32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Nobody Tanks

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

What’s going on with Bally Sports? Jeff and Elliotte discuss the Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned Bally Sports Network (America’s largest owner of local sports channels) as they appear to be going towards an $8.6 billion debt restructuring in bankruptcy court, how this might impact the NHL (12 teams currently broadcast with Bally Sports) and if this could affect the salary cap.They then discuss Gary Bettman’s comments about teams tanking (9:10), the Sharks-Avalanche trade (16:20), what the Islanders might be doing as we near the trade deadline (21:00), the goaltending situation in Pittsburgh (26:35), fight night in Saint Paul, Minnesota (29:50), Ryan O’Reilly and the St. Louis Blues (34:00), New Jersey looking to make moves (36:00) and the Canucks sign Andrei Kuzmenko (38:24).The guys say a few words about Senators assistant coach, Bob Jones, who was recently diagnosed with ALS (42:10).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailMusic Outro: Tearing Up - Said SomethingListen to the full album HEREhttps://tearingup.bandcamp.com/GET YOUR 32 THOUGHTS MERCH HEREThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman. Social support was provided by Griffin Porter and our music supervisor is Carson Illidge.Audio Credits: Devils Radio Network, ESPN, NBC Sports Bay Area, Sportsnet, Vancouver Canucks (Twitter) and WRHU.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.

Number 51, Braden Point. Number 63, Stephen Stamko. 69, Mark Scheifele. 91, Miko Rantanen. And number 100, Austin Matthews. He's only 100, eh? Yeah, 15.98 shooting percentage. Interesting.

Oh, this is such stupid stuff, but I love it. Okay. Well, here we are again, 32 Thoughts to Podcast, presented by GMC and the new Sierra AT4X. Elliot, before we are again, 32 Thoughts to Podcast, presented by GMC and the new Sierra AT4X. Elliot, before we get rolling, a special thank you to everyone who either listened to or watched our interview with Conor Hellebuck, netminder for the Winnipeg Jets. And a special thank you, by the way, to the Winnipeg Jets themselves for tweeting out the visuals of Dustin Bufflin and the one-hand hammer at the skills competition that we talked to hellebuck about nice touch jets and want to give a plug again hellebuck has a fantastic kids mental health flip book available weasel and bucky you can find that at truenorthshop.com check it out

we went through it when we were interviewing helleut. It's an outstanding read and good on him. Great net minder. Head's in the right place. Heart's in the right place. Blocker and catcher in the right place. That was a lot of fun. And thanks to everyone who sent in really nice comments about it. Now, dare we wade into more Vancouver waters, Elliot?

No, I am laying down my veto power. I am dropping the veto hammer. But the Kuzmenko, the Kuzmenko contract. Hi, Vancouver fans. I like this city. I like it all, fans. Thank you for support. To me, I'm excited next two years in Vancouver.

Let's go, connect. Elliot, Elliot. We are not leading the podcast again with the Canucks. Dan Milstein will be upset if we don't lead with the big story of the day, and that's Andre Kuzmenko and the deal, Elliot. I will take the angry phone call later. We are not leading with the Canucks. We'll talk about them later.

We're not leading with them. Okay, so let's lead with something that maybe a lot of hockey fans aren't aware of but may affect them kind of profoundly and will potentially affect a lot of hockey players as well and that is the bally sports situation and sinclair broadcasting group now uh sinclair broadcasting owns bally Sports. They are nearing bankruptcy. Sinclair owns 19 Bally Sports branded regional sports networks. And it sounds like the creditors, like Prudential Financial, may just become the owners here.

We wonder about rights deals getting terminated. We wonder about salary cap ramifications in the NHL. What have you been able to piece together or pull out of this story so far, Frej? All right. So I confess, like this is a story that I think a lot of us don't know a lot about, but as you said, it is a potentially significant story. And because I've been under the weather, I haven't really been able to write this week and I was going to write about it a little bit. So basically to explain, as you said, they own 19 regional sports networks across the country.

