32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Listen before everything changes!

Episode Date: July 13, 2021

We lead the podcast off with some breaking news! The Minnesota Wild buy out the remaining four years of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter (00:00), the Canadiens agree to a three-year extension with head coach Dominique Ducharme (10:00), and Pekka Rinne calls it a career (11:00). Duncan Keith is officially an Edmonton Oiler. Jeff and […]

This morning we put out an announcement that we'll be buying out the remainder of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter's contracts. We want to thank Zach and Ryan for the nine years that they've been here. Thanks for being here. Giving the Minnesota Wild. They've given everything they've had on the ice and off the ice. And have had an incredible impact on this organization and in the Twin Cities. incredible impact on this organization and in the Twin Cities. Okay, so Elliot and I originally recorded this podcast last night, but wanted to capture an insert here for you because we have breaking news in Minnesota. And by the time you hear this,

it's a couple of hours old, but wanted to get it out as soon as possible. The Minnesota Wild buying out Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. This is sizable. This is a surprise. This is a bombshell. I know, Elliot, plenty of times this season we talked about how Kirill Kaprizov has changed the fortunes of this organization and this team.

We didn't know the effects were going to be this profound. Now, it's not all about Kaprizov, obviously, but still. this one's a whopper, Frej. It is a whopper, and credit to Michael Russo of The Athletic for breaking the story. It's a huge story. It's seismic. And Bill Guerin's going to talk today, but it sounds like, quite simply, he wanted flexibility in the expansion draft to protect matt damba and nico

sturm and he wasn't going to get it the other thing people have to realize about this is if either one of these two guys retired early the cap recapture penalties on the wild were going to be massive yeah so this is about who has control and now minnesota knowing that there could potentially have been cap issues for them or protection issues with them say we're taking control of this we are taking control of this situation and if there's going to be cap damage it's going to be at our hand in our control as opposed to anyone else's and so they've bought out those two players they don't need to go on waivers because they both had no move clauses they'll be unrestricted free agents right now and I think Seattle looked at Minnesota and said okay

it's going to be Dumba or it's going to be Sturm or it's going to be a goalie and now it's not going to be Dumba it's not going to be Sturm and it's likely Seattle's pick for Minnesota is going to be either Talbot or Kockanen, whichever one is not protected. So this is Bill Guerin who has big brass ones taking control of the decision-making of his organization. It's not his money though, Freed. It's not his money. It's a big decision though. Yes, it's a big decision.

And the other thing it's going to do as well is it's also going to change the fabric of the team. That's true. Parise and Suter were big voices in that room. And Parise kind of, as his role decreased, I think his voice kind of decreased to his frustration, but Suter still had a very, very big voice in that room. And now that's going to change. It's going to be interesting to see how the personality of that team changes now. Because they went from Koivu having a big voice

to Suter Parise and koivu having big voices it didn't always mix very well there was definitely a little bit of alpha male who's got control of this in here and then it kind of and now we'll see where it goes is it going to be damba is it going to be someone else um so they're not only changing the mix of their roster, they're changing the mix of their personality. This is going to have a big effect on the overall group. I want to get to what this means for the two players in a couple of moments, but really quickly from the Minnesota Wilds point of view as well, when you look at the cap hits that the Minnesota Wilds are going to have here, specifically in years three and four.

You might look at this and say, well, obviously this is an organization going through a huge rebuild, but they're not, are they? No, I don't think so. I think what it is, is I just don't see them really looking at them taking a step back. You know, first of all, everybody has believed that Guerin was really interested in Eichel. From the beginning, that was one of the teams that everyone said, watch Minnesota, watch Minnesota, watch Minnesota. And Guerin has always kind of said that I'm not tearing the future of my team apart for it, but I still think he's interested. I mentioned in the blog last week that Christian Dvorak's name is out there.

Russo has also reported that they're interested in Dvorak. So if he's interested in Eichel or he's interested in Dvorak, they're not tearing it down they're moving it around and the other thing too is he's one of the few teams like Suter is still a really good defenseman this is one of the few teams that can handle it as best as they can because they have so many D like you look at what they've got you know with, with Brodine, with Soucy, with potentially Spurgeon, of course, with potentially Ian Cole. I wonder if they re-sign him now.

He's in a position where he can do some things. From the player's point of view here, we'll start with Ryan Suter. The knee-jerk tweet is always, okay, that's it, reunite him with Shea Weber, the Nashville duo in Montreal. Don't okay that's it reunite him with Shea Weber the Nashville duo in Montreal don't know that I see that Elliot where do you see Suter ending up is there an obvious place here well I think a lot of people would be surprised if Suter ended up in Canada he's American guy he's a Team USA guy he's always played in the states you know i could always be surprised but i'll tell you this a lot of people think vegas a lot of people think colorado i've had a few people

think washington that those would be the kinds of places that um he could potentially end up i had one guy who said you know don't forget he played for barry trotz is there any chance both of these guys because everybody thinks parisi is going to the islanders is there any chance both of these guys end up on the islanders the people i know who know suitor say he'd be very they'd be very surprised if he ended up in canada but parisi can draw an a to b to the island and the latest story of the island is of, that they're trying to move Nick Letty as well. Well, I think because he's probably going to have to be exposed for the expansion draft,

and you don't want to lose him for nothing, right? Yep. So if you're worried about that possibility, then you try to make the trade in advance. But those trades are really hard to make right now because who's going to be able to trade for Nick Letty and be able to protect them? Absolutely.

So you have to look at that list. Like this whole thing about Fleury and Lehner, and we talk about it later in the podcast, Vegas is exempt for the expansion draft. So can you see any reason why a team would trade for one of those two guys before the expansion draft? Not unless they don't have to worry about exposing another goalie.

