32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Elliotte's Post Draft Ramblings

Episode Date: June 30, 2024

Elliotte Friedman fires through various news and notes following the 2024 NHL Entry Draft in Las Vegas in this quickfire edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast.Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Montana's Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailThis podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.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. 

Good evening everyone. I'm excited. Not even a hockey mom. I'm excited and very proud to be here tonight. With a fifth overall selection in the 2024 NHL Draft, the Montreal Canadiens are proud to select Ivan Demido. Welcome to the 32 Thoughts Podcast brought to you by the 2024 GMC Sierra Elevation. There is no Merrick today. He went home on Friday night on the red eye. So you're about to see how valuable he is. This will be a bit of a different podcast. No conversation, just some ramblings about what we saw and where i think we're going first of all great event great draft i honestly wonder if there's going to be any conversation out of this about do they really want to decentralize the draft this was unique it was the sphere celine dion Buffer, all that great stuff.

They really did an incredible job keeping the Celine Dion appearance private. I don't think the full Montreal table knew that she was coming out. And the word after was, it was basically said that if it got out, she might not come. So great job keeping the secrecy that was a crazy moment a lot of fans had a great time i told everybody who i could that they should go to the top of the sphere level seven and look down because i know a lot of us are used to being in arenas high up. Just the slope, it was the steepest one I'd ever seen. It's a spectacular view. It's great for the screen.

And I don't know if they can duplicate this ever again, but I did wonder if people would say after that, are we sure we want to get rid of the centralized draft? And even if they do and they go to their plants next year of each team at their home base, I really hope the NHL continues to make the central part of it where the picks are announced and the players show up and the fans go to, it has to be a party.

It has to be something. It just can't be this kind of lame thing that we've kind of given up on because the teams aren't there anymore. The draft can still be great. The NFL makes it a party. The NHL should too. And they hit this one out of the park. It was pretty spectacular.

One of those things you'll remember about your career. Okay, so let's take a look at some of the news. First of all, Tampa Bay, huge splash. Mikhail Sergeyev, that was the stunner. Did not see that one coming. Was definitely not on my radar. They send him to Utah. Utah, by the way, gets an instant top defensive pair in Sergeyev and John Marino, who they picked up from New Jersey. Ryan Smith, not a patient guy, he said to the media on Friday. Utah came out and they did something. But this is about Tampa Bay and where they're going to go from here. Sergeyev is a big loss on their blue line.

I like J.J. Moser. I think he's a good player. And I like what Julian Breezeball said after everything was over about how we just needed some youth in our lineup, which is why they went out and got him and Geeky. But this is about what I think they're going to do up front. Now, Jake Hensel, last week, Carolina informed him that they would be willing to match his ask of eight times eight. And this was on Thursday. And those of you who listened to the last podcast heard that I'd said that Carolina was going to match. And the expectation was that

meant that they were going to keep him. And Carolina was telling teams that they were going to keep him. The issue with that is that, as I found out more about it, the 8x8 came, I don't know the exact time, but a while ago. And in Carolina's eyes, that was always there. 8x8 was what Gensel wanted, and they haggled and they negotiated, which is perfectly normal. But the risk of doing that in that situation is exactly this. You get to free agency, Gensel starts to hear who else might be interested in him or what else might be out there for him and his mind starts to wander

also as another team told me what you also realize is the market can change maybe eight times eight was appealing to him at the time but what if you hear there's a team willing to do seven times nine or seven times 9.5. Carolina is a good tax state, but Florida, where the Lightning are based, is a no-tax state. So basically what happens is the longer this takes and the closer you get to free agency, the more your mind wanders, the more circumstances can change. And I think that's what happened here. I think that Gensel just said, you know what, I waited long enough. I'm this close. That was earlier. And it's his right to test the market. And it sounds like that's what he's going to do. There's no doubt Tampa is one of the favorites.