They bought them from Fox. Well, during that time, cord cutting has really grown. It turned out to be a poor purchase for them, and they're losing a ton of money. In the NHL, the teams that Bally's broadcasts are Arizona, Detroit, Florida, St. Louis, Minnesota, Columbus, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Carolina, Nashville, Dallas, and Tampa. I think that's all, but if I'm missing anybody, I apologize and I feel shame. Now, Bloomberg wrote the big story yesterday and crediting them for a couple of facts. It owes about $55 billion in sports media rights to the NHL, Major League Baseball, and the NBA.

And in mid-February, it's expected the company will skip a $140 million interest payment, which will start a 30-day grace period process. And what that means and where this is going to go is anyone's guess. Now, the first thing I did was text someone who's pretty connected in the NHL to ask him before I talk about this or write about this, what are we dealing with? And this was the answer, quote, serious issue, could be some transition pain, but we don't know yet. Could it hurt the cap? Yes, it's possible. But again, he stressed, we don't know yet. Now the Bloomberg story reported that major league baseball is considering taking local broadcast rights back. There have been rumors that the company values will try to end some contracts

with teams and cut back on payments to others. The other thing is if it goes into bankruptcy, I had one person say that they're wondering if the company will be able to withhold broadcast rights fees for 18 months. Now, all of these are like worst case scenarios, I think, but it's a big deal. It's not only the NHL that's going to be worried about this. Like I said, it's going to be the NBA and major league baseball. And at the board of governors meeting in December, I believe the deputy commissioner, Bill Daley, was asked about this. If he was worried about this and he said, we're looking at things. that it was thought that Major League Baseball and the NBA and the NHL might buy the rights back and create their own network to buy the rights back. It doesn't sound like it's going to happen,

but I think what this could do, Jeff, is it could push teams into doing even more of their own streaming. The Capitals bought in August their regional TV network, which was NBC Sports Washington. We have talked about before how we think at some point in time, Fenway, which bought the Penguins, is going to potentially do their own digital stream for all of these rights. So I just wonder if this is going to push us even further in that direction. I think everybody here is sitting and saying, okay, what's this going to mean? We don't know yet, but anybody in sports who follows the business of sports will tell you this is the biggest sports business story going right now in North America. And it's only not a

bigger story because during the season, a lot of us are focused on games. But at the same time, again, to personalize it, either to players or to fans of various teams here, this could have significant impact for the planning of their teams as early as next season. I don't want to go into level five hysteria here. No, listen, this is all spitball and hypothetical. We're just looking at this at first glance. And again, worst case scenario, because we're

all wondering about the cap and what's going to happen with roster construction. I don't want to go into level five hysteria here. Like I, I, I really don't. Oh, well that's no fun. I know. All I'm just saying is that I think that this

is a thing and everybody in this, in sports who's focused on business, like there are some teams like, uh, apparently the angels, someone told me the angels get like 130 million a year from their deal here. And some of that might be because they own a piece of it. And anytime that you're getting that kind of cash from somewhere and that cashflow is shut off or slowed down or whatever, you're worried about it. No matter how wealthy you are, it's not like Merrick's couch where you can go fool around there and find $131 million in pocket change. Like that's going to hurt.

So I don't know where this is going to go here, but it's something that's on everyone's radar. Let me ask one follow-up about that then. So one of the things, Elliot, that we've wondered about too is, you know, the future of sports ownership and the future of sports broadcasting. And again, I don't want to use this as some sort of, you know, cautionary tale now for the, uh, for the future of sports broadcasting. But I think we've all widely speculated and wondered about the idea of, much like Fenway that you've referenced, buying various teams and starting their own streaming services and wondering if this is a way

that the entire industry is headed to begin with. This is the future. This is where it's all going to go. I'm not saying that this is going to move things along, although, you know, it might just, um, do you think that's where we're headed though, through all of this? I think so. You know, the one thing that everyone has said to me though, about that is, is that the rights fees are such big checks. Can you ever really make up for that rights fee? Can you sell enough ads to make up for that number? Guess we're going to find out. Okay. This one's a couple of days old, but we haven't had a chance really to talk about it.