Quick final thought here before we move along, I want to do a couple more pieces here in this insert before the rest of the podcast. Bill Guerin, you talked about him off the top and he continues to impress, I think, a lot of people. These are bold decisions made by Bill Guerin.

This one is a whopper as he redoes, as he redoes this team in the brief. And listen, by like Jim Rutherford standards or Lou Lamarillo standards, it's brief. During his brief career as a general manager, what have you been able to glean about Bill Guerin? general manager. What have you been able to glean about Bill Guerin? Well, it's just that he's very confident in himself and he's not afraid to make difficult

decisions. I don't know how many GMs would do this. And you mentioned, you know, you talked about it's the owner's money. I don't know how many owners would do this. We're talking about this on Hockey Central today, me and Stewie. I'm like, I am because Doug McClain used to always talk about this you know going to mr mcconnell and explaining why

you know why they have to essentially throw this money away now and he's like well this isn't i understand this isn't my money this is your money but this is what we need to do for the team i just wonder how that conversation between garen and leopold goes when you even broach the subject of we need to buy these two out. Well, also don't forget that Craig Leopold was the guy who really, he put $200 million into getting these two in the first place. He was really invested. Someone said to me today, there should have been a compliance buyout. Well, the owners didn't want compliance buyouts this time because they didn't want money outside the system.

They were taking such a hit in the pandemic with the losses that they're like, no, no money outside the systems. So, I mean, Leopold deserves credit for this. He's eating a lot of cash. It's going to be interesting to see, like, they get the big break this year. Yeah. And then, you know, the crush kind of comes in how are they going to handle all of that i mean the other

thing too is you know with eichel how can you bring that salary in now and know that it's going to be tight the next couple of years i mean that's why Dvorak potentially makes a lot of sense for me here. Yeah. More than, more than maybe Eichel does for Minnesota. But I don't think there'd be a lot of owners who would do this, do this right now. As a matter of fact, the question I get, a question a lot of GMs get most of the time is when their teams don't do well

is how come we're paying all this money and getting no results? I mean, for an owner to say, now we're going to go outside the system, there aren't too many doing that right now. That's big. One quick note inside the system, Montreal Canadians, no surprise, Dom Ducharme three-year deal. No, I don't think that that's any surprise at

all. I think we all felt that was getting done. I think the one thing Montreal might be up to is seeing if they can avoid losing Jake Allen for nothing. I think that's going to be hard, though, to trade goaltenders right now, especially because most teams already have one guy they're protecting. But I think Montreal might see if that's possible at all. But Ducharme, no surprise. He deserves it.

He earns it. Speaking of goaltenders, we'll end on this and get to the regular your regularly scheduled podcast pecorine number 35 calls it a career in nashville best the trophy in 2018 369 wins 60 shutouts for an eighth round pick elliot your thoughts on pecorine the one thing i really respect about renee is people just think say he's a fantastic person and you like to see people make it who are not only great players but great people and I don't know if anyone saw the video today that the Predators put out or the players tribune piece that he wrote but that really came across and there was something very interesting in what he wrote about how, even though he was a late pick, that he had a feeling when he met with the Predators

that his career meant something to them. They left him with an impression that, even though I'm not a guy who was drafted highly, my development matters to this team. And I think a successful, I'm going to use the term employee, because I think a lot of people who listen to this podcast understand that, relate to that a lot better than player. I think an employee is going to be more successful if they buy into what the organization is selling or they feel that the organization buys into what they're doing. And it's very clear that from the moment that Pekka Rene met with the Predators after he was drafted, he felt they believed in him. And that created a situation

where he did whatever he could not to let them down. He was very loyal to them. And that's the story that really stuck with me. It's that right from the moment he was drafted, they made him feel that way. I think that is so important. But he had a great career. He's going to have his number retired there. And just everybody who ever spoke about him just talked about what a tremendously decent and impressive person he is.

You know who was really good for him, Elliot? Barry Trotz. And I'll tell you why. I remember having a conversation with someone. This is when Peter Laviolette took over in Nashville. And as you'll recall, Pecorine originally struggled when Laviolette took over. And I was talking to someone in the press. I'm like, what gives?

He looks like such a different goaltender. when LaViolette took over. And I was talking to someone in the press, I'm like, what gives? He looks like such a different goaltender. And he said, Barry Trotz was great for Pekka Rinne because Rinne liked having a lot of shots to get into the game. And Barry Trotz's entire system

is allowing a lot of shots, but from safe areas. We see this through his entire career. And he said that was great for a guy like Pekka Rinne. And then LaViolette came in and it was all about shot suppression and the rise of Matthias Ekholm and we're limiting the number of shots on goal. And he said he didn't get a feel for the game. Barry Trotz lets Pekka Rinne get a feel for the game and it really helped him. So whenever I think of Pekka Rinne,

I always think, yeah, you know what? There of the genius there is Barry Trotz, letting this guy get a feel for the game. And man, to your point, a real fun goaltender to watch. You know, by the way, that reminds me of a funny story. I remember Ron Wilson once. I can't remember which goalie it was, but when Wilson was coaching the Leafs, some goalie was coming back from an absence. Yeah. And some report, I can't remember who it who it was said do you hope that you give

up a couple of good chances early on so that the goalie gets back in and feel the game and wilson just blew up at the question he's like that's the stupidest question ever like i want my team to break down early and give up breakaways right away it's just so funny like like to me that that is just the funniest thing because you have a coach here. It says, okay, my goalie likes that. Well, maybe we'll let a couple go. And you have another guy here saying that's the dumbest question ever. It's so funny.

