys are telling him

to back away from it or telling him to go for it? So just so we're clear here, so you're saying that if Kent Hughes becomes a general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, that Chris Letang and Patrice Bergeron at the end of this season will sign with the Montreal Canadiens? Absolutely. Am I hearing that correctly?

That'll be the new headline on the podcast. Terrify everybody in Boston and Pittsburgh. As a matter of fact, I'm reporting it. Put it out there on Twitter. Look, Bergeron's a Bruin, and that's all he's ever going to be. And even though LeTang is not signed with the Penguins yet, I think that getting him re-signed is a big priority for them, providing they can do it, right? I think the Penguins think that Chris Letang is a very big part of what they do.

All of that being said, you think those guys are saying to their agent, don't go to Montreal and be the GM or go to Montreal and be the GM? I would imagine they're probably saying go to Montreal and be the GM. It's the Montreal Canadiens. I get it. It's the Montreal Canadiens. And this is a big job. You know, where the Montreal Canadiens, I think, are going here, this is about to be a very big job.

You're going to test the limits of a lot of people's patience, and you're probably not going to be good for three or four years. I'm just saying if it was me, I'd still do it. I would be all over it, and I would still do it. Now, why wouldn't he take it? I think that the issue is it's always about business, right? And, you know, first of all, finances always matter. What's the deal? You know, what's your setup going to be? You're leaving something that is secure in terms of you're the boss and you're making a lot of decisions. And yeah, you're still going to be making a lot of decisions here, but the security isn't the same. That's number one. And number two, you never know, like another agent said to me this weekend, you never know what the financial arrangements are. What do you have tied up in your agency? That agency that Kent Hughes runs was bought a couple

years ago by the Saputo family. What's his deal with them? What's tied up? That's Cortex. Just to all our listeners know that that's Cortex. So from a business point of view, the question is, does it make sense for him to go? And I have had a couple of agents said to me that anytime, you know, it's like if you ever saw Jerry Maguire, he said, it's kind of like that. You know, what are the finances tied up in? That kind of thing.

An agent can't just wake up one day and say, I'm leaving the firm. Oh, no, there's a battle over, do you have equity in the firm? What happens to that? What happens to your clients? Well, he wouldn't be taking them with him unless they're signing with the Montreal Canadiens. As you've reported. As I have reported on this podcast. What's the deal?

What happens to his equity? What happens to his setup there? And those are all big questions. And like I said, some agents said to me, it's complicated. I had some guys who said to me that they wondered if it would be hard for him not to take a pay cut to get to that job i don't know but they said that that's another thing that they're they're asking so like look i think from the heart all of the reasons are there to take the job i think from the head the business challenges or the financial challenges of doing it might be an issue too

you know the other thing is like i said he's got a couple of kids who are really good players yeah um you know does he want to be on one team or does he want to be able to follow his kids around and his son's name is actually jack hughes funnily enough there's going to be another one yeah and he's playing at northeastern he's a good player and you know maybe he wants to see his son play as an agent and parent as opposed to an executive with the montreal canadian so these are all the questions matthew darsh and daniel briere what do you think people should know about these two who are widely considered rising stars in the management field the thing about both of them that appeals is that they've worked their way up. Breer hasn't walked himself into like a GM seat.

He's done a lot of, he started, I wouldn't say at the bottom, but in Maine, he started doing a lot of the things that, you know, you have to do and learn to understand the business. He's had a major role in business operations. You know, this weekend they had a COVID outbreak on the coaching staff of Lehigh Valley and he went behind the bench. He was an assistant coach for two games on, on Friday and Saturday nights, you know, so he's learned a lot about the business operations, how things work, You know, so he's learned a lot about the business operations, how things work.

You know, he started small and he's working his way up. And, you know, the other thing I'm wondering about this too is, you know, Breer played in Philly. They know him in Philly. Comcast owns the main Mariners. I've heard they really like the way that he does things there. And I actually wonder if Comcast is going to say, we would really prefer to keep Breer in our organization. Here's what I wonder.