Certainly here or elsewhere, Elliot. And that is Gary Bettman, commissioner of the NHL before the Montreal-Boston game the other night, speculating on tanking and claiming that nobody tanks because we have a lottery. Are you at all concerned with the growing number of teams tanking? That's pretty much take to 10 teams who can finish last right now. Nobody tanks because we have a weighted lottery. And you're not going to lose games that increase your odds by a couple of percentage points. That's silly. And frankly, suggesting tanking, I believe, is inconsistent with the professionalism that our players and our coaches have. Nobody tanks. Our players and our coaches

do their best of it. And again, just because you may finish with the worst record in the league, you've got something like a 75% chance that you're not going to get the first pick. Okay, so a couple of things there. One, I think the commissioner was very smart to focus on coaches and players when he says nobody is tanking. Because I don't think players tank. I don't think coaches tank. But I do think it does exist above that level of an organization.

How did you receive the Gary Bettman statement of no tanking in the NHL because we have a lottery? Nobody's going to buy that, obviously. I think the thing is, here's my decoding Gary Bettman-o-meter, okay? Because I don't think anyone believes that, and I'm not even sure he believes that. But here's the thing with Bettman.

When he's answering questions, he's not talking to us. I mean, he's talking to us because there's reporters there, he's looking at them. But he's not talking to them. He's talking out to the public, the world, right? So his answer isn't for the media.

His answer is the message he wants to get across. So Jeff, this week in the NBA, there was a situation with Jimmy Butler. He's one of my favorite players. Guy's a killer. Just attitude, like you ball me, I'm getting that ball and you're going to end up in the parking lot. I just love watching Jimmy Butler play. So the Heat were at home against Boston this week and there was a fan who held up a sign saying that he traveled 4,000 miles from Argentina to Miami to see his favorite player, and Butler wasn't playing. Now, there was debate about was this a real injury or load management. Whatever it was, social media took it to the extreme like it always does, and it kicked up

another debate about load management. Okay? And the NBA load management's a big problem. And I suspect it might be one of the reasons that Bettman is against the expanded playoff, but I might be overthinking it. In the NBA, these teams rest these players, they save them for the playoffs, and it's a big issue. There's a lot of games,

especially if a team's only coming into town once a year, where you're really at the mercy of missing a player for load management reasons more than any other sport by far. Like, there's no other sport right now in North America that compares to the NBA in terms of how much stars rest. And this is becoming an issue for the fans. The fans are openly complaining about this. Even Steve Kerr, I think, came out, the coach at Golden State,

and said they have to go down to 72 games. I feel terrible for fans who buy tickets who are expecting to see someone play and they don't get to see that person play. It's a brutal part of the business. That's why I'm going to continue to advocate for 72-game seasons. And I know that means less revenue, but at some point, I think there just needs to be an awareness from everybody involved, the league, players, coaches, performance staff.

Let's be really smart. Let's take care of these guys and play fewer games, and the overall quality of the game will be better. And if that's the case, then revenue is going to go up anyway. I think what Bettman is saying is he is sending a message to the fans that in a gate-driven league, which the NHL still is, we're not giving you reasons not to buy a ticket. So even though most of us don't buy his answer, like I just roll my eyes when I hear that. I know he's not talking to me. I know that he's

talking to people who might want to buy a ticket. And in a league that is still big time gate driven, his message is, I'm not giving you any reason not to buy a ticket to our games. So in my Gary Bettman decodometer, that's what that was. I am always reminded, and I will always reference because i agree with you i'm always reminded of job number one for gary betman and that is franchise value and i agree he is letting everybody know that the game you buy a ticket for and two will be a competitive game yeah that's what he's selling. Yes.

Because if he goes out there and says, like, remember, okay, let me ask you a question. Last year in Major League Baseball, like, answer honestly here, Feej. I would have this conversation with a friend of mine that works at an MLB team all the time. How many teams do you think were really playing to win? Maybe a dozen. We're really trying to win

in major league baseball last summer. I think the NHL looks at that and says, we don't want our league to be like that. We don't want there just to be a handful of teams that are going for it and everybody else is just running for the draft pick. I think the NHL probably looked at that and said, no way, not us. We don't want that to become the NHL. We want the message to the marketplace to be, yes, our tickets are expensive, but it's because we have the best athletes in this sport, and every game will be competitive if you choose to come here. Like I said, i'm with you on

this hundred percent now i do think because betman was very quick to localize it about coaches and also players you know the tanking happens at the beginning of the season we can all see how the rosters are constructed look absolutely teams are tanking this year we all know it everybody can see it you don't need the validation of the commissioner to know what is going on he's just going to go about his business that way that's it is it cuz manco time yet elliot no it's not cuz manco time what else do we got? Matt Nieto time and Ryan Merkley time and Jacob McDonald time and Martin Kaut time, the big San Jose, Colorado deal, Elliot.

