32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Cup Is In The House

Episode Date: June 12, 2023

Vegas can win the Stanley Cup at home! Jeff and Elliotte recap a crazy finish to Game 4 in Florida (01:00), talk Conn Smythe trophy and wonder if we’ll see Matthew Tkachuk at full strength.They also get into some news from around the league including — Flyers looking to make more moves (21:10), Ottawa sale (24:30), Calgary lock in their head coach (31:00), teams eye Pierre-Luc Dubois (36:00), Kyle Dubas signs a benchmark contract with the Penguins (38:30), Leafs are still undecided on Sheldon Keefe (41:20), Vegas will host the 2024 NHL Draft (42:10) and Jeff mentions a goalie to keep an eye on this off-season (44:00).They also take your voicemails and emails to wrap up the episode — and we hear from Kevin Woodley! (46:40)Watch the entire Panthers 2014 Draft piece HEREEmail the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailMusic Outro: Say She She - PrismListen to the full track HEREThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: KKGK, Sportsnet and WQAM-AM.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.

You have to leave that in. No, no. This is not part of the podcast, man. No. I don't care, Amel. You're such a loser. Thanks, man. Leave it in.

You know, it's not every day where you're watching a hockey game and someone busts out a Ted DiBiase, the Million Dollar Man reference, but there it was on Saturday, game four of Florida Panthers against the Vegas Golden Knights. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Canyon AT4X. Merrick Delich and the man who dropped the knowledge, Ted DiBiase style on Saturday, Elliot Friedman. How many texts and DMs and whatever assorted ways to communicate with you did you get on

Saturday after that one? I got a few. I was very proud of myself. And now for game five, you have to work in a quote from the late great Iron Sheik. Maybe something about break your back, make you humble, something along those lines, Elliot. That is your challenge with your podcast buddy

here. Okay. A lot coming out of game four, most notably a stranglehold by the Vegas Golden Knights. Three to one, they head back to T-Mobile Arena, looking to close out at home. This one was a great game. This one was a lot of fun.

Early, I mean, even before the puck dropped, there was the drama of Matthew Kachuk, and you guys showed him in the pregame about how he was skating in warmup and not really able to lift that shoulder much, no pepper on the shots, nothing. And the game started, and right away he gets two good chances against Aiden Hill. Hill was excellent. Barbashev, a couple of early chances against Sergei Bobrovsky.

Bobrovsky was excellent. Chandler Stevenson with the, as Cuthbert would say, icebreaker, and we're off to the races. Picked off by Stevenson. Stone with a blind pass that'll pull Zach Whitecloud back out to center. Great pass! Spriggan Stevenson

scores! Chandler Stevenson, a minute 39 in. What did you make of Saturday, Elliot? Well, there's the response that Bruce Cassidy looked for this week. You know what of Saturday, Elliot? You know what I thought, Jeff? Like I was watching Kachok, and right from the warm-up, you could say, oh man, this guy is in trouble. You know, just from the way he was handling pucks,

could barely shoot. It was one of those games where you knew if it was night 46 of the regular season, Matthew Kachok was not going to be playing. It was that simple. One of those games where you knew if it was night 46 of the regular season, Matthew Kachuk was not going to be playing. It was that simple. And he gave it everything he had. He only had four shifts in the third period, but the last one was two and a half minutes.

And when he's not 100% or close to it or enough that he can go, then it's really hard for them to score. To me, that's the difference between these two teams. Vegas has a lot more natural goal scoring ability. Like every team in this league can work hard to score goals. The hardest thing to do is to score with your own natural ability. And I just think that Vegas has a lot more guys that can do that than Florida can. And when Kachuk is fighting basically with one hand behind his

back, I think it's that much harder. Florida has more plays where they go into the offensive zone, they get close and they don't finish, I think than Vegas does just because I think it's that much harder for them to do it. So that's the big challenge. I think, look, we've seen Bobrovsky steal these series. Sure. But if this is the way that Kachuk is going to be for the remainder of these playoffs, and if it's a separated shoulder or a broken collarbone, like, I mean, anybody out there has had that injury before.

This is not something that gets better in five days. If he's going to be like this for the rest of the series, Bobrovsky is going to have to absolutely steal it for them because it's just so hard for them to score. And, you know, it's, it's been tough and we've made a lot about, um, the lack of production from

Alexander Barkov. And early on, limited ice in, you know, the first 15 minutes of the game. Now, Barkov comes back to assist on the Montour goal, scores himself to cut the lead in the third period to one. Now, low Montour back in, in front, right circle shot, and they score! Barkov, and the Panthers are back to within one! 16-10 to play here in the third and the Panthers get the one they were looking for here early. What do you make of the Barkov situation right now for the Florida Panthers? I mean, they're still dynamite at the draw, still gobbling up

pucks at the dot, but I mean, that was late in the second, early in the third period to cut the lead to one for the Vegas golden Knights. Uh, he did come back and, and he did produce, but what do you make of the Barkov story on Saturday? I thought it was important that he got on the score sheet.

It's the old Cam Neely story. I've told it before, you know, uh, at one point in time, he's struggling and Harry Sinden, the hall of fame GM says, uh, cam, we need you. And he says, I'm getting chances. And Harry Sinden's reply was, I'm not paying you to get chances. I'm paying you to score. You know, Barkov, nobody is questioning his competitive nature.

He's competing hard. I remember early in the playoffs, we talked about the belief, Jeff, that he had to become a nastier person. He had to find a new level. I believe he's done that, but I think for whatever reason. Like there was one play in game three where he had a two on one and he passed off, even though he had a pretty good lane to the net, sometimes I just think he's maybe too unselfish. He's got to become evil Alexander Barkov.

Like I'm being selfish. I'm shooting the puck in addition to everything else that I do because they, they absolutely need him. He has to be great. I mean, we mentioned Bobrovsky Barkov has to be great too. And it's, you know, I mean, the first goal was a total fluke, but you need those. The second was, you know, he worked his way in place to score and he has to keep doing that because they just don't have enough people.