I still did hear on Saturday that there were some other teams, not just the Lightning, who were willing to trade for his rights just to talk to him. And I think a couple of those teams in the World of the Western Conference. But I don't know if that's going to happen. I think right now the team to beat for Gensel is Tampa Bay. Utah, by the way, I still think there's some people who believe they're going to be in on Brandon Montour if he hits the market from Florida. And obviously, Marino being traded confirms what a lot of people have expected for a while. I think we mentioned it a few podcasts ago that Brett Pesci is heading to New Jersey. The other deal Tampa made, just quickly want to mention, Tanner Janot to LA.

Right from the moment it became pretty clear that Janot was going to be dealt, which was not long after the Lightning were eliminated, I heard LA was very much on the radar. The Kings thought that they were a little bit too pushed around last year. And I know it didn't go great for Janot in Tampa. He's a better player than he showed there. He was a very effective player in Nashville. And I think LA believes they're going to get that guy. So he'll get a fresh start. And they were very excited to get him. And I wasn't surprised to see that one at all, as much as I was shocked by the Sergeyev one. that one at all as much as I was shocked by the Sergeyev one. So that brings us to Stephen Stamkos and where are we here? Well, Julian Brisebois had a conference call, Zoom call after the trades were

made and he said he met again with Don Meehan, the agent for Stephen Stamkos and the positions had not changed. And that means that Stephen Stamkos is headed to market and Brisebois even framed it as sometimes it's the best thing that can happen because you can see what's out there and if you want, you can circle back. I don't know that that's going to happen. I don't know that I ever thought I would see the day

where Stephen Stamkos would be an unrestricted free agent and leave Tampa. But as I've said before, the Lightning have in the past, they have taken care of a lot of their guys early. They haven't done it with Stamkos twice now. And even people as nice and polite as Stamkos are, who are fierce competitors, they've had enough. And that was the case here. Now, it's been reported, and I think Pierre Lebrun was the first guy to mention it, that

Tampa did what they tried to do with Alex Killorn. Alex Killorn, a year ago, when he was a UFA, they tried to make it an eight-year offer at like two, two and a half million so they could keep the cap down and still get him his money. That obviously happened with Stamkos. It was around eight times three. There were some people who indicated they heard that

Tampa Bay also offered to do a shorter term deal. Now Stamkos will be 35 next season, and that allows you to sign one-year deals with bonuses. And I think Tampa Bay also proposed something along those lines, which is a shorter-term deal. And then we can start giving you one-year deals with some bonuses. And it kind of punts you down the road a little bit on your cap but um it was something that i heard was at least conceptually discussed obviously it didn't work and the team that people are kind of talking about for stamkos is the predators now i think there's a lot of interest a lot of interest i think there's a lot of teams out there that would love to talk to Stamkos and see what he would be willing to do or willing to consider

or where he'd be willing to go. And I'm not surprised. He's still a very, very effective player. But a lot of teams think that Nashville is prepared to be pretty aggressive for him. Other things to keep an eye on. Matt Duchesne, hearing he's going to stay in Dallas. Don't know the terms, but getting that information in multiple places that Duchesne is going to stay there. Chris Tanev, at the end of the draft, he was traded from Dallas to Toronto.

The Stars really tried hard to keep him. It is expected the Maple Leafs are going to offer him at least six years to spread out the money over the term. Kind of the thing that didn't work with Stamkos and Tampa. Looks like it's going to work with Toronto and Tanev. That is Toronto's tactic, and it's expected to be good enough to get it done. I think Vancouver was also interested, but it looks to me that Tanev is going to be the guy for Toronto

at a minimum six-year deal. And I think Toronto is continuing to look at some other defensemen. I think they're going to have competition from Boston for Nikita Zdorov, and they're also in on Oliver Ekman-Larsen. But I think there's a couple of teams who are looking at that, too. If you heard Jeff Jackson at the end of the first round on our draft coverage, he said they are trying to sign all of their UFAs and they are working at it. There were rumors that they had asked evander

keane to waive his no move clause but as of saturday that had not occurred so that's another one to keep in mind we'll see if that becomes a thing at all but as of saturday it had not happened It had not happened. Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Okay, Truba, I am going to admit this right out. I am not sure what is going on here. I had people saying to me, it was very real. The Rangers were trying to push it along, and they thought if they could work out something with the Troy,

Trouba would be willing to go there. And then I had some people tell me on Saturday that it's not close. You guys are getting way too ahead of yourselves. And this is far, far more of a challenge than you think it's going to be. So the one thing I am reasonably certain of is that this whole situation that's developed over the last week or two has been hard on Trouba. Like if you go back to when he left Winnipeg and was traded from Winnipeg, both the Jets and the player were ready for a divorce. It was just time.