Well, good. At least Chris McFarland and Mike Greer gave us something to do. Look, Kaut and Merkley. Merkley had asked for a trade. Frank had reported that, Cervelli. Thank you. And he's getting his wish.

There were people this year who were surprised that Cowd wasn't taking on waivers. I had a couple teams that told me they were a little bit surprised, but they didn't have the room to do it. But clearly that's a player who wasn't trending well in Colorado. So I look at

it as it's two players who need a change of scenery and are now going to get it. And Cowd's going to get a chance to play in San Jose and Colorado's not trading for a guy unless they see something there. And the other trade, Nieto for McDonald in particular, I just see Nieto as a depth guy they

know. Oh yeah. And that makes perfect sense to me. You know, I wondered about the Ryan Merkley part of all of this, and I look at the Colorado Avalanche and I say, okay, Byram is due a new contract. There's going to be some elevated costs next year. Certainly, you know, Eric Johnson's number comes off the books,

but Nathan McKinnon's salary hits a new stratosphere here. I just wonder if Colorado is saying, it's going to be really expensive for us, specifically after we sign Byram to his next deal, and I think all eyes are on Samuel Gerrard, who I don't think

they're going to do anything with this season, but when the new numbers come in, maybe they'll have to, and I know that, listen, the new numbers come in, maybe they'll have to. And I know that, listen, Samuel Gerrard's a left-hand shot and Ryan Merkley's a right-hand shot, but I kind of looked at this and said,

I wonder if Colorado was bracing maybe for the inevitability that they have to move one of their defensemen and they need someone younger and cost control to maybe move in. I have wondered about that too. I think we've always wondered about that. You know, periodically I've sent notes to Colorado, not so much this year, but last year and during the off season, I would say, you know, I'm hearing Gerard and they would

say no. And I'd say, I'm hearing Gerard and they would say no. And I would send the third note and I would, they would be like, would you freaking stop asking us about Gerard? Like we're not doing anything there. But look, I mean, you can do the math. Like, like one of the things with Colorado is

we're all sitting there and we're talking about great players that Colorado could add this year. Is it going to be Bo Horvat? Is it going to be Jonathan Taves? You know, one of the things about Colorado is all their injured players are coming back in season. Like this is not a case as it stands right now, where Landis Gogg is going to show up for game one of the playoffs. He's coming back in season. So what it says to me is that they're going to have to make room for anyone that they trade for. So it might not be so easy. The thing about Gerrard

though, is that I think we've all wondered if the day would come, but I do believe Colorado is trying to push it off as long as they can, if they do it, because they like him and he's, he's a big part of, of what they do. I'll tell you something else interesting i heard about colorado is apparently the teams that went to europe this year indicated to the league that they can't do it in the middle of the season anymore it has to go at the beginning of the year it's tough like especially if you're a team like colorado like columbus at least is an eastern time zone team. Nashville is a, is a central time zone team, but San Jose and, uh, Colorado were Western teams. It was a nightmare for them. And one of the reasons I've heard the avalanche feel that they really fell behind early and

now they're going was not only the injuries, but because they couldn't get recovered after going overseas for a while. And apparently all the teams said, we can't do it into the season. It's got to be at the beginning of the year. And I've heard that the league is listening to that. Yeah. I'm not surprised. And listen, as uncomfortable as this may say, it does give me the opportunity to bring something

up that I was going to mention to you, Elliot. What's that? When we came back from Paris, like that was a long trip for us i mean you really struggled on the podcaster for a while i know i i could tell like you had you had a really really hard adjustment coming back oh thanks very much jeff what a great tv um okay so a couple of more things here. You have a thought on the Islanders? I looked at the Wednesday game against the Ottawa Senators, and there are just some games on the schedule where you say,

you're struggling, you have to win that one. But there's only 10 seconds to go, and they're behind their own net. Polduke to the far side, three seconds to go. Anders Lee at center, will he get one last shot off? Yes, Forsberg, one last save, and the Ottawa Senators hang on and beat the New York Islanders by the final score of

2-1 for the Islanders. Their winless streak hits six, and for the Senators... Really, Greg makes his NHL debut and picks up an assist. Congratulations on that. That was nice on his dad's birthday, too. Isn't it great? That's fantastic. Park played a number of teams, Hartford and Toronto and Calgary and Philadelphia. It was great to see that family affair.