It's just life is so funny. You know what though? When you're Barry Trotz and you have Pekka Rinne and that you can say, yeah, you know what? Let this guy have a few. He's a, he's that good. And he was congratulations. Wonderful career for Pekka Rinne. We now return you to your regularly scheduled podcast.

He's won Stanley Cup, Elliott Friedman. He's won Consummate Trophies. He's won Norris Trophies. He's one of the most decorated. Oh, we should mention Olympic gold medals as well. He's one of the most decorated defensemen in the NHL. His name is Duncan Keith.

And he is now officially a member of the Edmonton Oilers. That saga coming to an end. Caleb Jones and a third round draft pick goes to the Chicago Blackhawks. Where do you want to start with this one? From the Edmonton point of view or from the Chicago point of view? Your choice. So we're taping at nine Eastern time on monday night and ken holland just finished his media availability did you watch or listen to any of it i caught about like the last i'd say quarter of it it was tense it was tough it was confrontational i think it's a lost art the ability to argue generally is a lost art you know you and i don't argue too much but yes we do what are you talking about not like that yes we do what are you talking about oh that's so

lame thank you me and amal we argue all the time and it gets pretty heated but at the end of it we just sort it out and we move on and i think that's generally a lost art. I saw some pretty challenging exchanges between Holland and some of the media, but I don't think that's a big deal. I think that's kind of the way it should be. Ask questions. If they're tough, somebody can give you a pointed answer and everybody moves on and we'll see what next year determines. And everybody moves on and we'll see what next year determines. You know, the thing about this is I believe that one of the things that Ken Holland was doing over the past couple of weeks was asking some of his top players about Duncan Keith. He did it as presser ask mentioned a few times that he went around the league to gather opinion. No, no, no.

I'm not worried about around the league. Like what other people say, I don't care about. I think he asked like his top guys, what do you think about Duncan Keith? And, you know, I know last year his numbers weren't very good,

but I think a number of those players talked about that Chicago Edmonton series in the bubble and how difficult defensively they found Duncan Keith to deal with. And I think that's one of the reasons the Oilers did this deal. And I heard that today and I double checked that in a couple of places and I got confirmation on it that I think some of the input that the current Oilers gave about the way Keith played in that series in the bubble is one of the reasons Edmonton decided to make this deal. Do you think that's enough, though, to justify a trade such as this where there's no salary retention and they give up Caleb Jones?

That's the one that I always come back to. I understand, wow wow he was hard to play against i don't know that i think it's more than just hard to play against because hard to play against sometimes in hockey lingo jeff comes down to he put his stick through my nose i think it was more than that i think it was that they found it really difficult to play offense against him. That this was still a guy who knew how to play defense and at least made it challenging to deal with him when he was on the ice. And it's different than hard to play against.

I think they still respected his ability as a defensive player. I think that's a better way of putting it. Look, I'm with you and probably everyone else. I was stunned that Chicago didn't have to either eat some of the cap hit or take, say, Koskinen back to buy him out. I don't think James Neal was ever a legitimate factor to buy him out because that's a four-year buyout,

and I don't think the Blackhawks were ever interested in that you know it came down to even though he's a 5-5 cap hit his cash is 3.6 the next two years and i think that's where chicago held the line they said we are going to take a run here at jones and or hamilton and we are not hurting ourselves in our ability to do that. Now the Caleb Jones thing, you know, I understand how everybody feels about Jones as a player. And I do think Jones last year, he needed to get out of Edmonton after last season, after the way last year went for him and what Edmonton has coming, Caleb Jones needed a new start. I don't think he wanted to be back,

and I think the Oilers understood that he wasn't going to be back. And to be honest, I think they thought there was a chance they were going to lose him anyway. So they made the deal with Jones in it. Let me circle back to one thing here, and that's a comment by Ken Holland when he talked about salary retention

and the most you can retain is 50%. And if the Chicago Blackhawks did that, the return would have been much more significant. Do you think that's carny for we didn't want to give up Ryan McLeod? This is what I think it is. that Holland decided here is that, look, in theory, he could have simply said, no, no, no, and waited to see if Chicago, now this is me talking. I'm not saying that I know this. I haven't spoken to Ken Holland about this,

but this is kind of what I'm thinking is going around in Ken Holland's head. He's got a lot of variables. He's looking at two goaltenders because they're considering buying out Koskinen. We thought Larson's deal, like I'm surprised about this Larson thing because back after the trade deadline when he wasn't dealt, the word was this deal was very close to getting done and everybody involved seemed that it was going to get done and now there's doubt so there's an extra roster spot he has to figure out Caleb Jones I think they were

worried they're going to lose him anyway whether he's going to be taken in the expansion draft or whether he was going to get dealt I think we all kind of figured Caleb Jones wasn't coming back to Edmonton yes Ken Holland could have waited and could have tried to slow play Bowman a bit more but he's also looking at okay are we making a pitch for a Hyman or a Yoel Armia so he's got a lot of balls in the air and he pulls his players he gets back favorable reviews on keith he knows he's less cash underneath the cap yes the cap hit is bigger than everyone would like yes he probably should grind chicago for a better deal i think we all agree with that but i'm thinking and again this is me putting myself in his head, which might not always work,

but I think he's thinking, I may not get this deal done by the expansion draft, and I may not get this deal done by the start of free agency. I want the certainty of this block. I have two spots of uncertainty in goal. I have a spot of uncertainty if I can't get Larson done. I have some spots of uncertainty up front I'd like to improve. I've got enough variables. I'm comfortable enough with what we're doing here that I don't want this to be a variable anymore. That's what I think happened here.

