32 Thoughts: The Podcast - FTRH

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

Elliotte is going on 28 minutes of sleep. The guys further break down the Flyers situation as Daniel Brière takes the podium for his first press conference (00:01) to talk about the team's future. They then discuss the Ottawa Senators (26:00) as they find themselves in a difficult spot while the Winnipeg Jets (31:45) are flying high, the agenda for this week's GM Meetings (39:40), more information on the sale of the Senators (43:40), new faces we might see in the league (51:30) and the guys talk about the Hart Trophy list (34:50).Also, they take your questions and voicemails (54:20).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailGET YOUR 32 THOUGHTS MERCH HEREOutro Music - meltycanon - ALIVEListen to the full track hereThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: NBC Sports Philadelphia, WFLA, WHPT & WTMM-FM.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.

oh that's cool hey where are you right now i'm on my uh balcony of my hotel the birds are chirping in the background elliot is in florida welcome to 32 thoughts the podcast presented by gmc and the sierra at4x how is florida elliot as we're still shoveling out snow here in uh your old neck of the woods? I just want to tell you that right now I'm delirious. I got home from the show at 1.45 on Saturday morning, or I guess Sunday morning, yes, at the end of Saturday night. At 1.45, our flight was at 6.15, so the wake-up was at up was at 3 15 and remember the clocks moved forward so yes i'm on 28 minutes of sleep so this podcast is going to be either really good or really bad

and i know which one i'm putting my money on elliot's bound to say a couple of different things one he might say something ridiculous because he's tired, or he might say something ridiculous because he's cranky. One of the two things might happen. Stay tuned for the answer. Both could happen. Both. Okay, well, speaking of early mornings,

Daniel Breer, interim general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers, held his first press conference early Sunday morning, as I mentioned. And a couple of quick points here that we should go over. I know we've talked a lot about the Philadelphia Flyers recently, but they continue to be the headline story. A couple of points. One, Brier mentioned there will be no quick fix.

It needs to be done the right way. Not rushing to things. We're going to keep evaluating players. We'll have a lot of discussions in which direction we're gonna move but um there's no doubt that this this is not a quick fix uh in my mind i believe it's gonna take a little while added that although this is a rebuild don't expect a fire sale uh we're not gonna see a totally a totally new Philadelphia Flyers team next season. But at the same time, it doesn't mean that we're going to do a full fire sale and have a complete

new team next year. There's a lot of good players. There's a lot of good young players on this team. He mentioned this was going to be a multi-year process. Wasn't sure what happens with the advisors. He's only been on the job, as he mentioned, for 48 hours. I don't know at this point. I'm not sure. What I can tell you is I have a lot of respect for, I assume you're talking about Bobby Clark and Bill Barber and Paul Holmgren. I have a lot of respect for those guys for what they've accomplished in their career, both on and off the ice. So lots of respect.

And I've been in this position for 48 hours. So I've had a quick chat with them. But at this point, that's all that's happened. So we'll see moving forward what happens there. He said that the draft will be a key opportunity for the team. From that, I assume both players picked and players traded. Mentioned that Brent Flaherty is expected to stay with the organization and went out of his way to talk about Ian LePeriere and Lehigh Valley, the Phantoms, the AHL affiliate, the Philadelphia Flyers,

and noted the work that that organization had done with players like Cam York. But at the same time, I think Lappy has done a great job preparing these guys when they were called up. Like you mentioned, they've done a really good job coming up and helping. You look in the case of Cam York, I remember beginning of the year when we sent him down, we would have thought that was the end of his career. But, you know, even though it wasn't easy for him,

it was a tough time, he battled through. I was really impressed in how he fought through that, how LAPI staff was able to get him back on track, work with him, and how good he's been since he got called up. He's playing heavy minutes for us in our top four on the power play. It's been an impressive process. So it's going to be part of the evaluation. Your thoughts on the Breyer presser this morning you know what Jeff I want to defer to you first because you were the person who tweeted

at 6 35 a.m on Friday morning well before I was up we should add that you know you had an inkling that something was coming so I really think on this topic, you should have the opportunity to talk first. And by the way, just one public service announcement I'd like to make for followers and listeners and tipsters of this pod. If your tip is late at night after midnight, send it to me. If your tip is early in the morning, 6.30 or so, send it to Jeff. Because I'm the late night person. He's the early riser. So this was you.

I think you should have the first crack at how you feel or where you think this is all going. I think this is going to uncharted territories for the Philadelphia Flyers. How deep it goes, I don't know. But for the first time, really, it kind of feels like the genesis of the Philadelphia Flyers, and that is with the secondary six going back to 1967. I think the Philadelphia Flyers are taking a retreat, are taking a step back. And as I mentioned on Saturday, as one person told me, the Philadelphia Flyers have spent a lot of time for a lot of years playing whack-a-mole with their problems.

Just, oh, we need a goalie, go grab this guy. Oh, we need a right side defenseman, go grab that guy. I think they're getting out of that mold now and they're going more with a team building concept and you know, Elliot, that doesn't happen overnight. It is a very un-Philadelphia Flyers thing that it feels like the Philadelphia Flyers are about to embark on. And I think that, like Bjarre talked about, you know, everything being on the table. And I really do believe that that's true. And he talked a lot about, I mentioned, you know, the AHL affiliate and developing players. We mentioned that on Saturday, the multi-year process. We talked about that on Friday's podcast as it related to the press release sort of indicating for those that were paying attention that this wasn't going to

be the Flyers behaving as the Flyers have only behaved. I really think this is something new. I think this is the Philadelphia Flyers saying the way that we've done this for decades has got us to this position and that needs to change. And so as painful as it may be, and as un-Philadelphia Flyers as it may be, we are going to go through a rebuild. And one of the interesting things too, I know people put a lot in that word, but Breer wasn't shy about saying rebuild. We are going to go through a rebuild, but then did add, we're not letting go of everybody. There are still good players and valuable players on this team. We can't just go with all kids. I think that this is something very deliberately different for the Philadelphia Flyers. Is that how you feel about

it for each? Because that's how I feel. The number one thing that I think, because look, in our jobs, the question that we try to answer on this pod is, what does this all mean? And I was flying this morning when Breer had his media conference, but I listened to it after. Jeff, does he not sound to you like someone who's in charge I thought that Brier was in a really tough spot because as you and I talked about on Saturday even though the tag is interim general manager we are both very much of the belief and I think many people are as well that he will be the full-time general manager of this team, yet he still holds the interim tag. It was kind of this tricky walk that Breer had to make on Sunday morning

as he addressed the media for the first time, because you're right. He did sound like this is very much his and he's in charge, but at the same time, what it says on the business card is something different. But yes, he does very much sound like someone who has this job, has this plan and is starting to enact this plan. Yes.