If Kent Hughes ends up getting the Montreal job, I know a default position for them might be, hey, let's see if we get Danny Breer in as an assistant. I can't see that happening, just knowing how Comcast feels about Breer and the plans that they would have for him and his future. I would think that that would kind of be a no-fly zone. You know, Darsh is another guy.

He's learning at the feet of very smart people in Tampa. It's an elite organization in terms of both results and how it does things. And, you know, the other thing too is there are a lot of people in Tampa that don't get a lot of attention besides Julian Breezebot who do good work, whether it's an Al Murray or a Stacey Roost or, you know, the other people who are kind of the lieutenants there. And you see their approach and you see how they go about things. Neither one of these guys, Darsh or Brière, has started at the top. They're learning, they're working their way up. And look,

the seat of power in Montreal is going to be Gorton, but you see why they'd be interested in those two people. The other thing too is I'm really curious to see who else, whether it's Emily Castonguay or Danielle Sauvageot or other people they talk to here who end up being part of the Canadians organization? Vancouver. So I had a hilarious exchange this weekend with someone who says he's not convinced it's going to be Patrick Alvin. who says he's not convinced it's going to be Patrick Alvin. And I said, I got to tell you, that is the opposite of what a lot of people are hearing. And we're trying to figure it out if it's real or if it's like a total smokescreen that's being thrown out there.

So why were they saying that it might not be Alvin? They just heard that maybe it just wasn't going to work out that way. Whether it was Rutherford's choice or Alvin's choice. I was going to say, whose choice is that? I don't know. But again, I have a rule. Go with what you're told at the beginning. There's a lot of times in searches where what you're told at the beginning generally tends to be pretty intuitive.

Right at the beginning in Montreal, we were told, can't use, watch him. And we're still very much in that. Right away in Vancouver, we were told, Patrick Alveen, watch him. I think, Jeff, you and I were the first to report it and he's still there right oh yeah and i've just wondered if you know now it's kind of okay like trade deadline or the draft when people start lying to muddy up the waters you know i i think they're serious about mellenby too i know rutherford's got a long history with Sean Burke. I also wonder in Vancouver, I think Ryan Johnson, I've had people tell me that he gets an elevation as part of this, but the same thing I'm wondering with Montreal, I'm also wondering with Vancouver, is there a chance at all that Rutherford hires multiple people

from the group he's interviewed? Also, I think there is interest in adding a diverse person to the staff. I believe that a hundred percent. Yeah. I think that Rutherford has indicated that to people that he's spoken to, that this does mean a lot to him to do that. Well, I mean, you and I have talked about this. It's going to be interesting to see what happens after this olympic window closes and who continues to play and maybe who retires and and who walks into positions yeah yeah absolutely while we're at it the other two gm searches who i think it's safe to say we should expect to take longer and that's both anaheim and chicago any updates there anaheim i heard is behind everybody else i think they've got a list of 10 to 12 people who they're going

to get to now you know one of the names i think they're really interested in there is chris mcfarland from colorado and i'm not saying he's the only one, but I think he's of interest there. And, you know, it'll be interesting to see kind of how that all plays out. But again, I think there's plenty more. Chicago, I'm hearing two divergent things. One is that it's, you know, Kyle Davidson stays and has a big role with a more senior person brought in. And the other is they go out of the box.

I don't know if I'm going door number one or door number two there yet. Okay. Interesting. Seats looking to get filled. One of the many stories we're following lately on 32 Thoughts to Podcast, presented by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup. We're talking Oilers next. Connor, I'll just ask you to evaluate what happened tonight, do you think, in this game? I'm not sure what to tell you.

I'm not sure what to tell you. Obviously, it's been a long layoff. Come in and work ourselves to a 3-1 lead and give it away. So you guys are playing with a lead. What do you think fell out of your game? Was it just a little bit of mental lapses there? Or was it something as a group that you think? I wish I had an answer for you there.