If I'm doing a guess of what occurred, that's what I think happened here. If I'm doing a guess of what occurred, that's what I think happened here. And now they can, you know, do we give Mike Smith one year or two in goal? Do we go out and we get one of Vegas's goalies? Or do we target Georgiev from the Rangers? Or, you know, somebody else? What are we going to do now? Is it Hyman? Is it Armia?

Is it another forward? It's one less thing for the Oilers to have to worry about here and i do wonder if that was a factor keith wants to be there your players give him a positive review you think he's going to be better behind nurse as opposed to the number one guy and you have something in place where a lot of other places you have question marks that's the way i see it one of the things that i wonder about here elliot is how much of a market was there for duncan keith or how much of this was driven by duncan keith that this was duncan keith wanting to go to play with conor mDavid and the Edmonton Oilers. And this was Chicago's way of accommodating someone who, as I mentioned off the top, won Stanley Cups, Norris Trophies,

one of, if not the greatest Blackhawks defensemen of all time. This was their way of saying, thanks for doing all that well under market value. I think a couple of things number one i think keith initially started the process by asking to be close to his son like he explained how little he saw his son during the media conference uh last year was pretty difficult not being able to see him i went almost three months without seeing him and then had a had a quick little visit and then you know another close to two months without seeing him so i know

that the border restrictions and those type of things might be a little bit different this year but i was still at a point where you know he's eight years old now he's got his things going on and so i just thought that as time went on in the offseason, I realized I didn't want to go those long periods of time without seeing him. So I'm excited to be closer to him and be able to see him more frequently and have him more involved and being able to come down to Edmonton. I think anybody who's any kind of parent would understand what he was talking about there,

him wanting to be closer. I also think Chicago was willing to do it because one, they had an expansion protection issue and two, they want to go after either Jones or Hamilton. So both of those things were a factor here. There's five teams though. I think we're potentially in consideration. I don't think Winnipeg for geographical reasons.

I don't think Winnipeg was ever in it. I don't think that Vancouver was ever in it. I think if Calgary did anything, it was very cursory. I think if Calgary did anything, it was very cursory. I think it was Edmonton and for a time it was Seattle, but then it became purely Edmonton and they haggled for a couple of weeks and they, they made the deal. This is where we ended up. I think the other thing is he's not going to play first line minutes or first pair of minutes. The other thing is he's not going to play first line minutes or first pair minutes.

He's going to be a second pair guy for them. So one of the things that is interesting here is because whispers about players, and like we were getting tweets about, like this is like Larry Robinson going to the LA Kings. This is like Doug Harvey at the end of the career going to the St. Louis Blues. This is leeches a leaf. Things like this generally get whispered, right? There's this conversation that doesn't make it to the public stratosphere, but this one is very public. And I wonder about Duncan Keith, the player. There's no answer to this. And it's not even a question as much as it's a comment. There's no real answer to this

other than I wonder what happens inside Duncan Keith's mind reading all of this and hearing all of this. Like this has been very public. The criticism has been very public. There's nothing new that's been added to the conversation today other than. Do you think he sees the criticism? Yes, I do. than do you think he sees the criticism yes i do and i want because i i firmly believe that players if even if you don't read it yourself you hear about it it's impossible it's it's impossible to avoid it i gotta say i don't know if i believe that okay i i don't believe it's impossible to

avoid it i don't i don't believe that at all but I believe some people block it out better than others. I have a hard time believing that players at that level don't know the story going on around them. You know, Keith, he might. I don't know. He was always like, he always seemed to me like a guy who kind of kept things at arm's length. If he was a guy who was worried about what people thought, it was probably the people who affected his playing time

or his role. He could be kind of growly with media and surly on the ice. I don't know. Maybe he does. But all I can say is this. If you took me away basically from my son for almost a year and then you put me back in a position where I could see him a lot more often, I would be wired at the opportunity to play.

That's what I'm getting to. There's that issue, but also the very public criticism of him. Like if you're, you tell a future hall of famer very publicly and create an entire story rightly or wrongly, that he's lost a lot of the juice on his fastball. That he's lost, this guy used to have fired it up around 98 miles an hour and now he's struggling to get to 85. I always wonder what happens to a pro athlete when he hears that, even if it's at the end

of the career. Like to your point, you put him in a better environment. I'm not saying that Duncan Keith is going to have this magical bounce-back season next year with the Edmonton Oilers. I just don't know how it can't affect you. Like, it must, like, if you're Duncan Keith. Everybody's different, right? Like, I find that I'm reading comments less than ever.

Like, I think all of these debates that we have about hockey, they're the same. They're the same debates. Nobody's opinion is changing. I've said this on this podcast, the whole analytics versus eye test debate, it's tired to me. If you don't recognize that there's room for both,

I'm not really interested i just think all of these arguments that we have they're tired that the same arguments we've been having for five or six years listen the one thing about social media that we've learned is everything gets out in the open and a lot of the conversations are repetitive look at news nobody actually argues about issues anymore it's the same thing in sports what do we all argue about sources where did you get that from where did you get that from and then you criticize the source itself you never actually talk about the event or the person or the thing all you do is argue about where the perspective comes from and i think sports is the same as news

right now that's all that we're doing look Look, Keith, if they were bringing him in to be a first-line defenseman, I would say, boy, that's setting up for failure. But I'm very curious to see what he's going to be like on the second pair, who his partner's going to be, you know, all of that stuff. I'm really curious about it.

I think that's a great way to open up the podcast and welcome to 31 thoughts the podcast presented by the gmc sierra at4 I love it. We're on vacation yet. It's been a long season. Okay, we'll try to present some more sparkling conversation here, even though all of it reaches the same common denominator, according to Elliot Friedman. It's been a long season, everybody.

I get it. We can all see the finish line. We're all close to the gate. When I used to work at Parkland Cemetery, old man Frank blessed me to always say we're close to retirement age. Hey, Jeffrey, I'm close to the gate. I'm close to the gate.