And that's the thing, you know, if you go through history and you go through a lot of media conferences of people who are, are interim, whether they're interim coaches, they're interim managers, you know,

whatever they might be, interim coaches, their interim managers, you know, whatever they might be, there's generally a lot less certainty about where things are going than what we heard on Sunday from Daniel Breer. This is somebody who is confident in himself. And I believe even more after hearing it, although nobody's going to say he's definitely going to be the GM, I would be even more surprised than I was on Friday morning if he isn't going to be the GM eventually. This is a person who has a lot of answers to a lot of questions and has a vision. But I think for me, the interesting questions here is, is what is going to happen around him?

So I'm going to operate under the assumption and it's an assumption that could end up being wrong, but I'm going to operate under the assumption that Daniel Breer is going to be the GM because that's the way I think this is going. What I'm curious about is what's going to happen around him. is what's going to happen around him. Now, as details kind of start to seep out, it's pretty clear to me that everybody believed a change was coming at the end of the season. I think that there's a lot of people in the organization,

top to bottom, who realize that at some point it was decided that this was going to be Chuck Fletcher's last season as general manager. What I don't think everybody saw coming, and I never mind don't think, based on just some of the conversations I've had and things I've heard, I 100% believe is that most people didn't see coming was that it was going to happen last Friday. I think most people believed it was going to be the end of the year, and then last Friday a decision was made to move it up, and there were a lot of people, actually I shouldn't say a lot

because I don't know how many, but there were definitely people who knew that there were going to be a change that didn't know it was going to be on Friday. And the question I wonder about that is, what does that mean? Another thing that really interests me about all this and what's going on in that organization, I had a couple of executives from Teams

send me some stories from the weekend about the last few months in Philly or the last couple of years in Philly. And it's pretty clear that there are people in that organization who are sending out notes like, this decision, it wasn't me. Like somebody else made this decision, not us. When that happens, that says to me people are nervous. They feel the ground shifting.

And nobody is sure where this is going to end up. I don't know if people are expecting Breer or anyone else to go in there and make massive changes. But there are going to be changes. And when stories like that start coming out, people are nervous. I also have a hard time believing that briere even though this is his first time at the big chair doesn't go in without the knowledge that he can go in and do what he wants to do there's always working with people around you and you've talked about managing up i just doubt that briere goes in without the knowledge that he can enact the plan as he wants to do it.

And there's no situation or very few situations in the NHL. Maybe Lou with the Islanders might be the only one, but there's very few others. There's only one person with a hand on the wheel when it comes to decision making. But I'm sure that Breer goes in knowing that it won't be eight or nine hands on the wheel when he makes decisions. You know there's a lot of talk about some of the alumni that have very important says from Bob Clark to Paul Holmgren to Bill Barber to others there's other people in and around hockey ops I think it caught people totally by surprise. And to be honest, I think the media knew before Fletcher knew. It was kind of a wild scenario.

Like sometimes you hear that someone's fired, but they know before you do, and the news just starts to leak out. I don't think that was the case here. I think people in media knew before Fletcher knew. And I think people in media knew before some of the other guys in the organization who are important positions. What I think that could mean here, Jeff, is that the influence of certain people in certain positions is going to be shifting. We know here that there's a new CEO, Daniel Hilferty. And I think there are people who are closer to this situation than I am, who believe that Dave Scott, who's been

the longtime CEO and the individual running the organization, will be stepping down or retiring as soon as this summer. Initially, when Hilferty was hired, they were like, ah, it's just another person to our structure. Don't read into it. Stop the conspiracy theories, whatever. Now I think we're starting to see where this is going to go. I don't think we have all the answers yet, but look, I do think that there is a move to have Eric Lindros

be part of the organization not necessarily president but I think part of the organization you know you mentioned some names on Saturday night that didn't come out of nowhere I think what we saw on Friday was step one. And now what I'm curious to see is, is there going to be in and around Breer a whole new sphere of influence in that organization? I think a lot of people see this as step one of X. The question is, what number is X? Just like grade 12 algebra, what is X? Some of those names, because I'm curious about that as well. Who does Breer surround himself with?

And some of the names we put forward on Saturday, Elliot, Ray Whitney, who worked with Breer as a manager on the Spangler Cup team. Breer has always been close with Shane Doan. I mentioned Brent Flaher, who we believe in Breer mentioned today at the press conference, as I just said, that he's expected to stay with the organization. And, you know, someone mentioned to me on Friday night, an interesting name, and that's Robert Esch, who is the president of the Utica Comets as well, who knows. It just would be someone who would make some sense here. So these are some of just the initial thoughts of who Breer could surround himself with as well. And we'll see what happens, but I'm with you. I think that this is going to be multi-staged. I think that, you know, Breer probably starts to build his team,

you know, as we phrase it, you know, his orbit on Saturday, the sphere of influence around Daniel Breer. And then I think that, you know, we look for pressure point days,

days where we think that things are going to happen. I wonder about the draft and Breer talked about that and talked about it being a key opportunity whether it's you know the players they pick or whether it's the players on the roster that they move out and we went through a couple of those on Saturday night as well I think that this is all going to be very calculated very deliberate It's going to very much follow a sequence that winks back to that idea of team building that I talked of a second ago, not just filling holes. We have a need here. Let's fill that. It's going to be more, okay, what is our team plan going to be here? And I

think that if you know anything about Daniel Breer, that is very much his thinking. Here's the plan. Here are the stages. Here's how we're going to enact this. Of course, you can always pivot when circumstances change, but I think that this will be a very deliberate plan as this team scales back before they start to build up again. I think this, first of all, I want to talk about the, the, the executive roles. My belief is that there's going to be a ton of interest,

