32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Kot-CANE-emi

Episode Date: September 5, 2021

Jesperi Kotkaniemi is a member of the Caroline Hurricanes. Jeff and Elliotte break down what went wrong between Kotkaniemi and Montreal Canadiens (00:01), why it’s challenging to find a quality centre in the NHL (Christian Dvorak traded to the Canadiens), what Carolina expects from Kotkaniemi, and if teams will view offer sheets differently going forward. […]

Elliot, you rolling? Yep, I am. Why are you asking me that? Usually Amal asks me that. What I really want to do is produce. Well, Elliot, we all spent seven days wondering, and sometimes when we check out Carolina Hurricane social media, snickering as well,

about how the Asperi-Kutkin-Yemi offer sheet saga would end. And Saturday came and went, and with it, the story, which has now concluded. Montreal does not match the offer sheet. Kud Kinyemi is now a member of the Carolina Hurricanes. Montreal gets a first and a third. They make a trade with the Coyotes, are now proud owners of one Christian Dvorak. More on all of the nuts and bolts of this deal as we welcome you to 31 thoughts the podcast here yes it is still technically 31 before we get to all of the deal itself is there a big story here for you that might not be the headline whether it's the picks the offer sheet the player what this means for

both teams what's of interest here for you frege know, the thing that really stood out to me in the past week was, you know, a lot of the people that we deal with, Jeff, in this sport are control freaks. Yes. They really lord over information, whatever they can control, whether it's their bodies or their training or their fiefdom on a team. People jealously guard their fiefdoms. And, you know, Bergevin is a control freak. And, you know, I've talked about this before, how, you know, I've asked him, sent him a note about an injury update or something.

And I remember there was an injury update this year, and he said, we'll announce it when we're ready to announce it on our platforms. And I said, I get it. That's the way he does things. There you go. And Saturday night, 15 minutes or so before the deadline, what did they do? They announced that they didn't match the offer sheet on their own Twitter handle. And so I didn't surprise me. I know that's the way he prefers to do it. Knowing all of that, I was really surprised at how, you know, in the last week, a guy who likes to have control kind of lost control of the situation. You know, a week ago,

when we did the emergency podcast on the offer sheet we talked about how carolina had warned montreal that they were going to do this and they left open the option for montreal to make them a trade and it probably would have been similar to the compensation montreal, a first and a third. And Bergevin decided not to do it. So then he got hit with the offer sheet and he spent a week scrambling or figuring out what he was going to do at center. We said last Saturday when we taped the podcast that we thought there was a legitimate chance that Montreal wouldn't match. As the week went on, I began to believe more and more that they weren't going to match, which is what they obviously did. But then, you know, you're sitting there, you're looking at your roster,

and you brought this up during our conversation. You can't just say, okay, we're letting Kotkaniemi go and we're done. They had to have an alternate plan and they called everybody in the league you know I spent a week I was early in the week Jeff I had this conversation with someone I said yeah I'm going through all the rosters and I'm saying okay could this be their center could this be their center I went through all 32 teams and well 31 I guess and this gm said to me you know why are you wasting your time doing that if you're a center and you can breathe montreal is asking about you so i think they went after a few guys i think they asked about you know obviously hurdle obviously dvorak i

wouldn't be surprised if they asked washington about kuznetsov but it didn't make any sense because washington's in win now mode like you know if they're taking for argument's sake Kuznetsov, but it didn't make any sense because Washington's in win-now mode. Like, you know, if they're taking, for argument's sake, Kuznetsov is off their team, you've got to give them somebody they can win with now. So it didn't make any sense. I don't think that ever really went far. I'm sure they asked Calgary about Monaghan.

Bergevin has liked Dvorak for a long time. Bill Armstrong in his media Zoom call said that they started talking to the Canadians about Dvorak at the draft. But I think Bergevin has been asking about Dvorak for years. He's been a player of interest of him for a long time. But at the end of the day, Arizona squeezed him a bit. It wasn't a first and a third as the compensation. They end up getting a first and a second.