We're rolling along. We get a couple chances early. We don't finish them. We give up a 2-1-1, and, you know, and then it's, uh... Yeah. Oh, boy. Elliot, I know that Connor McDavid understands

that he has responsibility to meet the media after games. He's the captain of the team. He's the face of the franchise, etc. I know that not always do people agree with what he has to say, but I don't think you can ever accuse Connor McDavid of ducking media. He doesn't do it. But I watched that Connor McDavid press conference on Saturday

after the loss against the Ottawa Senators, and I said, this is not good. This is one that you need to make up an excuse and don't go out there because the damage of not just what McDavid said, but how he said it and that stare, that looking to the back of the room, you know, my balloon's gone. It's not coming back. Look, that's a tough one for him, that's a tough one for him

and that's a tough one for the organization. I know I'm supposed to come up with more hip references like Cobra Kai or something like that. But I'm thinking. Okay, Hawk. Season four, spectacular. I can't wait for season five. Cannot wait.

My kids are all about it. I just want to tell you though, the LaRusso family, they're the worst people on the show. I root against them in everything. They are terrible people. I do like the Hawkeye though. Anyway, back to the Oilers. Yes.

It was like Animal House all is well when the parade is turning into violence and a riot. It was tough to watch. Now, first of all, McDavid can't say no. If he doesn't show up after a game like that one. Story. You know, he gets roasted. I know.

As pissed off as you are and as mad as you are, he has to show up and he has to talk. You can't run away with it. So, Jeff, you said off mic, you should have used this line talking on the podcast, but you forgot away with it. So Jeff, you said off mic, you should have used this line talking on the podcast, but you forgot to do it. I'm a bad host. It's been established. No, as I say in the commercials,

you carry this podcast. You know what that was for McDavid? That was the thousand yard stare. Oh yeah. That's one of those things. The words don't tell the story. The look on his face tells the story. You know, that's the look of,

I can't believe what I just went through. And i don't have the words to explain it to you as much as i enjoyed doing walk-off interviews and intermissions and you did plenty of them as well i know that players were usually at a loss for words when you ask them to describe something that happened in the game because they're sort of in the middle of it and they it's not happening in the brain the game is happening to them or through them and asking them to explain it is tough it's hard and i think asking mcdavid to explain you know that game against the ottawa senators hockey night in canada saturday you know right from the beginning like they give up the first goal but then they come back and it's a three-to-one lead think Ottawa is tucked away, and then they just fall apart.

The whole thing seemed to happen in slow motion. And McDavid, right away, he doesn't even get to the hot towels, and he's there in front of a microphone saying, I don't know what happened. I don't have an explanation. It got away from all of us. I wish I had words for you, but I don't. See, I wondered if it was one of those situations, Jeff, where he just said, I want to get this over with.

I've seen that before. Like a PR person will go to a player. Yeah. You know, do you want to wait 10 minutes? No, let me just get out there and get this over with. There's a couple of things there. One, I don't know that he would have had the words to articulate what he just went through. And two, I don't think he wanted to bury anybody.

I think that he looked at that and probably said, I don't want to bury a goaltender. I don't want to bury a defenseman. I don't want to bury a forward. I don't want to bury anybody here. Did you not get that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because here's the thing.

Players know. Yeah. Players know where the issues are. Yeah. What have we always said on this podcast? You can't lie to players. Players know. Everything went badly. As have we always said on this podcast? You can't lie to players. Players know. Everything went badly.

As you said, they've got Ottawa down. First of all, I know, I heard all you Sens fans. Never mind, I heard you. I saw all your tweets from Sens fans. So I get off the air and a few of us are just sitting down chatting about the show. My mentions are being filled by Sens fans saying, where's our credit? We are the Kings of Alberta. That's true.

Where is our credit? They went through Alberta. And you know what? You guys earned it. Totally. Those were not flukes. You beat Calgary and you beat Edmonton. Those were not flukes.

You know who I feel good for? Matt Murray. Yeah, very good. That's who I feel good for coming out of Saturday and this last couple of games in Alberta. That's who I feel good for coming out of Saturday and this last couple of games in Alberta. That's who I feel good for. Someone was watching on Saturday night, happy for Matt Murray, and that was Kelly Rudy, who roots for Matt Murray.