Jeff. I really do. If there isn't already, no matter how much the flyers have struggled in the last little bit, people want this job. Flyers are a marquee franchise. They're in a city with a fan base that really cares. It's an organization that has the

resources that wants to win. They're going to have people lining up for these jobs in this organization. I think it'll be interesting. The way these kinds of structures generally work is the GM, and for this case, we'll call the GM Breer, generally makes the hockey decisions and the president of Hockey Ops manages up. That person would deal with whether it's Dave Scott, whether it's Daniel Hilferty, whether it's Valerie Camillo, that's what that person normally does. You know, I'm sure we'll hear a lot more names attached to this job. You know, one of the names that we didn't mention on saturday night you know we mentioned i think ash is a really intriguing name because he has the business yes history with utica and he's a flyer like i said i believe they flirted with that old chick

before and all the names we've mentioned and you know ray shiro's name is another one obviously big connections yeah to the flyers i think that's one of the things jeff that we're all kind of wondering about here is in the past it's always been important that someone with major flyer blood was a key part of this like briere was a flyer but you know honestly i think of him more as a saber than a flyer. And I wonder, does that matter now? Is that still a thing now? He's kind of grown up in the Comcast organization in Maine as an executive. Does it matter?

I don't know. The flyers want another quote-unquote flyer in there. And also, there's going to be people who maybe change jobs in the offseason like who's in the nhl right now in a job that they leave and they say you know what i might want to do philly instead and then there's going to be people that we don't even think of there always are if you look at san jose's search and you look at chicago search you know they interviewed people that were completely off our radar and i would assume that Philly is going to do some of that too. Let me, let me just add one. Let me add one thing onto that. One of the keys here is,

and I don't have a date. I don't know. There's one person that said they don't want this to drag on. They want to get it done quickly. I had another person say they're going to take their time and make the right decision i'm curious when they want to make this hiring the president of hockey operations why rush you have someone in charge there why rush i don't disagree i get that i understand that i just wonder if there is we want to have this person in date by a certain time. Because if you do that- F-T-R-H, Jeff. F-T-R-H.

You know what that stands for? F-T-R-H. Go for it. Find the right human. I just made that up. Can you tell? No, that's very clever of you. Maybe you're not as sunstroked as I thought you might be on your first day in Florida, or sleep-deprived, for that matter.

No, but the point being, if you want to get it done by a certain date, that precludes people that might have expiring contracts right now that otherwise you might want to talk to. I don't see why that should matter in this case. Unless something happens here that indicates that Breer is not your person, then you've got your guy in place there to run the hockey ops. I think they're targeting the Cam Neely, Don Sweeney idea, right? I believe that.

The Joe Sackett, Chris McFarland idea. Like, name your situations where you have the president of hockey ops and then you have the GM. Don Sweeney does most of the hockey and cam neely manages the jacobs you know chris mcfarland now does a lot of the heavy lifting and joe sakic while he certainly delivers his opinion he manages up you can run your organization like this now and again i go back to this like the way briere is talking there's no way that's a surprise to the people running comcast or the people above him on the executive chain

like do you think that anything briere is talking about here came as a surprise to ownership no because they released that letter with tortorella the The way Fletcher talked at the deadline, they were going down this path. If they want to hire someone else to manage up or be like the Cam Neely or Joe Sackick, you don't need to run in and do that. You have Breer doing this. You just have to make sure that you have someone who fits the vision of both Breer and what you want your president of hockey operations to do. Now, if someone walks in there and charms your pants off

and you say, we're hiring this person right now, okay, do it. But I don't think you have to rush. FTRP. That's right. Find the right person. But, Jeff, the other thing I just want to talk about is, because I think this is what fans care about the most, are the players.

Yes. I think you're bang on with Carter Hart. You talked about him on Saturday night. I think he's going to be available. We've talked about Kevin Hayes. I don't think they're going to be trading any of their young kids. A real interesting one is Konechny, because I don't think chuck fletcher wanted to

move connect me at the deadline and i think that there will be a push i don't know if they're crazy about moving them i would say they're definitely not crazy about moving them but i think they realize that they may have to do it just to fit what they're going to try like i don't think their young kids are going anywhere like i don't don't think the Cam Yorks are going anywhere or the Noah Cates. Like, that's a guy who's had a good year for them and shown, you know, he's a piece. Owen Tippett, like, he's resuscitated his career there.

I don't think those guys are going anywhere. But I think the veterans who are two or three years left on contract, those or less, they don't fit the timeline. Those players, I think, are going somewhere and the other guy we should mention is tortorella here you know someone said something to me very interesting they said that they could see tortorella wanting to move into management or player development at some point they think that he's talked about it but i i think right now he's too valuable where

he is and also he's got a big voice where he is. He does. If I was the Flyers, I would be saying, yeah, John, you're staying right where you are because our fans like you there and we like you there. And I heard him and Breer had a big meeting on Friday, like a long meeting to go over everybody up and down the roster. Tortorella to me is fascinating

because I'm firmly of the belief that he's on board with a rebuild. And I'm firmly of the belief that, you know, running contrary to how many people feel about, you know, coaches that aren't, you know, 42 years old, I think he's totally fine running with a lot of kids. Yeah. I really do. And I'd say we've mentioned this before and we'll use Cam York again.

I really do. And I'd say we've mentioned this before and we'll use Cam York again. Briere talked about him Sunday morning and we've talked about this one specific phenomenon before, like the way that Tortorella talked about Cam York at training camp, profoundly different than how he talked about Cam York after the 30, 35 games at Lehigh Valley. And when he came back and the responsibilities that he gave him, there's the pat on the back and there's the kick in the butt. And Tortorella seems to know when to do both. And specifically around kids. Like, I think that John Tortorella is completely comfortable.