But at the end of it, the Islanders again, having a hard time scoring and we're wondering what's next for the Islanders. Do you have a thought on it? I think they're in a tough spot because I remember years ago and when New Jersey went to the 2012 Eastern Conference Final against the Rangers the day before the series started I went to the devil's practice and I asked if I could get a few minutes alone with Lou Lamorello and he actually invited me out to his office and we talked about some of his philosophies. And one of the things he talked about was when you do rentals, because that year they had traded for Marek Zydlicki. And he said to me, you only do rentals when you think you can win it all. And he thought that that team that year was

capable of winning it all. And they got to the Stanley cup final. So I talked about Tarasenko this week, but unless the Islanders feel absolute pressure to just make the playoffs and it doesn't sound like a Lamorello thing to me. So I always go by like, especially him, like he has his philosophies and he sticks to his philosophies.

So if he doesn't think he can win this year and maybe they can make the playoffs, but I don't think anyone's thinking they can win this year i can't see him doing a rental now i have talked about chikrin and the reason i've talked about chikrin is because when we were in toronto lane lambert mentioned they don't move the puck very well up the ice but lamorello and arizona bill armstrong have done deals remember they did did Andrew Ladd. So there is a history there. Someone told me, and again, who knows what the truth is with Lamorello because he doesn't say anything, but someone told me they had interest in that,

but he just found the price outrageous to him. And especially now, like if you're the Islanders, are you in a position where you should be giving up futures even for two more years of jacob chikrin like i'm not convinced you should be doing that so they have to find a score like you said it this week we talked about it they it's so hard for them to score it really is it's a grind goals a grind every oh so if if you can tell me that there's a scorer out there with some term or a guy they can get maybe use a rental that doesn't cost them a ton maybe i could see that but i just don't see what makes them want to give up like a

a high price for a rental it's just it doesn't make a lot of sense for me the problem with goal scorers elliot is nobody wants to let them go especially now in the era of lead changes and you're only a couple of shots away from being right back into a game oof i don't know man and the other thing is like Lamarill's getting ripped for his inactivity, which I get, but I guarantee you one thing. He's tried. He has tried. I think he has looked.

He has looked out there for stuff. He has looked for things. He said last summer that he was going to try to make some hockey trades. I refuse to believe that he didn't because he wasn't trying. What it says to me is he didn't like what was out there. Again, as much as you can believe that Lamorello does anything, I do think he's looked into Chikrin. I've just heard he said he doesn't like the price.

And I can understand that right now. A scorer? I don't know. I'm sure he's looked into Chikrin. I've just heard he said he doesn't like the price. And I can understand that right now. A scorer? I don't know. I'm sure he's looked at them. I'm sure he's looked at Tarasenko. I just don't think he's liked the price. But doesn't the Tarasenko thing actually go back a couple of years? It isn't just recently.

We've heard, again, this was Tarasenko coming off his injury, so that's probably the wild card here for that one. But Tarasenko and the Islanders, that's kind of been a dance for a couple of years, hasn't it? At various times? I think so. It's tough. Again, it's so tough to tell with him. It really is.

Listen to 32 Thoughts, the podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. The Pittsburgh Penguins and their goaltending situation. Not something they would have thought they would be contemplating on January 27th. But do you think maybe Pittsburgh is thinking to themselves, we may need to see what the market's like for goaltenders, both because of injury and also because of performance. As we're doing this, DeSmith is having a very good night against Washington. Sure is.

I hope this isn't the kiss of death while we're doing the podcast, but he's having a really good night. You know, because you asked me about this today and then I made a couple of calls. Someone who actually heard me on the radio with you, he said, normally, Elliot, I think you're completely insane, but I actually agree with this point. He said, the worst thing you can do as a general manager is lose a playoff series for the same reason two years in a row. Because when you lose a playoff series, it's your job to fix the problem. Right? Yeah. And why did they lose in the first round last year?