Like I said, with his natural talent and ability. I don't know that it was a fluke. I thought I saw them in practice, warming up, bouncing off pylons with McNabb and Theodore jerseys on there. They've worked on that play for a long time. Elliot's practice.

What's going to work on the game. And it sure did. I won't stand for this disrespect of Brandon Montour. And that's a three to one goal okay let's get to the end of the game here that's the juicy that's the fun that and the tippers spill over after regulation time here. The Knights survive. Now a big pile in front of the goal. Hill jumps in as well. His helmet is off. Several players tackling each other. The linesmen now restrainuk. And Petrangelo and Kachuk still having a little exchange. Now Bennett comes in to grab Petrangelo as Barkov has a hold of Petrangelo now. And this thing's not concluding as Whitecloud and Verhage exchange a shove or two.

Braden McNabb and Sam Bennett are pulled off one another. This one's not over yet. A lot of helmets off and these rats flying onto the ice. McNabb down at the bottom of the pile with Sam Bennett. Well, a frantic finish and somehow Eden Hill held the fort and gets the Vegas Golden Knights within one win of a Stanley Cup. For all the shots coming from the flank. At the end, I mean, Florida's piling it on, trying to get the tire.

I don't know about you, but I thought they were getting it. Just based on history, I'm like, we're going to extras extras we're going to extra chuckers here here we go again but you know aiden hill keeps the puck out and then the craziness begins i mean hill at reinhardt montour with the charge on mcnab uh the penalty box is open petrangelo comes out doesn't really do much but people are up in arms about 10 game suspensions uh and such how did you see the end of the game we should mention as well kachuk grabs petrangelo and drags him around by the by the neck with his stick how did you see the conclusion of this wild one well the kachuk shot wouldn't have counted yes our tape people looked at it and they

said look the zeros were there it wouldn't have counted even if it had gone in but i did think for sure florida was going to tie it i asked immediately if there's any chance petrangelo was getting suspended they looked at it they they weren't doing it and look i know the oilers fans hate petrangelo i get that you do something you live with the consequences but first of all he didn't charge out of the penalty box. He was let out of the penalty box. He was let out. And people were sending me the part of the ruling that says,

if you do this, you get a suspension. Well, the same part of the ruling says, if you're not the aggressor, you don't get any of that. And he was not the aggressor. You know, he simply did not do anything to instigate or pour gasoline on that fire. And they looked at it, I think, for about 20 minutes and just decided that's the way it was going to be. And I don't disagree with that.

I mean, look, for better or for worse, that's who Florida is. And this is a series where that's caught up with them. And the interesting thing about that is against Boston, they got 130 something penalty minutes in seven games. And, you know, nobody was really complaining about it in the sense that nobody was thinking that that really won them the series, but against Toronto, you know, the Maple Leafs sure felt like the Panthers got away with murder. Carolina, that was a different series. It was really close.

I didn't hear that many complaints about it, but Toronto sure complained. And now you look at it here, Kachuk's got four misconducts now in four games. The Panthers have almost 200 penalty minutes in four games. So after scoring six goals on the power play in the first three games, they didn't get any in game four, but they've been murdering Florida on the power play. And I think Toronto in particular is saying, wait a sec, where was this when we played them?

I mentioned that to someone yesterday and they were like, oh my God, the Leafs got to stop complaining. The series ended two months ago. Stop. That's what someone said to me. Anyway, certainly Toronto was upset about it, but that has caught up with Florida in this series is that Vegas was the least penalized team

in the regular season. Florida's by far the most penalized team in the playoffs. That's kind of what you get. And have I liked every call in this series? No, but I don't think that officiating is why Vegas is winning and Florida's losing. But Jeff, that's cooked into their DNA.

That's part of the ingredients. This is who they are. And at this time of year, you don't really change your identity. You know, one of the things I love about when the playoffs get down to four teams or now in this case, two teams and it's a Stanley Cup final, it seems as if, you know, every game there's one big star and there's one person

and it's, you know, sometimes it's a superstar. Sometimes it's someone who's rather unheralded that deserves the spotlight and you're only too happy to shine it on him. Saturday was Chandler Stevenson, man. And when the book is written on the early days of the Vegas Golden Knights and how they did this and how they put this team together, there's going to be a chapter on George McPhee and the trade to the Washington Capitals in exchange for a fifth round draft pick. They pick up Chandler Stevenvenson which will go down as one of the best

trades the vegas golden knights ever made your thoughts on chandler stevenson you know should credit uh kelly mccrimmon too i know you're a big fan of mccrimmon erasure but uh you know he was there too obviously no because on the other hand i'll talk about the barbershop deal which i thought was touched by the divine but you don't want me to talk about him anymore. No, you and Kelly, it's too much. I like Barbashev, but it's too much already. It was a great trade. It was one of the great trades of the National Hockey League in the last five to 10 years.

Absolutely. And I think that's the most interesting thing about Vegas is there's still a lot of guys there who were kind of given up on or castaways, the misfits, but now they've kind of buttressed them with the Stones, the Eichels, and the Petrangelo's of the world. But they still haven't lost that identity. I think that's one of the reasons they're right here right now is because they've got a mix of the two, but they've never gotten complacent. So we have an extra day between games four and five. We saw what happened with the extra day last week. There was a whole bunch of talk about how this series is going to end quickly. That's it for the Florida Panthers. It's doom and gloom, all of it. And then the Panthers came out in one game three. What do you expect with the extra day here between four and five? Because I think everyone's expecting, you know,

oh, the Cup's in the building. You know, who's Stone going to pass it to first? What do you think the extra day does this time around? Some people don't like how much this drags out the Stanley Cup final. The thing I do like about it, if I was to say something, it's that it gives everyone a better chance to get healthier. I agree with that. Which I like.

