32 Thoughts: The Podcast - News Breaks & Vegas Recap

Episode Date: February 7, 2022

Las Vegas knows how to throw a party! Jeff and Elliotte recap the Skill Competition and the All-Star Game (00:01), and mentioned a few things that stood out to them from the weekend.During our recording session, news broke out of Chicago that the team had fired their AHL athletic trainer for sexual harassment. The guys discuss this story (16:15) and give a few of their thoughts. They also provide an update on the teams' GM search as the club has shown interest in a Chicago Cubs executive.Other topics include the Gary Bettman and Bill Daly press conference in Las Vegas (19:40), NHL tent pole events (33:45), Philadelphia hiring Daniel Brière (36:25), and they take a couple of your questions (37:40).Full transcript for the episode can be found here by Medha MonjauryMusic Outro: Oliver Malcolm - Rolling StoneListen to the entire track by Oliver Malcolm on SpotifyThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: Sportsnet and Turner Sports.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Still the best one is when Homer turns into a country music star. Do you remember that one, Freed? Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Elliot Friedman alongside yours truly, Jeff Merrick, presented as always by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup. Elliot, we're going to get to the Gary Bettman Bill Daily Press Conference in a second, but park that, because going into the weekend in Las Vegas, we said one thing.

This has been a very heavy season for all of us. On the ice, off the ice, your life, my life, everybody listening right now. Their lives have been heavy. What the NHL needed was a fun one, a celebration of the game, some goofiness, some highlights, a hungover Peter DeBoer. Did they get that?

I enjoyed it. I like the skills a lot more than the game. I wish we were there. I still haven't gotten over that really,? I enjoyed it. I like the skills a lot more than the game. I wish we were there. I still haven't gotten over that really, but I enjoyed it. I don't get people who hate tweet things. I'm going to watch the All-Star Weekend, and I'm going to tweet how much I hate what I'm doing right now by watching the All-Star Weekend. I don't get that. If you don't like it, go somewhere else.

I liked it. I don't get that. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. You know, I liked it. I thought it was fun. Can I share something very personal on this podcast that I've never shared publicly before? What's that? You know what I really don't like? What's that? Olives. So you know what I don't have in my refrigerator? Olives.

Olives. Yeah. Get the message? I don't like black licorice. You know what is not on my house? Black licorice. I'm with you. I've told you this before. My life got a whole lot better when I came to the realization, albeit later in my life, I went through a lot of pain before this, that not everything is for me and not everything has to tickle me under the chin. And even, and if it doesn't, it doesn't mean that it should be removed because I don't like it. I'm with you.

I don't get people grousing about the all-star game. You don't like it. Don't watch. Don't be part of it. It's not for you. Anyway, there were things I really liked. I liked the blackjack game on the strip.

And the reason was the reason I liked it was because it showed the skill of the players. All five players hit 21 initially. And it was because they're great shooters, right? Yeah. That's what I liked about that event. It just taught me that all the people on that stage, Pavelski, Matthews, Caudry, Stamkos, Brady Kachuk, sorry if I'm missing anyone,

they're all really good shooters. They all did what they had to do to get 21 before Pavelski won it. Because as Craig Smith says, he wins everything. I really liked that one. You know, also too, I turned to Kelly Rudy at one point,

I think it was after the show on Saturday, Sebastian Ajo. I don't think people realize how good he is. Sebastian Ajo, who looks like he's about 11 teen. Yes, he definitely looks like he's 11 teen. And I'm working the Carolina-Toronto game on Monday night, so I'll be seeing him. But I watch him in those skill competitions

and the accuracy shooting, things like that. He's so awesome. He's really good. I don't think people realize how good he is. The one in the Bellagio fountain, my constructive criticism of that was it needed to be shot a little differently. I think there needed to be more overhead shots

or something like that so we could get a better idea of how it worked, what the distance was, some of the overall stuff. But again, I liked it like i liked the skills more than i liked the game i actually thought one of the games and now off the top i think was the second one was actually one of the best all-star games i've seen and i thought the final was pretty good i generally don't have a lot of time for the all-star game itself i'll tell

you something too this is probably bad for his image but i don't really know much about machine gun kelly i liked his set i thought it was really good i really enjoyed it as a matter of fact i went and i downloaded some of his music after do you buy his nail polish there's a new line of nail polish so it's very important you have are we going to see some fresh nails on no you will not see that not see that. But I thought his set was good. And I'll tell you this. The other thing too is the one thing I was disappointed about, and you can talk more about this,