Goaltending. Well, injuries, injuries. Yeah, but I'm talking about that as part of it. Goal tending injuries. Like New York had the Vesna Trophy winner and Pittsburgh, due to injuries, they were putting guys out there in duct tape to try to win games.

And to their credit, those guys played hard. It was just, they got beat. And what this manager said to me was, it's the worst position for Hextall to be in because if they go into the playoffs and that's the reason they lose say in the first round how do you sell that to everybody oh we had injury problems in goal last year so we lost and we came back this year and the same problem happened again it happened during the season and now we lose another round because of it like that's a very hard one to sell because everyone's going to be saying to you why didn't you fix this problem you knew you had it

last year i think the big challenging thing for pittsburgh is that they were probably looking at this year and saying if we have to fix something we're going to have to fix this. They weren't thinking it was going to be the goalie problem, right? Yeah. But now you're looking at what's happening and you're thinking, I mean, you still got six weeks to figure this out. But like I said to you earlier, I would not want to be Ron Hextxtall in dealing with this one the only reason that hextall might be the best person to deal with it is because he played the position he has a fundamental understanding of what he's dealing with and he knows these goalies better than anyone else to me this is like a nightmare for the penguins if you're sitting there saying really

we're gonna have to worry about this again. You know what the answer is, Elliot? What's that? Spicy pork and broccoli. Yes, spicy pork and broccoli. That's what did it last year for Louis Domingue. That's your answer, Ron Hextall. Make sure there's lots of spicy pork and

broccoli for your net minders come playoff time. All right. A couple of other things I just wanted to go over here. Before we get to Chris Manco and make Dan Milstein happy. First of all, good news for Boston tonight. McAvoy left the game.

When I saw it was his shoulder, I was like, oh God, no. Yeah. But he's back playing, so that's good news. Philly, Minnesota was an old school North Stars Flyers, Willie Platt, Dave Schultz, Jeff Mara kind of game. Oh my, look at that. Yes. Three fights in a row. Some of the. Oh, my. Look at that. Three fights in a row.

Some of the old school. Yes. They also play together. And we got a tilt. Here we go. Here it is. I wondered if we would see this. Uh-oh. Ryan Reeves drops him for the first time this season with Minnesota

against Nicholas Deloria. Who else? Wow. Buckle up. These are two heavies. Reeves took the first few swings, sizing up Delorier. Yes. And Reeves goes on the offensive with a flurry of runs.

Reeves. Tactical bout. Wanzel Wright tries an uppercut on Delorier. He's grabbed by the jersey. 40 seconds in already. Deloria who played for the Wilds last year

was a trade deadline acquisition and very well respected around the league let alone in this Wilds dressing room. And you see Ryan Reeves saying, boys, let's go, let's go.

Got another one. And another one coming in deep. Mason Shaw and Wade Allison. And another one coming in deep Mason And wait Allison That's the quick anytime that's on their feet here 18,000 strong here in Minnesota

Flyers up one nothing on the wild Get involved 15 seconds of game action. It's McEwen and Foligno and it's Haymakers. Another heavyweight bout. Bold landings and heavy punches. And Foligno gets McEwen down to his knees. I know you like that, you bloodthirsty demon.

Minnesota, they used to always go for it. I always appreciate that about Minnesota. Minnesota used to always fill the team with a lot of college kids that didn't necessarily fight, and then they got roughed up a lot, and then that really changed after a while, more out of necessity than anything else. Basil McRae? Oh, keep going.

You know what just popped up online not too long, a year and a half ago? What's that? I think it was 1982. The Boston Bruins-Minnesota North Stars game that had like 420 penalty minutes. It had kind of been like the white whale of hockey fight collectors.

Like, ooh, can you find the, and it just showed up on YouTube one day. And everybody in the tape, you know, the, the, uh, old hockey fight circles just went berserk for it. It's a wild one. It's out there now, but Minnesota has been in the middle of a ton of them. And, uh, yeah, there's a couple of good, you

know, Minnesota nurse stars and Philadelphia flyers brawls mixed in there. I was three of them tonight. Darren is really like, that's a throwback team. It's interesting because they're in a bad stretch right now. And Hartman got benched for taking too many penalties and they've fallen out of the, out of a playoff position, but Garen's got a throwback team there right now. I do really like watching them play.