I mean, unfortunately, like I said with Kachaka, I'm just not convinced he's got an injury that can be sorted out in a week. So I'm not sure it's really going to help him, but that's why they do this. So everyone's going to be healthy. It's amazing when you look at Vegas when the NHL was thinking about giving a team to this city one of the things they talked about was will there really be a home fan base because we're all going on saying all the casinos

can buy the tickets and Canadians coming to visit or fans were coming to visit and watch their teams. You know, that's how you fill the building. And the NHL was like, no, we have to know that you've got a local fan base. And that was one of the reasons that they were concerned it wasn't going to work. And, you know, Bill Foley, he pushed for it. He agreed for the 500 million and he got the team.

But I still remember even the day he got the team, some people were like, wow, we really hope this works. And it's a fifth deck home run. And they have a very passionate fan base. Oh, yeah. Like, you know, I met Drew Johnson, who's the guy who started the Flamingo tradition during one of the games this week.

I forget. I'm so sorry their names at the baggage carousel. I met a family today who was traveling back and they're Golden Knights season ticket holders and they're so excited for the game on Tuesday night. I saw Jack Eichel. Did you see Jack Eichel after the game going to talk to some of the Vegas fans

that made the trip? It was great. He's up in the stands talking to fans. It's awesome. They have an impressive fan base, and these games are loud, and they're passionate, and they're energetic. For the first time in franchise history, and I know that's only six years,

they're going to have the Stanley Cup in their home building for the chance to win it. It is going to be wild. for the chance to win it. It is going to be wild. I am so happy for those long-suffering Vegas Golden Knights fans. You know, I've heard that a lot. They deserve this. Yeah.

No, listen, I don't care. Good for them. I think it's awesome. Trust me, I'm not one of those guys. No, listen, I'm happy for them. I think it's awesome. And you know why I think it's awesome? Because remember when Bill Foley, one of the first press conferences Bill Foley said our team's gonna win the cup and within six years and we all laughed we all laughed and said no

that's not the way it works with expansion teams you're gonna be really bad for at least 10 and maybe then you'll become respectable. We all laughed. No one's laughing now. No, no one is. And I've always looked at it this way. When you put a team on the league, there's a chance they could win. You better be prepared to deal with that. Yep.

And that's why, you know, the more I think about our conversation with Ryan Smith, will he do the Coyotes if they need to move? Yes. But does he want an expansion team? I think that's his preference because look at this. You could win really fast if you're smart. Plenty more chatter leading up to Tuesday and game five where the Vegas Golden Knights can close out in five games.

And what kind of podcaster would have suggested that last week oh i was waiting for that i was waiting for hey let me ask you something who would you vote for the con smith knowing there's one game to go at least one game to go i should say i'm still eichel on this one but if you said hill i'd be cool if you said marcia so i'd be cool if you said Stone I'd be cool if you said Petrangelo I'd be cool again

I'm still team Eichel tops here but I can't disagree with any of those other choices but if you're up to me and I had the deciding vote

Eichel gets it for me what about you I have a vote I am leaning Eichel but you know Hill Marcheseau

Stone Petrangelo Kachukuk, Bobrovsky. I mean, obviously the last two if they win. But I'm leaning Eichel, but I admit there's a lot of good choices. I don't know if I've ever seen such a wide open year. Something I want to draw your attention to here. On Saturday, we aired a feature with Elliot Friedman sitting down with Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, and Aaron Ekblad to talk about their interesting connection. The 2014 NHL Draft in Philadelphia.

Ekblad first, Reinhart second, Bennett fourth. Who went third in that draft? Hmm. Here's a snippet of that conversation. Good evening, Philadelphia. The first selection of the 2014 National Hockey League draft belongs to the Florida Panthers. Let's go back to 2014. When you look back, what is the thing you remember the most about the run-up to the draft?

It was a really fun year, obviously a stressful year with the lead-up to such a big moment like that. Being a kid and just excited to be there, really. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go through it for you. I mean, you're never going to go through it again. It goes by quick and you try and enjoy it as much as you can. What do you remember about your Comb combine interviews? What was the weirdest question you got asked by any team? Well first I think the weirdest you go into some rooms there's two guys you're talking to you go into other rooms there's chairs behind you six chairs behind you they're just trying to throw

you off and it's more just funny. You'd have guys like sitting behind you surrounding you in the room. A couple teams asked me, you know, which GMs, like if I knew who they were, I didn't know a couple of them. So I was kind of embarrassed to tell them no. What animal do you think you would be? I mean, how do you answer that? Let's get into the trade talk. We'll start with the Calgary Flames. Sam Bennett on his way to Florida.

The Panthers continuing to wheel and deal, this time getting Sam Reinhart from the Sabres. So now you're here, you join Sam and you join Aaron. Do you guys ever kind of laugh about that, about how you guys all were three of the top four picks of that draft and now you're all on the same team? For sure. It's pretty cool that we can say that. When it first happened, it was kind of crazy. Is it unheard of? I don't know, right?

Has it ever happened before? I don't remember it ever? Has it ever happened before? I don't remember it ever happening. Definitely pretty rare to have three guys from the same draft all on one team. We all know the third overall pick was a bust that year. The Edmonton Oilers select Leon Dreisaitl. We always joke about that. To watch and listen to the full piece, there's a link in our show notes,

or you can go to Sportsnet's YouTube channel. Listen to the 32 Thoughts Podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Okay, so that was Game 4. Game 5 is on the horizon. IZON Tuesday. In the meantime, Elliot, some news. And you mentioned this on Saturday, and let's get into it a little bit more.

The Philadelphia Flyers, we know that Daniel Breer is nowhere close to being done. We know this roster is going to turn over. I don't know that it's going to look completely different next season, but there will be some different faces and some different numbers and nameplates. You talked about Scott Lawton on Saturday. There are other names, I think, swirling around Flyers land, but tell us about the center. Obviously, there's a lot going on out there around Philadelphia.

They made the deal with Provorov, and I think everybody's kind of all over them now about what else are you thinking. And I heard a lot, a lot. And it makes sense. He's a center. He can play wing. He's a versatile guy.