is there were rumors that Jack Eichel was going to be part of the show. And I spent the whole skills competition, Jeff, waiting for it. And unfortunately, it just didn't happen yeah i had talked to someone who had sort of intimated that that might happen and it's like all right just waiting like it would have to be something like someone from the vegas golden knights like alex petrangelo says like oh i need help with something and calls someone from the back and Jack Eichel comes out you know first appearance in in the the jersey the uniform the whole deal and the place goes crazy would have been a real big nice found moment but obviously to your point it um it didn't happen that would have been a good

one to pop the crowd I'll tell you what this was one of the first all-star games that i saw where they tried deliberately to go for pro wrestling style pops like they looked for something that was gonna pop the crowd that was gonna jazz the crowd even something as insignificant and tiny although i loved it i loved every time one of them popped even going back to the styrofoam plates. How much better was that? It's so much cooler. I know they tried all kinds of different ways and make it real fancy and tech-like. No, no, no, the styrofoam plates.

But it seemed as if this All-Star game or this All-Star weekend with the skills, they tried to find areas to pop the crowd and i really dug that and as far as the games themselves hold on so before we get to the games yeah we're a few minutes into the podcast and we haven't mentioned zgris yet yeah and we should we should absolutely mention it because i thought it was great i thought what hughes tried great. I thought what Kaprizov did was great. It wasn't on the same level, but Petrangelo bringing in the Vegas drummers,

I thought all that stuff was really good. And, you know, first of all, you know, I know people are upset that the Zegers didn't win. Well, it's Vegas. The house always wins. Of course they're going to fix it. So Petrangelo's going to win. I couldn't believe how much reaction there was to that.

Hey, do you know, hang on, hang on. Spot quiz. Do you know who won that Anaheim-Buffalo game when Zegerson Milano did the little stunt? Buffalo won that game. If you ask most people, would they say Anaheim? You're probably right. And Buffalo complained that goal was illegal too.

But here's the point. The point is no one remembers outside of Freaky U who won that game. All they remember is that moment. So I'm fine with it. Who cares? I got that the nicest touch.

The move that he does is the one that, you know, a ton of kids try to do now and that's the Zorro. The first time I saw that, by the way, was with Matthews

in 2016 at the World Cup of Hockey. Yes. Same. That was the first thing that I saw. But that's the Zorro and so he gets blindfolded and that's a great touch and it's a cool visual and i mean just what he's dressed up as all of it work my kids again they're my they're my focus test hey

do you like this hey tj do you like this brody do you like this and if they like it then i go okay it's working you know it's funny you say that that's my focus test it's funny you say that because i got a couple texts from people saying their kids were loving the skills yes my kids loved it loved and if you're the nhl that's a win for you from what i hear um the nhl has some reason to be worried about our young kids watching their games and if there are young kids looking at that and saying that's cool that's a win and i got a few texts like that so that's what i do with mike here's the thing about games though here's the difference thankfully my kids will watch entire games but a lot of kids will just watch the highlights and the flashy stuff and that's normal no i get it it's normal yeah but you know the concern about not watching the games

is a legitimate one because i don't know how many kids watch the games versus they just watch the highlights the next day and think that and you see it in minor hockey slash youth hockey all the time kids that just think that all the highlights they saw are the game. There's a whole lot of, you know, what the kids will call boring stuff that happens in between the highlights that actually constitute the game. But not the intermissions. They're very excited. Well, the highlights, specifically the second intermission on Hockey Night on Saturday, it's unparalleled. But no, that's my focus.

That's like, honestly, that is my focus group. Do you guys like this? Yes, we do. Dad. Is this cool? Yeah. Do you want to go try it in the backyard rink?

Yes, I do. That's my focus test. And they liked it. So listen to my further point of, it's not all about me. It's not for me. If my kids dig it,

then I think I'm with you. The NHL is on the right page and doing it. Another thing about Zegers, the blindfold. What's a Zorro? Also, did you notice that Giroux and I think Matthews joked

that they thought he could really see? I have a hard time believing that he could. So, this has happened before. We'll go back to the 1992 NBA Slam Dunk Championship. Yeah. Cedric Sabalos, who played for Phoenix at the time,

did a dunk with a blindfold. Well, I hope he can see all this because I hope he don't hit that rim head first. I'm not believing this. Blind. Here comes Sabalos. Yes! He said that was going to be, I'll take it. The new Swim Zep team. That was for me. I'll take it.