I miss you, old man Frank. We talked about what this meant for the Edmonton Oilers. What does this mean for the Chicago Blackhawks now that Keith is out, Jones is in? You mentioned the other Jones could be at play here, Dougie Hamilton as well. Where's Chicago heading now, Freach? Well, they cleared some room on the blue line. Look, the Caleb Jones thing, it's transparent. Everybody sees what's going on here. I do think that Caleb Jones right from the beginning was in the conversation for Chicago. They wanted him. And I don't think they were the only team who thought about this.

I think Philly, we'll talk about Philly. They were trying to get a Seth Jones deal done. It's on hold right now. But I also think Philly was another team thinking about the whole Jones brothers play and how this could potentially work. So anyway, look, it opens up the opportunity for them to have some cap room. They've got over 10 million in cap space. My question is, you look at their roster, do you think they can make a Seth Jones deal?

It depends if it comes with a contract extension. Okay, so let's just say it does come with a contract extension. Do you think you can make a seth jones deal it starts with kirby dock okay and where does it go from there then i think we're looking at mitchell's and boke fists and we're looking at picks okay i think it starts with doc there's no question about it and if it's not doc it's to brink it who knows maybe columbus acts for both but we know that's not going to happen anyway are you making that deal if you're chicago no see that's the thing like i don't see how chicago's

making that deal now no because chicago is going to transition from the taves and cane era to the dock to brinkett era that's pretty obvious so if your plan is for seth jones you probably have to wait a year until he's a free agent yeah yeah but that's risky that's the way i look at it too that's risky because someone else can jump in quick and scoop them up and that's it that's why the caleb jones thing the you know this off season's version of rob niedermeyer is so interesting how much of allure can that be well for rob and scott niedermeyer it was very much allure yeah we'll find out but I just don't see how Chicago can make a Seth Jones deal now. Uh,

where else is, um, is Chicago headed here then? I mean, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Taves both under contract for two more seasons. And then big question marks. I do think that they're interested in adding to their goaltending. There was a comment made in the athletic today that there's some rumblings that they're in on Marc-Andre Fleury.

I think that's true. I think there's a number of teams that have reached out to Vegas and said, are you sure you're keeping both your goalies? And if not, which one could be available and what could we do here so i think they're the teams have called who prefer flurry and i think there's other teams who've called who might prefer lennar and it's up to vegas to decide what they're going to do here see it's appeared all along though that mark andre flurry is the candidate of choice for Kelly McCrimmon and the Vegas Golden Knights. That Robin Leonard was the one they went out,

they got the extended, you know, et cetera. And it seemed as if, you know, despite the fact that here's someone with a Vesna trophy season under his belt, when they had the chance to make the switch, they did. And that's ultimately what they wanted to do all along. But Marc-Andre Fleury just went out and grabbed and kept the number one job. And won the Vezina. And won the Vezina.

But did not finish as their starter. Correct. Oh, wait a sec. Should we take a timeout here? Amo wants to watch Otani. We're doing this as the home run derby is going on. You know what? I'd like to watch Otani too.

Amo is mad because we're taking him out in Otani. Look at that smile of Otani. He look at the fans and the signs like this is great. So Amo always says we don't treat him properly. We're going to give a brief interlude while we watch Otani. Three minutes of hitting. We're not actually going to do three minutes of dead time on the podcast we're not doing that okay so elliot we paused to watch yeah tip of the cap to soto yeah well i was was going to say, we paused to watch Otani.

It turned out to be the Juan Soto show. Holy smokes. Boy, when he gets the barrel out of the bat on it, he gets the mile. He is such an intimidating hitter. The one thing that I don't like about how the home run derby was laid out this year is I don't like these two guys going head-to-head early. It's like I want both these guys to go deep.

I want Otani and Soto to go deep in the home run derby. I don't want them to face off against each other in the first round, but there you go. At least we got a cliffhanger early. Now we should finish up on Vegas. Let's finish up on Vegas goalies here. Okay. So we talked about Leonard and Fleury and the one thing here is the owner

has always said it's his preference that Fleury remains a golden knight. And as far as I can tell, the last I heard Jeff, the owner was not an immaterial voice. So we'll see where this goes here, but I do think there are a number of teams. Anyone looking for goaltending is reaching out to Vegas and saying,

what are you thinking here? Is it Fleury? Is it Leonard? Yeah. And what's it going to take if you decide to do it? You still have strong feelings about Vegas and check Eichel, by the way, perhaps with Eichel playing the role of Nikita Kucherov and on LTIR all season long to suddenly appear in the playoffs.

I don't know about that. You're saying that not me. I just think they're around it. Yeah. I will tell you this and I give Buffalo some credit on this. Buffalo is been pretty good lately at keeping secrets. They didn't make it easy to figure out who was part of their coaching search and they're not making it easy to figure out what

they're doing here with eichel but i think there's a lot of teams around it what i can say is this one they're not letting just anyone see eichel's medicals like you really have to be legit in it and they are have to be convinced that you're legit closer to making a deal before they'll let you see his medicals and the second thing is so hang on just about be convinced that you're legit closer to making a deal before they'll let you see his medicals. And the second thing is... So hang on, just about pausing. You need to present a significant offer before you can have a peek under the hood at all. Yes.

This isn't just, hey, we're interested, but let's have a look at the medicals. This is, we're interested and this is what we're offering now. Can we see what's happening with the player? Yes. And for example, I think it's a little bit different with st louis and tarasenko i think st louis and tarasenko are really motivated to make this deal and st louis is basically saying look if you're serious but it's not to buffalo's degree but st louis is letting people and tarasenko is given permission for that from from what I understand. And also, I've just heard, like,

the price on Eichel is high, still high. It's not, maybe not as high as it was before, but it's still very high. And it's young. Like, it's your best prospects and picks. As you would expect. As you would expect. That should come as a surprise to nobody.