Like if you said to me, you know, the Philadelphia Flyers are just getting young with run with young kids all the way down the stretch. I'm of the mind that Tortorella would be fine with that. And he'd say, you know what? That's fine. Let's just run with the kids. I get the sense that he's totally fine with that idea that this guy is on board with a rebuild, no matter how deep it goes. I'm with you, Jeff. I completely agree with you. And the other thing I'll say is this. For a team that's way out of the race, the Flyers matter right now. They're the talk. And the NHL is a better place when the Flyers matter.

Listen to 32 Thoughts, the podcast, ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Elliot, I think it was a cozy Czechs watch five minutes ago when everybody was basking in the glow of the Ottawa Senators taking two games in a row from the Detroit Red Wings, pretty much snuffing their chances of making it to the playoffs, forcing Steve Iserman's hand to make deals that if they were closer, he might not have made to watch them pre-deadline beat the New York Rangers, to see them post-deadline beat the Columbus Blue Jackets,

walk into Chicago and get mauled. Here's a break for Reichel, over the center, line down the slot, Deacon of Shawnee scores! Lucas Reichel with some brilliant hands, went from the forehand to the backhand and slid it in behind the goaltender Sogard. It's 5-0 Hawks. and slid it in behind the goaltender Sogard. It's five, nothing Hawks. Since then, and including Sunday night, they've lost three of their last four.

And they are, as we say, Elliot, tumbling, and they've got a tough week ahead. Tuesday, the Oilers. Thursday, the Avalanche. Saturday, the Leafs. And they've lost their math, right? One of the things we talk about, Jeff, and I know I talk about it ad nauseum, Dave Amber makes fun of me,

is do you have good math or do you have bad math? And the Senators had good math and now they've lost the math. They're eight points back of Pittsburgh with a game in hand and they're six points back of the Islanders with three games in hand. So zero margin

for error and all of a sudden now two teams between them. And that's one of the worst things you can do at this time of year is lose the math. And their goaltending is beaten down. Like on Saturday night, I know how you felt. You felt that Sogard should have come out of the game. You were surprised. Yeah, don't put him in the third. Don't, don't. The one thing I want to say about him, though, is come out of the game. You were surprised to see him back in the third. Yeah, don't put him in the third. Don't, don't.

The one thing I want to say about him, though, is I really respect the effort. You could tell the guy was hurting, and he wanted to be in there with his team. He understood the situation, game they have to have, two goalies down, they're depending on him. Like, that guy, he can play for me anytime with that kind of attitude.

I knew exactly what he was doing, but it's a really lost weekend. And, you know, I think the thing that would be most concerning to me is Vancouver's a team, even though they're finding their footing under their new head coach, they're one of the weaker teams in the league. Calgary's been up and down a total emotional yo-yo it's obvious things are boiling underneath the surface there and it's the way they went down like kachuk came out hard in that game on saturday night against vancouver they hit the post on the first shift and then JT Miller kind of took over that game

physically and Ottawa went down mildly I thought in this one against Calgary they also were pretty mild in those two games you talked about against Detroit they just didn't just win the game on the scoreboard they won the game in the alley too. They mauled them. I think that's the one thing that people forget about how hard it is to win consistently in this league. Like you look at that week, two huge wins against Detroit, huge win against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, Patrick Kane's debut. They clobbered Columbus at home but great teams they do that almost every week it's hard to keep that going and you know Ottawa lost the math it's a really difficult road for them I know or I should say at least I'd bet they're going to look around and say boy we just could not keep the

emotional firepower going we didn't have it against Vancouver and Calgary like we did against Detroit, the Rangers, and Columbus, and that's going to cost them at the end of the year. And, you know, it was funny. I was having a text conversation with someone about DJ Smith on Sunday night, and they're like, this is on the coach. This is on the coach. You know what I say?

No, it's not. It's not. And I know that Kelly Rudy feels this way, and I know that Kevin Bieksa feels this way. And even though I didn't play in the NHL, I feel this way about my job. It is my job, Jeff, to get motivated for what I'm supposed to do. I don't need you or Amal telling me that when we hit record on this podcast,

I got to be there I know that Amal like 50% of the time he brings it 35% of the time you bring it I know therefore I gotta bring it a hundred percent of the time Scott Metcalf one of my first bosses first year of the Raptors he said I know you're working hard, but you sound tired. He said, when you press the red button on that microphone, if you can't be up for it, eventually I'm going to have to go find someone else who will. And I don't think you can blame the coach for that. I think it just shows the emotion of how hard this is, how difficult it is to be great 82 games a year.

You have no room for error when you're chasing the playoffs. But ultimately, I think the players have to be ready to play. And for whatever reason, the last two nights, the Senators just didn't have that great emotion and edge. And if I was wearing a Senators jersey, first of all, they'd be screwed if I was wearing a Senators jersey. But if I was wearing a Senator's Jersey, first of all, they'd be screwed if I was wearing a Senator's Jersey. But if I was wearing a Senator's Jersey, I would say that's not on the coach.

That's on me. Well, you know what Amal and I always say about you, Elliot, what's that? A mediocre man is always at his best. That is true. You are definitely always at your best.

Now the other side of that coin we find in Manitoba with the Winnipeg Jets. They beat the Florida Panthers Saturday. Schmidt to Connor, fresh off the bench. Connor maneuvers to the near circle, pass in front, tipped in, they score. Recovering a loose puck in front was Shifley, and he wins it for the Jets in overtime, 5-4 the final. Next night, Tampa Bay Lightning he is gonna keep it alive right circle open off the goal post five seconds left Hedman shoots again

blocked Maroon left corner centers it Lowry is stealing a clear and that'll do it another post hit by the Lightning they hit multiple posts had been almost had the game tied but he rang it off the pipe three to two you talk about the opposite of the weekend that ottawa had the weekend that the winnipeg jets had that was impressive so you know the the thing i loved about the jets this weekend is they went for the kill. They went for the jugular. Calgary has a chance at home against Anaheim on Friday night to get within a point of them. And the Jets would still have a game in hand,

but Calgary would be a point back, and the Jets have been reeling a bit. And they go into Florida in a wild game, up and down yeah and they win that game when the flames aren't playing and not only they win that game but hellebuck in that game makes 44 saves now jeff you could argue that the florida tampa bay back-to-back is not the most mentally and physically grueling back-to-back on the NHL schedule. Now, I know that Alligator Alley drive can seem kind of long, but it's not a really hard back-to-back. I'd agree with you.