The new swim lefty. Cedric Sabalos dedicating that brilliant dunk that finally got the crowd aroused to Magic Johnson and on that dunk, Magic. Now, I had thought initially it was Dee Brown, but when I Googled it, Dee Brown the year before covered up his eyes while he dunked. Yes. I remember that.

Yeah. So Sabalos the next year took it one level further. covered up his eyes while he dunked. Yes. And then so- I remember that. Yeah. So Sabalos the next year took it one level further. He actually put a blindfold on and he dunked. And I remember the NBA players at the time, they were like, he could see. They weren't buying it at all. I wasn't buying it either. And here's why.

Here's why, Elliot. What is the one thing that teams fear? Injuries. Liability. That's fair, Elliot. What is the one thing that teams fear? Injuries. Liability. That's fair, yeah. You're telling me you're going to blindfold Trevor Zegers and have him skate at the net? Really?

This is your idea of a fun trick? Like, I'm sorry. I have a hard time. A, yeah, I have a hard time believing that he couldn't see. But the thing is, it doesn't matter. Even if he wasn't blindfolded, it's still incredible. See, I look at it this way. I went to watch Spider-Man on Sunday.

I took Max to go see Spider-Man. I know that the chances are that there aren't three Spider-Men across multiverses who somehow end up on the same planet together. Sorry if I'm ruining this for anyone. But I choose to suspend disbelief and just enjoy it for what it is. I'm going to go that way with Zegers. And by the way, I just have to say, you know, Hughes, the devil's made the announcement while I was in the movie

that he's now in COVID protocol. I have to say one thing, Jeff, we are probably, I know people aren't going to like to hear this, but we are probably very lucky that players aren't going to the Olympics right now from all-star. Yeah.

This weekend would have been a tough one from, can you imagine sending players from Vegas to Beijing? Now I think the protocols would have been different yeah but all you need is one case and it spreads a couple of points here um we always look for coming out parties players that you know get themselves on the map sure they're popular in their local market uh but then they do something at the all star weekend uh and all of a sudden they're in the national spotlight. That's got to be Jordan Cairo, doesn't it?

Yes. This was a great, great weekend for Jordan Cairo. For anyone who's been paying attention, the minute he steps on the ice for St. Louis, they become instantly quicker. Do you remember when he first started with the Blues, when they first finally called him up and he got his long stretch? Like, do you remember when he first started with the Blues, when they first finally called him up and he got his long stretch? The Blues were a very straight line, old school, almost like LA Kings in their Stanley Cup year, light type team.

And then Kairou would step on the ice and he'd be like, like Marion Gabrick was with the Kings. Just like, who's the one guy who's just got a rocket attached to his back? And now everybody knows. Like, I'm happy for Kairou. Now the secret is out, right? Yep. Spider-Man is Peter Parker, to your point. Now everybody knows about Jordan Kairou.

Yeah, and I would just say that the player I was really happy for was Claude Giroux, who was the MVP. It's been a hard year, hard year in Philadelphia. His wife was there. His son, Gavin, was there. You could tell that it was probably the most enjoyable weekend of the season for him. And I was happy to see him have it. I'm sure he was very happy to hear your question on Hockey Night, too.

Claude, Ron mentioned longest serving captain in Flyers history, a great honor. The question, though, is who's recruiting you this weekend? Is it Makar Kadri? Is it Bergeron? Is it Huberto? Who's saying, hey, you know, Cla kadri is it bergeron is it uberdo who's saying hey you know claude if you decide to go it'd be great for you to be here uh there's there's not there's none of that i know just here to enjoy the weekend you know i got uh one of my son and and my wife here and some friends and we're just

enjoying the whole weekend and uh not thinking of that right now it's funny i was watching that and i'm thinking elliot's gonna ask the question and you know they're going down the line of everybody on the panel and it's getting to elliot and i can see you with that smile and i know you're gonna go for it you gotta ask the uh the the trade question did you expect him to give you an answer i did because i saw that he'd been answering the question all weekend saying we still have a lot of time. Yeah. I got some interesting reaction about that.

Like some people were like, that was terrible. Other people said that was very creative. I just figured that, you know, we had to find a way to ask the question. I didn't want to ask it the same way. I wanted to try to maybe have a little bit of fun with it. He wasn't biting, which I understand, but I just didn't think we could not find a way

to ask the question there. It just would have looked terrible. You have to ask. And I want to get back to Philadelphia here in a second because I want to talk about Daniel Breer. But the games themselves, we opened up by talking about people grousing about it. Here's how I look at these games.