Okay, this was an interesting one to wake up to on monday morning yeah an early morning press release pierre mcguire ex of the nhl and nbc now senior vp of player development for the ottawa senators pierre is someone who has interviewed for general manager positions before. It's never been a secret that he's wanted to get back into working with an organization in some capacity. But did this one catch you off guard?

Yeah, oh yeah. Did you have any idea? Do you have any idea? Oh God, no. i had no idea it really surprised me it did like you know i woke up i slept in a bit today you know i set my alarm for eight o'clock i blew right through it and when i woke up and i looked at my phone i had a lot of text messages there and i was thinking oh what did i what did i sleep through this morning? And it was that. And it was a surprise. I think also because it combines a couple of things.

It combines broadcasting and hockey gossip, right? So that's a big deal. I didn't see that coming at all. I think there's a lot of people wondering what this means for Pierre Dorian. I would tend to believe it means, look, Pierre Dorian has another year left on his contract, and I believe they're talking about an extension. If the extension gets done, then we all move on here.

If the extension doesn't get done, then I think we're all wondering where this is going next year. Can we pause on that for one second? Is the extension in question one for the role of general manager or something higher? No, I understand it's the general manager job okay so if it gets done nobody's looking twice if it doesn't get done then i think we're all looking at it and saying okay what does this mean because when it happened like your phone my phone went as well and a lot of the you know one of the common denominators and all the comments was or questions were did ottawa just hire their next general manager yeah i think a lot of us were

wondering that too but again i think this comes down to what happens with dorian and i and i will say this i think the worst thing the senators need right now, the worst thing is instability. Their organization has had a lot of internal change. A lot of people inside the organization have left. When Melnick was on Bob McCowan's podcast and ripped the deal that the car dealership got with the local government, he trashed that and then some of the sponsors who worked very hard to put that deal together from what i heard they said they would pull their sponsorship of the senators like it's never smooth there and now you've got a team you know jack capuano wasn't allowed to interview for buffalo and i think that's made everybody there including the head coach wonder

what that means and he's also got another year left you've got all these good young players there's reason for hope in what you're trying to build there the last thing they need now is instability the last thing did they also in some ways considering how much of a profile pier had on television, both in the United States and in Canada as well, did they hire a sort of new face for the franchise? Now, Pierre Dorian is still going to be the manager, as you point out. But here's someone that's never been shy about a microphone or a camera. I look at this one and I wonder, is this a new face and part of a new charm offensive in Ottawa

with a team now that, based on how they finished up last season, might just have some expectations attached to them, albeit in a very difficult division with the two Stanley Cup finalists and the Boston Bruins and the Florida Panthers and the Maple Leafs and, and, and, and, and, and right now, as much as they're, you know, as much as they're picking up, you know, and developing assets, you know, there's also expectation that comes along with it. Is this now perhaps a public face to massage expectations? I'm just wondering if there's more to the title of Sanjay Elliott than just senior VP of player development.

Well, I think titles are stupid. I don't pay any attention to titles. I look at it and say, what's your role? Like, what are you actually doing? The one thing I want to say about Pierre Maguire is this is someone who has lusted after this kind of a spot for a long time. I think he's going to pour his heart into it. You know, here's the thing. I know that some of the things he says on TV and everyone drives people crazy. I look at it like there's a lot of people and Jeff, we know people like this, the way they are on TV or in media is not the way

they're in real life like I don't think the way he broadcast games is the way he's going to approach his job I think he's going to take it very seriously I think he's going to say this is the opportunity I have dreamt of and wanted for a long time. And so I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that I give myself the best chance to be successful at this. And I think he's going to be highly motivated to show that he can be a very competent NHL executive. That dovetails this conversation, conversation which is and we had this when brian burke left um sportsnet for the pittsburgh penguins yeah and that is like when you've grown up in an environment based on competition it's tough to turn that tap off no matter how many games you do for nbc how many junior tournaments you do for tsn how many stanley cup finals you do for NBC, how many junior tournaments you do for TSN, how many Stanley Cup finals

you do for NBC. It's tough to turn the juices off because as we've talked about before, and we've talked about this openly with Brian, for a lot of these people, it sucks leaving the studio not caring who won a hockey game. Do you believe that that's true of Pierre Maguire as well? I don't know if I've ever thought about it that way. I think I thought about it the way I just mentioned, that he wants to prove he can do this.

Do you know anybody else in media who's wanted this opportunity more? I'm not even sure I would say that Burke has wanted this opportunity. No, I thought Brian was checked out, like, done, done, finished. I'm never going back. Burn the bridge. Don't send a life raft.

Like, that's what I thought of Brian. And then an opportunity presented itself. But, like, as I mentioned off the top, like, he's interviewed for countless manager jobs. Countless, right? And was the finalist for numerous of them. But that's my point. I think now he gets this opportunity. But that's my point too.

It's like he has that natural desire for competition. And when you grew up in that environment, even though you've done media for however many years, I don't know that you ever lose that. And I think if you do lose it, you don't go. Like I think people that take these jobs, they're attracted to competition. They crave competition more so than analysis and understanding. They want competition. Okay.