Here's why I like you nailed it. Here's why I like Minnesota. They have players for any type of game i love it they've got like the uh your joel erickson x um and your your marcus felinos for button down tight games uh there's guys like caprizoff and zuccarello who can play your nine seven games and i also want to throw matthew boldy in that mix as well there's we know about Jacob Middleton and Ryan Reeves and some really raw bone players. It's a really interesting team.

I really enjoy teams where either every single player on a line does something completely different than everybody else where it looks like it's a real mix or you have a whole team like that. That's what made the Islanders so great in their dynasty.

Didn't matter what kind of game it was, they would beat you at it. That's why I still maintain that might be the greatest team of all time. But I see some of that in Minnesota, Fajan. I love it. I love watching the wild. Yeah, I do too. I really like watching them play. I think they're a team built to be a pain in the butt in the playoffs.

You got to get there. Yeah. A couple other things. So just some stuff I've been watching out for. I think they're a team built to be a pain in the butt in the playoffs. You got to get there. Yeah. A couple other things. So just some stuff I've been watching out for. You know, St. Louis, there's a lot of talk about O'Reilly. Unless he's willing to take a short-term deal. Like I saw his interview with Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic where he said he'd like to stay.

I mean, I believe him that he wants to stay, but I just don't see it unless he's willing to take a short-term deal. So I don't know how that's going to work. But, you know, St. Louis has a lot of really good rentals. You know, I'll tell you, someone said to me, depending on particularly what Vegas injury situation is, they could see Vegas liking Achari and Barbashev. And I said, any particular reason why you picked those two guys? And he said, who's coaching Vegas? And I go, Bruce Cassidy.

He goes, think for a minute. Then I remembered Achari was in Boston with Cassidy. Yep. And Cassidy saw Barbashev play very well in the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals. So not saying they're going to end up there, but, you know, it was, it was, both those players are going to be available. Vegas will be interesting, what they do, depending on Stone's injury. But I thought that was an interesting theory.

We mentioned Tarasenko earlier with the Islanders. I think the Devils have also talked about Tarasenko in the past. I'm under the impression, and someone will tell me if I'm wrong, that when St. Louis was trying to see if they could get Matthew Kachuk in the summer, one of the things they had to do was figure out how to trade Tarasenko. He wasn't going to go to Calgary, and Calgary wasn't interested in him, but I do think that one of the things that was discussed was if St. Louis got Kachuk, would Tarasenko end up in Jersey? Now that ended up being moot because he went to Florida,

but I think that was discussed. You know, the other thing about St. Louis is, you know, the Meyer stuff really heated up since our last podcast. I think New Jersey has some legit interest there. I think he's right up their alley. As far as this time, I don't think that New Jersey has been able to talk to Myers camp, but I think the devils feel that good players are going to want to stay there. You know, especially if you're a winger, you're going to get a chance to play with a Hughes

or a Hisher. I think the to get a chance to play with a Hughes or a Hischer. I think the Devils are willing to bet on themselves. Like I've heard that they are very interested in Meyer and I'm really curious to see where that goes. Like I thought Horvat may be to the Devils, but it doesn't really make sense because, you know, as we said, they have Hughes. Sorry. I thought about Horvat possibly to the Devils,

but it really doesn't make sense because they have Hughes and they have Heischer. And does it really make sense for Bo Horvat, when he's going into unrestricted free agency, to either be a third-line center or play on the wing? Hmm. I'll tell you what. What's one of the best plays we saw all week long?

What's that one? Jack Hughes on the boards. Two guys on him. Feathers a pass at Dougie Hamilton. Perfect one-timer. And so here's Hughes in the center circle. Cross the line. Looks up.