And I like Dvorak. I think he's going to be a very good player for Montreal there's a lot of people commenting about Dvorak who I guarantee to you have never seen him play I think he's a very good player who I think as long as he's with wingers and this is what I've been told about him as long as he's got wingers who can carry the puck, and maybe that's Drouin, maybe that's someone else, because he's played with a lot of guys like Kessel who carry the puck. And he can play very well with those kinds of guys. And I think he'll be good there in that role. But the thing that surprised me was that Bergevin lost kind of control

of the situation. And I bet you if he could go back in time, he would say, you know what? I should have made a deal a week ago so that I didn't have this craziness for a week. On Dvorak, I think you're bang on about excels with wingers that can carry the puck. And you mentioned players like Phil Kessel. I would throw Connor Garland in that mix as well with arizona and even before that you know he was on one of the most probably the best line in junior hockey when he was playing with the london knights with with mitch marner and with matthew kachuk as well and martin drove that thing totally drove that thing um i want to get back to

dvorak in a second but i want to focus and stay a little bit here uh on your thoughts on bergevin and we've talked about it before you've made the point about how much of a control freak he is and how he, you know, there's an old gym saying, you know, you can either suffer the pain of discipline or you can suffer the pain of regrets. And, you know, when you're a control freak like Bergevin is, you suffer the pain of discipline because you control everything around everything goes through you but I wonder about the other side of that I wonder about regret through this entire process whether it's the conversations with Carolina even going back to the draft where they took Hakan Yemi third overall instead of a player like Philip Zedina or Brady Kachuk, et cetera.

Do you think through all of this situation with Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and that does go back to that draft, what do you think Marc Bergevin, if anything, maybe the answer is nothing, what do you think he regrets? You know, it's a tough one for me to answer because you know what i remember about that draft so kakenyemi goes third and bergevin takes him and he says i need a center and i gotta get a center and i'm taking this guy and you remember what happened with the next pick? Brady Kachuk. And do you remember what happened that night when Ottawa took Brady Kachuk?

No, what happened? Pierre Dorian got lambasted. Like, I couldn't believe it, actually. Really? I don't remember that. Oh, it was a tire fire on Twitter. Because the year before, Kachuk had what, like nine goals? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He was a winger who had nine goals. And people were looking at, like, how can you take a winger who had nine goals, fourth overall? And I, eight goals, excuse me. I don't mean to be inaccurate. And I remember he got lambasted for that pick. And, you know, look how kachuk has turned out and we'll get to kachuk on this podcast in a couple of minutes like i think if you've done your homework on a player and you believe that you're taking that player you do it you do it

now there are situations in the draft where that's worked. Derek Morris with Calgary. Remember when they took him, he was ranked like 53rd. They took him high and he played a thousand games. Brady Kachuk, they took him. He's a heck of a player for them. You know, there's situations where that hasn't worked, but you take the player where you want.

I have no problem. You know, that first training camp, I was talking about it with Eric Engels tonight after, you know, the offer sheet, they decided not to match it. You know, Engels said that he covered that training camp and Kotkaniemi deserved to make the team. And when he got sent down to the American Hockey League,

you know, people were calling Kotkaniemi a bust and Bergevin was like, no, he's 19 years old. There's still a lot of time to go here. The way Bergevin talked about Kakenyemi at the end of the season. And sometimes I equate that to, you know, Bergevin's first language is not English. So I think sometimes he's more blunt in English than he really means to be. In your eyes, from what you've seen, where's he at right now? And what do you need to see in this off season when he comes back in training camp?

You know, I mean, keep working on getting stronger and stronger, like he's only 21. So there's plenty of room for growth on his, you know, his lower body, his strength, you know, puck battles. That's part of being still young. Like I said, he's only 21. He's not 25 years old where he's done growing.