But like I said, Hellebuck made 44 saves in the win over the Panthers, and they went back to him the next night. The analytics would tell you, don't do that. The 21st century way of thinking, don't do that. I loved, loved, loved that Rick Bonas went for the kill. He said, I don't care. I'm going back with Halibut tonight, and I'm giving my team the best chance to put distance between itself

and the Flames, the Predators, whoever else you want to count on for that last playoff spot in the West. And he beat the lightning. Connor Halibut, to me, I know Allmark's having a great year. Connor Halibut is the most important goalie in the NHL this season I don't vote on the Vezna the GMs vote on that Connor Hellebuck to me this weekend he proved why he's the most important goalie in the NHL. Okay. And so because I know the way you think then, let me ask you this. Heart Trophy is done.

It's wrapped up. It's Connor McDavid. It's over. The race is for number two. Is your number two Connor Halibut or Jack Hughes? You know, I still think there's more of a list there. I just know how you feel about Jack Hughes. I'll put you on the spot.

You know what? You just, you know what? like i'm starting to make my list right like the way i do it is i put on a piece of paper everybody who could be considered for an award like i'm with you the heart's over mcdavid's won it and the only question now is if he's going to win it unanimously that's the only question but like i'll make a list and say, who could win the Hart Trophy this year? And I know the answer is McDavid, and that's it. But I'm going to put Hellebuck on it. I'm going to put Jack Hughes on it. I'm going to put David Pasternak on it.

I'm going to put Mitch Marner on it. I'm going to put a bunch of people on it, right? Like there's going to be... Are you going to put Ilya Sorokin on it? Yeah, I would think about that on it yeah i would think about that absolutely i i would think about that people are going to think this is insane and that's fine but i might have a list of 20 people who i think could all win it now like i said this one guy this year is going to win it just one uno numero uno but i just always say like could this guy win

a heart trophy in some universe this year? And I'm like, yeah, he could, or this person could. So that's what I do. And then I just whittle it down. And Hellebuck, to me, like I said, most valuable goalie in the league this year. Hughes, I'm watching him Sunday night, as they beat a really good Carolina team 3-0.

Hughes on a breakawayaway and Nason there. Jack takes it away from DeHaan. Moves in shot. He scores! Jack Hughes ends the drought and the Devils lead 1-0. Jack Hughes got 79 points. He's missed some games.

There's a decent chance he's on my ballot pretty high. Do you think I'm nuts to even think about that now? No, but I love stuff like that too. Like I like to put together like the massive list, like one of the guys that I'm fascinated by this season. And I know Nathan McKinnon is going to take up a lot of the oxygen in

Colorado and he should, but Miko Rantanen and what he's been able to do and what he's been able to do with that team and hold that team through all the injuries. And know defending stanley cup champions a lot of talent etc but key injuries to key players and no captain gabriel landis cog all season long and he's put together this campaign and he's going to be you know in the conversation by the end here for the rocket richard and he plays all over for the avalanche i I know McKinnon's having a monster season too, but I love that initial list that I make of potential Hart Trophy candidates.

And there are ones that I just, we talked about willing into truth in the last podcast. In some universe in my head, I'm trying to will into truth, Brantanen winning the Hart Trophy. You know what? Not this year.

It's not going to happen, obviously. It's not. No. But he's a good name. You've had worse ideas. Something I say at least once a podcast. You've had worse ideas. Rantanen's a great call.

The other thing, too, I'm wondering is a year from now, is Hellebuck going to be the highest paid goalie of the NHL? Wow. That's a great question. You think he's a double-digit payment? NHL goalie of the nhl wow that's a great question you think he's a double digit payment nhl goalie rankings right now hellabuck is the sixth highest paid goalie in the league and we know eventually shisterkin's gonna go much higher and the guy you mentioned sorokin is gonna go much higher but number one right now you know the first guy i think of is always

vasilevsky he's third at nine and a half you got pobrowski at 10 and gary price at 10 and a half so we're not going to count price even though he's number one i just wonder if hellobuck's going to get there keeps playing like this i wonder too and the And the thing is, like I said, I love Bonus this weekend. He's like, screw it. I don't care what the numbers say. I'm going for the jugular. You know what would have happened if they lost against Tampa, right? Oh, yeah, he would have gotten destroyed.

I would have crushed him on this podcast. What an idiot Bonus is. Why would he play him? How long has he been in the league? Come on, Bonus. The numbers say, even Tampa to Florida, that grueling back-to-back, you don't start him back-to-back.

That's true. I loved it. I thought it was great. I completely understand what he's thinking. I'm sitting here now wondering and saying, does, does Hellebuck keep playing until like, they've got a huge lead now.

Like does Hellebuck just keep playing? I mean, you don't clinch it for a while because of the math, but does Hellebuck just keep playing until there's nobody in the rear view mirror. Okay. So Elliot, as you mentioned off the top,

you're in Florida general managers meetings. Uh, we talked a little bit about this on Saturday on hockeyockey Night. I have not seen an agenda for the GM's meetings yet. We wonder what's on there, speculate what's on there. What do you think is on the agenda for this week? Or maybe more interestingly, what interests you about what the GM's could be talking about this week? I don't know that anything major is going to come out of this. Famous last words, right? You say, I don't think anything major is going to come. And Bettman comes out and says the cap could go up, which then changes a few months later. And now we're playing with two pucks.

Now we're playing with two pucks. Look at this. I would have had a lot more points as a kid if we played with two pucks. We're going to juice goal scoring any way we can two pucks let's go play on i don't know i'm expecting anything major to come out of here as a matter of fact like i think the other thing that could happen here is you know there's been some other conversations out there about expansion which the angel is throwing cold water on clearly the there's been a lot of talk and conversation about uh teams not wearing the pride jerseys.

I wonder if that's the kind of thing that becomes the big storyline this week, as opposed to the on-ice hockey stuff. And we think that the trade-related reasons conversation is going to come up. Because I don't know if Chickerton was so upset, but I think Gavrikov sure was. I think that'll be a conversation. I've said it again that I'm not sure Arizona is a GM issue. I think that could be a Board of Governors issue. You know, we talked on Saturday night. You mentioned the three-way deals.