He's a really good teammate. Very, very popular in that Philadelphia room. Signed for three more years at $3 million. The cash actually goes up a little bit, but it's nothing no one can handle. I heard they're getting a lot of calls about it. And I have heard they are torn. They've got a lot of young players coming. They're turning over their roster.

One of the things that I think is an issue here is that you need, you need great players to help smooth the transition for those young people into the NHL. And I think the Flyers see him as a very big part of that, but I've been told that they're getting calls and they're going to get tempted. You know, I've seen lots of rumors about what it'll take. I think right now they're just kind of trying to figure out who's all in and what that'll all mean. But someone did say to me that they think there's a decent chance that they're going to get an offer they're going to have to consider.

And when he signed his extension in Philly, I thinkonto was pretty close to trading for him now obviously it's a different gm now so i don't know how tree living feels he seems to be the kind of player that tree living would like but i don't know if that's the need that pittsburgh has but if dubas thought so i could see Dubas having some interest, although... Flyers and Penguins trade. Yeah, I'm not sure how possible that is. Ottawa has liked him for a long time. They've talked about him before,

but I think there's other players out there. And I would be very curious. Like one guy Philadelphia has had some interest in before has been Nick Robertson. And Nick Robertson might be the kind of guy that could need a fresh start and probably would like one. I don't know how they would feel about him now. Unfortunately, he's battled some injuries

and some unfortunate luck the past couple of years. But I do know that's a guy they've liked in the past. You know, I think there'll be a number of names at play there. I think that there's a marketplace that Breer would be exploring for Kevin Hayes. And we've talked about Anthony D'Angelo before. I know there's some talk out there about Travis Konechny as well. I don't know that all these players get moved, Elliot, but it's not as if there's not going to be a lot of conversations heading into the draft about a lot of these players from the Philadelphia flyers,

Ottawa senators and the sale. And has Michael and Lauer emerged as the lead horse here? I don't want to say anything about who's the lead horse and who isn't, because how many times has this changed like we say someone's the lead horse and either it changes or they're out i was going to say though all the reynolds group was the lead horse for the longest time until they weren't you know apostolopoulos was the lead horse for a while and now he isn't so assuming this stays the way it is, we're down to two ownership groups, both who have ties with the NHL, the Kimmel's from their time in the Pittsburgh group, and obviously and Lauer still in Montreal. It is believed that the Kimmel bid is larger right now than the and Lauer bid.

What I don't know is how big that chasm is. Is it a close chasm or a really long Carl Lewis style jump chasm? Oh, wow. So I don't know the answer to that. I don't know how close they are. I said a couple of weeks ago that this process wasn't smooth.

It was a choppy kind of out of control process. And now everyone's seeing it. Like, I don't know what happened exactly with the Apostolopoulos family. There's a guy named Mike Ozanian. He writes for Forbes. He has really good intel. He called like their bid a joke. And he said they don't have the money and they were never a serious

bidder for the commanders and he's done enough reporting in the sphere of sports ownership that i listen to what he says but i have had people just as adamantly tell me they do have a lot of money they can do this and anyone who says otherwise is wrong. What someone told me the biggest question was, is I guess there's three sons and they all have to agree. And they didn't know if they would all agree, but that's neither here nor there right now. Cause for the moment, they're not in a couple of days before the apostopoulos thing got reported last week and got out there someone told me we've got another problem and i said what is this and we talked about what we kind of mentioned on the pod on friday that there were some new hurdles there and one of the issues

i believe is the capital gains taxes that would be faced by the Melnick family. And the other thing I was told is that there seems to be a desire to have some anti-dilution protection built in. Now, what that means, Jeff, is let's just say the Melnick's daughters, Anna and Olivia, they keep 10%. Okay. they keep 10%. Okay. What apparently has been discussed is the idea that that 10% always stays at 10%. So for example, if Anlauer or Kimmel gets the team and then sells it again, there's no danger that their percentage would drop below 10. It would always stay at 10. And I heard that that kind of thing is a big sticking point to some people.

Not all, but some. The capital gains taxes, I mean, if that's true, I don't understand how anyone can expect the buyers to pay that. But what it says to me is this, Jeff. I don't know what the team is going to sell for. Everyone's talking about a billion dollars, but is that the team plus the real estate value at a billion or the team at a billion?

Whatever the case is this. There's $450 million debt believed on the team. Right. Okay. And secondly, Eugene Melnick paid, I think, $93 million to buy the team. So let's just say he sells it for a billion. The capital gains taxes on that are enormous. It could be like $900 million and you have to pay the capital gains out of that.

Like that's a massive number. But that is usually on the seller to pay. I mean, I don't know any situations where the buyers have paid that before. Maybe it's happened, Jeff, but I don't know that. And so obviously they're balking at this. So again, it's a bit of a slower process. And the one thing we've learned is this could change in any second. So what's true today might not be true tomorrow but that's kind of where it stood

and you know the other thing too is I don't think either the Kimmel's or the Anlauer's were at a billion I'd bet they were somewhere in the eights the high eights that's what I'd bet now they'll have to go higher than that I don't think that's going to get it done but all of a sudden we're kind of in a weird, weird spot again. And people might think is Ann Lauer is the lead horse and they might be right. People might think Kimmel's the lead horse and they might be right. I'm not sure. Cause this is a crazy process and it always changes always.

So we just have to wait it out. Do you think the NHL wants this to happen quickly now like do you think that from the nhl's point of view they want this settled or does that matter less than just getting the proper deal done i think they'd like to get it over with in the sense that like when i said before that this process was kind of out of control people argued with me and said you're wrong well and this isn't to pat myself on the back or anything like that that's kind of the nature of the game in this business you say things and people tell you how dumb you are but like now you can't argue that now you you can't help but look at this process and say, what's going on out there?