It was time for both to move on. And they did. In this particular case, the Rangers may have decided for cap reasons that they have to do this, but that doesn't mean that Trouba is ready for this. I think he was disappointed. I think he was shocked. And I think he's still processing this possibility here.

He also is a very aggressive agent, Kurt Overhart, who will fight for his client in this one. And while Overhart was not talking on Saturday, what one other agent told me was when Trouba submits his list, will he make it strategic? And his list is due on July 1st. Will he make it strategic? And his list is due on July 1st. Will he make it strategic so that places that the Rangers might actually be able to trade him to or think they will be able to trade him to, will they be blocked? So there's a lot here. And one of the things I think has really made this challenging is that Trouba has struggled

with the idea that the Rangers might want to move on for him. Just one final thing to keep an eye on with Trouba though is remember what happened with Barkley Goodrow. He wouldn't wave and Chris Jury put him on waivers and Goodrell got claimed by San Jose. Truba's contract goes from a no-move clause to a modified no-trade. So, will Drury consider the same path? All of that has to be deterrent in the next few days. So that's the best intel I can give you. Sorry if you don't think it's good enough.

Natchez. I do think there were very serious conversations between Columbus and Carolina about the number four pick. I do think that the Hurricanes made Natchez a contract offer with permission of the Hurricanes. Obviously, it didn't get done. Columbus was happy to keep the pick, get Caden Lindstrom. Very emotional moment with his family.

It was some great stuff. Chicago, as you know, tried to get into that number four overall spot, offering next year's unprotected first plus. The Blue Jackets didn't do it. Philly also tried to get into that spot. Couldn't do it. That was about Demidov. Everybody knew Montreal was going to take Demidov fifth overall.

And if you wanted to get him, you had to beat the Canadians at the top of the draft. And those two teams tried, couldn't get there. By the way, it's going to be easy to see what happens with Natchez and Carolina now. Like, is there any chance the Hurricanes want him to stay because they lost Gensel? That's one of the questions I don't have an answer to, but everybody's beginning to ask.

Tija Gindla was another guy, by the way, like Demidov. Teams wanted to trade up to get. Utah got him sixth overall. Everybody knows about Calgary. Also, I think Ottawa would have liked the chance to get him. They were picking one pick right after. Yaroslav Askarov. As we know on Monday, Nashville is going to extend UC Saros.

Askarov, I think, is at a point where he wants to play in the NHL. Nashville, Barry Trotz gave a pretty interesting interview to Alex Daugherty, one of the local reporters the other day, where he said that, you know, Askarov will decide when he's ready for the NHL, not anyone else. I think that was kind of a point also too about any agents or anything saying we'd like a scar of in the NHL next year. However, I think the Predators also recognize that they might have to use him in a trade or might have to move him in a trade.

They have, they've gotten a lot of interest. There is, there is a lot of interest in him. As you can imagine, he's a good prospect. I talked with Barry Trotz during the first round of the draft. He said they're looking for either an established NHL player that makes sense to acquire for a Skarov or another high ceiling prospect that's not a goalie, a forward or a defenseman. That's what the Predators are looking for. And also, Rucker McGrody for the Jets fans out there. There were a couple of cases where I think the Jets

maybe thought they were close. There were some conversations with Montreal. I think there was also the possibility he could have headed to Minnesota, but that was erased when Zev Biaouim fell to 12 and Bill Guerin said, nope, that's the player we want, and that evaporated a chance for the Wild and the Jets to do a trade. That's all I've got for Saturday evening. I hope this rambling was acceptable.

I feel bad for Dom Cermati who's got to edit it, but I thank him for putting it together. And as always, thank you for listening. There'll be another pod sometime after free agency. Have a great Canada Day weekend, everyone.

Get outside, get some sun, touch grass.