I'm curious how you do. Everything is about, everything in life really, not even just hockey, is all about managing in life, really, not even just hockey is all about managing your expectations, right? If you expect something to be, you know, at the game seven Stanley cup final level, then man, are you going to be disappointed with what you see at the all star games? I go into this one. I'm curious what you think about this i go into the all-star games themselves thinking one thing i want to see the best beer league game i can see like that is the best beer league hockey

in the world period how do you look at the games because that's how i look at them i think all-star weekend is supposed to be fun do the fans have be fun. Do the fans have a good time? Do the sponsors have a good time? No, but just the games themselves. Like the skills separate, the weekend is like the actual games part. But the thing is, Jeff, I gotta tell you I almost don't care about the results. I just want people to have a good

time. He's our one man, cool in the gang. Elliot Friedman. Celebrate. Have a good time. Let's hit a pause, come back and talk a little bit about Daniel Breer and his new role with the Philadelphia Flyers. Want to get into

the Arizona Coyotes situation and the Gary Bettmanville Daily Press Conference. All of this still to be debated, dissected, discussed on 32 Thoughts to Podcast. We're back in the podcast.

Elliot, as we record, this news is breaking. Emily Kaplan and Jesse Rogers at ESPN. News breaking of the firing of a longtime athletic trainer with the Rockford Ice Hogs. That's the AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks, DJ Jones. This was reported to the Hawks on October 27th of 2021. And Jones was terminated November 3rd, 2021. Yeah, Jeff, it's brutal to hear. I mean, there's really nothing else to say uh we talked

at length about the blackhawks and what happened last week it's you just right out of things to say about it and them it just seems to get worse and worse the only thing here on any level that is in any way positive is that apparently the complaint was made the same day that Kyle Beach's interview with Rick West had aired. So hopefully the person involved felt emboldened to come forward because of that. And you're happy to hear that. You're happy to hear that someone said, okay, And you're happy to hear that. You're happy to hear that someone said, okay, I see what's happened here. And now I can come forward because of what this report did.

Other than that, I don't know, Jeff. I mean, it's just all the news with the Blackhawks is bad. There's just nothing else to say about it. It's one bad story after another. It is. And this is a team that, as we've been talking about over the past, however many weeks, months, has been searching for a new general manager. And what we've seen, interestingly enough, is the Blackhawks essentially report on themselves,

Elliot. We've interviewed Scott Mellenby. We've interviewed Eric Tulsky. We've interviewed Kyle Davidson. We've interviewed Peter Chiarelli. First of all, before we get into some of the names, what do you make of this style of reporting on themselves? I mean, the NFL does it. I don't know. Maybe the Blackhawks are trying to show some transparency.

I don't know here. The NFL does it. Maybe that's what they're thinking that we'll just do it like the NFL does. I don't know if this is going to catch on. I think there's another name potentially that's part of this group that's a bit out there. It's Jeff Greenberg, who's the assistant general manager of the Chicago Cubs. I think he's part of their list. Jamie Faulkner, who runs the business empire of the Blackhawks. Her husband is an executive vice president of the Cubs. So there's the connection there. I've heard he may be involved. You know, if you believe they have to go somewhere really different, he'd be different. And you take a look at the group that you've mentioned there.

It's an eclectic group. There's no wider spectrum of people they've interviewed than what they've shown. But again, I've talked about it in a couple of podcasts already. They put Ed Olchek on their search committee here for the new GM. I think they're going to have to bring him into the organization. People in Chicago tell me that he's very popular there in the organization. The fans really like him. I think you need it.

Not the GM, but in kind of hockey slash ambassador role. I don't know, Jeff. It's really tough to talk about them in any positive way. Okay, let's go back to Friday then, Elliot, and the Gary Bettman Bill Daly press conference in Vegas. in any positive way. Okay, let's go back to Friday then, Elliot, and the Gary Bettman Bill Daly press conference in Vegas. Renaud Lavoie, TV Aspart. If I may, Commissioner, go back on the draft in Montreal.