I think he still could get stronger. That would help him in his game. And be more in the in and the out. We know what to expect games after games. So he would have a stretch where he's very good and then seems like he gets really confident and then he gets away from playing

his style that's successful for him. But when he does that, that's when he has success. So it's knowing your limitation, knowing the game and growing with what brings success to your game. And that's what, uh, KK needs to improve. team were not comfortable with each other. And, you know, I, I, I think that's what it came down to.

I think the players sensed it. I think the team sensed it. You know, I did a lot of research into like what people think about cock and yummy around, around the league this week. And, you know, the bet that Carolina is making is that he will have a higher offensive upside than he's shown. And Carolina is team Finland. They've got Finns up and down the roster. They've drafted even more of them this year.

So this is a player that they know and have guys who know really well. And, you know, I'll tell you this. Like the amazing thing to me is in a lot of the analytic debate jeff that we get around the sport some of this stuff is proprietary so you know we don't see everything that teams see but i know in some of the public models they don't think kakenyami is ever going to be a major factor but some of the teams i think are pretty analytically inclined indicated to me that they do see something there and one gm who i know hated what carolina did said the one thing i will grudgingly admit is that it's hard to find centers and bergevin this week had to work so hard to find one

because it's a center and there just aren't a lot. And he said from a purely strategic standpoint, he said if you're going to offer sheet a position, that might be the smartest one to do. And the way to do it as well, I want to get to that in a second, whether there's a new formula to help make your offer sheet more successful. But to the point about centers, it is rare that a player can walk into the NHL as a center and play center.

It's an incredibly difficult position. Your responsibilities are sky high. And that's just to be a bottom six center. You imagine a top six center with all those minutes, the responsibilities you carry. It is rare that you walk in. If you're a center playing junior or division one or wherever to walk into the NHL and play center,

the wiser move is always like if you're not going to walk in as a number one center elite level franchise changing center start on the wing like hasn't that been the history of the game you know going back to the you know even the origins of the draft i mean outside of the superars, if you're a center, generally you start on the wing and then eventually you make that transition to your natural position once you're acclimatized. I just look at the entire handling of Jesperi Kotkaniemi by the Montreal Canadiens, and that's the one thing

that stands out. Like, to your point, I remember that Dallas draft well. Montreal needs a center. They're going to get a center. Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who that year in the draft, you know, started as a low first rounder. And every year there's one of these guys. And he was it at the quote unquote Rasmus Dallin draft in 2018. Finds himself inside the top 10.

And in Kotkaniemi's case, top three, where he wasn't at the beginning of the season, and Montreal grabs him. And the expectation, A, for a center is huge, which is why the one thing that I keep coming back to as to what went wrong with Kotkaniemi and Montreal is they played him as a center. God, that's hard.

That is so tough. And that's why I go back to the, the idea of, you know, do you regret anything? This isn't necessarily Bergevin. Maybe the entire Montreal Canadiens organization is maybe not starting him out on the wing. Just get used to the NHL. Then slide over. Well, I wonder if Carolina will do that a little bit. Frege, I totally bet.

Because you look at the depth chart right now. They got a lot of centers, yeah. They got a lot of centers. And even on the third line, like, you think Sperry Cutkin-Yemi's taking Jordan Stahl's spot on the third line? To me, it looks like they're bringing Sperry Cutkin-Yemi in. There's no spot down the middle for him. And that's a good thing.

Put him on the wall. Give him some consistency. Give them tons of reps. And you can take faceoffs on the strong side if you want to do that. As the week went on and talked to people and thought a lot about this. And by the way, to your point about advanced metrics, analytics, and teams that are more analytically oriented than others. When it comes to Carolina, the presence of someone like Eric Tulsky in the organization,

whenever a move like this is made, I have a hard time believing that Tulsky doesn't give this one the green light. I would think that's probably true. That's why I look at this one. I say, okay, even though some of the numbers that are public might not be flattering for Kutkin Yemi, I don't know, man. Tulsky's part of this organization. That's a really smart future GM right there.