So I think they would like this to end. Now, they know Ann Lauer. They know the Kimmels. Apostolopoulos was a bit of an unknown to them, and the Nico Sparks group was an unknown to them. Now, if it's just those two, these are people they know. And I think it gives you a better chance of closing it quicker

because you're comfortable with the groups. But again, you got to get it right. We'll see. Here comes another week and we'll see if it brings a close or more questions. Some questions starting to get answered in Calgary meanwhile.

Ryan Huska, namely. And I want to get to Noah Hannafin that you talked about with David on Saturday night during the second intermission. But first, the Calgary Flames and Ryan Huska. Yeah, so I guess it's going to be announced Monday that he's going to be the head coach. And I don't know a lot about Huska.

I've spoken to him a couple of times, but I don't really know him that deeply. I will say this. There are a number of younger and up-and-coming coaches in this league who are very happy to hear this news. They think Huska deserves a chance. Look, if you take a look at some of the hirings so far, Babcock, he's been around.

New York looks like it's heinz or laviolette they've both been around andrew burnett's a bit newer fresher greg cronin's definitely fresher although he's a little bit older ryan huska's a younger guy a fresher guy i've heard there's some coaches of his generation who are really excited about this and really rooting for him. What the Husker hiring tells me, Elliot, is that we're going to see more kids in Calgary than we've seen previously.

That's what this one tells me. Maybe that's just a surface glance, but that's what this one sounds like to me. Well, there's no question that last year when Sutter did what he did with Pelce, that reverberated around the league. Like someone said to me, there isn't a player under 25

who didn't watch that clip and say, in horror, like, why would I want to be a part of that? And their team won the regular season championship in the American Hockey League and they want some of those players to play. And I think that's totally true. Now, I think there's something else brewing in Calgary.

Like, they've got a number of players. It's not a new story. They've got a number of players that are a year away to unrestricted free agency. And I think they're starting to get a handle on how some of these guys feel. And out of the combine, you know, the name I heard the most, as I mentioned, was Lawton. The name I started to hear a lot was Hannafin. I think the flames are kind of wondering about the writing on the wall there that maybe Hannafin's thinking about some other opportunities. And so they better act. And the other thing too is look like Severson's off the board.

Provorov's off the board. All of a sudden, you know, Orlov, the demand on him gets higher. So the number is going to get bigger. I think Calgary was really good for Hannafin and Hannafin was really good for Calgary. I think that was a really mutually beneficial partnership. He became a better player there and they got a lot of good out of him. I've heard that there's going to be a lot of interest in him. I think that they're going to be able to make a good deal here.

So if there's more coming, like if it's, if Lindholm's going to follow and maybe Backlund's going to follow, you know, Calgary could do a lot of very interesting things here. You know, we're all thinking about Hannafin, right? What's that? Mike Babcock gets all three defensemen from the 2015 draft. He's got Proveroff, he's got Rowenski, and now he can get the hat trick with Noah Hannafin. We'll see where this one goes.

I'm asleep at the wheel. I didn't even think about that. Good one. There's a few names out there as far as the fencemen in the marketplace. You mentioned Dimitri Orlov. I wonder where Matt Dumba ends up. I wonder where Shane Gostisbare ends up.

I wonder where, listen, I wonder where Radko Goudas ends up. I wonder where Carson Soucy ends up. Scott Mayfield. Scott Mayfield is another huge one. I've heard the Islanders want to keep him very badly. They just don't know if they can. You know, Lou Lamorello said he wants to keep all of his free agents.

It's just a matter of can they make that work financially? The one person that I think we've wondered about and we've heard rumors about, and he's an unrestricted free agent defenseman, is Eric Johnson. Is there an update there? Yes. I'd heard some rumbling that he might be considering retiring, and I was told that was about as wrong as a rumor could be.

I don't know how you define a wrong rumor, but that one was really wrong. And so he's going to play and I, he obviously hopes it's with Colorado, but if not, he'll he'll hit the market. But the one thing about Eric Johnson is he is jacked. He looks like he could play forever.

Yeah. But he's going to play. He's, he's not done by any stretch. Okay. So speaking of rumors and conversation, the latest on Dubois in Winnipeg, Pierre-Luc Dubois. There are some teams here who really think that LA is going to take a run at him. We mentioned it quickly the other day. There's always a surprise team, right?

Yeah. Kopitar's got one year left under his contract, and I don't know what the future is there. I'm not trying to start anything. I had some guys tell me that they think LA is going to take a big run at this guy. The thing that I would wonder about, because I was thinking a lot about our conversation when you mentioned that. You're right, Kopitar has the one year remaining on the contract. And we'll see what happens after that.

I would have a hard time seeing him not in a king's uniform but you know hockey happens philip dineau um still there and under contract until 2027 the thing that i wonder about if la is going to be aggressive on bringing in someone like pierre-luc dubois and you know we're all on the same page here about you know his his position you're not messing around he He is a center, period. I do wonder at some point, what does this mean for Quentin Byfield? At some point, if you're the Los Angeles Kings, don't you have to stop putting roadblocks in front of him? We always talk about at a certain point, you stop blocking your prospects.

They got to earn it. Yep. You want to block them, block them, block them, block them. And then at a certain point, the blocking has to stop. If the Kings bring in Pierre-Luc Dubois, and I'm not saying that it's not going to happen. If I'm the Los Angeles Kings and Pierre-Luc Dubois is available, of course I'm having a look.

I just wonder what that means for Quentin Byfield. That would be one of my questions here. You know, I think that sometimes as a prospect, you have to knock down the door. But I feel in that series against Edmonton, I thought he had some really good moments. I just wish he would have scored. I think if he scores once there,

we're having a very different conversation. But he didn't knock down the door, Jeff. Like, I think there's a lot there, and I agree with you. I still think there's a lot more to give. But, like, I just didn't see anything in that. I still think there's a lot more to give, but like, I just didn't see anything in that series that would say to me, the Kings have to say, we absolutely have to give them one of our top two center jobs right now.