I understand you mentioned regarding the draft in Montreal. Can you share with us how long does it take, you know, to say, well, we're going to go in that city and how many weeks or months do you need to build a new draft if possible? It's not something you can do in a couple of weeks if you're going to have fans in attendance. We think the draft is an important event, and we're hopeful that we can conduct it as we plan to in Montreal. Steve Mayer has been a little preoccupied right now, but that's a discussion

we're going to have to have after All-Star weekend internally. My guess is we'd have to go virtual again. I don't think. Oh no, I think we might go somewhere else. Chris Johnson. Well, you know, in that regard, just as a general ebb and flow of this, not surprisingly, a number of the Canadian clubs have asked about the possibility of playing their game somewhere else. That's how troublesome and devastating it is for the clubs, and it's not something that anybody wants to do, and it's not something we're actively encouraging,

but it's something that if this continues much longer, we may have to let them consider. When you describe it as devastating, I believe Ottawa has 11 home games in this window where they're not allowed to have fans. I mean, do you have any particular concerns about their situation just losing that many? Well, I mean, all the clubs that can't have full capacity are losing lots of money. I don't have concerns about a club going out of business. You know, it's not unlike what we've been through for the last couple of years, you know, completing the 19-20 season and then doing the 20-21 season. It costs a lot of money, okay?

It is, I think, you know, not that when you're focusing on an owner's commitment as to his club, but on average, I don't know, we lost $50 million to the club maybe? Some more, some less. And adding this for some clubs on top of it isn't great. Coming away from that presser, it wasn't too hard to come away with the distinct feeling that there's a frustration at Canada. That Gary Bettman strongly feels about, you know, things like restriction on attendance and, you know, musing that Canadian teams have asked about playing elsewhere. You reported on the Ottawa Senators, talked about the NHL draft in July, perhaps having to find another location.

talked about the NHL draft in July, perhaps having to find another location. And in an interesting exchange, Bill Daley said it would probably go virtual, to which the commissioner said, no, we might move it. We might move it to another location. It seemed as if this was an opportunity that Gary Bettman had to really vent at Canada. Not the Canadian teams, but vent at Canada and the restrictions on attendance. I meant to tell you this, but I forgot. I got a really angry call from someone last week who I would describe as a proud Canadian.

And this was before this happened with Bettman and Daly. I think, Jeff, you and I have talked about this, that we're very similar. We have COVID fatigue. You know, we see on the other side of the border with the US right now, you might as well be in two different universes, right? With the way that we attack COVID right now. But you and I have both talked about that we keep a lot of our opinions to ourselves because we sympathize with the many of the medical professionals who are at their breaking points emotionally. And, you know, that's how we feel.

We say, okay, you know what? These people have sacrificed a lot of their time and lives the last two years to be on the front lines. And at the very least, no matter how we feel, we can generally keep our mouth shut, right? Well, you know, I wrote, I can't remember if it was last week or the week before, whenever it was about Justin Falk and his point, you know, I just, I can't remember if it was last week or the week before, whenever it was, about Justin Falk and his point. You know, I just said that there's a lot of players who feel what Falk verbalized. And I've also written several times and talked several times about how there are players who don't want to come to Canada right now. And this guy got really mad at me.

And like I said, I think he's a very proud Canadian. He said that I am sick and tired of hearing about this. He says, I don't agree with everything either that's going on in Canada, but we have a great country and I would put our country up against any other country in the world, including the United States. I kind of forgot that that conversation happened. And then as I was watching, you know, Bettman talk, you know, I was kind of reminded about that conversation. Look, the commissioner there, he's voicing what his owners are saying. I do believe the most vocal owner behind the scenes has been Eugene Melnick in Ottawa.

I don't think there's any doubt about that from what I'm hearing. Melnick has been hugely frustrated by what's going on here. The CEO of the Senators, Anthony LeBlanc, has done interviews where he's kind of talked about it. Bruce Garriock has really plugged into the Senators. You've seen he's kind of written about it. There's not a lot of reading between the lines here. And like I said, I believe at the beginning of January, about the same time the Winnipeg Jets talked about playing in Saskatoon, the Ottawa Senators said, could we go to the States? And I just don't think at the end of the day it was possible. I don't think it got that far. I think they kind of talked about it. But one of the things the league said to Winnipeg was, if you want to go to Saskatoon you've got to

pay any extra costs I can't imagine that Ottawa was told any differently so it didn't happen but clearly Bettman is voicing what his owners in Canada are thinking about all these games that are getting played with zero capacity until the third week in February and not full capacity until the middle of March. And that's why he's doing it. And it's that simple. I did have some people say to me that they were rolling their eyes about all this stuff about Canada

and then hearing that Arizona, what they're potentially going to be playing in front of next year. And I don't think there was only one person who thought that too. But what Bettman said was what his owners in Canada are thinking, but they don't want to verbalize it. So he did it for them.