Let me ask you about the nature of this offer sheet. And is this the way you get it done? Now, offer sheets that we've seen before, maybe we'll just use the Sebastian Aho offer sheet with Montreal and Carolina for the obvious reasons, have always been multi-year extensions. Now, offer sheets that we've seen before, maybe we'll just use the Sebastian Ajo offer sheet with Montreal and Carolina for the obvious reasons, have always been multi-year extensions, have always been multi-year contracts rather. And those become easier to match

because you have to make the money balance out over the seasons. This one is the one-year whopper, just to get the player. Do you think this is now the model? Just to grab the player, load up on the one-year whopper just to get the player. Do you think this is now the model? Just to grab the player, load up on the one year just to get them. It could be. You know, it's been talked about before.

Like we said last week, this was what Vancouver and Jamie Benn were going to do. And then Vancouver decided not to do it. It's never really been tested before until this week. Now we'll see if someone else decides to do it. It's never really been tested before until this week. Now we'll see if someone else decides to do it. Like you think there's another prime offer sheet candidate. Oh, Ottawa with Kachaka, who just mentioned him a couple of seconds ago. That to me would be an obvious one.

Just because, and again, this may go to, you know, what offended Carolina in the first place with the Yahoo offer sheet, which is reputational, just to be blunt, cheapness. You know, there's the test. Oh, is Eugene going to pay this? If we submit a one-year high money offer sheet to Brady Kachuk, will the senators match it? I don't think it's entirely fair to say he

won't pay. You know, he paid Shabbat eight times eight. Yeah. And I've got to think they've offered Kachuk the same. I find it very hard to believe that they haven't offered Kachuk the same kind of deal. So that would indicate then that that group

believes he's worth more. Look, like one of the things about the Kachuk family is, look, it's a smart family. Like all of them, they know the business. Yeah. For obvious reasons. And they know their worth. Like you look at the deal that Matthew

signed in Calgary, three times seven, he knows his worth, right? I just think that Brady Kachuk and his, everybody who surrounds him, family and agent, they know his worth. And you look at what's getting signed out there on an eight year deal, he's probably well over that.

I don't think it's got anything to do with Brady Kachuk not wanting to play in Ottawa. And I would assume if he got a big time offer sheet the Senators would match it because he's just too important but when I look at why this isn't done yet and as Pierre Dorian said this week when he was talking about the in the aftermath of the Bathurst extension you know they're talking I just think that the Kachok family knows the business. They know the worth. They understand how everything works. And I just think they're going to play it to that level.

You're going to pay our kids what they're worth. And I think it's that simple. I don't think it's anything more sinister or devious in any way than that. Now that he's a member of the Carolina Hurricanes, do you have a feeling one way or another, and we're not going to know until January, the answer to this. The extension?

Well, yeah. What's the long-term here for your Sperry Kutkiniemi in Carolina? You know, again, you know, we talked about this last week. You know, they were allowed to talk to him about any contract because he was a restricted free agent.

Yeah. And so they know what he was looking for in a long-term deal. I don't think that the Hurricanes will be as obvious as to announce it on, okay, let's pop the champagnes 2022. Oh, wait, here's an extension for that's very good. Ryan Seacrest is the ball is dropping. Hey, kiss the person next to you.