And, you know, after two years of getting knocked out in the first round, you don't want to go backwards. Anyway, we'll see where this goes, but someone said to me, LA and,

you know, the other thing too, is the contract. A lot of people are assuming eight times nine, and I don't think that's wrong, but I think what some people are telling me, there's probably a little bit of a swing there. It's as high as Barzell, which is 9.15, and it could go as low as Larkin, which is 8.75. So it's going to be somewhere in that range. A few more things here. We're going to get to some emails and phone calls. Finally going to get back to doing that here on a semi-regular basis. The Kyle Dubas contract in Pittsburgh, we always talk about big ticket

contracts and the cascading effect once they're signed. Should we be pointing at the Dubas contract and say, there's going to be a significant cascading effect here that rises a bunch of other ships? When Mike Babcock signed his big deal in Toronto, he wanted the numbers out there. You know, it was eight years, it was 50 million, and he wanted everyone to know

because he wanted Coach's salaries to go up. That's one thing he was very big about. He told everybody who would listen, this is what the deal is, and it worked. Coach's numbers go up. That's one thing he was very big about. He told everybody who would listen, this is what the deal is. And it worked. Coach's numbers went up. Now, Dubas, we've reported it's a seven-year deal. Now, there are some people who believed it was seven times seven. Now, I don't think that's the case, but I do think it's a very big deal. And I do think it will do the same thing for some executive salaries that Babcock did with coaches. I think it's going to raise the bar. And I was having this conversation on the weekend with some people. I think there is some jealousy.

some people. Like, I think there is some jealousy. I think there is. I don't think that that is impossible to prevent. But whenever I've negotiated a deal, I've always tried to do something that will help others. Like maybe, and I got to be careful here because I could get fired for talking about my contract. Like maybe I don't get the most money, but I do something that moves the line for others and sometimes I've been successful and sometimes I haven't but I always try you know I think that Dubas's contract moved the needle here you know maybe we'll never see what the fine print is or how it all works but there's probably escalators if you accomplish certain things for both the term and the money. It's a massive deal, and a lot of people around the league are talking about it.

And like I said, some people don't like it, but a lot of others do because they see it as the Babcock deal of executives. Ken Hollins was a big one a couple years ago. When he went to Edmonton, he got five times five. Yep. Well, Dubas is now beaten that one and it moves the needle and a rising tide floats all

boats. So he's going to be real busy and has been real busy since the, uh, the introductory press conference, because he's got a populated number of different departments here and there's a draft on the horizon and there's free agency on the horizon. And he's talked openly about how he's going to have the dual portfolio until July, both, you know,

hockey operations and title and also the general manager position. What happens do you think with his old coach in Toronto, someone he's been very much at the hip with going back to the sous saint marie greyhound days of the ohl what's the latest with sheldon keith you know what jeff i had heard this was going to get sorted out early this week now i'm not even convinced it will be why is that i don't know i think they're one thing i've tried to look into is is toronto interviewing anybody else like is there a chance that toronto started talking to someone else

and i can't find anyone like i think the answer is no i don't think they've talked to anybody else i don't know why it's taking this long i thought it was going to be earlier this week but then i had people say don't assume, but I've got no reason to believe they're talking to anyone else. So I, I don't have a good answer for you. All right. Uh, you talked about the draft on Saturday with David and the draft and Vegas, Elliot Vegas.

Yeah. I think there's a chance they're going to have it next year. That's one thing I always look into is, you know, when you get close to the draft, where are you going in a year? It took them a little longer to finalize Nashville this season because they had to move

the dates a little bit. You know, normally they like to do it on a weekend if they can. And there were too many bachelorette parties in Nashville, so they couldn't get it on a weekend. Yeah. So they, they moved it to the middle of a week,

which is fine. And, uh, but it on a weekend. Yeah. So they moved it to the middle of a week, which is fine, but it took a bit longer. I think they're going to try Vegas next year. By the way, did you talk to anybody who went to the combine? A couple people, yeah. Why? They told me it was the worst combine they've ever been to. Like nobody was there.

Really, eh? Yeah. Did you get the same feedback? I didn't. i got that it was a very uneventful combine that there was no one that really jumped off the page either in performance or interview that was the main thing that i got bedard looks jacked he is jacked i heard that ryan leonard guy is really jacked too a few teams told me that yeah anyway but jeff like a couple guys told me they said it was like the most boring combine i've ever been to

not enough barfing not enough grunting not enough gossip okay yeah not enough gossip that's the uh the hallmark of every village uh one thing that i wanted to pick up on and this will hit a break afterwards and come back with some of your phone calls and emails. You've talked a lot about the goalie market and whether it's, you know, it's led by Halibut and Gibson, Corposalo is out there, Varlamov, the two Carolina goaltenders,

Tristan Jari, et cetera. You know, there's a, there's another name that we should probably, albeit in a lower key, because he's, you know,

applied his trade all year in the American hockey league. There's another name we should probably at least whisper, if not start to include in conversations as someone who's going to be a goaltender of interest come July 1st. And that's Joey Decord. So Joey Decord with Coachella Valley, Coachella Valley Firebirds are the AHL affiliate for the Seattle Kraken. They're beating the Hershey Bears 2-0 in their best-of-seven Calder Cup final. Joey Decord has back-to-back shutouts. The first to do so in an AHL final since.

They have the name of Mo Roberts. Now, Mo Roberts was a fascinating goaltender. Here comes a little history bite here, Elliot. So Mo Roberts is the person who spent the longest in-between starts in the history of the NHL. 26 years he went from playing in the NHL from the 25-26 season to 1951 when he came on in relief for the chicago blackhawks he was a trainer and holds a distinction of being the oldest goaltender ever in the nhl came on in relief again when he was a trainer in chicago came in for for a couple of periods for the blackhawks anyway at the age of 45 lester pat Patrick, when he came in from the stands in the Stanley Cup playoffs, was 44.