I mentioned that players having to fight after clean hits. You know, the one thing I'm getting is just talking to some managers is there are certainly some managers who feel strong enough about some of those topics. But the question is, do enough managers feel strong enough about these particular topics that anything gets done about it? Like, I'll say another thing to Jeff, what someone said to me is, and this has come up before about expanding you know video review for puck over glass and i think there are some managers who think that we should but again i know betman isn't crazy about more review he kind of thinks we've gone far enough and so that's the thing is

is there enough support for that i'm cutting down the exhibition season so i think there's a lot of little things on the radar on the docket i just don't know if we get to one big thing that comes out of this aside from my upcoming suntan no are you like me do you just burn my uh my wife always says i'm like the flag of pol. I'm either white or red and there's like nothing in between. That's what I am in the summer. That's what I am when I'm around the sun. I do wonder if there's any conversation to the point about the three-way deals that we discussed on Saturday, we've discussed on the podcast. I wonder at what point, maybe it's this year because of the nature of how some of the deals went down. If they do end up having a conversation about how to execute trades through central registry, the trade call, as we talked about Saturday, goes back to 92 with the Eric Lindros trade. Is he a ranger? Is he a flyer?

Let's go to an arbitrator to figure it out. And that's how they came up with the idea of the trade call to put all that to bed once and for all. They've kind of done it the same way since 92. And I do wonder if there ends up being a discussion about maybe freshening that process up a little bit to streamline it, to bring it into, you know, 2023, make it a little more current and just sort of modernize the way they do things. I wonder if that happens this week. more current and just sort of modernize the way they do things. I wonder if that happens this week. You know,

we'll see where this goes over the next two or three days. A quick follow-up. Last year at these meetings, Eugene Melnick passed away, former owner of the Ottawa Senators. And we can all recall how passionately Pierre Dorian spoke about Eugene Melnick, how Commissioner Gary Bettman spoke about Eugene Melnick as well. Here we are one year later, and we're inching closer to a sale of the Ottawa Senators.

We spoke about it last podcast. Is there any update as the weekend goes into the week? I'm glad you mentioned that because I should have mentioned that too. That could be one of the off-ice stories that gets attention here. So basically, one of my financial genii, people who are much smarter at this stuff than I am, who I ask these questions to, he sent me a note. He said, the next step in the process is what's called a check bid, where they're going to ask all of the groups to resubmit after doing more work and affirm or raise their price. And then they'll pick someone after their best and final and give them the opportunity to close. Hang on.

Give them the opportunity to close? Close the deal. They'll pick one. They'll pick one. They'll pick one. So that's kind of where we are right now. I haven't been able to confirm the number yet. I hope to do it down here, but I've had a couple of guys tell me

that they think that there's like a stalking horse bid out there. And what I mean by that, I called it a bully bid last time. Stalkinging horses another one because these are non-binding that somebody comes out of the gate quick with a big number that kind of puts everybody on notice and it sounds to me just one of the groups i kind of talked to thinks that that happened again we have different reporting we We have Bruce Garriock saying four bids and Sportico reporting nine bids. And both these people have good sources. So sometimes that's

what happened in these situations. It comes down to semantics. It comes down what somebody wants to say. I've spoken to enough people here that they think there's someone who came out quick. And that doesn't mean that that person is going to get the team. That doesn't mean that that person, their number is going to be the number. But I think it's when that happens, it's generally a little bit of a bigger number that everyone's expecting. And it kind of puts you into a situation of, okay, what does this all mean here? So I hope to get a bit more clarity here. But the one thing I really do believe is that I think there's going to be some really serious bids from people with a lot of money and if Bettman was hoping he was going to get a number

here that is really going to surprise people and make him look kind of good I think it's possible that happens I don't want to say absolutely it's going to happen but i think it's possible but the other thing here and i'll say the same thing i said on friday people are still wondering let's just say there's a big number there like say it's like 900 or 950 what does it mean is it 7 or 750 for the team and 200 for the arena or what and you know the other thing here is is you know the remington group that's the ryan reynolds one yeah you know, the Remington group, that's the Ryan Reynolds one. Yeah. You know, Bill Daly went on the Bob McCowan, John Shannon podcast and said that whoever goes here doesn't have to go to the downtown government arena, LaBreton Flats. They could do this on their own.

When he said that, I had a couple of people tell me they think he's talking about Remington. And that's the Ryan Reynolds group with the bratty family and I know people are wondering if they've got some piece of land up there that they're like we're gonna put it where we want to put it not where everyone else is talking about putting it again I I don't have confirmation but I do think the involvement of that particular group and what they might consider doing has some people thinking about what it could all mean. So, you know, we'll see where it goes.

So I got a note from someone Sunday morning when I woke up who had listened to our last podcast. Was it at 635? No, I woke up today at actually woke up today at 707, which my body felt was like. What a slacker. Well, my body felt like it was 6.07 though, right?

Because we had gone forward. Oh, good point. Yes, that's fair. So, who obviously listened to our last podcast and said, if this number is what you guys say it might be for the Ottawa Senators, expect the next expansion fee to be 1B. $1 billion. 1B. I thought you'd find that interesting. Another thing that I found interesting, a DM that I got.

But again, we have to be right. We're not right about anything yet. Anybody out here who's bought a house or bought a condo or anything, you know what this is. There's a lot of BS. What's the real estate agent's job? To talk up the price, right? What's the seller's job here? What's the league's job here?

To talk up the price. So I always wonder, am I being fed a line of BS? But I'll just tell you that some of the people I've spoken to who I think are involved in this process, they think that people are coming out of the gate hot. They want to send a message right away that this is, that either you're in this game seriously or get out like give up your chair at the table and let someone else come in and play at the hundred dollar tables or whatever this is the high stakes table okay one this is the high stakes too one other thing that i um that i got is a dm from

someone that i want to read here so this is from a gentleman by the name of Josh Hoffman. I'm listening to the pod about the Ottawa Senator's sale. I'm an M&A investment banker and have been for 20 years, although not in sports. And to answer your question, they have no obligation to pick the highest price. Pause quickly, because I asked about that, we discussed that on the last podcast.