And then Ryan Seacrest announces that yes, very cocky. Yeah. I mean, you signed an extension with the Carolina hurricanes. I think they'll wait a little bit longer than that, but I do think there's something, you know,

probably somewhere between four and five million a year pending you know how he plays of course sure and less than what the uh the offer sheet number was yes do you have a thought or perspective on because listen people loved it on social media unless you're a habs fan do you have a thought on or a feeling on how Carolina handled this one? We haven't seen an offer sheet handled like this, whether it was, you know, playing with numbers. Here's 20, here's 15. This stuff on Twitter, all of a sudden social media, you know, swapping out to French, the very public taunting. Personally, I have zero problem with it,

but then, listen, I'm not married to a team. I don't have skin in any of this. But do you have a thought on how this offer sheet was handled outside of just the nuts and bolts of Don Waddell and Wasserman getting together to do this deal? I think there's a lot of people out there who say that that's the way we're

going, who feel that's the way we're going. You know, if I was on the receiving end of it, I mean, I laughed at some of the stuff I did, but I know if I was on the receiving end of it, I would hold the grudge until the end of my life.

There's a lot of people out there who say they like this stuff on social media, but of course they can dish it out, but can't take it. But this is where we're going. Jeff, you know, we're 50 year old males, right? Young people, the younger generations today, their whole lives are out there. They don't believe in privacy. They believe in putting everything out there for better or for worse. And the stuff that was done, I think there's a lot of people who are around our age who would look at that and say, I would never do that. And I would never, because I know what defeat tastes like, right? I know how much it sucks.

And I would never want someone kicking me where it hurts when I'm in a low moment. But that's not the way the younger generation thinks. It's all out there. People are going to hate this phrase, but it is very alpha male. Like for better or for worse, we're putting ourselves out there, good and bad. And if you don't like it, that's your problem. Although, like I said, there's a lot of people who can dish it out, but you don't like it, that's your problem. Although, like I said, there's a lot of people who can dish it out,

but they can't take it. But Hey, that's the way life is now. And a lot of people love it. And I think the owner of the hurricanes loves it. Like we talked about it last week, you know, Dundon,

he sees himself as the NHL's Jerry Jones. And that's the way he wants to go. I'm with you from last week's podcast. To me, this whole thing was conducted by Dundon, or at least everything was run by Dundon, and he gave it the thumbs up. They wanted the player. Everybody just says this is a revenge offer sheet.

Yes, it is, but I actually think that's number two. I think that's not, I wouldn't call it a happy coincidence jeff but i i think carolina sees it as a happy coincidence i think they legitimately want the player yeah like a buddy of mine from montreal texted me and said i hope carolina enjoys their six million dollar bluff I said, don't kid yourself. This was not a $6 million bluff. They liked the player. They liked the player. We mentioned Christian Dvorak a couple of seconds ago,

and now he's going to be measured up against Jesperi Kotkaniemi in Montreal. And to me, players exist in two sort of distinct ways. Players exist in either actuality or potentiality. And the other are, okay, this is who this player is. We know who this player is. Or we kind of think we know what this player is, but we're not sure yet. There's still the potential for growth.

not sure yet there's still the potential for growth i see dvorak as someone who exists in the state of actuality where kutkenyemi exists in the state of potentiality how do you see the two that now in montreal will inevitably at least for the first season be measured against each other well i think right now dvorak is a much more finished product, right? Yeah. He's an actualized player. You know, the other thing too, we should mention this, is that Dvorak has signed four years at four and a half million. That's a really good number. Yes. That's a really good contract for the Canadians. That is not an insignificant thing here.

You know, if I'm Bergevin, I'm making this deal. And like I said, I like Dvorak as deal and like i said i like dvorak as a player no you like dvorak as a player he's a much more finished product than caught kenyemi for where montreal is now and what they want to be now i just think dvorak fits better than caught kenyemi does you know three four five years whatever it is or in montreal in 10 minutes when they decide who won this trade, it's all going to come down to, does Kotkaniemi find the offense? That's the bet here. Does he find the offense? We know what Dvorak is. He's a 40 to 50 point guy. He's going to help their

power play. He's going to play good defense. And as we said earlier, as long as he plays with a Drouin or somebody who can carry the puck, he's going to be fine. You know, right now he's a superior NHL player to Kotkan Yemi. The question is, can Carolina unlock the offense? And they're betting that they can. And like you, I wonder where they started. Is there anything else you feel we have to add there on Brady Kachuk? Do you think that there's a shot that anyone goes for it? I don't know.