That's good. But everything went wrong for Edmonton in that third period. You had a 3-1 lead. You lost the lead. You gave Stuart Skinner an opportunity, and boy, the toughest thing for me on air was I don't want to kill the kid he's still young he's got a bright future in front of him but you can't run away from it right they couldn't get the save when they when they needed it and it's unfortunate because

Smith is hurt and you're clearly struggling with your faith and cost and so you give the Skinner the opportunity and he can't hold it now you now you're thinking, now where do I go? And Staloc obviously isn't ready to play yet. He's got to get ready. But you know, the thing is the Oilers have their scouting meetings in California. Yep. So, you know, they're going to be all together. But one of the things I kind of wonder here is, look, if you're not going to trade for a goalie and you're not going to fire your coach which you know we

know that holland doesn't want to do then the thing that you can do right away and both kevin and jennifer talked about this is change the way you play and i think that what the others have to do is they have to decide we're going to play like a team that has to win every game one nothing or two one now that's counterintuitive when you have two nuclear weapons, like those two guys. David and Leon. And you're going to say, we need you to play like Bob Ganey.

But you know what? This isn't working, Jeff. You have to change your mentality. You have to say, we're going to try something else. Some people might look at me and say, that's insane.

But look at the chances they gave up when they were up to look at the opportunities Ottawa got. You have to change your mentality. That's what you have to do. You have to say, look, and someone called me today when I said that on Saturday night and they said, you know, they don't have a goalie to win two to one. And I go, look, you're right. I'm not going to argue that point with you. It's stupid to do it. But for me, what I'm talking about is the mentality that you have to do that like it's too easy to gain ice against the Edmonds and Oilers you have to make it hard for people it's that's what the difference has to be here is that the Oilers have to commit to a way of playing that makes it harder

to get up and down the ice against them, harder to get to the key areas. And I know they're not really kind of built that way, but I think now it's as much a mentality as it is anything else. Let me ask you this though. Yeah. Is that what Connor and Leon signed up for? They didn't sign up to lose. No, they didn't. But they also didn't sign up for them to profoundly change the way that they play.

Like within a team, there's a couple of things. There's like individual players and there's a team. And players have individual expectations of themselves. And for players like Leon Dreisaitl and Connor McDavid, things like Hart Trophies and Art Ross Trophies mean something. Because they're a couple of the few people in the NHL that are consistently in a position to win them. Yeah. You know what, Jeff? I got to tell something the way what you're doing right now isn't working and i don't now you're saying leon we want you to win the selkie jeff it's not working somewhere right now in my head there's craig simpson saying the definition of insanity is

doing the same thing over and over and over again that's one of of his favorite sayings. Simmer says that all the time. The caveat that you opened up with, I think that that's where the issue is. If you're not going to get a goalie, get a goalie. To me, I would turn around and say, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. We have to profoundly change the way that we play, how we play, what we signed up for here

because you don't want to go get a goalie? Yes. What? Yes. What? Jeff. What? Jeff, I think you're so wrong on this one. I think you are totally, totally wrong on this one. I mean, you know how I feel.

Even if you go out and you get a goalie, I think you have to change the way you play. It's not working. The shortest short-term fix you can do right now is change the way you play. I don't know how that goes over. What would you rather do, lose? I don't know. What would you rather do, like alienate two franchise players?

Do you think that they're happy right now? I mean, we started this segment talking about the way McDavid looked. Yeah, absolutely. And do you think- What about Cassian's quote? We're talking about the same bleep that we were talking about last week. I got to tell you something.

If you walked in there today and you were head coach Jeff Merrick, first of all, what an absolute disaster. Great idea. Wonderful idea. But if you walked in there today and you said, guys, we have to try something new and this is what it's going to be.

You don't think every single one of them is going to say, okay, we got to try it. Like the league isn't about style points. I can't imagine for a second, if you went to McDavid right now and said, Connor, we got to change the way we play. You think he's going to say no?