Gordie Howe as a player was older. Chris Chelios as a player was older. Mo Roberts was the oldest goaltender of all time and one of the first Jewish players in the history of the NHL as well. But anyway, going back to Joey Decord. Joey Decord had a spectacular season with Coachella Valley. I think his save percentage was somewhere like 918, 919, or 920, or something like that. He's got like a 930 in the playoffs as well.

He has been fantastic, and because he has not accrued enough games, Elliot, he is a Group 6 unrestricted free agent. And I don't think that's going to slip past many teams. James Elliott, he is a Group 6 unrestricted free agent. And I don't think that's going to slip past many teams. I just wanted to throw that one out there because, listen, Coachella Valley has been great this year. It's been a great story. And Joey Decord has been absolutely fantastic. All right.

We'll hit a break. Back with your phone calls. Back with your emails. 32 Thoughts, the podcast continues. Okay, welcome back to the podcast. Your emails at 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. Your phone calls, the thought line always open and handled by Emil Delic. Every call that comes in, he edits them. He goes over all of them. He hears every syllable, every vowel,

every consonant. 1-833-311-3232 is the thought line. 1-833-311-3232. Hayden in Prince George Elliott submits this one. I think a lot of people are wondering about this in light of the positive odds of Vegas winning the cup I started wondering if they do win the cup will all of Hill Quick, Boissois and Thompson all get their names engraved

on the Stanley Cup I believe they will all receive rings and each be dubbed quote Stanley Cup champion for the rest of their lives but will all or only some of the four actually get their names engraved on the cup how will this be determined so good question I think a lot of people Elliot wonder about this one and the answer is pretty simple they get 52 names teams get 52 names. Teams get 52 names. They decide who goes on the cup. And it's mainly hockey operations. Oh, and you have to be a part of the organization.

Like if I ever won the Stanley Cup, I'd try to put my dog's name on there. Yeah, it's not going to fly. Well, didn't Pocklington put his dad's name on and it's X'd out? He totally did. Yes, he did. Yes.

You're so right. But because that must have changed then, Jeff, because it used to be if you played, I think, 41 in the regular season and one in the Stanley Cup final, you got on and you could petition for other people. Like this would be a case where Laurent Boursois, they could petition for him to go on and the NHL would agree with that.

So I guess it's changed. Because I know you checked it. Because I know you checked it. I did check it. And I was told 52 names. You have to be part of the organization. And it's obviously mainly from hockey operations. Really good question. Hayden and Prince George.

Any chance we get, Elliot, when we receive something, either email or voicemail from someone in Australia, I will always put it on the show because I want to sort of chum the waters to try to get us to Australia for those LA-Arizona games. But nonetheless, just randomly, we've picked Scott in Australia. We had a couple of voicemails as well about the same

question. Andy in Ottawa, Mike in Rochester, we see you. This is what Scott in Australia submits. Quick question. While pondering the Columbus Blue Jackets trade happening while the Stanley Cup final is in progress, obviously the trade window is open. However, how does this work with teams

that are still active in the playoffs? Are they excluded from making trades? For example, let's say Damon Severson was on Florida's radar for the 23-24 season. Would they have been allowed to make a move for him? Thank you for all your hard work, especially you, Amel, and even you, Elliot. People have to understand what the trade deadline is.

The trade deadline means that if you get traded out, you can still make trades after that day. You're just not eligible to play for the team. So once you're out, you can make trades because you're not playing now if Florida was say on the radar for Severson it would be up to Florida to tell either New Jersey or you know if they had permission Severson's representatives to say hey don't do anything because we want to talk to you about this guy that's the way it works you can still make trades they just can't play for you after the trade deadline the hot tiki way to say that there is no actual trade deadline in the nhl

that is true there's an eligibility deadline just a deadline to be added to the roster but technically as much as we make a big deal about trade deadline is coming, there's no such thing. Just a deadline to be added to the roster. Scott in Australia, thank you so much for that one. Here's a voicemail. Someone who didn't leave a name, I don't believe. Someone in Ohio.

Hey, Elliot, Amal, and Jeff. I have a question regarding the coaching situation in Nashville regarding Andrew Burnett. He was under contract with New Jersey. So when he goes to Nashville from New Jersey, what happens with his contract? Do they terminate that? Does that transfer over?

Does he still get paid? I'm just wondering what happens on that aspect. Thank you, guys, and keep up the great work. Elliot? It's terminated. aspect. Thank you guys and keep up the great work. It's terminated. His contract is done and now Nashville has to do a new contract with him. Simple. Knock that one down. It's a good question.

Patrick in Montreal, Elliot, has two questions. He left us this voicemail. Good day, gentlemen. Patrick in Montreal here had two questions for you. First, we saw the Severson trade over the last couple of days, which was a sign and trade. Was just curious if there was any advantage either to one of the teams via the CBA or to the player for fiscal reasons to sign in one place and then trade to another versus trading the rights and having him sign with his new team. The second question pertains to the power play rules that you guys have talked about throughout the year. Jeff loved the idea of a shorthanded goal killing the penalty.

One thing that always boggled me was the lack of icing rule when a team is shorthanded i never understood why you gain an advantage that didn't exist because you took a penalty and especially with this idea that the league would like to see more goal scoring wouldn't that lead to more power play goals if the team actually had to clear the center red line in order to get rid of the puck and dump it down into the opponent's end just curious your thoughts on eliminating the no icing rule once shorthanded thank you very much for taking my questions good job to all three of you very polite that's patrick you want to tackle the uh the one, the advantage of the sign and trade as opposed to the trade and sign. The only way Damon Severson can sign for eight years is if New Jersey signs him and then trades him. If at that time of the season, New Jersey trades him to Columbus,

he can only sign for seven years. So that's why you do it that way. The advantage there is the player gets the extra year. And your thoughts on eliminating icing during power plays. I believe that that is a player fatigue leading to injury situation. And that comes right from the players. Yeah, you're 100% right. And I think they've talked about it periodically, but I do think it's an injury concern, 100%.