Tries to duck under a check. It comes free. And they score. The puck comes to hamilton between the circles drives one home it's another overtime game winner for dougie hamilton i don't know do you want hughes on the wall again it's just one play but no like i like i don't think so like they are committed that jack hughes is a center. I know. I'm just saying like, ooh, if you have three centers to play with here,

that's interesting. Yes, but I'll tell you the other thing too is I'm not screwing around too much with the chemistry of that team. Like bringing in a winger, that's one thing. But the way it's going with those guys down the middle, I'm not doing that. The only thing, and again that the only thing and again the only thing is do you want more size down the middle that's all regular season is one thing playoffs is another thing do you want more size in the middle that would be my only concern I get it okay can we do it now can we do it now okay are we ready are we ready yeah yeah here

we go this is the obligatory vancouver canucks portion of a 32 thoughts podcast that since the beginning of the season has been dominated by and listen we think it's going to come back to because there's still some big decisions here the vancouver canucks. So Thursday, Andre Kuzmenko signs a two-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks. The AAV is 5.5, which, oh, just ironically here, and interestingly enough, as I go and have a look at our friends at CapFriendly, just happens to be, oh yes, the same number that Beau Horvat makes.

Yeah. $5.5 million dollars is the aav to which elliot friedman says what this one had been worked on for a couple months now i think they made it very clear to kuzmenko that even as all the trade rumors were there that they wanted to keep him what i think you are seeing now is the Canucks deciding who their core is going to be before they dismantle their team like basically they've said now Miller is one of their guys yep barring the New York Islanders coming right out and saying you know what we've decided JT Miller can solve our scoring problems Miller is one of their guys Patterson and again he's got to agree to it is one of their guys

Kuzmenko is one of their guys and I think that that was their message of saying that as we try to change our core here a little bit or change our mix here Kuzmenko is going to be part of it. Like, I'll tell you this. Like, I feel for Horvat on some level because that guy has done nothing wrong. Yep. Like, you heard what Taka said about him the other day. Oh, no surprise. Yeah, as long as I'm here, you know, I'll be your guy.

Like, you know, like, sometimes I understand why teams get rid of guys. They simply say, well, we don't like this guy or behind the scenes, not a good guy or whatever the case is here. There's nothing that this guy did that was wrong. Nothing, nothing, nothing at all. And what do we have now? We have that, you know, he's going to go somewhere else.

I was on, I can't remember who I did this with today, but someone asked me today. Oh, Tim did. Tim McAuliffe. Yeah, you're on Tim and Friends. I did so many radio hits today, I can't remember who I was talking to. You were wearing a really nice hoodie on Tim and Friends today. Yeah, I was wearing a Jeff Merrick hoodie.

He asked me, if you were Jabal Horvat, would you just not play? And you can't do that. Like they'll let you get away with that if you're about to make a deal, but they're not letting you just bench a guy so he can protect his health or trade value or anything. But like I just know myself, right? I can only judge others as I judge myself. The Canucks made a call here, and that's within their right.

It's their right to make that call. I'm just saying that if I was in Horvat's shoes, I'd be like, what did I do here to get frozen out? And there's only one answer. And the answer is that they believe that Miller's outlier season will last longer than Horvat's outlier season. That's the only way you can look at it because they got Miller's deal done quickly when they couldn't sign Horvat. And the AAV that Miller got, it's never anything close like that. It's been offered to Horvat.

So that's where we are. Elliot, I wanted to mention one more thing, one more person, actually, before we wrapped up, and that is support and strength for Bob Jones of the Ottawa Senators. I first came in contact with Bob when he was on the bench for that outstanding Memorial Cup winning back-to-back Windsor Spitfire squad. Excellent coach, wonderful person.

The teams rallying around him, the players, the staff, everybody, and shows of support from all around the NHL, certainly this podcast and our entire company, for Bob Jones and his fight with ALS. Well said, Jeff. Taking us out, something new from Toronto. After dropping a few singles over the last year, Tearing Up dropped their debut album Heavy today.

Stream it now wherever you listen to tunes. From that record, here's Tearing Up with Said Something. Happy birthday, Wayne Gretzky. 32 Thoughts to Park. I got the call in the morning Same day I heard that sound The one that said there's no use, no use In looking for answers

Opened my mouth and it all felt wrong I'm a sad son of a And looking for answers. Opened my mouth and it all felt wrong. I must have said something. Didn't realize I said something. Didn't realize I said. I didn't realize I said. I must have said something. Didn't realize I said something.

Didn't realize I said. I didn't realize I said. Something I didn't realize I said something. I didn't realize I said. I didn't realize I said. Something I didn't realize. you