Go to Connor McDavid and say, we got to put bungee cords on your hockey pants. And if you get too deep in the zone, we're going to pull you back. He's going to say, yeah, I'm here for that. What would he rather do? Lose. And first and first of all you know it's not going to be quite that bad so i was like there's a reference i used to use with jacques lemire in the minnesota wild i'll stop that's actually it's actually pretty funny you know it's not going to be that bad but

you know what what are we doing here i would just like to be in the room when that conversation is i guarantee to you he would say fine we know have problems, and our solution is for you to change your game, Connor. I would just love to be in the room to hear that conversation. I get that they don't like losing. I don't think you turn to Connor and Leon and say the solution is you guys changing your game. I think the solution is we need to change the composition of this team. To Cassian's point, we're talking about the same thing over and over again. Well, the same problems that they over again. Well, the same problems

that they had in the summertime are the same problems they have right now. You know, I don't want to keep talking around in circles on this, but my argument is this. You can change what you're doing or you can do the same thing.

And I'm changing what I'm doing. And I just refuse to believe that great players like that wouldn't say to, you know what? We're struggling right now. We're going to change what we're doing. Edmonton brings out the best in our relationship,

is what I found in the last couple of podcasts. John Klingberg, speaking of drama. Yeah. This continues. Rick Bonas all but said he was getting benched if he could do it. He said, yeah yeah if the situation were different if he had everyone available to him then the decisions would have been different than we saw and we saw john klingberg as a third pairing defenseman i know they were hot at

klingberg about the florida game that's pretty obvious i don't think he was the only one no he wasn't the only culprit like florida's we we're going to get to Florida here on this podcast because they've really stuck it to teams. Yeah. Really good teams. I know it was like, oh wow, they beat up Columbus. Oh, and you're bigging them up. Well, they also, you know, they did. They also pounded Tampa. Destroyed Tampa. Like they've done this to

really good teams. Yeah. But Klingberg's in a really bad situation right now. And we've talked, whether it's on Hockey Night in Canada or here on this podcast, about the trade request that goes back to late November or early December, which is looking as if we can't come to an arrangement on an extension, perhaps the best thing here is for both sides to walk away. Now it sounds very much like Dallas is more aggressively trying to move John Klingberg.

I don't know where he ends up. I don't know how quickly he gets there. It sounds like Jim Nill and the Dallas Stars want to do something soon. It's pretty clear to me that they're motivated to do it. Do you have a thought on the Klingberg situation here? I'm with you. I think the desire is there to have a divorce. And now they're just arguing about where the partner's moving to.

The stars get to keep the house. The other partner has to move somewhere else. And now they're figuring out where it's going to be. You get the house. I get the dog. Let's just call it even. It's interesting.

You know, some names appear right away. Like, you know, the Carolina has inquired before. I would imagine some of the teams that would be interested in Jacob Trickman would also be interested in John Klingberg, whether it's the Los Angeles Kings, whether it's the,

the Anaheim ducks, these types of teams, but it looks like he's going somewhere. Here's the thing, Elliot, did you not get the sense that this off season, Jim Nill thought that he might arrive here with Klingberg. When you look at who he went out and signed, most specifically Suter and Hockenpah,

did it not look like he was loading up on Klingberg insurance? And I know that Thomas Harley's on the horizon and will probably be a full-time NHLer as soon as next season. But I still think they would have made the deal. I think they were ready to make a deal with Klingberg. It just never got close enough. I just don't think that it was at eight years, though. I think Dallas wanted something shorter term.

It was on their terms, but they were willing to do it. They were willing to do it, but I don't think they were willing to do an eight year deal. Something a little bit higher than people may think, but on a shorter term. I think that's the way that Dallas saw this thing playing out. And from Klingberg's point of view, like you mentioned this in the last podcast, I've been here from day one. This is the team that I know. This is the one where I want to build a type of legacy. It's where I want to build my life. Other guys got taken care of. I want to be taken care of too. Other guys got taken care of. What about me?

And it looks like that's not going to be there for John Klingberg. Okay, so we mentioned the Florida Panthers. And I put out the tweet on Saturday as they were ripping through the Columbus Blue Jackets like a hog in the truffles. they were ripping through the Columbus Blue Jackets like a hog in the truffles. Is there another league that we, you know, is there another higher league that we can put the Florida Panthers that's not the NHL? Because it seems very much, Elliot,

like they're ready for a league higher than the NHL right now the way they are just mowing down teams. They look fantastic. Just excellent. Down to our right, in over the offensive blue line. Dropped it off Verhage, has it here at the right point.