I disagree with you. I think it is for this. And I don't know Pierre as well as some other broadcasters do. I would say for pierre it's the competition is him versus the people who think he can't do it it's not the competition of the games it's him versus the people who think he can't do this like he said things on the air before about analytics he got the analytics question today and here's why i think that pierre mcguire is going to embrace analytics on a level because you can't do this job now if you don't so he's

going to have to find a way to get into it he walks onto a team here now with the ottawa senators who as i mentioned a moment ago have some expectation This isn't a heavy weight of expectation around the ankles of the Ottawa Senators that is trying to drag them down. But this is also not, you know, the Ottawa Senators that have stripped this thing down to the bolts and are building it up again. Like they have, now mind you, two of the three are restricted free agents and need contracts, but they have a first line. And they have a lot of prospects. And they have a lot of players that we're expecting to take the next step in their career, Tim Stutzla, right this way.

What is Pierre Maguire walking into initially here with the Ottawa Senators? What do you think, Freach? They are on the rise. We talked about this last week. Their fans are thinking playoffs next year, and they should be thinking playoffs next year. This is what we just talked about the last few minutes ago. If I'm the Ottawa Senators and I want to win the summer,

I'm not having any crazy turnover. I'm extending my general manager, and I'm extending my head coach. You don't want them coming out of the gate next year, and at their first two-game losing streak, are there going to be changes? Is Pierre Maguire taking over? Is Jack Capuano the new head coach? Settle this. And if I was DJ Smith, and I have a feeling the way that Maguire talks, he's a DJ Smith guy, but if I was DJ Smith, and I have a feeling the way that McGuire talks,

he's a DJ Smith guy. But if I'm DJ Smith, I might just say, if I don't have an extension by the start of the season, don't talk to me and bet on myself. Are things settled in Philadelphia right now? I got to tell one story. So I was looking for voracek for days hang on you're searching for voracek well you know searching for bobby fisher i was i was

searching for voracek because i hear this rumor about what's going on there and is this a seattle rumor no it's that they've talked about whether or not it's time for him to move on, right? And people are telling me, be careful how you write this because it's not like he's asked for a trade and it's not like the flyers are saying you're out of here. It's basically, look, because of money,

we might have to do this. We're going to leave you unprotected and we're going to see but it might not work and you might have to be back next year so it's really delicate right and people stress to me as i wrote in the blog they stress to me that this is not acrimonious but i was trying to find voracek because i just remember that zoom call last year and you know if you write this wrong i know the first time he does a zoom call he's gonna come on and go that friedman you write such and i'm thinking to myself i better try to find him and here's the thing so he doesn't have a registered agent anymore and he doesn't follow me. He's on Twitter, but he doesn't follow me.

So I can't DM him. I have an email for him. Hang on. Is this your way of publicly, it's just like a public smoke signal for Vorachek to get in touch with you? No, no, no, no. It's no, that's late. I wouldn't do that.

That is so lame. I can't believe you think I would be that lame. Someone sent me an email, an old email form. It didn't work. And nobody would give me his number. Like they're saying, we're not giving you his phone number. But I knew I had the story and I was worried it was going to get out. So I wrote it.

And then two days later, someone slid me this number and said, try this. And he declined to comment. He just said, no comment is what he said. And I totally understand that. But I eventually did find him. But he just, you know, he didn't want to say anything, which is fine. What do you think happens here? Not just with Voracek, but with the Philadelphia Flyers.

We keep coming back the Philadelphia Flyers. We keep coming back to the Flyers. We're waiting for the Flyers because it's just so, historically it's been very Philadelphia Flyer to be involved in everything and make something big happen. I think that they're still trying. They were in big on Jones, and I think they were working on something with Columbus, and they really tried, and Jones was not ready to give them

a commitment yet. Moving along. Yes. Is Andrew Kopp the most interesting man in the NHL right now? He's one of them. I think this is going to be a really fascinating week for Winnipeg and Kopp. You know, I think if he was signed long term he'd be protected no question now i think they're weighing it in terms of if you protect him and you don't know if you can sign them then you lose appleton probably and appleton was a really good player for them he was yeah last year i really wonder if winnipeg is going to make a decision if they don't have cops signed by the time that you have to freeze your roster i'm very curious to see if they're going to move them he's one year from ufa he's arbitration eligible he's too good to risk losing for nothing and you don't want to lose another

player for nothing right in a failed attempt to keep him long term his name was out there in the alexia conversations too i hadn't heard that but you heard that that was i had heard that and that was a name that kept popping up i have one regret about the blog last week i forgot to write about columbus and um i didn't want to write a lot about Columbus because they were going through a lot and I didn't want to write anything that, you know, about any decisions they might be making. Why add stress onto what was a horrible week for them? But I just wanted to say, like, when I heard that Brad Larson jumped in his car and drove to Detroit to be with Manny Legacy and everybody involved after it happened. And, you know, I just saw the way that Davidson and Kekalainen handled it. There's no playbook for how to deal with things like this.

We credited their fans for the tribute they did on last one. I think it was last Monday's podcast. And Amal did a great job leaving 80 seconds of quiet after we did it. But I just thought the Columbus organization did extremely well. And now this week, they're working on a memorial for Cave Lennox. And I guess they're going to stream it for people who aren't going to be in there. But there's no playbook for this, but I think they've handled it unbelievably well. Elliot, well said. Agreed.

Back with some of your comments in moments. Okay, let's wrap this up with some hashtag Ask31s. This from Zoom. Anything devils can be formulated into any question that will suit the podcast. Elliot, do you have anything about the New Jersey Devils? Well, New Jersey is one of the teams I wondered if they would be interested in either of the Vegas goalies

just to give potentially Blackwood a veteran to split time with next year, somebody who could play a lot of games. So that was one of the things I kind of wondered. I do believe that they were potentially offering the number four pick around for a really good young defenseman that had some team control. And I do think that was potentially out there. So those were the two kinds of things I was hearing about with the Devils. I think they want to try and take a jump next year if they can.