I don't think anybody was surprised at that. What did surprise me though, Elliot, was Gary Bettman saying that despite the fact that, what was the number that you've reported about what each house is worth in both Toronto, Ottawa, and I think Montreal? Is Toronto $4 million? Toronto is $3.5 million. Montreal is $2.3 million. And Ottawa is in the neighborhood of, is it $700,000?

Ottawa is $650,000 plus, $655,000. $655,000. So despite the fact that the NHL is walking away from all this money and the Players Association as well, this is HRR, I'm a little bit surprised that Gary Bettman said that this wouldn't put a real dent into the league's finances and they're still trending around the $5 billion mark. Did that one catch you as much as it did me and some other people?

No, because just all the years I've dealt with him, I'm not surprised he would phrase it that way. By the way, you know who's doing blogs now? Who dat? Richard Rodier. Oh, wow. And for those of you who are not familiar with richard rhodier you want to go back to the the nashville experience well he he worked with jim balsillie about trying to get a team in hamilton and later he worked for the players association he's very smart oh yeah not everybody gets along with him the The league doesn't like him.

And after he left the PA, there were people in the PA who didn't leave on good terms with him and him with them. But do not underestimate his intelligence. He's writing blogs right now about what he sees as the future of the CBA and revenue in the NHL. of the CBA and revenue in the NHL. And I can't personally validate the exact points he's making, but I've had some people tell me that do not underestimate his insight. And my dealings with him, I learned you do not underestimate his insight. His Twitter handle, if you're so inclined, is atL player 123 one more thing I like that I want to go over with you from the the Batman

daily press conference oh and by the way what did you make of the exchange between Batman and daily when they were talking about the draft and daily tried to say would probably just do it virtual and the commissioner said no I would move it I thought that was pretty funny actually I know people who would go absolutely crazy

if you did that to them. Yes, I know. There are people who love to host the draft. I just think that it's such a huge event. Well, especially now that Montreal could have the number one overall pick, right? All of a sudden, like, okay, whenever you make the decision, March, April, whenever,

can you turn it around that quickly? All of the marketing, all of it? And I'm with you. Montreal may have the first overall pick too. I don't know. I understand that the commissioner is upset. And to your point, the owners are upset as well. I just don't know if I can see that one.

To me, it's Montreal or virtual. I think I might be team daily on this one. Anyhow, we shall see. One other thing from that press conference I want to go over with you. The Arizona Coyotes and ASU. There were a couple of things that I thought were interesting here. You know, the idea that, you know, in some of the modeling they did, that they would actually come out better than they do now at Gila River?

We're not sure there's going to be material difference between their revenues at ASU than where they are at a level at Glendale. In fact, under one projection that we've done, we think they may do better. Yeah. I would like to see that because what that says to me is like, okay, so I heard a rumor that there was a model that they could, but the ticket price was really high. Yeah. So basically, Arizona State put the plan together on the internet. It's a public university. They have to do that.

And basically, what they said is that the original cost was $115 million. The updated cost is $134.7 million, which indicates the coyotes. And it says in there that the coyotes are responsible for the increased numbers. So it indicates the coyotes have to pay about $19.7 million. This is for adding a structure adjacent to it or above it or wherever and arena upgrades to the cost of $20 million. What we haven't seen yet is the attendance. Nobody yet to me has pushed back on the 3,200 number. Now, I have had some people tell me it could be higher, but people have told me they have seen information that said that that was a potential scenario.

I mean, we'll see, you know, we don't know. So this vote is going to be on Thursday. Tempe, the city council probably isn't going to vote on this till April, but basically what they say is there's, they've asked for three years to play there. And they've also said that the arena won't be ready for the coyotes until December of next year. So you could have an

islander like trip to start the season now it's been suggested to me that potentially they could start playing there earlier but that's one of the areas where the players association could step in over quality of player amenities and i will say this too jeff I've been talking to a lot of agents about this. And first of all, they hate the economics of it. But secondly, they want to see the players associations show some teeth on this issue. Like, I don't know what they can do. I feel like I'm saying this every week.