And he sends a short pass to Barkov. Back to Verhage in front of shot, and he scores! And the Panthers have a 3-0 lead. Carter Verhage. Huberto finds it, gives to Bennett. Here's Bennett. Hands it back to Claire. In on net makes a move.

Bennett! And he scores! Sam Bennett, what a feed from Clair. And for Sam Bennett. That's a hat trick. Side Huberto to the circle. Huberto in front. A shot to Clair.

He scores! A power play goal. The Panthers have a 2-0 lead. Two minutes, seven seconds into this one. This is wide. Lomberg behind the net. He'll drag it off to the far side. Out in front.

A chance. And they score. And it's Anton Ladeau. He was set up perfectly out in front, a chance, and they score, and it's Anton Lundell. He was set up perfectly out in front. He's given the Panthers a 6-0 lead with 7.5. And a two-on-two skirmish here on the near side. Ryan Lomberg, he'll take it down to the corner. Sends one in front, bounces, they score,

and the Panthers have a 9-1 lead with 9.46 to go. Here in the third period, Ryan Lomberg put it in front. Looks like Patrick Orquist got a piece of that one and the Panthers just continue to pour it on. Who are the all-in teams this year? Florida's an all-in team this year. You know, I wrote last week that two teams you're going to hear in every trade rumor, Carolina and Colorado. I think you're going to hear Florida in every trade rumor for defensemen. I think they want to add another D. I think they feel they can make themselves even

better with another defenseman of some gravitas and they have to go for it. The way they're playing, this has to be a go for a year. Now, all the anti-Florida people out there, they're pointing out that this team has played 38 games and 24 at home. Yeah, yeah, I get it. They're still really good.

They can score right now like nobody else in the NHL can score. Nobody can score like they are right now. And it can't stay like this. It's not going to last. Nobody's going to average nine goals a game but if you see to me a team that can score consistently that is built to score consistently three four five goals a game even in the playoffs i would say that they're built that way and they have no choice they have to go for it this year this is a go for a year now for them it's a go for a year for a number

of reasons one you know this is a, Huberto's playing out of his mind. Alexander Barkov is still obviously the, the elite center that he is. Anthony Declare is having a spectacular season. We probably don't talk about Anton Lundell enough. Their fourth line is super effective with

Lomberg, Listerine and Hornquist. But the one reason why I say, yeah, you know what, go for it. Sergei Bob I say, yeah, you know what? Go for it. Sergei Bobrovsky, man. You're getting a hell of a season out of Sergei Bobrovsky right now. And we've seen Bobrovsky struggle before. We've looked at Bobrovsky and said, oof, this contract's going to be bad for a long time. That's $10 million for a guy that's losing his spot to Spencer Knight.

He's having an amazing season. That's why I look at this one and say, Cat's got to go for it. Cat's got to go for it. You get goaltending like this and scoring like that, and a season like this out of Mackenzie Wieger and Aaron Eckblad, say nothing of Forsling has been really good too,

you go for it. Once the playoffs start, the most valuable player in the NHL is Andre Vasilevsky. Chances are that you're going to have to go through him to get there. You may avoid him in the first round, but that doesn't mean you avoid him somewhere else.

The way that this Florida team comes at you in waves is the best chance of beating him load up and go for it. Now, you know, we should probably get some acclaim here. Who's that? There's one person that always gets left out of this conversation and understandably.

So the player's performance has been outstanding in Florida. You got a thought or two on Andrew Burnett through this. It was a big shoes. He walked this? Those big shoes he walked into. This is a big team he walked into. And this team is dynamite. You know, Bill Zito said to people that Andrew Burnett was going to get a runway. And you know what? That runway is now world's longest tarmac.

Like, you know, who's, how are you going to make a coaching change now? Listen, I just want to make sure that we get his name here on the podcast because that guy deserves a ton of respect for what he's done with the Florida Panthers. Players clearly like playing for him. They love it, and they love playing right now, and they play all three periods as we've talked about. It is relentless.