Pick it up again. The decision criteria is left up to the shareholders, in this case, the Melnick family, I believe. In a typical situation, there are a number of other criteria to be considered in deciding who to go with as a buyer, their funding source, certainty to closing, what their plans are for the future, et cetera. I've seen business owners leave tens, even hundreds of millions on the table because they liked buyer X more than the highest bidder. Now, in this case, it's a little different because the NHL has to approve the buyer. So that probably means there is a limited amount they'd be able to leave on the table

and still get NHL approval. Given the NHL's influence in the case, it's much likely a much larger percentage of the decision criteria will be price. That from Josh Hoffman, who has much more experience at this, Elliot, than I do. Like, if you look at what's happening in the NFL right now, Dan Snyder is selling the Washington commanders. He doesn't want to sell them to Jeff Bezos because at least this is what the reports say,

because Bezos owns the Washington post and they did a lot of the reporting on them. Now, if he comes in there with the most massive offer, like the NFL owners, they're sharks. Like there is no bigger shark in the, in the sports world than jerry jones the owner

of the dallas cowboys he is the shark he's not just a shark jeff he is the shark and those owners are making it very clear that they don't like snyder to begin with they want him out of their club and they'll fight with him on this so yes yes, I do think ultimately the Melnick family will have a major say, but you have to be allowed into the NHL club, right? Yep. And we'll see where it all goes. There's a lot of interesting dynamics.

It's the Reynolds dynamic. It's the Mike Anlauer and the Kimmel family. They've been in as minority partners. The league really likes them. There's some outside groups here that are kind of coming out of nowhere, making noise like they're serious players. It's shaping up to be what the NHL wants, like multiple serious partners with money who want this team.

You ever thought on Northeastern? They lose to Providence, and now we have a whole bunch of questions maybe starting with the buffalo sabers net minder someone whose name rhymes with devin levi well let's do the easier ones first i you know aiden mcdonough a lot of the reporting has come out of vancouver that he's going to sign there and i believe it's true so i think he's going to go there he's going to sign you know jay going to sign, you know, Jaden Struble, Montreal. I'm curious to see where that one goes. But the big one, I think, is Levi. And there were a lot of rumors this year about Buffalo looking at the goalie market,

like would they add someone? I think at some point somebody mentioned that they heard that Lukonen could be on the market. And I think the Sabres were not pleased about any of that. And, you know, I said to someone, you can't blame me. I didn't say any of this stuff. Like I, I start a lot of fires, but this one you can't blame me for. I didn't do that. But I think that one of the reasons the Sabres were really sensitive to the thought that they were adding a goaltender is because they knew if they added somebody that would complicate their ability to sign Levi.

I think they've made it very clear that there is a path for him, and they have no interest in blocking it. And, you know, they're trying to get him signed. They got knocked out in overtime on Saturday night. And I think the Buffalo Sabres have spent a lot of time saying, look, we're not looking to block your route here. You're going to be given a very fair shot at this job and if you are good enough you'll get it so i think the sabers were really sensitive to that conversation i think they want this kid in the organization now

obviously you will see what the plan is for the rest of the season but i think the sabers have really tried hard to send the message to Levi that they're not going to block his path. And there's going to be a route for him to become the starter of this team if he shows he's ready for it. And now I think, obviously, they're trying to sign him. Speaking of the Buffalo Sabres,

bad news on the injury front. Speaking of netminders, Eric Comrie, week-to-week. With the lower body, Rasmus Dahlin, Eric Comrie, week to week with the lower body. Rasmus Dahlin, day to day with the upper. Matthias Samuelsson, week to week

with the upper. Yeah. Body injury. Not good, Elliot. All ungood. All ungood. On that, we'll hit a break.

We'll come back with some of your emails, a couple of your phone calls as well. 32thoughts.sportsnet.ca. The phone line, 1-833-311-3232 You speak next

right here on the pod. Okay Elliot, wrap up once again here with as we normally do on the Monday Morning Podcast with emails and phone calls 32thoughts.sportsnet.ca is the email address. 1-833-311-3232 for the voicemail. Uh, a couple of emails here from Pat.

Now, mind you a similar, if not identical question asked from Tyler in Wyoming and Elliot, if that is indeed your real name in Nashville. Okay. Here's the question from Pat. Thinking about the trade deadline, we know that a player can play more than 82 regular season games

due to being traded partway through the year. For example, Tyson Berry got traded to the Preds, who at the time played less games than the Oilers. My question is, what happens to his pay? That's a good question. You don't get paid extra because you play more games. The way that pay is counted in the season is by days of the year of the NHL season. So that's kind of the built-in protection against that.

So no matter whose roster you're on and how many games you play, you're in the NHL for a certain number of days and your pay is factored into that, not the games played. Good question though. Is that a new way to do bonuses? If I play above 82 games, I get X bonus. I know you're going to trade me. I know you're going to trade me, man. If this team's played fewer games and I end up playing two more, I want to get bonused.

If you trade me, you can only trade me to a place where i'm getting 82 i don't want to get i want to play 84 games for the price of 82 that's bs uh good question nate in nashville has an nhl goalie ever pulled himself as a coach would for the backup leaving the ice either during a stoppage or even better in the middle of play because he was mad or something due to the game situation and refused to go back in. First of all, that's a vet move, and there are some vets. Maybe you're concerned about your save percentage. Maybe you're concerned about Vezna.

Maybe you're concerned about something individual or maybe just not feeling right. I mean, goaltenders have done that before, Elliot. And more than one, ladies and gentlemen, more than one. Goalies have done that, Frege. Well, I think the biggest one, although he didn't really pull himself, he finally got pulled,

although he clearly wanted to be out of the game, was Patrick Waugh. Against Detroit. Like, that changed the National Hockey League. It sure did. Waugh's decision to go off the ice and tell the president of the Canadians at the time, Ronald Corey, that I've played my last game in Montreal,

was one of the most seismic moments in the history of the NHL and almost single-handedly changed the league. Absolutely. Good question. Really good question. But, you know, that wasn't so much as he was pulled. Like, you'll remember, they lost that game 11-1. He was getting lit up.