I don't know what they can do, but the agents and the players want the PA to show some teeth on this. This is going to have to be after they decide who their leader is, however. I think we're going to get some clarity on that. They're supposed to have an in-person agents meeting on April 6th in Toronto. Never mind that. While even fear is there, I think they're saying we need to show some teeth on this now to the idea that they'd have to start on the road going back to what we're just talking about here and that islanders style

trip to kick off the season bill daly has talked about you know there are certain regulations that you know he has you know he's he's sure it can be sort of massaged or changed or postponed however bill daly phrased it in order to get something like this done. So that's still in their mind, I believe, Elliot. Even though it says X, they can still do Y. There are some things that in their mind they can have massaged. One of the interesting questions here was, what does this do with revenue sharing? And Gary Bettman is quick to point out that there is no impact on revenue sharing because they already get the maximum. So that's not an issue. But to me, the question is, should they be disqualified from revenue sharing?

That's going to come up too. Like I spoke to one person from one team on Friday afternoon. You know, we're talking about, okay, what do you think the commissioner is going to say today? And it came around to the issue of Arizona. And he said, I can't believe that they're going to do this and we're all going to pay for it. They have to be removed from the revenue sharing pool if this happens. We've talked a lot about how Bettman on this podcast,

the stuff he said about Canada was because of what his owners want. You think that they want to pay revenue sharing to Arizona while this is going on? No chance. Yeah. No chance. So a few other things. Real quick, Winter Classic at Fenway.

That was discussed. Carolina gets the stadium series game at Carter-Finley Stadium. The Panthers hosting All-Star. And the Global Series returns games in Czech Republic, Finland, Switzerland. And does this not have Edmonton versus Ottawa written all over it for you, Elliot Friedman?

Oh, I got to think Nashville goes to Switzerland. Nashville versus New Jersey? Or San Jose. Or San Jose. That's another good one too. Absolutely. Finland's got to be Dallas, Carolina. Carolina, Dallas.

I think that makes a ton of sense. Absolutely. By the way, I do apologize. I got some direct messages from fans in czechia saying they prefer to be known as czechia now and not the czech republic that is my fault no but i tweeted it out i was like um here's my problem i did a grade three school project on czechoslovakia and it was still czechoslovakia at the time yeah so that is forever burnt in my mind. I'm still getting used to Czech Republic. Now I have to change it.

So I, when you think Czechoslovakian hockey player, I think of Vladimir Zorilla that comes to my mind right away. When I say Czechoslovakia and you think hockey player, is there one that comes to your mind? Peter Stasny. Well, I shouldn't,

you know what? Like Stasny, you know, no, but you know what? That's not right because Peter Stasny. Well, I shouldn't, you know what? Stasny? No, but you know what? That's not right because Peter Stasny is Slovak and he would probably identify as Slovak. So I will say, I will go Milan Navi.

Really? Yes, I remember him. And he played for the Capitals. And he was good internationally, man. He was fantastic. Very good player. He was outstanding. Very good player.

I just go back to the 76 Canada Cup. Well, Zorilla. And even like Stat likes that. Well, Zorilla was great. Well, you picked Zorilla, so I had to do something else. Remember Dusan Pasek? Dusan Pasek, yeah, of course. Yeah, he was a good player.

They had good players, and you never saw those guys because they played Canada even less than the Russians did. Jan Suchy. This is something for the really super old school czech fans that are listening right now jan succi i just want to get that name on the podcast he was considered the bobby or of european hockey as far as skilled players ask any czech player i can remember having like super long conversation oh man bobby holik and i would talk about jan suchy's dad would always tell him about

jan suchy i just want to get the name out there when we're talking about great hockey players from the uh the then czechoslovakia jan suchy what a rabbit hole we have baby jan suchy here on the podcast uh one more thing before we wrap things up. Daniel Breer, assistant to the general manager with the Philadelphia Flyers, and as I understand it, is probably going to be involved in part of the discussions, touching everything the Flyers and Chuck Fletcher do from here on in.

True or false? True. First of all, I saw everybody's Dunder Mifflin, Dwight Schrute memes, and I did get a good laugh about them on saturday anthony san filipo was the first person to report it in philly and uh we were expecting this to come it actually happened sooner than i thought i thought it might not happen until the end of the season but it obviously it comes now and um it's going to be

interesting there philly's going to make some big decisions. You know, where's the line? And obviously Giroux, by the way, when Giroux said there's still time here, I think that says two things. First of all, I think he wanted to tone down the noise around him, which I completely understand. And secondly,

you know, because his cap number is so big, eight to five, you're probably going to have to wait to do it. Right? So there you go. number is so big, 825, you're probably going to have to wait to do it, right? So, there you go. Alright, Elliot, wrapping things up here.