God, it's got to be so hard playing against that team right now. Quick pause. Elliot back with emails, phone calls, next on 32 Thoughts. Okay, welcome back to the podcast. Finish up with a couple of emails and phone calls here, Elliot. We're going to start with Molly from Minneapolis, who, by the way, is a

recent listener. She just started listening to the podcast in November. Oh, welcome aboard, Molly. And she's got a great question, too. From Molly in Minneapolis. Am I crazy in thinking Giroux and the Wild would be a good fit? They still need a good top-line center, and I feel if they're ever going to get past

the first round again, they need to make a big splash at some point, even if it's just a rental due to their upcoming cap space issues. Claude Giroux, Minnesota. No, Molly, I don't think you're crazy. As a matter of fact, it's one of the teams that I had on my list for Giroux. You know, he doesn't play as much center anymore, but I don't know if that really matters. I think he's still a smart, talented player.

It's one of the teams that makes sense to me i don't think you're crazy at all now if you were an older listener i might say you're nuts but because you're new and i want to keep you here i will i will agree no in all seriousness molly i do agree i think it makes a lot of sense even though technically shrew doesn't play as much center as he used to can Can though. He's just, yeah. Yeah. For me, it kind of fits. There's definitely a logic to it. I think Wilde do something.

I think to Molly's point, there's some salary campaign coming up. And if they're close and got a shot, and that's a really good team, I think Bill Guerin does something. From Jelaine in Halifax. Why is Calgary not mentioned as being interested in Chikrin? Calgary could do very well with him on PP1 any thoughts on his fit and the price it would take to make him a flame well real quick before I turn it over to you the price is young player high-end prospect first round pick you know the only reason I haven't mentioned Calgary very much is that I think Calgary is a team that, you know, they went through a phase there where they dealt some picks and I think their general philosophy has been, particularly depending on what happens with Goudreau after this year, is kind of keep their

prospects. Now, I think that Eichel was one person that they considered doing it differently for. I don't think they were ever close to acquiring Eichel, but I think they considered the possibility of it. Other than that, my sense with the Flames, I don't know that they want to do that. I don't think they would want to deal the draft and prospect capital that would get them chikering right now. I could always be wrong, but I haven't sensed it. Speaking of Calgary, do you have a thought on the talk about Mark Giordano back in the mix?

Well, like I said, I think the agent did a really nice job with Eric Francis there getting it going again. I could see the possibility of it, but you're not doing it until you're a little more certain about your place. Like I still feel pretty comfortable that Calgary is going to be okay, but suddenly there's a bit more doubt and they've got to get going. You know, right now, if you're Calgary, you're not, you're not trading a first round pick, right?

No. Unless you have some protection there. Yep. So let's see where you have some protection there. Yep. So let's see where we are in a month. Okay. This one from Adam. This is an interesting one. If a player has played 60 games at the trade deadline

and is sent to a team that's only played 56 games and he plays all 26 remaining games for a total of 86 on the season, is there any extra compensation or limits to games played built into contracts, or is it simply X dollars to be paid out from July 1st to June 30th, no matter how many games get played? No, there's no extra games in terms of payment, but you do set a new NHL record, I think.

Ooh, it's either, funny, we just mentioned Bill Guerin. I think it's either Bill Guerin or Jimmy Carson who's played the most. You know who it is? And I just double checked it. Actually, you're right about Carson. The other game I was asking, name I was

checking was Bob Kudelski. Oh, it's not Guerin? No, he's at 85. Carson and Kudelski were 86. Carson, 92, 93. And Kudelski, 93, 94. Because remember, Kudelski had that really good year for Ottawa where he got hot and then they traded him. Right.

Guerin's 85. So 86 would tie the record. No, you don't get paid extra, but you do tie a record. Okay, that's a good one. A voicemail here from Aiden. Let's roll this one in. Hey, Jeff Nelliot, Aiden from Langley, B.C. Massive Arizona Coyotes fan.