He made his save. He did a mock cheer of himself. Yeah. But at the end, you know, it was Tremblay that pulled him from the game, but it was Waugh who pulled himself from the organization. True. That's the biggest one I could think of. I'm sure our great fans will think of others.

Okay. Voicemail, an anonymous voicemail, Elliot, from someone in Minnesota. Hey, Jeff and Elliot, big fan of the show. I just had a question regarding the adjustment of contracts throughout the NHL. You know, recently we've seen a number of players in the NFL

offseason that have restructured their deals to make it more team-friendly. And my question is, I feel like this isn't really done much in the nhl is there a reason for this i know there are clauses built into the contracts but for those that don't have any specific clauses built into their contracts why don't we see more of this thanks i appreciate it it's a great question there's a simple answer it's it's very clear it's against the cba you can't once a contract is a contract, you can't change it. The closest

thing that we've seen, a couple of years ago, Michael Stone signed, I think, a three-year deal with the Calgary Flames and they bought him out of it. And then later that summer, they signed him again for $700,000, which was less he was going to earn. And there's nothing against that. Now, outside of the last CBA, there were compliance buyouts. And if you gave someone a compliance buyout, you could not re-sign them for less money. That was blocked. But the Stone situation is one of the rare situations where you can buy someone out of a deal and sign them for less. And at that time, one of the reasons Stone did it was A, the Flames liked him,

and B, he wasn't really getting much elsewhere. So he was happy to go to a team where at least the organization liked him. That's the closest thing to that, but generally there was no renegotiation or restructuring of contracts outside of a buyout. I could see a lot of players maybe wanting to restructure their contract

in order to get out of a certain market. We think about Roberto Luongo and his my contract sucks comment. This year, I think about Eric Carlson just having a ridiculously great season for the San Jose Sharks. Broke a record for defensemen over this past weekend as well for points, who, if they could, would restructure their deal because it would help facilitate a trade. But to Elliot's point, you can't do that. Kyle, by the way, asked the same question as the anonymous caller from Minnesota.

All right, we are going to wrap up with a couple more here real quick. Steve in California. Jeff, I've heard you talk about how different players have different flex to their sticks and have referenced some numbers what do those numbers mean what is a flexible and what is a stiff stick essentially the higher the number the stiffer the stick yep the lower the number the more flexible the stick explain why you'd want flexible as opposed to firmer. Well, you know, see, that's really interesting.

So a lot of forwards will use a stick that's sort of whippier because you want the stick to do more work for you and you're using, you want to get a quick release. So you want like a real quick whip action. Like Phil Kessel has always been the touchstone of that. Like his flex is notoriously low. Or someone like Zidane O'Chara. It used to drive the Bruins crazy when with Kessel.

I remember Claude Julien, it used to drive him bananas, that stick. You know, interesting on that too, there are some players that'll tell you throughout the season because you just lose so much strength going through a year, unlike in the summer where you can work out and gather all your strength back. A lot of players, like, they'll use a lower and lower flex on their stick as the season goes on

because they'll need their stick to do more of the work. They can't just do it with their strength. Like, they'll start with, like, a hunter flex and go down to, like, 85 by the end of the season. But the higher flex, I think the highest flex, and one of our listeners is going to correct me if I'm wrong here, I think was Chara, who had a 155. Oh, God.

And Shea Weber as crowbar, right? Like you're playing with a crowbar. When the All-Star game was in Nashville, I interviewed Weber on the ice after the hardest shot competition. And for that one, I think it was 122 that he used and the trainers in nashville told me that he wouldn't even use that in a game he used that like for the all-star game that was special for the hardest shot yeah and i they let me like handle it for a couple seconds jeff crowbar is the right you is the right word Like you would use that stick to move rocks,

not to play hockey with. So there you go. Hope, Steve in California, we've answered your question there. And this is kind of a goofy one, but let's go for it anyway to wrap up here and let you get to the beach. From Kelly in Moose Jaw,

when important regular season games are played, everyone says, quote, this is a four-point game tonight. Do you think the NHL would ever consider making games against teams in your own division worth more points to try to spark

the teams to play hard and make the games more exciting? Interdivisional games being worth more points more it would take some balancing of the schedule certainly but the idea of interdivisional games being worth more points i actually don't mind the idea i i think i think it's not a bad idea i mean i don't think you have to change much as long as everyone's in the same boat right yeah and right now we have we have four equal divisions i i got to tell you,

I don't think that's a bad idea at all. I'm going to mention it here and someone will look at me with like I have a third eye, but I think it's not a bad idea. Here come the texts from the league, Elliot. Here come the texts from the league. All right.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in this week. And thanks as always to our producer, Emil Delic, who goes above and beyond and stretches the limits to make sure this show gets to you at a timely fashion. By the way, show coming up this week, our sit down interview with Edmonton Oilers head coach, Jay Woodcroft. That's look for that podcast to drop Thursday because we're not doing our regularly scheduled pod for the Friday morning. So Jay Woodcraft, our interview with him that was recorded on Friday, we'll present to you on Thursday.

We think you're really going to like it. Meantime, taking us out is a producer who got into music because of video games. Zachary Whitman, stage name Melty Cannon, would replay video games just to listen back to the soundtrack. The 28-year-old Alabama-based producer isn't afraid to test his production skills no matter the genre. With his 2021 single Alive, here's Melty, part of a soldier, you can hear the beat I cannot believe the things I had to go through, just to be the one who's standing here beside you I don't know what else I could really do, when I don't know the rules

It's okay to feel like a fool After all, it's just a point of view I've been feeling up and down lately I've been feeling all around Got too much that's going on inside my head Baby, you're the only one that I can trust Whenever you're with me, I'm in miragey touch It's set in stone, but that don't mean it's golden

I took a lot of pills, that don't mean I'm in mirage touch. It's set in stone, but that don't mean it's golden. I took a lot of films, but that don't mean I'm folded. I got too much on my mind. Wait for me. Wait for me. I got too much on my mind. Thank you.