It's a good question. I mean, put it this way. I haven't heard that. I'm not to say that I think it won't happen i just haven't heard it the one team that has been really concerned about offer sheets all summer has been vancouver and you know i know they were at the start of free agency and maybe all summer's not right because i think it kind of toned down but I think when they saw what happened with Kotkaniemi last week I think they kind of looked at it like uh-oh could this happen to us now and I think they might have even wondered if Montreal doesn't keep Kotkaniemi could they

offer sheet us now and I don't even know if Montreal considered it, but I think Vancouver's been really paranoid about that. I've never heard about Ottawa, you know, worrying about it. I haven't heard Kachuk's name with it. Doesn't mean it can't happen, but I haven't heard it with Kachuk. I have heard that Vancouver's been worried about it with Pedersen. Yeah, we saw that with the initial uh you know uh creation of the salary cap space but the the question now becomes with uh elias petterson and throw quinn hughes into that conversation as well as we record this and i have a look here it is saturday september

4th 10 48 eastern what's happening with these two you You know, I think they took a break. Wasn't really going anywhere. I think they took some time off most, if not all of August. And now I think they'll start again, but I think they took some time off and that's why there wasn't a lot of news. And, you know, the other one is Caprizov. If you followed any of Michael Russo's reporting this week, he thinks that they're getting close on somewhere around five times nine. I never thought the KHL was realistic for him this year.

I think that was more of a bluff than anything else. You know, Bill Guerin, I mean, that guy's seen everything. I don't think he was overly bothered by it, but it sounds like, you know, they're starting to get into the proper ballpark there. Just me or does that seem a lot for a player coming off his rookie season? He's not typical. No, this is a player in his mid-20s who has completely galvanized this squad and pretty much changed the complexion of the Minnesota Wild organization. Like he's done more than just what he's done on the ice. No, it's a different organization. But just on face value, he's one year in.

I know he had a ridiculous season with the Minnesota Wild. Nine million is a lot of money for each. I don't care. I'm still paying it. You know, we just talked about the situation here with Kotkaniemi where it was clear that the relationship got a bit mangled at the end. Don't mangle this relationship. Like, this is a cornerstone player.

Find a way. He doesn't want to do an eight-year deal, bring it down a bit, say, look, we need this term, which is what it sounds like Minnesota's done. No, I don't have any issue with them offering him or giving him five times nine. I don't know who would, except bad podcast hosts. Except bad. Yeah.

I talk, you know what? I'm real loud and wrong talking from the backseat. I got zero hands on the wheel. In this day and age, that'll get you big contracts. I'm real loud and wrong talking from the backseat. I got zero hands on the wheel. It works. In this day and age, that'll get you big contracts. Did you? Like anyone in the industry, and we hear from them, it's like listening to this podcast, it's like you have no hands on the wheel.

If you ever did, you would not behave the way you talk on this podcast. Not a chance. NHL and the Olympics. Yeah. Let's close on this one. Listen, there's a number of opt-outs and a number of people that, and now these people are predisposed to being cynical in the first place, which many people in the industry are to begin with, who say, yeah, there's not a chance that they're going.

When you look at the list of opt-outs and, you know, what this season may end up looking like. But what are your thoughts on this one no real question attached to it just the nhl and the olympics looks like it's on the horizon fingers crossed with as you said stipulations i knew the one was going to be there about if things get worse they can leave i didn't realize the other one was going to be there that was news to me when it came out about if the nhl is already a point where it can't reschedule games during the season parameters, then they can cancel too. I didn't realize that when I thought that was really interesting.