So I'm wondering, this is especially a question for Jeff because he's been speculating on it so much. The Jacob chicken trade, the realistic trade possibilities, you said St. Louis, L.A., Anaheim. I'm wondering from a Coyote's perspective, obviously they're going to ask for a Massapol back in return, which is exactly what is necessary. But what are the chances you think of the Coyotes landing,

like a Jake Neighbors, a Holford from St. Louis, or a Byfield, or Turcotte from LA, or a McTavish from Anaheim? Ooh, okay, those are some big names there. And Jacob Trickrum's a big name too. First of all, to the Jake Neighbors, Joel Hofer point, that, if I'm the Arizona Coyotes, would be part of the ask. Like, I would imagine if they're looking for a prospect,

considering there's a positional need, I would say Joel Hofer for the st louis blues i know teams have tried to get him before and st louis has always uh resisted to me if you're looking for a prospect you're looking at hofer maybe you're looking at jake neighbors who's you know shown in his brief stint that he's you know pretty close to playing in the nhl i think maybe you wonder about scott perunovich as well uh ell. For the Los Angeles Kings, I'm kind of of the mind that, and Elliot, you can correct me if you think I'm wrong on this one, that they'd listen on any of their prospects not named by field. I think they would listen to whether it's Turcotte, whether

it's Brant Clark, whether it's Brant Clark, whether it's Akil Thomas. I think they would listen on a lot of those names. As for McTavish being a piece out of Anaheim, oh boy, do they like him. They love him. I can't see them doing that. They look at McTavish and they look in the future and they see Zgris and McTavish one, two up the gut.

I can't see them doing that for him. That's what I'm saying.egers and McTavish one-two up the gut. I can't see them doing that for him. That's what I'm saying. I cannot see McTavish. I can see a lot of other players with Anaheim, and I know Jacob Trickwin gives you Hampus Lindholm insurance in case he walks away, but I got to tell you, they love McTavish, something crazy. They think they got a great one there.

He's outstanding. But the thing to me is, I'm going to flip it around. I think if you're Arizona and you're making this trade, you have to get someone who is dynamic. Totally. That's who you ask for. All these names that Aiden's mentioning here, yeah, you ask for these names.

I just think that if you're Arizona, you have to get at least one player that your fan base looks at base looks at and says you know what i'm excited that we traded i hate that we traded chicken but i'm excited that this is who we got for him yeah that you have to get one name with your fans say that because if you don't then you've really got a problem you do um listen thanks for the voicemails thanks for the emails. More of them next podcast. Anything before we wrap up here, Elliot? Oh, by the way, do you have a word or two about that outfit on Saturday? Ryan Reynolds wore it at the premiere for Red, that movie with Gal Gadot and The Rock.

And I sent it to Deb Berman and said, I think that looks great. Now, he wore a different shirt and tie combination. Again, like I've told you this and you know how I feel. There are people write to me and say, oh, you're trying to be the next Don Cherry. Look, I freely admit it. I will never be able to carry Don Cherry's jock when it comes to this stuff. He is on another level and there's only one Don and there's never going to be another one like him. But I like for people to have fun. I think sports are supposed to be fun. Hockey's supposed to be

fun. And I just want people to be involved. I love the creative insults. I, I love the memes of Kenny Rogers roasters. I love all that stuff. i just want people to have fun i want people to have fun with the show and i think what it does too with me and i tell this to young people all the time you got to push yourself out of your comfort zones 30 years ago or even 20 years ago when i first started hockey night in canada i never would have done that but now i i find it helps me think of myself a bit differently push myself out of comfort zones and uh if i get ripped in a few insults along the way but people have fun with it i'm good with that whatever i thought it looked good good for you um taking us out a four-piece austrian rock band based out of

vienna builder bow has released six full-length records over the last decade including three really well-produced eps the band sound is as is as eclectic as Marco Rossi's game. What? Oh, Vienna. You get it? Like Austria? Okay. I just read the script that Amel gives me here.

Nice, fair reference. As eclectic as Marco Rossi's game, mixing pop, indie, rock, hip-hop, dance, and punk. From their Schtick Schock album, here's here's builder ball with gibraltar on 32 thoughts the podcast distance long distance Du sagst du gehst nach Gibraltar Distanz Du sagst du gehst nach Kanada

Dann ist hier keiner da Der mit mir tanzt Ah Distanz Fein Distanz Du sagst, du gehst nach Gibraltar Blablabla Distanz Wir waren uns doch so rasend nah