And in that spirit from Joe, hashtag gas 31, literally anything on Detroit, please. We had a couple just talk about detroit tweets come at us today elliot anything with the wings well i think one of the problems with detroit is that if anything gets out of there that eiserman doesn't want i think all the employees are worried he's gonna stuff them into a freezer until one of the bits they were the source

i think detroit's been around the hyman situation you know with hyman i just believe that barring a stunning change in philosophies here that the maple leaves and hyman's camp are just very far apart i think detroit's one of the teams that's shown interest i think edmonton's another um i think there's probably more but i think hyman is a player who's on their radar. You know, I talked about Bertuzzi in Toronto. That was definitely something Toronto considered at the trade deadline last year. As a matter of fact, I think he was somebody they were really interested in,

but his injury changed that. And I don't know where that stands right now. I think one of the things about the Red Wings is they have a lot of cap room, they have a lot of flexibility, and they're unafraid to use it. And I think some teams who can't deal with Seattle, because Seattle's not going to deal with everybody. Seattle wants to maintain financial flexibility,

and they're not taking six guys with big long-term deals that teams want to get rid of so i think detroit's another team that's going to be kind of in and around that and i do expect the red wings are going to try to take advantage so you could see the detroit red wings then as third parties facilitating a trade or taking someone themselves if the price is is worthwhile uh here's a non-hockey question or maybe it is a hockey question from luke hawking what books will you guys read or plan to this summer oh well that's a really good question i've got um a couple actually right now i'm looking at

so i don't like to read a lot of sports in the summer, but I've got three sports books that I'm looking at. Number one is I'm rereading a book called The Breaks of the Game, which is one of the best sports books ever written. It's about the Portland Trailblazers in 1980. David Halberstam, who was a great author, spent a season with them and his insights into the team were incredible and it's amazing how much that happened uh 40 years ago is still very similar to what's going on now with athletes and team dynamics the second book i have that i will be reading after that is um a new book i just got is called seeing uh serena and i'm really fascinated by serena williams i remember the first time i ever was in a media room interviewing her i just like some

people they have it whatever it is the command she had over the room i just remembered the gaze that she laid on you when you asked her a question. It was intimidating, I remember. Plus also, she's one of the greatest athletes ever. Now, the Wall Street Journal gave it kind of a bad review. So I was disappointed to see that, but I'm still going to read it. And the other book I'm reading, I just got it and I'm going to read it, is called The Frying Pan of Spain. it and the other book i'm reading i just got it and i'm going to read it it's called the frying pan of spain it's sevilla versus real batty spain's hottest soccer rivalry or something like that

oh for excuse me i'm gonna get all the soccer fans are gonna clobber me here spain's hottest football rivalry there you go yes don't step in it i got it recommended to me i just got it so those are the three books i'm gonna get to first this summer what are you reading oh uh i wonder you know what i'm i gotta finally get around to reading uh well there's two one is the uh the true story of andre the giant by uh bertrand bear and pat laprade very much looking forward to finally cracking the spine in that one. Been meaning to for a while.

And the other one that I've already picked up and I love it. I just, I love books like this. And it's a book about one of, if not maybe my favorite movie of all time. It's called Mad as Hell, written by David Itzkoff. It's about the making of the movie Network. Oh, wow.

With the great Paddy Chayefsky screenplay. Honestly, Freed, you would i mean first of all i do love stuff like that and i have to find some non-sports books dude when when i'm done i'll flip it your way or just go pick it up yourself it's called mad as hell by david it's cough and it's all about the making of this movie every and i've seen this movie about god i don't know 50 60 times maybe my favorite movie of all time. And I'm blown away every single page. I mean, I love Paddy Chayefsky to begin with.

And that screenplay was a Picasso. And I love it. So I'm going to probably finish that one before I get to the Andre the Giant story. But those are my two coming up. Those are good books. Looking forward to those. Okay. So before we wrap this up and you introduce our musical guest,

this week's musical guest, I just want to describe the podcast. So initially, I thought this was going to be my last week of work because I was doing the Olympics this year. Unfortunately, I'm not doing the Olympics this year. Disappointing, but what can you do? I understand that I have hockey responsibilities, and that takes priority. So we're going to do uh two more weeks worth of podcasts so at least two a week and you know we'll probably do one after the expansion draft we'll probably do one after

the draft and one and the last one will probably be the day after free agency or two so i think that's kind of what we're looking at. Two more weeks of podcasts. Yep. That's our schedule. And then we will both, well, all three of us will turn into rumors. You will not hear us. You will not see us. You will not find us.

Finding Friedman. Start its own Twitter feed. Taking us out, a collaboration we never knew we needed, but we do. Jack Stedman of Bombay Bicycle Club Takes his solo Mr. Jukes project And links up with South London rapper Barney Artist For The Lockin The album drops August the 6th

From that record, here's Mr. Jukes and Barney Artist With Vibrate on 31 Thoughts The Podcast I was looking for gold until my mind got stolen bars are swollen here comes the omen seeing how they move industry politics be careful what you do they've been keeping what they're stealing from the truth every time you move they want you to lose ain't a game player just a game slayer my prayers always been clear i'm keeping some in the air moving like some stick up kids the mission, magicians how they flip those tricks Disappear in a flash with all the cash, money little way ain't got it bad

This is a handbook for the damn crooks, go find what man took, the time is now, look If you wanna fish for the prize, keep your eyes on the hook. Yeah. Let it vibrate. We let it vibrate. Even if I wait, will it ever get filled? This is for the fate, does it ever get real? We let it vibrate.

Let it vibrate. Even if it's fate, will it ever get sealed? Even if it breaks, will it ever get healed? Let it vibrate