You know, there's a couple of things too that stand out here. Number one, you notice how the quote from the league was not from the commissioner. He couldn't even fake an excited quote for this one so i think that shows you how the the league and the team uh feels somebody said to me and they wouldn't share it with me but they said the memo that came around from the league to the teams it didn't exactly drip with excitement is what you know they said the other thing is and i and i don't think this should be forgotten here is the players really voted with their hearts here like i i don't even think the nhlpa as a whole is that crazy about this i really don't i am with you for each about a million percent

about a million and i i gotta tell you i I think even some of the agents were like, this doesn't really make a lot of sense. But the players said, we don't want to hear it. We do not want to hear it. Take that and put it where the sun don't shine. We want the Olympics. I am of the belief that the PA didn't like the deal, but to your point, the players said,

we don't care. Yeah. About the concerns that the PA has about this deal. We just want to go. And we're going. You know, it was funny. I was talking with someone. He said to me, you know, their families aren't going to be able to go and we're going you know it was funny i was i was talking with someone he said to me you know the their families aren't going to be able to go and i said well now i understand why the married

guys want to play and he thought that was very funny uh so we'll see i mean that's going to be one of the stories to follow all season long um as we all just can the NHL get through a season will be a story to follow all season long. Okay, so one thing we probably should have mentioned right off the top, or if I were a better host, I would have mentioned right off the top. Programming notes. This is just a quickie podcast. Listen, we started with the Cut Kanyemi

offer sheet podcast last week, as Elliot calls it, the emergency podcast, the bat signal podcast. We will resume regular podcast. So that's two a week. So Monday mornings, Friday mornings, record Sunday night and Thursday evening. We'll resume that schedule of podcast the week of the 13th. So update your schedules accordingly because 31, soon to be 32, Thoughts to the Podcast will be coming your way regularly shortly.

Anything else before we wrap up a quickie here, Frej? Yeah, one more thing I did want to mention is, you know, I wanted to say that the people on Spitting Chicklets and Missing Curfew, I thought their tributes this week to Jimmy Hayes were beautiful. I don't know how many people watched the service, the speech by his wife, Kristen, and his brother, Kevin. I thought they were spectacular. And I just wanted to say I know how hard it was for all of those people to do what they did this week. And I just wanted to say I thought how hard it was for all of those people to do what they did this week.

And, you know, I just wanted to say I thought their tributes were just terrific. And, you know, I had an interesting talk with someone this week. And what they said to me was there's no way anybody ever could have predicted this. But he said that one of the things he's happiest for is that Keith Yandel is in Philadelphia because he said that Keith Yandel is the kind of guy this year that Kevin Hayes is going to need. And Kevin showed a lot of strength in a very difficult time. But this person said to me that he was really happy to be reminded that Keith Yandel was in Philadelphia this year because he thinks that, you know, Keith Yandel is going to be the type of guy who's going to be instrumental for helping Kevin Hayes go through something that is our worst nightmare. So, you know, there's a lot of good hockey podcasts out there, a lot of really good hockey podcasts.

And I just thought that those two podcasts did a beautiful job in their tributes to Jimmy Hayes this week. Amen. Peace to the Hayes family. We got a call from Mike McHugh, whose son, Michael Jr., who is 12 years old, was terminally ill with cancer. Jimmy got him tickets and passes to the Bruins game. After the game, Jimmy brought Michael and his dad into the locker room and asked him who his favorite player was and said, it didn't have to be me. Michael said it was David Krejci, so Jimmy brought him over to Krejci's locker and had them hang out together for almost 20 minutes. After meeting his favorite player, Jimmy stayed with Michael, taking pictures and giving him sticks and a bunch of brewing swag. Unfortunately, Michael passed away just a month later.

bunch of Bruin swag. Unfortunately Michael passed away just a month later. His dad told us it was the greatest night of his short son's life and that Michael loved Jimmy and he felt for the first time that he didn't have cancer that night. His dad was awestruck by Jimmy's kindness and was so grateful that Jimmy gave young Michael one of the happiest days of his life. Mr. McHugh said Jimmy will always be Michael's hero. This is just one of the stories of how my brother changed many people's lives.