A couple of emails at 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. Let's go to beautiful part of Canada. That is Whistler, BC. JP submits this. Would it be a possibility to include a clause in a player contract that says if a player asks for a trade, his no trade clause is voided

or it becomes open to a larger set amount of teams. It feels unfair that a player who demands a trade holds all the power on where he goes and ultimately lowers the return for the team he plays for. The idea of if you ask for a trade, does that disqualify your list of no trade teams? That's intriguing to me. Teams would love it.

There's no question about that. Teams absolutely would love it. I think that would have to be collectively bargained. For example, with Ryan Kessler in Vancouver, Mike Gillis certainly, and then later Jim Benning, certainly did ask for more teams, but Kessler and his rep, Kurt Overhart, they said no.

They kept it really tight. And I know this conversation comes up from time to time, but you'd have to have it collectively bargained or the player agree right now. They've got the hammer. And there was a situation like this between Ottawa and Edmonton where Brian Murray had a trade for Danny Heatley, who had requested a trade worked out with the Edmonton Oilers.

And then Heatley said no. And I remember Murray wasn't exactly thrilled. Jerome McGinley. They had a deal worked out with Boston, and he said, no, I want to go to Pittsburgh. I want to go to Pittsburgh. Matthew from Colerain, I'm sending you this email because I'm wondering how the Las Vegas Golden Knights,

with the comeback of Jack Eichel and Alec Martinez, are going to fit under the salary cap. Matthew, we all have the same questions. Riley Smith may be an obvious trade candidate, but who else? Keep up the good work. A real pleasure listening to you on the podcast. And Elliot, be nice with Jeff. That's the nicest questions. Riley Smith may be an obvious trade candidate, but who else? Keep up the good work. A real pleasure listening to you on the podcast. And Elliot, be nice with Jeff.

That's the nicest touch. How about Elliot pay attention to Jeff? That might be a better touch. No, that's worse than being nice. Okay, very good. What do you make of that? It's funny. I had George McPhee on the radio show last week

and had to ask, knowing full well I wasn't going to get an answer. But he essentially said, you know, the party line, we've heard Kelly McCrimmon say this as well, you know, when we made the trade, we had a plan already in our minds. We didn't make this trade and then say, now how are we going to do this? The only problem is nobody really knows. So how are they going to do this?

I think it's going to come down to when Eichel's ready to play. Like if you heard Peter DeBoer this weekend, who, by the way, I love that he admitted he was hung over because he certainly looked like it on the bench with his tie undone like that. So good. He said that he's not quite ready yet. The next thing is contact. So if you're Vegas, you're not going to do anything until you know that he's ready to play.

And one thing we've seen now is that you think you're going to be okay. And then someone gets hurt. And then all of a sudden you're like, okay, we've lost this guy for a little bit of time. We don't necessarily need to rush to do anything. So I think that's going to come down to how healthy they are and when he's ready. You know, right now they have to answer questions about is Alec Martinez being held out for salary cap reasons? Because everything they're doing is under scrutiny, and DeBoer was asked that about the other day,

and he had to deny it. The other thing I wanted to say about that Vegas situation is someone had told me that Braden McNabb got an extension last week, right? Yes, he did. And he's been a really good player for them since they took him in the expansion draft. But I had heard even he was worried that before he signed his extension, that it might

mean that he was going to be out because they were going to have to just simply trade UFAs. Well, what's the thing that we've seen from the Vegas Golden Knights? Like they're ruthless. Yes. Right. They're ruthless. We need

this player, so that means we're saying goodbye to that player. We've talked about the turnover, what it does to the room, all of that. I don't think that should surprise anybody to hear just about anyone in that room say, could it be me? Anybody. Why not? We've seen, this is what Vegas

does. This is a, and good for them. Listen, Foley wants a cup. This is a ruthless pursuit of the Stanley Cup, period. That's what this owner wants. And he wants it now. Thank you very much. Shouldn't be a surprise at all. Great question, Matthew and JP. Great question as well. We'll wrap on that one. Another podcast coming up a little bit later on this week. Thanks so much for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed All-Star Weekend, the skills, the games, the festivities, the hungover coaches, etc. So taking us out, Elliot, a Swedish-born London-raised producer turned musician who recently dropped his debut EP, Are You Living in the Real World? 21-year-old Oliver Malcolm has worked with some big names in the music industry, but over the last few years has moved to the other side of the glass. With his latest single, here's Oliver Malcolm with Rolling Stone on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. We'll be right back. I'll make it on my own Girl, I won't make it home Girl, I won't make it sober Girl, I won't make it home

I won't make it so well