Patrick in Montreal, merci beaucoup mon ami. Let's finish up here. We're're gonna go guest style for the answer so elliot cool your thumbs okay because steve in nova scotia has a question and we have a guest who's going to answer it first let's hear from steve hello my name is steve boyd i am from Brookside, Nova Scotia, roughly about 15 minutes outside of Halifax. And my question is as follows. This has been something that I've been wanting to know for quite a long time. And I was reminded of it recently when my brother-in-law and I, his name is Thomas Cardiff, we were watching a playoff game.

is Thomas Cardiff. We were watching a playoff game and we saw a goalie's mask covered in Ninja Turtles graphic designs. So what I'd like to know, or what Thomas and I would like to know, is what are the regulations regarding what goalies can put on their helmets? Must it be approved ahead of time? Who does the painting? Who pays for it? Is it the goalie? Is it the team? Does the design have to be vetted ahead of time? This type of thing. If this could be answered on one of your podcasts, that would be great.

Have a wonderful day. Good questions. All right, Steve in Nova Scotia, great questions. And when it comes to all things goalie, Elliot, we turn to the goalie whisperer from In Goal Magazine. Here's Kevin Woodley with the answer. All right, thanks for sending me the question. First off, if it was a teenage mutant ninja turtle mask,

I'm guessing you were watching Scott Wedgwood of the Dallas Stars. The only thing that was a departure for him in terms of having, you know, sort of cartoon characters on his mask was he's typically in the past been a Marvel guy. And so going to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as much as it fit Dallas was obviously a little bit of a departure there. In terms of regulations, there is nothing formal that I'm aware of. I did check in with a couple of painters I know, and they say it's just sort of general common sense rules of thumb, nothing too violent or offensive.

Beyond that, it's usually the goalie and the mask artist working together. Smart painters typically check in with equipment managers or with the teams themselves to make sure they don't go days and days down a path of building something that might not be approved. Some teams ask to see it. Some teams don't. There are a couple, I understand, that sort of have regulations in terms of sizes of logos they'd prefer to use. If you are using team logos, they want them to be a certain size.

But for the most part, there's no rule or set of rules that you're given as a painter before working on an NHL mask. I will give one example that I know from the past where Jaroslav Halak had his mask painted with a goalie on it. And I can't remember whether, I think it was maybe because he was a Taurus, it was a bull. And there was a goalie in goalie equipment on the forehead of the mask.

And Yarrow has always worn Brian's equipment. And so the painter painted Brian's equipment on this cartoon character goalie on his mask, including the Brian's logo. Well, there's only one problem with that brian's uh does not pay the licensing fee to the nhl for masks because they don't make masks and that was a violation for them to have a brian's logo on a mask because they don't pay the mask rights or the licensing fee for the rights to do that and that

had to be covered up the other one i do know some artists like a lot of times you'll see pop culture stuff for the most part i believe you're allowed to do that like there's no sort of copyright protection because you're creating new art using those images i do know in the past like for example i candy air steve from my candy air when he was painting iron maidens on chris mason's mask he actually sought out the original iron maiden eddie artist the one that created that original eddie on all the iron maiden albums and sought permission before doing that i don't think you necessarily have to but i I love that as an artist, he went out and sought that and got permission to use it on Chris Mason's mask. And of course he used that on

multiple masks. So in terms of who pays, it's the team. The team always pays for the mask itself, as well as the paint. I will say that there are some artists that, you know, like some of these things belong in museums and they can be weeks and weeks of work and they're up front with the nhl goalies there's one i know for sure i don't know how many it's a pretty short list where the amount they put into this exceeds your typical mask fee or what a team is typically willing to pay and so they're up front and they tell the the nhl goalies that they're going to have to top that up themselves personally above and beyond what a team typically pays for a paint job but i would

say in 95 percent of the cases it is the nhl team that pays for the math so i hope those answer your questions i appreciate it as usual i was too long-winded so uh you guys will probably have to cut some of this no way leave that all in and by the way a couple of things there one elliot you probably would have given just as thorough an answer as kevin woodley did there about no way tenders two i think the uh this is a stretch and someone on the internet's gonna tell me if i'm wrong. As an old Iron Maiden fan, I think the guy's name was Derek Riggs, who designed Eddie, the lobotomized mascot for Iron Maiden.

To the licensing issue, we saw that with Peter Kachetkov, when he started in North America, remember he had those gloves and they had to have the black tape over the name because the manufacturer didn't pay the licensing fee. And it kind of looked weird on, in the NHL. But,

but nonetheless, you know, hearing Kevin talk about that, you know, one thing that I've always kind of wondered about and then dismissed it because like, ah, I'm not going to bring it up because Elliot's going to groan.

And then I remember, oh, I like what making Elliot groan. You know, it always kind of struck me as weird. Lou Lamarillo has Lou's rules, right? Like it's a very conservative operation. You don't color outside the lines.

Now that I think about it, I'm kind of surprised he lets goaltenders paint their masks. When you really think about how non-identity based he wants his team. Does that not seem a little bit odd to you that Ilya Sorokin's got pretty cool mask? I have to tell you, it's not the dumbest thing you've ever come up with. I like when you say that. It's a real compliment. Thanks, man. I really appreciate that.

All right. This is getting too long. I won't get out until three in the afternoon. All right. All right. Kevin Woodley, thank you so much for the answer. And everybody, thank you so much for sending in the questions, either voicemails or emails. Taking us out, a seven-piece female-led soul band from London and Brooklyn.

Say She She, right? Lyrics with meaning and their sound is dreamy, catchy, and up-tempo. With the title track from their debut record, here's Say She She with Prism on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Yeah, I know. It's good. Check it out. Thank you. Once in a while, once in a while Out of our minds Running for miles, running for miles Isn't it nice Once in a while, once in a while Searching for truth in the bowels and the roofs

The things you seek, you'll find. Have all I need. Thinks out of reach. I increasingly pay no mind. Out of our minds. Running for miles. Running for miles.